Music, movies, theatre, dance, photography, philosophy, cooking, working to protect human rights worldwide:
Female Artists: Ella Fitzgerald, Josephine Baker, Annette Hanshaw, Ruth Etting, Bessie Smith, Mama Smith, Ma Rainey, Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Sophie Tucker, Edith Piaf, The Singing Nun, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Rosemary Clooney, Doris Day, Fanny Brice, Nina Simone, Julie Andrews, Sarah Brightman, Liza Minelli, Wanda Jackson, Madonna, The Andrews Sisters, Edna Hicks, Etta James, Lena Horne, Sarah Vaughn, Ethel Waters, Marlene Dietrich, Bjork, Lauryn Hill, Linda Ronstadt, The Boswell Sisters, Mae West, Ida Cox, Peaches
Male Artists: Django Reinhardt, Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor, Jimmy Durante, Eddie Fisher, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Andy Williams, Hoagy Carmichael, Perry Como, Tony Bennett, Elvis Presley, Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, Irving Berlin, Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Lestor Young, Thelonius Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Dave Brubeck, George M. Cohan, Lou Reed, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Gerry Mulligan, Charlie Barnet, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Bix Beiderbecke, Fred Astaire, Gene Krupa, Morrissey, Frank Zappa, Nat King Cole, Billy Murray, Jimmy and Tommy Dorsey, Chick Webb, Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Herb Alpert, Ray Charles, Charlie Feathers, Leonard Cohen, Rufus Wainwright, Sidney Bechet, Cat Stevens, Fats Waller, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Johnny Cash, Cab Calloway, Raymond Scott, George Gershwin, Danny Elfman, The Streets, Tom Lehrer, Spike Jones, Maurice Chevalier, Serge Gainsbourg, Elliott Smith
Operatic Artists: Maria Callas, Lili Pons, Montserrat Caballe, Emmy Destinn, Renee Fleming, Kiri Te Kawana, Natalie Dessay, Anna Moffo, Kathleen Battle, Marilyn Horn, Beverly Sills, Renata Tebaldi, Joan Sutherland, Jussi Bjorling, Franco Corelli, Enrico Caruso, John McCormack, Robert Merrill, Placido Domingo
Groups/Bands:
Earlier: The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Louis Armstrong's Hot 5 and Hot 7, Louisiana 5, Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, The Glenn Miller Orchestra, The Mills Brothers
Later: The Beatles, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Oingo Boingo, Devo, Duran Duran, Blondie, The English Beat, Tears for Fears, Devo, The Violent Femmes, The B-52's, The Smiths, Madness, The Specials, X, Talking Heads, New Order, Oasis, Erasure, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Doors, Skinny Puppy, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, The Dickies, The Buzzcocks, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Ramones, The New York Dolls, Joy Division, X Ray Spex
Much Later: Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, Beck, Le Tigre, Air, The Books, Mirah, Electrelane, Explosions in the Sky, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, CocoRosie, Yo La Tengo, Parenthetical Girls, Caribou/Manitoba, Xiu Xiu, Aphex Twin, Ladytron, Sufjan Stevens, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Octopus Project, Animal Collective, Broadcast, Vive la Fete, Architecture in Helsinki, Rachel's, Bjork, Bjork, Bjork.
Classical: Johannes Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Bela Bartok, Giuseppe Verdi, Leonard Bernstein, Richard Wagner, Carl Weber, Antonio Vivaldi, Camille Saint-Saens, Franz Schubert, Igor Stravinsky, Richard and Johann I & II Strauss, Johnann Pachebell, George Phillip Telemann, Henry Purcell, Pyotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, Vincenzo Bellini, Georges Bizet, Frederic Chopin, Claude Debussy, Leo Delibes, Giacomo Puccini, Antonin Dvorak, Gaetano Donizetti, George Frederic Handel, Franz Joseph Haydn, Jacques Offenbach, Gilbert & Sullivan, Franz Liszt, Gustav Holst, Jules Massenet, Claudio Monteverdi, Niccolo Paganini, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Fritz Kreisler, Aaron Copland, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Johannes Brahms, Gioacchino Antonio Rossini
Hip Hop-type stuff: Daedelus, Busdriver, Doseone, Boom Bip, Pigeon John, The Herbaliser, Madvillain, MF Doom, Madlib, Cut Chemist, Coldcut, Deltron 3030, Kid Koala, DJ Food, DJ Shadow, DJ Spooky, J Dilla, Jagga Jazzist, A Tribe Called Quest, The Cinematic Orchestra, Alias, Mr. Scruff, Subtitle, Bonobo, Diplo, Themselves, Nujabes.
etc...
Actresses: Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Ingrid Bergman, Louise Brooks, Doris Day, Gretta Garbo, Mae West, Jean Harlow, Katharine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, Dorothy Lamour, Gloria Swanson, Jayne Mansfield, Judy Garland, Liza Minelli, Norma Shearer, Rita Hayworth, Lana Turner, Ava Gardener, Ginger Rodgers, Mary Pickford, Natalie Wood, Olive Thomas, Marilyn Monroe, Betty Grable, Hedy Lamarr, Veronica Lake, Madaline Kahn, Natalie Portman
Actors: Cary Grant, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Laurel and Hardy, The Marx Bros., Fred Astaire, Gene Kelley, Jimmy Stewart, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, Marlon Brando, James Cagney, Clark Gable, Robert Mitchum, Paul Newman, Gregory Peck, Dick Van Dyke, Gael Garcia.
