music (especially punk and jazz ), librarianship, going to concerts and gigs, movies, poetry, writing, history and culture of the city and county of los angeles, botanical gardens, food, cooking, nature walks, reading, independent record stores, museums, independent and used bookstores, libraries, politics, buddhist meditation primarily vipassana but I also have interests in zazen, Scotland (especially Edinburgh), Art (Pop Art, Mark Stock, Roy Leichtenstein, Coop - great sense of humor, Brandon Bird, Surrealism, Futurism, Realism, Charles Rennie Macintosh, Arts and Crafts movement, modernism, Degas, Japanese woodblock prints, etc.) red roses, red lipstick, laughing, stand up comedy (i.e. Sarah Silverman, Margaret Cho, Dave Chappelle, Paul Mooney, Dennis Leary, Kathy Griffin etc.) velvet, strawberries, psychic phenomena, boxing (strange but true, I really do like this sport), intuition, logic, rationality, hibiscus flowers, pear cider, Marin County, Central California coast, Salon.com, RottenTomatoes.com, TelevisionWithoutPity.com, etc, etc.
Anthony Bourdain and Harold Dieterle. I'd also like to smack the smug grin off of Bobby Flay's face... and Ilan Hall too for that matter. However, you do not need to be involved in the culinary arts for me to want to be involved with you. Just be nice, I promise I'll be nice back. Unless you're Bobby Flay (I think I could muster up some manners for Ilan though).And here just for fun because I don't know where else to put it, is a poem.
Memory of April
You say love is this, love is that:
Poplar tassels, willow tendrils
the wind and the rain comb,
tinkle and drip, tinkle and drip--
branches drifting apart. Hagh!
Love has not even visited this country.
-William Carlos Williams
AC/DC, John Coltrane, Nina Simone, X, Kurt Elling, Pantera, Miles Davis, Weezer, Jeff Buckley, Kings of Leon, The Long Blondes, Meshell Ndegeocello, The Hives, Riverboat Gamblers, Throw Rag, Frank Sinatra, Iggy Pop, Ted Leo and The Pharmacists, Social Distortion, Burning Brides, The Black Keys, Gillian Welch, Billy Holliday, Neko Case, Alison Krauss, The Misfits, Fugazi, Metallica, Rosie Flores, Shirley Horne, Dinah Washington, The Gossip, Joy Division, Glass Candy, Depeche Mode,The Beatles(from "Rubber Soul" and afterward), John Lennon, Megadeth, New York Dolls, The Strokes, The Rolling Stones (pretty much only up until the early '80s) Sarah Vaughn, Patsy Cline, Ella Fitzgerald, Elliot Smith, Kanye West, I'm very partial to West Coast rap in general (I guess that means I'm stuck in the early-mid 90s), Cheap Trick, Lilly Allen, Gabriela y Rodrigo, The Faces, Anthrax, Motorhead, Mary J. Blige, Beach Boys, Salsa music in general, Chaka Khan, Prince, Morissey, 70's soul music in general, Smiths, The Candy Snatchers, Black Flag, My Chemical Romance, Sade, The Dwarves, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Amy Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, P.J. Harvey, Led Zeppelin, Beck, Smashing Pumpkins, Aerosmith (70's era ONLY), Cannonball Adderley, Bill Evans, Chet Baker, The Distillers, Blondie, Ramones, The Clash, Lauryn Hill, David Bowie, Loretta Lynn, Shelby Lynne, Aretha Franklin, Cat Power, Maroon5, The Pixies, Motley Crue, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Foo Fighters, Diana Krall, Mae Shi, The Bell Rays, Mariah Carey, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and many, many more. . .
Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2, Casino, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Gene Wilder version), All About Eve, Witches of Eastwick, Magnolia, The Fisher King, Dogtown and Z-boys (not quite sure why I like this ..ary so much, I just do), Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore, In the Mood for Love, Women On The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, American Psycho, The Queen (all hail Helen Mirren!), Old School (I think of that film as a slightly exaggerated male version of the Metaphonian Society actives and alums), Shopgirl, LOTR trilogy, Crooklyn, The Woman in Red (love Gene Wilder for some reason), Edward Scissorhands, So I Married an Axe Murderer, Flirting with Disaster, Knocked Up, Along Came Polly, Urban Cowboy, The Lookout, Raising Arizona, The Shining, The Departed, Auntie Mame (Rosalind Russell, yes!), Amelie, and many, many more . . .
Top Chef,Seinfeld, Six Feet Under, Sopranos, Sex and the City, Golden Girls, Project Runway (I wish I had a Tim Gunn in my life), American Chopper, Real Time with Bill Maher, American Hot Rod (this show makes me want to run away and become a mechanic), Discovery Channel, Bravo, Lifetime (this channel is pure comedy gold, the sheer histrionics of it keeps me in stitches), The Secret Life of Us (have only been able to catch a few episodes of this brilliant Australian show on the Trio Channel but I highly recommend it), MTV, VH-1 (best week ever is the best), Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Comeback (this was a show I hated when I first saw it, but Lisa Kudrow was absolutely brilliant in it, she really should've won that Emmy) .
Magazines: Harper's Monthly, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, The Economist, Atlantic Monthly, Bitch, Bust and the occasional Blender and Spin. Rolling Stone was only good for the Rob Sheffield report and that's about it. Books: A Solitary Blue by Cynthia Voigt, 1984 by George Orwell (a book that had a huge influence on my life - I got my college degree in Political Science because of it, and want to continue my schooling in the same field) Dharma Punx by Noah Levine, Hardcore Zen by Brad Warner, Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil (it made me laugh, cry and be disgusted all at once!), Naked by David Sedaris, American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, Fight Club by Chuck Palahnuk, Permanent Midnight by Jerry Stahl, Captian's Verses by Pablo Neruda, How to be a Chicana Role Model by Michelle Serros, I'm Not the New Me by Wendy McClure, Dry by Augusten Burroughs, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, etc.
"I don't believe in the idea of talent,". . . "I don't believe in the idea of inspiration. I don't believe in a muse or anything like that. I believe in work. I believe in dedication ... Your job is to try to make a piece of art and the way you do that is by going to your studio every day." -Bret Anthony Johnston