Music, Movies, Traveling, Writing, Poetry, Inventing screwball Ideas, Comedy, Television, Art, Koffee? Drinkin ', Dreaming, Driving, Lowriding, Freakin' Out, and Floating!!!! Possibly, but not necessarily in that order!
Other like minded individuals, Artist, Poets, Musicians, Writers, Folks who are living and not just alive, those who speak the truth and put a hold on the jive. Dreamers not Schemers, Floaters not Sinkers. I like to meat people but I'm not a meet eater! Chopsticks are cool, but I'm stickin' with the fork!
Everything from ABBA to Zappa! A sample of some of my favorite musical styles and genres!(Rock/classic, surf, progressive, hard, metal, rock n' roll, rockabilly, punk, symphonic, experimental, and instrumental)...Blues (Chicago/Delta, Rockin' Rhythm n' Blues) Pop, Funk, Soul, Gospel, Country (That's right, Gospel AND Country!) Rap (Rap and Roll?) Mainstream Jazz. (possibly, but not necessarily in that order) I'll hear anything! I'll listen to/buy only stuff that I really like and/or that really moves me from the neck up or from the waist down! It's been said that most people fall into one of two types...Elvis or the Beatles?...Me, I'd have to say The Beatles! (The Beatles or the Stones?...Stones!)
Way too numerous to mention, (I tend to favor specific scenes in many of my favorite films) but here's a few of my favorites (in no particular order): American Beauty, Forrest Gump, Donnie Brasco, Pulp Fiction, From Dusk till Dawn, Resevoir Dogs, Dog Day Afternoon, Carlito's Way, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Sling Blade, Lenny, Wait Until Dark, Rain Man, Hoffa, JFK, Ruby, Double Indemnity, Scarface, And Justice for All, Raging Bull, The Godfather (Both I and II), Cape Fear (Both Old and New), Casino, The Cooler, Devil's Rejects, Spun, Leaving Las Vegas, The Passion of the Christ, Life is Beautiful, Dark Daze, With Honors, Warning Shot, Roger and Me, The Big One, Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, F.I.S.T., Rocky, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Moulin Rouge, House on Green Apple Road, Night of the Hunter, The Night Stalker, The Night Strangler, From Hell, The French Connection, The Marathon Man, Nosferatu, Frankenstein (Both Old and New), Young Frankenstein, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Cat O' Nine Tails, Chinatown, Of Mice and Men (Both Old and New), Jaws, Glengarry Glen Ross, Emperor of the North, The Shawshank Redemption, The Flimflam Man, The Sting, A Bronx Tale, The Basketball Diaries, 12 Angry Men, Fail-Safe, The Desperate Hours, Heat, Good Fellas, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Enemy of the State, Conspiracy Theory, Apocalypse Now, Barfly, 7 Days in May, The King of Comedy, The Planet of the Apes (Original Only! The remake really, really sucked!), And Then There Were None (Ten Little Indians), The Boston Strangler, From Hell, The Terminator (I II, and III), 2001: A Space Odyssey, Pearl Harbor, Where Eagles Dare, The Dirty Dozen, Dr.Strangelove, The Manchurian Candidate (Both Old and New), The Grapes of Wrath, Harvey, The Wizard of Oz, It's a Wonderful Life, Pennies From Heaven, The Producers (Original Only!), Duel, What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?, Gaslight, The Lost Weekend, Days of Wine and Roses, Ice Station Zebra, Sunset Boulevard, The Out of Towners, The Fortune Cookie, The Odd Couple, Network, Rosemary's Baby, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Both Old and New), War of the Worlds (Original Only!) People vs. Larry Flint, Trainspotting, Requiem for a Dream, Requiem for a Heavyweight, North by Northwest, Dial M for Murder, Call Northside 777, The Birds, The Rear Window, Psycho (Both Old and New), The Exorcist, The Great Escape, The African Queen, Angel Heart, Jackie Brown, Titanic, The Great White Hype, Bad Boys II, The Rose, Crossroads, This is Spinal Tap, The Last Waltz, Woodstock, Gimmie Shelter, Yellow Submarine, and The Zapruder Film...just to name a few.
