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RECOMMENDED

This page is for lists of personal favorite films, music, television shows, websites, and related media that I recommend you take a look at if you respect or value my opinion at all.  Of course I’m not assuming you do but if you don’t it’s interesting that you’re reading the text under the “Recommended” section of my site.



“All that I desire to point out is the general principle that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.”

-Oscar Wilde

I’m gonna try my best to recommend films over a wide range of genre and narrative content and without respect to preference or explain why certain arguably questionable titles are included.  I’ve seen something I liked in each of these and if you want to know, email me.

Also, categorization according to genre is problematic to say the least.  The term itself is pretty reflexive in terms of working as a classifying tool.  In some instances the categories are specifically drawn or are left more general.  The list is an ongoing project and you can find many more films I enjoy in the FF&L page

Comedy:

  • O’ Brother Where art Thou, Dumb and Dumber, Wet Hot American Summer, Being John Malkovich, The Baxter, Burn After Reading, The Big Lebowski, Adaptation, Rules of Attraction, Delirious (2006), Living in Oblivion

Drama (crime, family, etc):

  • Mystic River, Easy Rider, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Requiem for a Dream, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Hurricane Streets, Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, American Heart, Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, The Fountain, All the President’s Men, Goodfellas, Pi, Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, French Connection, The Yards, River’s Edge, U-Turn, Inglourious Basterds, Heat, Ali, Chinatown, American Psycho, Public Enemies, Way of the Gun

Horror:

  • Wes Craven’s The New Nightmare, The Devil’s Rejects, Splinter, The Strangers, The Shining, The Exorcism

War:

  • Black Hawk Down, The Thin Red Line, Bridge on the River Kwai, Platoon, Ride with the Devil (don’t ask why)

Western:

  • Unforgiven, Fistful of Dollars, The Wild Bunch, Tombstone

Thriller:

  • Zodiac, A Perfect Murder, The Game, Se7en, In the Line of Fire, The Firm, Wall Street, Parallax View

Foreign:

  • The Road Home, Summer Hours, The Bicycle Thief, Turtles Can Fly, The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Blow-Up, Sunflower, To Live, Beijing Bicycle, 2046, Farewell my Concubine, Volver, City of God, House of Flying Daggers, Hero, Raise the Red Lantern, Yellow Earth


All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.

-Ernest Hemingway

I don’t fault my parents for very much, they mostly did a solid enough job bringing me up to speed and I certainly think they instilled a good sense of how important reading actually is.  I am not always an avid reader – I drift in and out of heavy reading binges according to my mood and circumstances – but when I am I tend to read stuff across the most absurd spectrum of content.  From internet law to drug lit to Brian Jacques Redwall, I’ve been into all kinds of different shit since I first realized what kind of fucked up shit you could print between two covers.  East of Eden has thus far held the spot as my favorite book I’ve ever read and I dream of one day making the proper film that the story deserves.  I can dream.

Fiction:

  • East of Eden, Less Than Zero, Siddhartha, In Dubious Battle, Tortilla Flat, The Rum Diary, The Redwall Series, Downtown Owl, As I Lay Dying, Of Mice and Men,

Non-Fiction:

  • Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the Campaign Trail (all), Basketball Diaries, Killing Yourself to Live, Sex.com, Shackleton, Band of Brothers, A Walk in the Woods

Graphic Novels/Comics:

  • DMZ, Watchmen, Preacher, Jonah Hex, V for Vendetta, Bone, 30 Days of Night, The Dark Knight Returns



I’ll admit, I’ve lost touch with television in a lot of ways.  I remember how I used to religiously watch re-runs of The Simpsons and Seinfeld at 6:00 every school day but as so many others have moved on to the internet, I’ve mostly joined them.  Television media still has a big influence over my entertainment choices, just not the traditional role and engagement of television.  From guilty pleasures to genuinely fascinating shit, it’s all listed.

“The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason.”

-Hunter S. Thompson

Premium:

  • The Sopranos, Penn and Teller: Bullshit!, Entourage, Hung, Dexter, Mr. Show, Big Love, Carnivale, Band of Brothers, Bored to Death

Basic:

  • It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The X-Files, Lost, The Office, Friday Night Lights, Comedy Central Presents

Animation:

  • South Park, The Life and Times of Tim, Frisky Dingo, Sealab 2021, Metalocalypse

Informational:

  • Taboo, Unsolved Mysteries, America’s Most Wanted, Conspiracy!, Gangland, Intervention, Steven Seagal: Lawman



I have eclectic tastes but for the most part I’m the type of listener who will play the same album, playlist or artist for weeks on end before getting back into any of the other stuff I like to hear.  I’m also big into live music bootlegs which my girlfriend claims is “a guy thing”.  I think it should be an everyone thing since quality live albums dominate pretty much everything else out there.

“Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

-Berthold Auerbach

Hip Hop:

  • Aesop Rock, People Under the Stairs, Blackstar, Wu-Tang Clan, Ghostface Killah, Method Man and Redman, Dr. Dre, Clipse, N.E.R.D, The Roots, Blue Scholars, Cousin, J Dilla, Lupe Fiasco, Dizzee Rascal

Rock:

  • Classic - The Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
  • Grunge/Hard Rock - Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Screaming Trees, Stone Temple Pilots, Smashing Pumpkins, Rage Against the Machine, A Perfect Circle, Tool, Deftones, Killswitch Engage, Trivium, In Flames, Pantera
  • Punk/Ska/Funk – Millencolin, Rancid, Less than Jake, Sublime, Red Hot Chili Peppers
  • Contemporary (vague I realize) – Brand New, Bon Iver, Band of Horses, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Pete Yorn, The Kooks, My Morning Jacket, Kings of Leon, The Black Keys, Augustana, Explosions in the Sky

Experimental/Electronic:

  • Animal Collective, Girl Talk, RJD2, Thievery Corporation, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Passion Pit

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