Norm’s Favorites (movies, music videos, books, and other stuff)

 

 

All-time favorite movies

  1. Casablanca (1942)
  2. Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)
  3. Oh Brother, Where Art Tho? (2000)
  4. Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)
  5. Before Sunrise (1995) / Before Sunset (2004)
  6. La Cage Aux Folles (1978)
  7. Groundhog Day (1993)
  8. Chacun Cherche Son Chat (aka When the Cat’s Away, 1996)
  9. Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources (1986)
  10. L.A. Story (1991)
  11. To Catch a Thief (1955)
  12. Blues Brothers (1980)
  13. A Beautiful Mind (2002)
  14. Amadeus (1984)
  15. Some Like it Hot (1959)

 

More favorite movies

·     A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999 version with Michelle Pfeiffer, others are awful)

·     African Queen (1951)

·     All About Eve (1950)

·     All of Me (1984)

·     American Beauty (1999)

·     American Pie (1999) (Mara made me watch it!)

·     L'Auberge Espanol (2002) / Les Poupées Russes (2005)

·     Birdcage (1996)

·     Bowfinger (1999)

·     Bowling for Columbine (2002)

·     Buddy Holly Story (1988)

·     But I’m A Cheerleader (1999)

·     Cannes Man (1996)

·     Cinema Paradiso (1989)

·     City Lights (1931)

·     The Closet (Le Placard, 2001)

·     Dinner Game (Le Diner des Cons,1998)

·     El Norte (1984)

·     Erin Brockovich (2000)

·     Father of the Bride (1991)

·     Ghostbusters (1984)

·     Godfather (1972)

·     Hail! Hail! Rock N’ Roll (1984, 2006)

·     Il Postino (1994)

·     The Insider (1999)

·     It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)

·     Jeanne and the Perfect Guy (2000)

·     Les Visiteurs (1993)

·     Mad Hot Ballroom (2005)

·     Maltese Falcon (1941)

·     My Father’s Glory/My Mother’s Castle (1990)

·     Mystic Masseur (2002)

·     Oblomov (1979)

·     The Perez Family (1995)

·     Philadelphia (1993)

·     Pleasantville (1994)

·     The Princess Bride (1987)

·     Ray (2004)

·     Rear Window (1954)

·     School of Rock (2003)

·     Standing in the Shadows of Motown (2003)

·     Sunset Boulevard (1950)

·     Tampopo (1985)

·     This is Spinal Tap (1984)

·     Tom Dowd and the Language of Music (2003)

·     Traffic (2000)

·     When We Were Kings (1996)

·     Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001)

 

Music Video Samplings

 

·   Asleep at the Wheel “Western swing ain’t dead, it’s Asleep at the Wheel!” (since 1971)

o   2007 Asleep at the Wheel in California

o   2007 Am I right (or Amarillo) (and others)

o   1981 Miles and Miles of Texas - Cool as the Breeze, Austin City Limits (Season 6)

o   2008 With Barack Obama, Boogie Back to Texas

o   2007 Cotton Eyed Joe, at the (original) Broken Spoke, Austin, Texas

 

·       Stevie Ray Vaughan live concerts recordings database (1978-1990)

o   1983 Texas Flood, Live at El Mocambo

o   1987 Little Sister, with Jeff Healy

 

·       Allman Brothers Band live show database (1969-2008)

o   1970 Dreams, at the Fillmore East with Duane Allman and Dickey Betts

o   2003 Dreams, at the Beacon, Derek Trucks solo

 

·   Orchestra Baobab Senegal's finest musicians on the World Circuit Label

o   2007 Nijaay - Live at Malta Jazz Festival

o   2007 Hutru horas - Live at Malta Jazz Festival

 

·   Chuck Berry the King of rock and roll

o   1984 Rock and Roll Music, with Etta James

o   1979 Rock and Roll Music, with Tina Turner

o   1972 Johnny B. Goode, with John Lennon

o   196? Johnny B. Goode

 

Concert DVDs (commercially available)

·   Mozart Great Piano Concertos, Vols. I - IV. (esp. #20 with Ivan Klansky on Volume III)

