books: the accidental masterpiece, devil in the white city, his dark materials trilogy, interpreter of maladies, the puttermesser papers, me talk pretty one day, the moor’s last sigh, if on a winter’s night a traveler, pilgrim at tinker creek, ‘arry potter, baghdad without a map, jitterbug perfume, one hundred years of solitude, plato’s republic, chronicles of narnia (before it was fashionable), walk two moons, leonardo the terrible monster
music: old 97s, wilco, canasta, the shins, the smiths, joy division, new order, ladytron, belle & sebastian, the chameleons, the stills, kings of convenience, spoon, calexico, dengue fever, pernice brothers, that dog., the thrills, aislers set, the deathray davies, field mice, fugu, mates of state, gorky’s zygotic mynci, elliott smith, uncle tupelo, neko case & her boyfriends, pulp, blur, richard hawley, sondre lerche, the magnetic fields, ella fitzgerald, miles davis, stan getz, john coltrane. and that damn milkshake song.
tv/movies: um, yeah. I have maybe the worst pop culture IQ of anybody you’ve met. for real. try me.
art: I’m all over the place, but I know the most about Italian Renaissance, modern architecture, and 20th century painting. And we tend to appreciate what we know. But I’ve recently developed a thing for street murals. This picture is from a street mural in Pilsen (a Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago’s south side); it’s one of my favorites. The set of murals it belongs to is known as Galeria del Barrio and was painted in 1976 by artist Aurelio Diaz. I also seem to be stuck in a perpetual Mark Rothko phase (I can’t help it. I love how you just fall into those color fields).
