Once, back in Iowa, I started walking down some train tracks that ran through my campus; I kept walking for the whole day, stopping only to take a nap and eat a lunch I'd packed for myself. I didn't meet anyone nor did any trains come by. I'm interested in getting back there. I think I'd like that. I think that'd be nice.
P.T. Anderson, As Calvin once mused: The first person to milk a cow, and by extension, Bill Waterson. Robertson Davies, Mark Helprin, Neil Finn, Weird Al, Woody Allen, Chekhov, Neal Casal. Oh, and Chomsky, Noam Chomsky.
Neal Casal, Red House Painters/Sun Kil Moon, The Arcade Fire, The Flaming Lips, Nick Cave&theBadSeeds, Low, Son Volt, Wilco, Van Morrison, Ryan Adams, Modest Mouse, Tom Waits, Tool, Wolf Parade, The Wrens, Band of Horses, Neko Case, Sufjan Stevens, The New Pornographers, My Bloody Valentine, The Broken Family Band, Spoon, The Hold Steady, The Decemberists, The National and More The National and then even MORE The National.
Lost in Translation, Magnolia, The Princess Bride, Before Sunset, Beauty and the Beast, Fight Club, The English Patient, Sideways, The Big Lebowski, Barton Fink, Infernal Affairs, make room for When Harry Met Sally, confess a perverted fascination with anime, My Summer of LoveNever "romcoms", never "franchises", never "weepers", and never, ever, never "Adam Sandler vehicles" (Punch Drunk Love doesn't count).
The Wire, Deadwood, The Daily Show, Carnivale, Wonder Years, Da Ali G Show, Battlestar Galactica, Veronica Mars, Family Guy, Six Feet Under, Wonder Showzen, The Office (the Import)...Arrested Development, however, eclipses these all. With all due respect, I say this with confidence: Arrested Development.
Winter's Tale or Soldier of the Great War or ANYTHING by Mark Helprin, What's Bred in the Bone or Fifth Business or ANYTHING by Robertson Davies, Calvin&Hobbes, Skinny Legs and All, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold or Smiley's People or ANYTHING by John LeCarre, Three Sisters, Griffin&Sabin, The Fountainhead, Brian Jaques, The Power and the Glory
Jon Stewart. Cuz' he's distinguished, bright, witty, as tall as I am, and would rather laugh than cry.