Last modification: 01/19/08 19:26
(Disclaimer: I
mention these things for the benefit of Freethinkers of Similar Spirit,
as they seem to be Quite Charming albeit in a rather Dystopian way)
Music Movies
Documentaries Fiction
Non-Fiction Opinions
Aquarium - Aqua
Babylon - Ten (oh, the magnificence.)
Bat Out Of Hell - Meatloaf
Beethoven's Last Night - Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Blizzard of Ozz - Ozzy Osbourne
Black Tiger - Y&T
Black Mages Vol. 2: The Skies Above - The Black Mages (Hard to find, but worth
it)
Boldly Go Down On Me - Warp 11 (RATF Rulez.)
Boston - Boston
Bridge of Sighs - Robin Trower
Brutal Planet - Alice Cooper
Contraband - Contraband
Couldn't Stand the Weather - Stevie Ray Vaughan
Cultosaurus Erectus - Blue Oyster Cult
Dark Light - H.I.M.
Deliver Us - Warlord
Destroyer - Kiss
The Doobie Bros. - Greatest Hits (all downhill from here)
Down To Earth - Rainbow
Eagles - Hotel California
Eve - The Alan Parsons Project
Erotic Cakes - Guthrie Govan
Excitable Boy - Warren Zevon (heck, all Warren)
Fear of a Blank Planet - Porcupine Tree
Five Man Acoustical Jam - Tesla
Foreigner - Foreigner
Forever More - Tesla
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John
Head East - Head East (Damn good! And a cool cover!)
Heaven and Hell - Black Sabbath
High Tension Wires - Steve Morse Band
Infinity - Journey (all downhill after this)
Invasion of Your Privacy - Ratt (all hail producer Beau Hill!)
Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War Of The Worlds (Phil Lynott -and- Richard
Burton? Brilliant!)
Journey to Damascus - Acousticon
Leftoverture - Kansas
Live! -
Foghat
Kerosene Hat - Cracker
Kings Of Sleep - Stu Hamm (it's better than some Satch albums!)
Louder Than Hell - Sam Kinison (comedy, and Sam's smartest. All slowly downhill
from here)
Lovedrive - Scorpions (one could say all slowly downhill from here, too)
Mask of Sanity - Sinner
Metal - Brian Bromberg (It's... the new Stu Hamm!)
The Mix - Kraftwerk (to think I used to hate these guys)
Nation - Nation (The best album Yngwie never did. Superb!)
Nightfall - Candlemass (Messiah Marcolin & Dio should double-bill)
No Parole from Rock 'n Roll - Alcatrazz
Octavarium - Dream Theater (bloody heck. DT learned to wank -and- write!)
Open Fire - Ronnie Montrose (heck, all Montrose, & Gamma too)
Physical Graffiti - Led Zeppelin
Please - Pet Shop Boys (Hookmasters.)
Point of Know Return - Kansas
Primal Fear - Primal Fear (Priest done Right.)
Ralph Santolla - Shaolin Monks in the Temple of Metal
The Remains Of Tom Lehrer (Box Set) - Tom Lehrer (comedy, timing & wit beyond
belief)
Requiem - John5
Resolution - Andy Timmons
Retrospective, Vol. 1 - Rush (and then, quickly downhill.)
Ride the Lightning - Metallica
Rust Never Sleeps - Neal Young
Santana - Inner Secrets (also see: Moonflower)
Sehnsucht - Rammstein
Synchestra - The Devon Townsend Band (Wotta mix!)
Time's Up - Living Colour
Under Northern Lights - Keiko Matsui ('Flight' is GENIUS!)
Universe -
Dimitar Nalbantov (go AMT!)
Unplugged In New York - Nirvana
Strangers In The Night - UFO (heck, all UFO)
Thunder And Lightning - Thin Lizzy
Van Halen - Van Halen
Various Artists: An Independent Critical Review (Classic Rock Productions
series)
Vince Neil - Exposed (all hail Steve Stevens!)
The Wall - Pink Floyd
What Do You Want From Live - The Tubes
Whitesnake - Whitesnake (John Sykes. 'nuff said.)
Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force - Yngwie Malmsteen
Airplane!
Animusic
Apocalypse Now
Bean - The Movie
Black Snake Moan
Blast From The Past
Bottle Shock (based on a true story)
Brazil
A Clockwork Orange
Charlie Wilson's War (almost a documentary)
Dawn of the Dead
Dick (Also see: "Nixon's Nixon", the play by Russell Lee)
Dilbert (TV series)
Excalibur
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Fight Club
Futurama (TV series)
Goodnight and Goodbye (To think that TV news once spoke truth to power)
GWAR - Tour de Scum
Heavy Metal
The Incredibles (no, it's not about Ayn Rand... grr!!)
The Jim Rose Circus Sideshow (original 1993 VHS)
Josie and the Pussycats (Roger Ebert... grrr....)
Kentucky Fried Movie
Logan's Run
Monty Python's Flying Circus (TV series)
Network
Oh! Mikey (Japan TV series)
Omen II (Draco Malfoy is no match for Damien)
Pleasantville
Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert (the Australian Rocky Horror!)
