writing and playing music. voraciously collecting all kinds of cultural artifacts. seeking new and better ways to describe what's going on in my mind.
people who will be nice to me. people who will inspire me. people who will make me feel something, anything.
black flag, the smiths, nick drake, charles bronson, taking back sunday, jeff buckley, tear it up, the oath, neil young, sunny day real estate, buffalo tom, red house painters/sun kil moon, john coltrane, the yardbirds, the creation, rollins band, fall out boy, ride, slayer, black sabbath, and a whole ton more.
dead poet's society, texas chainsaw massacre, the burbs, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, the goonies, m, night of the living dead, psycho, beautiful girls, pump up the volume, once upon a time in the west, say anything, rabid. i'm also a big fan of horror movies in general, particularly stuff from the mid-60s to the early 80s that was made on the cheap and is much scarier than all that post-nightmare on elm street stuff that relies too much on special effects.
i typically don't watch television, but with the advent of dvd collections featuring entire seasons of particular series, i have found a few that i enjoy, specifically: the wire, the shield, lost, arrested development, mr. show, oz, six feet under, veronica mars, and deadwood. i pretty much refuse to schedule my life around any tv program, though, so i generally only see this stuff on dvd. one confession: when football season comes around, i break this personal rule in order to make sure that i catch every redskins game. think what you will of that, it's not changing.
anything by neal stephenson, especially "cryptonomicon". anything by carl hiaasen, tim dorsey, or elmore leonard. "mainlines, blood feasts, and bad taste", by lester bangs, which i favor slightly over "psychotic reactions and carburetor dung." both are great though. "fargo rock city" by chuck klosterman changed my life by reminding me that it's ok to admit my love for glam metal. it's also masterfully written. "lipstick traces" by greil marcus, "the corrections" by jonathan franzen, "drama city" and "hard revolution" by george pelecanos--and i would expect anything by him, though i haven't read most of the rest of his books. james ellroy's la quartet ("the black dahlia," "the big nowhere," "la confidential," and "white jazz"), though steer clear of his work since. f. paul wilson's repairman jack series, especially "all the rage" and "the haunted air", michael connelly's "a darkness more than night", peter straub's "mystery" and "the throat," stephen king's "it", dennis lehane's "mystic river" and "shutter island", jonathan lethem's "motherless brooklyn" and "fortress of solitude", jim derogatis's "turn on your mind", jon savage's "england's dreaming," hunter s. thompson's "the great shark hunt", tom wolfe's "a man in full" and "the bonfire of the vanities", and if i don't stop now i don't know when i ever will.
don't take this the wrong way but i don't believe in heroes. the only thing that separates me from the people who've achieved what i want in life is hard work. maybe they're more willing to do the work than me, but that speaks only of my own problems and nothing inherently great about them. all of that said, henry rollins is a personal inspiration to me, even though i'm glad i'm not him. he's sacrificed things i'd be unwilling to sacrifice.