Hindu mysticism and literature, Kali worship, Bharatanatyam, temple dance, Southeast Asian embroidery, the theremin--I play it, Louis Wain, thugee, sati (ritual wife burning), hijras (look it up), Matthew Barney, Joel-Peter Witkin, Gustav Meyrink, Julius Evola, the Grand Guignol, Bollywood, wabi-sabi, foot binding, Asian shadow puppets, Mark Ryden, James Turrell, light sculpting, Conflicto, Indian writers, devadasis, decadents, Mata Hari, PURE Magazine, Oleg Micheyev, Stephane Lord, violet wands, CBT, electrical play, female supremacy, squids, somnambulists, silent films, Victorian mourning jewelry and hair jewelry, cerebral debauchery, stregha, vintage erotica, insect shadowboxes, my 1963 Mercedes-Benz "The Black Dahlia", my 1993 Mercedes Benz "Cleopatra Jones" (please feel free to hate me because I own two Benzes), Kiki de Montparnasse, true crime, Man Ray, and a bunch of other people you've never heard of because you've been sitting in front of your telly for years
I'd like to meet:
dandies; other crazy cat ladies; people living in the wrong time; the inventor of Superglue
Music:
Rasa, Autechre, MIDIval Punditz, Devics, Dead Can Dance, Jill Tracy, Alchemical Burn, Download, Rasputina, Coil, Banco de Gaia, Clare Fader, Chris and Cosey, Lamb, Nurse with Wound, Hooverphonic, Angels of Light, Prem Joshua, Plaid, Snake River Conspiracy, Project Pitchfork, Thievery Corporation, Skinny Puppy, Pathaan, Trapped in Amber, Lumin, OhGr, Bauhaus, Peter Murphy, Plateau, Karsh Kale, DJ Cheb I Sabbah, Calexico, The Tigerlillies, Talvin Singh, Vas, Merzbow, Nitin Sawhney, Wendy Carlos, the Kronos Quartet, Intermix, In The Nursery, Legendary Pink Dots, Wolfsheim, Ataraxia, Alloy Orchestra, Orbital, Jean Michel Jarre, Tricky, My Bloody Valentine, Sheila Chandra, Meat Beat Manifesto, Boards of Canada, Future Sound of London, Natacha Atlas, Mazzy Star, Tom Lehrer, Raymond Scott, the cacophany of my ten cats meowing ; ) Willie Nelson was at my high school graduation since his granddaughter was in my graduating class. We partied like hell that night at his massive ranch in Drippin' Springs. Ahhh...good times.
Movies:
Preaching to the Perverted, Kama Sutra, Uzumaki, Immortel ad Vitam just for its looks, V for Vendetta, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, A Zed and Two Naughts, Bound, Goya, Quills, Monsoon Wedding, Happiness, Full Metal Jacket, Parkeeza, Little Otik, Faust, The Devil is a Woman, Sunset Boulevard, all Tim Burton, Coen Brothers and Peter Greenaway films, Pollock, Nekromantik, Bollywood films, and anything else that intrigues me. Oh, and they're making a film version of the book Perfume by Patrick Susskind, but I doubt I'll see it since I enjoy the visions that the novel conjured up in my head far more.
Television:
was the beginning of the decline of America
"When television became popular, Americans went inside their homes and never came out." --Unknown
Books:
The Age of Kali, The God of Small Things, Maldoror, Shantaram, Foucault's Pendulum, And the Ass Saw the Angel (by Nick Cave), Shalimar the Clown, Paradoxia, Turn off Your Mind, A Rebours, Perfume, Fantazius Mallare, The Death of Vishnu, Snake, Sarah, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, The Hellfire Club, Swimming Underground, Bombay Time, Journey to the End of the Night, A Fine Balance, Jitterbug Perfume, Fasting Girls, Voodoo Dreams: A Novel of Marie Laveau, Talking to the Dead, The Book of Revelation (by Rupert Thomson), Rule of the Bone, Voluptuous Panic, The Golem, Karma Cola, The Tree Bride, Cracking India, Once Was Bombay, Autobiography of a Yogi (by Paramahamsa Yogananada), anything by T.S. Eliot, Arundhati Roy, Gita Mehta, Rohinton Mistry, V. S. Naipal, Jhumpa Lahiri, Madhur Jaffrey, William Dalyrimple, Karen Finley, Angela Carter, Talbot Mundy, Julius Evola, JK Huysmans, Salman Rushdie, Augusten Burroughs
Heroes:
Marchesa Luisa Casati, Marlene Dietrich, Mary Woronov, Lydia Lunch (I once told her that and she hugged me), Phoolan Devi (India's Bandit Queen), Thenmuli Rajaratnam aka Dhanu, and my beloved mother. I'm both fascinated by Indira Gandhi and horrified by her at the same time. It's rather perverse. And no, she wasn't Mahatma Gandhi's daughter, she was Nehru's daughter who just happened to marry someone whose last name was Gandhi. Weird, eh.
