movie locales

Awesome. A map with locations from 100 years of movies. It looks pretty good. I checked for movie I know were shot in our neighborhood and they all showed up.

same guy

manly men's men

I can find no reference to this photo anywhere on the web.  It's a who's who of tough guys.  No fondant for these guys.  I'm assuming it is John Wayne's birthday or retirement or something.

Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood, Rock Hudson, Fred MacMurray, John Wayne, James Stewart, Ernest Borgnine (he's 93 btw), Michael Caine, and I think the last guy is Lawrence Harvey)

sci-fi

Duncan Jones (David Bowie's son), who directed Moon, has a new film coming out in 2011 that looks interesting. Has a Memento/Ground Hog Day feel to it.



In other news Shane Carruth who made (and I do mean made) the wildly creative Primer has a new film coming out at some point called "A Topiary".

Both make sci-fi movies that don't focus on the "neato" aspects of sci-fi and focus more on the story.

game on

iMovie 11 represents the greatest technological advancement yet in beating your friends over the head with that deadly topic; your kids.

In particular I'm talking about the "oh so cute" trailer editing feature. As one of the foot soldiers in taking this annoyingness to the front lines I make weekly videos of my kids. And given the ease of creating trailers (the awful one below took me all of 2.5 minutes to kick out with zero forethought of any of the shots) all I have to say is that my kidless friends around the world have finally thrown in the towel. Shock & Awe baby. Shock & Awe.

movie trivia

Watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with my kids was a bit of an eye opening experience from a movie trivia perspective:

• Based on the book by Ian Fleming (James Bond writer)
• Script written by Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory writer)
• Produced by Albert Broccoli (co-producer of James Bond films)
• Stars Benny Hill
• Stars Desmond Llewelyn (James Bond's Q)
• Stars Karl Frobe (as the Baron who also played Auric Goldfinger in the James bond film and was a member of the Nazi Party yet helped hide Jewish families from the Gestapo)
• Musical staging by Marc Breaux & Dee Dee Wood (The Sound of Music choreographers)

no country for old men

I'm a little torn about No Country For Old Men. The Coen's are one of the few movie makers who still can drag me out to see their films in a movie theatre. There isn't a film they've made that I don't love. This film is slightly unusual for them however. I believe it is the only film that is based on someone else's writing. Correct me if I'm wrong. It's based on Cormac McCarthy's book of the same name. Unfortunately I really don't like Cormac McCarthy. And this one is no exception.

So do I hate the movie? No I actually liked it a great deal. The story just didn't capture me. It seemed disjointed in place and I'm not sure I really understood the motivations of some of the actors. Even worse, I wasn't sure what some characters were even doing in the movie (Woody Harrelson's character?). It had the feel of Blood Simple but not as interesting.

But the Coen's are so friggin masterful when the put together their movies it overcomes much of the letdown of the story. The casting is perfect. It's hard to beat Tommy Lee Jones. Javier Bardem and Josh Broslin I haven't seen before but liked the range of both actors in this movie. As an aside Josh is the son of James Broslin. I couldn't quite place where I had seen him before until realizing he was the second doctor on Marcus Welby (that takes me back a few years).

And more than ever before the pacing and precision in camera placement is remarkably tight in this movie. You can see the progression in capabilities from their first movie Blood Simple to this one. There's one particular scene where Broslin's character checks into a new hotel and decides to check on the briefcase he's carrying that is utterly remarkable in its ability to build tension. They have the same kind of talent Hitchcock had for screwing with your emotions.

So I liked the movie, I would recommend it, but I hope the Coen's go back to writing their own stuff next.

blade runner - final cut

What is presumably the final installment of the constantly re-edited movie Blade Runner, is finally out in theaters now. Unfortunately it is only playing in New York and Los Angeles as far as I can tell. I've read of some people flying down from San Francisco to catch it. I was lucky enough to catch it yesterday at the amazing Zeigfeld Theater located conveniently behind my office. It's a great place to see a movie because it has a digital projection system and an amazing digital audio system.

The director hasn't screwed around with the movie that much. It's more an exercise in removing obvious continuity problems and poorly shot scenes. The thumb scene I mentioned below has been fixed. The last scene with Roy Baty's dove flying off into the sky has been fixed. The old version of that scene had buildings in it that didn't match where it was supposed to be shot and it was no longer night time. Wires used to lift the 'spinners' have been CGI'd out. The scene where Zhora is killed has been reshot. The old version had a stunt double who looked nothing like the actress. The new scene is almost indistinguishable from the old one except it now looks like Zhora. It's very well done. The inconsistencies around how many Nexus 6 replicants have to be killed has also been fixed. It's a little obvious at times where the Bryant dialogue was re-recorded but not too distracting. And a few scenes were added here and there, but they were all very minor.

