music, reading, writing poetry/lyrics, playing guitar, singing, film, tv, pin-ups and assorted "erotica," sarcasm, drinkin', smokin', introspection, sarcasm, politics (I'm left and always right), bullshit conversations, sarcasm, thrift stores, dissecting propaganda, observation in general, picking through vinyl, cooking (really), messing w/ the squares, self-deprecation, finger-pointin' songs (like this one), intellectualism, pseudo-intellectualism, pizzatarianism. did i mention sarcasm?
Music
My triumvirate of song: Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello and Tom Waits! Randy Newman, Wilco, Billy Bragg, Aimee Mann, Lucinda Williams, Ryan Adams, the Talking Heads, Television, Ted Leo/the Pharmacists, the Jam, X, the Damned, the Clash, Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, The Cars, Devo, Joe Jackson, the Pixies, the Specials, X-Ray Specs, The Boomtown Rats, PIL, Fugazi, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Dream Syndicate, the Decemberists, Elliott Smith, the Black Keys, Bowie, Nirvana, Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Muddy, Leadbelly, Graham Parker, Joni Mitchell, Oingo Boingo, MC5, the Figgs, The Zutons, Franz Ferdinand, The White Stripes, My Morning Jacket, Bikini Kill, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Who, Buddy Holly, Gillian Welch, Hank Sr., Charlie Parker, Woody Guthrie, Kurt Weill, the Birthday Party, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Sublime, Johnny Cash, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Django Reinhardt, Mose Allison, Dave Brubeck, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Replacements, Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, The Band, The Animals, Steely Dan, Warren Zevon, Frank Zappa, the Doors, the Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Toots and the Maytalls, Pink Floyd, Uncle Tupelo, REM, The Yardbirds, Cream, Bad Company, the Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Brian Setzer, Dick Dale, Edith Piaf, Marlene Dietrich, Hall & Oates, Janis Joplin, PJ Harvey, Dinosaur Jr., the Rolling Stones, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette, Booker T. and MG's, Willie Dixon, Billie Holiday, Dusty Springfield, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Richard Thompson, John Hiatt, the Beach Boys, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Burt Bacharach, Lyle Lovett, Dwight Yoakum, George Jones, Emmylou Harris, John Lennon, the Beatles, Chuck Berry, Patti Smith, Roy Orbison, Bill Haley & the Comets, Bo Diddley, Dave Edmunds, Regina Spektor. (there are more, I just can't think of 'em). I appreciate jazz, blues, old country, roots music, old r&b, soul, gospel, reggae, ska, punk, indie...
"Trying to look Italian through the musical valium."
Movies
Dr. Strangelove, Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter, Scarface, Drugstore Cowboy, 12 Angry Men, Midnight Cowboy, Barfly, Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Better Off Dead, High Fidelty, Ghost World, Secretary, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Where the Buffalo Roam (the other HST movie), Taxi Driver, B. Monkey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws, Killing Zoe, Crumb, Henry and June, Quadrophenia, Saturday Night Fever, The Trip, Easy Rider, JFK, American Movie, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, Girl on the Bridge, Bitter Moon, Damage (anything with Juliette Binoche), Heathers, The Last Waltz, Citizen Kane, It's a Wonderful Life, Wild at Heart, Blue Velvet, Trees Lounge, Scotland PA, anything Russ Meyer (Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Up, Supervixen, etc.)
Television
My favorite show is Countdown with Keith Olbermann, The Rachel Maddow Show (she singlehandedly destigmatizes the word "liberal") The Office, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, The Simpsons, Letterman, Conan. I like PBS (Frontline, American Experience, Bill Moyers Journal), the Discovery Channel, TLC, History Channel, A&E, Bravo and Food Network. Some old faves. are Get a Life (Chris Elliot's show), MST3K, Northern Exposure, the Twilight Zone and so on...
Books
Faulkner, Miller, Vonnegut, Twain recently. "A Clockwork Orange." My favorite poets are Ginsberg, Bukowski, the English Romantics and the French Symbolists. "Rule of the Bone" by R. Banks. Love Hunter S. Thompson (the good doctor), Nin, Hesse, Huxley, Camus, Nietzsche (a great poet, actually), Descartes, etc. "Why Are We in Vietnam?" by Mailer. Dylan's "Chronicles: Volume One." Russell Banks' "Cloudsplitter." "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock'N'Roll Generation Saved Hollywood." Banks' "The Sweet Hereafter." "The Dick Cheney Code" (a parody of the DaVinci Code). "The Buzzing" by Jim Knipfel. "Fat Bald Jeff" by Leslie Stella. "Middlesex" and "The Virgin Suicides" by Jeffrey Eugenides. "Everything is Illuminated" by Jonathan Safran Foer. William Burroughs "Junky". "Armed Madhouse" by Greg Palast (a must read for anyone who cares to know the truth). "The Satanic Verses" (that Rushdie is sharp). "The Sexual Life of Catherine M.", "Sideways", Klosterman's "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs" (best thing I've read in a while).
Happy primary day, sir. Did you know that around 160,000 PA Republicans changed their affiliation to Democrat? Hopefully that's a sign of the power of our man rather than a nefarious plan to tip the race the other way.
Who says PA hasn't had a chance to shine since the constitution was signed?? Have we forgotten ROCKY? What about the 70's Steelers with Terry Bradshaw? AND BEL BIV DEVOE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD?
"Trying to look Italian through the musical valium."