·   Los Lobos, Live at the Fillmore

·   Los Super Seven, No Borders: Canto

·   Stevie Ray Vaughan

o   Live at El Mocambo

o   Live from Austin Texas

o   Live at Montreux

o   Pride and Joy, Rome Inn segment (out of print VHS)

·   Allman Brothers Band, Live at the Beacon Theater

·   Lynyrd Skynyrd, Freebird the Movie (avoid the current imposter group on the second disc)

·   Jeff Healey Band

o   Live at Montreux

o   See the Light (out of print VHS)

·   Jimi Hendrix, Jimi Plays Berkeley

·   Fleetwood Mac, The Dance

·   Susan Tedeschi, Live from Austin Texas

·   Roy Orbison, Live at Austin City Limits

·   Asleep at the Wheel

o   Ohne Filter - Musik Pur: Asleep at the Wheel in Concert

o   Live at Billy Bobs

·   John Lee Hooker, Come and See about Me

·   Albert Collins, The Iceman at Mount Fuji

·   Albert King, Live in Sweden (not the best production but it’s all we’ve got)

·   Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin

·   Hubert Sumlin, Robert Randolph, BB King, many more, Crossroads Guitar Festival

 

Concert DVD’s (favorite bootlegs)

       SRV, old Austin City Limits, etc, coming soon…

 

Movie music scenes

·   Chuck Berry, Rock and Roll Music, with Etta James (+ everything else, Hail! Hail! Rock N’ Roll)

·   Aretha Franklin, Think (+ all the other music, Blues Brothers)

·   Joan Osborne and the Funk Brothers, Heatwave (+ all the other music, Standing in the Shadows of Motown)

·   Fiona Apple, Across the Universe (an extra on the Pleasantville DVD)

·   Soggy Bottom Boys, In The Jailhouse Now (+ all the others, Oh Brother, Where Art Tho?)

·   Neville Marriner, Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, everything (Amadeus)

·   Soul Stirrers with Sam Cooke, everything (The Ladykillers)

·   Glenn Gould, Bach Concerto No. 5 (+ others, Glenn Gould Life and Times) (awful studio production as are all Glenn Gould video performances, but the magic survives)

·   Joshua Redman, James Carter, others (Jazz ‘34 Remembrances of Kansas City Swing)

·   Ray Charles/Jamie Foxx, everything (Ray)

·   Portishead, Glory Box (Chacun Cherche Son Chat

, aka When the Cat’s Away, closing scene beginning with the neighborhood “Ça c'est Paris” chant in the cafe)

·   School of Rock, closing scene (School of Rock)

 

Books - fiction

  1. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoevsky)
  2. Oblomov (Ivan Goncharov)
  3. Dead Souls (Nikolai Gogol)
  4. Third Policeman (Flan O’Brien)
  5. Origins (Irving Stone)
  6. Agony and Ecstasy (Irving Stone)
  7. Lust for Life (Irving Stone)
  8. On the Road (Jack Kerouac)
  9. Movable Feast (Ernest Hemingway)
  10. Bull from the Sea/King Must Die (Mary Renault)
  11. Travis McGee series (John D. McDonald)
  12. Hobbit/Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkien, not the movie!)
  13. Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
  14. London (Edward Rutherfurd)
  15. The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera)

 

Books – non-fiction

  1. To Reach the Clouds: My High Wire Walk Between the Twin Towers (Philippe Petit)
  2. The Genius Within: Discovering the Intelligence of Every Living Thing (Frank Vertosick)
  3. Evolution in Four Dimensions (Eva Jablonka and Marion Lamb)
  4. Defending Science – Within Reason: Between Scientism and Cynicism (Susan Haack)
  5. The Status Syndrome (Sir Michael Marmot) and Class Matters (NY Times Correspondents)
  6. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (Anne Fadiman)
  7. The Social Life of Information (John Seeley Brown)
  8. Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain (Antonio Damasio)
  9. The Limits of Scientific Reasoning (David Faust)
  10. The Mind’s New Science (Howard Gardner)
  11. Science, Money, and Politics (Daniel Greenberg)
  12. The Double Helix (James Watson)
  13. The Tobacco War (Stanton Glantz)
  14. The Selfish Gene (Richard Dawkins) (out of date, but of great historical interest and influence)
  15. The Evolution of Cooperation (Robert Axelrod) and