And now, 10 movies

So now I guess the thing is 10 movies that have stuck with us. 10 books was hard enough...

Casablanca. The greatest movie ever.

 The Big Sleep. So far, it's a Bogart festival.

 The Graduate. It has it's flaws, but...

 The Hustler. Maybe Paul Newman at his finest.

 Little Big Man. Chief Dan George steals the movie.

 Catch-22. Terrifying in its own way.

 M*A*S*H (the first half). Yes, the tv series was better.

 The Return of the Seacaucus Seven. I've come to appreciate The Big Chill more than I once did. But this is much better.

 Matewan. The best movie ever about the US labor movement. And that's 2 directed by John Sales.

 Midnight Cowboy.

That's 10. I might be able to do the list over de novo (All the President's Men; Parallax View; The Conversation; The Empire Strikes Back; Bonnie & Clyde; Easy Rider; Cabaret; The Station Agent; Reds; Indiscreet; The Seventh Seal...)

 

And over again...I'm sitting here doing a third list...The Sting; Butch Cassidy; Double Indemnity; The African Queen; Raiders of the Lost Ark; American Graffiti; The Americanization of Emily; The French Connection; Duck Soup; 2001: A Space Odyssey...

10 Books

Over on Facebook, there was a meme asking people to post 10 books that have stuck with them.  Without over-thinking it.  So here's my 10, in no particular order:

Duane Decker, Rebel in Right Field. Right in the middle of this baseball book (published in 1958) aimed at early-teens, there's a rant against major league baseball's reserve clause. Made me, at age 10 or so, stop and think.

J. D. Salinger three ways:
The Catcher in the Rye (which I have found unreadable as an adult).
Franny and Zooey
Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction. Seymour is an amazing portrait of a man having something of a breakdown.

Michael Harrington, The Other America. 1963 (?), and my first real acknowledgement that American poverty was something to be very concerned about.

James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time. Two amazing essays that took me into a life I could never have imagined.

J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings.

Rex Stout, The Doorbell Rang. A mystery, but mostly memorable for its rather subversive view of the FBI.

Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep.  The opening paragraph might be the best opening ever to a mystery novel.

Paul Goodman, Compulsory Mis-Education and the Community of Scholars. Two brilliant essays on elementary/secondary and higher education. I read this while contemplating committing grad school, and it helped shape my view of what it means to be a member of the community of scholars

Window and shadow

More photoblogging at Crooked Timber by Chris Bertram, and my version of the topic.

 

 

 

I took this in Milan in 2005.