Kittens; punk; metallll; writing stories; riding motorbikes; tattoos; rockabilly; books; art; kittens; swing; kittens; fillums; discovering new places; sticky-outy skirts; kittens; people who don't take themselves too seriously; ridiculously impractical shoes; scrirrels; the Natural History Museum; teaching; kittens; dancing in a silly fashion; pirates; interesting conversation; old man pubs; smelly music venues; Chaps and kittens. Oh, and kittens.
Anyone who's into any or all of the following: books; rock n roll; punkrock; metal; blues; art; films; exciting style; frozen peas; tea; factor 50 sun cream; tattooing; creativity and intelligent conversation. Passionate folks! People who dream and work hard to achieve their goals.
I'm not a friend collector though, so if you're a guy looking for another girl to tuck away in your profile going by the assumption that more chicks = bigger cock, I am a waste of your no doubt very valuable time.
Be warned: I cannot narrow this down to "just a few" bands, so prepare thyself for a boring list or skip to the next bit...
AFI, The Cramps, Mastodon, Slayer, Pantera, Isis, Botch, Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Tiger Army, Bauhaus, Radiohead, Balzac, Misfits, Dead Kennedys, Bjork, Nick Cave, Deftones, Propagandhi, Hot Water Music, In Flames, Shark Attack, Bridgeburner, Erykah Badu, The Nerve Agents, David Bowie, Johnny Cash, The Ramones, Calexico, Dick Dale, The Cure, Stray Cats/Brian Setzer, Dusty Springfield, Ella Fitzgerald, Meshuggah, Regina Spektor, Opeth, Darkthrone, Discharge, Minor Threat, Death, B.B. King, Nekromantix, Lavay Smith and her Red Hot Skillet Lickers, Dillinger Escape Plan, The Meteors, Demented Are Go, Miles Davis, Stampin' Ground, Mad Sin, Lamb, Portishead, Horrorpops, Air, Sisters Of Mercy, Strapping Young Lad, Sick Of It All, Gogol Bordello, Tom Waits, Buddy Holly, Simon Mastrantone, Tool, J.R. Ewing, The Sedan Vault, Circle, Violent Femmes, At The Gates, Arch Enemy, As Friends Rust, Turbonegro, Zeke, Cake, The Damned, Darkest Hour, The Groovie Ghoulies, Simon and Garfunkel, At The Drive-In, DJ Shadow, Dimmu Borgir, Children of Bodom, Cave In, Jeremy Warmsley, Nightwish, Beck, Transplants, Darkane, The Mummies, Son Of Sam, The Kinks, The Guillemots, Bic Runga, Melt Banana... can I stop now?
Some Like It Hot; The Nightmare Before Christmas; Secretary; North By Northwest; Old Boy; Sympathy for Mr Vengeance; The Happiness of the Katakuris; Harold and Maude; Donnie Darko; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Six String Samurai; Amelie; Pan's Labyrinth; Sin City and Rear Window.
Don't watch a lot, but I enjoy aesthetically pleasing crime series (Miss Marple, Poirot, Midsomer Murders, Jonathan Creek... coffee and a corpse stuff); pretty, think-some period dramas (the BBC Pride and Prej is the benchmark) and good comedy (Monty Python, The Day Today, Brasseye, The League of Gentlemen, Spaced etc etc). Oh, and The Prisoner. But then, who doesn't love The Prisoner?
OK... My favourite books ever are "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen; "Catch 22" by Joseph Heller; "Slaughterhouse 5" by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco. Ones I have read over the past 6 months include "Labyrinths" by Jorge Luis Borges; "Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky" by Patrick Hamilton; "Venus in Furs" by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch; "The Golem" by Gustav Meyrink; "The Twelve Caesars" by Suetonius; "Misfortune" by Wesley Stace; "English Passengers" by Matthew Kneale; "The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear" by Walter Moers; "Madam Crowl's Ghost" by J.S le Fanu; "The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker" by Tobias Smollett; "The Woman in Black" by Susan Hill; "The Good Soldier Svejk" by Jaroslav Hasek and a shedload of others I can't remember right this minute. I HEARTILY recommend "Misfortune" to anybody, it's a fantastic book.
I've also recently finished writing my own children's novel, "Swans and Swashbucklers!", which is pretty exciting.
Wouldn't go so far as to say 'hero', but I wish I could write like Jane Austen, with concise and meticulously chosen prose that never fails to hit the mark.