Friends and comrades worldwide working for change, bicycle culture, my bianchi, cathartic art produced by friends, reading, research and writing, massage therapy, summer fruit, video/film production, pushups, sweating in general, aphorisms and quotes, wilderness survival, cooking, gardening, exercise, holistic health.
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Hip hop is not dead, but personally I'm looking West: L.A. i.e. Oh No, Bay Area, i.e. Hiero. But I still love Philly, to the New York universe too big to name. And old and modern R&B, like Les Nubians and Imani Uzuri. Jazz pre-1980's. 1960's/70's soul and funk like Joe Bataan. Latin and Cuban. Reggae. Old Metal too. Music that doesn't fit into my categories, like the talented M.I.A. And stations like Hard Knock Radio that keep me live on music and culture.
Too many: Yes, Y Tu Mama Tambien, White Boyz, Mango Yellow, Sarafina, Badassss, Kung Fu Shuffle, Motorcycle Diaries, Lord of the Rings, Whale Rider, When The Levees Broke, Rabbit Proof Fence, Bourne Supremacy, City of God....
Well I'm a grad student in history, so I read a lot. Occasionally 1200 pages a week. I read a lot of the historical and cultural work you might expect. I also benefit from Marxist-descended theory and have some philosophy books (Lewis Gordon) that I really need to sit down with. I also dig socially-inspired poetry like Suheir Hammad, Martin Espada, Sarah Jones or Bryonn Bain. I'm also a junkie for political quotations, and if you like them too you should check out my book The Quotable Rebel from Common Courage Press.