Films, books (again), long, rambling conversations, long, rambling walks, now also MOUNTAINS!!! (all my sister's fault...) trees, weather - sun,rain,wind,thunderstorms, walking on logs, jumping off logs, paddling, nature in general, really (oh, my inner hippy is very much alive, yes yes)... Er, people-watching (but not to stalkerish levels...usually), drinking alcohol in relatively reasonable amounts, and coffee.. Cooking on the rare occasions when I possess all the ingredients I need (and have a large gin and tonic/good wine to hand).. Cups of tea are also very important. I need at least three of them per day or i think i would shrivel up and die. Like a small slug. I would become a slug-husk of a human being. So if you ever meet me, bring teabags. Oh, and i like putting things in brackets. (More than I should, probably...)
[On here? Be very very careful if you're thinking of offering and I don't know you, I am likely to be bitter and suspicious and refuse to like you purely on principal.]Err... I don't know. Bill hicks. But he's dead, so i don't want to meet him right now. Angela Carter, but she's dead too. Of the living, I'm scrapping comedians as that would just give me an opportunity to find out how very unfunny they are in reality... I want to meet Ian McEwan, Ian Rankin and Iain Banks. Dark, gothic and sinister minds, the lot of them. And Mervyn Peake, but that takes us back to the realms of the non-living. Oh, and I want to get drunk with Lauren Bacall. I'd even let her bring the small dog.Of the undead, Dracula. Obviously.
Yes, i like music. Rob Dougan - where has this man been all my life??? Placebo. Muse. Jeff Buckley, Massive Attack, Goldfrapp, The Wildhearts (occasionally), David Bowie (oh GOD yes), Marilyn Manson (just because). Also Mozart, Beethoven, Dvorak, Rachmaninov, Puccini...Jacqueline du Pre for being the finest woman to ever put a cello between her legs. Mary Coughlan, for the way she sings about love, and Nick Cave, for the way he sings about death... And of course, on the subject of death, Rob Dougan - did I mention him?
I like lots of them. The usual and the less usual. But I can't be bothered to list them all, any more. Ok, a few - Pan's Labyrinth, Leon, Benny and Joon, se7en, Usual Suspects, Some Like it Hot, occasional forays into Studio Ghibli... i'll add as they occur to me. Watched Fight Club again the other day. Forgot how good that is... Vengeance trilogy. Jean de Florette. Infernal Affairs I & II. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Priscilla Queen of the Desert. The Big Sleep.
David Attenborough, Michael Palin, Stephen Poliakoff. University Challenge. And i enjoy Simon Schama's complete inability to keep his head still. Recently, Band of Brothers - not so much American as international, and fucking fantastic. And then some comedy. The good kind. (Oh, and, weirdly, and rarely, cricket. Honestly.)
I have possibly my most deep, passionate, meaningful relationship with books. If you want me to leave you alone, take my hand and quietly lead me to a bookshop, then run away - I probably won't even notice. (If, on the other hand, you want me to love you forever, send book tokens.) Some books I have loved - Nights at the Circus, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, The Bridge, Perfume, Gormenghast, Dracula, An Ice-cream War, Anansi Boys, Atonement, Saturday (most Ian McEwan, actually.. and Banks and Rankin. See above), Louis de Bernieres' South American trilogy, Wuthering Heights, Wilkie Collins, lately The Feast of the Goat which I think everyone should read because it left me gobsmacked... I could go on. But I won't. Mmm, books...
Frida Kahlo, for being a powerful, passionate, talented, stubborn, generous, flamboyant and self-obsessed bitch. And for sleeping with Trotsky. But if I could create a hero of my own, I'd make one that was a cross between Gandhi, Nietzsche and Bugs Bunny. Just for a change...