'Astral Weeks'

Van Morrison is interesting because his voice never changes and will only get worse to the point that it's incomprehensible.

Morrison is in the same club as Neil Young, Bob Dylan (already gone) and Rod Stewart.

Morrison -- like those other guys -- could not be touched in the 1960s.

'Marquee Moon'

Music is funny. You can listen to one person and be drawn to endless other artists or bands.

I was the biggest Matthew Sweet fan in junior high and high school (still am) and I saw that Richard Lloyd and Robert Quine were a session guitarists on his best albums.

Quine's lineage took me to Richard Hell and Voidoids and Lloyd took me to Television.

This is a great album. One I could listen to over and over.

'Austerlitz'

Often -- this is especially true today -- the most devastating aspect of the Holocaust isn't that the Nazis were attempting to murder every European Jew, but that they were trying to eliminate the culture, religion, lifestyle and even the memory of the European Jew.

How disturbing. I guess it's callous to say that the death of a person as opposed to their fillings, eyeglasses, photographs and furniture is not as devastating as the destruction of their memory, but the thing is, people die all the time, but more often than not, they leave something behind.

John Lennon left behind music. One's grandmother may leave behind some binoculars or photographs. An uncle may leave you his records. Your grandfather may leave you a box of letters or old books.

The end game of the Nazis wasn't just the death of however many Jews, but, at the end, to have no Aryans to ever remember a Jewish population. That's chilling.

'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly'

This is a really, really hard film to watch. It evokes so many emotions and feelings about life, survival and, eventually, death, that it scares you.

It's like sitting in bed and staring at the ceiling thinking about eternity. Oh. Maybe that was just me.

But you watch this film and you wonder what you would do in the similar situation. It would drive me crazy. The fly on your nose. The incessant beep of the television as programming ends in the early morning. Having to communicate at a snail's pace.

If you want to bummed out (they try to make it less sad, but it doesn't help), watch this film. Probably best if you start drinking before hitting "play."

The true upside: Semi-hot French women.

'Do the Right Thing'

I'm gonna be honest: I don't think I get this film.

This is how I see the film: It's a Brooklyn neighborhood on a hot, summer day that features a ton of listless characters (mostly black, some Puerto Rican, as assume), who seem to be able to afford a lot of things (sneakers, Jackie Robinson throwbacks, boomboxes) without, seemingly, having jobs (granted, it could be their days off, or they work nights ... but this happening on one day seems unlikely).

Tensions rise when an African-American gentleman (the guys from "Free Willy") wants to order pizza with his boombox playing loudly and another African-American gentleman wants the pizza parlour to erect photos of notable African-Americans on the establishment's walls.

The pizza parlour proprietor (an Italian) objects. As they scream at each other (about pizza, photos and the protest of both), the proprietor smashes the one man's boombox sparking a brouhaha. Cops come, attempt to arrest the guy from "Free Willy" and end up (accidentally or not) strangling him with a billy club.

Thus a riot breaks out and they loot and burn the pizza parlour.

There are tons of questions: Is Spike Lee's character good or bad? Is this a film about black tolerance or non-black tolerance? Does the radio DJ work 24 hours a day? Why is everyone wearing workout clothes and spandex?

Most prominently, what's the point? What is Lee trying to tell us? Frankly, this film I don't think communicates understanding and peace, but really the defiance and rejection of both.

It's tough making a film about race because you're taking a 2-hour snapshot of a certain group of characters and making their attitudes and actions out of thin air and that's all the audience is left with. Therefore, you are propagating certain attitudes and feelings and marginalizing a whole group or race. You're basically feeding racism and hate.

"Do the Right Thing" probably is only understood by people that are already not racist, which is like preaching to the choir.

Also, it's a bad film. It's built like a stage play and feels like one. The forced analogies. The forced lines about black musicians or folks who had been killed by police (once the guy from "Free Willy" bites it) really cheapens the entire thing.

'Ritual de lo Habitual'

I've never been a fan of Jane's Addiction and I could never quite pinpoint the reason.

They released albums right in my heyday of music listening (1990s). They were quirky. Good musicians.

But I've never liked them. After listening to "Ritual de lo Habitual' a couple of times, I know why.

They are as close to being cheesy, 1980s, Los Angeles hair metal as any band that associates itself with "alternative" rock music.

