Suggest Some…Stuff That Isn’t Books
A couple of weeks ago I asked this site’s readers to suggest books that they thought other readers might enjoy. Intrepid commenter Cookie came up with several, then asked:
***Can we do movies and music too sometime? Please?!!?****
A capital idea.
Feel free to suggest either or both. Here are a few from me:
For movies, assuming that you’ve already seen the obvious ones like Poltergeist (still my single favorite horror movie) and The Exorcist (one of the few perks of living in the DC area is being close to the Exorcist steps), let me recommend The Uninvited–the 1944 version, not any of the remakes or similarly-titled dreck–a wonderfully atmospheric ghost story, Constantine (yeah, Keanu Reeves, but also Tilda Swinton), and Alien, still the classic SF/horror hybrid. Oh, and also Blade Runner, just because.
For music, I have no this-song-will-change-your-life recommendations, so I just hit Shuffle on my iPod and listed the first ten songs that came up (feel free to do the same):
Birdhouse in Your Soul (They Might Be Giants)
London Calling (The Clash)
Robots (Flight of the Conchords)
I’m Afraid of Americans (David Bowie)
Strangelove (Depeche Mode)
Code Monkey (Jonathan Coulton)
The Ghosts That Haunt Me (Crash Test Dummies)
Mowgli’s Road (Marina and the Diamonds) (Don’t judge)
The Dead Heart (Midnight Oil)
Mr. Spock (Nerf Herder)
(Bonus link: The next song that came up, Sisters of Mercy’s This Corrosion, has an unintentionally hilarious music video.)
Your turn–leave your recommendations in the comments!
p.s. – If your comment includes a lot of links, it may be automatically flagged as spam. If that happens, just drop me a line and I’ll fish it out of the spam folder.
Posted in Resources | 12 Comments »
February 27th, 2013 at 11:44 am
Okay. The iPod shuffle – first 10 songs… and I refuse to be embarrassed by anything that may appear:
Gone (Ben Folds)
Mama (Spice Girls)
Shores of California (The Dresden Dolls)
Boy Toy (Starf*cker)
Bright Lights Bigger City (Cee Lo Green)
This Time I Know It’s For Real (Donna Summer)
December (Collective Soul)
Hot ‘N Cold (Katy Perry)
Rhythm of Love (Plain White T’s)
Human (Jon McLaughlin)
Favorite movies (again, refuse to be embarrassed):
And Then There Were None – probably the best Agatha Christie movie. Ever.
Carrie – the ultimate teenage angst gone awry movie.
Clue – “Madeleine Kahn”… need I say more?
Donnie Darko – a mindbending movie that I’m still trying to unbend.
Edward Scissorhands – Tim Burton’s triumph, IMHO.
Fido – awesome spin on the zombie genre.
Final Destination series – if there are movie writers out there who can come up with better ways for people to meet their maker, I challenge you now.
Ghost Ship – ‘Cause who DOESN’T want to see a luxury liner full of passengers slaughtered?
Jennifer’s Body – ’nuff said.
Just Friends – I may be one of the only straight men in America who will freely admit that Ryan Reynolds is hilariously charming in this movie. Two other words: Anna Faris.
Logan’s Run – a retro favorite. I see a remake happening in 3…2…1…
Murder By Death – Just. Watch. It.
Orphan – a major “Oh no she didn’t!” movie.
Peggy Sue Got Married – charming time-travel story back when Kathleen Turner was hot.
Scream – the movie that turned the horror genre on its ear.
Slither – …the fat woman in the barn: wait for it…. wait for it….
The Birds – the schoolyard scene alone is worth the price of admission.
The Faculty – good old fashioned campy sic-fi goodness.
The Mist – the ending… Oh God! the ending!!
The Poseidon Adventure – In the water, I’m a very skinny lady.
