I read voraciously, I play music on my guitar (sometimes drums) and sing, I like to get out into nature (preferably waaay out) and I write, write, write with no hope of ever getting published*!
*recently had my first professional sale!**
**make that two! Hey, neat!
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (R.I.P.); Steve Martin; Bruce Campbell; Harlan Ellison; Harvey Pekar; Buddy Guy; Sherman Alexie; Ed Ricketts (too bad he's dead).
I recently got to meet Henry Rollins and that was cool. He was great to talk to.
Some other dead guys I wish I could meet are Groucho Marx, Hunter S. Thompson and Robert Mitchum.
All kinds. Some favorites:
AC/DC
Neil Young
Drive By Truckers
Black Sabbath
Iggy Pop/The Stooges
Black Flag
Robyn Hitchcock
Mudhoney
Melvins
Motorhead
Voivod
Lightnin' Hopkins
Sonny Rollins
Henry Rollins
Billie Holiday
Charlie Parker
Charley Patton
Ace Frehley
Fantomas
Slayer
John Coltrane
The Kinks
The Beatles
Rob Zombie
Tom Petty
John Lee Hooker
Sarah Vaughan
Pelican
Isis
Novembers Doom
Hawkwind
Jimi Hendrix
Alice Cooper
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones
Robert Johnson
Lonnie Johnson
Buddy Guy
Flaming Lips
Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs
The Coasters
Roky Erickson/Thirteenth Floor Elevators
Townes Van Zandt
Slim Gaillard
Merle Haggard
Son Volt
Wilco
Johnny Cash
Willie Nelson
David Allan Coe
David Lee Roth
Celtic Frost
King Diamond
The Ramones
Sub-Humans
Mace
The Accused
Forced Entry
R.L. Burnside
Mojo Nixon
Patsy Cline
MC5
Blue Cheer
Howlin' Wolf
Heart
Tom Waits
Flatt and Scruggs
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Art Blakey
Son House
Bukka White
New York Dolls
The Damned
D.O.A.
D.R.I.
Motley Crue
The Who
Bessie Smith
Big Mama Thornton
The Purdins
Bone Cellar
Gene Vincent
Dead Moon
Jesus Chords
Iron Maiden
Immortal
Sepultura
Soulfly
Cathedral
Saint Vitus
Spirit Caravan
Nebula
Fu Manchu
Corrosion of Conformity
Frank Zappa
Syd Barrett
Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Echohead
Mastodon
Spike Jones
Etta James
ZZ Top
Ornette Coleman
Rev. Gary Davis
Sly and the Family Stone
Otis Redding
The Pretty Things
The Cramps
The Pleasure Barons
Bo Diddley
Chuck Berry
Eddie Cochran
Buddy Holly
Peggy Lee
The Frogs
Nashville Pussy
Faith No More
Uncle Tupelo
Sons of the Pioneers
Finntroll
Dean Martin
Tom Jones
Demericous
Yob
Jucifer
etc...
B & W Horror movies
Early Universal Monster movies
Obscure Mexican Horror movies from the 1960's
Film Noir
Bizarre Science Fiction
Coen Brothers
George Lucas
Sam Raimi
David Cronenberg
Tim Burton
George Romero
John Carpenter
Roger Corman
Jim Jarmusch
Ed Wood
Peter Jackson
Giant Monster movies
Independents
Kung-fu
Marx Brothers
Sleazy Drive-In Exploitation films of all genres
Steve Martin (esp. The Jerk; Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid; Roxanne; Pennies From Heaven; L.A. Story; and Novacaine)
After 8 years of no tv, I've moved into a house that has a satellite hook-up...
There's still nothing on worth watching!
Well, that's not entirely true. I've become quite fond of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report - they're about the only way I can get political news without becoming nauseated.
The Henry Rollins Show is a damn fine piece of work, too.
Otherwise, television is still a wasteland...
However - here are some fondly remembered TV shows:
The Munsters
The Rockford Files
Northern Exposure
Twin Peaks
Mystery Science Theater 3000
The Muppet Show
The Flintstones
The J.P. Patches Show
Dexter's Laboratory
The Tick
Senfield
Andy Griffith Show
(Original) Saturday Night Live
I'm limiting myself to one book per author - but it's a safe bet that if these people wrote one great book then it's worth checking out other stuff by them...
