The beach on days when you least expect to go. Camping with friends. Summer nights sitting outside listening to music on the warm air. The post rain smell on warm pavement. Driving with friends and a good mix tape (not including Mair's 16-year-old angst tape...), chatting to friends for hours on the phone about nothing. The Vivs pub quiz. Warm sea water. Random days. Random memories. Music. Vogue. Supermodel days. O.C days. Spending whole days just watching films. Random bullying between friends... Alan Gilmour. Trivial Pursuit. London. Infiltrating Koko's backstage security again and again. Portobello and The Elgin. The Electric Cinema. Hand writing things. Making mix tapes and compilations for people. Red "Pants". Toby the dog. Watching Lewis get wasted and try and eat 3 tubes of pringles and 2 jars of Dolmio sauce. Papa Bell. Alternative Theatre and New Performance Practices. Laughing for hours at each other laughing. Charlotte "the racist" Burns.
Argh - so many to name but I'll try! Usually anything by Saddlecreek: Bright eyes, The Good life, Cursive, Azure ray, Rilo Kiley, Broken spindles, Now it's overhead, Criteria, Maria Taylor, Two Gallants, Britt Daniel, The Faint etc etc. Alongside this - at the moment it's The Decemberists, The Beatles, Jack Johnson, Postal Service, The Shins, Coldplay, Joy Division, Radiohead, The Foo Fighters, The Scissor Sisters, Clap your hands say yeah, We are scientists, Red Hot Chili peppers, Nico and the velvet underground, Otis Redding, Marvin Gaye, Arcade Fire, Muse, Razorlight, The Libertines, Maroon 5, The Killers, Amiee Mann, No Doubt, Joanna Newsom, Kelly Clarkson, Miles Davies, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Nina Nastasia, Blondie, José Gonzaléz, Bob Dylan, Bobby Womack, Parliament, Don Gardner, The Buzzcocks, The Cat Empire, Carrie Tree, Damien Rice, The Clash, The Wildhearts, The coral, Desaparecidos, The distillers, Faithless, Franz Ferdinand, Sinatra, Godspeed you black emperor, Incubus, The Jam, Jeff Buckley, John Martyn, John Mayer, Mad caddies, Reuben, Nick Drake, The Pixies, The Ramones, Regina Spektor, Sufjan Stevens, The Yeah yeah yeahs, Rufus Wainwright, Shakira, Skunk Anansie, The Specials, The strokes, Death cab for cutie, Tom McRae, The Undertones, The White Stripes, Bloc Party, Forward Russia!, Antony and The Johnsons, Rufus Wainwright, Blondie, Maximo Park, The Rakes, The Smiths, Interpol, The Beach Boys, Bowie, Rancid, Feist, The Kills, The Stones, The Kinks to name but a few (Phew!) (Also... Speaking of Losers...)
Right, well... now this is difficult... Obviously anything Burton (even including Planet of the apes) The Nightmare Before Christmas, Big Fish, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride, Charlie and the chocolate factory, Beetlejuice, Batman, Batman returns, Fight club, Magnolia, Boogie Nights, Punch drunk love, The Royal Tennenbaums, Bottle Rocket, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Monkeybone, Bubba Ho-tep, Dog Day Afternoon, Raging Bull, Mean Streets, Casino, Goodfellas, The Godfather parts 1 & 2, The Graduate, The Pink Panther (the Sellers version obviously), The Shining, Labyrinth, The Edukators, I love anything by Michel Gondry: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind, Tiny, One day ("Papa, J'Accuse!"), Three Dead People, I've already decided that 'The science of sleep' is going to be aces, Akira, Gilliam's Brazil, Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas, Heat, Gilda, The Maltese Falcon, Full Metal Jacket, Scarface (Both the De Palma and the Cagney versions), Anchorman, Dodgeball, Zoolander, The Breakfast Club, The Sweetest Thing, An affair to remember, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill vol 2, Superman 1 & 2, Battle Royale, Audition, North by Northwest, Chinatown, L.A. Confidential, Vertigo, Rear Window, The Third Man, M, Metropolis, The Evil Dead trilogy (specifically three), Harvey, It's a Wonderful Life, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, It happened one night, Heathers, The Odd Couple, RAN, Elizabeth, Adaptation, Being John Malcovich, Danerous Liasions, Blow, Girl Interrupted, The usual suspects, Casablanca, Psycho (Hitchcock version), One Flew over the cuckoo's nest, The Star Wars Trilogy (Episodes 4 - 6), Taxi Driver, To kill a mocking bird, Apocalypse now (Redux version), Léon, Se7en, Requiem for a Dream, PI, Das Boot, The Pianist, Double Idemnity, On the Waterfront, The Goonies, Cinema Paridiso, The Big Sleep, Eraserhead, Mullholland drive, The Dark Crystal, The Princess Bride, Lola Rennt, The Deer Hunter, The Philadelphia Story and High Society, Y Tu Mamma Tambien, Stand by me, Nosferatu, Festen, Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari, The Converstaion... I could go on... I love film! Although, I have just seen Pans Labyrinth and The departed (blatently the best films of 2006... I dare you to find two better!) Also - go and see "Black Christmas"... brilliant.
The O.C, Spaced, Brass eye, The day today, Big Train, Monty Python's flying circus, Sex and the city, America's next model (tacky but oh so good... Hilary understands the love!), WONDERSHOWZEN ("Pills, pills, pills... Death's Design"), Shameless, The mighty Boosh ("I'm old Greg..."), Hustle, Pride and Prejudice, Beauty and the Geek, C.S.I, The Office, Nip/Tuck, Tom Green (in doses), Dirty Sanchez (in doses...), Smallville, Old school tv shows (i.e. Fun house, Knightmare, The Biz, The Crystal Maze etc etc).
Again, so many to name... Novel-wise: 1984 (Orwell), Down and out in London and Paris (Orwell), The Bell Jar (Plath), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Thompson), Vanity Fair (Thackeray), Steppenwolf (Hesse), The Master and Margarita (Bulgakov), Wuthering Heights (Bronte), Jane Eyre (Bronte), Cat's Cradle (Vonnegurt), The Woman in White (Collins), The Moonstone (Collins), Pride and Prejudice (Austen), One hundred years of solitude (Marquez), Adolf Hitler: my part in his downfall (Milligan), The Cloud Atlas (Mitchell), For Esme - With Love and Squalor (Salinger), Catcher in the Rye (Salinger), To Kill a mockingbird (Lee), Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky), Gods and Monsters (Biskind), Plays: Pitchfork Disney (Ridley), The Mercy Seat (LaBute), The Lover (Pinter), The Dwarves (Pinter), The Threepenny Opera (Brecht), Mother Courage and her children (Brecht), Waiting for Godot (Beckett), Endgame (Beckett), King Lear (Shakespeare), Hamlet (Shakespeare), Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare), Titus Andronicus (Shakespeare), MacBeth (Shakespeare), Dr Faustus (Marlowe), The Jew of Malta (Marlowe), The Revengers Tragedy (Anon), The White Devil (Webster), Huis Clos (Satre)