Art, horror and documentary films. The filth and the fury. Reading: big time! Hiking and exploring Fairmount Park (which is, essentially, my backyard). Running while avoiding ogres. My bike, my ass on it, my feet propelling me forward. Raw fish from the lips of death. Discipline and control make the man. Works sets me free. Traveling when I can, wherever I can. Crumhorns. Watching enemies suffer. Seasons that aren't summer. Insects! Elf stuff. Nests + eggs. Everything in its right place. That which leaves lipstick traces. Talking animals. Lives of the Saints. Classes at the Wagner Free Institute of Science. Steel-capped boots. Starting to write again. Laughing laughing laughing at the contrived angst, therapy, drugs and self-destructive behavior of those who came from privilege. NPR. Those wonderful mushrooms. London Social Degree. Fueled by tea. Superb vegetarian/vegan restaurants. Le chats. I've got more plots than a cemetery, more deals than a casino.
A seasoned witch to draw me from the depths of my disgrace, to re-arrange my liver to the solid mental grace.
Psychedelia, '70s progressive rock, acid folk, hardcore/punk/grind, old ska and reggae, black metal, '80s thrash, a little doooooom, film scores, etc. And so: Yes, Peter Gabriel-era Genesis, Beatles, Conflict, Discharge, Avalanches, Black Flag, Ennio Morricone, T2, Espers, Caravan, Spektr, Orthodox, Bastard, Gentle Giant, Mellow Candle, Siege, Grateful Dead's "American Beauty", Bowie, Envy, Radiohead, Flaming Lips, Sigur Ros, Kaleidoscope (UK), Atom and His Package, Damien Youth, Frank Zappa and the Mothers, King Crimson, Extreme Noise Terror, The Smiths, Voivod, Born Against, Chumbawamba, Boris, Siege, Bill Fay, Fairport Convention, Heresy, Broadcast, Dickies, Belle & Sebastian, July, Magma, Upright Citizens, David Axelrod, Espers, Donovan, Il Balletto di Bronzo, Goblin, Melt-Banana, Osanna, Gauze, Teenage Fanclub, Black Sabbath, Gorilla Biscuits, The Who, Warhead, Trojan/Stax/early Motown records, Delgados, Wat Tyler, early Bee Gees, His Hero is Gone/Tragedy, Super Furry Animals, early Brian Eno, Gong, Celtic Frost, The Ohio Express, Warhead, Mojave 3, Broadcast, Comus, The Dwarves, Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil, Operation Ivy, Gila, Pink Floyd, Crimpshrine, Led Zeppelin, Deep Wound, Ash Ra Tempel, Boris, Dungen, XTC, Van Der Graaf Generator/Peter Hammill, Zounds, The Mob, Infest, Witchcraft, The Incredible String Band, No Comment, Scott Walker, The Zombies, The Byrds...."lest we forget" I am. You are. We are. CRAZY!
"The Wicker Man", Bela Tarr, "Dawn of the Dead", K. Kieslowski, "Battle of Algiers", Frederick Wiseman, Kurosawa, "Holy Mountain"/"El Topo", all Powell & Pressburger, Coffin Joe, Kazuo Hara's documentaries, old Dario Argento, Godard, Ozu, various Italian gialli and horror films, Hammer films, "Possession" and others from Zulawski, Henry Paris/Radley Metzger, P. P. Pasolini, Bergman (!!!), Fritz Lang, Italian Neorealist films, old Hollywood musicals, "Viva La Muerte", A. Tarkovsky, Peter Greenaway, "Sweet Movie" and Makavejev's other films, "Fantastic Planet", oodles of Czech cinema, Jan Svankmajer, Kim ki-Duk, select '70s adult cinema (especially French), "Spirit of the Beehive", silent cinema, F. Fellini, "Reflecting Skin", Sergio Leone, Kubrick, glorious three-strip Technicolor, Mayles bros., "A Hard Day's Night", "Yellow Submarine", Jacopetti & Prosperi's mondo films, "Ghost World", "Lone Wolf & Cub" series, Takashi Miike, K. Fukasaku, Godzilla & his pals, Russian fairy tale films, Shunji Iwai, anything with Annette Haven and Brigitte Lahaie, Peter Watkins, "Sunrise", Hitchcock, "Greed", Chris Marker, Alan Clarke, "Valerie and Her Week of Wonders" (!), etc.
Simpsons, The Wire, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Family Guy, Larry Sanders, Trailer Park Boys (Bubbles!), I'm Alan Partridge/Knowing Me Knowing You, Spaced, Jam, Planet Earth, Rome, Brass Eye, The Thick of It, Nathan Barley, Extras, Invasion, Deadwood, Arrested Development, Little Britain, Sopranos, Saxondale, Wonder Showzen, Six Feet Under, The Office (both), Freaks and Geeks, The Singing Detective/Pennies from Heaven, original Twilight Zone and Outer Limits, Lost in Space, Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, The Shield, etc. ..
Mervyn Peake, William T. Vollman, Peter Straub, Halldor Laxness, Alistair Horne, T.H. White, Philip Pullman, Shirley Jackson, Michael Faber, David Mitchell, Joan Didion, Jerzy Kosinski, George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" books, George Orwell, China Mieville, Robert R. McCammon, Borges, Varlam Shalamov, Flannery O'Connor, Harlan Ellison, Herman Hesse, Margaret Atwood, Ray Bradbury, Eduardo Galeano, Kurt Vonnegut, Dan Simmons, Emile Zola, dark short fiction of Joyce Carol Oates and Ian McEwan, Richard Yates and much more including a lot of history, film books and science books about insects. I read like a fiend!
I exchanged my heroes for ghosts, hot ashes for trees.