Be Excellent To Each Other

These are a few of my favourite things:

• The Dune novels, particularly Dune Messiah.
• David Lynch things, particularly Twin Peaks* and Mulholland Drive
• Apricots
• Making banal lists that recommend awesome stuff.
• Donald Crowhurst
• Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, the film moreso than the book.

And so on. *makes encouraging noises*

* Never seen Twin Peaks? Thinking about asking here about it? Don't. Buy/rent it here. Erm, but it does go shit for a few episodes, during the 2nd series. Stick with it - you will be ultimately vastly rewarded - then watch the movie Fire Walk With Me. Avoid all mention of it until you see it all. Warning: it may scare the shit out of you. It did me. Watch it now, in the dark. Avoid further mention of it until you do. All of it, all of it ALL OF IT OF IT ALL... Of it.

Jesus, too many to mention and I'll edit the fuck out of this post later so keep your peepers peeled:

The Master & Commander novels by Patrick O'Brien - after reading a few you come to regard the characters as close personal friends. A living, breathing world that you can genuinely feel a part of. Utterly beautiful.

Father Ted - so good Spanish housemates have watched with me, laughed, sent box sets to their relatives.

Laura Viers - American indie songstress that is the latest incarnation of clever singer-song-writer lass I love; Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Tanya Donnelly etc.

Twin Peaks + David Lynch stuff - Not seen the second series of TP, but he's the only director who seems to 'get' nightmares and dreams. The diner scene in Mullholland Drive is to date the most terrifying scene I have ever seen not in the movie Threads.

The Wire - so good it hurts. Literally. If you're not listening to Charlie Brooker and others who have taken great pains to explain why its so good, then you're an idiot.

Clever funny cute indie girls with brown hair called Sarah or Alice or Jane - I'm only human.

Altered Images - They're awesome, you're wrong.

G. K. Chesterton - The Napoleon of Notting Hill and The Man Who Was Thursday would have been adapted into movies already if Hollywood had a genuinely romantic and adventurous soul in their body. Quixiotic novels that explore the soul and offer up beautiful poetic and very funny surrealism with lots of Indianna Jones stuff thrown in. Thursday is like Monty Python meets Brazil meets Indianna Jones meets James Bond meets the Bible meets The Invisibles meets Father Ted meets everything glorious and true.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - there was a minor backlash against this impenetrable, hefty tome involving a gloriously complex faux historical magical adventure of two squabbling magicians seeking to reintroduce the Raven King's magic to England. Ignore it, the book's awesome and I shall never forget the journey.

Twisted by Design - perilously close to a scene now in Cardiff, despite one that only commands an average of 50-60 people attending. Still, I love this influential, Los Campesinos! referenced indie club deeply. Yay for Gary Twisted!

Calvin & Hobbes - oh, do you really need to know. Go read it, now. Even if you have before.

Captain Star - nobody knows about this cartoon despite it being the best cartoon since anything Chuck Jones did. Richard E Grant and Adrian Edmondson star. Captain Star is a narcisitic Captain in a starfleet stylee organisation, who's sole mission is to find new planets and civilisations, name them after himself and sell them things.

Eerie Indianna - see Twin Peaks and Twilight Zone - but for kids! And equally ace! (Don't watch the remake though, ugh.)

The Man Who Was Thursday is probably the best book I've read in the last few years (I scarcely read books these days, maybe 1, 2 a month), and everyone really should read it.

J.S. 'n' M.R. is next on my list after Roadside Picnic, as it happens - I've read the first twenty or so pages and am looking forward to it lots.

JS&MN: That book was a bit rubbish, but quite enjoying to read at the time. Looking back I dislike.
Eerie Indianna: Gosh, gosh yes. Got the box set. It's lovely.