The most impressive thing about the Final Cut however is the new print used to cut the final version. It is freaking immaculate. Seeing it on the big screen, you can finally make out all kinds of detail in the background. It is exceptionally clear. I often found my eyes wandering to the landscapes behind the main action. Buying this movie on anything less than a high definition disc would be criminal.

All in all I would call this version very complete and satisfying. I can't see any reason to ever have to touch the movie again. It's about as close to perfection as it can be.

ridley scott interview

Wired has a nice interview with Ridley Scott regarding the upcoming release of a Blade Runner boxed set (he was the director). I'm a little confused about something though. Scott says this towards the end of the interview,

And when Roy Batty came out of the phone booth, for some bizarre reason we never noticed that somebody's thumb was in the bottom left-hand corner. The phone booth had an automatic door and I couldn't de-automate it, and I was getting really beaten up 'cause we were up against the gun, so I just shot. And there was the bloody thumb in the frame.

First of all it is Baty not Batty.

Second of all I'm seriously doubting this guy's recall of the events that took place. The scene in question is near the beginning of Blade Runner. Leon and Baty are about to visit Chu and he's making a call. You can clearly see someone's thumb on Roy's shoulder. However I swear this scene is actually a spliced scene from when Roy meets Tyrell later in the movie. This is just before Tyrell is killed by Baty. The thumb scene is the mirror image (it's flipped) of this Tyrell/Baty scene. It's Tyrell's thumb and hand on Baty's shoulder. The lighting in the thumb scene is different from the lighting for all other scenes in the phone booth. The thumb scene was never in the phone booth so how could anyone be holding open a phone booth door as Scott implies?

Anyone out there that can verify this? Or am I the only idiot who has watched this film in such ridiculous detail?

sunset boulevard

I rarely like old movies. I try hard to like them. I realize people think today's output from Hollywood is bad, but most of what I've seen from before 1970 is fairly simplistic, poorly acted (overacted?), and too "feel good" to be of any worth. "Stars" like John Wayne or Ronald Reagan put out tons of this type of schlock. Part of this was due to people like Louis B. Mayer (the last M in MGM) who felt movies should be wholesome and crowd pleasers. Part of it was self-legislation by moralistic organizations like the MPAA. Whatever the reason, gems are hard to come by.

Sunset Boulevard is a gem. I can't even recall how this movie ended up in my Netflix queue. I'm just glad it did. SB is a film by Billy Wilder from the 1950s. It's a fairly scathing attack on the shallowness of Hollywood itself. I guess nothing has changed. But the movie is downright twisted. I imagine moviegoers must have viewed it much like Blue Velvet was received. Louis Mayer reportedly said, "You have disgraced the industry that made and fed you. You should be tarred and feathered and run out of Hollywood." after a screening. Billy Wilder reportedly replied "Fuck you". Good stuff. Mayer was ousted from his position within a year.

I won't give away too much about the plot. But there are lots of very interesting pieces of information about this movie. The 3 main characters are Joe Gillis (William Holden) a struggling but handsome writer, Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) a famous silent film actress who is past her prime but has a fame addiction, and the Max (Erich von Stroheim) a butler for Norma who was previously her director in her glory days.

Here's the craziest aspect of the film - Gloria Swanson actually was a famous silent film actress way past her prime. This movie put her back on the map again. And Erich von Stroheim who plays the butler/ex-director actually was a director! Not only that he was the director for the last movie Gloria Swanson acted in and (since the movie was such a disaster) was largely responsible for the death of her career. Crazy! How did Wilder get these two to star together in the same movie? Wait there is more. The movie that Joe and Norma watch in the private screening room is Queen Kelly. This is the movie directed by Erich von Stroheim that was a disaster.

The narcissistic photos of the young Norma Desmond character that decorate the house are actual publicity photos of Gloria Swanson when she was a young and popular silent movie star actress.

The character of Joe Gillis was very much in tune with William Holden's standing at the time. When he appeared in the 1939 film Golden Boy, he was hailed as a star. Over the next 10 years though he saw his stock fall, largely due to his problems with alcohol. He never overcame those problems. He died after losing his balance while drinking and bled to death from a headwound. This movie, however, did revive his flagging career.

