Really weird... ready? The Raconteurs, Steely Dan, Nick Drake, Ben Folds, the Eagles, Nirvana, Sublime, James Taylor, the Police, Foo Fighters, Paris coffee house jazz, Amos Lee, Damien Rice, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Tiromancino
Movies
Good Will Hunting, Dust to Glory, Rachel Getting Married, The Wrestler, Slumdog Millionaire, most anything by Almodovar...
Television
TiVo has made TV bearable. This American Life (Showtime), The Office, The Daily Show.
Books
I could fill pages here. Here's an incomprehensive list of top-of-minders right now: The Suicide Index (J. Wickersham), Clockers (Richard Price), Drown (Junot Diaz), The Road (Cormac McCarthy), The Sun Also Rises (Hemingway), Pastoralia (George Saunders), Church of Dead Girls (Stephen Dobyns). I like Hunter S. Thompson and Don Winslow and Charles Bukowski. Other great reads include: Under the Banner of Heaven (Jon Krakauer), The Perfect Storm (Sebastian Junger), Shadow Divers (Robert Kurston), Hot Zone (Richard Preston), The Last Season (Eric Blehm), The Things They Carried (Tim O'Brien). Add in books by J. Maarten Troost, Ayun Halliday, Edward Marriott, Charles Bowden, Peter Matthiessen, Rory Stewart, Mark Bowden, Allan C. Weisbecker, Tim Cahill. This American Life alumni: Lenny Bruce is Dead (Jonathan Goldstein), Don't Get Too Comfortable (David Rakoff), Take the Cannoli (Sarah Vowell), Beware of God (Shalom Auslander) - and watch for good stuff coming soon from New York writer Susan Henderson...
Heroes
Joseph Campbell (even posthumously). Ira Glass (a man who follows his vision and doesn't compromise). Al Gore (for resurrecting himself... What! He wasn't dead?)
About me: JAMES R. SPRING: has lived much of his adult life in Latin America. From slumming as a charter boat captain, to running contraband across borders, his careers have taken him to some of the most remote pockets on the planet. He has contributed to This American Life, heard on National Public Radio, and has been featured in radio expeditions for Atlantic Public Media on NPR. His radio assignments have ranged from 'embedding' with the Minutemen at the border, to covering the Baja 1000 off-road race - to motorcycling solo through Mexico's Sierra Madre where he recorded his experiences with Tarahumara drug traffickers. He previously served as a foreign correspondent for Cox Newspapers.
(Represented by Sterling Lord Literistic) See - and hear - more at JamesRSpring.com</www.JamesRSpring.com
Who I'd like to meet: Scott Carrier, Dave Eggers, George Saunders, Cormac McCarthy, J.D. Salinger, and a whole lot o' dead people...
Hola James been checkin' out my friend Ilka photos...she just returned from a Weekend in Panama..had to point out all the Orchids I saw growing Wild in some of her photos! We are over on FaceBook c'mon & find Us! Lots of Zonians there and many that are living Panama! Such GOOD people!
As the bus slowed down at the crowded bus stop, the Pakistani bus conductor leaned from the platform and called out, "Six only!" The bus stopped. He counted on six passengers, rang the bell, and then, as the bus moved off, called to those left behind: "So sorry, plenty of room in my heart - but the bus is full." He left behind a row of smiling faces. It's not what you do, it's the way that you do it. ~The Friendship Book of Francis Gay, 1977
Hey dude, I managed to get back on here. I am in Granada now, and gunna head to The capital of Honduras tomorrow. Then up to the ruins and into Guatemala. And head straight for San Pedro, and thats pretty much me sorted for a week or so.
Thanks for the request, I have really enjoyed all your pieces!
random fact, my boyfriend goes to the University Scott Carrier teaches at here in Salt Lake. I just noticed he's on your list of people you'd like to meet.
Automated Myspace Reply: JVV is dead. A note was left for the following: Her Family, Her employer, the guys who cut her grass, George Bush and Jimmy Spring.
If humanity does not opt for integrity we are through completely. It is absolutely touch and go. Each one of us could make the difference. R. Buckminster Fuller
muchas thanks for the support at the festival! Hope you got some good Green Room grub. Writers, free food...I had to elbow Chris Abani off the buffet line... :o