Writing, literature, politics, history, world travel, obscure trivia, art, photography, swimming, sleep, roller derby, bellydance, learning for the sake of learning, schadenfreude, existential angst, psychoanalysis, journalism, dreams, adventures, my ever-changing pantheon of Celebrity Boyfriends, dilettantism, driving to nowhere in particular, theorizing, staring up at the stars and thinking, libertarianism, college basketball, plumbing the depths of the human mind, cartoons, Charm City Roller Girls, Speed Regime, roller skating, fast-paced sports, innuendo and double entendre, England and her countrymen, silence and solitude, tea in all its form and splendor, the Pacific Northwest, Ultimate Frisbee, thunderstorms, nebulous intellectual concepts, yoga, muttering darkly at the stupidity of it all, keeping things tidy, witty banter, making things happen, looking for meaning in it all, questioning everything
The John Steed to my Emma Peel. Writers, artists and literary types who want to form the next Bloomsbury Group or Algonquin Round Table. Aristocrats, landed gentry and lesser nobility. Someone who can teach me how to waltz and break me of my habit of always leading. Dilettantes, cognoscenti, iconoclasts and provocateurs... and people who can spell all four and use them in a sentence. People who neither snicker nor look at me blankly when I say I want to see the Wiener Philharmoniker. Modern pentathletes. A muse for whom the feeling is mutual. A traveling companion with a List of Things To See Before I Die as long as mine. People who like to go see movies and then discuss them at length in diners afterwards. Legendary wits. Men who understand and accept the fact that if they tell me that I "complete them," I will punch them in the face. Exceptional kissers. Wordsmiths. Disgruntled traffic reporters. Fellow derbyheads. Melancholics. Wikipedians. The Byronic, the Kafkaesque, the Machivellian, and people with last names that can be made into adjectives. Speakers of dead and constructed languages. Wealthy benefactors. AP Style addicts. A true intellectual sparring partner with humor, warmth and an adventurous streak... and pretty eyes. Friends with their own special kind of wit and wisdom and good conversational skills--liking Thai food, having impeccable grammar and possessing near-encyclopedic knowledge of The Simpsons helps too.
Goldfrapp, Filter, Paul Van Dyk, U2, The Crystal Method, Fatboy Slim, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Moby, NIN, Sasha and John Digweed, God Lives Underwater, Kinobe, Groove Armada, Curve, Amon Tobin, Vanessa Daou, Econoline Crush, Metallica, Prodigy, Sarah Slean, Thievery Corporation, Dido, Sarah McLachlan, Leftfield, Matthew Good Band, Cirrus, Stone Temple Pilots, Stabbing Westward, BT, Massive Attack, Astral Projection, Slowdive, The Chemical Brothers, Trentemoller, Pink Floyd, baroque chamber music, Strauss waltzes, Holst (What's your favorite planet?), Tchaikovsky, Satie, goa trance, drum and bass, swing and classic jazz, 80s New Wave, Brit-Pop, disco when I'm feeling like a proper Carter Administration baby, Madonna in small doses, Prince when he was still a pottymouth, nameless European techno you can dance to all night
Lord of the Rings, Citizen Kane, The Great Escape, American Beauty, L.A. Confidential, The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded, Dogma, Mallrats, Wings of Desire, Dr. Strangelove, Gladiator, Pride and Prejudice (1995), Quills, Friday, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, the Austin Powers movies, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Ghostbusters, Animal House, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Kill Bill, 300, Wet Hot American Summer, the X-Men movies, Julius Caesar (1953), Girl Interrupted, Interview with the Vampire, Anchorman, Dark City, Spaceballs, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the Star Wars movies, History of the World Part 1, the Harry Potter movies, Office Space, Metropolis, various anime, more when reminded of them
The Simpsons, pretty much anything on Adult Swim, South Park, Reno 911!, History Channel documentaries, The State, The X-Files (old school), Seinfeld, Doctor Who (new series), The Prisoner, What Not to Wear, BBC World News, Arrested Development, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Mystery Science Theater 3000, The Office (UK), Mythbusters, I Love the 70s/80s/90s, Brit-coms, Danger Mouse, Carnivale, SpongeBob SquarePants, college basketball, infomercials for kitchen gadgets (they can put me to sleep faster than Nyquil)
The Man Without Qualities, On the Road, Lord of the Rings and others by J.R.R. Tolkien, Wuthering Heights, The Great Gatsby and others by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jane Eyre, Emma, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Julius Caesar and others by Shakespeare, Crime and Punishment, Orlando, The Antichrist and others by Nietzsche, My Life as Author and Editor and others by H.L. Mencken, The Bell Jar, The Catcher in the Rye, the Harry Potter books, The Phantom Tollbooth, Slaughterhouse-Five, Down and Out in Paris and London and others by George Orwell, Gates of Fire, art history, European history, historical biographies, political and communication theory, books full of obscure trivia, more when I'm reminded of them or when I find something new I actually enjoy.
The women and men of roller derby. The editors of and contributors to The Associated Press Stylebook.