my mental collection of 18-wheeler mudflaps, dogs, crumbling industrial vistas, dirt, drinking in cruddy bars in the daytime, Noxema, sleeping pills, Pocky, nickels, alley-picking, dumpster-diving, salt, pepper
ass-kickers John G. Held Jr., Ivan Albright, and mmm-mmm-Martin Landau
Ivie Anderson, The Spaniels, Johnny Adams, Charlie and Margaret Ann Rich, The Band, Edgar Meyer, Oscar Brown Jr., Bobby Darin, Lowell George, Ronnie Tutt, Vic Chesnutt, Duke Ellington, Venom, Dave Frishberg, The Platters, Scott and Chris Ligon, Fran Landesman, Georgie Fame, Rose Murphy the Chee-Chee Girl, Jackie Wilson, Scott Walker, The Minutemen, Andy Bey and the Bey Sisters, Stuff Smith, Blossom Dearie, The Everly Brothers, Sam Cooke, Bob Dorough, Walter Jackson, Lonnie Mack's Memphis Wham, Johnny Frigo, Sheila Jordan, Vernon Oxford, Nick Lowe, Harry Nilsson, The Chowder Shouters, Randy Newman, Peter "Snake Hips" Dean, Hazel Dickens, Johnny Costa, Annie Ross, Glyn Styler, Spanky and Our Gang -- that's right, I said Spanky and Our Gang.
anything with Edgar Kennedy or William Powell, or Alfred Molina for that matter, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Miller's Crossing, Fat City, The Thin Man, Paper Moon, The (original) In-Laws, The (original) Bad News Bears, Smokey and The Bandit or Overboard or Little Darlings when I'm hungover, Rushmore, Bubble, Naked, God of Cookery, Tomorrow, Harold and Maude, Diva, Broadcast News, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, The Killing, The (original) Haunting, Elvis: That's the Way It Is, Plague Dogs, Coal Miner's Daughter, Auntie Mame, Titticut Follies, Beyond the Sea, The (original) Vanishing, Carnival of Souls, Off the Charts, Lipstick and Dynamite: the First Ladies of Wrestling, Wattstax, Freeway, Gone With the Wind, A Woman Under the Influence, Raising Arizona, Old Yeller, Small Town Gay Bar, Harlan County USA
that Craig Ferguson, documentaries about hot dogs, King of the Hill, Project Runway, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Freaks and Geeks, Match Game, Squidbillies, Deadwood, Supernanny, ANTM, Flight of the Conchords, and that late-night law-enforcement training commercial where the guy is practicing saying "YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT!!!" in the shower.
George Saunders, Jack Pendarvis, Lynda Barry, Dorothy Parker, Fran Lebowitz, Louise Bogan, Charles Portis, Stevie Smith, Joseph Mitchell, Barbara Holland, Mike Royko, Nelson Algren, Damon Runyon, Robert Benchley, Edna Ferber, Shirley Jackson, Jim Harrison, Pete Dexter, John Irving, Barry Hannah, E.L. Doctorow, Richard Scarry
Bill Hicks, Edith Bunker, Arthur Ganson, Stymie