Time Passing Appropriately

I've noticed that I seem to have one main requirement for the music I listen to, the books I read, and the films I watch. It is that I don't want anything self-contained, nothing with a precise beginning and end. As a friend of mine once said about exceptionally crafted works, "nothing as contrived as a story" should ever be able to fit in. I just want to see that period of time, what happened during it, and no more. Let me decide about the before and after, you tell me the during. I want to hear music that sounds like the recordings of someone playing, not like countless hours of studio. The books should be the characters to the point that whatever they do will be interesting. The films should be the same, but with pretty colors.

As for cartoons? Calvin & Hobbes and the Far Side. Every day I try to act as if I'm the child of a marriage like that.