Bear in mind that the band formed in the mid-1980s, in Los Angeles. Also note that guitarist Dave Navarro is a shredder in addition to being a Hollywood glamour boy, who wears leather pants, make-up, various accessories and bangs models and actresses.

Also, just listen to their music. It's hippied up some, but for the most part it reeks of all that was bad with Poison and bands of that ilk. They're a closet glam band.

'All That You Can't Leave Behind'

Bono, lead singer of U2, interests me.

He's the lead singer of one of the most popular bands of the last 30 years, if not ever. He cares about other people. He has the ears of many world leaders.

And yet he hasn't created an important piece of music since "Joshua Tree," and even that output can be considered marginal.

Does Bono care about this? Would he give up music to eliminate AIDS from Africa? Would he give up every last penny he's earned and will earn to eliminate AIDS?

Does he care more about creating popular, easily digestable music in order to make more money in order to pursue eliminating AIDS in Africa?

Is there a method to his madness or is it pure circumstance that his music really isn't that good?

'Broken Blossoms'

I was chit-chatting with The Unit the other night about Pablo Picasso and how he was born in 1881 and died in 1973.

Now, quite a number of people live until their 93 and old age isn't what made Picasso better than most people. But it was the time that he lived. He was old enough to see the machine of the Industrial Revolution trudge forward from its young age. He saw the turn of the century. He saw flight and automobiles become realities. He saw electricity and phones in few houses to every house. He saw a civil war in Spain. She saw two World Wars. The A-bomb. He saw countless movements in his own field. He outlived the Beatles.

I was also thinking about Lillian Gish. She lived from 1912-1987, dying at a ripe ol' age of 99. She saw her fair share of intrigue along the pathway of her life. Most importantly, she worked extensively with famed director D.W. Griffith, the guy responsible for "Broken Blossoms." There was this living museum piece taking TV jobs and movie roles until she was 93 or so and she had worked with the guy that made filmmaking a viable art form, at least for the time.

For the record, old movies are creepy no matter what. The scene with her in the closet and the dad chopping down the door. And then all the scenes with the "Yellow Man." Gives me the heeby jeebies.

'Kramer vs. Kramer'

Women tend to get a raw deal when it comes to custody cases. More often than not during a custody dispute, they win.

Then folks tend to bash the really dumb times when a woman who shouldn't get custody gets custody despite the father being clearly a better parent.

Maybe that's how we're supposed to feel after "Kramer vs. Kramer" but I don't feel that way.

Dustin Hoffman should certainly be considered for custody. But Meryl Streep did take care of the kid for the previous seven years or so only for Hoffman to step up to the plate for those 18 minutes in between her leaving and coming back.

Odd statement: When Streep leaves she tells Hoffman she's leaving the kid behind noting that she didn't know how to deal with him, as if she had no idea how to parent him. After seven years, ain't that odd?

'Hot Fuss'

Here's how I explain The Killers' success.

They are the Bon Jovi of the 2000s. Bon Jovi got mistakenly labeled as "metal" in the 1980s when they were clearly closer to being Loverboy than Judas Priest.

The Killers are considered rock -- and even indie or whatever -- when they are straight radio pop. It's really mindless, melodic gobbledegook. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

So that makes "Hot Fuss" the "Slippery When Wet" of the modern age.

'Millions Now Living Will Never Die'

Maybe it's old age. Why is it that I listen to and thoroughly enjoy more instrumental music nowadays?

At 14, 21 or even 26, I would've never given Six Parts Seven, Tortoise, Godspeed ..., Explosions in Your Face a second of a listen knowing that there wouldn't be any lyrics or discernable parts of a song (choruses, whatnot).

I find myself now gently floating down the river like Jim and Huck swaying to the beats and rhythyms of bands that have no interest in songwrighting.

What in the name of Rufus Wainwright is happening to me?

'Jefferson Airplane'

Here's a hypothetical for you: Aliens come to Earth and they approach you (as Earth's king) and give you an ultimatum -- they're going to destroy the planet unless you pick 10 music acts to be abolished and erased from human consciousness, Sam Goody's and iTunes for all eternity.

Jefferson Airplane's one of the top 10, right? Look at it this way, I dislike The Doors and Bob Marley, but I understand that people gather some kind of enjoyment or value from those acts.

I even guy why folks like Yanni and John Tesh (as if we could ever get rid of the NBA on NBC theme song).

But Jefferson Airplane! What a waste. Any band that name's an album "Surrealistic Pillow" should be shot.

