People interest me, I suppose that is why I study anthropology and continue to travel. I have friends from all over the world and everytime I meet someone from a place I haven't been, I am enticed to let the winds blow me that direction. I love writing, someday I will publish a book or two. Reading goes hand in hand with writing. Music has always been an important part of my life. Dancing has recently caught my attention. My friends and family. Decaying with dignity.
I don't really have desires to meet celebrities or any of that. I'm always up for meeting good looking interesting girls. Then, I have this strong desire to meet characters from original stories. There are a wide arrange of these people I'd like to meet. Joby from Sometimes a Great Notion, Ivan from The Bros. K., and the list could continue but it won't. Someone needs to make a breakthrough in actually creating the machine that Mycroft creates in Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair.
Music with the beats, grooves, jives, crescendos, breaks, and riffs that cause your body to move without reason just because it feels so good. Music that changes the way you feel, you know, the song so good it sends tingles throughout your body and you feel a tiny bit weaker, a little bit more vunerable than before the song started. Yet, you're stronger because you've encountered something closer to genious. Music that tells the aristocrats of the world to fuck off. Music that puts the most off beat out of key sounds together and makes them sound melodic. Bum di bum da boom.
I go for movies with some intellect behind them. Movies that cause you to think to understand them whether they be comedic, serious, or full of guns and explosions. I want to see a well thought through story that is carried out onto the screen in a way that causes me to take a step back, put my hand to my chin, let out a whisp of air with the sand of huh, and just stay there for a moment in contemplation. Every now and then I'll go for you stupid comedy with the slapstick hooks but even those require a skill that not all have. Films from filmmakers that actually care about the integrity of the screen, not those bastards out in Hollywood filling theatres with garbage because they know they'll bring in the crowds and drain them of their cash money bitches.
Let's be honest with ourselves only two shows deserve mentioning on anyone's list: Seinfeld and Fawlty Tours. 'Nuff Said.
Let the list begin... The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, and The Devils by Fyodor Dostoyevsky; The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday, and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck; La casa de los espiritus y Los cuentos de Eva Luna de Isabel Allende; Aura de Carlos Fuentes; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey; On the Road by Jack Kerouac; Howl by Allen Ginsberg; Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer; The Republic by Plato; Buzkashi by G. Whitney Azoy; PoesÃa de Pablo Neruda; Poetry of Sherman Alexie; A Farewall to Arms, The Sun Also Rises, and The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway; Short Stories of Ray Bradbury; The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien; The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis; The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde; Wuthering Heights by Emily Brönte; Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas; The Hamlet, Intruder in the Dust, The Sound and the Fury, Absalom, Absalom!, and Down Goes Moses! by William Faulkner; Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and everything else by William Shakespeare; The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas; All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren; Don Durito de la Lacandona de Subcomandante Marcos; Gubi Amaya de Juana Manuela Gorriti; The Rebel by Albert Camus .... do you want me to stop.... good.
This one goes out to people who change the world and I aspire to follow Ghandi for skeletizing himself to fight British Imperialism and corruption, Martin Luther King Jr. for having a dream, Cesar Chavez who organized farm workers into unions that actually put the rich slightly in their place, Rigoberta Menchu for daring to speak up, the EZLN and Subcomandante Marcos keep offering the world a refreshing hope of change, Che Guevara the model for revolutionaries and the inspiration for the EZLN and countless others. All the eProps I could possibly give out (which is infinite) go to John who always keeps me straight and not caught up in the ebb and flow of the bullshit world, for being different and himself always, Howard who knows how to dress like a metrosexual and still get chicks, I still haven't figured it out. I gotta give my regards to Mason whose got the best nickname in the world and teaches me to face my fears of caring about what others think, Jacob for head banging with me to "Broken Face" in Big Blue at 2:00 am on Main Street everytime I hit up the home town, "Nicho" for being some sort of guru listener dude, Melanie for teaching me countless things over the years, things went awry but I'll never ever regret our times together, they were the best years of my life thus far. Shout out to Ella the strongest coolest chick I know and the best sis ever, Myrtle, thanks for introducing me to Legos and getting the creativity going early on, Jean who likes to stand up and fight for her right, I wouldn't have it any other way. Down with me in Van are the Saxonater whose crazy concepts I rarely understand and are always flawed, H.Y. "to the mother fuckin'" C., ZoE an artist without pretention, "Suge" Mike whatever happened to our studio? I can't forget Scott my brother by a different mother (and father too), Fowler and Hyrum we'll hang out more, Joe Wray for battling me on the trampoline during years of low self-esteem. To everyone in Casa de Locos especially Tom, Nico, Roberto, and Sally keep the legacy alive in your own worlds. Matt and Valerie were loco as any of us, thanks for participating in two gang bangs with me. Other extranjeros include Jo, Pancho and Cente, I gotta say they got me to not fear music which I've always been able to play, just like anyone. To Ryan and Emily, gringos who taught me not to shun my gringoness and shared a couple beds with me near the end. The best Poblanos and Chilangos out there come in the ANTH pack: Doobie, Gabi, Reyna, Marisol, Yo!alli, and of course the artist Amira, I shunned love for that girl, perhaps it was a mistake. A big high five of respect goes to my dad Joel who encouraged me to always be laid back and understanding of the world around me and to follow my pasions even if they don't make any sense like building a Frank Lloyd Wright house, the other hand is reserved for my mom Jan whose cooky as a loon but in a good way that makes people always laugh and works too much but that got me to perfect everything I do and always do my best. There's a few other people I never met and probably never will who have influenced me Ken Kesey the best American writer ever, Fyodor Dosteyevsky the best writer period, Robert Zimmerman a poet if I know anything about poetry, Bobby Marley the voice of the voiceless, the Boss for singing about the heart and soul of America with a rocky stagger, John Stockton the toughest b-baller ever, what the fuck was the NBA thinking when he averaged 16 points, 14 assists, and 3 steals per game (he didn't even make the NBA 1st team!?), Jean Chrétien the ballsiest politician I've been privileged to see in action (best quote ever: "I don't know what pot is. I tink I might like to try and light up when I retire."), Salvador DalÃ, Remedios Varo, Charlie Kaufman, Sherman Alexie for doing what concientious anthropologists fail at with his writing and poetry "John Wayne's teeth! John Wayne's teeth!", and many many more.