A little curiosity satisfying survey...

[Joe]

Probably the wrong forum, but what the hey. Just wondering what everyone's favourite:
Bands/Music
Films/Film Genre
Books
are.
For me its:
Pearl Jam/Grunge

Glengarry Glen Ross, Grosse Point Blank/Black comedies

Men at Arms, by Terry Pratchett
Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby


This is a bit of a test actually, whose results will probably be totally at odds to what I expect.

[Nostradamus]

Big Terry Pratchett fan here. Wish I could get the cover of "Soul Music" blown up to poster size...

You can read people's responses to all kinds of polls, surveys, and questionaires in the Off-Topic forum on this site.

[dTheater]

Dream Theater, Spock's Beard/progressive rock

American Beauty, Magnolia, Ghost World, This Is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me/no genre in particular, although I'm fond of mockumentaries (like Spinal Tap) or fly-on-the-wall satire (i.e. Wag the Dog)

Sphere by Michael Crichton
Eye of the Needle by Ken Follet

[So-Called Loon]

Ah-oh. Favorite is very tough in these categories. It's gonna have to be wishy-washy. Say, favorites.

Bands--------> Hmmm-haven't liked many since the early 90's and the 80s when synthesizer stuff was big. R.E.M.'s in there. Depeche Mode. Tori Amos. Kix. Going WAY back, Pat Benatar. These days it's song pick-and-choose.

Music --------> I really like some of almost everything except easy listening, rap, and country. But the basic range pop to metal is probably at the top.

Films --------> The Matrix, A Clockwork Orange, sex, lies, and videotape, Heathers, The Crying Game, Mona Lisa, American Beauty, A Time To Kill, True Romance

Film Genre --> Sci-Fi with tons of effects, and freaky things with almost none.

Books --------> Anything by Orson Scott Card, William Gibson, Niven,... pretty much Sci-Fi & Cyberpunk


Nothing i like can be defined well by catergories. I'd have to get into elaborate criteria.

How about the opposites? I require people to pay Me generously to see a flick with any of the following "stars": Mike Meyers, Adam Sandler, Jim Carey, David Spade, and just about any former sports figure, martial artist (except Jackie Chan), or pro wrestler.

[dTheater]

How about the opposites? I require people to pay Me generously to see a flick with any of the following "stars": Mike Meyers, Adam Sandler, Jim Carey, David Spade, and just about any former sports figure, martial artist (except Jackie Chan), or pro wrestler.

Ha ha...you think just like me. Basically, I can't watch any former SNL star comedy, or any Jim Carrey comedy. Although I love The Truman Show and he was very good in Man On the Moon. And I loved Punch Drunk Love, but I'd hardly call that an Adam Sandler movie. I think I'm personally offended by broad social trends.

[mglenn]

Bands ---
The Clarks
Stuck on Amber
R.E.M.
HEM
Ani Defranco
Indigo Girls
yes... I love female singers... I have a serious jones for them and especially love girls that sing with force like Ani...psychology 101 not nessisary I'm well aware that I have issues

Books ---
Fiction
Tom Clancy, Without Remorse, Clear and Present Danger...
Michael Crichton, Airframe, Disclosure
Douglas Adams, HGTG
Frank Herbert, Dune
Orson Scott Card, Enders Game
Terry Pratchett, Small Gods

Non-Fiction
Mark Bowden, Black Hawk Down
Charles Henderson, Marine Sniper
Richard Marcinko, Rogue Warrior
Richard Poe, The Seven Myths of Gun Control
Hamilton, Madison, The Federalist Papers

Movies ---
Pi
Memento
Highlander (The visuals in this are stunning. I swear MSCL got the idea for some of the fades it uses from this movie.) (Watch the first one and none of the others... EVER!)
Henry V, Shakespear at its best!


Bonus Catagory: TV Shows
Twin Peaks... My new favorite, watchin it on Bravo now, figured I'd like it and I do
Babylon 5... low production values but there's a 5 year story arc that is awsome.
Buffy... Joss is a master storyteller.
MSCL... This one should be obvious, why else whould I subject myself to being part of this site.

