Public policy, art, popular culture, keeping good company. I am terrified about the misguided, selfish, ethnocentric policies of our current government. In order to escape those fears and concerns, I turn to my faithful companion Charlie Ashmont, who also has a myspace page Charlie's page . I love live theater, museums, dance performances and cultural history.
Madeleine Albright. Ted Sorenson. Oh, you mean here? You know, it's true what they say. I'd never join a club that would have me as a member. Lloyd Dobler? Someone who witnessed the Great Molasses Flood? Corita Kent (I know I could get her to tell me if it's Ho Chi Minh)? A good contractor?
Pernice Brothers (payroll), Dusty Springfield, AC/DC, Aimee Mann, Elvis Costello, The Grifters, Sammi Smith, Badfinger, Shelby Lynne, Lucinda Williams, Beach Boys (Brian Wilson), Bee Gees, Smiths, Wilco, Pixies, Those Bastard Souls, Carole King, John Cunningham, Left Banke, Matthew Sweet, Cheap Trick, Tammy Wynette, Charlie Rich, Peter Bruntnell, Lyres, Wire, The Clash, Bobbie Gentry, Ramones, Ella Fitzgerald, Red Red Meat, XTC, so very many more.
There are thousands. It's a Wonderful Life, Moulin Rouge, Red River, The Searchers, Godfathers I & II, all Sergio Leone, lots of Altman, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, lots of Scorcese, Breakfast at Tiffany's, stuff with good chase scenes and explosions. Musicals. LOVE Busby Berkeley. Thin Man, Grapes of Wrath, My Man Godfrey, Daddy Long Legs, Howard Hawks, Frank Capra, Sullivan's Travels, Palm Beach Story, Philadelphia Story. True confession: Despite my film school-predictable tastes, I prefer my movies in English. I try. Really I do. But there you have it - my personal shame - ethnocentrism in film.
So much TV, so little time. I watch way too much of it. Daily Show, Flight of the Conchords, The Wire, Friday Night Lights, Life, Weeds, The Office (US), Frontline, Rankin Bass Christmas specials. Late great: Six Feet Under, Gilmore Girls, Homicide: Life on the Streets, Freaks and Geeks, X Files, Rome, Veronica Mars, Wonderfalls, Sports Night, Buffy, Angel, The Office (UK). Used to be great, but now on a bad path: 24, Prison Break. Thank God for TiVo.
Oh so many. Nicole Kraus, Nick Flynn, Joan Didion, Jonathan Safran Foer, Tom O'Brien, Mark Haddon, Jonathan Lethem, Michael Patrick MacDonald, George Pelecanos, Dennis Lehane, Curtis Sittenfeld, Nick Hornby, Mary Gaitskill, Jeannette Walls, Elizabeth Berg. Newish and freshly read - Marisha Pessl - Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Gregory Galloway - As Simple as Snow.
St. Theresa Little Flower, Amelia Earhart, Madeleine Albright, Ted Kennedy, Robert Byrd, Thurgood Marshall, Justice Margaret Marshall, John Murtha, Theodore Sorenson, Al Gore, Amy Sherman-Palladino.