5-4-Fri: Music Videos

What is the Internet good for if not hooking you up with iconic online music videos? To that end, please to enjoy 5 videos that made it essential for your band to have one:

1. - Video Killed the Radio Star. The music video that started it all. Thank you The Buggles.

2. - Cradle of Love. The MTV classic by Billy Idol.

3. - She Drives Me Crazy. The English Beat begat the The Fine Young Cannibals. The Fine Young Cannibals begat this awesome video.

4. - Safety Dance. Men Without Hats launched the pretentious, nonsensical video genre with this seminal piece of crap. We enjoyed mocking it but we saw it about a million times.

5. - Money for Nothing. Remember when computer animation was in its infancy? Dire Straits did a fine, cutting edge job with a special guest appearance by Sting. Props for the gratuitous use of neon.

PS - Adam Ant. Miss Jackson. Her brother and Billie Jean. The playlist is infinite! Oh, and "Take Me On" by a-ha made for a rockin' video.; now playing on iTunes.

5-4-Fri: Bumper Stickers

Time for a stripped-down, re-bored, tightly suspended Friday list: this time on awesome bumper stickers.

1. Isis, Isis, Ra! Ra! Ra! I laughed so hard when I saw the gods of Egypt featured in this cheerleading gem that I nearly drove off the road. Still my favorite ever.

2. My President is Charlton Heston. The right-wing nut-job classic rear-bumper answer to the election of Bubba Clinton.

3. Jesus Would Slap the S#*t Out of You. A pal of mine just saw this on a recent drive and we fell out of our chairs laughing about it. Hey, pious Christian types: you better PRAY Jesus doesn't come back while you're still here.

4. Unattended Children Will Be Given Espresso and a Free Kitten. Some say that deliberately kitchy throw-back art and clever sayings have run their course. Still, this one caught me off guard.

5. Obama/Biden 2008. It's on my car. Just below my Tarheel window sticker. Uh oh. Woefully, more than one decal. That way lies madness.

PS - Have you noticed that people who have bumper stickers cannot stop at just one? There are really just two camps--people without them and people with three or more cats and a book on starting your own coven. Oh, and "Touched" by Vast is uh-mazing; now playing on iTunes.

5-4-Fri: TV on DVD

One of the great joys of the modern era is Uncle TiVo. But, eeeeeven better is skipping tee vee entirely and just watching shows on DVD. With whole seasons available as boxed sets on a tight turn-around and services like Netflix dishing them up for a reasonable monthly fee, you can enjoy great television the way it was meant to be enjoyed: as a bunch of teeny movies. Below, some of my favorite shows, consumed entirely on DVD. As a special bonus, this 5-4-Fri is brought to you link-free.

1. Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. I was once That Guy. I mocked "Buffy" and its fans. I figured the series was fueled by an unholy nexus of middle-aged men who secretly thought Sarah Michelle Gellar was hot and female teens who didn't get their fill of grrl power out of cranking "Jagged Little Pill" on their bedroom CD clock radios. Then an old friend sat me down and made me watch the silent episode. My bad! I was wrong. So wrong. Buffy is for angry girls and nebbishy men who also like awesome writing.

2. Lost. Chant it with me: "J.J.!, J.J.!, J.J.!" Holy cow, this series rocks! Want to scare the crap out of people? Just stare at them with your eyes shut and then open up one eye and make your pupil constrict eerily. Next, appear to them as a ghost mumbling about The Island. This is better than mainlining "24." What a great Christmas gift.

3. Firefly. More Joss Whedon. This uneven premise was excellently executed but still died a famous, one-season death only to be reborn as a Big Damn Movie. I miss Wash. And Kaylee. And Jayne. Sigh. Get it.

4. Angel. In 1999, David Boreanaz made the jump from "Buffy" to his own eminently watchable series. Admittedly, sometimes it got to be "watch David get fat" but most of the time it was "watch Merl get punched in the face." Yea!

5. Bones. More David. But this time with hottie Emily Deschanel as his partner in forensic sleuthing. Great modern-day sex comedy with two actors who have a real on-screen connection and a talented supporting cast.

PS - There was no room to mention the best father-daughter duo since Nancy and Carson Drew, "Veronica Mars." Oh, and "These are Days" by 10,000 Maniacs is some kind of adjective that means iconic+catchy+hummable; now playing on iTunes.

