Anything that is vaguely melancholic has probably got me going at some point. For cathartic experiences, nothing beats swimming in the open surf at night. Just don't do it drunk.
People who have vision, a plan and hopefully a method. People who mean something. Rolling around in flower beds with the mannequin just doesn't cut it.
I Love Rock. I Love Electro. I generally like it dark. I don't like it mixed together. I love classical music, and jazz from Charlie Parker to Miles Davis with everything in between. Gil Evans' arrangement of Concerto de Aranjuez. Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, Billie Holiday, Ella, Frank and the rest.
For the others: Johnny Cash, the Beatles, The Doors, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, David Bowie, Joy Division, New Order, The Smiths, Gary Numan, The Kinks, Lou Reed (A Perfect Day gets a special mention), The Velvet Underground, Queen, Madonna's first punk album - it seriously rocks, Sonic Youth, Royal Trux, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, Silverchair, everything from the Bristol movement from the early-mid 90's, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Elliott Smith, Daniel Johns, The Dissociatives, Tim Buckley, Jeff Buckley, Adam Green, Radiohead, Air, Plaid, Boards of Canada, Aphex Twin, Perry Blake, PJ Harvey, JJ Johansson, DJ Shadow, Beastie Boys, Sage Francis, Grand Buffet, Cex, Kid 606, Eminem, Aggroberlin, Jeff Mills for the memories. Depeche Mode. Bjork. Dolly....Patsy Cline. The Strokes and The White Stripes. Ezra Reich. And GORAN BREGOVIC - solid gold! Crazy Eastern European Gypsy music to get drunk to. Jenny Green that one is for you. Plus whatever shit or weird song I may feel like listening to at the time. I have a short attention span. Fuck I love music in general.
All-time top ten.
It is too traumatising to list my faves as there are so many (like Hi-fidelity, or Clerks or anything with Jim Carrey in it) but for what it is worth, I think the following films are built for endurance. .....
1. Andrei Rublov-Tarkovsky.
2. 2001 Space Odyessy-Kubrick.
3. Clockwork Orange-Kubrick.
4. Apocalypse Now-Francis Ford Coppola.
5. The Godfather (counting the trilogy as one)-Francis Ford Coppola.
6. Casanova-Fellini.
7. Europa Zentropa-Lars Von Trier.
8. Seventh Seal-Bergman.
9. Raging Bull-Scorcese.
10. Bladerunner The Director's Cut-Ridley Scott.
11. Breathless-Goddard.
12. The Bicycle Thieves-Vittorio De Sica.
13. Le Samurai-Jean-Pierre Melville.
14. Underground-Emir Kusturica.
15. Floria Sigismundi - VCs and art.
16. La Reine Margot - etc etc
For laughs:
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls-Russ Meyer and Rocco goes to Prague
I have never owned a TV. Television is the opiate of the masses.
FICTION:
Down and Out in Paris and London (George Orwell), The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald), Anna Karenina (Tolstoy), The Idiot (Fyodor Dostoevsky), Portrait of a Lady (Henry James), Nostromo (Joseph Conrad), The Rainbow (DH Lawrence), Middlemarch (George Elliot), Confessions of an Opium Eater (Thomas DeQuincey) Les Fleurs du Mal (Baudelaire), Un Saison d'enfer (Rimbaud), The Penguin Edition of English Verse. Everything by John Le Carre. I hate the pretentious 80's NYC writer thing. But I love everything by Hubert Selby Jnr. Currently reading nothing. I need to start reading again.
NON FICTION:
Ozzy Osbourne's biography, biographies in general, art books, graphic art and photography, film, couture etc etc.
Arthur Rimbaud - the ultimate genuis who didn't give a fuck but was so consummately brilliant that he didn't need to.
Lewis Carroll - for creating a world of mystique and dreamscape and bringing it into my bedroom as a small child - and making me believe in the endless possibilities of following the white rabbit to see where it goes.