Movies and movies, good music, the comic book medium, popular culture, social and world affairs, East Asian cuisine; engaging in the fine craft of film-making, or just spending idle time on my ass watching DVD's. I'm the Indiana Jones of "pop culture archeology". That's digging up obscure film and music-related artifacts from all over the world, past and present ... except that I don't get to fight Nazis.
1) Down-to-earth, broad-minded, and profound folks. In other words: Cool people. REAL people. I admire individualists. Conformity is for sheep (but I won't judge you if you're one of 'em!). 2) Anyone who's got a passion for the arts and entertainment, pop culture and other things that make life worth living ... because entertainment is part of the human condition. 3) Aliens. Cosmic entities. Extra-terrestrials. Little gray men. Martians. Vulcans ... because I want to know for an absolute fact that there's more to life and the universe than just this mud-ball we live on.
I can't live without sonic stimulation. My true pleasure lies in all manner of PUNK ROCK, such as: straight-up Punk and Hardcore, Post-Punk, Post-Hardcore, Noise Rock, New Wave, Garage Punk, and classic Deathrock/Gothic.70's Glam Rock, Doom Metal/Sludge/Stoner Rock, Dream Pop/Shoegaze, Electronic, Funk, old-school Hip-Hop/Rap, Indie, and Roots Reggae also turn me on.MISSION OF BURMA and VOLCANO SUNS changed my life.My self-indulgent list of other favorite bands/artists (bear with me, I'm having fun with this):999, Adam and The Ants, Bauhaus, Big Black, Black Flag, The Chameleons, The Clash, David Bowie, Echo and The Bunnymen, Fugazi, Funkadelic/Parliament, Gang of Four, Husker Du, Iggy Pop/The Stooges, The Jesus Lizard, Joy Division, Lee "Scratch" Perry/The Upsetters Legal Weapon, Minor Threat, Motorhead, Moving Targets, My Bloody Valentine, Naked Raygun, Public Enemy, Rites of Spring, Roxy Music, Siouxsie and The Banshees, The Smiths, Stiff Little Fingers, T.S.O.L, early U2, Wire, nearly all bands under Dischord Records.On heavy rotation:45 Grave, Bl'ast, Black Market Baby, Boris, Career Suicide, Coliseum, early Corrosion of Conformity, The Departure, Discharge, Electric Wizard, Envy, Government Issue, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, The Holy Mountain, Kraut, Really Red, Red Scare, SS Decontrol, Talk is Poison, To What End?
I can't live without cinematic stimulation. Here are my top 40 faves (again, I'm having fun with this):Audition, Blade Runner, Blue Velvet, Chushingura, Contempt, Cure, Dune, Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, Fallen Angels, Flash Gordon (1980), The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Grave of the Fireflies, Hana-Bi (aka Fireworks), Hard-Boiled, Heat, High and Low, The Hunger, The Insider, The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Laura, Le Samourai, the Lone Wolf and Cub series, The Long Goodbye, Manhunter, Metropolis (1926), Mulholland Drive, Napoleon, Once Upon a Time in America, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Right Stuff, The Road Warrior, Sansho the Bailiff & Ugetsu, Seven Samurai, Sonatine & Violent Cop, Spartacus (1960), Storm Over Asia, The Straight Story, Thief, The Wild Bunch. Yeah, I'm into a lot of that arty and cult stuff, but I don't consider myself a film snob (I'm a sucker for classic B-movies, old-school kung-fu flicks and spaghetti westerns ... so the connoisseurs can kiss my ass!).
To me, TWIN PEAKS is the be all and end all. These other shows also truly matter(ed): Cowboy Bebop, Heroes, Prison Break, The Singing Detective (BBC), and Lost. Honorable mention: Angel & Buffy, Crime Story & Miami Vice (no shit!), CSI, and classic Transformers.
George Orwell's 1984 takes the cake, because it's just as relevant now as it's ever been. Alan Moore's V FOR VENDETTA is its graphic novel equal. They're both masterpieces, and required reading in these troubling times. Plus, I bury myself in anything by Charles Bukowski, James Ellroy, Haruki Murakami, and Andrew Vachss. Brian Azzerello (100 Bullets), Bendis! (Goldfish), Warren Ellis (Global Frequency), Garth Ennis (Preacher), Alan Moore, and Grant Morrison (The Filth) rock my graphic literature world (that's comic books, you literary snoots). George Hurchalla's GOING UNDERGROUND and Simon Reynold's RIP IT UP AND START AGAIN are two books on the subject of DIY/punk music that I can read over and over again obsessively.
Filmmakers: Akira Kurosawa, Sergio Leone, David Lynch, and Michael Mann. Rock 'n' roll: David Bowie, Ian MacKaye, Ian Curtis, and Joe Strummer. Screen icons: Chow Yun-Fat, Clint Eastwood, Toshiro Mifune, and Clive Owen. Real-life: Mom and my late step-dad. I'm all that I am because of them.