Man, do I have to tell you again? Art, music, film, drama, literature, writing, travel, museums. Fun.
People interested in underground/bizarre/non-commercial art, film, drama, lit, Simon Schama!...Any age, any location. Oh yeah, and Ric Flair. Oscar Pistorious. And any hit man willing to take out Billy Mays. Ross King. Oh, who am I kidding? Cute, sharp women! Rowan LeCompte.
Liars, Interpol, Fred Frith, Low, I Am Spartacus, Spoon, Helium, Wire, Squirrel Bait, Five or Six, Spiritualized, Last Exit, Tackhead, Thrushes, Greg Sage, Leonard Cohen, TV21, Savage Republic, Antony and the Johnsons, Charlemegne Palestine, Tone, Japan, Dream Syndicate, Pavement, 17 Pygmies, Maurizio Bianchi, Swamp Children, Sun Kil Moon, Soft Verdict, Rachels, Radiohead, Spacemen 3, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Eno, Dirty Three, Au Pairs, Can, Cluster, Holger Czukay, DJ Spooky, John Cale, Richard Chartier, Nirvana, Auteurs, William Basinski, Ultra Cindy, Tree Fort Angst, Maximum Joy, Delta 5, Gang of 4, Pere Ubu, Stiff Little Fingers, Eyeless in Gaza, Felt, Basement Tapes-era Dylan, Durutti Column, Codeine, Pop Group, Electralane, The Fall, Hafler Trio, Spinanes, Screaming Trees, Throwing Muses, James Plotkin, Belly, Dead Can Dance, Mass, Dif Juz, Jacobites, LaBradford, Stars of the Lid, Red House Painters, A Certain Ratio, PiL, Jah Wobble, Section 25, Afghan Whigs, Scrawl, Glos, Julian Cope, Birthday Party, Scrawl, Christian Marclay, Comsat Angels, Sonic Youth, Blue Orchids, The Clash, Past Seven Days, This Heat, TG, Dome, Bush Tetras, Jandek, Aphex Twin, Rothko, Coil, Explosions in the Sky, 23 Skidoo, Ambulette, Husker Du, Z'ev, Seefeel, The Jam, Tortoise, Echo & the Bunnymen, Ultravox/John Foxx, DNA, Broken Social Scene, Mars, Glenn Branca, Rema Rema, Psychic TV, Mission of Burma, Swans, Sun City Girls, Chris Brokaw, Codeine, Last Days of May, Denali, Ride, Massacre, Glenn Branca, The Died Pretty, Bettie Serviert, Merzbow, REM, Mission of Burma, Guided By Voices, Fred Frith, Wye Oak, anything on 4AD, anything on Factory, anything on Zoo, anything on Cherry Red, anything on Crepescule, anything on Rough Trade (old), anything on United Dairies, killer stuff that I would not have known about but for MySpace (Mitre, Twine, Thieves of Our Sea, Night Germ, etc.), and other things I'll think of later
Blue Velvet, Polyester, Rize, Suspiria, Keane, The Last Waltz, Red Road, Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man, This Filthy World, The Dead Girl, Leolo, 2LDK, Burden of Dreams, One False Move, The Honeymoon Killers, Peeping Tom, Head On, The Young Poisoner's Handbook, There Will Be Blood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The Killing of America, Punk: Attitude, My Left Foot, The Straight Story, Zoo, Cronicas, Wah-Wah, Stoned, F is For Fake, Beyond the Mat, Runnin' Down A Dream, Clean, Brothers of the Head, The Assassination of Richard Nixon, Little Children, The Proposition, Touch The Sound, Cache, Rude Boy, The Last King of Scotland, Darwin's Nightmare, Edvard Munch, The Producers (orig.), The Kids Are Alright, This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Paperhouse, Heading South, Things To Do in Denver When You're Dead, The Bridge, Curse of the Demon, Road, anything by Jem Cohen, Calvaire, Parents, Buddy Boy, Don't Look Back, Inland Empire, Night of the Living Dead, Tarnation, Pusher, Pusher II, Pusher III, Eat The Rich, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, Miller's Crossing, Godfather I and II, Eraserhead, Salo, Dead of Night, Kids, Russian Ark, Blade Runner, Dust Devil, Videodrome, Repulsion, Morvern Callar, The