There are lots of other famous people in this movie who play themselves. Foremost is the famous director Cecil deMille. At the time of the shooting of Sunset Blvd., Mr. DeMille was filming a scene from Samson and Delilah which you see in the movie. That is the actual cast and crew of that film.

Other famous actors are H.B. Warner, Buster Keaton, and Anna Q. Nilsson at the card game scene. All played has-beens like Gloria Swanson which is pretty representative of their standing at the time the movie was made. How Wilder got these people to play themselves as has-beens is another great question.

In 1998, the American Film Institute selected this as the 12th greatest film of the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time.

The amazing "Desmond mansion" (the main locale of the movie) was built by William Jenkins in 1924 for $250,000. Jean Paul Getty eventually purchased it for his second wife. She divorced and ultimately received custody of the house. She rented it to Paramount for the filming. The "fee" for renting the Getty mansion was for Paramount to build the swimming pool, which features prominently in the film. The house is quite striking. It unfortunately does not exist anymore. A gas station sits at the location. The number of the house in the movie is incorrect as there is no 10,000 block on Sunset Blvd.

The writers feared that Hollywood would react unfavorably to such a damning portrait of the film industry, and so the film was code named 'A Can of Beans' while in production.

This film was the last major Hollywood feature to be filmed on a nitrate negative. Nitrate refers to the 'plastic' film base. The problem with it is that it decays into a sticky, goo-like substance after a few decades. The original nitrate negatives for the film have obviously long disappeared. The only extant film elements were 35mm interpositives struck in 1952, which had undergone a great deal of decay. This interpositive was scanned at 2,000 lines of resolution and electronically restored for the 2002 DVD reissue. The restoration was performed at Lowry Digital by Barry Allen and Steve Elkin. It looks very good.

The directions made by the guard at Paramount studios to meet Cecil B. DeMille on "Stage 18" are accurate. Stage 18 is one of the largest on the lot and was known for years as "The DeMille Stage". More recently it is known as the "The Star Trek Stage" as most of the Trek movies and TV shows were shot there.

This is the movie from which the line, "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up" comes from.

The antique car used as Desmond's limousine is an Isotta-Fraschini. Some view this as the real star of the show. There are only 6 left in the world and the cost at the time of the movie in modern dollars was about $500,000. The actual car was rented for the movie. It once belonged to a socialite who received it from her love, automobile magnate Walter Chrysler. Even though Erich von Stroheim plays a chauffeur, he couldn't drive in real life. In the scene where he drives into the Paramount lot, he crashed into the famous gate.

the rise and fall of fred a leuchter, jr.

Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. is a documentary about an American inventor who consulted on and built execution devices for state prisons. There are really two stories in this documentary: one detailing his work as a technician for the penal system and one regarding his 'scientific' work for a holocaust denier being tried in Canada.

On the face of it Fred comes off as an odd combination of a humanitarian and unemotional advisor during the first part of this story. His work on execution devices, as stated by himself, being driven by a desire to see death row inmates kill humanely. Fred then comes off as either a deluded scientist or an active holocaust denier himself when conducting experiments to determine if the holocaust really happened in the second part.

Underneath these two stories is a far more interesting story of hubris. As Errol Morris the director of the documentary said, Shindler's List was a story about a man who was a hero and this movie is about a man who thinks he is a hero.

Fred is weird but not because of his execution or holocaust work. In general he comes off as unemotional about his work and methodical. Basically a hardworking guy who goes about his work. The weirdness comes from his 40 cups of coffee and 6 packs of cigarettes a day habit. From his obliviousness of the effect his work has on other people. From a deep seated belief he is doing good when maybe he isn't. From thinking he is an expert and objective and smart when he clearly isn't.

Ultimately Fred is an enigma. It's very hard to really determine where his feelings lie on both topics. I've met Fred Leuchters in my life. In high school and college I've crossed paths with people who clearly align themselves with what they believe to be a scientific view of the world and believe that a scientific approach to solving problems is the only way to go. That isn't their fault. Their fault is that they just plain aren't good at science. They mistake precise measurements and anal retentiveness with science. These in themselves aren't bad qualities but when you don't couple them with good logic and a non-exhaustive understanding of all the information around a particular topic then you get disaster.

