Music, guitars, amps. Computers and information systems especially free and open source software. Participating in the communities that exist around the above, outside of the mainstream. Words.
Adam Stirrer. The influence of Stirrer's classic work for Black Mekon are starting to have a profound influence on the current generation of creative artists in the video genre. Mr. Radar's recent work for Swampmeat, for instance, pushes homage dangerously close to the borders of plagiarism.
The local bands who I like to see at least weekly and I tip for the top (whether they want to go there or not) are: The Big Bang, Copter and Taxi (which shows how much I know - they broke up)A list of all the bands I like would be too long and Top 10s make my brain explode with indecision so this is a sample that have made some part of me shake in time to their live performance in the last couple of years: Dan Sartain, 80s Matchbox B-line Disaster, Black Wire, The Chap, The Coral, Commanechi, Death From Above 1979, Digger and the Pussycats, The Distillers, Dooley Wilson, Entrance, The Futureheads, Les Georges Leningrad, Gin Palace, The Hives, Immortal Lee County Killers, Junkbox, The Kills, The Ludes, MC5, Modey Lemon, Mr. Airplane Man, The Others, Peaches, PJ Harvey, Punish The Atom, The Rapture, The Subways, T-Model Ford, The Von Bondies, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Yumi Yumi, The White Stripes, The Zutons.My 'love song of the decade' award goes to The Soledad Brothers for 'Only flower in my bed'.Thanks to the beautiful people of Birmingham's Coldrice for pointing out some classics that I'd missed: The Cramps, Gang of Four, The Pixies, Them, Violent Femmes. Current gig plans: Woo's Upcoming
High Fidelity; Wild at Heart; The cook, the thief, his wife & her lover; Empire Records; Resevoir Dogs; Pulp Fiction; American Beauty
"Throw your T.V. out the window, love your record player..."'T.V.' by The Sugars
I don't read many words in dead-tree format but books that changed my life were 'Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: an enquiry into values' and the subsequent 'Lila: an enquiry into morals' which provided a foundation for beliefs I had always intuitively held.'Winnie the Pooh' and 'A house at Pooh Corner' for similar reasons. Do all the great philosophical works come in pairs?
Musicians who put quality before money. In fact, anyone who puts doing the right thing before their own comfort.