what influences me? my mood.

what inspires me? i suppose that's personal.

Rob Instigator influences
(everything you are exposed to, whether you like it or not, influences you in some way. These are my BIG influences)

Kurt Vonnegut
Hunter S. Thompson
Charles Bukowski
Bill Cosby
American Football
Sonic Youth
Luwig Von Beethoven
Pablo Picasso
Abstract Eexpressionists
Dada
Ralph Steadman
Japanese painting
punk rock
science/Physics

I second that

Self-referencing media (i.e. the [title of show] show), Arrested Development, J.D. Salinger, the people who ride the Times Square-Grand Central shuttle, obscure celebrity gossip bloggers, Ryan McGinley, Old Springs Pike, David Lindsay-Abaire, alternative education, New York City, Pitchfork, Trader Joe's, Youth In Revolt

warhol. sonic youth. my bloody valentine. vincent gallo. harmony korine. bret easton ellis. anton newcombe.

and here come the unpopular / the ones i should probably have left out if i really cared.

paris hilton. donald trump. courney love.

paris because she's fun. trump because i got my business degree solely for the purpose of making money. and i like hole (pre celebrity skin).

nothing
im my own influence
i think i am a influence to others actually, im well known

this thread got boring cuz nobody did it right. im one of the few who understood the author's intent

i didnt actually mean any of that

tis halloween for me soon. I cannot wait.

ermmm my inspiration is trees and nature mostly. dark times. alcohol and other mind altering things. feeling free. magic thoughts. love. etc.

my imagination kind of looks like a dark yet ambient glowing cave decked out with vines and lush colourful flowers, glitter sprinkled floors, pretty ground dwelling birds getting along with gorgeous cats, naked fairies dancing with me offering good food, and good wine.

you know.

I would like to expand on this. By understanding any given medium for myself, I am essentially understanding it in my interests which could be considered capricious (I don't) but to my very fundamental way of approaching the world. Therefore things like some movie that moved me or a book that I read or some loved one influences the why I approach the medium without my choosing. I am the artist in that everything I am, the good, the bad, and the boring, all spill out of me just through my choices in pleasing myself.

This is to say that my greatest influence is finding myself in the medium. It is called experimentation, I call it attuning myself with the world.

I've been reading Heidegger.

I am most inspired by artists who approach their work with an incredibly strict and serious sense of purpose (ala Keiji Haino, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler etc), which is kind of strange since I tend to approach art from the complete opposite direction (whimsical and silly). Not to say I get some sort of ironic kick out of their intense personalities, it's just... inspiring!
Anyhow, to name drop further...
silly people i know
some silly people i don't know
places i've lived
places i've visited
places i wish i lived
music made by mysterious men/women in black
movies in which nothing particularly notable happens (Ozu 4eva)
cold
snow
misery
etc.

Nihilistic.

my Dad's surreal sense of humour and his unwillingness to take anything too seriously;
living in a small, boring town in Yorkshire;
the idea of New York in my head;
wanting to travel;
In Search Of Lost Time;
My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth;
Seinfeld;
distantly observing the interactions between my co-workers, and finding their behaviour (childishness, competitiveness, jealousy) compelling;
an obsession with trying to describe as accurately as possible the things (emotions, abstract opinions) that are very hard to describe;
the compromise you need to make between realizing that your childhood view of the adult world was absurdly idealistic and not letting the reality depress you!;
mind-altering drugs (specifically: alcohol and cocaine);
gambling, and wanting to make money through a means which doesn't involve 'real' work.