It is painful watching Fred meticulously measure and diagram holocaust gas chambers and carefully chisel the concrete off the wall (to be later tested for cyanide) because he thinks he's doing good scientific work. He doesn't bother to check any historical documents about what buildings he's taking samples from. He doesn't both to verify that concrete chippings should show cyanide contamination. He doesn't bother to get anyone else's advice on how to go about this business. He's painfully oblivious to the shortcomings of his approach.

Or maybe I should say I assume he's painfully oblivious. Because at the end you just can't tell if he really is a bumbling scientist or underneath he knows what he is doing and driven by some other motive; fame or ego. Something about him suggests bumbling is the correct answer. He's really quite dumb. But then towards the end you seem him glow at holocaust denial conferences after his speeches attract rapturous applause. You see how he also paints himself as the leading expert on execution devices when he also admits he really is nothing more than an unqualified engineer with no expertise. You see how the subtext of the visit to Auschwitz seems tainted by his disbelief that the Nazi's could create more effective killing machines than he could.

If there's one criticism of this documentary it is that there isn't more information brought to bear on the presentation of Fred. What was his response to scientists pointing out how horribly flawed his research was? Did he still stick his head in the sand? What sort of things did he say at these denial conferences? Does he use inciteful language or is he just completely obvlivious to where he is and who he is talking to? But this is how Errol works (or rather doesn't work).

I'll go on record saying that I love Errol Morris documentaries but I hate Errol Morris' work. Morris' talent stems from his ability to pick good documentary topics that are very interesting and to pull out some amazing 'confessions' from the participants (see The Fog of War). What drives me crazy is his stylistic video work and attempt to make everything overly dramatic. He refuses to put any context on his speakers or to include other data sources besides the main players. I almost feel his work would be better as a radio show. At any rate, a movie worth picking up.

blue planet

I just watched one of the Blue Planet DVDs produced by the BBC. If your Netflix queue is wanting, then I suggest filling it up with these one or more of these four DVDs (Tidal Seas / Coasts, Open Oceans / The Deep, Ocean World / Frozen Seas, Seasonal Seas / Coral Seas). All four a documentaries on ocean life narrated by David Attenborough.

I watched the Ocean World / Frozen Seas DVD. To give you some idea how good this documentary is I'll state up front that I'm not partial to wildlife documentaries. I generally find them a little dry and fairly uneducational. I used to watch Marlin Perkins and Jacque Cousteau when I was little but to be frank I always found them a little dry.

Now zee great whaat shark eez trackeeng hees prey. He is veree don-ger-uss. Jeem weel now get in ze wata to take zee peectures.

What sets this documentary apart is the video footage. It is just simply amazing some of the shots they've captured. I found myself sitting in awe through much of the video wondering how on earth they just captured that shot (check the special features). Every 5 minutes there's some new sea animal I've either never seen before or some animal I have seen doing something I've never seen before (e.g., a polar bear attacking and eating a beluga whale. what?!).

The other nice thing (maybe not so nice for others) is that they show the reality of ocean life. For example the scene where a few killer whales take out a baby gray whale is amazing. It is impossible to look away even though it is terribly saddening to watch. Blood filled waters are not edited out. Mind blowing stuff.

If anything will make me break down and buy a hi-def DVD format player, this is the thing to do it. I hear there is another BBC documentary, Planet Earth, that is even more impressive. That's just crazy talk.

More here about Blue Planet on Wikipedia.

year in review

There's no denying it. I consume a lot of media. Especially for someone who doesn't watch broadcast or cable TV. As an exercise in futility, I kept track of what I watched, read, and heard in 2006. This started because my one goal for the year was to read 24 books.


Books:

Well 24 books in a year isn't too hard apparently. I cleared 34. Hitting 24 wasn't a sure thing in my mind. Not with a baby playing havoc with my schedule. But it really wasn't hard. My 20 minutes commute to and from work on the subway afforded me most of the time necessary to hit this goal. I can't say I really enjoyed hitting this goal because there were times I wanted to just take a break. But I have this terrible fetish with purchasing books and then never reading them. I really wanted to clean out the shelf of unread material this year. In fact I have more than 24 unread books and so there are still some more to go. But I'll tackle those another year.

My new goal for 2007 is to focus on a few authors. The ones I have in mind for 2007 are David Mitchell, Kazuo Ishiguro, Charles Buckowski, and Iain Banks.

