music, film, gaming, art, auto restoration, anything that occupies my time
Professional musicians who have made it through long years of hard work and unswerving dedication, or other people that could help me learn how to make a living making music.
Also anyone who is serious about promoting and/or being a part of the local art, film, and music scene. CLEVELAND, bitches!!
I listen to all types of music, with the only stipulation being "if it's good." I generally have disdain for anything overly popular.
I'll now do the annoyingly lengthy "short list" of just a few of my favourite/most influential artists:
Arvo Part, Ulver, Opeth, Skinny Puppy, Extol, King Crimson, Nobuo Uematsu, Mike Patton, Dredg, Maudlin of the Well, Kayo Dot, Fear Factory, Steven Wilson, Porcupine Tree, Alfred Schnittke, Pat Metheny, Radiohead, Dillinger Escape Plan, Depeche Mode, Kamelot, Oldominion, VAST, Lasse Marhaug, Tool, Devin Townsend, Squarepusher, Dan Swanö, Nightingale, Yoko Kanno, Genesis, Agalloch, Deftones, Evergrey, Brazil, Miles Davis, Sting, The Police, Nothingface, Coil, Onesidezero, Coinmonster, Dmitri Shostakovich, Machine Head, Between The Buried And Me, Koji Kondo, Merzbow, The Tea Party, The Postman Syndrome, The Mars Volta, Queensrÿche, Katatonia, Diabolical Masquerade, Bill Bruford's Earthworks, Ephel Duath, Danny Elfman, Lacuna Coil, Soilwork, Coheed and Cambria, A Perfect Circle, Sage Francis, Johnny Cash, Cannibal Corpse, Pearl Jam, Duke Ellington, Don Caballero, Aphex Twin, Candiria, Anathema, Underoath, Dysrhythmia, Niyaz, Axolotl, Thrice, Tears For Fears, Enslaved, Hirokazu 'Hip' Tanaka, The Bad Plus, The Eagles, Gizmachi, At The Gates, At The Drive-In, Pedestrian Deposit, Kino, Manes, Kenji Ito, Isis, Yellow Swans, Thinking Plague, Boredoms, Bohren und der Club of Gore, Dälek, Geinoh Yamashirogumi, John Cage, and far too many more I can't think of right now and which no one is actually going to take the time to read anyway.
A similar rule to the one governing my music tastes applies here.
A few favourites are:
Akira, Fight Club, American Beauty, American History X, American Psycho, Requiem For a Dream, Pi, Dogma, anything by Hayao Miyazaki, Monty Python and the Holy Grail (also, Meaning of Life), The Nightmare Before Christmas, Super Troopers, The Usual Suspects, Shaun of the Dead, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Dune, Lost Highway (and pretty much everything else by David Lynch), and the list goes on, blah blah blah.....
I'm too damn cheap for cable, so I watch very little 'actual' TV. Plus I've got way better things to do with my time. The shows I enjoy, I watch on DVD.
"I love this show..." -- GIR:
Invader Zim, MST3K, Red Dwarf, Everwood, Twin Peaks, Cowboy Bebop, Sealab 2021, and when I am in a place with cable, I enjoy just about everything on the Discovery Channel.
A few of my favourite books/authors:
Lord of the Rings (Tolkien in general), Hitchhiker's Guide (and everything else by Douglas Adams), Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick, Stephen King, Chuck Palahniuk, Frank Herbert, William Shakespeare... anything that provokes thought.
Toby Driver, Dan Swanö, Steven Wilson, Nobuo Uematsu, Mike Patton, Devin Townsend, David Lynch