Music; friends; socialising; gigging; reading; film; travel; new experiences; issues of social injustice and inequality, research and activism around those issues, particularly gender inequalities and abuses against women and children.
People with active and thoughtful minds, deep souls and kind hearts.
Music. I love music (don't most of us?) and I believe good music can span all the genres (as can shite music). I'm not very good at categorisations and over-analysis annoys me. I like what I like and that's that, and that includes (off the top of my head and in no organised order): Adem; Boards of Canada; Bonobo; Bent; Plaid; Quantic (and his Soul Orchestra); Jeff Buckley; Queen; Radiohead; Karen Carpenter; Nick Drake; John Martin; Tim Buckley; Muse; Pearl Jam; Mike Patton (and a number of his various projects); Sons and Daughters; Kings of Convenience; Nina Simone; Chopin; Hint; The Beatles; Aphex Twin; The Beach Boys; Coldcut; Charlie Parr; Brian Eno; Cinematic Orchestra; Herman Dune; Fairport Convention; Lemon Jelly; Nirvana; The Orb; Ennio Morricone; The Feeling; Orbital; Pixies; Stevie Wonder; The Spinto Band; Luke Vibert/Wagonchrist etc; James Taylor; Karine Polwart; Joni Mitchell; Alice Russell; The Magic Numbers; Neil Young; Smashing Pumpkins; Radiohead (amongst loads of others and I've probably left out some really obvious big favourites, but you get the idea)
The Goonies, Stand by Me; Lost Boys; most Cohen brothers films; Amelie; the original Star Wars trilogy; The Color Purple; Cry Freedom; The Shawshank Redemption; Midnight Cowboy; Millions; The Edukators.
Boosh, Spaced, CSI, QI, ‘interesting’ documentaries (not the ones on channel five, although they can be voyeuristically intriguing sometimes); Planet Earth; music channels, Home and Away (my guilty pleasure!).
The Wasp Factory; Jonathon Livingstone Seagull; A Prayer for Owen Meaney; The World According to Garp; The God of Small Things; Morvern Caller; The Trick is to Keep Breathing; Girlfriend in a Coma; A Room of One’s Own; lots of social science, political and feminist non-fiction.Currently reading “Female Chauvinist Pigs – Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture†by Ariel Levy, which I highly recommend as a provocative and intelligent read full of many (‘uncomfortable’?) truths and certainly lots to think about.
People with courage and conviction, empathy and compassion who get off their arses and make the world a better place for the rest of us. The great feminists who make us think and still challenge the status quo. People dripping in talent and who use it positively.