Here are the books I read this year:

Chapterhouse Dune- Frank Herbert - Review here
The Eyes of Heisenberg- Frank Herbert
The Green Brain - Frank Herbert
The Dosadi Experiment- Frank Herbert
It's quite strange to read Mr. Herbert's non-Dune books. Until now, I'd never read anything else. Rather than Herbert stamping a brand on Dune, Dune has stamped a brand on Herbert. These books are unmistakably Dune-ish in quality but they have nothing to do with Dune. The themes are similar - ecology, genetics, politics. But it takes a while to get your head around the fact that Muad Dib isn't going to appear. They are all like test-runs for the Dune series. I will restate something I've said before. No one does violence like Mr. Herbert. It is awe inspiring, jaw dropping, and riveting stuff.

The Big Sleep- Raymond Chandler - Review here

White Jazz: A Novel - James Ellroy
Blood on the Moon- James Ellroy
Because the Night- James Ellroy
Killer on the Road- James Ellroy
There are two James Ellroy's. The one who wrote up to White Jazz and the one that wrote after. White Jazz is the separation point. Before White Jazz I like Ellroy. After White Jazz I can barely comprehend Ellroy. White Jazz itself is written by the bastard love child of both Ellroy's. Blood on the Moon and Because the Night are standard pre-White Jazz novels. The good Elroy. Well good in the sense that it is understandable. Having read most of his work I can probably close the book on Ellroy. I loved all his earlier works but I get the sense that reading one more, seedy L.A. crime novel won't add anything. There's only so many books of a certain style that an author can put out. This is probably why Ellroy changed his style so significantly. Killer on the Road is the one outlier. He takes the perspective of the killer. He's awfully good at being a bad guy. It's a bit chilling.

The Man Who Knew Too Much- David Leavitt - Review here

The Name of the Rose- Umberto Eco
Clever story. A whodunnit set in ancient times in a monastery. Not as impressive as I expected. While Eco is clearly a well read chap, I'm not sure the digressions really helped the story.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince- J.K. Rowling
Pretty much what you'd expect. Rowling holds my attention for one simple reason. She doesn't feel the need to end chapters in cliff hangers that get resolved two chapters ahead (yes I am
indeed referring to crap like the Da Vinci Code). Thank you for not treating me like a moron.

The Egyptologist- Arthur Phillips
As long as you don't read this book expecting the Da Vinci Code (as some have suggested) this is a beautiful little read about the extent one's mind can suffer delusions. When I read the reviews stating that this was no Da Vinci Code I both knew it would be good and that I shouldn't go into the story with preconceptions. The book adles along and you aren't sure if it has something to do with Egypt, a murder mystery, or some period piece. I won't say if it is one of those or not. I will say that I found the ending utterly devastating. One of the best books I read this year.

Slaughterhouse-Five- Kurt Vonnegut
Written in the tone of a kid, this book doesn't quite have the impact it probably did back when it was written. Aren't we all now kind of aware that war is grim, bloody, and bleak? For me it was more interesting to read because of the literary devices he employs. They are everywhere. And they are unusual. It's no wonder kids read this in English class.

Dark Sun- Richard Rhodes - Review here

D Day - Stephen Ambrose
Make no mistake. This guy sucks as a historian and a writer. It's woefully lopsided and incomplete in it's presentation. I have no idea where the praise comes from. Nevertheless I felt the need to gain an understanding about this event beyond my "Saving Private Ryan opening sequence" knowledge. And I did gain that at least.

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!- Richard Feynman
What Do You Care What Other People Think?- Richard Feynman
Taken together I've always found these two works as the antidote to pretentiousness. I make sure to read them every decade or so to reground myself. He's also such a clear writer that if he wasn't a Nobel prize winner you'd think he was simpleminded. This also teaches me to make sure when I write with the goal of clarity, write like an idiot.

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World- Haruki Murakami
As you can tell from the title, this is part Franz Kafka, part Raymond Chandler, and part Lewis Carrol. And it is very good. He's on my list of authors to revisit.

Crime and Punishment- Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Clearly this man needs an editor. Actually Russians in general need editors. What is it with Russians and long works (see Tarkovsky & Tolstoy)? Even the names are long. The main character here is Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov. There's a gem of a story in here if the extraneous stuff was removed. And while this is clearly a precursor to the French existentialists, it's basically christian existentialism. Just saying that out loud freaks me out. My main motivation for reading this however is simple - It seems like a tremendous amount of modern art references this work. I watched Matchpoint after reading the book and that entire movie is based on Crime and Punishment. I figured it was important to understand the book. I'm glad I read it.

