Reading and writing spook tales, mostly. Music, music, music, music. Metaphysics. Mother Nature. Eating. Sleeping. Dreaming. Love.
Radiohead - YouMy Bloody Valentine - Only ShallowCurve - ClippedCatherine Wheel - I Want to Touch You
A list of some of my favorite hacks consumes the MySpace page of my "band" (we're really a duo), Distant Neighbor. Visit us there if you wish to eye the reason why I am loath to repeat it (even just thinking about that list is enough to disable me, color me pooped).
I like, in no particular order, Shoot the Piano Player, The 400 Blows, Frailty, The Conversation, Nosferatu (original and remake), Freaks, Rebecca, Psycho (original), North by Northwest, The Birds, Rear Window, Vertigo, Rope, Frenzy, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (original and remake), Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil, Amelie, George Romero's "Dead" films, Martin, The Exorcist, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Poltergeist, Suspiria, Creepers, Repulsion, The Tenant, Fearless Vampire Killers or: Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck, Rosemary's Baby, Frantic, Don't Look Now, The Devils, Altered States, Gothic, Lair of the White Worm, Phantasm, Alien, Aliens, Dancer in the Dark, Afraid of the Dark, Wait Until Dark, Dark of the Night, Night of the Hunter, Night of the Creeps, The Terror, The Howling, An American Werewolf in London, Innocent Blood, The Fog (original), John Carpenter's The Thing, Firstborn, Breaking Away, Amadeus, The French Connection, The War of the Worlds (original), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (original), The Minus Man, Marathon Man, Drugstore Cowboy, Bonnie and Clyde, Cool Hand Luke, Papillon, The Executioner's Song, High Noon, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, Westworld, The Unforgiven, Barfly, Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Truman Show, The Cable Guy, Sisters, Dressed to Kill, Carrie, Salem's Lot, Cujo, Creepshow, Misery, Stand by Me, The Princess Bride, Up in Smoke, Paper Moon, Deliverance, Welcome to the Dollhouse, The Wicker Man (original), Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Bambi, Peter Pan, Re-animator, From Beyond, Dead Alive, Heavenly Creatures, The Frighteners, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Somewhere in Time, Stir of Echoes, What Dreams May Come, Superman: The Movie, Superman 2, Ravenous, Blood Simple, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Shawshank Redemption, Groundhog Day, The Evil Dead, Darkman, The Gift, A Nightmare on Elm St. (parts 1 and 3), Blade Runner (director's cut), The Fifth Element, Dadetown, River's Edge, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, This is Spinal Tap, The Decline of Western Civilization: Part One, Angel Heart, Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, American Beauty, Wonder Boys, Hellraiser, Nightbreed, Lord of Illusions, Scanners, Videodrome, The Dead Zone, Naked Lunch, Existenz, Spider, Akira, K, Platoon, Bob Roberts, The Stepfather, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Fatal Attraction, Jacob's Ladder, Donnie Darko, The Butterfly Effect, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Midnight Express, Midnight Cowboy, Pulp Fiction, Romeo is Bleeding, Run Lola Run, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket, Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Revenge of the Sith, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, The Pink Panther, A Shot in the Dark, Return of the Pink Panther, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Life of Brian, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Monty Python's the Meaning of Life, Annie Hall, Bananas, A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, Manhattan Murder Mystery, Deconstructing Harry, Easy Rider, Rebel Without a Cause, Sleuth, Ran, Akira Kurosawa's Dreams, Asylum, Edward Scissorhands, Caddyshack, National Lampoon's Vacation, Back to the Future (parts 1 and 3), Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Weird Science, Some Kind of Wonderful, Better Off Dead, Heathers, Little Voice, Time Bandits, Brazil, 12 Monkeys, City of Lost Children, Delicatessen, Critters, The Gate, I Madman, Near Dark, X--The Man with X-Ray Eyes, Coal Miner's Daughter, Walk the Line, The Executioner's Song, The Omen (original), Gremlins, The Goonies, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Duel, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, A.I., The Others, The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, The Village, 28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead, The Machinist, The Grudge, Reincarnation, Hostel, The Descent, and oh-so-many more...
