So here is my Top 5 list.
Movies:
1) Casablanca (1942)
"Here's looking at you kid." This is the epitome of Hollywood drama and glamour. How could Rick give up the love of his life and save her new lover on top of it all? When there are spies and war to think about I guess you'll do anything. Also, never have I heard so many catchphrases in one place. "We'll always have Paris." *sigh*
2) Gone with the Wind (1939)
Rhett Butler is the original bad boy. Perhaps I'm a romantic at heart (I'd have to be with my movie choices) but I just thought that Rhett and Scarlett's relationship was the most complicated, destructive and most beautiful thing in movie history. There's also the civil war for you history buffs.
3) Lost in Translation (2003)
Another amazing Hollywood relationship but this time its between Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansen…er, I mean their characters. This is my favourite scene - a bed scene with no sex - because they talk about how hard life really is and how beautiful that is at the same time.
4) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
If only we could erase those who hurt us from our past. Because it's amazing how much the people we love can hurt us. What I loved about this movie, besides its premise, was the dreamlike qualities it took on and the drug induced memories Joel has about his past. I also can't get enough of funny men in serious roles as you can see from Bill Murray, Jim Carrey and Will Farrell.
5) Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
Harold Crick is an unassuming IRS agent who's life is calculated down to the last minute. Little does he know that he is the character of a novel and that his death is eminent. This doesn't work for Harold Crick because he's just found the love of his love. There are so many favourite scenes in this movie that it was difficult for me to pick just one.
Books:
1) A Far Cry From Kensington by Muriel Spark
Our heroine Mrs. Hawkins is a war-widow living in a rooming house in South Kensington working as an editor for a failing publishing house. Her fellow housemates are experiencing the negative ramifications of a stalker, someone that Mrs. Hawkins knows and detests but who can and will ruin her life. This was a book that inspired me to eventually (one day) work in the publishing industry despite its failing qualities even in the 1950s. I was also inspired by Mrs. Hawkins, a young 20-something year old who finds out that only she is in control of her life.
2) Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd
A coming of age about an art student who enrols in a state university where his demanding (and possibly crazy) graphic design instructor challenges his very being let alone understanding of art. This novel is loosely based on the real life experiences of the author who studied at Penn State.
The book itself is a piece of art that you can only appreciate when you hold it in your hands. So go get a copy!
The book itself is a piece of art that you can only appreciate when you hold it in your hands. So go get a copy!
3) Portnoy's Complaint by Phillip Roth
Believe it or not my parents got me this book to read when I was a teenager and it totally blew my mind that they would think of me as an adult because boy oh boy are there some adult situations in this book. Let's just say there are certain scenes I will never get out of my head. Also Phillip Roth is a genius and this was my introduction to him. Holy crap.
“Do me a favor, my people, and stick your suffering heritage up your suffering ass_ I happen also to be a human being!”
― Philip Roth, Portnoy's Complaint
― Philip Roth, Portnoy's Complaint
4) Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind
Never have I been more frightened then when I read this book. (I probably scare easy but this was intense.) At the same time as I was terrified of Jean-Baptiste I also felt sorry for him. He was a product of his environment and although he was a 'monster' could he really help it? The movie does not do this book justice. This was another recommendation from my parents. My folks are awesome.
“Odors have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions, or will. The persuasive power of an odor cannot be fended off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally. There is no remedy for it.”
5) Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language by Eva Hoffman
The classic immigrant tale of a young girl who leaves behind all that she knows for the land of opportunity. This book explores many different types of relationships the most important one being that which we have with language. This was one of the first diasporic stories I have read and it really struck a chord with me. Finally, there were other people just like me.
“If all neurosis is a form of repression, then surely, the denial of suffering, and of helplessness, is also a form of neurosis. Surely, all our attempts to escape sorrow twist themselves into the specific, acrid pain of self-suppression. And if that is so, then a culture that insists on cheerfulness and staying in control is a culture that—in one of those ironies that prevails in the unruly realm of the inner life—propagates its own kind of pain.
“Perhaps perversely, I sometimes wish for that older kind of suffering—the capacity and the time for a patient listening to the winds of love and hate that can blow you like a reed, for that long descent into yourself in which you touch bottom and recognize the poor, two-forked creature that we all are.”
“Perhaps perversely, I sometimes wish for that older kind of suffering—the capacity and the time for a patient listening to the winds of love and hate that can blow you like a reed, for that long descent into yourself in which you touch bottom and recognize the poor, two-forked creature that we all are.”
Musical artists/groups:
1) Basia Bulat
2) Loudon Wainwright III
3) Leonard Cohen
4) Gogol Bordello
5) Niemen
TV Shows:
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