[fnordboy]

Ok well this is going to be tough to narrow down, but here it goes:

Bands:

• Rainer Maria
  Pinback
  Heavy Vegetable
  Bright Eyes
  Swirlies
  Hum
  Poster Children
  Skinny Puppy
  Cex
  Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry
  Joy Division
  Hot Water Music
  planesmistakenforstars
  Small Brown Bike

Books:

fiction:

• Vurt - Jeff Noon
  Ham on Rye - Charles Bukowski
  Illuminatus! Trilogy - Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea
  Good Omens - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
  Nymphomation - Jeff Noon
  anything by James Joyce
  Schrodingers Cat Trilogy - Robert Anton Wilson
  Story of the Eye - Georges Bataille

non-fiction:

• Principia Discordia - Malaclypse the Younger
  Book of the Law - Aleister Crowley
  anything by Carl Jung
  Taking the Quantum Leap - Fred Allan Wolff

Movies:

• Heavenly Creatures
  Pi
  Battle Royale (japanese)
  Audition (japanese)
  JFK
  ANY MOVIE by Peter Greenaway (the BEST hands down)
  Un Chien Andalou
  Pandora's Box (silent)
  Diary of a Lost Girl (silent)
  ----- yes i am a huge Louise Brooks fan
  Suspiria

[SanDeE*]

Hi everyone.

Wow, I think my taste differs from a lot of the people who posted so far. But it's great that we obviously all have MSCL in common! Yay diversity!

For me:
Movies
This is Spinal Tap
Fight Club
Jurassic Park
American Beauty
and many more...


Books
Memoirs of a Geisha - Aurthur Golden
Shopgirl - Steve Martin
Death be not Proud - John Gunther
Le Petit Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
and many more...

Bands
Four Charms (local Chicago band)
Od Tapo Imi (local Madison, WI band)
Ani DiFranco
BB King
Keb Mo
Grant Green
Wes Montgomery
Clifford Brown
Sarah Vaughn
Buddy Holly
Billie Holiday
and many many many many more... (hey - I'm a music major!)

[NIGHTJESSI]

Joe, thanx for letting us see what we have in common and don't have in common with others here. My list ...

Bands
There really are too many to mention, especially since there are news ones to discover and old ones to rediscover all the time, but a few at the forefront of my mind these days include:

~ Coldplay
~ Rhea's Obsession
~ Flickerstick
~ My Dying Bride
~ Novembers Doom
~ Avernus
~ Tiamat
~ The Gathering
~ Nightwish
~ Anathema
~ Theatre of Tragedy
~ Amorphis
~ Moonspell
~ In Flames
~ Gus Gus

Music
Heavy metal has always been my first musical love, although female singers as well as chill and some new age and goth have really taken a hold of me lately.

Films
This is another one of those tough categories to narrow down, but a few that spring to mind are:

~ The Breakfast Club.
~ Bram Stoker's Dracula.
~ Say Anything.
~ Shakespeare in Love.
~ The Matrix.
~ Pretty Woman.
~ Swingers.
~ Titanic.
~ Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.
~ Top Gun.

Film Genre
Vampire, the more romantic kind rather than the horror kind.

Books
Vampire novels, especially Anne Rice and the multitude of White Wolf titles out there, when I get a chance. Most of the time, I have to settle with reading a magazine because that's all RL allows.

[lance]

Wow,

Great topic. I took a couple of days to think this one over.

Bands My all time favorite band is Queen. I heard my first Queen song when I was nine in 1980. I have loved them ever since. My one regret is never having seen them in concert.

Music I listen to all kinds of music, rap being the lone exception. I pretty much pick and choose depending on the mood.

Films Ghandi, Thunderheart, Fifth Element, Red Planet, Glory, The Mission, Noises Off.

Film Genre I love Science Fiction, Historical films and comedies, definately need those comedies.

Books Autobiography of Malcolm X, Star Wars New Jedi Order series, Dune series by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson

TV Series MSCL of course, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Farscape, Homicide: Life on the Street, Robotech, Babylon 5 and Exosquad.

Lance Man

[kidbro77]

Here's my contribution!

Bands/Music - MADONNA MADONNA MADONNA. Close runner ups: Kylie Minogue, Alanis Morissette.

