I’m sitting here on the last day of fall break, thinking about all the wonderful times and activities I’ve had over the past week-and-change. Ah, joyous days!
My thought is this: with my divorce from cable TV and with my television going into the shop for repairs, I’ve been left with inordinate amounts to time to do… well, real things. Like going to the theatre. (Four shows in the past three weeks, some sort of personal record.) Attending art shows. Reading books. Supporting South City coffeehouses, $2.90 at a time. Hittin’ that Instant Netflix.
What I need to continue this head-freshening is your input, taken in the comments section below. I’d like your recs on: a) a piece of music; b) a book; c) a film, all worthy of investigation. I know there are a million-and-one social networking applications I could subscribe to, for the same purpose, but let’s go digital old school here.
For me:
Album: Maps, “We Can Create.” Lovely, shoegaze-y, droney, yeah. Found Maps through Wikipedia, oh my.
Book: Thomas L. Friedman’s “The World is Flat.” Took more than a month to fully read, but worth every minute. Breathtaking in scope, yet completely readable. Admittedly repetitive, at over 600 pages, but what a dissection of modern culture’s reliance on new technologies. And the analysis of: how the next crop of American workers are going to get their economic hats handed to them, compliments of every English-speaking, computer-savvy kid in India.
Film: “Downtown 81” starring Jean-Michel Basquiat. A strange little work that I’d never heard of until scrolling the Netflix Instant section. Basquiat, portraying himself (more or less) mopes around the cityscape of New York in a fictional “day,” spray-painting walls and making women fall in love, as he attempts to sell a painting for rent money. Only too cool and very Jarmusch-like. Download it tonight.
Thanks to the three of you who’ll take the time for your input!
OK, I’ll play.
Music:You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re Having, by Atmosphere. Personal, indie hip-hop. I listened to it again today for the first time in a long time.
Book: Essential SharePoint 2007. Sadly, it’s the only book I’ve read for quite a while. My attention span is Twitter-sized.
Film: Beat Street
music: car bomb… some of the most face melting prog-metal ever. sure to leave a smile on your face even if you can’t stand to listen to it for more than 42 seconds. I couldn’t.
book: slaughter-house five… sorry, but i can’t stop re-reading this one.
film: better left to someone else.
music: 80s Brian Ferry “Don’t Stop the Dance”
book: The Limits of Power by Andrew J. Bacevich. Retired Army Col. who lost his son in Iraq argues that our problems stem from our desire for cheap oil, credit and consumer goods. He’s dead on. Bacevich is a student of prophet Reinhold Niebuhr.
film: Out now – Nick & Norah's Infinite Play List. Critics give it a B+. New York City is the backdrop to a one nighter love story with strong chemistry between the actors and killer soundtrack. (I haven’t seen it, but I know I’d like it.)
Music: Department of Eagles, In Ear Park — gauzy, dreamy folk melodies with nods to Van Dyke Parks and Nilsson
Lit: Roberto Bolano, Distant Star — because I'm working my way up to The Savage Detectives
Film: The Diving Bell & Butterfly — A beautiful, moving true story about an immobilized man who suffered from a stroke and wrote a novel by blinking
Book: State by State – A Panoramic Portrait of America – 50 States 50 Writers….Only read parts so far…Missouri was disappointing. Illinois hysterical.
DVD: This American Life Season 1
Film Fest movie: The Wrestler