• Seinfeld Box Sets: They've saved me from tedium so many times. Lovely lovely things.
• The Wii:Yeah the 360 has a more constant flow of stuff, but the Wii just fills me with glee.
• The Modded Xbox: In a proper world what all set top boxes would be.
• Rhythm Tengoku: It's joy in a little plastic box.
• My Blog: and the fact that a few people read it despite it being pretty rubbish.
• Lee and Herring: Basically moulded my sense of humour.
• Carl Sagan's A Demon Haunted World:Basically moulded my world view.
• Richard Dawkin's The Selfish Gene et al: Regardless of your views of his 'God book' or his general demeanour - his books on evolution are like being told things so elegantly that you feel you always new that and he just crystallised it in your mind. Brilliant.
• The Phoenix Wright Games: Because they are like a fun book.
• On line score boards: Because they've made points mean something again. And so made games brilliant.
• Dr Who & Battlestar Galactica: Just the fact that it's viable for the Beeb to make such family friendly nonsense whilst at the same time Sci-fi can make such takes-itself-seriously nonsense makes me happy.

What I like about your list is that you can combine some things to make other things.

Me + list =

• Transformers. And the fact that my girlfriends pays attention to me when I tell her who would win if one transformer fought another.
• My girlfriend. Pretty much everything I could want in a girl. Ever.
• British things. Except you lot, obv. My girlfriend accuses me of being an anglophile, but really, there's way more cool British stuff than American stuff or New Zealand stuff or Australian stuff or Continental European stuff or African stuff or Asian stuff. I actually assumed for a long time that Monkey Island was British, just because it was cooler than most stuff that comes out of the U.S.
• Buster Keaton. Another exception to the rule of anglophilia.
• CUS porn. Anglophilia in the most literal sense.
• Order of the Stick, Cat and Girl and XKCD. Because for some reason I can't think of a single noteworthy British webcomic. It's an odd omission that must be fixed. So fix it. Now. Tell Eric Schwartz to be more prolific or something.

Still annoyed that Twin Peaks s2 isn't out in UK R2 after I bought the first.

The thread title is irritating me

Me too.

+Coen brothers movies, especially Fargo.

Although, I just remembered, I watched about 70% of INLAND EMPIRE, and it was *utterly shit*. I was really disappointed. I know you need to be in the right mood for Lynch stuff, but Mulholland Dr. is one of my favorite films and I really didn't think I was going to have a problem with it.
If you haven't seen it, don't bother.

I'm thinking of selling my R1 Twin Peaks season 2 in order to get the ultimate gold edition with the euro pilot. Frigging completist inside me is eating my liver.

Shouldn't it be "Brown paper packages" instead

Ah, yes *changes it*. I was wondering why I couldn't sleep last night and was crying helplessly. This'd be it.

Nothing, at the moment.

...and I thought it was "Tied up with string"

I think you're right, I'd always thought of CUS as someone who'd know all the words from the Sound of Music too.

We're picking apart this thread like kittens on a tapestry!

You grammarians are ruining this forum.

Who are you calling a grammarian? I'm only 20!

Hopefully not including the dreadful prequals written by the "I have the writing style of an educationally sub-normal 15 year old" Kevin "J" Anderson?

• 90s pop-punk
• Coloured vinyl
• Comics
• The Seinfeld season 1-9 box set that I got for £7, even though I already owned seasons 1-8
• Vic, Bob, Lee, Herring, Morris, Iannucci & Baynham
• PIFs
• Fast food
• Shaun Micallef
• Girls with glasses and bunches

That's better

[*] The novels of Michael Marshall Smith
[*] "Grace" by Jeff Buckley
[*] The Princess Bride
[*] Aspall's cider

[*] Green Goblin cider
[*] Breasts
[*] Red haired wimmin
[*] Metul
[*] My Neighbour Totoro
[*] Shonky 80s creature and gore special effects
[*] Zombies
[*] I like big butts and I cannot lie
[*] Bezzie mates on Xbox
[*] Vic & Bob & Lee & Herring & Bill & Hicks
[*] A decent Rioja reserva

My fiancée obviously
Our cats
The Lake District
Waking up ready for work and then realising that it's weekend
Warm summer mornings
Dreams where I'm flying
Laughing till it really hurts
Flying
Going fast on a skateboard
Music that makes me feel so happy that I could cry
Youse guys

I sold my UK S1 boxset to do this. I'm still waiting to get the Gold box though. This seems to be your best bet for the full boxset atm, which is only missing English subs, which shouldn't be too much of problem as long as yer metul doesn't make you go deaf anytime soon. Apparently S1 was completely re-mastered for the Gold boxset, so it's worth getting it again as it'll be much prettier!

