Photography, and roaming the mean streets of New York! www.danieljelliott.com. Spending serious, quality time (and brunch) with my favorite book editor, writer, roller coaster rider and Red Sox Fan! She scores points in many ways, but especiallly since she doesn't mind my indulgence or addiction you might say, to any Salvation Army Thrift Store. Anywhere we go, I have to hit the Salvo! The eternal hunt for the best t-shirt never ends, but I've found some gems along the way. Just ask, I'm probably wearing one now! Heck, if you're nice I might even hook you up with one from the overgrown stash of them!
Several of my heroes are people I'd like to meet, but a few of them, I've been fortunate enough to meet, since they are still around; most are photographers. The others that I'd like to meet who are no longer with us, namely Garry Winogrand, Ruth Gordon, Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane, RFK, and Jackie O(seemed to be such an amazing person, despite too many hardships in her life)! These people sort of account for the reason I'd like to have lived here in NYC in the early 60's. The city was at a creative peak and the country was at quite a pivotal time in it's development. Someone who I feel very fortunate to have met, that we lost far too early, is Jeff Buckley. I got to meet Jeff briefly at an instore appearance at Tower Records in Boston. He seemed very sweet, humble, and his music will forever live on as a testament to his incredible talent.
Real quick; obviously I love tons of music, but don't wish to have your totally unknown band, that barely has a demo out as my friend. I just don't care to take the time to listen to it. If you are the next Mars Volta, hit me, otherwise, please don't bother. Currently shooting a whole lot of live music and it's pretty damn fun being in front of the front row for so many shows. Mastodon especially is a total rush!
This could take weeks. Currently and always for that matter...
Jeff Buckley
HUM
Faith No More
MR. BUNGLE
Doves
ELBOW
Everything But the Girl
HOOVERPHONIC
My Morning Jacket
RED SPAROWES
Catherine Wheel
JELLYFISH
Rush
A PERFECT CIRCLE
TOOL
Sting
SWERVEDRIVER (BACK IN '08; LOOK OUT!)
Lush
MORPHINE
The Make Up
THE MARS VOLTA (unreal live)
N.E.R.D
old U2
Pelican
ISIS
Killswitch Engage
CAVE IN
Only Living Witness
*SEEMLESS* (These boys from the dirty 'burg know how to tear it up; life on the road with them is even better!)
Placebo
DEFTONES
Opeth (this band's amount of talent is scary)
Muse (really live more than recorded)
MASTODON (It's like as an anvil to the crotch... and you don't even mind!)
Starflyer 59
BJORK
Failure (One of the top 5 greastest semi-unknown band)
INTO ANOTHER (read the above for Failure)
Flaming Lips
FIONA APPLE
Porcupine Tree
RED HOUSE PAINTERS
Nick Drake
OURS
Tori Amos
BETH ORTON (she needs a new release about once a month)
Mogwai
GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR
Testament (Alex Skolnick shreds; then and now)
Radiohead (Hand down the best live show I've ever seen; twice)
SHADOWS FALL
Sunny Day Real Estate and The Fire Theft
FRANK ZAPPA (Joe's Garage is a masterpiece)
Soundgarden
CKY
Dredg
THE QUILL (Modern Swedish Badlands)
Corrosion of Conformity
There so much more that is on my Ipod, including tons of 80's hair metal (check out my little hair metal group), and BADLANDS being about the best of it! Jake E. Lee is a god, and was much better with Ozzy than Randy what's his name! Sacrilege I know, but just calling it as I see it!
Quick list:Fatso, The Station Agent, Cinema Paradiso (may be my absolute favorite), The Hairdresser's Husband(very sensual), Goodfellas, Annie Hall, Match Point, Harry and Tonto, Going in Style, Sherman's March, Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, Glengarry Glenross(anything with Jack Lemmon), American Splendor, 2001: A Space Odessey, The Mission, Roger and Me, Amelie, Napoleon Dynamite, Raging Bull, The Graduate, Clerks, Chasing Amy, Harold and Maude(comedy classic at it's best; Ruth Gordon was an amazing actress!), Biloxi Blues, Dog Fight, Blues Brothers, Mean Streets, Three Colors Trilogy(Blue, White and Red), Sideways, My Life as a Dog, The Sea Inside, Jump Tomorrow and too many more that I can't think of at the moment. Care to know anything about any of these that you may not have heard of, feel free to ask.
I don't have a TV, so I have watch it here and there but "The Amazing Race" always tops the list, Dirty Jobs, 60 Minutes (no, really [R.I.P. Ed Bradley]), Jeopardy, even before Ken Jennings' 75 day run occured, and nearly ANYTHING on PBS, Frontline especially! Amazing show!
Only the ones with photos and the ones my girlfriend writes! I just finished Nikki Sixx's 'Herion Diaries', which was very good. Thanks Liesatown for that one! Now I'm about to start on Slash's (signed) memoir. Oh, before these, I read the Flaming Lips book, which was really great. After Slash's book, it will be on to the book from a couple years ago about the Crue! I'll then have completed a full on 80's hair metal trilogy!
Mostly photographer's but they are Garry Winogrand, Robert Frank, Elliott Erwitt, Lee Friedlander, Alex Webb, and my mentor Gary Monroe. One other person, but not really a hero, that I'm forever intrigued by is the late Robert Kennedy. Which direction the country would have went had he become president, we'll never know, but I'd like to think that Vietnam would still be a relatively unknown country here in the US.