Alright, let's have a wee go at this, see how it turns out:
Recently: Belle and Sebastian (who I'm re-re-discovering as one of my all-time favourite bands),Fat Freddy's Drop, Uncle Tupelo, DJ Krush, Fourtet, The World's Rarest Funk 45's (album compiled by Quantic), One Self, Okkervil River
All-time favo(u)rites (and by this category I mean more than a single song): Stone Roses, DJ Shadow's first 2 albums, Beastie Boys, Dwight Yoakam (yes I know he's a country singer, but he's awesome), Ray Barretto, Super Furries, David Axelrod, Brian Eno, Aim, Rae & Christian, Massive Attack, Mogwai, Mos Def, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Dirty Three, Ryan Adams, Gillian Welch, Jeff Buckley, Tim Buckley, Bonnie Prince Billy, Gilles Peterson, My Morning Jacket, Nightmares on Wax, REM, Sigur Ros, Dylan, Etienne De Crecy, Lambchop, The Reindeer Section...
See...once you start you may never stop...so I'm going to.
Television
The Shield. The Unit. The Sopranos. Anything with a decent plot and some guns (and 'the' in the title). Oh...and 24...loving the new season...
Books
Recently:Saturday by Ian McEwan
The Massacre at El Mozote by Mark Danner - a prescient, timely account of an incident during the civil war in El Salvador that lays bare the murky world of realpolitik and the extent of the US's involvement in the region in the period foreshadowing the end of the Cold War. And the intro's by a fellow Dundonian, James Meek!
Riding the Iron Rooster. By train through China. by Paul Theroux. Really interesting...travel writing and observations about China during the 80's. Amazing to see how much has changed (economically at least). Inspiration for my next big adventure?? I sure have an itch to follow the Silk Road anyhow...
All-time recommended:
Anything by Murakami, Salinger, Nabokov, Jim Sallis, Martin Amis, Roget's Thesaurus, a decent Dictionary.
About me: I'm 28, and trying to start a career in writing/journalism, having spent the last 3 years travelling and teaching EFL.
Who I'd like to meet: Haruki Murakami, The Milan team of the early 90's (not so much meet as get to watch them play), Peter Kay, Ferran Adria, Tony Soprano (although having briefly met John Gotti jr., maybe not), Vic Mackie.
Hey Stotty. Congrats on the wedding. hope America is being nice to you. She has always been nice to me. Except for that hillbilly Bubba...... i've walked like john wayne ever since