Although, I would have sex with Grace Slick. If the opportunity ever arose, it would be mandatory really if I wanted to or not.

'No Man's Land'

This film has significance to me for two reasons:

For one, in 2001, I inexplicably watched the Academy Awards. At the time, I was in college and I began to be interested in good films. That year I had watched "In the Bedroom" and "Gosford Park," two films that were highly regarded that year.

I don't think I've watched the Academy Awards before or since. Nonetheless, "No Man's Land" won for Best Foreign Language film and I just sat and thought: "Hey, they make films in other countries!" and "That's the kind of film from another country that I'd be interested in!"

Eight years later, and here we are.

The other tie-in is that it's about the war that took place in the 1990s versus the Serbians and Bosnians. I think. I was in middle school at the time and we had Channel 1 -- basically a newscast for middle school kids that we had to watch 20 minutes after lunch. It's where Lisa Ling and Anderson Cooper got their starts and Linda Ellerby was somehow associated.

Anyway, every day it was something about that war. I have no clue how it started or really who was fighting who. Even now and after watching this film, it's all unknown (the details of the conflict) other than Milosovic was a bastard trying to kill off all the Muslims.

If it's confusing to me (with Wikipedia at hand) then it must have been a true clusterfuck then.

I must say, the image of the solider left for dead on the landmine is a perfect analogy for the West's treatment of these countries.

'Guero'

I don't know why this is one of the top 1,001 records I need to listen to before I die because I don't even think it's one of the top four Beck records I should listen to before I die.

It's alright, like all Beck albums. Guys like Beck, at the very least, are alright even on down albums.

'The French Connection'

I hate it when movies are known for their car chases. This film and "Bullitt" suffer from this despite being good films on their own.

Gene Hackman is really, really good. It's so odd watching him run as much as he does. He's so stoic and against running the past 25 years so when he's actually undertaking some sort of physical feat, it's odd.

Roy Scheider's pretty good, too. He has a real Andy Garcia vibe from "The Untouchables." Or maybe Garcia has a real Roy Scheider vibe. I guess that's how that works.

It's extremely disappointing they never found the main French guy. How does that happen? Could that ever happen nowadays. The 1970s really needed some Homeland Security.

'What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?'

One of the top 10 creepiest movies I've ever seen.

I actually remember seeing this when I was really young. Too young to care about Joan Crawford, Bette Davis (or her eyes) or black and white films, but entirely old enough to be creeped out by psychotic sisters and dolls.

'Whatever'

You just knew this was going to be an awfully dated album from looking at the cover art:

1. Aimee Mann all prostrate and forlorn looking.

2. Dressed in black.

3. Bleach-blonde hair.

4. Prominent showcasing of Doc Martens.

5. 1993.

6. Title of album: "Whatever." In quotes.

How Gen X-ey!

'Achtung Baby'

Am I the only human who doesn't like U2 and Paul Newman?

Not very interesting story about this album: Freshman year of high school (around 1994) and in my algebra I class is one Johnny Newman -- a hulk of a guy, a year older and son of the assistant principal, known as the enforcer of the school's administration.

But the guy listens to U2 (listens ... he loved U2) and even talks to a nerd like me. Ends up loaning me this cassette tape and I basically listen to "Mysterious Ways" a dozen times and then return it.

That was probably my only interaction with Johnny Newman. I wonder if he remembers it as well as I do.

'Mermaid Avenue'

This is a really odd album when you think about it.

On one hand you have Billy Bragg, kind of an outsider, electrified folk singer with a grudge.

Then you have Wilco, pre-"Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" and still years away from peaking with their current line-up.

All singing unknown Woody Guthrie songs.

Does Bragg call up Jeff Tweedy and propose the idea? Are Wilco big Guthrie-folkie fans?

Is Guthrie really one that would like his songs turned into country-rock tunes?

It's not made without the Guthrie songs (obviously), so it's a collaboration where the music is far more important than the people playing it (which never happens).

'Cool Hand Luke'

I'm going to go ahead and put my thoughts about Paul Newman out there:

Having seen several of his movies (often for the second or third time) since his death in 2008, I'm concluded that he is severely overrated.

Newman's a good-looking face that movie directors were happy to showcase. He was undeniably lovable and that made his characters seemingly larger than life. Not being old enough to be caught up in the Newman star factor, I see him for what he is: Extremely personable and handsome actor who basically played himself for his entire career. Cool Hand Luke is no different than Eddie Felson, Butch Cassidy or Henry Gondorff.

