My Idol

My idol is a Homer Buddha. Its existence was shared by an epicurean friend on Facebook. Available from an artist's collective called KidRobot. I could have sold myself to diseased junkies for it. And I did. It combines all my thoughts, beliefs, hopes and aspirations in one depiction of the divine.
This Homer can be interpreted as a variant of the Laughing Buddha. The joyful plump man who spreads happiness and bliss wherever he wanders. He is seated in the lotus position on the classic Simpsons pink frosted doughnut. In his hands he holds two objects: prayer beads and a pretzel. His belly hangs free, unhindered and prosperous, from his loose orange robes. The two hairs that make up Homer's almost bald pate, depicted delectably and delicately, are tickled by a gentle farting breeze.
He is placed on a pedestal of books to signify opposites. Homer represents lived wisdom- the fact- that rules supreme over knowledge gleaned from books. Yet, books are worthy company for a Buddha-seeker. They are manifestations of the divine too.

The stack'o-pretentious literature 
On top, is Borges The Book of Imaginary beings, important for my present project, a children's book that involves magical and mythical beasts.
Followed by:
Exercises in Style Raymond Quineau
French. Very french. Like a croissant and a coffee. Lazy (its essentially the same story retold a million times in different ways), stylistic and about an asshole.
The Men Who Stare at Goats Jon Ronson
The military application of psychology and a unique application of the political principle of Sovereignty. The basis of which constitute the torture practices of the United States Army. Water-boarding for instance simulates drowning- a neat trick. The test subjects of these experiments where some of the most brilliant men in the country at Harvard, the most insane of whom turned out to be Ted Kaczynski who was a mathematician, engineer, philosopher and general genius who set up home in a forest and mailed as well as delivered ingenious bombs to people. Kaczynski is not mentioned in this book but it was Ronson who brought my attention to him. Kaczynski's manifesto, that played a critical role in establishing the reputation of the Unabomber, with its cold calculated logic was plagiarized by Andres Breivik- a cheap rip-off that reminds one of Marx's 'tragedy and farce' comment about the quality of a phenomenon's repetition in history.
Perdido Street Station China Meiville
Meiville was first mentioned at an international law initiation course by Professor Gina Heathcode at SOAS. Meiville wrote a Phd on the Marxist interpretation of international law (or something like that) but he is the United Kingdom's most famous embodiment of the alternative writing scene. He looks like something from the world's his novels inhabit- bald, chiselled, muscular and an elaborately pierced ear. His worlds continue the tradition of post-modern scale in science fiction- the definitive precedent being Bladerunner.
Gil's All Fright Diner A Lee Martinez
Martinez writes small novellas that are tight and innovative. A pocket genius.
Venice and the Venito Rough Guides
Venice is one of the most interest cities I've been to. A visit to the city changes how you see European and American consumptive culture.
The War of Art Steven Pressfield
The War of Art is a self-help book for a wannabe writer. Before this I had tried Lisa Douighty's Novel in a Year. I think it should be renamed Still No Novel After Three Years. Roz Moriss's Nail Your Novel is actually really good but the best craft books are still Christopher Vogler's The Writers' Journey and Ronald Tobais's 20 Master Plots. Literary writers please excuse.
Barcelona Lonely Planet
What a city. Food. Drink. Dark-haired and dark eyed beauties with thick lips who could rob you of your sanity. Gaudi's architecture. You can spend the rest of your life drinking cava, eating tapas and spending your nights blearily counting toothpicks.
The Venice-Barcelona are the 'I have been to the Europe's' (possessive intended) type bragging.
The Yiddish Policeman's Union Michael Chabon
Interesting style. Typical new age MFA American writing.
I am Legend Richard Matheson
The el classico of sci-fi meets fantasy. The purists will have their panties in a twist forever.
Virtual History Niall Ferguson (Ed)
Boring but I love history.
The Hindus Wendy Doniger
Initially, it strikes you as magisterial but its classic benevolent Otherising by Doniger. Hinduism is hardly more plural than Islam or Christianity. An important contribution nonetheless when liberal Hindus of Indian origin have lost the right to interpet Hinduism intellectually.
The Best Crime Comics Paul Gravett (Ed)
Comics. Mmmmm. Comics.

The print is owned by my partner. Its by an artist the gallery she works for represents. Sarah Lucas. That's it! I fucking remembered. I did it. I'm a legend. I was going to mumble 'she has the winning of Turner prize, it is like Oscar for Artists' but there you go. Its a photo of the artist as a young girl and she stuck a cigarette to it. For such work, she has won awards. Sarah Lucas is particularly well known for depicting boobs as fried eggs. I do like fried eggs. And boobs.
[Update: So it turns out, as usual, I'm wrong. Its an artist-photographer named Richard Prince's work and a composite of a photograph of his daughter and Sarah Lucas's cigarette sticking motif.]
On the left, you will see my fridge. I lived six years of my life without a refrigerator. Those are years I do not want to repeat. When we finally got a fridge that worked I could finally store what I had always desired most in life: ice cream.

Ice cream.

This fridge keeps ice-cream and its thereby hugged by me sometimes. Yeah, I have tried to steal a  respectful dry hump now and then. It keeps eggs for french toast too. Mmmm. French toast.
Finally, in the right hand corner you can see my Penelope Pitstop Vogue style spoof magazine.