Art and illustration, poster design, intense late night conversations, zoetropes, dioramas, black cats, spirit photography, puppet animation, antique medical specimens, secret doors, underground tunnels, shipwrecks, spontaneous human combustion and other unfortunate happenings, superstitions, yoga, hooping, the advancement of science, cooking and eating elaborate meals, and positive synchronicity.
It will be easier if I just mention who I DO NOT wish to meet: sociopaths, camwhores, dudes on the make, and spammers. Run along now and go play with the other kids.
Tom Waits, Joanna Newsom, Decemberists, Beirut, Magnetic Fields, Reverend Glasseye, Devotchka, 16 Horsepower, HUMANWINE, Jay Munly, El-P, Cat Power, Sufjan Stevens, Andrew Bird, Dresden Dolls, Rasputina, DJ Spooky, Jolie Holland, Enon, Nick Cave, Slim Cessna's Auto Club, Devendra Banhart, Edith Piaf, American Catastrophe, Johnny Cash, Arcade Fire, Belle + Sebastian, Elvis Costello, PJ Harvey, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, A Silver Mt. Zion, DJ BC, New Order, Black Keys, E.I.O., Os Mutantes, Kate Bush, Mogwai, Dan the Automator, Bjork, David Bowie. Anything with an accordion. Anything with a hurdy-gurdy. A pots-and-pans rhythm section. Throat singing, yodeling, stomping and twang. Melodic shrieks that send shivers down my spine.
Miller's Crossing, A Mighty Wind, Alien, Donnie Darko, Freaks, Duck Soup, The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T, Spirited Away, Blade Runner, The Science of Sleep, Hellboy, Be Kind Rewind, City of Lost Children, Edward Scissorhands, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Metropolis, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Serenity, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Mystery Train, Memento, True Stories, Night on Earth, Chungking Express, Raising Arizona, Brazil, Harold + Maude, Withnail + I, Hellraiser...and too many others to mention.
Lately I'm quite enamored of The Venture Brothers, Doctor Who, Black Books, and NewsRadio. I also have a shameful fondness for Lexx, and a morbid curiosity for anything starring Flava Flav.
Currently reading: "Little, Big" by John Crowley, "Escapement" by Jay Lake, and "The Girl With the Crooked Nose" by Ted Botha. I will read just about anything by Ray Bradbury, Carl Hiaasen, Shirley Jackson, Flannery O'Connor, Neil Gaiman, Jim Woodring, Chris Ware, David Sedaris, Kurt Vonnegut, Zadie Smith, Douglas Adams, or David Foster Wallace (except Infinite Jest, which I cannot finish, because I am convinced that David Foster Wallace is playing an elaborate trick on everyone who bought that book.) I get sucked really easily into pulpy science fiction or nasty erotica novels, though. I've got a stack of unread books about three feet high that I dip into during infrequent attacks of free time. (Well, it's not really a stack...more of a pile, actually.)
Everyone willing to flip the bird (both physically and metaphorically) at convention.