what one record should i hear/book should i read/movie should i see?

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okay, in an attempt to broaden my cultural horzions, pleez tell me the following. now, hopefully anyone who is around il* has *some* idear of my taste, so "loveless" may be ned's favorite album, but he knows damn well i own it already. ;) also, since i are a BIG NERD BOY, your comic book selections are also likely futile. the actual amount of books i've read between 1999-2001 have been pathetically small, so i'm sure you can tell me sumtin and it'll work.

― jess, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

play on, playas.

― jess, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The Best of Timi Yuro

― Nick, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

A cliche, I know, but Velvet Underground. The debut record, not the book. The latter was extremely mediocre. So which book should you read? Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. If you are still in yer mid-teens, I would suggest Catcher in the Rye. Nevertheless I was let down by it.. If you want to rock and read at the same time: Lester Bangs' Psychotic Reactions and Carburator Dung.

― Helen Fordsdale, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nick: Jeez, I thought I had Smiths-itis...

― suzy, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Amelie

― Will McKenzie, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Have you read "Safe Area -- Gorazde" by Joe Sacco? My favourite comic- book (graphic novel, what have you) of the last few years. pretty harrowing stuff, but lovely stories.

― Alan Trewartha, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Suzy - you'll be pleased to know that I didn't get into Timi Yuro as a result of her featuring in Morrissey's Top 10. Actually, that's a lie - I've just remembered that I did. But it took me about 12 years from hearing that to getting a compilation. At the time, I only bought 'Johnny Remember Me', 'Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy' and 'You've Not Changed'. And dug out my mum's copy of 'All Over The World'. So I wasn't obsessed or anything. Oh no.

Anyway, forget Morrissey. Timi Yuro doesn't need him.

― Nick, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

book = shot in the heart by mikal gilmore

― mark s, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

alan: the last sacco comic i read was "soba," which was muy excellente, the best comic of that year. is "safe area" a series, a book, (a collection of the strips from zero, zero et al)?

mark: gilmore = writer for r.s. (amongst others) in 80s & 90s? (name is familiar...)

― jess, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

yes the same but FOR GOD'S SAKE JESS steer clear of EVERYTHING ELSE HE HAS EVAH WRITTEN. I made the mistake of buying his "collected crit" as i was so wowed by shot in the heart, and it is UTTER UNREADABLE GARBAGE.

But shot in the heart = abt him and his famous killah bruv gary and their deeply damaged family, and how punk rock can save yore life

― mark s, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

All Our Yesterdays by Alien Sex Fiend.

Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks.

― toraneko, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I just finished Shot Through the Heart and the collected Gilmore rock writings a couple of weeks ago and had the same reaction, Mark. Such a grim book (the former), it gave me nightmares. I wanted to counteract it with something cheerful, like the Best of Shel Silverstein. But instead I started reading Dahlgren.

― Arthur, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"yes the same but FOR GOD'S SAKE JESS steer clear of EVERYTHING ELSE HE HAS EVAH WRITTEN"

ah, yes. now i remember. jess, aged 14 (?) locates gilmore piece on "hot comics" in 1991-2? from r.s. in library search for one more futile english paper on why comics = Art (a critical stance he has since abandoned) and even then realized - with my gross knowledge of comics but still, uh, embryonic crit skills - that it was largely piffle. i'll look for "shot through the heart" tho, definitely.

― jess, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mick Foley's Christmas Chaos. The first Pop-Off Tuesday album. Jessica Abels 'La Perdida' (but you've probably read it).

― james, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Have you read 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay' by Michael Chabon, Jess? It's a novel abt the American comic industry that's actually a)quite a good novel, and b)pretty historically/aesthetically accurate. It joins the v. select group of good novels abt comics (see also the brilliant 'The Kryptonite Kid' by Joseph Torchia, if you can find it.) I picked up my copy of the Chabon in a remainder bookshop in London's Soho (porn in the basement, cheap bks up top), along with the new Tibor Fischer, whose earlier novel 'The Thought Gang' is v. v. funny.

― Andrew L, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I just finished Consider Phlebas and although I'm not the world's biggest sci-fi fan it was very good, apart from all the silly names. Mind you, if it hadn't been Banks I probably wouldn't have read it.

― chris, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I kind of liked the silly names, I felt mentally challenged throughout the whole book because I never knew who was who or what was going on. Tolstoy is a bit like that with names too.

btw - have you read Against A Dark Background? That is a seriously fantastic book. It may well be my favourite book eva.

― toraneko, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

no, I haven't, just Feersum Engdjin and the player of games both rather good, I know what you mean about not knowing what's going on, most of my tube reading takes about three days to finish, Phlebas took a week and a half!

― chris, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't have any "secrets" cos I'm young and ignorant. I still haven't read a book since Jon Ronsons Them:Adventures with Extremists which was great. As for CDs, I don't know how many of the following you're into but if you've never got any Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash or Gram Parsons then I urge you to. At least they're personal favourites of mine. I've no interest in films and therefore my opinion on them is useless so I won't recommend any.

― Ronan, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

fuct and fiction by me, available from www.hungrypublishing.com - it's short, snappy and cynical. plug fucking plug

― Geoff, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

interestink...no one has mentioned a film yet...

