I'm a magpie with an obsessive streak when it comes to things that interest me. This is an incomplete, unordered list of passions.
music | movies | books
Music - For a friend's 21st birthday, I was asked to make a list of twenty-one essential albums. Considering my beloved iPod has 376 albums and 612 artists packed into it already, narrowing it down is a task of Herculean proportions. I've added a few to the end that, given my friend's personality, didn't make the cut, but that I have a hard time living without, even if it's just for this moment.
1) Radiohead, OK Computer - "Important" doesn't begin to describe this sucker. "Astonishing," however, does.
2) Tori Amos, Boys for Pele - This is the crown jewel of Tori's awesome musical career. Pele is best absorbed through large headphones as you lie on your back, in a quiet, uninterruptible room.
3) Bjork, Vespertine - Probably Bjork's most melodic work, but no less spiftacular for it. Excellent for writing to.
4) Jimi Hendrix, Experience Hendrix - The greatest guitarist of all time; his twenty most-remembered hits. "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" is the five most unfettered, powerful, joyous and brilliant minutes of guitar playing in existence.
5) Led Zeppelin, Untitled (ZOSO IV) - It's hard enough trying to narrow Zeppelin down to one record, but "Black Dog," "Four Sticks," "Stairway to Heaven" and "When the Levee Breaks" speak for themselves.
6) Joni Mitchell, Blue - Every girl with a guitar wants to be as eloquent as Joni.
7) Original Cast, Cabaret (1998) - The only Broadway musical I've ever gotten into. "Mein Herr" and "Finale" always take my breath away.
8) Frou Frou, Details - Two years before Garden State came out, I was listening to Imogen Heap's solo work. She continues to be astounding with her collaborative efforts. There's so much more to this duo than "Let Go" -- they're what make electronica awesome.
9) Oasis, (What's the Story) Morning Glory? - Perhaps the seminal rock album of my youth (she says with a smile). "Wonderwall" -- need I say more?
10) Nellie McKay, Get Away From Me - Sassy, witty, and wretchedly talented, Nellie McKay is a music school dropout who decided that sticking to her own style was more important than her teachers'.
11) Dar Williams, The End of the Summer - The only reason I chose this out of all Dar's works is this is the one with the most songs I can't live without. She's the Joni of our generation.
12) Loreena McKennitt, Live In Paris & Toronto - This lady has a jaw-dropping voice, and a penchant for Celtic-flavored music that suits it to a T. Watch for her interpretation of a Shakespeare monologue from Cymbeline, as well as the English folk poem "The Highwayman."
13) The Cranberries, No Need to Argue - This is one of those "So 1995 It Hurts And We Love It" albums. Dolores O'Riordan is also owner of an incredible set of pipes, and the melodies will never let you down.
14) Damien Rice, O - Brilliant lyrics, brilliant use of vocal layering and a song about Eskimos. He's one of the best things that happened to me in 2004.
15) Beck, Odelay - This was the first album I bought that blew me away. I was just 13, and it didn't sound like anything I'd ever heard before. It still doesn't.
16) Rufus Wainright, Want One - Who knew an operatic tenor could make it in rock'n'roll? Rufus has wry, poignant lyrics along with a plaintive, beautiful voice and a prodigy's gift for instruments. See him in concert if you ever get the chance, he's fabulous.
17) Kate Bush, The Dreaming - Weird, weird, WEIRD. Kate Bush is a loony. Also, probably the cleverest at word-play I've seen in a long, long time.
18) Ace of Base, The Sign - You can't help but love this. If you only ever buy one Swedish dance album, make it this.
19) The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Acme - The blues is number one, ladies and gentlemen! These guys are fierce. And we're not even talking live, which is one of the most awe-inspiring shows you can get to today.
20) Trio Medieval, Words of the Angel - Three women from Norway sing 14th century polyphonic masses. Mortal throats should not be able to produce such ungodly heavenly sounds.
21) The Beatles, The Beatles (The White Album) - You can't not have a Beatles album. If I had my way, their entire canon would be #21 (note how I steered away from making this #9). If you're more in the mood for something earlier and more unapologetically rock'n'roll, go for With the Beatles, their sophomore effort, which accomplishes a whole lot more than most artists can dream of.
22) Lisa Gerrard & Pieter Bourke, Duality - Whether to you she's the singer from Dead Can Dance or the lady who established the Wailing Female Vocal as the default soundtrack for movies set in Antiquity (Troy, Gladiator), Lisa Gerrard is, if nothing else, a strange and wonderful talent.
23) The Postal Service, Give Up - I don't even know how to talk about this album, other than saying it's new and I love it. It's got smooth vocals, great lyrics and a wonderful electronic sound. They're sort of like the polar opposite of what the Pacific Northwest gave us fifteen years ago.
24) The Be Good Tanyas, Blue Horse - Believe it or not, for all their wonderful bluegrass/blues-y sound, they're Canadian.