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Heart of the Country - Greg Matthews
Blackburn - Bradley Denton
Already Dead - Denis Johnson
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - Philip K. Dick
The Bottoms - Joe R. Lansdale
Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury
Last Exit to Brooklyn - Hubert Selby, Jr.
I Am Legend - Richard Matheson
Salem's Lot - Stephen King
The Strange Adventures of Ranger Girl - Tim Pratt
Night and the City - Gerald Kersh
On the Road - Jack Kerouac
The Hell Screens - Alvin Lu
His Share of Glory - C.M. Kornbluth
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Mephisto In Onyx - Harlan Ellison
Hell's Angels - Hunter S. Thompson
Still Life With Woodpecker - Tom Robbins
Coyote Blue - Christopher Moore
Ficciones - Jose Luis Borges
Boy's Life - Robert R. McCammon
The Intruder - Charles Beaumont
Zod Wallop - William Browning Spencer
The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler
Flee the Angry Strangers - George Mandel
Camp Concentration - Thomas M. Disch
Henderson the Rain King - Saul Bellow
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang - Kate Wilhelm
Crash - J.G. Ballard
Stiff - Mary Roach
Dying Inside - Robert Silverberg
The Sea Wolf - Jack London
Black Spring - Henry Miller
On Stranger Tides - Tim Powers
Reservation Blues - Sherman Alexie
The Abominations of Yondo - Clark Ashton Smith
The Track of the Cat - Walter Van Tilburg Clark
Nightmare Alley - William Lindsey Gresham
Dracula - Bram Stoker
The Song of Kali - Dan Simmons
The Woman Who Cut Off Her Leg at the Maidstone Club & Other Stories - Julia Slavin
Bluebeard's Egg - Margaret Atwood
Winesburng,Ohio - Sherwood Anderson
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon
Black Angel - Cornell Woolrich
Mike Nelson's Death Rat! - Michael J. Nelson
Get In The Van - Henry Rollins
Strange Monsters of the Recent Past - Howard Waldrop
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Junky - William Burroughs
The Remaking of Sigmund Freud - Barry N. Malzberg
13 Phantasms - James P. Blaylock
We - Yevgeny Zamyatin
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
Geek Love - Katherine Dunn
The Puppet Masters - Robert Heinlein
I, Robot - Isaac Asimov
The Wrestler's Cruel Study - Stephen Dobyns
A Night in the Lonesome October - Roger Zelazny
The Shadow Over Innsmouth - H.P. Lovecraft
The Pleasure of My Company - Steve Martin
The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break - Steven Sherrill
The Mad Scientist's Club series - Bertrand R. Brinley
The Three Investigators series - Robert Arthur and various authors
Comics/Comic Strips/Graphic Novels:
Peanuts
Calvin and Hobbes
The Far Side
The Flaming Carrot
Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman
American Splendor
Our Cancer Year
Hellboy
B.P.R.D.
Infinite Kung-Fu
el Borbah
Shaolin Cowboy
Elektra: Assassin
Grimjack
Iron Man
Iron Fist
Krazy Kat
Pogo
La Perdida
Optic Nerve
Eightball
Ghost World
Conan
Madman
The Atomics
Red Rocket 7
Batman
Spider-Man
Plastic Man
The Spirit
EC's (Tales from the Crypt
Vault of Horror
Haunt of Fear
Weird Science
etc.)
Alien Legion
Berni Wrightson's stuff
Concrete
Swamp Thing
The Micronauts
Howard the Duck
Bill Sienkiewicz's stuff
Alan Moore's stuff
Chester Brown's stuff...
To echo the sentiments of my good friend, Rif - I dislike the term "Hero", also. Let's say that I respect, admire and enjoy the artistic/scientific/philosophical contributions of these people: Jim Henson; Mark Twain; Harvey Pekar; Ed Ricketts; Harlan Ellison; Vincent Price; Stan Lee; Bill Watterson; Steve Martin; and possibly the most important person who ever lived - George Washington Carver...