5-4-Fri: '80s Movies

Time for a quick recap of films I remember fondly from the '80s. Inexplicably, I am only going to list five of them:

1. Gregory's Girl - I had a crush on a girl who made the cross-country team. This film explained it all.

2. Pauline a la Plage - Young girl intimidated by more worldly cousin learns about love during a summer beach trip. No relation to Seinfield's infamous "Rochelle, Rochelle: A Young Girl's Strange Erotic Journey from Milan to Minsk."

3. Pretty in Pink - This needs no explanation. What does need explaining is how Duckie could sink to the level of "Three and a Half Men."

4. Chariots of Fire - Vangelis-fueled goodness about the 1924 Olympic trials of British runners Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell. Good Blake reference, too.

5. Man Facing Southeast - The only thing wrong with this little-seen and excellent Spanish-language film is that it could conceivably have inspired the execrable Kevin Spacey vehicle, "K-PAX."

PS - There are so many more great '80s films. Such as "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and the much-cited-by-iClipse "The Sure Thing." No time to list them all. Just start Netflixing John Hughes films as fast as you can. Oh, and "Right Here, Right Now" by Jesus Jones is woefully not from the '80s (recorded in the spring of 1990), but it rules; now playing on iTunes. (No matter how good "Right Here, Right Now" is, do NOT buy their album Doubt! Not that I did--lies, all lies--I just, uh, heard that it would be a very bad idea to do so on the basis of one good single.)

5-4-Fri: Home Range

Animals need room to move; a “home range” if you will. The elephant, for instance, roams across 266 square kilometers on average. The gorilla needs 35 square kilometers to stroll around. You’d think that homo sapiens sapiens, with our cars and airplanes and longboards and whatnot would have huge homeranges and that, moreover, we’d be found in a wide variety unpredictable locations given all the choices in our lives regarding destinations. You’d be wrong.

A 2008 study shows that the average person can be found most often in one of very few highly repetitive, predictable locales. (Thanks to my Sister-in-Law for referring me to the NYT article!) That’s right there, Steady Eddie, you are leading a plain, vanilla, statistically predictable life. Admit it. Embrace it. I have.

I do go to new and varied places but, to be frank, outside of my apartment I spend a woefully, disturbingly large amount of time in 5 spots. Here’s the honest list of my homebases in no particular order:

1. National Geographic Society - Not more than 10 miles from my apartment, I spend faaaar too much of my time here. From Monday-Friday, and some of Saturday, I am certain to be found here while there is daylight.

2. YMCA - One block from Nat Geo, the massive, multi-story downtown YMCA is home to my twice-weekly “workouts,” by which I mean lifting embarrassingly light amounts of weight in very small arcs over and over--fitness results yet to be certifiably clear.

3. The Guitar Shop / Band Practice - Again twice a week, like clockwork, I can be spotted at this combo of locations--The Guitar Shop for lessons on Mondays and band practice on Tuesdays at an undisclosed location nearby.

4. Whole Foods - Closer to home, I heed the siren call of this overpriced grocery store weekly (hey, a fellah has to get his chicken nuggets somewhere). Who dresses up to shop? These people, apparently. Still, great cheese selection.

5. South Austin Grill - Despite its downhill slide as a corporate franchise, I am at SAG every Sunday night for dinner. My father made a spaghetti dinner on Sunday nights without fail and I got used to the idea. These days it’s enchalatas and margaritas rather than maranara and red wine, but the concept holds.

Wanna try for yourself? Please post your list of 5 places.

PS - Even back when I was doing a lot of distance running, I had three preferred 4-6 mile loops around Old Town that could be combined or extended for marathon training. I guess that only annual beach trips and visits to NYC disturb the tight plotting of my Brownian movement. Oh, and I am predictably listening to "Bittersweet" by Big Head Todd and the Monsters; now playing on iTunes.

5-4-Fri: Children's Books

This 5-4-Fri is about children's books--as the title promises--but with a twist. See if you can ferret out the twist. Yessir, its a brain twizzler. Haaard to figure out. Yup. Yup. Tres difficle. And Clever. Oh, yeah. (Well, YOU try coming up with 5 things of any interest at all each week.)

1 - Uncurious George. Hah! Mockery. Speaks for itself.

2 - Goodnight Bush. This book is so durn good that a friend of mine has an 11-year-old who just decided that he is going to give it to his father for Christmas.