25) Portishead, Portishead - Unnerving, ethereal, dark and brillig. Sometimes all you can do is jam together adjectives when words fail.
26) Fiona Apple, When the Pawn... - What happened to Fiona Apple? Some people wrote her off as the weird offspring of Tori Amos and Alanis Morissette, but she's eloquent and talented in her own singular way.
27) Judy Collins, Whales & Nightingales - I grew up listening to this on vinyl in my father's enormous Grundig record player. She was also the first singer I ever saw live in concert. I think she has the most beautiful voice of the folk singers of the 60's and 70's.
Movies - The talkies make me purr. My tastes aren't always sophisticated, but I love a good story on film.
The 10th Kingdom - Happily ever after isn't quite so perfect as we thought it was. An evil queen escapes from Snow White Memorial Prison and turns the soon-to-be-coronated Prince Wendell into a dog. He stumbles, via a magic mirror, into Central Park, with a wolf on his heels. Thus begins NBC's utterly splendid seven-hour caper through the Nine Kingdoms of the fairy tales we grew up with, though the follow-up stories are shaken, not stirred. Prepare to fall in love with the best Wolf ever filmed.
Help! - When a virgin destined for the end of a sacrificial knife is discovered to have sent the sacred ring of the dread goddess Kailee to none other than Ringo Starr, Klang, Ahme and the whole cult have no other option than to pursue the Beatles across the world in pursuit. Madcap, giddy 60's humor, and one of the best soundtracks money can buy.
Yellow Submarine - I never realized how weird this movie was until I showed it at a cast party, and it left pretty much everyone slack-jawed with "WTF?"-ness. But it's visually incredible and heavy on the animated music video element, plus there are enough Beatles lyrics puns to keep even a maniac like me happy.
Pleasantville - On first glance, it's just a story about late 90's Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon being zapped into a sterile and perfect 1950's TV show, but then the script veers off into the land of teenage awakening, prejudice & discrimination and the importance of self-expression and -actualization. Again, also has a wonderful soundtrack, as well as very cool cinematography.
Big Fish - It's a gorgeous film about tall tales, living life and loving life. Call me a sentimentalist, but it's my favorite of Tim Burton's catalog, and on my top 5 of 2003.
Cold Comfort Farm - Based on the hilarious Stella Gibbons novel, here we get a glimpse of society in 1920's England that one doesn't often hear about. Ian McKellen is, as always, a scene-stealer as Amos Starkadder, star preacher at the Church of the Quivering Brethren. Girls who like poetry, Seth and Ruben, and "I saw something nasty in the woodshed!" What's not to love?
A Knight's Tale - Okay, even if you discount the eye-candy that is Heath Ledger, the goofy thrills of blatant anachronisms, the soccer football match atmosphere of a jousting tournament and -- though you'd have to be a fool to ignore it -- the sheer, unspeakable love that is Alan Tudyk's Wat, this movie has Paul Bettany as Geoffrey Chaucer. Say. No. More.
X2 - It's been almost two years since this baby came out and I'm still hooked on it. It's also all the more reason to be so bloody pissed at director Bryan Singer for abandoning us for Superman, of all things.
O Brother Where Art Thou? - The Coen Brothers outdo themselves yet again; also, the only role in which I've ever loved George Clooney. Who would have ever thought the Odyssey would have such a hot soundtrack?
Garden State - Okay, I will tell you why I ♥ this movie so much. It wasn't just Zach Braff's dry, deft script; it wasn't the incredible way it was shot; it was Natalie Portman. This was the first time I'd ever seen a romantic heroine -- or a heroine of any sort -- that was like me: spazzy, earnest and screamingly Jewish.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Just a beautiful, funny, astounding movie. I was ecstatic when the Academy finally awarded Best Original Screenplay to a film that deserved it. Every time I see it I want to dye my hair.
Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings - Look, I don't know where you've been these past few years if you don't know or understand what I'm talking about here. This will never be topped.
The Lion King - Still my favorite Disney film. I lived and breathed this story for practically a year from its release in 1994, and it was the first movie I ever saw five times in theaters. I don't even want to talk about how much merchandise I own.
Flight of Dragons - The lesser-known sibling of Rankin-Bass's The Last Unicorn and The Hobbit! When a modern, 20th-century man is brought into a land where Magic still reigns, he accidentally merges with the body of a dragon named Gorbash. He and a motley band must journey to confront Omadon, the Red Wizard (you'll never hear James Earl Jones the same way again!), and decide whether Man will live in a world of Magic or a world of Science.
Donnie Darko - Come for the Jake Gyllenhaal. Stay for the profound mindfuck of an ending.
Coming Soon: Face/Off,
Amelie,
Spirited Away,
Bubble Boy,
Tank Girl,
Dress to Kill,
Good Bye Lenin!,
Robin Hood (Disney),
Prisoner of Azkaban,
Adaptation,
Bedknobs & Broomsticks,
D2: The Mighty Ducks,
The Pianist
Books - coming soon
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