Race The Sun (for fans of EV's, Hawaii and Halle Berry)
Real Genius
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
School Of Rock (also see: Rock School!)
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Something Wild
Summer of '42
Superbad (also see: anything by Paul Feig)
Team America: World Police (and speaking of which...)
Thunderbirds (anything by Gerry Anderson, really)
Total Recall (and for that matter, anything by Philip K. Dick)
Star Trek II - The Wrath Of Khan
Star Wars (just Episode IV, thanks)
Tampopo (incredibly good, this. Best date movie ever.)
Totoro
Wallace and Gromit (TV series)
Wayne's World
Wizards (compare to: "Heavy Metal: The Movie." Or not.)
Documentaries (aka, 'Reason for Netflix')
A Brief History of Time
An Inconvenient Truth
Building The Alaska Highway
The Business Of Being Born
Classic Albums: The Making Of... (series)
Confessions Of A Superhero
Control Room (Bad press? Blow it up!)
Crumb (That's R. Crumb to you)
The Decline Of Western Civilization, Part II: The Metal Years
Extreme Engineering (Discovery Channel series)
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Fahrenheit 9/11
Fires Of Kuwait: IMAX
The Fog Of War (Sobering.)
Fuzz: The Sound That Revolutionized The World
Going Upriver: The Long War Of John Kerry
Grizzly Man
Guns, Germs and Steel (National Geographic)
Hacking Democracy
Heavy Metal In Baghdad (also read: "Heavy Metal Islam", by Mark Levine)
Helvetica
Home Movie
A Hot Dog Program (PBS)
Ice Road Truckers (History Channel series)
Keep The River On Your Right (unusual!)
King Corn
The King Of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Kon-Tiki
Magnetic Storm
March Of The Penguins
Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster
Microcosmos (great for kids)
Mr. Death: Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.
Newton's Dark Secrets: Nova
Off The Charts: The Song Poem Story
Paul McCartney: Wingspan - An Intimate Portrait
Penn & Teller's Magic & Mystery Tour
Power Trip
Ralph Nader: An Unreasonable Man
Religulous
Riding the Rails : American Experience
Rock School ('School Of Rock' was based on this)
Sandwiches That You Will Like (PBS)
30 Days (reality TV series)
This Film Is Not Yet Rated (gotta love the title)
Unwrapped (Food Network series)
Who Killed The Electric Car?
Why We Fight (compare to: "The Fog Of War". Discuss.)
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all." - Oscar Wilde
The Boondocks (comic series) - Aaron McGruder
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Chronicles Of Corum (series) - Michael Moorcock
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
The Devils' Apocrypha - John A. DeVito
Dune - Frank Herbert
Einstein's Bridge - John Cramer
Elric of Melnibone (series) - Michael Moorcock
Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser (series) - Fritz Leiber
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
The Foundation Trilogy - Isaac Asimov
IV - Chuck Klosterman
Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson (too nutty for
'non-fiction', sorry)
Gateway - Frederick Pohl
Girl Genius (graphic novel series) - Phil Foglio
The Godfather - Mario Puzo
God's Debris - Scott Adams (and you can download it here.
)
Harry Potter (pre-teens & up, series) - J.K. Rowling
James and the Giant Peach (anything by Roald Dahl really, pre-teens)
Just So Stories (Rudyard Kipling - pre-teens)
Lloyd: What Happened: A Novel Of Business - Stanley Bing
The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
Lucky Wander Boy
Master Of The Five Magics (series) - Lyndon Hardy
McDuff Stories (children's series) - Rosemary Wells & Susan Jeffers
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur S. Golden
My Book House (Golden Era children's literature series)
1984 - George Orwell
Neuromancer - William Gibson
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
oPtion$: the secret life of Steve Jobs - Daniel Lyons
The Phantom Tollbooth - (pre-teens) Norton Juster
Thieves' World (series)
The Trial of Colonel Sweeto (and Other Stories) - Nicholas Gurewitch
Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (Golden Era sci-fi series)
A Wrinkle In Time (pre-teens) - Madeleine L'Engle
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig
The Age Of American Unreason - Susan Jacoby
American Shogun - Robert Harvey
Animals in Translation - Temple Grandin
Armed Madhouse - Greg Palast
The Assault on Reason - Al Gore
The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Alex Haley
Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World - Dan Koeppel
Bobos in Paradise - David Brooks
Bonk - Mary Roach
Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life - Steve Martin
Bumping Into Geniuses - Danny Goldberg
Candyfreak - Steve Almond
This Common Secret - Susan Wicklund
Computer Lib / Dream Machines - Ted Nelson
Censored 2008: The Top 25 Censored News Stories (series) - Project Censored
The Collectors' Guide To Heavy Metal (series) - Martin Popoff
The Computer Music Tutorial - Curtis Roads
Confessions of An Economic Hitman - Jon Perkins
The Demon-Haunted World - Carl Sagan
Don't Think Of An Elephant! - George Lakoff (eye-opening.)