The Devil in the White City- Erik Larson
The writing is a bit annoying but the story of Chicago's world exposition and Chicago's version of Jack the Ripper really tell the story of how different America was back at the turn of last century. However there is one big problem. The two stories just aren't that intertwined. Not because he didn't do a good job of intertwining them, but because they just aren't that related. This is problematic when it's the key foundation for your book.

Deep Down Things- Bruce Schumm - Review here

Middlesex- Jeffrey Eugenides
I kind of suspected going into this book that it was going to be chick lit. I noticed the book numerous times on the subway and the ratio of female readers to male readers was 100%:0%. Plus it won the Pulitzer. The Pulitzer to me is the lamest of book awards. It almost guarantees I won't like the book. I mean Gone With The Wind won for crying out loud. Nevertheless, in between most of the annoyingness that probably got him the prize, there were some very nice moments of writing. He's got a unique playful style of writing that keeps this book from getting too serious about itself. I would pick up his next book.

The Motorcycle Diaries- Che Guevara - Review here

Bachelor Brothers' Bed & Breakfast- Bill Richardson
Gentle social humor. You know,like when an old lady says something offcolor. Cute and giggly. It's well written and he has a knack for carefully turned phrases. But I don't really know why I picked this book up in the first place. Recommended for my mom.

The Day I Turned Uncool - Dan Zevin.
I read a page in the bookstore before I bought this book years ago. I couldn't stop laughing. I don't recall ripping out that page but I didn't laugh once while I read the entire book. I guess what is funny changes over time. Basically awful. Recommended for someone going through a mid-life crisis.

A Scanner Darkly- Philip K. Dick
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch- Philip K. Dick
The Divine Invasion- Philip K. Dick
Let me first make a general comment about Dick that I've learned. You can read Dick one of two ways. One, as if it were serious science fiction. Two, as if it were pure humor. The second approach works better. Dick can write a sentence to be both interpreted as serious and as comedy. Now when I read Dick I have a lot more fun than when I read him in a serious tone. Take for instance the premise of Divine Invasion. God has been exiled from Earth to a distant planet. How does a 'second coming' succeed in the face of a totalitarian and technological state. Serious or hilarious depending on how you read it. I chose hilarious.

Scanner Darkly is the best book I've read by Dick. If you've taken drugs or been around people who take drugs, you will relate to this both hilarious and sad tale of drug addiction. The paranoid scene where the main characters worry that someone has bugged their home out-Hunter Thompsons Hunter Thompson when it comes to pure drug induced paranoia. That scene alone is priceless and had me in stitches.

The last two books are part of Dick's religious phase later in his writing career. He has his typical form of playing with reality. These two books though are even more inpenetrable than his others. Not in a bad way mind you. You learn to let go almost in the same way you have to let go of Marushita. The resulting trip is amazing. I appreciate Dick more, the more I read him.

Morality Play- Barry Unsworth
This is one quirky book. It's set in medieval times at the dawn of the modern world. It is also a whodunnit that brings back memories of The Name of the Rose. It's well written and I think it was shorted for the Booker Award but it didn't make a lasting impression.

Symmetry and the Beautiful Universe- Leon Lederman
I'm about 50/50 on picking out great science books. This belongs in the ho-hum category.

Audrey Hepburn's Neck- Alan Brown
Another book I'm not sure I know why I bought. But it's an oddly moving story. The main character, a Japanese college grad and comic book artist has a set of parents who don't talk to him, a gay friend who makes him slightly uncomfortable, and a girlfriend who defines psycho. For anyone who has had a psycho girlfriend this book will bring back horrible memories. The story ends by answering all the lingering questions in a deeply moving way.

Being Good: A Short Introduction to Ethics- Simon Blackburn
A philosophical treatise on the creation of ethics. It's very well written and very interesting. If you've never been able to read a philosophy book yet are interested in philosophy, give this one a shot.

Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer- Steven Millhauser
Again another ho-hum book. This book won a lot of praise. And there are a lot of good things. The writing is great. He reminds me of a modern day Camus. But there's just no payoff at the end. I kept expecting a satisfying conclusion that never emerged.

An Artist of the Floating World- Kazuo Ishiguro
Ishiguro is one of those authors I just like. He could write complete garbage and I would like it. This is one of his earlier works and deals with Japan and its transition from pre-WWII to post-WWII. It's a gentle story with ungentle themes. Classic Ishiguro. It's not as well fleshed out as his later stories but you can see the beginnings of a great writer here.