12 Monkeys – the movie that gave me a man-crush on Brad Pitt’s acting abilities
Okay… I’ve gone on long enough… almost couldn’t stop but I want to give other blog followers a chance LOL
February 27th, 2013 at 6:20 pm
Music. 10 on shuffle
Jimmy the Exploder by the White Stripes
Goldtooth by Nothingface
Nebel by Rammstein
Ball and Biscuit by the White Stripes
‘Round Midnight by Amy Whinehouse
Versus the World by Amon Amarth
Liar by Emilie Autumn
Daniel Cowman by Regina Spektor
Thank You by Alanis Morissette
So Happy by Theory of a Deadman
Movies:
The Perfect Host
The Heart is Deceitful Above all Things (really f’ed up)
Hounddog (equally f’d up)
Party Monster
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
Brake (has to be the lowest budget movie ever, but amazing!)
Midnight Meat Train
May
Let the Right One In
See No Evil
Are You Scared?
Devil
Kudos for having Flight of the Conchords on your shuffle!
February 27th, 2013 at 7:21 pm
I have never used shuffle, so was interested to see what would happen. dear god in heaven.
NIN- Last
Norah Jones- Cry, Cry, Cry (live)
Daryl Hall & John Oates- Adult Education (I blame Chevalier for this)
Don Henley- All She Wants To Do Is Dance
Gwen Stefani- Hollaback Girl
Run DMC- Christmas in Hollis
Amy Winehouse- Tears Dry On Their Own
Eels- What’s A Fella Gotta Do
Garbage- Queer
Foo Fighters- Everlong
As for the films, I have a few I keep on near constant rotation. Music distracts me too much when I work (shut up, I know, but I can hear all the parts) yet I can keep a movie on in the background. These make the cut on a regular basis:
The Resident Evil franchise, mostly 1 and 3.
Trick R Treat
Constantine
Zombieland
Best in Show*
a movie I actually WATCH on a regular basis is Miller’s Crossing. dialogue from this movie is shorthand for conversation around here.
*incidentally, the scene where Parker Posey goes crazy on the hotel manager? that was every moment with me on fertility drugs. someone should have murdered me. i was awful. to this day “stupid hotel manager!” means “Stop being a jerk!”
February 28th, 2013 at 8:24 am
Music:
Fats Waller’s organ music Old, scratchy, makes you feel like you just made out with a stranger at a traveling carnival.
Sleepchamber; Sex Magic Ritual
Scary, no, horrifying. What they play in Hell to subdue the population.
Joseph Suk; Fantastique Scherzo
A beautiful beatiful piece. I dare you to listen to it without seeing in your mind’s eye ghosts waltzing.
Travis Wammack; That Scratchy Guitar From Memphis
ROCKabilly before it had a name.
Eilert Pilarm’s Greatest Hits
Nicknamed the Swedish Elvis he sings all of the King’s songs PHONETICALLY. Great to play at the END of a party to convince guests they’ve had a bit too much and should be getting on home.
Gregorian Chants
Hey You want atmosphere….?
May I make a general suggestion here? Get yourself a radio, a GOOD radio, one that can pick-up stations that are small or very far away. College stations are a wealth of odd music that you would never run across in any other way. Last week I had the pleasure of listening to Bollywood’s version of Rap ( apparently F**k cannot be translated ) and I laughed so hard I almost lost my breakfast. There are a lot of treasures out there just waiting. Put down the ipod and go old school and be amazed, be very amazed.
MOVIES:
FEMALE TROUBLES A John Waters movie way before he went mainstream with hairspray but not as gross as Pink Flamingoes. The protaganist has a wonderful rant that should be memorized by any one with anti-social tendancies and if you watch it with a friend you will gain hours of pleasure commenting on people by giving each other a knowing look and saying,” She’s on the road to Mortville! “.
FORBIDDENZONE
Can be enjoyed even without drugs.
ERASERHEAD
Creepy, strange, induces weird dreams and will make you think twice about having children.
