Saturday, January 27, 2007

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.

9 comments:

  1. Movie - The Seven Samurai

    Play - 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

    ReplyDelete
  2. Baseball position player - Edgar Martinez
    Baseball pitcher - Pedro Martinez
    Basketball star - Michael Jordan
    Clothing you own - Tweed jacket, $8
    Fat Man - Buddha

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm an idiot:
    SINGER -- Sam fucking Cooke. Really, where was my head on that one?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Movie - Duck Soup (Ikiru)

    Film 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

    ReplyDelete
  5. Movie -- The Big Lebowski
    Play -- 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

    ReplyDelete
  6. 1. "Neon Bible" is totally allowable if "Finding A Girl In America" counts.

    2. 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.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Movie E.T. (Sansho the Baliff)

    Play 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)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Movie – 5 Awesome v. 5 actually good (order unimportant)
    1. 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

    ReplyDelete
  9. Cam,
    First: Orson Welles.
    Second: George Orwell wrote that book.
    Thanks for chipping in, though.

    ReplyDelete