B Movies, Lounge Music, Tiki Culture, Googie Architecture, Cheesecake Pinups, Burlesque, Exotic Cocktails, Comic Books, Cats, World Peace, Irony. Bettie Page in "Teasearama" Scopitone: "Web of Love" (Joi Lansing) Twilight Vixen Revue live in Thrillville
People who live and let live. And dig monsters, tikis and/or chicks. Bare Knuckles (starring my Pop, Robert Viharo) El Santo Brides of Blood I Was A Teenage Frankenstein/Werewolf Incredibly Strange Creatures... Astro Zombies Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster Los Monstruos del Terror Ray Harryhausen
Elvis. The Rat Pack. Julie London. June Christy. Bobby Darin. Tom Jones. Henry Mancini. Esquivel. Herb Alpert. The Doors. Blondie. Cool jazz, Latin jazz, lounge jazz, crime jazz, all that jazz. Exotica (Martin Denny, Les Baxter, Arthur Lyman, Robert Drasnin etc). Classic film soundtracks (Morricone, Hermann, etc.) '50s rock 'n' roll. Classic Soul. Old New Wave. The Capitol "Ultra Lounge" series is my life's soundtrack. Anything with bongos, sax and theremin.Robert Silverman plays theremin in Thrillville Martin Denny, "Quiet Village" William Shatner, "A Very Good Year"
American International Pictures. 50s Sci-Fi. 60s/70s Euro-trash horror. Exploitation, sexploitation, blaxploitation. Anything with masked Mexican wrestlers, rubber-suited monsters, zombies, lesbian vampires, werewolves, aliens, robots, spies, gangsters, film noir, Italian cowboys. Favorite directors: George Romero, Russ Meyer, Sergio Leone, Sam Peckinpah, David Lynch, Seijun Suzuki, John Woo, Michael Mann, Martin Scorsese, Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Rob Zombie, David Cronenberg, Lucio Fulchi, Dario Argento, Mario Bava, Jess Franco, Ishiro Honda, John Carpenter, Roger Corman, Ray Dennis Steckler, Ted V. Mikels, Doris Wishman, Al Adamson. Dawn of the Dead Mudhoney Seijun Suzuki
"Batman" "Miami Vice" "Hawaii 5-0" "Hawaiian Eye" "77 Sunset Strip" "Surfside 6" "Peter Gunn" "The Green Hornet" "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" "Land of the Giants" "The Twilight Zone" "The Outer Limits" "Lost in Space" "Star Trek" (TOS), "The Man from UNCLE" "Wild Wild West" "Get Smart" "The Munsters" "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" "The X Files" "Tales from the Crypt" "Jonny Quest" "The Jetsons" "The Untouchables" "The Sopranos" "Seinfeld" "Curb Your Enthusiasm" "Ren & Stimpy" "Mister Ed" "The Honeymooners" "Route 66" "Mad Men"
Vintage crime fiction by Jim Thompson, Charles Willeford, and David Goodis and new crime fiction by James Ellroy, James Lee Burke, Carl Hiassen, Walter Mosley, Christa Faust and Barry Gifford, to name a few. Some essential non-fiction: "Swingin' Chicks of the 60s" (Chris Strodder); "Bettie Page: the Life of a Pin-Up Legend," "CAD: A Handbook for Heels," "Big Bosoms and Square Jaws: the Biography of Russ Meyer" (Jimmy McDonough), "Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life," "Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams" (Nick Toches), "The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin'", "You Oughta Be Me" (Bud E. Luv), "Beatsville" (Martin McIntosh), "Dark City: the Lost World of Film Noir" (Eddie Muller), "The Book of Tiki" (Sven Kirsten), and "Profoundly Disturbing" (Joe Bob Briggs.)
Monica Tiki Goddess (my lovely wife), Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Raymond Chandler, Damon Runyon, Shag, Hugh Hefner, El Santo, Edd "Kookie" Byrnes, Mister Ed.