Favorites
SUBTITLE: "however temporal"
Mick LaSalle has a post on his blog today where he asks you to list your favorites in a variety of arenas. I filled out my answers. You can fill out yours here.
For ease, here are mine below. I am nervous to commit to these and think it a rather foolish endeavor but I cannot help it -- I had to partake.
Movie -- The Thin Red Line (Mirror)
Play -- King Lear (True West)
Film Director -- Tarkovsky (Malick)
TV Show -- Arrested Development (Lost)
Album -- 'Wowee Zowee' by Pavement (two alternates: 'cLOUDDEAD' by cLOUDDEAD & 'Bootleg Vol.4, 1966 Royal Albert Hall' by Bob Dylan)
Novel -- 'Fortress of Solitude' Jonathan Lethem ('Play It As It Lays' Joan Didion)
Short Story -- 'Finding a Girl In America' Andre Dubus, a novella, actually
Novelist -- Herman Hesse or Ernest Hemingway, probably, on the whole. But Jonathan Lethem just writes my life in every book so I'd be foolish to not include him.
Composer -- Steve Reich
Classical Piece -- Music for 18 Musicians (introduction to Das Rheingold by Wagner; I'm transparent, I know)
Actor -- Cary Grant, Al Pacino, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson
Actress -- Naomi Watts.
Dancer -- Gene Kelly (yup)
Beatle -- John. You can't front.
Poet -- Andrei Tarkovsky!
Non-Fiction Book -- 'The White Album' Didion ('The Clock of the Long Now' Stewart Brand)
Painting -- 'A Tree In Naples' de Kooning
Singer -- Tom Waits or Joanna Newsom
Sculpture -- Frank Lloyd Wright!
Architectural Structure -- CLICHE ALERT: Brooklyn Bridge
Philosopher -- J.L. Austin
Marx Brother -- Groucho's got the jokes but Harpo's got the pathos.
And, a few I'll add on:
Baseball position player -- Miguel Tejada
Baseball pitcher -- Pedro, c. 1990s
Basketball star -- currently, Steve Nash & Gilbert Arenas / old folks, Magic & Bird
Clothing you own -- my blue and white checkered/plaid not-really-western shit (my pins, if that counts)
Fat Man -- Orson Welles or Marlon Brando
Please, add your own.
Posts
Movie - The Seven Samurai
ReplyDeletePlay - Hamlet
Film Director - Orson Welles (Wong Kar-wai)
TV Show - The Simpsons
TV Movie or Mini-series - Ken Burns's Baseball
Playwright - Shakespeare
Album - Bringin' It All Back Home - Bob Dylan
Novel - The Great Gatsby
Short Story - Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge - Ambrose Bierce
Novelist - Douglas Adams
Composer - Bach
Classical Piece - 9th Symphony - Beethoven
Opera - What's Opera, Doc? - Chuck Jones
Actor - James Stewart (Anthony Hopkins)
Actress - Katherine Hepburn (Zhang Ziyi)
Dancer - Gene Kelly
Beatle - John
Poet - Homer
Non-Fiction Book - The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract
Painting - Ceci N'est Pas Une Pipe - Magritte
Singer - Bob Dylan
Sculpture - The Gates Of Hell - Rodin
Architectural Structure - Fenway Park
Pope - John XXIII
Philosopher - Socrates
Dixie Chick - Does not compute
Marx Brother - Groucho
Baseball position player - Edgar Martinez
ReplyDeleteBaseball pitcher - Pedro Martinez
Basketball star - Michael Jordan
Clothing you own - Tweed jacket, $8
Fat Man - Buddha
I'm an idiot:
ReplyDeleteSINGER -- Sam fucking Cooke. Really, where was my head on that one?
Movie - Duck Soup (Ikiru)
ReplyDeleteFilm Director - Alfred Hitchcock
TV Show - Simpsons
Album - In Utero (Various States of Disrepair)
Novel - You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe
Short Story - Good Country People by Flannery O'Connor
Novelist - Steinbeck
Composer - Buzz Osborne
Classical Piece - 1/1
Actor - Buster Keaton (Toshiro Mifune)
Actress - Giulietta Masina
Beatle - Ringo
Poet - Leonard Cohen
Non-Fiction Book - The Clock of the Long Now by Stewart Brand
Singer - Bob Dylan
Philosopher - Bertrand Russell
Marx Brother - Groucho
Movie -- The Big Lebowski
ReplyDeletePlay -- subUrbia
Film Director -- Hitchcock, increasingly.
TV Show -- Simpsons
Album -- "Self-Titled" KARP
Novel -- "Revolutionary Road" Richard Yates
Short Story -- "Neon Bible" John Kennedy Toole (I know it's technically a novel, but it's, like, 85 pages long and took me less than an hour to read, so it counts.
Novelist -- Douglas Coupland, but it'd be John Kennedy Toole if he'd writen more.
Composer -- Mozart
Classical Piece -- I'm really digging on "Messiah" right now, actually.
Actor -- Henry Fonda, James Stewart and John Turturro.
Actress -- Parker Posey
Dancer -- Michael Jackson
Beatle -- Ringo
Poet -- Steven Jesse Bernstein
Non-Fiction Book -- "Demon Haunted World" Sagan
Painting -- Anything velvet, anything Elvis
Singer -- Smokey Robinson
Sculpture -- Bronze communist inconography
Architectural Structure -- Dense and mixed use, please
Philosopher -- Muhammad Ali
Marx Brother -- Harpo
And, a few I'll add on:
Baseball position player -- Ichiro! (Favorite to root for-Chris Snelling)
Baseball pitcher -- Jamie Moyer in his prime, Felix Hernandez two years from now
Basketball star -- LeBron is the shit, but I'll always love Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton
Clothing you own -- My black coat and my red western dress shirt.
