Modern art, including literature, the height of which I think is probably a period from around the turn of the century to the 1930s; black literature of all sorts, from Himes and those guys to Morrison and some of the younger black male writers, like Whitehead and Beatty; writing, mostly political essays or film reviews, but I have been known to engage in feuilleton-style explorations.
Mostly dead people, but among those alive, I guess maybe Bill Cosby? People used to call me Doctor Huxtable in high school, and when feeling a bit meaner, would say I had a nose like Bill Cosby (or Gonzo from Sesame Street!). So I want to see Bill's nose up close and find out the truth. Now that I have been looking around MySpace, though, I see that this question is more realistic: I want to meet artists of all sorts--writers, painters, dramatists, poets, creative people. I am a painter, and I enjoy discussing art and things like that. I also enjoy discussing and writing about politics and cultural issues from the left (extreme left in my case!).
Jazz and hip-hop. My favorite horn blower is Eric Dolphy, while my favorite piano player changes from time to time, but I have loved Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, McCoy Tyner, Andrew Hill, and Mal Waldron. Among hip-hop artists, my favorites are way too many to mention, but let's say I started with Eric B & Rakim and LL Cool J in 1986, loved KRS in 1987, bought the NWA stuff in 1987 (when they were selling it on the streets in LA), Slick Rick in 1988--then I stopped buying anything for a while, but I heard Tribe and De La when they came out in 1989. The Native Tongues were my favorites for a while, and the DITC crew in 1992. So, when I wanna hear some hip hop, I want real beats and real rhymes. Preferably sampled beats and tight, well-constructed rhymes. It goes without saying that I can't stand most of what's on the radio today--most of the Southerners really need to go back to the drawing board. Except for Ludacris and the Geto Boys. And pretty much all the gangsta stuff, New York included, is tired and sad.So, while I will only buy jazz and hip-hop today, I have a lot of early 90s R&B stuff. New Jack Swing, baby! I also like a lot of the 80s R&B, like Cameo and New Edition, Timex Social Club, Prince, The Time--you know, the classics! I also have quite a collection of what I will call bedroom music from the same two eras. They just don't make slow jams like they used to.
I think that the best pop movie in US history is Godfather II, though I don't enjoy it viscerally. It's more like I have to credit it with its astounding achievement. The next best pop movie in US history is Fight Club, which I do enjoy, and which has just as much content as Godfather II.Some other favorite movies are all those gritty independent-type movies from the 70s, like Five Easy Pieces and that sort of stuff. There are really so many great films it's hard to keep track. There's one independent black movie from the 60s, filmed in black and white, though, about this black worker from the wrong side of the tracks, who meets and falls in love with this preacher's daughter. That was fantastic direction-wise: like the composition of the shots and stuff. Unfortunately, all the times I have seen it, I never saw the title screens, so I never have been able to remember the name. Maybe you can help me?
My favorite TV show is The Wire. Second is Nip/Tuck. But I don't watch that much TV. Honest. Really.
The best novel I have ever read is the USA Trilogy (The 42d Parallel, 1919, The Big Money), by John Dos Passos. It's an astonishing and beautifully written slice of life in the USA around the time of WWI. The texture of the time is palpable, and the hope for the future--the spirit of modernism in the arts and class struggles of the time--is tangible. If it is the only novel you read, or if you will only read one book more than 50 years old in your life, you just gotta choose this one. Or maybe Moby Dick. But I don't know because I keep getting bogged down when I try to read that.As for nonfiction, well, I've read a lot, and there's too much to mention. But I am interested in politics and economics, and thus political economy, and a relatively recent book that tackles that subject well is Michael Hudson's SuperImperialism, written in 1972.
I firmly believe that the people we tend to look up to throughout history are aspects of potential human being--I think that we have sort of a responsibility to try to incorporate their lives into our own lives. That's pretty strong, I know, but what's the use of heroes if you can't do what they've done? What I guess I am trying to say is that I want to be my own hero. Not that am or anything.But among people who inspire me, I'd have to give a very special place to Malcolm, because he is the most recent and well-known case of someone pulling themselves out of the muck and degradation of this society, making something of themselves, and forming an opposition to it.I also admire Georg Grosz for the style and content of his art, Picasso for his formal innovations, Marx for explaining how capitalism works, Chester Himes for making me laugh and cry, my mom for keeping on keeping on, and tons of other people.