I try to avoid it as much as I can, as it distracts me from music and books. However, I watch, or used to watch, Six Feet Under, The Outer Limits (new and original), The Twilight Zone (original), Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Amazing Stories, Leave it to Beaver, Night Flight, Night Court, Ren and Stimpy, Dr. Who (original), Mystery Science Theater 3000, The Kids in the Hall, Mr. Show, The State, Upright Citizen's Brigade, Tenacious D, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Fawlty Towers, Father Ted, The League of Gentlemen, Keeping Up Appearances, Red Dwarf, Absolutely Fabulous, Little House on the Prairie, Northern Exposure, Quantum Leap, Roseanne, Seinfeld, Three's Company, Tales from the Darkside, Friday the 13th: The Series, Tales from the Crypt, The X-Files, The Critic, Duckman, The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy, Happy Days, The Daily Show, TV Funhouse, Wonder Showzen, [adult swim], Nova, UFO documentaries, 120 Minutes (now known as Subterranean), and The Discovery Channel.
Without books, I'd either be wormfood or wormfood-to-be, sprawled-face-down in a ditch or a dumpster. And while some folks (i.e., snobs) separate most popular fiction from LIT-ER-A-TURE, often dismissing the former outright, I, on the other hand---the one that's giving the bird to The Man---do not. The End.
I salute the following writers, in no particular order, natch: Stephen King, Shirley Jackson, Chet Williamson, James M. Cain, H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Theodore Sturgeon, Fredric Brown, Fritz Leiber, Harlan Ellison, Roald Dahl, T.M. Wright, Dean Koontz, Richard Matheson, Gary Brandner, Richard Laymon, Charles Bukowski, Jack Finney, Patrick McGrath, Clive Barker, John Farris, Bari Wood, Joan Samson (The Auctioneer), William H. Hallahan (Keeper of the Children), Philip K. Dick, Axel Young (Blood Rubies), Michael McDowell, Mark Twain, Poppy Z. Brite, J.D. Salinger, William Hjortsberg (Falling Angel), William Kotzwinkle, T.E.D. Klein, John Wyndham, George Orwell, Dennis Lehane, Peter Straub, Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, Thomas Tessier, Thomas Tryon, Hunter S. Thompson, Donald E. Westlake aka Richard Stark, Simon Clark, Robert Stallman (The Orphan), Robert Ludlum, Dennis Etchison, Ramsey Campbell, Jerzy Kosinski, S.K. Epperson, John Skipp and Craig Specter, Adam Hall aka Elleston Trevor, Barbee Oliver Carleton (The Witches' Bridge), Rex Miller, Herbert Leiberman, Carlos Ruiz Zafon (The Shadow of the Wind), Robert McCammon, Bentley Little, John Shirley, Lisa Tuttle, Neil Gaiman, Michael Green (Dry Skull Dreams), Alex Garland, Knut Hamsun (Hunger), Joyce Carol Oates, Peter Hoeg (Smilla's Sense of Snow), Ira Levin, Christopher Fahy, Jonathan Carroll, John Brunner (The Sheep Look Up), James Kisner (Strands), Frank M. Robinson (Waiting), M.G. Lewis (The Monk), Mary Shelley, Carson McCullers, K.W. Jeter, Jack Cady, Anne Rivers Siddons, Colleen McCulloch (The Thornbirds), Nathanael West, Ruth Rendell, Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, William Hope Hodgson, Ambrose Bierce, Algernon Blackwood, Raymond Chandler, Arthur Lyons (All God's Children), Patrick Susskind (Perfume), Daphne DuMaurier, Mary Higgins Clark (her early horror stuff), and ALL good writers, living and dead. Thanks for the magic wordage, folks!