Fat Man -- John Goodman
1. "Neon Bible" is totally allowable if "Finding A Girl In America" counts.
ReplyDelete2. Maybe I need to re-watch IKIRU.
3. Did any of you use the "Music for 18 Musicians" link? I don't know if any of you had it already but if you don't, I highly recommend dl'ing it.
Movie E.T. (Sansho the Baliff)
ReplyDeletePlay Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Our Lady of 121st Street)
Film Director Kenji Mizoguchi (Orson Welles)
TV Show The Honyemooners (Ren & Stimpy)
TV Movie or Mini-series Duel (Dark Night of the Scarecrow)
Playwright August Wilson (Mamet)
Album Enter the Wu Tang (The Thing OST - Morricone)
Novel The Power and the Glory (Things Fall Apart)
Short Story Capote's A Christmas Memory (Mark Twain's Journalsim in Tennessee)
Novelist Kurt Vonnegut
Composer Nina Simone
Classical Piece The Moldau
Actor Gene Wilder/Richard Pryor (James Stewart, Timothy Carey, Bernie Mac, Warren Oates, Chiwetel Ejiofor on and on...)
Actress Giulietta Masina (Leleti Khumalo, Gena Rowlands, Michelle Yeoh, Tisha Campbell on and on...)
Poet "Beat" Takeshi (Kool G Rap)
Non-Fiction Book A People's History of the United States (Hitchcock: The Murderous Gaze)
Painting I dunno- Kilmt's The Kiss? (gotta get through all this shit first.)
Singer Nina Simone
Architectural Structure Long Island City - the whole thing
Philosopher
a friend of mine - she's my Socrates.
----
and mandatory for any U.S. citizen over 30:
Globetrotter: Meadowlark Lemon (Curly Neal)
Movie – 5 Awesome v. 5 actually good (order unimportant)
ReplyDelete1. Stars Wars – A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi
2. Old School Yeah fuck the Original SNL cast, NOT FUNNY, except Ghostbusters and Bill Murray
3. Lord of the Rings…it’s all good.
4. If I could make a movie made up of clips of Al Pacino being pissed off, it would go here(see #3 below)
5. Hiyao Miyazaki/Pixar movies, these + charles shaw got me through losing my girlfriend, being too injured to work or go to school and deciding to forge a new career path all at once.
1. 39 steps (british)
2. The Thin Red Line
3. And here http://www.tatteredcoat.com/images/heat-pacino-buggy.jpg">
4. Battle of Algiers (anyone who likes this needs to read ‘A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962’ by Sir Alistar Horne)
5. Don’t Look Now – Scariest shit ever, I was living in Venice when I saw it and I actually saw a tiny old woman in a red coat while running late at night by the Stadium, scared the shit out of me.
Play – thought about it for a while, I don’t really have one, I do like theatre though.
Film Director -- Pedro Almodóvar, a gay man who understands my obsession with boobs.
TV Show – Simpsons (I’m Alan Partridge)
Album – Daft Punk – Homework/Discovery
Novel – For Serious and just completely amazing ‘Sentimental Education’ by Flaubert, for just hilarious and fun ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’ by John Kennedy Toole
Short Story – Franny & Zooey
Novelist – Flaubert, Dostoyevsky, Hemingway and Orson Wells just for ‘Homage to Catalonia’ oh and Salinger
Composer – too ignorant to have a favorite here…actually how about Bill Evans or Ricardo Villalobos
Classical Piece – Miles Davis and Bill Evans – Miles Ahead a.k.a. Miles Davis + 19
Actor -- Cary Grant “Big face, small razor.”
Actress – um…Jessica Alba.
Dancer -- MJ
Beatle – John (George)
Poet – I could say Whitman, I’d rather say NONE.
Non-Fiction Book – ‘Homage to
Catalonia’ by Orsen Wells, ‘The Bible’ by God.
“http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/features/saturn-story/images/roman-god-saturn.jpg”>
Painting – ‘ Woman With the Hat’ by Henri Matisse
http://www.writedesignonline.com/history-culture/Matisse/womenwhat-matisse.jpg
Singer – MJ
Sculpture – These 4000 year old horses are pretty cool
http://www.umich.edu/~hartspc/umsdp/VC/VC008.jpg
Architectural Structure – AyaSofya
Philosopher – Jesus and Dostoyevsky,
Marx Brother – Call me crazy, I had a short term obsession with Zeppo, Groucho is badass though.
And, a few I'll add on:
Baseball position player – Swisher Sweet/Milton Bradly, "How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk and it becomes a delicious drink. That's the chocolate I'm talking about."
Baseball pitcher -- Pedro, c. 1990s
Basketball star – Vlade Divac
Clothing you own – Intimisimi Italian Underwear…
http://www.intimissimi.com/inglese/collezioni/ch2/ch2-3.jpg
I’m not kidding, these are fucking badass
Fat Man – I protest…new category
Skinny Man – Adrian Brody
Cam,
ReplyDeleteFirst: Orson Welles.
Second: George Orwell wrote that book.
Thanks for chipping in, though.