They all run the same pattern to me: The character is better looking, smarter and physically acute than everyone else (who all dumber, fatter and uglier), but he's a fuck-up because he wants to be. Sure he could've been a general, doctor, lawyer, great writer or artists. But it somehow takes guts to be a fuck-up.

Cool Hand Luke, for example. He got every medal in history during World War II, but advancement was too lame for him. So he -- we assume -- becomes a drunk who breaks open parking meters just for shits and giggles. In fact, he giggles when he's arrested.

Somehow, he gets two years on the chain gang for this (!!!). And it's not even perceived to be a bad chain gang. The "bosses" and captain aren't overly strict or sadistic. You get to play cards, have days off, play musical instruments, drink beer and cola, have money and even somehow procure 50 hard-boiled eggs.

After Luke's mother dies, he is locked in the hole for the sole purpose of preventing him from making a silly decision of running away. Because he's only in for two stinkin' years anyway and we assume a year has run its course.

He gets out of the hole and runs anyway for no real reason but to do it. It doesn't seem like he wants to go anywhere nor did he seem like he wanted out in the first place.

Then he talks about being strapped down by "bosses," "rules" and "regulations." Sorry, Luke. We all wish a charismatic son of a bitch like yourself didn't need to work for a living or maybe not committ crimes and have to be punished for it. It's all God's fault. I mean, he's the one that put the liquor in your belly.

You see, Cool Hand Luke is a perfect example of a guy being held down by the man. Poor Luke! What a piece of shit film.

'Time (The Revelator)'

First off, I think Welch looks just like a friend of mine. And that's a compliment to both.

I have certain expectations of people and never having listened to Gillian Welch perform, I could only assume what to expect. Or, more importantly, what a I wanted.

What I wanted was gently strummed acoustic guitars. Maybe some Dobro, lap steal, banjo and mandolin, without getting all folksy.

I wanted lyrics that sounded like they were scratched into and struck through over and over in a grubby notebook.

I wanted vocals that sounded like they were honed in the foothills of Applachia. Without sounding all hillbilly.

I wanted sincere craftmanship. I wanted art that the artists had poured his or her heart into and not given up until it satisfied him or her -- and not necessarily me.

While watching, listening to and reading all this crap, there are certain things that I am extremely satstified with and Welch is one of them. This album is absolutely beautiful. Breathtaking at times. It's more honest of an album than you'll find anywhere during any point in history.

'The Great Train Robbery' & 'A Trip to the Moon'

All I could think about while watching "The Great Train Robbery" (1903) and "A Trip to the Moon" (1902) was that all those people, silently acting and basically looking like a bunch of doofs, were dead.

They once lived, and, at the time, thought they were doing something so fun and so innovative. They had a spark of life and it was captured for the 15 or so minutes each film runs. Their energy is immortal.

But it's gone now in a physical sense. Plus, those people never (probably) got to enjoy the Internet, fantasy football, the Fleet Foxes, Netflix, "The Office," light rail, lap-band surgery and other luxuries that seem just about impossible to live without.

That's what I thought about for 30 minutes the other night.

'The Great Escape'

There are elements of this film that are oddly contradictory and it makes me uncomfortable on a certain level.

For one, it was a bit of a cartoon. The British guys were very British. The Germans were comically German. The Americans were cool. It was "Hogan's Heroes." I like "Hogan's Heroes," but the difference is that one is on TV (a medium based on being ridiculous) and the other is film (a medium that you can take your time with, develop characters and present a stirring snapshot of life in a POW camp during World War II).

Second, the music is terrible. It's not a comedy. Surely by this time, filmmakers and artists realized the full breadth of that war and how it changed everything and how it impacted so many beyond the fighting lines and dead in the trenches. This was the truest example of "good vs. evil."

Finally, maybe if the Allies were a bit better at sneaking out of POW camps, they wouldn't have gotten caught (or killed ... if you think about it, it wasn't that "great" of an escape). It seems with a bit more careful planning there could've been as much success in terms of catching more of the German's attention without just needling them to the point of getting mowed down by a machine gun. One tip: Don't let the blind guy go with Rockford. Ever.

'At Fillmore East'

Technically, I've heard this album before. Probably a half dozen times. Mostly in college.

You know what you're getting with the Allman Brothers. They don't evolve and they really don't devolve at any time during any album or performance. Most of the time, it's the same ol' rodeo with sometimes different cowboys.

