The titanic genius of Bob Dylan, the "oceanic mind" of Shakespeare, history, poetry, philosophy, the current state of our country and the world.
Hot young chicks with belly-button rings... whoops, no, like-minded souls who find some resonance with my interests and view of things.
Dylan; Wilco; Flaming Lips; the Pernice Brothers; the Bigger Lovers; the Delgados; Elliott Smith (RIP); Teenage Fanclub; Fountains of Wayne; in general melodic indie stuff with a lyrical bent & great hooks.
Seven Samurai; The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance; Amarcord; Mary Poppins; The Quiet Man; Repo Man; Patton; Goodfellas; Blade Runner (original version, not Director's Cut); Pulp Fiction; Crash; The Searchers; Yojimbo; The Lord of the Rings all 3 in a row; The Friends of Eddie Coyle; Farewell My Lovely.
Early Simpsons (they should have quit long ago); Sopranos; Homicide; the Wire; Seinfeld; King of the Hill.
My Antonia, Death Comes for the Archbishop, Anna Karenina, Parkman's France and England in North America, Dylan's Chronicles I, Coleridge's Poems, A.R. Ammons' A Coast of Trees, the Riverside Shakespeare, the Adams-Jefferson Letters. The Scarlet Letter, The Education of Henry Adams, Moby Dick. "Ode: Intimations of Immortality."
John Adams; U.S. Grant; A. R. Ammons; Sir Thomas Browne