Films/Film Genre - I could watch BEING JOHN MALKOVICH over and over again. I also really enjoyed THE JOY LUCK CLUB the first time I saw it, I remember bawling my eyes out in the theatre and thinking "Cool! Asians on the big screen, WITHOUT an accent!" As well, MURIEL'S WEDDING and ROMI AND MICHELLE'S HIGH SCHOOL REUNION both rock.

Books - A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, White Oleander by Janet Fitch, Barrel Fever by David Sedaris, and Miss Spider's Tea Party by David Kirk.

[Nostradamus]

Bands/Music: There is no single genre of music that I especially like or dislike. As I see (or hear) it, they've all had some masterpieces and some embarrassments; I try to find the former and avoid the latter. Likewise, I have never really latched onto any particular band/group/artist/performer.

Films/Film Genre: Mostly the same as the music, with maybe a slight trend toward suspense thrillers and mysteries: Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Twelve Angry Men, The Manchurian Candidate, From Russia With Love, Conspiricy Theory, Rear Window, etc. On a lighter note, Barefoot In The Park is the funniest movie I've ever seen; the first time I saw it I nearly stopped breathing from laughing so hard. Finally, do you suppose the even-numbered Star Trek movies count as a genre?

Books: Again, pretty scattershot, with more nonfiction and magazines than novels or poetry. I will read just about anything written by Terry Pratchett, JRR Tolkien, or Sam Clemens.

"Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand"

[katy]

i kept meaning to respond to this, but now i find that i'm about a week late (took a while to gather my thoughts). better late than never though, i suppose. so here goes:

Bands:
Barenaked Ladies (I own ALL of their full length CDs)
Indigo Girls, Tori Amos, Alanis Morisette, U2, REM
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – original soundtrack and Once More With Feeling soundtrack

Music:
I listen to just about everything. I’m not a big fan of rap or country, but there are a few exceptions in my collection. I am a big fan of musicals (Miss Saigon, Evita, Les Miserables, Godspell, etc.) and movie/TV soundtracks (released and self-made). I also love classical and old-fashioned jazz/swing music.

Films:
Moulin Rouge, Strictly Ballroom – Baz Luhrmann amazes me!
Princess Bride, The Power of One, Much Ado About Nothing, The Matrix
Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea
Classic Disney – Fantasia, Robin Hood, Pete’s Dragon, Beauty and the Beast, Newsies, etc.
I know the children’s movies are over-represented, but I can’t think of any other movies at the moment.

Books:
Ishmael, The Story of B, My Ishmael – all by Daniel Quinn, about saving the world (the BEST books I have EVER read, and probably will ever read)
Hope for the Flowers – Trina Paulus, The Four Agreements – Don Miguel Ruiz
A Swiftly Tilting Planet, A Ring of Endless Light, A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle (all 3)
The Giver – Lois Lowry
Crime and Punishment, Jane Eyre, Metamorphosis (Kafka), Exodus (Uris), Night (Wiesel)
The Princess Bride (even better than the movie)
Harry Potter I-IV (IV is my favorite so far)
The Sneetches and Other Stories, Goodnight Moon, The World of Pooh

TV Series:
- Current -
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – I echo Mike on this one…Joss truly is a master storyteller
Gilmore Girls, Alias, West Wing, Whose Line Is It Anyway?

- Canceled -
My So-Called Life, Life Goes On, Christy

[Natasha (candygirl)]

Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby

Hey, I just read that book! Although I liked it, I liked High Fidelity better. Maybe this is due to the fact that I don't follow UK football so I wasn't familiar with all the players he talked about, but I felt that High Fidelity revealed a lot more of his inner workings and I love that!

I don't know if you are a big NH fan, but I thought HF was his best novel. I liked About a Boy (haven't seen the movie), and I liked How to be Good a little less, but I think High Fidelity was his best ever.

[glitter_punk]

My favorite bands are Smashing Pumpkins, Kill Hannah, Thirty Seconds to Mars, and Kylie Minogue. I like all genres... mostly alternative/rock, but it all depends on my mood. Favorite movies are Jay and Silent Bob series, Godfather trilogy, and Walk to Remember. Favorite books, I don't really read that much, but probably Walk to Remember.