Reading/writing, cinema, theatre, swimming, cooking, singing, guitar, long walks in the country in the sunshine, hugging the trees...
People who are honest and genuine, who have something to say for themselves, and are willing to take a stand on the things that matter. Someone who will be willing to share their lives and their interests with me, and will want to know about what moves me. Someone who I'll look at and say - yes, my life is better for having you in it.
On a different level, I've already met all of the cast of Firefly, and all but the principals of Buffy and Angel, and managed to see Four Star Mary four times in five days last time they were over (how many years ago? hint hint!), so who does that leave? Possibly George Bush. Just so I could slap him. Of course, for the sake of balance, I'll slap Tony Blair just as hard and often...
I've been very lucky in many aspects of my life - of all the people who have influenced me, I recognise that I'll never get to thank Carl Sagan, but I was fortunate enough to have seen Cosmos early enough in my life that it got me into his writing and opened my mind to so many possibilities with his way of thinking, and I did receive a reply from Arthur C Clarke, dated 2001 no less, after I wrote to him, so I'm very grateful for that. And although it was little more than a handshake, I did get to say Hello to Joss Whedon when he was at the Edinburgh Film Festival for the premiere of Serenity in 2005.
Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Heart, Aimee Mann, Dar Williams, Jeff Buckley, Dashboard Confessional, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Four Star Mary, Kite, Mark Lanegan, Nine Inch Nails, The Doors, Tori Amos, Dustfly, Gilded Lil, Idlewild, Nick Drake, The Lights...
The Haunting, The Day The Earth Stood Still, Star Trek The Motion Picture (do we see a theme here? guess I like my Robert Wise films), Gattaca, Contact, Barbarella, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Children of Men, Sunshine, anything by David Lynch or Pedro Almodovar... I tend to go for directors more than actors. Is that pretentious?
Firefly, Twin Peaks, Buffy, Angel, Star Trek (and TNG and DS9), Carnivale, Battlestar Galactica, The X Files, Roughnecks, Babylon 5, Heroes...
Anything by Alastair Reynolds, Christopher Rice, Arthur C. Clarke, A C Crispin, Diane Duane, Margaret Bonanno, Amy Tan, Vonda McIntyre, Dar Williams, Robert A Heinlein, Mark Leyner...
Arthur C. Clarke, Carl Sagan, Joss Whedon, David Lynch...