Music. I can't play anything, but I can sing. Reasonably, anyway. And I like to write lyrics, some of which have made appearances in my plays. There's one that I like especially involving a sort of Marlene Dietrich take on a banana. I love singer songwriters: anyone who can tell me a good story can win me over in about three seconds flat. Bob Dylan, of course, falls deep into my early experience of this category. I love Tom Waits, Iron & Wine, The Be Good Tanyas, The Mountain Goats, Peter Mulvey, Micah P. Hinson, and about a million other people. Musicians are probably more influential on my writing than anyone else.Theatre. I spent half of my teenage years sitting on the floor of the Boise public library, reading through the filing cabinet that contained the plays. I write plays still - they've been produced in random places all over the country. I love Theatre Complicite, if that gives you any idea. I like theatrical stuff. That doesn't mean I don't like naturalism, but theatre that is trying to be TV is not my thing. I like stuff that can only happen onstage. That's why theatre rocks. I also like weird cabaret. My real dream is to be part of a cabaret trio, singing strange little comedic songs and speaking in percussive accents. What can I say?Books. Anyone who can really write. I like people ranging from George Saunders, Lidia Davis and Angela Carter to Sam Shepard. The thing I like best is creative use of language, and not only that, but playing with the language. In my own writing, I find myself rhyming (sometimes to the aggravation of other people)I like to sew. I like to make my own weird clothes. Like to paint walls. Tattoos. I have three and no doubt will soon have more. Cooking. All the time. I like to throw things into pots and see what happens. Basically, that's how I live my whole life, writing included.
I'd like to meet:
William Shakespeare. Whoever he really was, he was brilliant. Also, new friends of all kinds, because I sit too often in my basement office making friends with the characters in my head, and ultimately, that doesn't work when you want to have a dinner party. Iconoclasts. That's what I like best. Also anecdotalists. Charm. Wit and a wicked sense of humor. Also: anyone who plays great music. By this, I mean, anyone who plays anything on my list to the left, or anyone who has their own story, sound and can rock a harmonica. I'm a music junkie. Even better if you can come to my house for the abovenoted dinner party, and allow me to sing harmony, which is all I can really do in that vein. If you got a random friend request from me, it's because I think you have great taste in either music or books, or because you have some life philosophy listed that appeals to me. I'm not adding at random. I'm adding people I'd like to have in my life, and in the group who've read my book. I like hearing from you, too. Nothing makes me happier than communication.
Music:
Tom Waits, Tom Waits, Tom Waits. The Mountain Goats, The Willard Grant Conspiracy (that should cover the grizzle-voiced guy category), Josh Ritter, from my homestate of Idaho, and thoroughly excellent too,The Magnetic Fields. Radio Citizen. Planningtorock (I wanna Bite you, a cannibal ballad, who doesn't love this?). Will Oldham (that song about fucking a mountain simply gets me where I live), the completely fantastic Micah P. Hinson, Michael the Blind, Joshua Radin, Edith Frost, The National, The Rosebuds, Shelley Short, Doveman, Reuben's Accomplice, Tracy Grammer and Dave Carter, Iron and Wine, KT Tunsdall, Feist, Joanna Newsom, Ryan Adams, Willie Nelson = forever, Johnny Cash, Matisyahu, Joni Mitchell, k.d.lang's Hymns to the 39th Parallel, and the occasional bout of Prince, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, EastMountainSouth, Damien Rice, Robert Johnson, Patty Griffin, Lyle Lovett, Kris Delmhorst, Peter Mulvey, Jeffrey Foucault (and all three of the previous together: Redbird), Chris Smither, Lambert Hendricks and Ross and about a million more.
Movies:
I have no memory for favorite movies, so I have to be forgiven for the fact that I can only remember the last few things I've seen. 8 1/2 - Fellini, Garden State, Walk the Line, Marat/Sade - the film of the Peter Brook production, The Quiet American (my husband was cowriter on that one, but I would've loved it anyway), anything with Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin. Anything. Capote, and anything with Philip Seymour Hoffman, early Hal Hartley stuff, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and all other Charlie Kaufman -script genius, anything Coen Brothers, can't think of anything else. Though I adore movies and see tons of them, I'm an amnesiac.
Television:
The Wire. It's the best thing I've ever seen on TV. A novel in TV form. Brilliant.
Books:
THE YEAR OF YES - yeah, I know, it's immodest, but I wrote it and it's my first baby, Joseph Mitchell, all of it, and if you don't know Joseph Mitchell, you should pick him up right now, anything by Michael Chabon, The Tender Bar by JR Moehringer, anything by Lorrie Moore, How to Breathe Underwater - Julie Orringer, Speak, Memory - Nabokov, Sonnets to Orpheus - Rilke, anything by Sam Shepard. I love his short stories especially. Tom Stoppard. I love Tom Stoppard. Why? Because Tom Stoppard loves language, and anyone who loves language is a friend of mine. Anything by Alice Munro, Shakespeare, all of him, FALLING THROUGH THE EARTH by Danielle Trussoni, I AM NOT MYSELF THESE DAYS by Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Tin House magazine, Susie Bright, Bulfinch's Mythology, A Wrinkle in Time, and that whole series by Madeleine L'Engle - those are books I wish I'd written, Leaves of Grass, What the Living Do by Marie Howe, Night Journey by Murad Kalam, and Murad's upcoming book which I'll say nothing about, just that when it comes out, you must immediately read it; it's brilliant - www.muradkalam.com, anything by Alec Wilkinson - New Yorker personality profile writer, Marguerite Duras - anything, but especially The North China Lover and Writing, Matthew Power -a journalist/essayist/genius friend of mine whose writing is endlessly fabulous and can be found at www.matthewpower.net, George Saunders' CivilWarland in Bad Decline, Donald Barthelme, Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale, David Mitchell's Black Swan Green and Cloud Atlas, Peter Orner's The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo, Steve Almond, Robert Schenkkan's The Kentucky Cycle,as well as anything else he's ever written, Alice Munro, Lydia Davis, Mary Gaitskill, Dorothy Parker, anything by Brian K. Vaughan, who yes, I also know, but that's immaterial. He's a hell of a writer, and Y the Last Man gives me joy. (along with plenty of other people - Brian is basically a rockstar and has fans from all sectors of the universe. When I get to count Michael Chabon as one of MY fans, I'll be at maximum joy - Mr. Chabon has lauded Brian publicly and repeatedly, for good reason. )
Heroes:
Anybody who gives love out without getting tangled up in their own ego and drama. Or, what the hell, people who do get tangled up, and give out their love anyway. Unconditionalists. That's who I admire. Second to love, I'll take a really kickass storyteller.
