Aesthetics, Poetry, Politics, Theatre, Creative Writing, Philosophy of anything, Acting, Film, Music of all sorts, Psychology, The Beat Generation, Travelling
the great appreciators, the ones who sniff life like some sniff cocaine. the great appreciators sing the body electric every day as they climb lovingly out of bed. let me explain through an example: i have this fantasy of meeting an old man, with a grey beard, a tweed jacket and loafers sitting cross-legged under a tree. when i walk up to him, he immediately senses me, though i've made no sound. his eyes are reminiscent of the sparkle that comes when you squint at a light. they glow, with a fire that warms but never burns. when he sees something, a tree, a rock, a shoe, a face, a streetlight, he senses it all fully, every inch. the entire history, the smell, the taste, the mood. he loves every moment spent with whatever crosses his path. it can be seen in the serene, bu ever-aware smile he wears when he breathes in and the satisfied relaxation in his eyebrows when he breathes out. also, i'd like to meet Woody Allen circa 1977. do you think that might happen? because i still think it might.
The Beatles, Charlie Parker, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Big Bands, Jazz, Ska, Kanye West, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, Sonny Rollings, Ray Charles, Django Rheinhardt, Louis Prima, Bob Dylan, John Coltraine, Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, Charlie Parker, Talib Kweli, Norah Jones, George Gershwin, Tom Waits (circa 1970s), the clarinet in general, the Blues Brothers, James Taylor, John Haitt, Mos Def, Bobby McFerrin, Gogol Bordello, Nickel Creek, Lauryn Hill, NaS, Herbie Hancock, Creedence Clearwater Revival ...others, too.
The Station Agent, American Beauty, The Godfather, The Godfather part 2, The Big Lebowski, Good Will Hunting, Waking Life, Angels in America, Brick, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Garden State, Sideways, Good Night and Good Luck, Being John Malkovich, A Streetcar Named Desire, Dog Day Afternoon, The Moonlight Mile, Mystic River, In America, The Green Mile, Fiddler on the Roof, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, A Streetcar Named Desire, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Crash, Capote, Walk the Line, Ray, Adaptation, Normal, Buffalo '66, Brokeback Mountain, Munich, The Woodsman
The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, The West Wing, The News Hour with Jim Lehre, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Seinfeld, Arrested Development, Frasier, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Scrubs, Ken Burns' Jazz,
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, On the Road, The Things They Carried, Everything is Illuminated, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Catcher in the Rye, Dharma Bums, America, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Cannery Row, Grapes of Wrath, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Howl, Travels with Charley, Visions of Cody, Respect for Acting, Dharma Lion, Cat's Cradle, A Picture of Dorian Gray, Heart of Darkness, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Topdog/Underdog, Anna in the Tropics, Death of a Salesman, A Delicate Balance, Who is Sylvia?, Dreams of my Father
Ken Kesey, John Steinbeck, Thomas Paine, Bobby Kennedy, Benjamin Franklin, Vincent Gallo, David Sedaris, Jack Kerouac, Ted Kooser, Jack Lemmon, Susan B. Anthony, Jonathon Safron Foer, Friedrich Nietzche, Calvin Trillin, Russ Feingold, Kevin Spacey, John Malkovich, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Neal Cassady, Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Woody Allen, Neil Simon, Nathan Lane, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Truman Capote