Directors: Michel Gondry, Wes Anderson, Alfred Hitchcock, David Lynch, George Cukor, Vittorio De Sica, Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, Ingmar Bergman, Mel Brooks, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jean-Pierre Juenet, Wong Kar-Wai, Steven Speilburg, Lars von Trier, Jean Luc-Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, François Truffaut, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Frederico Fellini, Francis Ford Coppola, Cecile B. DeMille, Louis Malle, Hayao Miyazaki.
Movies:
Foreign: Amelie, Les Triplettes of Belleville, Les Yeux sans Visage, Un Chien Andalou, Le Corbeau, Belle du Jour, Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources, Le Cercle Rouge, Delicatessen, L'argent,Ascenseur pour L'Echafaud, La Cite des Enfants Perdus, La regle du jeu, Masculin Feminin, Pierrot Le Fou, Les Diaboliques, Ascenseur pour L'échafaud, Mon Oncle, Le Roi de Coeur, Le Samourai, La Belle et Le Bete (even though the Beast scared the crap out of me when I was little), Umberto D., Ladri di Biciclette, Sciuscia, 8 1/2 , La Dolce Vida, Citta Aperta, Il Conformista, L'avventura, Ostre Sledovane Vlaky, A Fei Jing Jeun, Amores Perros and anything Miyazaki
Comedy: Dr. Strangelove, Arsenic and Old Lace, Bringing Up Baby, The Pink Panther, Monty Pythons Holy Grail, The Meaning of Life, and The Life of Brian, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Some Like it Hot, Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, The Lady Eve, Philadelphia Story, Annie Hall, The Big Lebowski, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Harold and Maude, The Life Aquatic, A Thousand Clowns
Suspense/Horror/Mystery: Dracula, Frankenstein, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Blue Velvet, Charade, The Phantom of the Opera, Nosferatu, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mr. Arkadin, Dr. Jekyll and Mr, Hyde, The Birds, The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, The Unknown, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, Psycho
Silent: The Birth of a Nation, Laugh Clown Laugh, The Phantom of the Opera, Un Chien Andalou, The Unknown, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, London After Midnight, The Gold Rush, The Kid, City Lights, Sunrise, Metropolis, The Man Who Laughs, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Man with a Movie Camera, Intolerance, Regeneration, Greed, The General, October, Faust, Broken Blossoms, Ben Hur, Safety Last, Girl Shy, Diary of a Lost Girl, Pandora's Box
Musical: Singin' in the Rain, Wizard of Oz, Little Nellie Kelly, Love Finds Andy Hardy, The Merry Widow, Swing Time, Shall We Dance, Top Hat, Bathing Beauty, Meet me in St. Louis, Anchors Aweigh, Ziegfeld Follies, Easter Parade, On the Town, An American in Paris, Gigi, 42nd Street, Gold Diggers of 1933, A Night at the Opera, Royal Wedding, Kiss Me Kate, Guys and Dolls, Funny Face, My Fair Lady, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Its Always Fair Weather, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Oliver, Cabaret, Dancer in the Dark
Disney: Mary Poppins, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 101 Dalmations, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Fantasia, Dumbo, Alice in Wonderland, The Three Cabarellos, Lady and the Tramp, Peter Pan, The Sword in the Stone, The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, Robin Hood
Cult/B-Movies: Freaks!, The Forbidden Zone, Plan 9 from Outer Space, The Manster, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Cannibal Holocaust, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Refer Madness (1936), The Black Cat, Buffalo '66, Fight Club, Glen or Glenda?, Ghost World, Mullholland Drive, Se7en, Trainspotting, X from Outer Space, Earth vs. The Spider, Eraserhead
etc...
When I have the time:
If I have the time:
Scrubs, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Fraiser, MythBusters, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development, Freaks and Geeks, Project Runway
Planet Earth
Writers: Oscar Wilde, Ayn Rand, Victor Hugo, Jane Austen, Guy De Maupassant, Albert Camus, Kurt Vonnegut, Virginia Wolfe, George Orwell, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hunter S. Thompson, Jack Kerouac, John Steinbeck, Lewis Carroll, Samuel Beckett, Kafka, Sartre, William S. Burroughs, Nietzsche, Voltaire, Moliere, Bukowski, Chuck Palahniuk, Plato, e.e. cummings, Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Federico Garcia Lorca, Osamu Dazai, Pablo Naruda, Anne Sexton, Allen Ginsburg
Books: The Importance of Being Earnest, Frankenstein, L'etranger, Fahrenheit 451, 1984, Slaughterhouse-Five, The Jungle, Brave New World, Bonjour Tristesse, La Peste, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Bell Jar, Gravity's Rainbow, Stranger in a Strange Land, Ham on Rye, Candide, Junky, The Metamorphosis, The Fountainhead, Doctor Sax, Huis-clos,
etc...