PEOPLE! Photography, radio, music (especially LOCAL talent). I've spent the better part of the last 20 years doing commercial rock, alternative, and even oldies radio. I started out in the Deep South (stories that would curl your hair: my first station had a Station Quarter with tape on the back. The jock would have to quickly set it on the needle when the train passed and shook the board, so the record didn't skip. I cannot make this up). then worked through several East Coast markets before landing in Houston and spending five years on the air at the classic rock station. Needless to say I'm proud of the five years I stayed alive in the building after the buyout, and I think I helped a lot of people during my tenure, but we both knew it wasn't going to last forever....Oh, well. Next dream format would be Americana!
Obviously, a cool program director who wants to give me a well-paying job. Otherwise, I like to meet people who inspire me...as for famous people, Edward Gorey died before I could get on the Internet, or I would have Googled his email and asked him some dumb questions. Same thing happened with Lennon. Lennon's Myspace page would have been cool. I wish I could have met Lester Bangs. I'd like to meet certain politicians and former FCC chairmen, and give them a good stern lecture on the nature of responsibility and serving the public trust. I'd love to meet Peter O'Toole while he's still around. I bet he's still the most charming man on the planet.
Here is one of my favorite performers in the world. Enjoy this video of Carolyn Wonderland:
The easy answer is, I know it when I hear it. Rock, blues, homegrown and bluegrass, rock, alternative (real alt, not typical radio stuff), rock, and some old-school punk/thrash when I'm feeling nostalgic. I know Classic Rock like the back of my hand, I've worked in the format off and on since 1988. I know Led Zeppelin trivia that would make your head spin (okay, they're still one of my favorite rock bands)! At any given time, I've probably just listened to Chicago Transit Authority's first album or the Rickie Lee Jones 1979 debut disc~~~~~~~~~ I also enjoy old Stax-Volt studio stuff, Delta and Texas blues, old-school groove, and a little bit of Motown (Smokey, I love you). I think Junior Walker, Sam Cooke, Curtis Mayfield, and now Wilson Pickett, are all smiling down on us from Heaven. Love Larry Carlton but love Earl Klugh more, for purely sentimental reasons. Have I mentioned how ferociously I love jazz and experimental funk?~~~~~~~My favorite instrument is the trumpet and I'd give just about anything to see some decent horns come through Houston. I always admired old swing-era bandleaders, then their 60's counterparts, like Marty Paich for the 5th Dimension, or Young-Holt Unlimited, on up into the 70's with Tower of Power, Earth, Wind and Fire...and of course, Miles is king...if you play any horns, anywhere, thank you for keeping an amazing art form alive. The key to my heart, though, is LOCAL, LOCAL, LOCAL! Some faves: Carolyn Wonderland, Opie Hendrix and the Texas Tallboys, Fahl & Folk, Zwee, skyblue72, The Calvin Owens Show (RIP, Dear Mr. Owens), Marcus Melchor, The Trade, Little Joe Washington, Drop Trio, Fondue Monks, Rozz Zamorano, Carrie Anne and the Apocolyptics, Glenna Bell, Keith York/Blowtorch Repair/Guppies From Outerspace, Patrick Brink. To tell you the truth, there are so many others it would take all day to remember/list them all! Click my friends' links, pick a good band, and check them out.
My favorite movie of all time is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Love vampire and zombie movies, too!
I can't believe Rome only lasted two seasons! Secretly addicted to EastEnders on PBS and all British comedy. I love BBC America. Cash In The Attic and HGTV junkie. Crime shows and forensics draw me like the proverbial moth to the proverbial flame. Discovery, nature, history channel, etc. Junk sci-fi and crappy zombie movies suck me in on any channel. Adult swim's best overnight lineup was Futurama, Sealab 2021, The Family Guy. I'm just sick enough to admit that I love Seth Green and Robot Chicken. Um, yeah, I watch a little TV now and then. I'm just as happy with it off, but if it's going to be on, I like to be entertained.
Wicked, by Gregory Maguire. Elphaba was a true patron Witch for little green misunderstood girls.Other book recommendations: Edward Gorey's The Gashleycrumb Tinies (just because); John Mills, The Memoirs of Pontius Pilate; Tom Stoppard's play version of Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead. Long-term, I'm still reading F. Celine's Death On The Installment Plan, but it's very depressing so I put it down for months at a time. Guilty reading pleasures: Tor publishing, the Hitchhiker's Guide series, and horror fiction. In that vein, every bloody life-lesson was clearly outlined in the fairy-tales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson.
I'm putting this link here for the forseeable future because I believe with all my heart that not voting in a country that doesn't kill you for trying is a damned sin.