When first deciding to listen to an artist, do you tend to start with their most current album or their first? For me it's depends on the artist.

I bought and liked My Morning Jacket's EVIL URGES without having any knowledge of their earlier works. However, when an artist has a large catalog, such as Tori Amos, I like to go back and experience the evolution of their work... Little Earthquakes is wonderful...the Beekeeper; not so much.

Then again, sometimes an artists earlier albums suck...

1. Radiohead - In Rainbows
2. R.E.M. - Accelerate
3. Jack Johnson - Sleep Through the Static
4. Counting Crows - Sunday Mornings and Saturday Nights
5. Panic at the Disco - Pretty Odd
6. Gnarls Barkley - the Odd Couple
7. Vampire Weekend - s/t
8. Cat Power - Jukebox
9. Sia - Some People Have Real Problems
10. Matt Costa - Unfamilar Faces

This particular blog is mainly for my own records... but it will have film commentaries; so if you're a movie fan you might be interested. It's just an ongoing list of the films I watch this year.. (feel free to ignore this one if you're not into film!)

JANUARY

1. If Only - A Jennifer Love Hewitt vehicle that was a total waste of time. The ending is a huge dissapointment...a better one could have redeemed this film. I do NOT reccommend.

2. The Simpsons Movie - I liked it, but I'm a HUGE fan of the show! If you've never seen the show, try a couple episodes first to see if you like the pop culture humor..

3. The Descent - Hellish tale of cave-dwelling demons preying on women. Well-done scares with good effects; but weak story. Eh.

4. Spiderman 3 - A- Well done comic book film with excellent ending; not quite up to par with the first two but still awesome.

FEBRUARY

5. Waitress - Best thing about this movie was that Andy Griffith was in it.

6. the White Countess - Extremely well done movie; definitely one of Ralph Fiennes' best roles...I highly reccommend!

7. Cabin Fever - Eli Roth's debut; standard...nothing real original

8. Live Free or Die Hard - Liked a lot; excellent pacing. Great popcorn flick!

9. the Fugitive - Seen it a few times before and I still like it. Jones and Ford are a perfect pairing. 90's essential!

10. Home for the Holidays

MARCH

11. Mortal Kombat

12. No Reservations

I've recently bought a whole boatload of cds. I have a music addiction and am always on the hunt for good sounds. This was my latest batch from this past week:

the Police- Greatest Hits
Led Zeppelin - Mothership
Eddie Vedder - Into the Wild
Robert Plant/Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
Once Sdtk
C Queen
Alicia Keys - As I Am
Eagles - debut


If anyone knows of any newer awesome discs, please give me a shout! The one cd I want most that I don't have is the 4 track A FINE FRENZY demo. Best price I've seen on the web is $40. Again, if anyone sees it for sale at a good price, please let me know.

I'm at work on my projects...but they're in very early stages still. Hope all are well. Peace my friendz :-)

Books are magic.

They truly are.

Only books can take us into another world with the power of words. It's the one form of entertainment where the mind is a constant necessity. I started my reading the same way many others have: long-standing favorites. Golden books, Clifford the Dog, Curious George, Where the Wild Things Are, the Berenstein Bears...the true American favorites! My true passion for reading was really kickstarted by one particular thing....the comic book.


Somewhere in the late 80's/early 90's, I became addicted to the comic book...seriously addicted. I was a comic book junkie. The mixture of flashy art and fantasy storytelling ignited a love of reading in my younger self. My love of comics inspired me artistically as I became increasingly intent on learning to draw good. If they ever need an expert on early 90's comics, they need to call me. I was all about Spiderman, X-Men, Image, Wizard, Spawn, McFarlane, EC Comics, Rock N Roll Comics, grey Hulk, Lobo, Ghost Rider, death of Superman, etc (you get the idea!) Not into it nowhere as much as I once was, but I still have a stack of graphic novels waiting in my to-read pile (incl.: Sandman, Bone, Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men and the Walking Dead)

While in middle school, I started reading some of the favorites. Books like 1984 and Farenheit 451 were soon devoured with the same passion. Basically, reading begat more reading. By the time I was a sophmore in high school, I totally dumped comics (for the time being). I studied mainstream authors like John Grisham and Stephen King. Through my required school readings I got deeper into the favorites; works like the Odyssey, Romeo & Juliet and Death of a Salesman. I was slowly but surely becoming a well-rounded reader.

Back when I worked in Greenfield, I had the opportunity to work with some very cool people who had great taste in literature. The best friend I made in that store would have been Jesse. He was really into the Dan Brown books at the time and inspired me to read Angels and Demons. It was a really good read and I'm excited they're gonna be making a film from it. Jesse also introduced me to Walter Mosley, another great writer. Another smart person I got to work with was Jo-Nell, a talented photographer and fellow pop culture fan. She reccommended me Perfume. It's an awesome and well written book but very dark and a bit disturbing. I reccommend it; but not for everybody. They did make a film version last year but it's still sitting in my to view pile.

As the years progressed, I kept trying new authors. Some authors would have 1 book I like, but then the next I tried turned me bored...particularily true with Dean Koontz and James Patterson. I love books turned into movies, but so often the book is better (e.g. A Walk to Remember, the Shipping News). In addition to books, I love magazines - particularily those dealing with the non-book entertainment trinity (movies, tv, music) Favorites include Harp, Entertainment Weekly, Spin, Wired and Paste.


Between book clubs, friends and co-workers; I've found the internet to be a great source for new ideas. It's wonderful how the net created a place where we can all vent our opinions. I'd rather hear an honest to goodness review of a book from a fellow reader than a mere sales pitch from the publishing company! Actually, the book I'm reading right now was reccommended to me by a friend I met on MySpace. Come to think of it....my favorite thing to read is the MySpace website

Peace all xx