I'm a professional comic book writer who loves Hollywood money when it's thrown my way. I obsess over pop culture, sports, drink more than I should, and sleep less than I should. I live in Shawnee, Kansas, which is a nice town just outside of Kansas City. You should visit.
People ready to live.
The Beatles, Belle & Sebastian, Nick Drake, Van Morrison, the Kinks, the Stones, Wild Colonials...no way could I list all the stuff I dig. Aimee Mann, Miles Davis, Coltrane, JJ Johnson, Elliott Smith, the Buckleys, the Smiths...hell...Charlie Rich? Johnny Cash? Sinatra? Badly Drawn Boy? Waylon Jennings? The White Stripes? Spearmint? Paul Weller? The Jam? Sure...and on and on and on...
Mainly older stuff. Foreign stuff. Noir. Classic sci-fi. Seventies director-driven work. Old comedy...neo-noir...Brit crime...you know...movies.Directors: Wes Anderson (always), Robert Altman, the Coens, Lang, Hitchcock, Sturges, Wilder, Don Siegel, Kurosawa, Aldrich, Melville, Welles, Sirk (and a huge fan of Todd Haynes' Sirk homage Far From Heaven)...
Dying for the Mad Men DVD. Easily my favorite new show in forever. Both the American and (especially) the UK Office are faves. 30 Rock, natch. Love Brit comedy and crime drama. Life on Mars was an all-time favorite, and Ashes to Ashes hasn't totally sucked. The Fixer is a lot of fun. HBO does strong work, too, son.
Watership Down is probably my favorite book. As a kid I was shaped by CS Lewis, Lloyd Alexander, Hugh Lofting and the Three Investigators. Never as big on Lord of the Rings as most, the Hobbit did have a big impact.
This month, I've been reading a great overview of the satirical comic revolution of the 50s called Seriously Funny by Gerald Nachman. I'm trying to get into Gene Wolfe's The Knight, though I'm not a big fantasy/sf fan. Also reading How Soccer Explains the World by Franklin Foer, which is interesting. Exley's A Fan's Notes is waiting for me when I have time to devote to one book.
I have a special place in my heart for guys (and gals) who had it made going the easy route and in the end decided to follow their own paths. That covers everyone from Bette Davis to Mort Sahl to Merle Haggard to Arsene Wenger to the Image founders. And for my parents.