Films, films, films, indie comics, films, music, films, drawing, Louise Brooks, films, painting, films, Goonies, films, Musique concrète, films, reading, films, the video games, films, animation, films, WWI, films, outer space, silent films, the 1920's, prohibition and the gangsters of old, zombie attacks, films, UK comedy, comedy, Canadian comedy, stand up comedy, unintentional comedy, WWII, films, hobos and riding the rails, dinosaurs.
1. Joel Hodgeson2. Frank Conniff3. Matt "Creator of Zoidberg" Groening4. Curtis Armstrong5. Jeff Cohen6. Gedde Watanabe7. Louise Brooks8. Audrey Tautou9. Tim "TimandEric.com" Heidecker, and Eric "TimandEric.com" Wareheim10. Will Ferrell11. David Alan Grier12. Louis C. K.13. Dave Attell14. Harlan Ellison (though I'm sure he'd think I was an idiot)15. William Shatner
I like variety of music, a lot of rock/pop/punk/new wave/electro/electronic, a lot of instrumental (especially film soundtrack music), as for rap I like old 80's early stuff, but not a whole lot of current stuff (with some exceptions), as for jazz I like old prohibition era jazz, or big band music mostly. Favorite bands include... The Pixies, Figurine, The Polyphonic Spree, The Arcade Fire, Sigur Rós, The Postal Service, The Clash, Mellow, Devo, Gary Numan, Jon Brion, Yann Tiersen, Pizzicato Five, The Clash, Built to Spill, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Teenage Fanclub, Mates of State, Weezer, The Flaming Lips, The Rentals, Grandaddy, Brian Eno, Elliot Smith, Dragon Force, Rocket From the Crypt, Printed Circuit, The Specials, The Buzzcocks, David Bowie, Guided by Voices, The Shins, The Frogs, Lee Harvey Oswald Band, I Am Robot and Proud, Madness, Adam Ant, A Flock of Seagulls, The Cars, New Order, Toots and the Maytals, Jimmy Cliff, The Velvet Underground, Queen, ELO, The Kinks, The Beatles, The Beach Boys.
I'll simply start with the obvious. Spencer Tracy totally kicks ass in Bad Day at Black Rock. Furthermore if it is a film there is a chance I would like to see it, and that I could like it. No preferences in genres, just in quality. I absolutely love seeing silent films in a theater with live music. There is really no other way to see them. Also the French sure know how to make films I tell ya. The biggies in my life are... tied for top film ever: The Graduate, and Harold and Maude. And then many others that I love (in no specific order) are Millers Crossing, Amelie, A Very Long Engagement, City of Lost Children, Delicatessen, CQ, Punch Drunk Love, Magnolia, Boogie Nights, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Fargo, O' Brother Where Art Thou, I Heart Huckabees, Intermission, Brazil, 12 Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Time Bandits, The Road to Perdition, Ravenous, The Goonies, The Three Colors Trilogy (Bleu, Blanc, et Rouge), Mad Max, ROAD WARRIOR!, Lost in Translation, The Royal Tenenbaums, Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Life Aquatic, Down By Law, Broken Flowers, Dead Man, Coffee and Cigarettes, Night on Earth, Playtime, Masculine Feminine, Me and You and Everyone We Know, The Cremaster Cycle, Breathless, Kontroll, About Schmidt, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dr. Strangelove, Spartacus, Trekkies, Shaun of the Dead, Blade Runner, Gladiator, Alien, Office Space, Babe (yes the talking pig movie!), A Boy and His Dog, Zatoichi (new and old), The Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, The Usual Suspects, Tarnation, Fast Cheap and Out of Control, Pandora's Box, Diary of a Lost Girl, Beggars of Life, Napoleon Dynamite, Zelig, Annie Hall, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, The Bad News Bears (the original), Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead (the oldie much more than the newie), Martin, Wings of Desire, Patton, Das Boot, A Bridge Too Far, Saving Private Ryan, Joyeux Noel, Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, Dolls, Hanabi, Zatoichi, Primer, Nashville, Popeye, Shortcuts, Gosford Park, Throw Momma From The Train, Silence of the Lambs, Layer Cake, Waiting For Guffman, Stranger Than Fiction, Anchorman, Taladega Nights, Evil Dead 2, Kill Bill (both as a whole), Jackie Brown. Oh so many more. If it's projected on a screen I will at least want to see it once (well there probably are some exceptions, such as if it says "directed by Michael Bay" in the trailer). A rough incomplete list of some of my favorite film makers is... Jean-Pierre Jeunet, The Coen Brothers, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, Jim Jarmusch, Stanley Kubrick, Terry Gilliam, Takeshi Kitano. The Milwaukee Film Festival is now my yearly obsession. I see more films in 11 days than most people see in a year. I LOVES me some films! I probably watched one today.
