'Ellington at Newport 1956'

Hardly could we distinguish something as American and as good as jazz.

In fact, it's probably the greatest genre of music ever right up there with classical and ska.

Jazz is perfect because it combines everything we love about music: Individuality, professionalism, talent, precision, energy, love, anger, spiralling discontent, premium highs and rawness. It's dark and brooding and yet completely light and cool. Too cool.

What jazz entails is everything that at least all other genres lack in some form, to some degree.

See, American culture isn't entirely bankrupt. The nation that canonizes the likes of Paris Hilton is the same that is responsible for jazz. Not bankrupt, but certainly withdrawing more than its depositing.

'Automatic for the People'

If I were in REM, I would've had them put a comma after "automatic." Like, "Automatic, for the People." That's just me.

It's good. It's also music for older people. There's tons of music that appeal to adults. But with rock music it tends to transcend age, income, ethnicity, sex and all the other demographics you can think of. Unless it's Neo-Nazi metal or whatever.

Look at punk. Punk, over time, started to appeal to the surburban or black kid as much as it did the snotty English gutter punk looking for a fix.

Not REM. It is hardcore 18 and up. I was 12 when this album came out and I had no interest in it. It requires a certain taste and patience. An understanding. None of which a 12 year old has that he or she can't find in the Beach Boys or Boyz II Men.

'The Doors'

I've stated on this blog that Jane Austen -- her relevence, work -- is the biggest con being played on females between the ages of 14-45.

If there's a male counterpart, it's The Doors. There are several things wrong with them.

For one, Jim Morrison simply wasn't that cool. Now, he may have been cool had he lived and had an opportunity to not take himself so seriously. Instead, he croaked early, at the height of his self-importance.

Two, the band wasn't that good.

Three, they took their name from Aldous Huxley's "The Doors of Perception," indicating that their music would be transcendent, opening pathways for their fans to reach some other level of conciousness or whatever.

Then they write and record songs like "20th Century Fox," "Back Door Man," "Light My Fire" and "Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)." The only door The Doors were intersted in open was between a chick's legs. Morrison and Co. were no more different than Whitesnake, Limp Bizkit and KISS -- they wanted to stick their penises into as many females as they could. "Doors of perception" my ass.

'Russian Ark'

What an extremely unique piece of filmmaking. It's a shame it was better publicized at the time.

Essentially, the viewer is the narrator -- all shot with one camera as the eyes as you (him) travel through the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. There, time is warped. Scenes jump from the 19th and 20th centuries. One minute we're in the midst of Catherine the Great, a ball or Tsar Nicholas I receiving a party from Persia. In another haunting scene, a Russian peasant is making his own coffin during the siege of Leningrad during World War II. We are warned to not enter the building.

All the while, our senses are enraptured by art and music -- some of the greatest in the world currently part of the Hermitage Museum within the palace.

Simply a phenomenal film.

'Glengarry Glen Ross'

My wife works for a land development company. I learned that the salespeople in her company worship this movie. It is about selling property.

I guess it's motivational or whatever. A lot of good quotes for people who sell land.

Otherwise, I thought it an odd choice for a group of people that probably wouldn't know David Mamet if he walked into the room. Not that I would. But let's face it: If this film's about zookeepers, my wife's co-workers probably aren't watching it.

This is an odd film, too, because it is an adaptation of a play but instead of just turning it into a motion picture, it basically comes off as a filmed theater piece. The writing, acting and production is so stage-like. Not that it's bad, but again ... zookeepers.

'L.A. Confidential'

This film was released 1997. I hardly doubt that anyone realized that it would -- for all intents and purposes -- launch the careers of three of the better actors' careers of the past 20 years.

Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce and Kevin Spacey were relative no-names. None of which had done their marquee films ("Gladiator," "Memento" and "American Beauty") and all three put up fantastic performances here.

Ironically, the one name who adorns all the posters and DVD covers is Kim Basinger, who hasn't done a single good film since (and has since gone on to terrorize Alec Baldwin). Right now, I'd put her below -- in terms of a career -- Pearce, Crowe, Spacey, David Strathairn, Danny DeVito and James Cromwell. Hell, even Ron Rifkin was in "ALIAS."

I consider this a better, more updated version of "Chinatown."

Also, it was good to see "Lloyd Braun" playing the actor on Spacey's cop TV drama.

'The Birth of a Nation'

Three hours? Really???

This is my first viewing of the "great" "The Birth of a Nation" -- the film we all learn about in history and media classes as being one of the great early films.

I can definitely see how everyone was taken by the film in 1915. And this was probably a good waste of three hours back then.

Today, I fell asleep twice and had to come back three different times to finish it off. I hate taking anything away from an artform or piece of work that helped a certain genre take off into its current form, but there are a number of things that should be put on the shelf and never touched.

All of this criticism, and I haven't even mentioned the depiction of African Americans and the Ku Klux Klan.