People are interesting, long as they're not ramming their delusions down my ear canal. I've got delusions of my own. I recently learned that I share a birthday with Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin. COOL. Also with Christina Ricci. Whatever that means.
Bob Dylan- so he could berate my sound. Woody Allen- so he could berate my vision. David Bowie- so he could berate my sound AND vision. and Nellie McKay- so she could berate my sexual technique.
I could list all sorts of bands to prove how wide and deep the river flows, but I'll tell you about the few people who really REEEEALLY have gotten to me. Abba.(Beautiful, pristine angst.) Aerosmith (No shame. Good fun rock and roll). Bach.(So ingenuous!) The Beatles. (Who doesn't like the Beatles?) Bowie.(His Melodic Weirdness.) Blur.(I've followed Damon Albarn down some odd sound alleys.) Dylan. (I fancy that he's some sort of kindred mind, but his trick is making people think that's so.) Mecano.(My poppy electro-romantic childhood.) Mozart. (Wildchild with sound, imagine if he was alive now.) Nellie McKay. (Huge crush... But she needs to ease up.) Nirvana.(The sound of misunderstood youth.) The Rolling Stones. (The Beatles I wouldn't want to hang out with.) Velvet Underground.(The source.) Tchaikovsky. (He makes me see colors.)
This took some deliberation, but here's the shortest list I could conjure of movies that have really REALLY meant something to me. (But looking it over, haven't these movies meant a lot to a LOT of people? I can't decide if I have good taste or BORING taste.) The Lion King (first movie I saw in a U.S. theater.) The Sound of Music. 8 1/2. Abre Los Ojos. All About my Mother. Amores Perros. Annie Hall. The Antoine Doinel movies. The Apartment. Before Sunrise/ Sunset. Ben-Hur. Beauty and the Beast (Disney AND Cocteau.) Belle de Jour. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Casablanca. Chasing Amy. Chinatown. Children of Paradise. Clerks. Closely Watched Trains. Donnie Darko. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Funny Games. The Godfather (1, 2). Goodfellas. Hannah and Her Sisters. The Indiana Jones trilogy. It's a Wonderful Life. Jesuschrist Superstar. Kicking and Screaming. L.A. Confidential. Mannhattan. My Dinner with Andre. The Music Man. M. Hulot's Holiday. The Nights of Cabiria. Princess Mononoke. Pulp Fiction. Rear Window. Requiem for a Dream. Star Wars (4,5,6, obviously.) Se7en. The Seventh Seal. Singing in the Rain. Some Like it Hot. Spirited Away. Stand by Me. Stardust Memories. Sunset Boulevard. Tesis. Together. Toy Story. Trainspotting. The Umbrellas of Cherbourgh/The Young Ladies of Rochefort. Viridiana. Waking Life. West Side Story. Wild Strawberries. Yojimbo. Y Tu Mama Tambien.
Three shows that have defined my life and how I view myself: "The Simpsons", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Freaks and Geeks." "Arrested Development" has some memories for me. My current DVD loves are "Veronica Mars," (I hear the third season is lame) "Lost" (I hear the third season is lame) "The Wire" (always good) and "Grey's Anatomy" (I hear the third season is lame.) And "Heroes"! But I keep an eye on a lot of shows. The idiot box is actually more vibrant now than it's ever been. TV may just be coming of age as we speak.
A book a day habit means this could be fairly futile, but you should know I'm an unrepentant Stephen King fan. Have also been known to follow Mr. Potter's adventures with nary a high-brow complaint. No one touches Shakespeare. The two great French Romantics: Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo. Dickens. Blake, Dickinson, Eliot, Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut, Philip Roth, Philip K. Dick.- too many, too many, just ask.
"People I respect, heroes of mine, would be: Bob Hope. Hmmm, Abraham Lincoln, definitely. Bono. And probably God would be the fourth one. And I just think all those people really help the world in so many ways that it's really beyond words. Really incalculable." - Steve Carrell in "The Office."