Life and the world around me, the quirks of humanity and the glory and failing of 'civilization' (the post- industrial culural thing as opposed to the game), the mind and it's glory and failings, weird histories and secret corners. Did you know:- just post Cuban missile 'crisis', the mayor of london was to sell a ship load of old london buses (those nice red ones that the tourists like) to Cuba. The English and U.S. governments didn't like the idea (embargos' and what have you) so they arranged for a Japanese naval vessel to 'accidently' sink the ship at the mouth of the Thames, a plan which went, erm... as planned. It gets better thought - in the following weeks the buses themselves were salvaged by pumping thousands of ping-pong balls into them to give them the neccasary bouyancy to float. I'm not making this up, honest. Only in London, eh?! I like to write too, maybe too much!
My past self, my future self and the mirror image of my present self, but not all at the same time, that would just be silly.Anyone called Stephen Routley.Someone who would love me for my mind instead of for my rogue-ish good looks...
Yes, yes rewind an' come again, in a; Small Faces, Chemical Brothers, Flaming Lips, Aphex Twin, Add N to X, Herbie Hancock, Johnny Cash, Steve Riech, Mercury Rev, Orb, Triggerbox, Nick cave, Kraftwerk, Marillion, Lee Perry, Curtis Mayfield, Beastie Boys, The Who, Ennio Morricone, Animal Collective, Bjork, Nick Drake, Fields Of The Nephilim, Audio Active, Dreadzone, Art Of Noise, Julian Cope, Sugarhill Gang, Beach Boys, Transglobal Underground, Angelo Badalamenti, Ozric Tentacles, Tom Waits, Coil, Sabres Of Paradise, Spring Heel Jack, Rush, Underworld, Pablo Fantastico, Funkadelic, Vangelis, AC-DC, Coco Rosie, Mr Lif, Future Sound Of London, Jethro Tull, Micheal Nyman stylee (to name but a few). My own music is pretty damn good too, maybe I'll get some of it up here 1 day!.
I generally just buy cheap dvd's and watch them in the comfort of my own pit (and if you sit with your face REALLY close to the screen and turn the volume up too loud it's like being at the cinema anyway, and sometimes I get my neighbours kids to come round and throw popcorn at me whilst discussing who to happy slap on the way out), whilst watching movies such as Terry Gilliams' "Brazil" (one of my top 5, great tune too!), "Kill Bill" - so cool, "Tetsuo" - Jap bodyshock freakout, "Ichi The Killer" (love that 'smoking' opener!), "The Ring", "Dark Water" and Asian horror in general, anime - "Akira" fukin rox, "Ghost In The Shell", "Legend Of The Overfiend" as well as the subtleties of "Spirited Away" and the like. Gonna revert to the cold list format now... The Wicker Man, 2001 A Space Odysey, Bladerunner (directors cut only pleez), Lord Of The Rings - fuck Star Wars!, Life Of Brian, Team America, Cinema Paradiso, old skool Kung-Fu flicks (especially with nonsensical subtitles!), indy and animated shorts, (more to follow...)
Most of it's crap isn't it, I don't do soap operas (except for one and only because it obviously doesn't take itself too seriously - no, I will never tell..!), or lame daytime game shows, or celebrity reality shit, or shit in general. What I do watch is documentaries about science and technology - especially astronomy and natural history, as well as current affairs (I draw the line at Newsnight tho.) almost anything ABOUT music, and some history. I love South Park - Matt and Trey ARE genuis' - check out the 'Make Love Not Warcraft' or Lord Of The Rings inspired episodes for proof, I still like The Simpsons but it's getting a bit tired and Family Guy is better. I've got a soft spot for good celeb comedy game shows (Buzzcocks, Have I Got News, Q.I.) but not I'm not a sports fan with the exception of creative/street sports (skateboarding, bmx etc). Surreal comedy from Monty Python to League Of Gentlemen to Mighty Boosh and the stand-up of Bill Bailey and Al Murray, as well old skool laughs from Red Dwarf, Black Adder, Bottom, The Comic Strip and Looney Tunes. I do watch the news - it's good to get some perspective - but my cynical side always stops me taking it at face value.
Take some dried, pressed wood pulp, add alphabetical and numerical marks - linked by a chain of events and characters - and suddenly whole new worlds of wonder are brought into being - true magic!. For example; sci-fi and speculative fiction also the occasional fantasy, fave authors being J.G. Ballard, Ursulla LeGuinn, Ray Bradbury, J.R. Hartley (*smirk* no, Tolkien really), Ben Okri and Terry Pratchett. I regularly read Fortean Times and occasionally Bizzare magazines. I also grew up reading 2000AD (the makers of the Judge Dredd movie deserve very slow and very painful deaths) and Deadline and still read graphic novels (V For Vendetta - great film too, Maus, Gregory (cooler than fuck!), Signal To Noise, Mr. Punch) and Sandman and Books of Magic and manga.
Batman, nuff said. Sadly I had to eat Bertrand, my tortilla spirit guide, during my last trans-dimentional battle cos i got a bit hungry. Mind you, I did have a nice salsa dip to help him on his way. He died happy.