My tastes are rather catholic will a small "c" and are likely to include early 80's california post-punk scene: Wall of Voodoo, X, the same generation over the water, so Gang of Four, the Pop Group, 23 Skidoo. I also freely admit to being in the thrall of early 80s synthpop, the more Teutonic stylings the better: early Ultravox! when the still had an exclamation mark and John Foxx, Simple Minds during their motorik, krautrock phase, even OMD sometimes. Also Virna Lindt, Cristina, everything Wire ever did or will ever do, Rheostatics, Sparklehorse, Thin White Rope, Big Sand, No-Wave, all the Postcard bands (think Scotland early 80's Byrds-inspired by way of punk and Zappa); used to love Age of Chance, still love Lloyd Cole, Lilac Time, Close Lobsters. On a funky tip it has to be Slab, Coil, Bourbonese Qualk and for something very noisy then Merzbow, Whitehouse. More recent likes include Four Tet, Squarepusher and New Young Pony Club.
The first 8 minutes of "Amateur" - do you want more? The House of Love - Shine On - freakin' marvellous House of Love again with "Christine" - angelic object width="425" height="350" The Shop Assistants - it's great to be eighteen again Edinburgh pop at its most resplendent - Goodbye Mr Mackenzie
Ponderous and slow with a minimum of plot (maybe I'm easily confused) so Wings of Desire, Europa Europa, Picnic at Hanging Rock, the American Friend, Aguirre: Wrath of God, any Peter Greenaway apart from the appalling "The Falls" and the very dubious "Baby of Macon"; on a more mainstream note Breathless, all Hal Hartly films, especially Amateur, Trust and anything with Elina Lowensohn, Kevin Spacey or Jeff Bridges. Did I mention Spirited Away? Some reviews of my favourite celluloid: Close My Eyes
I don't have time to watch it but it is usually to watch Ski Sunday.
"On A Winter's Night a Traveller" is my fave, followed by all other Italo Calvino; Umberto Eco especially "Foucault's Pendulum"; "Tristram Shandy" by Laurence Sterne outdoing James Joyce by two hundred years; PJ O'Rourke for laughs, Alain de Botton is highly questionable, Conrad for brevity
No more heroes anymore....apart from my daughter who is a heroine.