Anything that sends me to sleep in a good mood, Everton FC who can send me to sleep in a bad mood (though not so much at the mo'), good food and good drink in good company, proper festivals, trying to get parts, trying to play my guitar, trying not to take the planet for granted. I'm very trying. Love the West Country, and I like a bit of history - if you don't learn from it, you can end up repeating the same mistakes.
Can't say too many spring to mind and when they do it's usually cos I wanna give them a piece of it. But in general people who stand up for the truth, however difficult it makes things for them.
In no particular order, Syd Barrett (RIP), 70's Bowie (but not really after), Miles Davis, The Doors, Bob Dylan, The Jam, Led Zep, Pink Floyd, Pixies, Radiohead, Lou Reed, Gil Scott-Heron, Paul Simon, Smashing Pumpkins, The Smiths, Lou Reed, Velvet Underground, Aphex Twin, Beastie Boys, Beck, Bob Marley, Cassette Boy, Django, Fingathing, Jimi Hendrix, G. Love, Kraftwerk, Lou Reed, Stone Roses, Libertines, Super Furry Animals, White Stripes, Yeah Yeah Yeah's, any proper reggae, dub or ska, A.P.A.t.T., Adult, Badly Drawn Boy, DJ Yoda, DJ Shadow, µ-ziq, Neil Young, The Orb, Christy Moore, Martin Stephenson, Jeff Buckley, Beatles, Happy Mondays, The La's, early Bunnymen, John Coltrane, Nirvana, Dead 60's, Portishead, The Stranglers, stuff like that. Plenty of good local bands as well - 28 Costumes, The Prelude, etc etc. If they're in my friends space, I like 'em. And a shout for Alfa 9 and the Virgin Mary's from slightly further afield.
Adaptation, A Man for All Seasons, American Beauty, Apocalypse Now, Blood Simple, Bowling for Columbine, Bully, Chinatown, Chopper, Citizen Kane, City of God, Dead Man's Shoes, Delicatessen, Dr Strangelove, Factotum, Fahrenheit 911, Glengarry Glen Ross, Godfather 1 and 2 (3 wasn't so good), Goodbye Lenin, Goodfellas, Groundhog Day, Kids, LA Confidential, La Haine, Heavenly Creatures, Lord of the Flies (the B/W one), Lord of the Rings, Man Bites Dog, Midnight Express, Miller's Crossing, Monty Python, Mulholland Drive, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Pi, Pulp Fiction, Rabbit Proof Fence, Requiem for a Dream, Reservoir Dogs, Shawshank Redemption, Schindler's List, Sin City, Star Wars (original of course although III wasn't bad), Taxi Driver, Team America, The Parallax View, The Third Man, The Royal Tennenbaums, To Kill a Mockingbird, Trainspotting, True Romance, Waking the Dead, Whalerider, Withnail and I, Woody Allen when I'm in the mood, the Jay and Silent Bob films, some of the Northern Realism stuff from the sixties that Rita Tushingham was usually in (it's a childhood thing). This'll do for starters.
Too much cack - I'll watch nature stuff or things that make me laugh like Brass Eye and The Day Today (ok, on DVD), League of Gentlemen, Nathan Barley, Only Fools and Horses (the first 30 repeats anyway), Phoenix Nights, The Simpsons, South Park, Blackadder, Monty Python, Peep Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm. Wife Swop can be good for a grin (the more hang ups the better). Don't do soaps and try to avoid programmes with "celebrity" in the title, but not always successfully. I'll catch something factual if it looks interesting. Don't mind Deal or No Deal either (apart from Noel Edmunds and the screeching audience) - you can root for the gooduns and buzz off the nob'eds. So I do a lot of buzzin.
Iain Banks, Charles Bukowski, William Burroughs, Hubert Selby Jr,Albert Camus, Norman Davies (boss historian), Kahlil Gibran, Nick Hornby, Ed McBain, David Mamet (especially his views on acting - cuts through the crap), Wilfred Owen, Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching), Kevin Sampson, Peter Schaffer, Tolkein, Stephen Donaldson would be in the mix. Plus good factual stuff (John Pilger and Greg Palast do the biz) that explains why and isn't just some boring series of statements you're expected to take as, well, read.
My nan and grandad - soulmates for over 70 years and the wisest people I've ever met. And possibly Gromit.