Tag: lists
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5 Okee Dokee Brothers songs I’m envious I didn’t write myself
If you’re an artist of some kind, you’ve probably experienced this before. You encounter a piece of art and the first feeling it provokes is Awe (“This is amazing”), followed by Envy (“I wish I’d made that”), and then Inspiration (“I want to make something like that”). Ideally this becomes a virtuous cycle, a continuous…
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Top 5 Horror Movies
Originally published at Cinema Sugar. 1. The Ring Seeing this Gore Verbinski joint in early high school did three important things: it initiated my undying love of Naomi Watts, it showed me how artful scary movies can be, and it scarred me so deeply that I subsequently swore off horror for a long time. So…
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Top 5 High School Movies
Originally published at Cinema Sugar. 1. Brick If you found high school to be a dark, inscrutable enigma with a rigidly enforced social-class structure and impenetrable lingo, you’ll deeply appreciate Rian Johnson’s lean and masterful debut feature that renders adolescence as gritty film noir. A young, sphinx-like Joseph Gordon-Levitt investigates his ex-girlfriend’s mysterious disappearance like…
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Favorite Films of 2000
I’m creating my movie best-of lists retroactively. See all of them. As usual with this silly but enjoyable series, I started by consulting my logbook for all the movies from 2000 I’ve seen. That initial list of 36 films had some pretty easy cuts (Men of Honor, My Dog Skip) and plenty of titles I…
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The Greatest Films of All Time
Recently I thought I should make a list of my top 10 films of all time. Making best-of lists is a hallowed tradition on this blog after all, so why not go for the big kahuna? Because it’s insane, that’s why. As Roger Ebert wrote: “Let us agree that all lists of movies are nonsense.”…
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Favorite Films of 2001
I’m creating my movie best-of lists retroactively. See all of them. We’re now over 20 years away from the films in question. This means my impressions of the ones I haven’t rewatched somewhat recently are encased in metaphorical amber, for better or worse. It also means I wouldn’t have seen a good number of them…
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Stop reading books you don’t like
In conversations with friends, family, and acquaintances, I’ve repeatedly encountered a few sentiments about reading that drive me absolutely bonkers. Things like: I’m not really enjoying it but feel like I have to finish it. It’s taking me forever to get through this. I should be reading more educational/informational books instead of this light/fun/enjoyable novel.…
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Favorite Books of 2021
In 2021 I read 31 books. That’s 13 more than my record-low in 2020, so that’s nice. Regardless, my prime directive as a librarian and reader remains to follow my own reading values. Don’t worry about the quantity. Read serendipitously and at whim. Don’t forget fiction. And heed the Pollanian reading maxim. With that in…
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Favorite Films of 2021
In 2021 I only saw three movies in theaters, which is two more than I saw in 2020. A personal historic low, it probably goes without saying. But ultimately I’m just grateful to be able to watch great movies, whether at the theater, on a streaming service, or with a library Blu-ray. To that end,…
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2021 in review
See previous year in review posts. My view from the end of all things 2021: With the day off from work, I spent the morning traipsing around our snowy yard with Little Man. He introduced me to his snowman (above), we threw snowballs at trees, and rolled down the small hill in our backyard. Lots…
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Revolver Soul
My Better The Beatles series rolls on with the ultimate selection of the best from Rubber Soul and Revolver. I ended up with a clean eight from each, combined here into Revolver Soul: Good Day Sunshine Taxman Drive My Car Eleanor Rigby Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) Yellow Submarine Michelle You Won’t See Me…
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Favorite Films of 2002
I’m creating my annual movie lists retroactively. See all of them. Looking at the full list of 2002 releases brought up lots of random memories: going to Changing Lanes and Signs in the theater with my dad seeing the original teaser trailer for Spider-Man on TV in fall 2001 that featured the World Trade Center…
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Let It Abbey Road
I’m two-thirds of the way through The Beatles: Get Back, the 8-hour documentary on Disney+. It inspired me to add another installment of my Better The Beatles series, wherein I trim the fat from their discography to create super albums of only their best stuff. (Previously: Sgt. Pepper’s Magical Mystery Tour, The (Single) White Album,…
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My son’s media of the moment
A spinoff of an ongoing series Library books galore. Between my work library and the two public libraries close to home, we’ve established a pretty regular rotation of titles old and new. Recent hits include The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak and Bone by Bone: Comparing Animal Skeletons by Sara Levine. Bluey. The…
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Presidential trivia pursuit
One of the chief pleasures of my presidential biography mission is the accumulation of historical trivia. These factoids aren’t good for much except trivia nights and some Jeopardy! categories, but they fascinate me nevertheless—and illustrate that history is a lot richer than just a boring list of dates in a textbook. A few tidbits I’ve…
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My favorite presidential biographies (so far)
Ever since reading Doris Kearns Goodwin’s excellent Abraham Lincoln biography Team of Rivals years ago, I’ve been fascinated by the lives and times of U.S. presidents. So much so that I made a goal to read a substantive biography of every U.S. president. This goal isn’t motivated by politics. If anything the legislative minutiae, policy…
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Favorite Films of 2003
I’m creating my annual movie lists retroactively. See all of them. We’re now deep into an era that was, at least for me, dominated by DVDs. I seemed to get a new one or two every birthday and Christmas, and rented aplenty from Family Video or Blockbuster. My movie collection has changed a lot since…
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Top 5 autumn movies
I have a pretty good handle on my Christmas/winter movie canon. But fall? Not so much. That’s what inspired me to consider the movies I return to during autumn, or seek out when I want that Mr. Autumn Man feeling on screen regardless of the season. To qualify, they have to take place primarily within,…