Comics

It's funny. In May I pretty much stopped buying comics. While my 24 books in a year goal tied up much of my time, it was really the expense to consumption time ratio that did me in. A decent graphic novel costs $15 or so but takes a couple of hours to get through. It's just doesn't make economic sense. I will continue to buy comics but only standout, major TPBs. I don't see how this industry can survive.

Avengers Disassembled HC -Brian Michael Bendis, David Finch
New Avengers Vol 1 - Brian Michael Bendis, David Finch
New Avengers Vol 2 - Brian Michael Bendis, David Finch
New Avengers Vol 3 - Brian Michael Bendis, David Finch
Marvels - Kurt Busiek
Fables Vol 1 - Bill Willingham
Fables Vol 2 - Bill Willingham
Fables Vol 3 - Bill Willingham
The World's Greatest Superheroes - Paul Dini, Alex Ross
Kingdom Come - Mark Waid, Alex Ross
Infinite Crisis
Batman: Dark Victory - Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale
Batman: Haunted Knight - Jeph Loeb, Time Sale
Batman: War Games - Act 1 - Ed Brubaker
Batman: War Games - Act 2
Batman: War Games - Act 3 - Ed Brubaker


Music:

I consumed a lot of music this year. Actually I bought more than I consumed. I still haven't listened to some of this. A lot of this was an attempt to backfill my catalog. A lot of these are albums I have on vinyl and I wanted them in digital format. I've put (++) by some of the standouts.

Andrew Bird
- Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs
Aphex Twin
- Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Arvo Part
- Moscow Virtuosi
Badly Drawn Boy
- About a Boy
- The Hour of Bewilderbeast
Band of Horses
- Everything All the Time ++
Barry Adamson
- King of Nothing Hill
- Oedipus Schmoedipus
- As Above, So Below
- Stranger on the Sofa
The Beach Boys
- Smile (unreleased 1966)
Belle & Sebastian
- The Life Pursuit ++
Bizet
- Bizet: Carmen
Black Dog
- Spanners
Boards of Canada
- The Campfire Headphase ++
- Trans Canada Highway
Bobby Hutcherson
- Dialogue
Bola
- Fyuti ++
Boozoo Bajou
- Dust My Broom
Brad Mehldau
- Introducing Brad Mehldau
- The Art of the Trio, Vol. 2 ++
- The Art Of The Trio, Vol. 4
- Art of the Trio, Vol. 5
The Bravery
- The Bravery
Brahms, Johannes
- Brahms: Complete Trios
Original Soundtrack
- Broken Flowers ++
Brothomstates
- Claro
Charles Mingus
- Mingus Ah Um
Cocteau Twins
- Milk And Kisses
- Four-Calendar Cafe
David Sylvian
- Approaching Silence
David Bowie
- Scary Monsters
- Space Oddity
- The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust
- Aladdin Sane
Decemberists
- The Crane Wife
Depeche Mode
- B-Sides & Instrumentals
- Ultra
- Songs of Faith and Devotion
- Violator
Dexter Gordon
- The Panther!
- Our Man in Paris ++
- Go!
- Dexter Digs In
DJ Shadow
- Endtroducing... (Deluxe Edition)
Donald Byrd
- Byrd in Hand
- With Strings
Eric Dolphy
- Out to Lunch ++
The Fixx
- Phantoms
- Reach the Beach
Flock of Seagulls
- A Flock of Seagulls
- Story of a Young Heart
Gary Numan
- Pure
- Jagged
Global Communication
- Remotion
- A Theory of Evolution
Goldfrapp
- Supernature
Grant Green
- Live at Club Mozambique
Green Day
- American Idiot
Vince Guaraldi
- A Charlie Brown Christmas ++
Guillemots
- Through the Windowpane
Herbie Hancock
- Inventions & Dimensions
- Empyrean Isles
- Maiden Voyage ++
- My Point of View
The Hold Steady
- Separation Sunday ++
Horace Silver Quintet
- The Cape Verdean Blues ++
- Silver's Serenade
- Song for My Father
- The Jody Grind
Iggy Pop
- The Idiot
Jackie McLean
- Let Freedom Ring
Joe Henderson
- Inner Urge
John Coltrane
- My Favorite Things
- One Down, One Up: Live at the Half Note
- Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall ++
Kasabian
- Empire
Keane
- Under the Iron Sea ++
- Hopes and Fears ++
Koop
- Waltz for Koop
Ladytron
- Witching Hour ++
Lee Morgan
- The Cooker
Lou Donaldson
- Natural Soul
- The Midnight Creeper
Lush
- Split
Massive Attack
- Blue Lines
- Mezzanine
- Protection
- No Protection: Massive Attack Vs. Mad Professor
M83
- Before the Dawn Heals Us
Morrissey
- Bona Drag ++
- Kill Uncle
- Maladjusted
- Ringleader Of The Tormentors
- Southpaw Grammar
- You Are the Quarry
- Your Arsenal
Mozart
- Mozart: Great Piano Concertos
- Mozart: The Great Piano Concertos, Vol. 1
Mouse on Mars
- Vulvaland
- Agit Itter It It ++
My Morning Jacket
- Z ++
The New Pornographers
- Mass Romantic
- Electric Version
Orff
- Carmina Burana
Ornette Coleman
- The Shape of Jazz to Come
Peter, Bjorn, & John
- Writer's Block ++
Pixies
- Doolittle
- Surfer Rosa/Come on Pilgrim
The Police
- Outlandos d'Amour
- Regatta De Blanc
Red House Painters
- Ocean Beach
The Replacements
- Let It Be
Royksopp
- The Understanding
Schubert
- String Quartet in D Minor (Death & The Maiden)
Scritti Politti
- White Bread Black Beer
Shostakovich
- Symphony 11: The Year 1905
Sigur Rós
- Takk...
- Ágætis Byrjun
- ( )
Sonny Rollins
- Saxophone Colossus
Spoon
- Girls Can Tell
Stereolab
- Mars Audiac Quintet
- Margerine Eclipse (Review) ++
- Sound-Dust
- Dots and Loops
- Oscillons from the Anti-Sun
- Fab Four Suture
- Instant 0 in the Universe
Sufjan Stevens
- Illinois
Thom Yorke
- The Eraser
Ulrich Schnauss
- Far Away Trains Passing By
Various Artists
- Verve Remixed
- Verve Remixed, Vol. 2
The Verve
- A Northern Soul
Wagon Christ
- Musipal
Wayne Shorter
- The All Seeing Eye
Ween
- Chocolate and Cheese (Review) ++
Wolf Parade
- Apologies to the Queen Mary
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
- Fever To Tell