What I love about bands like them is that they're a collection of guys who were all on the same page. I mean, I often can't find six guys to drink a beer with more or less start a blues-based jam band with.

'White Light/White Heat'

The last of the Velvet Underground on this list.

I like the Underground. They're cool, noisy and good. I guess. I get why peole would want to listen to them. I just don't understand why anyone would like them.

It's like being a Jonathan Brandis fan. Sure, his output was a tour de force after tour de force. But his career was simply too short to be a real fan.

All I remember is the film "Almost Famous" when the main character is standing outside a rock radio station interviewing rock critic Lester Bangs (played beautifully by the great Phillip Seymour Hoffman). There, Bangs recommends playing some "White Light/White Heat." The DJ comments that it may be too early for that.

That makes me wonder why the main character isn't in school (if it's the morning) and if it's after school, how is it too early. Isn't after 2 p.m. when many things cease to be to early to consume?

'Countdown to Ecstasy'

Over the past eight years or so, I've become an unbelievable fan of Steely Dan.

And I found out that this album -- the band's second -- was the favorite of Donald Fagen, one of the Dan's masterminds.

That's comforting. And it shows. You can also typically realize when an album or song is the artist's favorite because it comes out in the recording. This is a damn-near perfect album. Technically, it's as layered, deep and exhausting as any album produced in the 1970s. Aesthetically, it's pleasing. Melodies and harmonies galore, played over a series of fantastic keyboard and guitar set-ups and brilliant rhythm sections.

It's just tough listening to a band named after a dildo in William S. Burroughs' "Naked Lunch" with my 2-year-old daughter.

'Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes'

I loved TV on the Radio's "Return to Cookie Mountain." More than loved it, it's probably my favorite album of 2007, or whenever it came out. It's an album that stands up over time.

Frankly, I really enjoying their latest from 2008 and dipping back into their first album (this one) is a real treat because it's all good.

This is a band that 75 percent of the American population has either neither heard of or heard. This is a band that a lot of people that listen to this type of music didn't give the time of day until two years ago.

And here, right now, they have three really solid albums (one great, probably two very good). If you had to list the top 20 bands of the 21st century, they'd be on it, right? Maybe. But nonetheless, I probably have a handful of friends I would consider "fans" of TV on the Radio.

And that's a shame.

'Saturday'

This is a pretty shitty novel.

It's full of flaws. I particularly can't behind a story where everyone is seemingly perfect: The brain surgeon dad, the lawyer mom, the poet daughter, the poet father-in-law and the brilliant blues musician son.

They're all rich. They buy skate heads to put in soups. They drink gin. Who the hell plays blues anyway?

Then there's the backdrop of the war in Iraq and all the back-and-forth that anyone with a harebrained opinion can talk and debate about for hours on end.

Are we to believe that this family isn't perfect? That our friend the neuro surgeon can't win a game of racquetball and that he causes a wreck on a street that somehow he has problems?

And how does the war fit into this scene? And what father stands by to watch a home invader make his daughter strip to -- we assume -- to rape her?

Who are these people?

'Dr. Zhivago'

Russian literature is always something I've loved to read.

I first thought about taking on this book after seeing it featured rather prominently in the excellent film "Into the Wild." In it, the main character (character ... it was a real person), Chris, reads and re-reads "Dr. Zhivago" as it contains a certain element of loneliness, self-reliance, embracing the wild, primitive world and -- either by choice or not.

Dr. Zhivago's choice was due to survival. Chris' was due to heartbreak and what he saw as a cruel, mindless world. Dr. Zhivago probably felt the same way.

'The Band'

Having the opportunity to peruse the various stages of a number of rock bands, I'm discovering (or connotating) the definitions and differences between "departure" and "evolution" in terms of a group's artistic output.

I felt the Beatles, for example, evolved from the simple, raw, unsophisticated rock music of their young days to the stylistic, complex music of "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band." It was natural and part of a long-range change whether due to the environment or personal tastes.

What the Byrds did between "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" was more of a departure. There wasn't a ton of time or output to suggest the rock foundation in the former had "evolved" into the countrified and old time air of the latter. It was more of a "departure" than a natural change.

Folks tend to call The Band's "The Band" a departure from their opus, "Music from Big Pink." I wouldn't define it as a departure. I think it's a perfectly natural step forward to go from "Big Pink" to their epoynomous effort.