STREET OF CROCCODILES
A Quay brother’s animation. If you are not familiar with their work this will make you a fan. Intense and insane
GREY GARDENS
A documentary about two of the Kennedy’s clan that the “first family” would rather you didn’t know about. Strange, a bit funny and somewhat heartbreaking.
There’s tons more but I too will be polite and limit my list.
February 28th, 2013 at 8:29 am
band:
creature feature is a interesting band very different from what im used to but still good
they have songs like “gorey demise” kinda like the ABC’s of dieing
“buried alive” has just so many refences to edger allen poe
“things worse then death” ect
Movies:
Cude (currently on fear.net)
kinda reminds me of SAW but has no rhyme or reson
Midnight Movie – nothing says fun like old horror movie killers coming to life
Dolls – movie about mean adults getting killed by dolls & then turned into dolls- and older movie but nice grapics for its time
Demonic toys 1 – evil toys brought to life by satan who wants to be reborn-older movie & a little slow but good ( i DO NOT suggest demonic toys 2 though )
alot of fullmoon productions are good (like killer toys? older movies? youll probly like alot of their movies
February 28th, 2013 at 5:08 pm
Nothing life-chnahging, just my iPod on shuffle:
Cub – My Chinchilla
Sonic Youth – Youth Against Fascism
Prince & the Revolution – Baby I’m a Star
The Smiths – Shakespeare’s Sister
Guns N Roses – Mr. Brownstone
The Ramones – Bop ‘Til You Drop
The B-52’s – Channel Z
Cub – Tell Me Now
Faith No More – Evidence
and
Diana Ross – Upside Down
As for movies, these are just ones that I love and watch over and over:
Trading Places
The Lost Boys
The Little Mermaid
Phantasm
Hellraiser
Animal House
Beauty and the Beast
Basket Case (only the first one)
February 28th, 2013 at 5:08 pm
Erm, “changing”, even
February 28th, 2013 at 5:30 pm
@ Terri
Basket Case!!! Wonderful movie, usually followed by a week of “DWANE!! DWANE!! DWANE!!” being shouted at every opportunity
March 1st, 2013 at 11:07 am
The Weeping Song (Nick Cave)
Fall Back Down (Rancid)
She’s an Angel (They Might Be Giants)
Punk Rock Girl (Dead Milkmen)Any Cure but my favs are Catch, Just Like Heaven and Pictures of You
March 1st, 2013 at 5:10 pm
@cookie– LOL!! It is so unintentionally hilarious. Glad to find another fan!
March 1st, 2013 at 7:42 pm
Wow I forgot about Basket Case. I need to go out and buy that and make the boyfriend watch it. I made him watch Super Troopers yesterday. He was quite grateful, and now keeps meowing during conversation.
I’m in a serious minority here of people who liked the remake of The Haunting. I thought it was creepy when I first saw it, and I still enjoy it. There’s not a lot of creepy movies that I watch anymore, just because I can’t find the right atmosphere at home. I do like funny movies though, and peeps should check out anything by Mel Brooks (especially Men in Tights), and Shaun of the Dead is also brilliant. And for the Trekkers out there who don’t take it too seriously, watch Galaxy Quest and laugh your tits off.
As far as music goes, I pretty much only listen to regular, mainstream stuff, because I’m boring and can’t usually listen to an album all the way through anyway. The exception is the band Ayreon. They’re weird, experimental folk/glam/metal/hard-to-define music. Each album tells an epic story, and it all sounds great. Try River of Time as a starter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XAPosjkbfQ
March 4th, 2013 at 11:45 am
Sweet sounds:
The Ghost of Emma Jean, Beat Circus
Happy Together, Filter
Bottom of the River, Delta Rae (the music video, I love)
Come Away to the Water, Maroon 5
Let Me Die, The Classic Crime
And I actually have a question about a short film, Death of a Shadow. Does anyone know how I could get my hands on it?