Probably too much. I watch very little current US television, but a lot of current UK TV (mostly comedy). This list's an amalgamation of everything I've liked my entire life including whatever is on now. You may notice a certain level of nerd quality. The Simpsons (ad infinitum, I'm a walking encyclopedia of Simpsons knowledge), Futurama, QI (WITH THE AMAZING STEPHEN FRY!), Mystery Science Theater 3000 (one of the best television shows in history and second only to SCTV as the most influential in my life of humor), SCTV, Father Ted!, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Penn and Teller's Bullshit, Black Books, Little Britain, The League of Gentlemen, Spaced, The Young Ones, Bottom, Fawlty Towers, Monty Python, The Office, Extras, Red Dwarf, The Mighty Boosh, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, The Kids in the Hall, Who's Line is it Anyway (the original with the great Clive Anderson much more than the US version) The Prisoner (!!!! one of the best non-comedy television shows in history!), Home Movies, Carnivale, Deadwood(!), BAND OF BROTHERS!, Rome, Freaks and Geeks, Strangers With Candy, Get a Life, Tom Goes to the Mayor, Tim And Eric Awesome Show: Great Job!, Metalocalypse, 30 Rock, Scrubs, The Venture Brothers, Farscape, Reno 911, King of the Hill, Dr. Katz, Everyone Loves Hypnotoad, Battle Of The Network Space Krackens, The X-Files, Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek (especially The Next Generation, but ESPECIALLY SHATNER!), Random shows on the History and National Geographic channels (especially space WWII and dinosaur shows), anime... Macross, Yamato, Galaxy Express 999 (or anything Leiji Matsumoto), Mobile Suit Gundam, Dragon Ball (overboard action as an artform!), Evangelion. I'm a bit picky and old fashioned with anime. I pretty much like the stuff I grew up with as a young nerd 20 years ago, and then the odd newer series that is different from the rest (like FLCL). I also like listening to NPR, and This American Life, as well as a bunch of BBC radio shows.Obviously I am not a person who thinks TV is a bad or inherently stupid thing. That would be like thinking literature is inherently bad just because so much of it is taken up by trash like romance novels or Danielle Steel's books. TV at it's best is an amazing art form, and that should be encouraged and embraced by "smart" people. If all the "smart" people abandon television as "the idiot box" then it won't be anything but that, but it will be our fault, not TV's.
Cat's Cradle, Jimmy Corrigan: or "The Smartest Kid on Earth" is one of my favorite books, Harlan Ellison's writings are a favorite of mine as well, The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Breakfast of Champions, Of Mice and Men, The Graduate, A Confederacy of Dunces, some Bukowski, Lulu in Hollywood is a great book, Lord of the Rings, I Am Legend, The Ender series, Lost Worlds of 2001, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Little Prince (someday I will read it in the original French!). I'm like a kid again when I read the Harry Potter books, and the Hobbit is one of my lifelong favorites. In all my range of reading choices is rather varied, and tangential. And I don't read nearly as much as I should, or would like to.
Dr. Spaceman, Chris Ware, Leiji Matsumoto, Phillip DeGuard (look him up! a brilliant artist who was a background designer for Looney Tunes cartoons), Frank Conniff, Stephen Fry, John Candy, Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty, Dave Thomas, Andrea Martin, Katherine O'Hara, Martin Short, Rick Moranis, Louis C.K., Harlan Ellison, Master Shake, James Randi, Buzz Aldrin (not just for walking on the Moon, but also very much for punching Bart Sibrel in the face), and lot's of other people who would probably hate being on someones list of heroes.