"The Band," no matter, is simply better. To paint an analogy: "Big Pink" is like trying to play basketball with a lot of layers of clothing or a big, bulky sweater. Whereas, "The Band" is like playing basketball with a T-shirt or tank top. It's freer and, like your game, it explodes out of the speakers. Everything is seemingly tighter and played with a certain amount of intensity and undo urgency.

Not a depature, but a step in the right direction.

'Mr. Tambourine Man'

The Byrds, and particularly this era of the band, plays a pretty special -- or important, whatever -- role in my musical evolution and culture.

I was suckled on the Beach Boys, matured on The Beatles and thus had stunted and varied dalliances with other bands of the 1960s. This, of course, included The Byrds.

And, during this album, they were extremely '60s -- the half-moon glasses, the leather, pointed boots, the manufactured shaggy (not long, mind you) haircuts and the general indifference to the man.

Once folk, the band were pretty much a rock band copying what George Harrison did on a 12-string Rickenbacker.

Looking back, it's pretty awful. The songs are bad and the rest are just Bob Dylan covers. The 12-string jangle is obnoxious after time and the tambourine (yes, I guess it's called "Mr. Tambourine Man" but you don't need the damn thing on every song) is severly overplayed.

Maybe it's not the Byrds' fault however. I suspect I changed why this era of their music stayed the same.

At age 14, I wanted to be Roger McGuinn. By 21, I wanted to be Gram Parsons.

'My Left Foot'

How the fuck did Daniel Day-Lewis pull that off???

Man, in about 30 years, we will be supremely confident in calling that guy probably the best actor of our time. Two Oscars already and a handful of fantastic performances. No doubt he finishes with a long life and a shelf full of golden awards.

What intrigued me initially about Day-Lewis was a 60 Minutes vignette about him during the acclaim of "There Will Be Blood." Not having really noticed him at length, I watched it and I instantly wanted to watch all of his films.

Since, I've seen "Gangs of New York," "My Left Foot," "There Will Be Blood," "In the Name of the Father" and "The Crucible" and he's stellar in all of them.

I don't like giving actors and actresses and celebrities a lot of credit, but he does his job entirely too well and puts forth so much effort that it's hard to keep the guy down.

'His Girl Friday'

If you read about this film, it's mostly known for its dialogue -- fast-paced, biting, witty and funny.

What I found most interesting is that they tied this somewhat humorous set-up (Hildie meeting with her ex-husband to tell him she's quitting the newspaper business and getting married the next day) with the flowing, excellent dialogue with an extremely dark overall premise (the cop killer getting sent to the gallows).

In fact, they treat the death penalty with general non-chalance and the entire story is taken to a new level with political corruption (when the mayor attempts to ignore a reprieve of the sentenced man and orders the police to "shoot to kill).

Through all this, Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant are going back and forth, smiling. As if all they really want to do is jump each other's bones.

'Double Nickels on the Dime'

It can be aloof and wandering at times, but there's nothing wrong with this.

You hear so much of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Primus in their music.

If you're looking for something super edifying, big production value and worthwhile, you'd probably have to skip over them. But eventually, if you climbed down the family tree of rock music, you'd come across these guys. They were doing things that a bunch of others guys wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole 20+ years ago.

Plus, it was punk music where the instruments were played with extreme professionalism. Who knew?

'Psychocandy'

The biggest problem with not witnessing the entirety of popular music since its inception (you know, 100 years ago) is that as a youth, you typically do not pick up on all the bands that came before. Maybe it's because it's too much, too hard or you're too dumb to know that everything out today was inspired from something yesterday or 50 years ago.

I listened to bands like Starflyer 59 and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club thinking they sounded like they did by some magic accident.

In fact, they were just ripping off The Jesus and the Mary Chain.

So, is The Jesus and Mary Chain more influential than they were good?

'The Pit and the Pendulum,' 'The Purloined Letter' & 'The Fall of the House of Usher'

Edgar Allen Poe probably gets underhyped by me because he's so overhyped by everyone else.

Well, not everyone. Mostly goth types and folks who think he's a good writer because the stories are so suspenseful.

Fact is, there is an entire money-making genre of films that plays to the need for terror and suspense, but it doesn't make those directors good. It makes for good entertainment.

Poe does one thing right: He captures the terror of death and the moments of pure turmoil in the human psyche maybe better than anyone.

