Lee, Patton, MacArthur, Ulysses S. Grant, Eisenhower, Tommy Franks, ummmmmmmmmmm.........Audiences, Mills, Zod
These are all artists, musicians, bands, etc. that I shuffle through daily (thank god for ipod!). In one way or another, they have been very influential on my style of playing and songwriting///////////// Bands: Dave Matthews Band, Tim Reynolds, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Victor Wooten, Medeski, Martin, and Wood, Woodbelly, Jeff Buckley, Chris Isaak, Pete Yorn, Ben Harper, Bob Schneider, Minor Threat, Fugazi, Muse, Social Distortion, Elliot Smith, Elvis Presley, Flaming Lips, Guster, Jamiroquai, Jay-Z, Boogie Down Productions, Tribe Called Quest, LL, Snoop, Ministry, Coheed & Cambria, Jackson 5, New Order, Joy Division, Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, The Faction, The Meters, John Mayer, Phish, Brian Setzer, Teitur, Rufus Wainwright, Left Over Salmon, Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley, Steel Pulse, 311, David Gray, Damian Rice, Amos Lee, Matt Nathanson, Pat McGee Band, Pop Poppins, Shallow Reign, Dave Barnes, The Beatles, The Ocean Blue, The Smiths, 10, 000 Maniacs, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Led Zeppelin, Galactic, G Love and Special Sauce, Ben Folds, Ben Folds Five, The The/////////////Jazz, Soul, and Performers: Chet Baker, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Harry Connick Jr., Jamie Cullum, Diana Krall, Jill Scott, Rachelle Ferrell, Charlie Hunter, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Stan Getz, Wynton Marsalis, Michael Buble, Nina Simone, Miles Davis, Erykah Badu, Otis Redding/////////////Performers: Cecilia Bartoli, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vladimir Horowitz, Victor Borge, Early Pavarotti, Andre Watts, Van Cliburn (60s and 70s) Sarah Brightman, Joshua Bell, Itzhak Perlman, Rene Fleming, Michael Ball, Cecil Licad, Nelson Eddy, Alexi Sultanov, Maria Callas, Alexander Kobrin, Olga Kern (Her version of Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 with Cadenzas by Rachmaninoff is unbelievable)/////////////Composers: Andrew Lloyd Weber, Phillip Glass, Danny Elfman, Giacomo Puccini, Guiseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Robert Schumann, Frederic Chopin, Franz Schubert, Franz Liszt, Peter Tchaikovsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Johann Sebastian Bach, Rogers and Hammerstein, Jonathan Larson, George Gershwin, Henry Mancini, Cole Porter
Amadeus, Immortal Beloved, Magnolia, Shine, The Red Violin, The Pianist, The Piano, Life Is Beautiful, Wild At Heart, Army of Darkness, Evil Dead 2, Wet, Hot, American Summer, The Breakfast Club and every other John Hughes/Chris Columbus 80s movie, Waiting for Guffman (and the rest of the Christopher Guest/Eugene Levy movies-2nd would be A Mighty Wind), 20th Century Man, Rodger Dodger, A Clockwork Orange, Donnie Darko, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, The Last Temptation of Christ, Igby Goes Down, Debbie Does Dallas, Memento, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Tarrantino's Films, Shallow Reign, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Fear and Loathing Las Vegas, Natural Born Killers, Triplets of Belleville, Amelie, Chocolat, Rules of Attraction, American Psycho, The Three Amigos, The Search For Animal Chin, Gone With The Wind, Pillow Talk (love the roly poly song), Auntie Mame, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Sabrina, An American in Paris, Harvey the Rabbit, You Can't Take It With You (really just about anything with Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, and on and on), Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy movies (love to watch because they remind me of my grandmother), Rogers and Hammerstein musicals (Sound of Music, Oklahoma, The King and I etcetera, etcetera, etcetera-man I crack myself up), I love martial arts films (how I miss Kung Fu Theater days on Sundays), I am a huge fan of David Lynch, Tim Burton, Spike Jonze, PT and Wes Anderson, Stanley Kubrick, Roman Polanski. Favorite Hitchcock film-Vertigo (I have a huge crush on Kim Novak). All time favorite Polanski movie is Bitter Moon. If you can find it, watch it!
Entourage! Gigglesnort Hotel, 3-2-1 Contact (especially the Bloodhound Gang episodes), The Great Spacecoaster, Reading Rainbow, Sid Kroft shows: The Bugaloos, HR Puffinstuff, Sigmund the Sea Monster, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, Twin Peaks is my all time favorite, Family Guy, The Office (UK and USA), Fawlty Towers, House of Barrie, Black Adder, Mr. Bean. Recent guilty pleasures: Grey's Anatomy, Sex in the City, Desperate Housewives.
Are you there God? It's Me Margaret, My Education, Holy Blood, Holy Grail, The Messianic Legacy, The Catcher in the Rye (I don't care what any book snob says), The Great Gatsby, Tao of Pooh, Blubber, Harry Potter Series, Chronicles of Narnia (The Magician's Nephew-One of my favorites), Ishmael, The Story of B, The Satanic Verses, Finding Darwin's God, Angels and Demons, The Giving Tree, Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, A Clockwork OrangeWhen I'm bored, I do stupid quizzes like this one:
Which "Saved By The Bell" Character Are You?
Esperanza Angeles (Grandmother and truly the most amazing woman that ever lived), Patricinio Angeles (Grandfather and great humanitarian), Dad (Greatest surgeon I have ever seen and I am not just saying that because he is my dad), Janet Hurford (Grandmother who was a Rockette and played Snow White on Broadway, she was very talented and caring), Beethoven (In my opinion, the most passionate and amazing of the classical composers, Bruce Lee (I admire his determination), Leonardo Da Vinci (The actual inventor of the airplane and a lot of other things that he never received credit for. I admire him because he didn't give a crap about recognition, he just did it), Benjamin Franklin (played the violin, piano, harp, and an instrument he invented called the glass harmonica. Mozart and Beethoven wrote concertos for it. He shares responsibility for what little part of this world is sane-he will be 300 on January 17, 2006), anyone who does what they love and doesn't give a shit what people think about it.