These are more like psychotic obsessions rather than interests.
Reading, being a single dad and hanging out with my goofy daughter, DMT, cooking, fringe science, socialized medicine, Funyuns, magic (as in sleight of hand, not anything metaphysical), speed chess, tropical fish, rolling my own cigarettes, legalized medical marijuana, running, drinking/pubs, shamanism (sweat lodges, fasting and peyote---not this new age bullshit), scuba diving.... Cult films, outsider art, playing piano/banjo, vivisection, epidemiology, people who are suicidal, sex, irony, euthanasia, the rise and fall of the original Studio 54 , swimming, low budget documentary filmmaking, video production/editing, psychology of fundamentalists of any stripe, record collecting, taxonomy, existentialist philosophy, absurd humor, drawing/painting, altered states of consciousness, abiogenesis, The French Revolution, Chairman Mao, ancient history, Fall Of the Roman Empire (Gibbon), shark attacks, neurology, people-watching, neonatology and traveling anywhere outside the US
I'd like to meet:
Whomever
Music:
Music is extremely important to me. It's one of primary reasons that I'm not an atheist.....Too many to list and just about every genre imaginable: Tom Waits, Julian Cope, Allen Holdsworth, Keane, Beck, Amp Fidler, Jack Nitszche, The Slits, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Pearl Jam, Jimi Hendrix, Fugazi, Vernon Reed, The Velvet Underground, Sheryl Crow, Elton John (early), Easy Mo Bee, Jeff Tweedy, Screaming Trees, Gorecki, Claude Debussy, The Ramones, Sly and The Family Stone, Ani DeFranco, Neil Young, The Yardbirds, Lemmy, Puccini, The Smashing Pumpkings, Cowboy Junkies, Van Halen, Lit, The Beatles, Hanoi Rocks, Marvin Gaye, Antonio Vivaldi, T.Rex, Buddy Guy, Tesla, Alphaville, The Cramps, Miles Davis, Serge Gainsbourg, The Stones (pre 78'), Tori Amos, Quincy Jones (as songwriter and producer), Clapton, Keef Richards (solo stuff), The Plasmatics, Carol King, Iggy and the Stooges, Peter Tosh, Art Tatum, The Who (up until 1977), Townsend's solo stuff is completely underrated, Rufus and Loudon Wainwright, Veruca Salt, The Trashcan Sinatras, Shooby Taylor, Henry Rollins, The Germs, John Lennon (solo 71-75), David Bowie, The Smiths, Uncle Tupelo, Velvet Revolver, Morphine, Ben Harper, Gram Parsons, Little Feat, John Lee Hooker, Travis, Billy Preston, Squeeze, Richard Wagner (Die Meistersinger), Echo and the Bunnymen, Morrisey, Creedance Clearwater Revival, Elastica, The Dead Boys, Johnny Cash, Ricky Nelson, Cream, Samuel Barber, Randy Rhoads ,Franz Shubert, The Psychedelic Furs, PJ Harvey, Joy Division, Alison Bury, K's Choice, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Mazzy Star, Kate Bush, The Pogues, Morphine, Leonard Cohen, Alice Cooper, Portishead, Jake E. Lee, early Def Leppard (high and dry), British Murder Boys, Prince on occasion, Nirvana, Blind Faith, Pixies, N.W.A., The Cult, Matthew Sweet, Muddy Waters, Elvis Costello, Nil Lara, Afghan Whigs, Jonatha Brooke, R.E.M (their entire career), The Smoking Popes, The Small Faces, They Might Be Giants, The Doors, Led and Dread Zeppelin, Bananarama, The Cure, The Faces, Fleetwood Mac, Hole, Massive Attack, The Sugar Cubes, Pretenders, PIL, Suede, Radiohead, Bela Fleck, The Police, Stevie Wonder, Dan Bern, The Kinks, Cheap Trick, Derek and the Dominos, The Rachels, Leadbelly, Split Enz, Roxy Music, Mott the Hoople, ANY cover by William Shatner (Capt. Kirk is pure genius), Babes In Toyland, Tim and Jeff Buckley, Bessie Jones, Lightnin' Hopkins, The Verve Pipe....Classic rock, Gregorian chant,Chamber music, trashy pop tunes, Muzac, Songs in the Key of Z, Latin and some American jazz, ad infinitum
Movies:
Documentaries, Independent, Dark comedies, Cult films, Absurdist....With few exceptions, I rarely find myself enjoying contemporary mainstream films or any other popular media. It's not premeditated ,either. It just seems to work out that way. For example, the largest grossing movie of all time, The Titanic, is one of the worst films ever made, IMO. I'd have enjoyed it much more if De Caprio chucked Winslet overboard and used her as a life raft, instead of inserting that'family friendly' finale.
