physical fitness, academic accomplishment, holding it down (see also representing)- and other preoccupations typical to those of us who refuse to acknowledge that the decay of the Empire is at this point, irreversible. some intersection of the better elements of anarcho-sindicalism, socialist democracy (it's all about norway), and a purer practice of capitalism in the US/world (synonyms).
naturally happy, fun, and intelligent people whose default reactions are kindness and curiosity. also bill clinton and dave chapelle, michael biehn, shakira, the victoria's secret models that have nice dispositions (my boss at VS has met a couple and said some are pretty chill). a woman my age or older, for a change. people who are into soul (esp. northern soul), and are down to dance. i've got a great deal to learn about the old school scene in LA. fuck hip-hop, i'm looking for pure soul.
Here's a FEW: old-timey jazz and bebop, soul, oldies, and r&b and DANCEHALL ZOUK Sizzla that's how we do 'er.Johnny Cash, BB King, Hank Williams, Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk I saw Ray Charles twice, thanks to my mom. saw Herbie Hancock thanks to Dave. Norma Frazier, Billie Holiday, some Ragtime. DEATH METAL (of the technical and brutal persuasions). Odious Mortem, Decrepit Birth, Disgorge, Pavor, Spawn of Possesion, Psycroptic, SUFFOCATION, and MORBID ANGELAdventurefuckingMetal (holla). Helloween, Iron Maiden, Heavenly (aha), motherfucking DRAGONFORCE!!! -ya heard?Grind-Core- Carcass Misc.- hellbastard, nausea, AC/DC this is a good start.SOUL. and as Doc Holiday says in Tombstone: "You know, Frederick fucking Chopin."
BARFLY, david lynch's dune, blade runner, Conan (the Barbarian only, Destroyer is lame), Terminator 1, the 13th Warrior, Tetsuo the Ironman, Big Lebowski, The Black Hole, sleeply hollow, Sugar Hill (Marki Bey), Alien(s), PLATOON (and it's Korean equivalent R-point) all other kinds of ill, epic, adventuresome sci-fantastic hold-it-down type shit. oh yeah, also lots of gangstersomeness too, like: goodfellas, godafather, a bronx tale, donnie brasco, Blood In Blood Out, American Me (brutal), also TOMBSTONE (this is a big one for me), most anything with robert redford or newman (i'm a sucker for american nostalgia flicks), as far as comedy it's all about shit like caddy shack, SLAPSTICK, harold and kumar, r. kelly's trapped in the closet (doesn't matter if he knows it's a comedy, cuz it is) etc. MUSA THE WARRIOR (best samurai movie of all time, though he couldn't've done it without kirousawa), Bamboozled, Hollywood Shuffle
all star trek upto & including ds9, Crime Story,The Sopranos, Sex in the City. The L Word, Scrubs-funniest show ever.
Classics in a huge way. books by R. A. Salvatore, the late great Frank Herbert, Oscar Wylde, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Heminggay, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Joyce, Homer, Diderot (early enlightment, early brutal critique of (french) writing convention, blew my mind) Marie de France. Boccaccio. Homer. Virgil. I'm big into adventure and fantasy, especially in the short story heroic epic format, all throughout pre and early modernity to the present- song of Roland, William Count of Orange, The Pilgrimage of Charlemagne. The man in those tales was a MAN, and ran it, and some tail too. I find issues of cultural motivation behind monster construction and metamorphosis particularly interesting to think about. Detective Fiction rules equally in print and film. Complicated narration, interesting arrangement and presentation for its own sake with cultural nods/themes (that'd be Joyce for example)- i'm into it. Sartre makes me puke. Hemingway getting spicy on a reporter when asked about the presence of "modern" themes in his work: "That's a lot of crap. The "theme's" are always there- love, lack of it, death and its occasional tempory avoidance which we describe as life."
Dave Siskin, Bill Clinton is a stone-cold pimp, so was/is MLK, Malcolm X (best-autobio ever), and Malcolm Miller. Peter North. Abby MacPherson & Guelda Voien. chuck norris is a lame youngster type, so is van damme, though they both produced some cinematic freshness.