*Since there isn't a video game section - and I don't have the HTML know-how to make one - I'll just use this space to list some of my all-time favorite games and franchises.
-Super Mario series
-Metal Gear Solid series
-Animal Crossing
-Baseball Stars
-Beetle Adventure Racing
-Beyond Good and Evil
-Bioshock
-Burnout 3
-Castlevania series
-Chrono Cross
-Contra series (sans PS1 era)
-Crash Bandicoot 2
-Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem
-Fear Effect 2
-Final Fantasy VII/VIII (Yeah, I know, bite me. That's all I've played. I'm working on it.)
-God of War I and II
-Grand Theft Auto series (from 3 on)
-Guitar Freaks
-Guitar Hero series
-Gunstar Heroes
-Ico
-Indigo Prophecy
-Katamari Damacy
-Kingdom Hearts I/II
-Klonoa series
-Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
-The Legend of Zelda series
-Mario Kart series
-Metal Slug series
-Metroid series
-Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
-Mr. Bones
-Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2
-Parappa/Lammy
-Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
-Ratchet and Clank series
-Resident Evil 4
-Rez
-Rock Band
-Rygar: The Legendary Adventure
-Shadow of the Colossus
-Silent Hill series
-Silhouette Mirage
-Sin and Punishment
-Skies of Arcadia/Legends
-Sonic the Hedgehog I/II/CD
-Space Channel 5 I/II
-SSX 3
-Tekken 3
-Tenchu series
-Tomb Raider I/II/Legend
-Twisted Metal 2/Black/Head-On
-Virtua Fighter 2/4
-You Don't Know Jack
I'm up for meeting just about anyone who is fun and at least reasonably intelligent, basically. And a special call goes out to anyone who likes Monty Python (not just Holy Grail; the TV series and the other movies as well) and Akira Kurosawa - those are the two biggest interests of mine that I have the most trouble finding people to reciprocate.
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VARIOUS RANDOM INFO:
AOL IM: "StealthMantis14"
Wii number: 6709 2187 9189 8656
Xbox Live Gamertag: StealthMantis
My DVD Collection (Click to view)
My Video Game Collection (Click to view)
My CD Collection (um, I haven't found a website for this. Any suggestions?)
I could easily quadruple this list if I listed every single band that I like, but I decided to try and condense it down to the ones I consider my actual "favorites", i.e. I've liked them for awhile, I like pretty much all of their stuff, etc. But I do shuffle in bands I'm really into at the moment and then take them out if it doesn't sustain. I also don't believe in "guilty pleasures" when it comes to music; if I like something, I like it. Damn feeling guilty about it.
-The Cure
-Red Hot Chili Peppers
-Radiohead
-Beck
-Travis
-Outkast
-Aerosmith
-The Arcade Fire
-A Tribe Called Quest
-Barenaked Ladies
-The Beastie Boys
-The Beatles
-Bloc Party
-The Bloodhound Gang
-The Cars
-Chicago
-Johnny Cash
-Leonard Cohen
-Depeche Mode
-The Dresden Dolls
-Duran Duran
-The Flaming Lips
-John Frusciante
-Green Day
-Interpol
-Billy Joel
-The Killers
-Nellie McKay
-The Magic Numbers
-The Magnetic Fields
-Modest Mouse
-Muse
-No Doubt
-Queens of the Stone Age
-Rage Agaisnt the Machine
-Spoon
-The Streets
-Travis
-TV On The Radio
-U2
-Weezer
-The White Stripes
-and many, many, many more, across all decades and genres.
So yeah, if you read my intro to my music section: similar deal here. Although I find it MUCH more difficult narrowing down the many movies I love into a manageable list of favorites. As such, I'm forever tinkering with this list. That's one of the reasons I added the addendums at the bottom (which almost never changes, except for additions).
-Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
-Swingers
-Oldboy
-High Fidelity
-12 Monkeys
-Almost Famous
-Anchorman
-Beetlejuice
-Being John Malkovich
-The Big Lebowski
-Brazil
-Chasing Amy
-Clerks
-The Departed
-Dogma
-Donnie Darko
-Drunken Master II (aka Legend of Drunken Master)
-Empire Records
-The Fifth Element
-Fight Club
-Go
-Goldfinger
-The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
-Groundhog Day
-Kill Bill
-Memento
-Monty Python's anything
-Ninja Scroll
-No Country for Old Men
-Once
-Office Space
-Pan's Labyrinth
-Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
-The Princess Bride
-Princess Mononoke
-Pulp Fiction
-Rashomon
-Seven Samurai
-Spaceballs
-Spider-Man 1-2
-Spirited Away
-Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie
-Toy Story
-The Truman Show
-Unbreakable
-Yojimbo
And here are a few writers / directors / filmmakers I'd like to make a special note of:
-Charlie Kaufmann
-Akira Kurosawa
-The Coen Brothers
-Christopher Nolan
-Jim Jarmusch
-Wes Anderson
-Judd Apatow
-Kevin Smith
-Tim Burton
-Terry Gilliam
-Quentin Tarantino
-Michel Gondry
-Sergio Leone
-Hayao Miyazaki
-Robert Rodriguez
-The PIXAR team
-Woo-ping Yuen
-I'm a big fan of early-to-mid-90's SNL alum movies (Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, Wedding Singer, Tommy Boy, Wayne's World, Austin Powers, etc) and didn't feel like listing them all.
Despite the length of this list, I don't watch much TV; I much prefer to watch a movie or play a game if I have time to kill in front of the television.
-The Simpsons
-Late Night with Conan O'Brien
-Monty Python's Flying Circus
-Aeon Flux
-Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist
-The Andy Griffith Show
-Beavis and Butt-head
-Cheers
-Ebert and Roeper At The Movies
-Everybody Loves Raymond
-Family Guy
-Firefly
-Jeopardy
-Mr. Show
-Mystery Science Theater 3000
-MXC
-The Office (both versions)
-Pop-Up Video
-Rock and Roll Jeopardy
-Seinfeld
-Star Trek: TNG
-Tom Goes to the Mayor
-Whose Line Is It Anyway? (both versions)
-Classic game shows (The Price is Right and Family Feud are my favorites)
-Any good stand-up comedy
...and anything interesting about history, nature, technology, or art.
I'm primarily a magazine reader(mainly music, movie, and video game-related, nothing trashy)
Favorite magazines:
Game Informer, Rolling Stone, and Time Out Chicago.
The last few books I've read/am reading:
Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs, Time Traveler's Wife, Nothing's Sacred, Scar Tissue, The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, Masters of Doom, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?, The Simpsons and Philosophy, and The Pythons Autobiography.
-My father
-My brother
-Conan O'Brien
-Shigeru Miyamoto
-Charlie Kaufman