music, writing, film, travel, literature, foreign language (perennial student in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, German -- and now Finnish and Polish, too), comics/graphic novels (Philippe Druillet and Robt. Williams are two favorites), art (esp. surrealist; Kay Sage, Mark Ryden, Dali, Lori Earley), cooking, football/soccer ...among other things...
Odd, creative, kinky, disgruntled, and clever miscreants; other insomniacs; those who can make me laugh; and human animals who do not make me want to kick them in the shins after five minutes of conversation with them.
Voivod, BELPHEGOR, Clutch, Motorhead, Slayer, Crisis, Neurosis, Tom Waits, Syd Barrett, Iron Maiden, Ludwig van Beethoven (esp. the Ninth!), L.O.S.T., Xavier Cafeine, Rollins Band, Shootin' Lucy, Strapping Young Lad, Aut'Chose, Sepultura, Brujeria, Killing Joke, Noir Desir, Hector Berlioz (esp. Symphonie Fantastique), Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley, Steve Earle, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Einsturzende Neubauten, Nick Cave, David Bowie, Jim Carroll Band, Danzig, Butthole Surfers, Bjork, The Cramps, King Crimson, X, UFO, Bauhaus, Billie Holiday, Elizabeth Anka Vajagic The Clash, Tool, Dead Boys, Lords of The New Church, Beck, The Cure, Frank Zappa, DOA, Thelonius Monk, Sarah Vaughn, Marianne Faithfull, The Damned, Emmylou Harris, Ray Brown, Southern Culture On The Skids, Bryan Ferry, Dead Milkmen, Judas Priest, Suicidal Tendencies, Legendary Pink Dots, John Doe, Iggy Pop, Gorillaz, White Stripes, Deadbolt, Johnny Cash, Wanda Jackson, John Spencer Blues Explosion, VanDerGraaf Generator, Edith Piaf, Misfits (NOT the Jerry Only Band, but the Misfits - *ahem*), Bathory, Diamanda Galas, Corrosion of Conformity, Finntroll (RRRAAAGGGHH!!!), John Barry (The John Barry Seven), Juliette & The Licks, The Ramones, The Pogues, Social Distortion, Fear, Supersuckers, Jarboe, Skinny Puppy... and again: f**king...BELPHEGOR.... If it's thought-provoking and odd, or thrashes your brains out - or both - I probably like it...mmm... yeah....
The Dark Backward, Blade Runner, Donnie Darko, Secretary, A Clockwork Orange, A Dirty Shame, May, La Dolce Vita (or anything Federico Fellini has ever created), Silent Running, Star Wars (the original trilogy), Ladies and Gentlemen: The Fabulous Stains, Strange Days, Roadside Prophets, The Reflecting Skin, Five Easy Pieces, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Exorcist , Hurlyburly, Very Bad Things , The Boondock Saints, Evil Dead series (esp. the 2nd one) The Matrix, Welcome to The Dollhouse, House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects, Dead Man, Down By Law - or anything Jim Jarmusch does; Fight Club, Repo Man, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, Diabolique (the original), American Beauty, Taxi Driver, Rebecca, This Is Spinal Tap, Lost In Translation, Sunset Boulevard, Hysterical Blindness, Identity, True Romance, Dr Strangelove, Shrek (yes, f**king Shrek!), Pecker, Raising Arizona, The Usual Suspects, Living Out Loud, The Sweetest Thing, Liquid Sky; Kevin Smith films (laugh... you know you want to...); exploitation films from the 50s through 80s - High School Hellcats, Beat Girl, Switchblade Sisters, The Warriors, Rock-n-Roll High School, Reform School Girls; and the Noir genre in general, especially Detour. My true guilty pleasure when it comes to movies is MST3K (Mystery Science Theatre 3000) - this absurd treatment of bad old movies makes me laugh myself silly every time ('uhh...don't say crux...')
Television is pretty much crap - so I end up watching sitcoms and cop shows just like everyone else. I do like My Name Is Earl, The Office, Law & Order: CI, Criminal Minds, Monarch of the Glen; I love Nova and Globe Trekker on PBS; and then there are Absolutely Fabulous re-runs... *bleeargh* (watching tv is like smoking pot - too much will make you stupid!)...erm... duhhh.....
authors/poets: Chuck Palahniuk---- I mean, F*CK, Chuck!!! -- 'Invisible Monsters', 'Choke', 'Lullabye'..., and let's not forget: 'Fight Club'...; Alina Reyes ('The Butcher'), Susannah Indigo ('A Red Dress Tale: La Jodida Guarra'), Darcey Steinke ('Suicide Blonde'), Alice Sebold ('The Lovely Bones'), Jane Hamilton ('The Book of Ruth'), Anne Tyler ('The Accidental Tourist'; 'Ladder of Years'), Aldous Huxley (Brave New World), William Faulkner ('The Sound and The Fury'), Margaret Atwood ('A Handmaid's Tale'); biographies/autobiographies (my favorites are those of Nancy Spungen, Frances Farmer, and Subcomandante Marcos), demonology and magick texts - Eliphas Levi, Arthur Edward Waite, Aleister Crowley, and especially Peter J. Carroll; Charles Baudelaire, Simone de Beauvoir, William Blake, Georges Bataille, Sylvia Plath, Le Marquis de Sade ("pleasure without pain is like soup without salt"), Arthur Rimbaud, e.e. cummings, Edgar Allen Poe, Philip K. Dick, bell hooks, Jim Carroll, Orson Scott Card, Elmore Leonard, Jean-Paul Sartre... lots of other stuff... the list keeps growing...
Wolverine and Spiderman...? Seriously though, I don't really have heroes, per se, but there are people I admire very much: Margaret Cho, Doris Wishman (filmmaker), Karyn Crisis, Dr Gloria Brame, Ani DiFranco, Janine Lindemulder (yes, the porn star; but my admiration is not for the reasons one might think...), Susan J and Graham B, Joan Jett......