Music, mostly listening, but I play just enough to entertain myself. Hunting, fishing, just being outside, astronomy - I don't really know anything about it (I can usually find Orion, and on a really good night Polaris) but it interests the hell out of me, raquetball, history. How stuff works. I've recently come to the conclusion that I must have ADD (when I was little they just called it BAD), I've got 2 banjos and a guitar laying around the house I haven't seriously picked up in several months, and I want a mandolin; half a dozen books with dog-eared pages where I stopped reading to attend to something else. In short, I'm familar with alot, and expert at nothing.
Bela Fleck - for a free lesson, John Prine - to drink a a beer and write a song with. Tom Kelly to sit in front of a fire sipping bourbon and talking about Cherrybark Oak and turkeys. People with a good sense of humor and the absurd. But not so cynical that they can't still enjoy life. People that can suddenly become fascinated by something they've walked past a hundred times without giving a thought to, or at least don't mind people who do. People who can fix traffic tickets for me (I'm actually getting better on that one lately. ***1/15/06 UPDATE: 81 in a 65 on I-85). People who like language (even though I don't use it particulary well). Anybody that likes being outside just for being outside.
Bela Fleck,with or without the Flecktones (jazz, bluegrass, funk, rock, some latin and far east rhythms, what more do you need? Ok maybe some lyrics would be nice, but thats what Prine's for) , Victor Wooten, Uncle Tupelo, Blues Traveler, Keb Mo, Blue Dogs, New Grass Revival, Sam Bush, Robert Earl Keene, Son Volt, Strength in Numbers, Hank Williiams, Ralph Stanley, Earl Scruggs, John Prine, Lyle Lovett, Jerry Douglas, Michelle Shocked, Branford Marsalis, Hank Williams, Jr., Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, The Bottle Rockets, Darius Rucker, The Allman Brothers, Doc Watson, Lynrd Skynrd, Charlie Parker, Jewel, Van Morrison, Wilco, Tony Rice, Dreadful Snakes, Roy (Future Man) Wooten, Emmy Lou Harris, Mark O'Connor, Irish/Scottish/Celtic Music - paritculary the fiddle tunes and jigs - for anybody around Lower NC or Upper SC there's a great program on FM 88.7. WNCW on Sunday afternoons, Spin Doctors, Charlie Daniels, The Marshall Tucker Band, Robert Johnson, Drink Small (live), Widespread Panic, Cowboy Mouth, John Mellencamp, Steve Earle
Jerimiah Johnson,The Outlaw Josey Whales, The Long Riders, Shawshank Redemption, Chasing Amy, Braveheart, Fight Club, Rounders, A Beautiful Mind, Gladiator, The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, High Fidelity, The Negotiator, Pulp Fiction, Basic (pretty much anything where Samuel L. Jackson gets pissed off),Phenomenon, Serendipity, Rob Roy, Saving Private Ryan, The Sixth Sense, the first Die Hard, Blazing Saddles, Waterboy, About Last Night, Rooster Cogburn, Good Will Hunting, Field of Dreams, Bull Durham, Glory
The History Channel, The Discovery Channel, The Weather Channel, Austin City Limits, Lonesome Pine Specials (don't think it comes on anymore), Monty Python, My Name is Earl, Football,
A Sand County Almanac, The Tenth Legion, Better on a Rising Tide, Physics for the Rest of Us, The Road to Yorktown, The Education of Little Tree, Treasure Island, The Woods and Wild Things I Remember. I like commentary writers, and would subscribe to Sports Illustrated just for Steve Rushin's weekly musings. If you ask me I'll say I don't like novels much, which isn't exactly true; what I don't like is the way a good one can take over my life until I've finished it.
My folks, Pat Tilman - gave up a multi-million dollar NFL contract to join the army with his brother, Aldo Leopold - see A Sand County Almanac in books - came up with the idea of a land ethic that pops out of my subconscious alot while I'm working.