Reading. Writing/editing: Eliminate unnecessary words! Politics, even though it means enduring demented crypto-Nazis trotting out their stupidity. Lifestyle alternatives to the "acquisitive fever that agitates mankind." Finding a cure for war.
Television and automobile boycotters; non-conformists and non-Republicans. People who live by their wits, especially in bizarre places like New York City. People who believe Earth is not a disposable planet.
Anything with lyrics by Lorenz Hart. Anything performed by Lee Wiley. Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. 'In the Wee Small Hours' by some guy from Hoboken. In fact, almost anything from 1920's-40's. As Bob Hoskins says to Cathy Tyson in 'Mona Lisa' -- "Like in the songs..."
Too many to list -- movies for grown-ups, with sharp scripts and fine acting.
The Honeymooners; Taxi; Hill Street Blues; The Simpsons; Thirtysomething; Days and Nights of Molly Dodd (NBC episodes); Northern Exposure; My So-Called Life; Once and Again. Shot and killed my TV set when Wonderfalls was cancelled and replaced with a Survivor-clone.
L.A. writers: Charles Bukowski, Raymond Chandler, Cynthia Heimel, Robert Towne, Jack Smith. Crime fiction: George Pelecanos, Ed McBain, Michael Connolly, many others. Evelyn Waugh. F. Scott Fitzgerald. "Charmed Thirds" (and everything else) by Megan McCafferty. "This Book Will Save Your Life" by A.M. Homes. "Smashed" by Koren Zailckas. "Special Topics in Calamity Physics" by Marisha Pessl.
All the great movie originals, but especially Spencer Tracy, Humphrey Bogart, and James Cagney. Unconventional thinkers, like Carl Sagan and Steven D. Levitt.