Movies:
Interestingly I only went to 2 movies in the movie theatre this year. In one case I was instantly reminded of how much I hate going to the movie theatre - noisy, 30 minutes of commercials before the movie starts, and ridiculously expensive. The second was a good experience because it was in the legendary Ziegfeld Theatre which is right next door to where I work. Beautiful digital picture and epic sound system. Worth every penny.

I've put (++) by the best movies I saw. 2046 was the most crushing disappointment. Just an awful movie. And Last Days about Kurt Cobain was the only unwatchable movie. I lasted 25 minutes before turning it off.

Sideways
Shaolin Soccer
2046
Lemony Snicket (Review)
The Constant Gardner
Hated (Review)
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky
Team America
The Machinist
Batman Begins
Land of the Dead
King Kong
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Dirty Pretty Things
War of the Worlds
The Butterfly Effect
Sin City
Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Assassination of Richard Nixon
Bus 174 (Review) (++)
Capote (++)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The Name of the Rose
The Aristocrats
Fantastic Four
Comic Book Heroes Unmasked
Crash
THX 1138: Director's Cut
THX 1138 Bonus Materials (++)
Serenity
Soylent Green
King Tut: The Face of Tutankhamun
Grizzly Man
Bukowski: Born Into This (++)
Bill Hicks
Night & Fog
The Alien Saga (++)
East of Eden
The Searchers
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Solaris (Tarkovsky edition)
Syriana
Short Cuts
Murderball
Munich
The 40 Year Old Virgin
Wedding Crashers
School of Rock
Last Days
The Spaghetti West
The Seventh Seal
Andrei Rublev (Review) (++)
V For Vendetta
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Game 6
Matchpoint
Barry Lyndon
Downtown 81
The Thomas Crowne Affair (1968)
North by Northwest
Charade
The Day of the Jackal
The Motorcycle Diaries
The Killing
Death Race 2000
Broken Flowers
Charlie & The Chocolate Factory
The Polar Express
Withnail & I (++)
Beach Boys: An American Band
Summer Dreams: The Story of the Beach Boys
Last Days
Downfall
Look At Me
Casino Royale (++)
Seven Up / 7 Plus Seven (++)
21 Up
28 Up
35 Up
42 Up
49 Up
Corpse Bride
The Illusionist
Talladega Nights
Invincible
Mirrormask
Cars
A Scanner Darkly
Miami Vice