Watching movies, writing movies, watching movies, writing movies, watching movies, writing movies. And I like the Academy Awards because I like to see good films get recognition. Doesn't always happen (e.g Crash) but it's great when it does.
Anyone with an interest in verb formation. Nothing beats a good simple present.
POP/ALT COUNTRY/COUNTRY FOLK Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple, Patty Griffin, Sarah Harmer, Dar Williams, Joni Mitchell, Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin, Lucinda Williams, Julie Miller, Lucy Kaplansky, Gillian Welch, Eliza Gilkyson, Dayna Lane, Nickel Creek, Tom Waits, Paul Bryan, Machine Translations, Gram Parsons, Teddy Thompson. FILM COMPOSERS Joe Hisaishi, Jon Brion, Thomas Newman, Richard Robbins, Jerry Goldsmith, Rolfe Kent, Gustavo Santaolalla, Alberto Iglesias, Mychael Danna, Patrick Doyle. Read my soundtrack reviews here.
MOST SOULFUL Running On Empty (1988) / Strangers In Good Company (The Company of Strangers) MOST MOVING Fearless (1993) / Boys Don't Cry / Bacheha-ye Aseman (Children of Heaven) / Central do Brasil (Central Station) MOST LIKE MY OWN LIFE Secrets & Lies / Comme Une Image (Look At Me) MOST THRILLING The Wages of Fear / The Silence of the Lambs / The Goonies LAUGH-OUT-LOUD FUNNIEST Flying High / My Stepmother Is An Alien MOST FREQUENTLY QUOTED Short Cuts / Manhattan Murder Mystery / Husbands and Wives / Secrets & Lies MOST INTELLECTUALLY STIMULATING Six Degrees of Separation BEST SING-ALONG Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory MOST HORRIFYING Coyote Ugly MOST OFFENSIVE The Wannabes / Men Behind the Sun MOST INSULTING TO MY INTELLIGENCE Crash LEAST COHERENT Last Year at Marienbad (though I'm sure it's a masterpiece...) / Showgirls (Sorry, what did she just say about eating dogfood???) LOWEST BUDGET Drive-In Massacre (seriously - you can't see half the thing) Read my IMDb reviews here.
CURRENT If Bert Newton's there, so am I. And Iron Chef. CLASSICS If Rebecca Front's there, so am I. Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge (KMKYWAP), I'm Alan Partridge, Brasseye, The Day Today, Are You Being Served?, Allo Allo, My So-Called Life, Six Feet Under.
I'm not really that well-read, especially for a former English teacher. But I do enjoy reading and encourage people to do more of it. I don't read many 'eat-your-spinach-it's-good-for-you' kind of books, and I don't think you have to. But I do get disheartened by the number of people on MySpace who ask, "What's a book?" or "Who reads anymore?" They really are shutting themselves off to a whole world of delights. CONTEMPORARY Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits. Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. Kent Haruf's Where You Once Belonged. Scott Heim's In Awe. Tom Perrotta's Election and Little Children. Thomas Harris's Hannibal. Jeffrey Deaver's The Devil's Teardrop. CLASSICS Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. John Steinbeck's Cannery Row. EM Forster's A Room With A View. Tobias Wolff's This Boy's Life. Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians (...And Then There Were None). NON-FICTION Vincent Crapanzano's Imaginative Horizons. Steve Pond's The Big Show: High Times and Dirty Dealings Backstage at the Academy Awards. SHORT FICTION Pretty much anything by Raymond Carver. Sherman Alexie's What You Pawn I Will Redeem. Conan Doyle's The Red-Headed League. Charles Dickens' Mugby Junction: Number 1 Branch Line, The Signalman. David Malouf's Lone Pine. Italo Calvino's Crack and Crook. POETRY Not much, but I think Robert Frost's 'Out, Out-' is really wonderful.
PERSONAL: My mum, and my sister, Jen. PROFESSIONAL: Mike Leigh, Robert Altman, Brenda Blethyn, Woody Allen, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Agnes Jaoui, Jules Dassin, Sidney Lumet.