Playing Bass (and whatever else) as much as work and laziness allow. Making a career involving music. Being a better person. Bettering the world. Haven't figured out that last one yet, and I suspect if I ever do, it won't be by design.
The people I have are great but it's great meeting new people.
"GOOD MUSIC" per Ellington, but since this ALWAYS begs qualification, some examples: My Hip Hoppers, be they my contemporaries(COOL PIECE PRODUCTIONS and associates, THE CREATIVE JUICES CREW, and all the Next-School CALI emcees) or predecessors (L.I.F.E. Long and the whole Stronghold Crew, Tha Luniz, Living Legends Crew, Hieroglyphics Crew, GangStarr, Mos Def and Talib Kweli, Common, PHAROAHE MONCHE, Prince Po, Quannum, PROJECT BLOWED, Wu Tang Clan, Boot Camp Clik, Dead Prez, Aesop Rock, RAKIM, Sage Francis, Slug, Eyedea, Rhymesayers Crew). Oh yeah, Prefuse 73, RJD2, 6.2, Thievery Corporation, Roni Size, 4Hero. Bad Brains. Then there's the whole Living Legacy of Jazz that I feel like I've only begun to dig (Ray Brown, Oscar Peterson, Ron Carter, Miles Davis' 1st and 2nd quintets and later work, John Scofield, Dave Holland, Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Scott LaFaro, Duke Ellington, Jimmy Smith, Cal Tjader, Harvey Mason, Elvin Jones, Idris Muhammad, Paul Chambers, Lee Morgan, Clifford Brown, Sonny Rollins, The BRIAN BLADE FELLOWSHIP (woah...), etc.). FUNK/SOUL MUSIC (JAMES JAMERSON, anything MoTown, STEVIE WONDER, Aretha Franklin, The Four Tops, Temptations, James Brown, Parliament, FUNKADELIC, Taj Mahal, The Meters, Jimmy Castor, Richie Havens, Sam Cooke, CURTIS MAYFIELD, Sly and The Family Stone, D'ANGELO (oH hell yeah), Tower of Power, The Night Liters, Jaco Pastorius, The O'Jays, Roy Ayers, etc.) ROCK!!!(RUSH, Primus, M.I.R.V., Led Zeppellin, Hippie Grenade, QUEEN, YES, SLAYER, Jethro Tull, RHCP, At The Drive In, The Mars Volta, King Crimson, The Velvet Teen, The New Trust, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Incubus, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Soundgarden, The Grateful Dead, The Police, Rage Against the Machine, Tenacious D, The Band, Radiohead, The Exit, Engine Down, Ben Harper (JUAN NELSON), etc.) REGGAE (Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Steel Pulse, King Tubby, Lucky Dube, Capleton, The Upsetter, etc.), LATIN MUSIC (learning...FANIA records...) Joni Mitchell (bitch can PLAY that guitar, best believe...), Warren Zevon, and I spent alot of time in jr. and high school listening to punk and ska. There's a taste.
Repo Man, The Blues Brothers ("we're on a mission from God"), Everything Terry Gilliam touches, 12 Monkeys, The Fifth Element, Son of Frankenstein, Akira, The Last Waltz(so good), Wayne's World, UHF, Young Einstein, SPINAL TAP ("This goes to ehleven."), Ernest Goes to Camp, Dr. Otto, Space Balls, Waiting for Guffman, The Guns of Navarrone, The Last Star Fighter, RAN (Akira Kurosawa), The Life of Brian, The Quest for the Holy Grail, Midnight Run, The Forty-year old Virgin, The Monster Squad, To Catch a Thief, Enemy Mine, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1 & 2 (I saw 3, but it was wack), Requiem For a Dream, Dark Star, The Ghost In the Shell, Dazed and Confused, The Big Lebowski ("Nobody fucks with the Jesus, mang"), Caddy Shack, basically everything Bill Murray's in, Short Circuit, Spirited Away, Wizards (NOT "The Wizard," that movie about Super Mario Bros 3 either), Primus' Cheezy Home Video, The Manhattan Project, Hitchcock shit, Footloose(yeah, yeah), Princess Mononoke, Wild Style, The Harder They Come, and other good movies. I fucking hated the Lord of the Rings movies because they savagely raped the content of those priceless pieces of literature and made a mockery of Tolkien's genius at his craft.
METALLOCALYPSE! (DETHKLOK U BZS)
Everything Orson Scott Card and Greg Bear and JRR Tolkien have written, Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, The Chronicles of Narnia. The writings of Daniel Quinn(Ishmael, The Story of B). Into the Wild(Jon Krakauer). Kurt Vonnegut is hilarious and pointed, simultaneously. Noam Chomsky's articles and published lectures are mindfucks in their purest state, i.e. FACTS. Madeleine L'Engle's books. Jorge Luis Borges. "The Halloween Tree" was ill when I was a kid. H.R. Geiger and Edward Gorey (though they're primarily visual artists) William Gibson.
People who accomplish what they want in their lives and the ones who die trying. My Grandpa David and Pop-pop. Mimi. My parents. My brother Jackson. My dear little sister Madeleine and her boundless energy. Noam Chomsky. Aston "Family Man" and Carlton Barret. Huey P. Newton. Che Guevara (for his sanity to the point of insanity). Bill Murray. Chevy Chase. Gene Wilder. Danny Kaye. Harold Ramis.