Books:<br/>Douglas Adams--the Dirk Gently novels<br/>Ray Bradbury--Farenheit 451, Dandelion Wine, Dying is a Lonely Business<br/>Philip K. Dick--do I have to choose?  There's just too much good stuff!  But do read Through a Scanner Darkly.<br/>Hunter S. Thompson--Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Curse of Lono<br/><br/>Movies:<br/>Casablanca<br/>Diva (it's French)<br/>La Femme Nikita (see the French version.  Don't bother with Point of No Return.)<br/><br/>Vignettes (from Player's Survival Guide)<br/><br/>A Kuwaiti in full-flowing Gulf sheik regalia approaches you outside a night club in the airport terminal.  Meekly following him is an Indian man wearing a three-piece suit.  He cowers behind the Kuwaiti as if held on an invisible leash.  The Kuwaiti speaks with a hint of a British accent.<br/><br/>"Pardon my intrusion.  I was wondering if you would be interested in a commercial transaction.  This gentleman is my slave.  Would you perhaps wish to purchase him?  All perfectly legal, I assure you--but I've just been posted to our embassy in Belgium, where it might cause unwanted fuss.  Aparna is superior merchandise: he used to be a policeman, and is proficient in WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3.  His manners are..."<br/><br/>The man's sales pitch is interrupted by a tall Caucasian fellow dressed like a backwoodsman.  He takes the diplomat aside and they begin to dicker on a price for Aparna.<br/><br/>(WordPerfect?  Lotus 1-2-3?  Hey, this was written in 1992...)<br/><br/>Vignette (from tabletop game)<br/><br/>"Man, that was some party!  Of course, we sort of lost Tank for a while.  She went off looking for, uhm, local talent.  Now, we could have told her that this was a bad idea, this being the Science barrio and all, and who knows what was in the punch?  Designer chemistry, yeah...anyway, the following morning she shows up, pale and shaken and looking like hell warmed over, and wearing a dog collar.  She didn't want to talk about it, but she got this phone call a while later...from her new ferociously dominant girlfriend.  Did I mention that poor little Tank was straight as an arrow?  Like I said, some party. Anyway, it gets worse.  Turns out her new lady friend was also looking for Doghouse.  See, he'd made this, err, legitimate Chinese businessman a little upset...so when Mistress Miko unexpectedly showed up on our doorstep to take Tank out to dinner, you might say the small talk got a little bit violent."