Influences
You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
- Buckminster Fuller
The happiest life has the greatest number of points of contact with the world, and it has the deepest feeling and sympathy with everything that is.
- Liberty Hyde Bailey
Folks we know personally are marked with an asterisk (*).
Musicians
Rye ‘n Clover*
Emily Shumway*
Devendra Banhart
Bjork
Cat Power
Mirah
Reggie Watts
Tracy Chapman
Bob Dylan
Yusuf Islam / Cat Stevens
Paul Simon
Simon & Garfunkel
Indigo Girls
Dead Prez
Elliott Smith
Ben Harper
Beck
Mos Def
Aimee Mann
Ani DiFranco
Beastie Boys
The Beatles
Belle & Sebastian
Bob Marley
CocoRosie
Dolly Parton
FannyPack
Fela Kuti
Gillian Welch
Gogol Bordello
Gorillaz
Le Tigre
Jeff Buckley
Juana Molina
Lavender Diamond
Liz Phair
M.I.A.
Manu Chao
Mark Mothersbaugh
Peaches
Ravi Shankar
Rufus Wainwright
Sérgio Mendes
Sweet Honey in the Rock
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
The White Stripes
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
John Coltrane
Of Montreal
Vampire Weekend
The Blow
Kimya Dawson
TV on the Radio
Nick Drake
Édith Piaf
Air
Animal Collective
Antsy Pants
The Beach Boys
Beirut
Blackstar
Blossom Dearie
Blur
Cake
The Clash
Coconut Records
David Bowie
Talking Heads
Don McLean
The Doors
Rolling Stones
The Kinks
The Flaming Lips
Flight of the Conchords
Grizzly Bear
Holly Golightly
Invincible
Iron & Wine
Kaki King
Justin Timberlake
Leonard Cohen
The Mamas and the Papas
Peter, Paul and Mary
Marvin Gaye
Missy Elliott
N*E*R*D
Nina Simone
No Kids
Outkast
Phoenix
Portishead
R.E.M.
Radiohead
Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Polyphonic Spree
Richie Havens
Satyajit Ray
Serge Gainsbourg
Seu Jorge
She & Him
Shlomo Arzi
The Streets
The Strokes
Sufjan Stevens
Taraf De Haïdouks
Tom Petty
Alexandre Desplat
Vashti Bunyan
Gwen Stefani
The Velvet Underground
Wanda Jackson
Weezer
YACHT
The Zombies
TV
The Office
Flight of the Conchords
The Daily Show
Glee
The Sarah Silverman Program
Six Feet Under
Community
Mr. Show
My So-Called Life
Freaks and Geeks
The Wire
Friday Night Lights
Artists
Issa Nyaphaga*
Lauren Simkin Berke*
Yoko Ono
Bread and Puppet
Beehive Design Collective
Apak
kozyndan
Andy Warhol
Keith Haring
Sam Taylor-Wood
Ryan McGinley
Swoon
Nikki McClure
Ron Regé, Jr.
Yoko Furusho
Education and Theatre / Culture Workers
Augusto Boal
Myles Horton
Neil Degrasse Tyson
Paolo Friere
Builders and Diggers, Movers and Shakers
Adam Weissman, freegan.info*
Reverend Billy & The Church of Earthalujah!
Chris Carlsson
The Dacha Project*
Eugene Debs
Helen and Scott Nearing
Hugh Ryan* of Rude Mechanical Orchestra and The Pop-Up Museum of Queer History
Liz Walker, Ecovillage at Ithaca*
Lloyd Khan
Matt Ball, Vegan Outreach
Rob Roy
Saul Alinsky
Networks
Upgrade! International*
freeDimensional*
Designers
Victor Papanek
Milton Glaser
William McDonough
Charles & Ray Eames
Buckminster Fuller
Graphic Novelists
Marjane Satrapi
Joe Sacco
Chris Ware
Alison Bechdel
Writers
bell hooks
Margaret Atwood
James Baldwin
Kalil Gibran
Rumi
Hafiz Shirazi
Lao Tzu
Walt Whitman
Daniel Quinn
Bob Torres
Grace Llewellyn
Ram Dass
Joan Dunayer
David Sedaris
Karl Marx
Stanislaw Lem
Ernest Callenbach
Carl Sagan
Isabel Allende
Edward Gorey
Ursula K. Le Guin
Carol Emshwiller
David Korten
Thich Nhat Hanh
Arthur C. Clarke
Aldous Huxley
Kurt Vonnegut
Shel Silverstein
Robert Frost
Ian McEwan
Actors
Tilda Swinton
George Clooney
Bill Murray
Romany Malco
Meryl Streep
Javier Bardem
Emily Watson
Steve Carell
Catherine Keener
Paul Rudd
Jane Lynch
Gene Hackman
Anjelica Huston
Ben Stiller
Luke Wilson
Toni Collette
Tina Fey
Filmmakers
Katy Chevigny*
Werner Herzog
Mike Leigh
Arin Crumley and Susan Buice
Errol Morris
Spike Jonze
Michel Gondry
Morgan Spurlock
Wes Anderson
Louis Malle
Nicolas Roeg
Mike Mills
Terry Gilliam
Alfonso Cuarón
Lars von Trier
Kimberly Peirce
Julian Schnabel
Gus Van Sant
Pedro Almodóvar
Jamie Babbit
Steven Soderbergh
Wong Kar Wai
Chris Smith
Larry Clark
Steve James
Sofia Coppola
David Gordon Green
Coen brothers
Jim Jarmusch
Spike Lee
Albert Maysles
Magazines
Bitch Magazine
Arthur Magazine
Res Magazine
The sharing of art is a precursor to the sharing of other human experiences, for what is pleasurable in art becomes thinkable in life.
- Brian Eno
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