Favorites

Everyone has favorites, so here are mine. As if you care. There are a lot of things I used to be into when I was younger, but don't really follow anymore, like comic books and the like. But in any case, here they are for posterity.

Animation: Battle Angel Alita, The Cat Returns (Neko no Ongaeshi), Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru no Haka), Heavy Metal, The Lord of the Rings, Macross Plus, The Maxx, Ninja Scroll, Robotech: The Series, Samurai Champloo, Sanctuary, Wave Twisters, Wizards.

Architects: Antonio Gaudí.

Bars: It's a secret dammit! All my favorite bars always get burnt!

Books: Sandra Cisneros' House on Mango Street, Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine, Jack Kerouac's On The Road, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, John Knowles' A Separate Peace, Milan Kundera's The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, George Orwell's 1984, Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Any John Steinbeck (Especially The Grapes of Wrath and The Moon is Down), Thomas Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Autobiography of Malcolm X.

Candy: These soft fruit shaped candies that I used to get from Knott's Berry Farm (Don't know if they make these anymore), Sunkist Fruit Gems (Don't know if they make these anymore either).

Clothes: Simple basics, solid colors. No advertising.

Clubs: Also a secret.

Comedians: Dave Chapelle, Bernie Mac, Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Chris Rock.

Comic Books/Graphic Novels: Barefoot Gen, Batman: Dark Knight, Camelot: 3000, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Daredevil (Frank Miller issues), Elektra: Assassin series, Longshot series, Maus I and II, New Mutants (Bill Sienkiewicz issues), Optic Nerve, Thor (Walter Simonson issues), X-Men (John Byrne issues). I'm old school.

Comic Strips: Boondocks, La Cucaracha, Life is Hell (the 80's years), Story Minute, This Modern World.

Dance: Hip-Hop or Jungle-Raver stylez (Personally into Drunken Style).

Food: Any Japanese (Especially Natto!), Any Hawaiian Local (Especially Kalua Pork, Lomi Lomi Salmon, Portuguese (Portagee) Sausage, and Spam Musubi), Korean Bar-B-Q, Any Mexican, Vietnamese Phô and Spring Rolls.

Girls: Classy, Cute, Down to Earth, Fresh, Funky.

Gum: Icebreakers (blue).

Liquor: Any Awamori, Beer [MGD (domestic) or Kirin or Heineken (import)], Belvedere Vodka, Hennessy XO Cognac, Otokoyama Sake, Southern Comfort.

Manga: Area 88, Blade of the Immortal, Lone Wolf and Cub, Mai (The Psychic Girl), Xenon. Again, I'm old school.

Movies: Casino, Chushingura, Dead Man, Drunken Master 2, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Fists of Legend 1, Fresh, Hito Hata, Ikiru, Lone Wolf and Cub Series, Men With Guns, Once Were Warriors, Picture Bride, The Professional, Seven Samurai, Smoke Signals, Sword of Doom, Twilight Samurai (Tasogare Seibei), Whale Rider, Yojimbo.

Music: See Music Page.

Painters: Salvador Dalí, Gustav Klimt, Manuel Ocampo.

Philosophy: Buddhism (Jodo Shinshu)

Photographers: Robert Frank, Man Ray, Jan Saudek.

Poets: E. E. Cummings, Sesshu Foster, Langston Hughes, Pablo Neruda, César Vallejo.

Quote: "If you want knowledge, you must take part in the practice of changing reality. If you want to know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it yourself. If you want to know the theory and methods of revolution, you must take part in revolution." -Mao Tse-Tung, from "On Practice," 1937.

Restaurants: On the down low.

Scene: Underground Hip-Hop and Jungle-Raver scene.

Secret Quirks: Sometimes like to shake an old light bulb until the broken filament scrapes the white coating away until it's clear. Sometimes like to keep a piece of beef jerky in mouth to suck on the juice. Still picks pennies up from the ground for good luck.

Smells: Freshly cut green onions, A girl with nice perfume, The ground after a rain, Incense in a Buddhist temple, Pineapple fields.

Sports: Boxing, Karate, Running, Soccer, Sumo.

Ukiyo-e: Ando Hiroshige, Utagawa Hiroshige, Katsushika Hokusai, Masami Teraoka, Yoshitoshi.