Food, Music (especially if it’s danceable), Current Events, all the Visual and Performing Arts (High and Low Culture), Textiles, Reading and my so-so-wunnerful Dog, Kitties and Bird!
People who have their heads screwed on right, live their values and are fun to be with.
Faves include James Brown, Al Green, the Clash, Robert Johnson, Otis Redding, Prince, Bryan Ferry, Frank Zappa, the B-52s, Cameo, George Clinton, Erykah Badu, Gladys Knight, The Ronettes, Ice-T, Salt and Pepa, AC-DC, Rockpile, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, the Allmighty Senators, Nina Simone and Stevie Wonder. Some Greats only need one name: Elvis, Billie, Ella, Todd, Janis, Fela and Mozart. Hometown and more obscure faves of mine are Lonnie Brooks, The Waco Bros., Drench, Vendooza, L & L Allstars, The Judas Horse, Teresa Griffin, The Business, Joe Krown, Jon Cleary, Henry Butler, Cronk, Tab Benoit, Juice, The Dirty Dozen, NO Klezmer Allstars, Cambron Junior and Gino Paoli. Yeah, I’m mostly stuck in the past but when I really was a young woman (as opposed to just looking like one), the scene was totally rave-up, and hardly anyone rises to that level anymore. Music’s purpose is to provoke, inspire and soothe, so if I’m not feeling you in my heart, head or feet, you’re not on my list.
I go in phases and have forgotten more favorites than I can remember so here’s what springs to mind: Kitty (Paulette Goddard/Ray Milland), Quest for Fire, In the Company of Wolves, In the Company of Men, Gone With The Wind, Candyman, The Last Emperor, Big Night, Angels and Insects (the book is great too), Dog Day Afternoon, Himalaya, Off the Map, The Mambo Kings, Napoleon Dynamite and Nurse Betty (for the same reason), the original (and Young) Frankenstein, Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet, Orson Welles’ Othello, and the non-Bette Davis versions of Imitation of Life and Of Human Bondage.
My friends tire of my verbatim recitations from Kitty (see Movies) and the best TV drama ever produced: Ian Richardson’s House of Cards trilogy (you might very well think so -- I couldn’t possibly comment). If I’m in front of the tube and these shows are on, I’ll watch Jon Stewart, the Simpsons, Bernie Mac, the Screamers (Washington Week in Review), West Wing, the Three Stooges, Mad TV, any creepy cop show like CSI or Prime Suspect, Coupling, Iron Chef or anything that surprises me and can hold my attention for the first three minutes.
Too many to mention; for starters, anything by Crane, Hawthorne, Shakespeare or Chaucer. I read everything except mysteries (well, sometimes) and periodically stop the New Yorker because it leaves no time for books. A few I’ve really enjoyed are Like Water for Chocolate, Blink, Man’s Search for Meaning and kid books that aren’t really for children (like Shock-Headed Peter, Swan [not Swann] in Love and the Narnia Chronicles).
Dr. King, Justice Brennan, Benjamin Franklin, Charlie Chaplin, Mae West, Dan the Man, and my Mom.