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| J's Picks | |||||
Sundance Reviews - click here! |
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| Favorite Movies | ||||||||
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Good Will Hunting | Matt Damon & Ben Afleck wrote this and won the Academy
Award for it! A heartwarming drama about blue-collar genius trying to overcome his troubled past. Shows my sentimental sappy taste. |
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Dead Poet's Society |
Another bearded- Robin Williams (read sappy) film, about an English teacher who infuses a New England boarding school with a defiant energy, outlook and creativity. This came out the year I graduated college and I almost became an English teacher myself after seeing it. |
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Usual Suspects | Unbelievable characters, dialog, and story. Plus, my all-time favorite "reveal" at the end. | ||||||
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Memento | The best thing I saw at Sundnce 2001 and in the past few years period. Watch it at least twice. Truly original in format by Director Christopher Nolan. Loved it. If I write any more, I'll forget where I started... (and, Lenny has been my best Halloween costume now for a few years). | ||||||
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L.A. Confidential | Rock-hard-boiled mystery about three cops' lives intertwining as they investigate multiple murders. This gritty-yet-glamourous portrait of postwar Los Angeles' corrupt underside is a must for noir fans. Stellar performances from a stacked cast. | ||||||
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When Harry Met Sally | The is the all time classic and reference standard for relationship issues, and memorable one-liners. | ||||||
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Shawshank Redemption | Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman at their best. Heart wrenching and heart warming at the same time. | ||||||
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Rocky | A must in any video library. "Yo Adrian, where's your hat?!" | ||||||
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The Jerk | Never fails to make me laugh. "All I need is this thermos..." | ||||||
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Carlito's Way | One of my favorite Pacino roles, even if the critic's disagree. Sean Penn is also phenomenal, showing his range. One of my favorite love scenes with Penelope Ann Miller, when she defies Pacino to enter her apartment. Great line: "Charlie, where's my cheesecake?" | ||||||
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The World According To Garp | John Irving's classic is so solid even the translation to film stands as solid entertainment on any scale. | ||||||
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L.A. Story | For all Steve Martin junkies this is pure brilliance. | ||||||
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Donnie Brasco | Johnny Depp takes you on a journey, and you won't be able to fuhgetta boutit. | ||||||
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Spanish Prisoner | David Mamet, all time fave, does it again with a twisting psycho thriller plot that keeps you hanging til the very end. | ||||||
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Glengarry Glen Ross | Mamet flexes his dialog muscle, every word is profoundly perfect. | ||||||
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House of Games | Classic Mamet - plot turns, his famous dialog, and Joe Mantegna! | ||||||
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3 Days of the Condor | Robert Redford, resourceful, romantic, and ruddy as ever. | ||||||
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Victory | Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone, Pele, and Max Von Sydow. Hogan's Heroes meets World Cup Soccer. A great combination of artful soccer scenes, and Sly's thug-head repertoire. Where else can you see Pele explaining that he learned to play soccer in the streets of Trinidad with oranges. I loved it. | ||||||
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Crazy People | David Paymer steals this picture. Hilarious scenes and humor that is still as timely as ever. Too bad Volvo has started to round out their lines. | ||||||
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Return of the Pink Panther | Inspector Clouseau is a comedic hero. "Not now Kato", "Does your dog bite", "Do you have a room", "Minky", and my all time favorite -- "That was a Louis XVI Vase?... Not anymore." | ||||||
| Favorite Books | ||||||||
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A
Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving |
What I remember most about reading this is that anyone who had read it felt like they were in the "I love this book" cult. A bonding conversation point. | ||||||
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Underworld,
Don Deilo |
A (long) masterpiece. Brilliant opening section for all you baseball fans. | ||||||
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Ender's
Game, Orson Scott Card |
You don't need to be a science fiction fan to appreciate this incredible story. Winner of the Nebula award for good reason. | ||||||
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Mila
18, Leon Uris |
Powerful account of the Warsaw Ghetto Jews surviving the Nazis. | ||||||
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The
Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera |
Kundera is my favorite author. Period. I list my three favorites here, in the order I recommend reading them. "Slowness" is also a beautiful work by him. | ||||||
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The
Book of Laughter and Forgetting, Milan Kundera |
You'll lose yourself in these characters and stories. | ||||||
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Laughable
Loves, Milan Kundera |
I Read this while in Prague this summer (2001), and laughed out loud too many times to count, and also had to break out the hankerchief. | ||||||
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Endurance:
Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, Alfred Lansing |
My #1 favorite action/thriller/Man vs. Nature book of all time. Friggin' unbelievable. Shackleton is my hero. I use the word "Shackletonian" now with utmost respect. I lost many hours of sleep during an epic snow storm in Tahoe last year, because I couldn't put this book down. My friends thought I was crazy. | ||||||
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The
Long Walk, Slavomir Rawicz |
This will captivate and inspire you, much like "Endurance." A remarkable story of the escape from a 1939 Soviet labor camp in remote Siberia, and the incredible journey thereafter. |
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Essential
Atlas of the World, Dorling Kindersley Publishing |
My favorite travel accompaniment. This is the perfect, compact, paperback world atlas. Great maps, additional reference information, and index. I searched high and low and this is the pick of the litter. From T'bilisi to Ougadougou to Ljubjana to Nuuk. Hours of fun and learning. |
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From
Beirut to Jerusalem, Thomas Friedman |
A definitive work on the middle east conflict and the history of the region (up to 1994). Friedman was the NY Times correspondent and bureau chief in Beirut for 10 years. He provides a concise, comprehensive background and a fascinating viewpoint. Required reading! | ||||||
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The
Lexus and the Olive Tree, Thomas Friedman |
Friedman's views on Globalization, and the order and structure defining the new (post-cold-war) world. | ||||||
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Longitudes
and Attitudes, Thomas Friedman |
A collection of Thomas Friedman's NYT Op-Ed columns on the middle east immediately before and after 9/11. If you missed them in the Times, here they are all in one place, and with an additional diary section. More required reading! | ||||||
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Interface,
Stephen Bury |
Combine technology, big brother, and politics, and you get this twister. Great vacation reading. | ||||||
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Snow
Crash, Neal Stephenson |
The quintessential sci-fi look into the future, that seems to be getting less and less far-fetched. The seminal work by Neal Stephenson. | ||||||
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High
Fidelity, |
Plain old hilarious. The movie doesn't come close. | ||||||
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A
Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers |
Despite the hype and shortage of modesty, this book lives up to it. Another cult. | ||||||
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Code
of the Woosters, P.G. Wodehouse |
Fine British humor. | ||||||
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Poetry
of Robert Frost, Robert Frost |
My favorite professor at Connecticut College, George Willauer, taught a seminar on Frost & Dickenson. This was our text for Frost, and is still my favorite collection of his poetry. | ||||||
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Paradise
Lost, John Milton |
"Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit of that forbidden tree..." C'mon, with an opening like that, how can you resist? The tale of FREE WILL. Showing my English Major true colors. This was another favorite from college, and many re-readings. "The mind is it's own place, and can make a heave of hell, a hell of heaven." I'll say! | ||||||
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The
Little Prince, Antoine de Saint Exupery |
As long as this is on my bookshelf or night table, I'll never feel too grown up. | ||||||
| Favorite Music | ||||||||
| What 15 CDs would I bring to a deserted island? (You bring the Classical please). | ||||||||
| Rock | Jazz | |||||||
| Neil Young - After The Gold Rush | Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - Ella & Louis | |||||||
| Police - Regatta De Blanc | Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto - Getz/Gilberto | |||||||
| King Crimson - Discipline | Nat King Cole - After Midnight Sessions | |||||||
| Sade - Lover's Rock | Miles Davis - Kind of Blue | |||||||
| Joni Mitchell - Blue | John Coltrane - John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman | |||||||
| Bob Marley - Legend | Ray Charles - Genius + Soul = Jazz | |||||||
| Genesis - Selling England By the Pound | Buddy Guy/Junior Wells - Drinkin' TNT 'n Smokin' Dynamite | |||||||
| Led Zeppelin - Song Remains Same | Diana Krall - Love Scenes | |||||||
| Toad the Wet Sprocket - Dulcinea | Frank Sinatra - The Capitol Years | |||||||
| B-52's - Wild Planet | The Manhattan Transfer - Swing | |||||||
| Soul Coughing - Ruby Vroom | Count Basie & Oscar Peterson - Satch & Josh | |||||||
| Freedy Johnston - This Perfect World | Dave Brubeck - Time Out | |||||||
| Guster - Goldfly | Pat Metheny - Travels | |||||||
| Orishas - A Lo Cubano | Joe Pass - Joe Pass at the Montreux | |||||||
| Tom Petty - Greatest Hits | Grant Green - Idle Moments | |||||||
| Favorite SF Restaurants | ||||||||
| House | (415) 682-3898 1269 9th Ave. @ Lincoln | CA/Asian. My favorite Sea Bass in SF. | ||||||
| Il Borgo | (415) 255-9108 500 Fell St. @ Laguna | Italian. Casual. Try the "Lasagnetta"! | ||||||
| Grandeho's | (415) 759-8428 943 Cole St. @ Carl |
Sushi. Try the "Bincho Maguro" (albacore) | ||||||
| Slow Club | (415) 241-9390 2501 Mariposa St. @ Hampshire | SF. My favorite burger in the city! | ||||||
| Eos | (415) 566-3063 101 Carl St. @ Cole | Fine. Try the Mushroom Dumplings app. | ||||||
| Cafe Kati | (415) 775-7313 1963 Sutter St. @ Fillmore |
Just plain awesome. | ||||||
| The Meeting House | (415) 922-6733 1701 Octavia St. @ Bush | Down home and delicious. | ||||||
| Parma | (415) 567-0500 3314 Steiner St. @ Chestnut | Italian. My favorite lasagna in the city. | ||||||
| Eric's Chinese | (415) 282-0919 1500 Church St. @ 27th | Chinese to die for. Try the Shang Hai Chicken! | ||||||
| Boulevard | (415) 543-6084 1 Mission St. @ Steuart |
Special occasion. Incredibly good. | ||||||
| Delfina | (415) 552-4055 3621 18th St. @ Dolores | Trendy and fun. Great for a date. | ||||||