Night Porter, Buffalo 66, Our Song, Kontroll, Blair Witch, The Machinist, Affliction, Spring Forward, Lost in America, Spirit of the Beehive, Safe, Paris Texas, The Rapture, Naked, To Sleep With Anger, For a Few Dollars More, 24 Hour Party People, anything by the Quay Brothers, This is Spinal Tap, Clean Shaven, The Old Dark House, Rude Boy, Scotland, PA, Hellraiser, Bedazzled (orig.), Jubilee, The Great Rock & Roll Swindle, Isolation, Night of the Hunter, Near Dark, Session 9, Spring Forward, Dead End, Withnail and I, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Baby of Macon, Carnival of Souls, Man Bites Dog, The Descent, Thirst, The Last Picture Show, Half Nelson, Frightmare, Claire Dolan, Ginger Snaps 1-3, Breaking the Waves, Tales From the Crypt, The Hamiltons, Teorema, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, The Sweet Hereafter, The House That Dripped Blood, Dead of Night, Goodfellas, Martin, DeathDream, Twin Falls Idaho, Let's Get Lost, the Great Rock and Roll Swindle, Alpha Dog, Tenderness of the Wolves, Grizzly Man, Asylum, Velvet Goldmine, Vault of Horror, The Krays, Carnival of Souls, Mysterious Skin, any horror, lots of so-bad-it's good like Road House and Brotherhood of Death and stuff by Seagal -- particularly Out For Justice -- spaghetti westerns, far too much artsy and cheesy stuff to list here. Anything psychotronic. Is there any day so gloomy that "Showgirls" can't brighten it?
Simon Schama's Power of Art!!!, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Get a Life, 30 Rock, Odd Couple, John Adams, The Tudors, Cleopatra 2525, Masters of Horror, Sopranos, Upright Citizens Brigade, Intervention, Larry Sanders, Whitest Kids U Know, Black Scorpion, The War, Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, Grounded For Life, Twin Peaks, Extras, It's Always Sunny in Philly, AbFab, Conchords, occasional PBS docs on Nova and American Experience, The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance, occasional junk reality like Flavor of Love (guilty)--no, make that Rock of Love, no, make that A Shot at Love -- old classics on DVD like Honeymooners. Call me nuts, but I'm coming around to Flight of the Conchords. In a better world than this, we would be watching "Lucky Louie" for many years to come...And, of course, Jeopardy. Ask me about my child-custody reality competition pitch. It's gold.
Anything by J.G. Ballard, Rick Moody, Raymond Carver, Denis Johnson, Jayne Anne Phillips, A.J. Liebling, Katherine Dunn, Lucius Shepard, Pinckney Benedict, George Saunders, Flannery O'Connor, Philip K. Dick, lots of art history (Ross King!), David Sedaris when I need a laugh. Just finished The Rape of Europa by Lynn Nicholas and Martin Gayford's The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles. Very excited about my recently-located copy of Rembrandt's Eyes by Simon Schama, all 750 pp. of it.
Andrea Pisano, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Filippo Brunelleschi, Michelangelo, Raphael (painter, not turtle), Titian, Giotto, Donatello (sculptor, not turtle), Rodin, El Greco, Joseph Mallord William Turner, John Waters, Chris Chambliss, Tommy Grand, the mayor of Federal Way, WA who wouldn't give Sanjaya the key to the city, and women stripping their way through grad school, Lorenzo de Medici, any member of the WWII Monuments Men, the guy with the cure for MS, George Vlosich III, Zoe Koplowitz, the MS sufferer who walked the New York Marathon...*OK, I had to nuke Bernini after finding out that he had a flunkie slash up his mistress' face. A punk move, even for the creator of "The Ecstasy of St. Theresa."