I like this kind of thread. It's a happy thread. I will compose a list tomorrow as I'm gonna be busy all afternoon and leaving my desk in a few minutes.

Family.
Friends - Old and new.
Food - Spicy and Savoury is best.
Booze - Old Peculiar, Ginger Wine...
Driving with a succession of excellent random tunes from my iPod.
Doggies.
Learning new things.
G4/\/\3Z!!!

Ginger wine - num.

Also:
Pies.
Really good roast spuds.
Sundays in the sun in the garden reading the papers.
The Missus
My vegetable patch ( my radishes are coming through! )

Ooh, I hate you so hard. How did you manage that you lucky bastard? If you had written down 7 of the best comics in the world after I might have killed you.

Wanna sell your spare 1,2,3,7,8? I only have 4,5 and 6.

Neeps
Tatties
Haggis
Running in the sunshine in the countryside on a crisp winter's day
Chris Junior and his funny little ways
Mrs Chris
Tremors
Aeroplanes
Working in the garden building walls and terracing and things
BSG
Katie Sackhoff
Anybody called Jeff
Pimms

A lot of these will change if you ask me (a) some other time when I've been doing something else or (b) if I'm not hungry.

No Pimms in your list Mr Chris?

Ooh. I'm off to buy a haggis.

Knees bent, arms stretched Raa raa raa?

A wonderful haggis from Oz.

A misprice that was, against all odds, honoured. I was quite surprised when the postie turned up with it!

I would like to sell my spares, yes - 7 and 8 are unsealed but unplayed, I'll 1-3 are (I think) in great condition but I'll have to check when I get home - they're currently in a box of "stuff to put on Ebay" in my spare room. Make me an offer - don't think they sell for that much to be fair.

Good call, sir. I was remiss in leaving that out. It was, oddly enough, displaced by Jeffs.

Nothing like a cool glass of Jeffs on a lazy summer afternoon.

GEOFF! STOP SPELLING GEOFF WRONG!!!

I have no time for Geoffs, sir. None at all. Filthy, perverted little scruffians.

What's a gee-oph?

Hm a few.

* Pear Cider
* WoW
* Glastonbury and Download Festivals
* Animals
* Lush
* Fantasy authors such as Katherine Kerr, David Gemmell, Raymond E Fiest
* Xbox 360
* The smell of fresh cut grass or campfires
* The cold side of the pillow
* Pizza Hut
* Earrings

Worrying level of cider drinkers in here.

Zoider!

I forgot to add...oooo Haggis! I do like Haggis.

The BETEO regulars, yesterday.

Nah. Read the "House" books, which... were readable. Tried the "Butlerian Jihad" next which was... awful.

HOWEVER and possibly of great interest to some, a guy at work has brought in the "Uncorrected Bound Proof - Not For Resale" copy of "House Atreides", which seems regular from the outside, but inside is apparently xeroxed. If this fills anyone with incredible excitement and lust for it, tell me, he'd sell it for a few quid.

These days, I almost exclusively drink cider. Especially Bulmers pear cider, yum.

I've PM'd a pretty rubbish offer to this (£25) so feel free to gasump me BEEX/Beteo.

Bonus points for inventing 'scruffians'. Immediately added to my lexicon.

Twin peaks
Arrested Development
Hoegaarden
Leffe
Camel Naturals
Jalapenos
Guitar Hero
ATP
Animals, especially my cat
Wes Anderson Films

Oh and to keep up the cider appearances, Brothers Strawberry Cider.

Everybody seems to like cats, which is lovely.

Being the kind of person to sit in a field drinking this all day, it was a tremendous annoyance to find myself becoming mysteriously allergic to strawberries.