― jess, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nonfiction: "We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families" by Philip Gourevitch. (It's a book about genocide in Rwanda but don't let that scare you off.)

Novel: "Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov.

Short stories: "Everything That Rises Must Converge" by Flannery O'Connor.

― fritz, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Movie: Fight Club!!!!!

Failing that, Biloxi Blues.

― toraneko, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Will mentioned 'Amelie'(which I have been put off going to see ever since a friend pointed out that the poster for it makes the lead actress look like Mr Bean!)

Movie: 'Out One' directed by Jacques Rivette - 12 hours long, VFM.

― Andrew L, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families" by Philip Gourevitch."

read it in one night this summer, and was absolutely riveted/horrified/heartbroken/inspired.

― jess, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Read The Man With Night Sweats by Thom Gunn

― anthony, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Keiji Haino: Affection

William Faulkner: Absalom! Absalom!

Ladri Di Biciclette

― Kodanshi, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

so "loveless" may be ned's favorite album, but he knows damn well i own it already. ;)

A GOOD THING TOO. Dance for me, marionette, DANCE!

I am impressed you actually read the Gourevitch book. I knew if I did I'd be hating life. Banks = groovy, what I've read of him so far. And I haven't read _Shot in the Heart_, but Mark S is oh so right about his crit. FEG!

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm glad it's not just me who sees the Mr Bean thing with the Amelie poster.

― Nick, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Zoolander.

― Ally, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

savage dragon, ep7, and barton fink.

― ethan, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Läther. Definitely Läther. Or at least Uncle Meat.

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Record: The Perfect Needle by The Telescopes.
Book: The Age Of Wire And String by Ben Marcus.
Film: Wise Blood by John Huston.

― emil.y, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oooh 'Wise Blood', great choice - "I am the church of christ without christ"!

― Andrew L, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

If you can find the Film STARCRASH..early Hasselhoff tragedy

― Mike Hanle y, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Rent "El Topo".

― Michael Bourke, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

if it was gonna be 'i am only gonna listen to/read/see one record/book/ movie in my life' i would sort of guess you should listen to Javanese Gamelan music and read 'The Brothers Karamazov' by Fyodor Dostoevsky, and see um Nights of Cabiria by Fellini.

But if it's 'what would be exciting to listen to/read/see right now' I would guess listen to kraftwerk or devo 'are we not men?' or suicide and yeah read 'the master and margarita' like fritz? said or 'the extension of the domain of the struggle' by michel houellebecq and see 'cecil b. demented' by John Waters. they are all fun.

― maryann, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i will second the recommendation of listening to 'are we not men?' and watching cecil b. demented, they are great fun at any time.

― ethan, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Movie: "Once Upon a Time in the West"

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

goldberg variations, once and future king, and i don't know. you've probably read that though

― Maria, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

you'd be surprised what i haven't read, maria. (jess, the boy who's read ulysses thrice, but not catcher in the rye. and only half of neuromancer but all the robotech novelizations.) ;)

― jess, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Maria is The Once and Future King the arthur tales , can you tell me more ?

― anthony, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I second Mary Ann's recommendation of Michel Houllebecq's 'Extension de la domaine du lutte' - (tr. in England as 'Whatever') - very dark and delicious.

― Will McKenzie, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Safe Area -- Gorazde" AFAIK is just a book, there was no series to collect. I'm ashamed to say I bought it in hardback, but had I known how wonderful it was, I would do so on purpose, rather than for being an imaptient fan. (it's on amazon in books in paperback now I see)

If you really are as big a geek as they say, and you are looking for quality fiction then give Thomas Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow" a shot. it's a biggie, but it's just so rewarding, funny, thoughtful, everything...

― Alan Trewartha, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

o.k. I have to admit, haven't been here long enough to know your tastes, but some essentials for me... -Book- A confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, or some real good southern gothic fiction...A Feast of Snakes by Harry Crews. Records...The Fire of Love by The Gun Club or Blue Dirge by The Beguiled.

― Hank, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Damn. Or.... Book - Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison. Movie... Time of the Gypsies by Emir Kosterika or any part of that series.

― hank, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Jess - Glad you liked the Gourevitch book. He's got a new one out now, "Cold Case" I think its called. Getting good reviews too.

If you liked "We Regret...", you'd probably also like "Dispatches" by Michael Herr. It is his memoir of being a war correspondent in Viet Nam. He also worked on the screenplay of Apocalypse Now, so some scenes from the book were vaguely adapted for the movie.

― fritz, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have been immensely enjoying the Oklahoma soundtrack of late.

― Pete, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

not that i'm the biggest gibson fan, but ONLY HALF OF NEUROMANCER AND ALL THE FUCKING ROBOTECH NOVELS?? christ, jess.

― ethan, Friday, 12 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Record: Paris 1919-John Cale Movie-Ma Vie En Rose TV Movie-The Naked Civil Servant Book-Collected Works of Flannery O'Connor

And I think I meant Shot IN the Heart, Mark S. Jon Bon Jovi's to blame.

― Arthur, Saturday, 13 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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