Writing short stories, personal essays, and a Simpsons script that got rejected by Matt Groenings' assistant (though in my defense she told me she didn't actually read it). When I'm not collecting rejection letters I'm reading, watching too many movies and just generally being a shut in. I'm also into Kung fu and gardening, but only if it's edible; I don't like things I can't eat.
Yo La Tengo, Nina Simone, Johnny Cash & June Carter, Hank Williams, Edith Frost, Stereolab, Innocence Mission, Low, The Silver Jews, Mojave 3, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Golden Arm Trio, Will Oldham, Grandaddy, Neutral Milk Hotel, Bjork.
American Movie because I'm from Wisconsin and because Mark Borchardt tried to make out with me once when I was doing a story about him; Half Nelson; The Saddest Music in the World; Short Cuts; Happiness; Waking Life; Spirited Away; Office Space; Delicatessen; Waiting for Guffman; The Celebration; Dancer in the Dark; You, Me , and Everyone We Know; I Heart Huckabees, The Squid and the Whale; Drugstore Cowboy; Fargo; Zoolander; Harold and Maude; Cool Hand Luke; Crimes and Misdemeanors; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Ikiru; Lost in Translation; Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; Little Children; Paper Moon; The School of Rock; Nacho Libre; Dodgeball; Good Bye, Lenin!; Heathers; Pecker; Spanking the Monkey; Supersize Me; The Royal Tennenbaums, Amadeus. . . probably more if I keep thinking
Simpsons, Family Guy, The Office (both versions) and a slew of HBO creations including The Wire, Deadwood, Extras and Entourage.
Haruki Murakame, Jonathan Ames, David Sedaris, Raymond Carver, Spalding Gray, Kafka, Anne Lamott, JD Salinger, Dostoevsky, A Confederacy of Dunces, Hemmingway’s good stuff, ditto with Fitzgerald, Bukowski in moderation, Michael Patrick Welch, aka “White Bitch,†Jeffrey Eugenides, Sartre’s fiction, Lolita, random cookbooks, the current favorite is “Nourishing Traditions.â€