All really good art is ultimately irrational.
From this point of view the difference between the artist and the neurotic seems to boil down to a question of talent. It's like the difference between an illiterate schizophrenic and a Strindberg: one ends up on the backwards and the other becomes a cultural hero. Both experience the world in similar ways and only the power and quality of the reactions differ.
Many people have experienced the feeling of being immortal during sexual orgasm; few have experienced it from listening to music or viewing a painting; fewer still from any intellectual activity.I think about rubbish like this quite often!Anyhow, here's a partial list of some decent films: The Tenant, Jesus de Montreal, Mr Mom, What Is It?, L'Eclisse, Rebels of the Neon God, King Pin, The Celluloid Closet, Bicycle Thieves, Starman, Le Sang des bêtes, Where The Buffalo Roam, Thin Blue Line, Koyaanisqatsi, Coming To America, Dylan: Don't Look Back, Harold and Maude, Silverlake Life, Dark Star, Man With Two Brains, Taxi Driver, To Pio Stin Omichli, The British 7-UP series, Modern Problems (anything with dabney coleman), The Piano, Henry Miller Asleep & Awake, Hannah and Her Sisters, Finding Nemo, Berlin: Symphony of a City, Sex And The Single Girl, A Clockwork Orange, Plan 9 from Outer Space, Back to the Future, Freaks, Metropolis, Reefer Madness, La Grande Illusion, Paris Texas, Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind, Fanadango, Head, Coffee and Cigarettes, Bonnie And Clyde, Easy Rider, The Razor's Edge, Trading Spaces, Paradise Lost: The Child Murders of Robinhood Hills (Part 1 and especially 2), They Shoot Horses Don't They, Ghost Ship, Man Bites Dog, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, Bad Ronald, Minus Man , Masculin Feminin, Gummo, Panic In Needle Park, Too Tired To Die, Nosferatu, Requiem For a Dream, Crumb, Nick Cage's early films, Toy Story, Stir Crazy, Shawshank Redemption, Fatso, Planes-Trains and Automobiles, Tongues Untied, Blow Out, Someone To Watch Over Me, Contact, Rocky Horror and Rocky, The Velvet Goldmine, The Shining, Rosemary's Baby, Valley of the Dolls, Sex Lies and Videotape, The Other, Ed Wood, Moonstruck, Vampire's Kiss, The Last Waltz, Bottle Rocket, Waiting for Guffman, Peggy Sue Got Married, Eating Raoul, Grizzly Man, The Seventh Seal, On The Waterfront, This is Spinal Tap, The Deer Hunter, Kon-Tiki, Lone Star, Rubin & Ed, Do The Right Thing, Contact, Moscow on the Hudson, The Sweet Hereafter, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Glory, Nanook of the North, Beuna Vista Social Club, The Honeymoon Killers, Catch-22, Annie Hall, Altered States, Jaws, Basquiat, Memento, Raising Arizona, Casino, Punch Drunk Love, Last Days, Brazil, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Badland's, The Life of Brian, Performance, Platoon, Cocaine Cowboys, Mosquito Coast, Exposé, The Rapture, Bonnie And Clyde, Say Anything, Edward Scissorhands, Animal House, When We Were Kings, Born Into This, Gimme Shelter, Adaptation, Shampoo, anything starring or co starring Crispin Glover, Citizen Kane, Bustin' Loose, The Handmaid's Tale, Wings of Desire, Rounders, Best In Show, Dual, Chuck and Buck, The Incredible Shrinking Woman, Evil Dead, Safe, Boogie Nights, The Straight Story, Amores Perros, Pi: Faith in chaos, Happines, Psycho, Five Easy Pieces, Dirty Harry, Day Trippers, Night' Mother, Throw Momma From The Train, Carnival