Again, way too many to mention. I'll attempt a top whatever: Six Feet Under, The Sopranos, Twin Peaks, Kolchak: The Night Stalker (Original 1974-75 Series!), Columbo, The Twilight Zone (Original Only!), Dark Shadows (Both Old and New), Alf, Dinosaurs, Seinfeld, The PJ's, In Living Color, da Ali G show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Fugitive (The Original Series!), Unsolved Mysteries, The X Files, and 60 Minutes...(possibly, but not necessarily in that order) I was weaned on television! For many years my best friend. Actually for many years my only friend! As a child, television was my instant babysitter. Put on the TV and my folks could take a trip to Vegas and when they returned, I'd be right there, right in front of the TV! I vaguely remember my TV being interrupted with the news of President Kennedy being shot, and then days later his funeral. I remember the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show! Apollo 11 landing on the moon and Neil Armstrong setting foot on the surface, The space shuttle Challenger explosion and two airplanes hitting the World Trade Center . Along with that there was all the movies, news programs, sit-coms, mini-series, cartoons, dramas, and specials that helped mold, distort, educate, and otherwise make me what I ain't today!
Contrary to popular belief I indeed can read! (It's not my fault that alot of my books and magazines contain a lot of pictures!) One of the first books I was forced to read back when I was a youngen and still one of my favorites is John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" Some of the other books that I tend to re-read or just like owning are "Grand Central Winter: Stories from the Street" by Lee Stringer, "Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass" by Dale Marraridge and Michael Williamson, "The Kindness of Strangers: Penniless Across America" by Mike McIntyre, "Rivethead" by Ben Hamper, "Downsize This", "Dude Where's My Country?", "Stupid White Men:...and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation" by Michael Moore, "Crashing the Party: How to Tell the Truth and Still Run for President" by Ralph Nader, "There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road but Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos: A Work of Political Subversion", "If the Gods Had Meant Us to Vote, They'd Have Given Us Candidates" by Jim Hightower "Life Sentences: Rage and Survival Behind Bars" by Wilbert Rideau and Ron Wikberg, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right" by Al Franken, "Closing" by Bill Bamberger and a lady who's name I can't recall, "The Secret parts of Fortune" by Ron Rosenbaum, "The Covert War Against Rock: What You Don't Know About The Deaths of Jim Morrison, Tupac Shakur, Michael Hutchence, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Phil Ochs, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, John Lennon, The Notorious B.I.G.", "The Little Black Leather Book of Rock 'n' Roll" by Divine Laboratories, "Hippy" by Barry Miles, "Backstage Passes: Life on the Wild Side with David Bowie" by Angela Bowie, "I'm With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie" by Pamela Des Barres, "No One Here Gets Out Alive" by Danny Sugerman, "The Rolling Stone Interviews: 1967-1980: Talking With the Legends of Rock and Roll" by The Editors of Rolling Stone, "Rolling with the Stones" by Bill Wyman, "Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T Students Who Took Vegas For Millions" by Ben Mezrich, "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger, "Postoffice", "Ham on Rye", and "What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through The Fire" by Charles Bukowski, "A Coney Island of the Mind" and "A Far Rockaway of the Heart" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, "Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do" by Studs Turkel, "UFOs, JFK, and Elvis: Conspiracies You Don't Have to Be Crazy to Believe" by Richard Belzer, "Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence" by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, "Sleeping Where I Fall" by Peter Coyote, "83 Hours Till Dawn" by Gene Miller, "American Psycho" by Brett Easton Ellis, The Bible (The New Testament: Gospel(s), Revelation!) and a bunch more that if I ever un-pack my book box I could probably recall their titles and authors. I'm also a big reader of record (cd) album liner notes and movie credits. I'm the guy who's the last one in the theater reading credits while everyone else is pulling out of the parking lot!
The word Hero (Heroes) has seemed to have taken on a variety of different meanings lately...My heros(?), or some of the people I greatly admire are...Jesus of Nazareth (or is he from Bethlehem?...anyway you know who I'm talkin' about!), The AAA guy who came to give me a jump and arrived in 10 (count'em 10) minutes in the dead of winter when I didn't have any gloves..or even a coat for that matter and a hole in my shoe that went all the way to the sock, Gabe (who showed up for my show on 5/4) and my talented & dedicated cast, crew, and staff at CTV, Charles "Hank" Bukowski, GT & The Delaware Destroyers, Da Boss and Da Big Man, Doc Merwin, Dali (da painter not da Lama), Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Bacon (da painter not da meat), Bob Flanagan, Johnny "Rotten" Lydon, John/Paul/George and Ringo, Mick n' Keef, Michael Moore, Ghandi, Ralph Nader, Noam Chomsky, and Topo Gigio (How did I almost forget Topo!?)