I considered this as an entry to my Digital Garden, but that is a place for organizing personal thoughts, and this is a place to share. These, I want to share. I may continue this series in the future
A non-exhaustive list of things I treasure or enjoy greatly:
Movies
Ocean’s 11 (2001) The script is fun and fast, the odds are impossible, and the actors are impossibly charming. This is a witty comfort movie that I’ve seen more times than any other. One of the few movies I have kept through every movie since I bought it.
Casablanca (1942) It’s hard to believe that a film this old holds up, and yet it does. The plot is compelling, the dialogue sharp, and the story still as heartbreaking today as it was back then. So much media references Casablanca because it truly is timeless.
Iron Man (2009) I saw this movie three times in theatres, more than any other film. The first two times were on opening night and the day after, both on dates with the same girl. Even without these memories coloring the experience, this movie (especially the first two acts) is funny while showcasing a world of superheroes that felt real in a way that many previous forays hadn’t. Now, it’s seen as the start of an impossible legacy. If you can shrug that off and see the gem it started is, that gem still shines today.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) Another fast and funny film, with incredible action, and a stacked cast that is all competing with each other to steal every scene they’re in. From the opening scenes until the credits roll, this movie inspires a sense of adventure in a way that few films (Mummy, Zorro) manage to evoke.
Television
The first season of Veronica Mars is one of the best seasons of television ever made. Kristen Bell’s best friend has been murdered a year before, and we get a tight season (with a few ‘filler’ episodes that still hold their own weight) of her investigating the irregularities in the official story, leading to a satisfying conclusion wrapped over the neo-noir pastiche of a world that only resembles high school if you squint really, really hard.
Books
My sister once pulled a copy of Nick Sagan’s Idlewild out of a bargain bin at Barnes & Noble. She proffered it to me, and I’ve been singing its praises ever since. It’s the kind of book you have to go into blind, as confused as the main character who wakes up with amnesia in a gothic forest.
On my 16th birthday, my grandparents took me to a book store and told me I could have any book. I chose Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman. I’ve re-read this book more than any others in the years since, and it doesn’t hit quite as hard as it used to. But this book was my first exposure to raw, opinionated nonfiction and interviews that Klosterman is known for, and I’ve since read everything he’s written.
Brandon Sanderson writes like a madman, and I’m not a huge fan of how connected his books are. That said, even I must admit that Words of Radiance, the second book in the Stormlight Archives is one of the most expertly executed stories I’ve ever read. The pacing is tight, each character has goals and arcs, and there are payoffs from the previous book that also serve to set up future encounters for the next. This isn’t my favorite book, but I enjoyed it greatly, and I include it here for its masterwork of construction.
Albums
I remember sitting in the back seat of my dad’s Honda Accord the first time I heard the Avett Brothers. The song was Head Full Of Doubt/Road Full Of Promise, and I frantically typed out as many lyrics as I could on my iPod touch, praying no one would change the station. Later, I googled the lyrics and found a copy of the album I And Love And You, an album I haven’t stopped listening to since. It’s folksy without overdoing it, and has a sound I can no longer describe — to me, it sounds like memories.
Frightened Rabbit, more than any other band, excelled at turning authentic angst into music. Before his death in 2018, band lead Scott Hutchison would remark that people would unload personal stories because onto him because they felt a sense of intimacy from the band’s most popular album, Midnight Organ Fight. I found the band through the show Chuck, and they later led me to the Front Bottoms, who sound the same, but replace the genuine nature of their angst with absurd, sometimes comical lyrics. Candle to a flame.