of Souls, Amélie, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Manhattan Murder Mystery, The Crying Game, I Shot Andy Warhol, La Vie en Rose, Dog Day Afternoon, Kubrick's 2001, Vertigo, Being There, The Interview, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, The River's Edge, Blood Simple, Bubba Ho-Tep, Usual Suspects, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Behind The Green Door, Awakenings, The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty, The Devil In Miss Jones (both the porn flick and the orginal), Three Amigo's, Pauline at the Beach, Boyz N the Hood, Kids, The Cooler, Blue Velvet, Uncle Buck, Nightshift, Saturday Night Fever, Christmas Vacation, O'Brother Where Art Thou?, The Shining, Leaving Las Vegas, Tootsie, Ringu, An American Movie, Fast-Cheap and Out of Control, Rock-n Roll Circus, Mayor of Sunset Strip, Pee Wee's Big Adventure and most anything starring or co-starring Paul Ruebens, Highway 61, Brother's Keeper, Wild At Heart, Erasurehead, The Nutty Professor (the original, although I thought Murphy did a good job with the remake), Ravenous, A Taste of Cherry, Working Girl, Cocksucker Blues, The Jerk, My Own Private Idaho, Rear Window, etc.
Television:
I only watch shows that are in syndication: Strangers with Candy, Seinfeld, Family Guy, King Of The Hill, I love Lucy, Twilight Zone reruns and marathons, SNL until about 94, SCTV, What's Happenin'? .... An American Family, 1973. I saw this on PBS, when I was a kid. It was the the first "reality TV" series and probably the last.
Books:
Currently? Civilization and It's Discontents, The Hunger Artist, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Closer to Shore, Guns Germs and Steel and The Center of the CycloneFavorites: anything by John Kennedy Toole, Plath, Ambrose Bierce, Samuel Beckett, Spalding Grey, William Burroughs, James Baldwin, Immanuel Kant, Will Self, Oscar Wilde, Voltaire, Eugene O'Neil, David Sedaris, Faulkner, Iris Murdock, Twain, Amy Tan, Sartre, Ernest Becker, Kurt Vonnegut,Oliver Sacks, Karl Menninger, Eric Fromm, Anne Sexton, Douglas Hofstadter, Henry Miller, Graham Hancock who's obviously crackers but i like him anyway, Elie Wiesel, Max Weber, T.S Elliot, Charles Bukowski, Willa Cather, Edgar Allan Poe, Erica Jong, Tom Wolfe, Suzie Bright, E.B White, Alain Danielou, Pamela Des Barres, Don Miguel Ruiz, Douglas Coupland, John Steinbeck and many others that I am too lazy to list
Heroes:
I don't have any heroes, just folks whom I tend to admire or find intriguing. I wouldn't exactly call any these people "heroes" but they certainly led/lead interesting lives: Dr. John C. Lilly, George Carlin, Simone de Bouvier, Salvidore Dali, Kurt Cobain, Richard Pryor, Tesla, Bill Hicks, Judy Garland, Andy Kaufmann, Gustave Klimt, Siddharta Gautama (Buddha), Aleister Crowley, Soren Kierkegaard, Jimmy Page, Eugene O' Neil, Francis Crick, Elvis Presley, GG Allin, Albert Schweitzer, Steve Martin, Charles Manson, Thelonious Monk, Johnny Carson, Crispin Glover, Harlem Globe Trotters, Jim Morrison, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Buck Henry, Edward O Wilson, Carl Jung, Amy Sedaris, Rod Serling and anyone who has managed to maintain integrity, hope, humor, originality and empathy despite being aware of the brute fact that we're all going to die one day.... Ummmm, come to think of it, Manson doesn't exactly fit into this category. But he is original : )