Others could capture the inadequacy of a failed marriage or the death of a child better. But Poe captured the feelings of a man about to die a most horrendous death maybe better than most.

But to call his career "limited" is an understatement.

'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'

I hate in old movies (particularly musicals) when the stars of the movie walk into a room or wherever and people stop to stare or when they sing or dance and people randomly join in.

I guess I understand why if two hot women started to sing and dance why people would gather around. Makes sense. But when Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe enter the dining hall or a room and everyone stops what they're doing too stare, it's obnoxious. Almost as if they picked a random dining hall and no one actually knew Russell and Monroe were going to walk in.

It's rampant in this movie. What saves it is Russell and then Monroe's "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" scene, the only one where she has even the remotest hint of a personality or pizazz.

Also, it's worthy of a note that Monroe's most perfect feature were her teeth.

'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'

For years, Maya Angelou was merely the poet laureate of the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Her name was so exotic and she was brainy and yet so grandmotherly.

She was a writer, right?

Suddenly she's not so popular to the housewives of the world and we all realize that she did indeed write and a book and she was so brutally honest and good.

What a rich life she's led, with or without Oprah.

'The Wind will Carry Us'

I need to start a list of things that scared the middle-class, caucasian, rural me as a kid.

No. 1 is NWA.

No. 2 was Iran and Ayatollah Khomeini.

Maybe Iran's a great place like is shown in "The Wind Will Carry Us" and maybe the Ayatollah was a super guy.

But that place just seemed so desolate and unforgiving and the Ayatollah seemed so evil and hateful.

It's hard watching films like this and realizing that maybe -- just maybe -- all country's are beautiful and sweet like they're depicted in film.

'Serpico'

Al Pacino was nominated for an Oscar for his role as officer Frank Serpico. Frankly, I would've also nominated his mustache and beard for seperate honors. They were outstanding.

This is my second favorite Pacino performance behind "Dog Day Afternoon." Of course, I can't really get into his later roles because he got so old, so quickly. There's something about young Pacino that is so much better than old Pacino.

Of course, this movie is also about loneliness. Although Serpico tended to be a lone wolf, a guy going against the grain, personally it didn't seem like he was a willingly party to be alone. In fact, twice he was left by some hot pieces.

If you read about Serpico, you realize that those two women were actually his wives. In the film, I don't remember them actually being married. But I could be wrong.

'Talk To Her'

During this little project, I've had the grand opportunity to view a number of fantastic foreign films that I never would've given a chance otherwise ("The Barbarian Invasions," "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," "Russian Ark" and others).

"Talk to Her" is no different. It's mostly about heartbreak. Just going to go ahead and say it's all about heartbreak from the uber-creepy Benigno to the very lovable Marco, who derives a great amount of sympathy from the audience.

It's a quiant and quiet film with some really great shots (particularly from above ... Alicia, naked, getting washed; Lydia after getting gored). It's also a really great film for using the maximum amount of natural light ... especially in the indoor clinic scenes. Very earthy, natural feel.

'Naked Lunch'

I do not need a magazine interview to tell me that William Burroughs was high as a kite when he wrote this book.

I also enjoy the fact that this is a banned book (I can only assume) as its probably considered above pornographic or graphic, but not by much. But on the same token, it's on the same level (as in banned) as "Huckleberry Finn" or "The Catcher in the Rye." Shouldn't there be levels of banned books?

Of course, later in the book, we learn that Burroughs can actually craft an honest to goodness story as he develops a couple of characters and has them interacting without an orgy spontaneously breaking out.

'Definitely Maybe'

Oasis is one of my favorite bands of all time.

They're too honest to hate.

So when one of the Gallagher brothers gives a magazine interview, I typically read it. Most recently, in support of their newest album, Noel (the guitar player, I think) talked about their earlier albums and he noted that none of the songs from the 1990s through the early-2000s were written not on drugs. Meaning, they were on drugs when the songs were written.

See, this is the type of detail I enjoy learning about when I listen to a record or read a book.

Listening to "Definitely Maybe" and knowing that there was weed or coke in someone's veins or on the control booth table is very, very comforting and gives me, the listener, some context as to what was going on for the artists.

'In the Wee Small Hours'

This album is a success because it evokes the same feelings and attitude that its songs, cover art, title and all included implies. It's as much a concept album as some swanky Sinatra record.

It's moody, blue, slightly angry, but more lonely than hostile.

It's best played after midnight. With scotch.