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I'd like to meet:

Music:

Scritti Politti. Bee Gees 1967-77. Shee Bee Gees 2007-infinity. Syd Barrett, as it turns out. Also: TFP (obvz), Akron/Family, the new Dinosaur Jr. record, the new Lavender Diamond record, the new Blonde Redhead record, the new Sloan record, the new Apples in Stereo record, the new old Neil Young Live in 1971 record (fuck, dude), Josh Feit Right Now, Karen Dalton, did I say Scritti Politti? Roxy Music (first four records), Leonard Cohen (first five records), Ivor Cutler, NITA ROSSI!!!, Luna, Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel, Central Services, Jacob James, Racetrack, Regina Spektor, Todd Rundgren, Robyn Hitchcock, Let's Go Sailing, John Vanderslice, DCfC, Long Winters, The Divorce, The Lashes, The Decemberists, Mountain Giggeties, The Vernacular (you wish you could hear this band!), Anna Oxygen, Nada Surf, Travis Morrison, The Hold Stiggety, Tsunami, Slender Means, The Blow!, oh yeah and The Beatles, The Monkees, The Who, The Kinks (even the '70s Kinks... even the '80s Kinks!), Morrissey, The Smiths, The Pavement, The Jicks, "Awesome," Billy Bragg, Big Star, Pulp, Human League, Wings, Paul McCartney and Wings, Paul McCartney solo, Harry Nilsson, The Band, Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan & The Band, Joni Mitchell (up to and including The Hissing of Summer Lawns), Elvis Costello, Laura Veirs, Superchunk, Sparks, The Connells, Minus 5, XTC, Blur, Graham Coxon, BDP (up to and not including Sex and Violence), Centro-Matic and all their satellites, Holy Ghost Revival, Prince, Regina Spektor, Sleater-Kinney, The Gossip, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Band of Bees, Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, Johnny Cash, Laura Veirs, the Penguins, the Moonglows, the Orioles, the Five Satins, the late great Johnny Ace, et al. P.S. I do not like Wilco.

Movies:

Simple Men, Afraid of the Dark, The Designated Mourner, Performance, All the President's Men, Head, The Third Man, Breathless, All the Antoine Doinel films (yes, even the last one), The Graduate, Band of Outsiders, Le Grand Lebowski, Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, My Own Private Idaho, The Filth and the Fury, Chinatown, The Godfathers, The Virgin Suicides, Mickey One, Shampoo, The Parallax View, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Salesman, Grey Gardens, Don't Look Back, Don't Look Now, Velvet Goldmine, Safe, Being John Malkovich, My Dinner With Andre, Walkabout, Rope, Letter to an Unknown Woman, Big Night, High Sierra, In a Lonely Place, Duck Soup, Life of Brian, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Primary Colors, Postcards from the Edge, Letter to Jane, Taxi Driver, After Hours, Ghost World, Citizen Kane, Lady From Shanghai, Touch of Evil, The Killing, Eyes Wide Shut (I will go to the mat for this film), It's a Wonderul Life, the first 15 minutes of The Killer Elite, Singing in the Rain, The World's Greatest Sinner, Lawrence of Arabia, Trouble in Paradise (Lubitsch-style), Kind Hearts and Coronets, Shampoo, The Horse's Mouth, Bridge on the River Kwai, Knife in the Water, Modern Romance, The Tenant, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Husbands and Wives, Paths of Glory, The Killing, The Heartbreak Kid, A New Leaf, The Long Day Closes, A Taste of Honey, Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment, Get Carter, Little Shop of Horrors (Corman), Bucket of Blood, Four Flies on Grey Velvet, Five Easy Pieces, A Hard Day's Night, Superman II, Shallow Grave, Heart, Au Hasard Balthasar, Lord of the Rings (obviously, but also the Bakshi version; suck on THAT!), Idi Amin Dada, Even Dwarves Started Small, Grizzly Man, probably 1000 more (especially movies about puppies and/or kittens). I used to swear by Woody Allen, memorize his movies even, but with a handful of exceptions, I just don't know anymore. Also, if there were a proper day of reckoning, and I absolutely had to choose between Godard and Truffaut, I would have to choose Truffaut. Sorry, dudes, but that's just how I roll. P.S. I basically don't like Billy Wilder, but I have a bizarre fetish for the films of James L. Brooks, even though I totes hate them.

Television:

Freaks and Geeks, THE MAGIC BULLET INFOMERCIAL. The West Wing, seasons 1-4, infinitely. The Wire, Peep Show, The Monkees (season 2), certain elements of The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Our Friends in the North, The Office, Extras, I'm Alan Partridge, Knowing Me Knowing You, Reverend Creflo Dollar, Reverend John Hagee, Instant Star!, Mr. Show (although, I'm starting to wonder), Six Feet Under, Sopranos, basically any show that gets released on DVD, because motherfuck the bullshit.

Books:

Everything by Philip Roth (except Letting Go, When She Was Good, Our Gang, The Great American Novel, and the new one, Everyman), the Flashman Papers, almost everything by Martin Amis (up to Time's Arrow, plus the memoirs), everything by Joan Didion (yes, including the novels, though Salvador and Miami were tough), everything by Ian McEwan (except maybe Amsterdam and the new one), everything by Tobias Wolff, What A Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe, all Salinger all the time, all Vonnegut, most Hitchens, Greil Marcus on Dylan, Running Dog, The Great Gatsby, Beautiful Losers, Impossible Vacation, Great Expectations, Actual Air, American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand, Allan Stein, Cash, Orphans by Charles D'Ambrosio, everything I've ever read by Elmore Leonard, Lolita, Laughter in the Dark, the first four Richard Price novels, A Fan's Notes, Larkin, Eliot, Cummings, and then, yeah, all the other usual stuff.

Heroes:

'cause what's a hero?