Artists of the Month
- Calvin Harris: Artist of the year. Artist of my life. I don't know what I would do without this man's music in my life. I only wish I could be at the O2 to see him for NYE.
- Michael Giacchino: The Star Trek soundtrack has become a favorite over the course of the later half of the year. It is currently my favorite bedtime album, stealing that honor away from The Duke & The King's Nothing Gold Can Stay.
- Frankie & The Heartstrings: I read about this band on There Goes The Fear and then emailed them to get some of their tunes. Their music is fantastic and I dig their commitment to networking.
- The Artists of Hed Kandi's Pure Kandi: This collection is one of my favorite Hanukkah presnts from this year. The first disc has gotten me rocking to a sweet disco groove during this holiday season.
Things I Cooked
- Brownies
- Curried couscous with cranberries and walnuts with Asian chicken
- Potato leek soup
- Chicken liver pate
- Potted shrimps
- Popovers
Movies
- Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
- Me & Orson Welles
- Up In The Air
- Broken Embraces
- A Single Man
- Avatar
- Crazy Heart
- Up In The Air (xmas eve edition)
- Sherlock Holmes
- The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
- The Messenger
Books
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle. The Holmes stories are enjoyable, though once I was about a third of the way through the book, I got pretty good about solving the crimes myself. My favorite story was "The Red-Headed League," naturally. Conan Doyle definitely has a way with words, making for classic one-liners and highly entertaining reading. i was glad I read these stories before seeing the new film because it allowed me to see that the filmmakers were quite true to Conan Doyle's original spirit.
- BFI Modern Classics: Jaws, Antonia Quirke. After seeing Jaws on the big screen this summer to scout exact Martha's Vineyard locations for a special project, I found this book to be an interesting follow-up to a film that I am beginning to know frame by frame. Since taking an academic film criticism course at Uni and writing my own papers on Moulin Rouge, Quiz Show, and other films, I know just how easy it is to BS when writing about films. Knowing how fraught with problems the set of Jaws was, I can't quite believe that every single aspect of the film had specific intent behind it; Spielberg is good, but c'mon. However, it was fulfilling to read some proper film criticism again, and I was able to add to my arsenal of Jaws and MV trivia.
- A Fine Line, Hartmut Esslinger. A book I read for work, this one begins by examining the importance, practice, and implementation of innovation. That part of the book was interesting, and it's important to remember that true innovation is seldom readily accepted. However, the second half of the book focuses on Green issues, and devolved into an opinion piece that has little relevance to anything in my immediate world. Really can't say I'd recommend this one.
- The Real Heroes of Business and not a CEO among them, Bill Fromm & Len Schlesinger. This book was written in the early 90s which makes it comical in some respects, but its fundamental message about the importance of great service in business is truly timeless. I already knew many of the main points the authors were trying to make thanks to my own time working at my dad's office and in the retail trenches. However, service is so important and this book is so engagingly written, that it was actually sort of fun to read. It is worth hunting down a used copy through Amazon and adding to your business library.
- Crush It!, Gary Vanerchuk. Vanerchuk's writing style is soooo annoying, even though he didn't actually "write" the book but "dictated" it. He does present an interesting take on how an individual can harness Web 2.0 to grow a business (particularly interesting to me considering that my MA thesis was titled "How to Move Retail Experience Design Forward by the Integration of Brand Extension, Lifestyle Creation, and Web 2.0 Technology"), but since starting my own business is not something I have a particular interest in actually doing at the moment, reading this book was like having someone shouting at me and exhorting me to do something completely unlike me while also telling me to be true to myself. Let's just say I'm skeptical.
- The Sum of All Fears, Tom Clancy. 900 pages and sooo many subplots! But still rather good and amazingly relevant. Hard to believe this book was written ten years before 9/11, but in light of that and the even more recent events, it brings home the power of conviction and the realities of our government. I read this book because my grandfather, who was heavily involved with the military during and after WWII, told me that this is one of the most realistic military based books he has ever read. And he is a lot older than me and reads even more than I do, so that is really saying something. As usual, my Grandpa knows exactly what he is talking about. Plus, learning all the military jargon is kinda fun.