Dreams Of My Father - Barack Obama
Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain - Michael
Paterniti
The Economic Naturalist - Robert H. Frank
The Edge of Paradise : America in Micronesia -P.F. Kluge
The End Of America : Letter Of Warning to A Young Patriot - Naomi Wolf
Elephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments - Alex Boese
The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons And Growing Up Strange (a Memoir) - Mark
Barrowcliffe
The Emperor Of Scent - Chandler Burr
The End Of Faith - Sam Harris
Freakonomics - Levitt & Dubner
The Fruit Hunters - Adam Leith Gollner
The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists - Neil Strauss
Generation X - Douglas Coupland
The Genius Factory - David Plotz
Getting Stoned With Savages - J. Maarten Troost
Goa Freaks - Cleo Odzer (Rest in peace, Cleo.)
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
Goodbye Madame Butterfly: Sumie Kawakami
Hegemony Or Survival - Noam Chomsky
Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles - Geoff
Emerick
Honolulu Madam - Iolana Mitsuko
How to Rig an Election - Allen Raymond
Hump – True Tales Of Sex After Kids - Kimberley Ford
The Inventor of Stereo: The Life and Works of Alan Dower Blumlein - Robert Alexander
Kill The Messenger: How The CIA's Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist
Gary Webb - Nick Schou
Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain
Laika (graphic novel) - Nick Abadzis
A Long Way To Go For A Date - Henry Makow
Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's - John Elder Robison
Lost On Planet China - J. Maarten Troost
Loving John : the Untold Story - May Pang & Henry Edwards
The Soul Of A New Machine - Tracy Kidder (Also see: "What The Dormouse Said")
Manchild In The Promised Land - Claude Brown
Mauve: How One Man Invented A Color That Changed The World - Simon Garfield
Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music - Blair Tindall
My Life: A Spoken Autobiography - Ignacio Ramonet & Fidel Castro
The Mythical Man-Month - Fred Brooks, Jr.
Napoleon's Buttons: 17 Molecules That Changed History - Couteur & Burreson
On the Edge: the Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore - Brian Bagnall
Outliers: The Story of Success - Malcolm Gladwell
Patpong Sisters - Cleo Odzer
A People's History of American Empire (graphic novel) - Zinn, Konopacki & Buhle
The Perfect Scent - Chandler Burr (compare to : Twinkie, Deconstructed)
A Piece Of Blue Sky - Jon Atack
Pimp: The Story Of My Life - Iceberg Slim
Priming the Pump: How TRS-80 Enthusiasts Helped Spark the PC Revolution - David
& Theresa Welsh
The Principles of Digital Audio - Ken Pohlmann
The Rape of Nanking - Iris Chang (there's a statue of her in Nanjing)
Recording The Beatles - Kevin Ryan & Brian Kehew (Best coffee table book ever)
Reversing: Secrets of Reverse Engineering - Eldad Eilam
Riding Rockets - Mike Mullane
Rock Star Mommy: My Life as A Rocker Mom - Judy Davids
The Science of Radio - Paul J. Nahin
The Secret History of the American Empire - John Perkins
The Sex Lives Of Cannibals: Adrift In The Equatorial Pacific - J. Maarten Troost
Silk Road To Ruin - Ted Rall (heck - anything by Ted Rall)
Sex And Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons - John Carter
The Shadow Factory - James Bamford
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism - Naomi Klein
Stan Veit's History of the Personal Computer - Stan Veit
Starbucked - Taylor Clark
State of Denial - Bob Woodward (So, Bob - third time gets it right, eh?)
Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back -
Amy & David Goodman
Superstud (inspired the movie 'Superbad'? Discuss.) - Paul Feig
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! - Richard Feynman
Thread of the Silkworm - Iris Chang (Rest in peace, Iris.)
Toscanini's Fumble and Other Tales of Clinical Neurology - Harold L. Klawans
(Oliver Sacks territory here)
Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, & the Privilege of Power - Mary Mapes
(compare to: 'Kill The Messenger')
The Tube Guys - Norman H. Pond
Turkmeniscam: How Washington Lobbyists Fought To Flack For A Stalinist
Dictorship - Ken Silverstein
Twinkie, Deconstructed: Steve Ettlinger
Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood - Oliver Sacks (my favorite author!)
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (graphic novel) - Scott Mccloud
What's The Matter With Kansas? - Thomas Frank (Brilliant.)
What's My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States - Dave Zirin
What the Dormouse Said - John Markoff (My forgotten tribe. Thanks, John)
What Every American Should Know About Who's Really Running The World - Melissa Rossi
When Science Goes Wrong: Twelve Tales From The Dark Side Of Discovery - Simon
LeVay
Womansword: What Japanese Words Say about Women - Kittredge Cherry
The Xenophobe's Guide To... (insert country here) - Various Authors
Zen Guitar - Philip Tosho Sudo
...meanwhile, some of my favorite books on music & audio production can be found here.
Book & Music Reviews at
Amazon.com.
Restaurant Reviews at Yelp.com.
Soda (!?) Reviews at
Bevnet.com.
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