Music:
Bill Withers, Otis Redding, Neil Young, Thelonius Monk, James Brown, Robert Bradley, Martin Sexton, Al Green, Sam Cooke, Chuck Berry, Less than Jake, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, The Police, The Roots, Tom Waits, Van Morrison, The Ventures...lots of others
Movies:
Seven Samurai, Box of Moonlight, Bottle Rocket, Lawn Dogs, Stranger than Paradise, Five Easy Pieces, Easy Rider, Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums, Spring Foward, Big Lebowski, You Can Count On Me, Amelie, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Do the Right Thing, The Power of One, Alice in Wonderland, Any kung fu movie where the main character is either blind or has one arm (bonus if he's blind and only has one arm).
Television:
Simpsons, Sanford and son, PBS, Shows where they build stuff, old Mighty Mouse cartoons and heckle and jeckle cartoons.
Books:
Reservation Blues, The Prophet, Spiritous Rebelious, Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Hesse, Vonnegut, Old man and the Sea, religous texts (varied), Polynesian culture studies, anthropological essays...
Heroes:
Cologero, John Brown, Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, John Henry, and mighty mouse