Film, writing, photography, coffee, graphics/layout software, film, video games, hiking, biking, film, trying out new eateries, travel. Oh, and film. Notice I didn't include sitting at a desk and kissing boss ass 8-10 hours a day.
Shrub to thank him for the wars, stellar foreign policy and that super-awesome Patriot Act. Hand me some o' them freedom fries, Jeb. Laurie Anderson and David Sedaris to keep up the good work, and creative, funny, inspired people who think young, live simply and don't take themselves too seriously. In the MySpaz world, that's more than a little rare. Film worshippers need apply.
Pixies, Cocteau Twins, P.J. Harvey, Mum, The 6ths, Spiritualized, Modest Mouse, Azure Ray, Portishead, Built to Spill, Cat Power, Bikini Kill/Kathleen Hanna, Looper, Superchunk, Dead Can Dance, Reverend Horton Heat, Charles Mingus, Velvet Crush, Karl Hendricks Trio, Mogwai, Spacemen 3, Sigur Ros, Slowdive, Paul Oakenfold, New Order, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, Decoder Ring, Dwarves, Charles Mingus, ATB, Bettie Serveert, Throwing Muses, Pavement, Death Cab for Cutie, Paul Van Dyk, Bauhaus, Tribe Called Quest, The Clash, Iggy Pop/Stooges, Urge Overkill, Laurie Anderson, New Bomb Turks, Patsy Cline, Billie Holiday, Explosions in the Sky, Basement Jaxx, Seam, Sonic Youth, Ferry Corsten, Radiohead, Everything But the Girl, Hooverphonic, Underworld, Greenhorn, John Coltrane, Velvet Underground, DJ Tiesto, Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, Belle and Sebastian, Public Enemy, Ministry of Sound, The B-52's, Husker Du, Liz Phair, Telepopmusik, BT, Tom Waits, D:Fuse, Billy Bragg, Wilco, Ride, Cowboy Junkies, Cranes, English Beat, Royal Crescent Mob, Sneaker Pimps, Morcheeba... you get the idea. My appreciation is wide. Experience taught me that every genre is mostly crap, but if you're willing to sift with an open mind, you can find a gem or two anywhere.
Amelie, 2001 A Space Odessey, Barton Fink, Seven Samurai, Glengarry Glen Ross, Millers Crossing, Rope, There Will Be Blood, Orlando, Run Lola Run, Rushmore, Good Night and Good Luck, Magnolia, Being John Malkovich, Star Wars trilogy, 21 Grams, Sex Lies and Videotape, Alien, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Blade Runner (all 27 versions), Goodfellas, Throne of Blood, Topsy Turvy, Bodies Rest and Motion, Clockwork Orange, Capote, The Crying Game, The Exorcist, No Country for Old Men, Fargo, Memento, The Firm, Grease, Hilary and Jackie, Immortal Beloved, LOTR Trilogy, Psycho, Notorious, La Femme Nikita, Saving Private Ryan, The Shining, Dr. Strangelove, Slience of the Lambs, Three Colors trilogy, The Usual Suspects, Garden State, The Virgin Suicides, Witness, The Big Kahuna, Chicago.... the list goes on for a lifetime.
TV is embarrasingly awful, but like anything else there are always a few specks of gold in the mud, even if most of it is in syndication: Six Feet Under, Law and Order (the original), Rome, Dead Like Me, Seinfeld, Simpsons, Ab Fab, Sopranos, Oz, Band of Brothers, Taken, Alias, Arrested Development, The Office (BBC version), The Young Ones, Good Eats, West Wing, Carnivale...Reality TV, on the other hand, is something we'll have to explain to our grandkids one day. Chew on that.
Pretty much anything by David Sedaris (though the audio books, read by him, are even better). The Powers that Be by David Halberstam. Re-reading Hesse's Siddartha. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Filth by Irvine Welsh. Boys on the Bus by Timothy Crouse. Cosmos by Carl Sagan. Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, for the fifth time.
Former prez Jimmy Carter --Nobel peace prize winner, and the most active, productive and honest public servant of my lifetime. He may have been an ineffective president, but he walks the walk. Also, my mother. More strength than mothers are supposed to have, I think.