3 - Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book. Secretly one of the most subversive books ever. Get it. Now. Seriously, log off. Why are you still here? Go get it.

4 -My Father's Dragon - Ostensibly a children's book. Really a morality tale.

5- If Everybody Did - One of my favorite social critiques masquerading as a children's book. Woefully, I cannot find any really good links other than the perfunctory Amazon promo. Go to a used book store and check it out.

PS - Everyone's first environmental primer ought to be McGillot's Pool. In fact, Dr. Seuss should properly be in the adult non-fiction section. Oh, and "Second Chance" by Liam Finn is worthy of his parent; now playing on iTunes.

5-4-Fri: Fridays

You knew this was going to happen eventually. The time has come to force 5-4-Fri to be meta. (Isn't EVERYTHING better when it's meta?) That's right, people, this week we are featuring five famous "Fridays" in the Five For Friday feature. Without further ado:

1. Friday, The Man - Robinson Crusoe was the star of the original, often imitated-never duplicated, East Coast, old skool version of "24." Except that he was trapped on an island off Venezuela for twenty-four years not some measly 24 hours (take that, Jack Bauer). Until one fateful Friday in the 24th year, he was utterly alone except for a goat, a dog and his talking parrot, "Poll." Then one day a Native American captive beset by cannibals showed up on his island. Ole Rob rescued him and, showing the same panache with which he named his bird, Crusoe christened his new companion, "Friday." Have you read it? Read it.

2. T.G.I.Fridays - Admit it. You have eaten here. You might not have liked it. You might not have enjoyed its stupendously slow service. You might not have been waited on by anyone as cute as Jennifer Aniston. But you have eaten here. Hey, in the end, Obama is right. We are not blue states. We are not red states. We are bound together as Americans by having eaten at T.G.I.Fridays.

3. Friday, The Day - Thank God It's Venus' Day. TGIV, baby. The Sixth Day, maybe. I like how Merriam-Webster just assumes that you are going to think of Sunday as the first day of the week. Sucky convention; I personally think of Sunday as the end of the week but it's Friday I think of when I say I'm working for the weekend. (No, of course not. Naturally, I'd never actually say that--that's cruel.)

4. Science Friday - That Ira Flatow! Do you listen to "Talk Of The Nation: Science Friday?" Maaaaybe not as much fun as sipping a Dark and Stormy, but fun, fun, fun. (Waoh, 404! Internal blog reference. Link to past 5-4-Fri entry. I told you we were getin' all kinds of kooky.)

5. Friday, The Genetically Engineered Girl - Let's hear it for hot "Artifical Persons!" Friday is the babelicious and eponymous star of the 1982 Robert Heinlein novel. Woefully, not his best work. But who knew when I purchased it? Sometimes I do judge a book by its cover; sue me.

PS - Kids are kind of like Robinson Crusoe. Think about it. They have marvelous adventures--much more fun than adulthood. They are basically trapped until they are about 24 years into the thing. And, no matter how inventive they are, they tend to name things literally--"Lion" the stuffed lion, "Friday" the guy you saved on Friday. Oh, and "Lips Like Sugar" by Echo and the Bunnymen is so '80s but still so good; now playing on iTunes.

5-4-Fri: Thanksgiving Food

Didja have a gosh-darn great Bird-Day? Oh, we did, youbetcha. (Palin translator: "There are 5 stupendiously great foodstuffs that, woefully, you only generally get at Thanksgiving.")

1. Apple Pie - Holy cow, I love me some apple pie. The secret is McIntosh apples. Be-lee-dat!

2. Turkey - I am a dark meat man. Scoff if you like. I will cordially acknowledge that de gustibus non est disputandum and promptly eat your thighs (hmm, that sounded wrong).

3. Black Olives - If you wish to be welcome in my home (and you do) you'll agree that black olives are (a) essential Thanksgiving fare, (b) scrumptious, (c) to be saved for me to eat.

4. Stuffing - It is simple, really. Get Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix in a bag. Add currents, celery, and melted butter. Put into the bird. Do NOT not put the stuffing in the bird. Don't be stupid.

5. Fruit Cup - Daunting. Hard to make. Labor intensive. Delicious. Don't forget the walnuts. Feel free to top with orange sherbert.

PS - Cranberry Sauce alllmost made the list. You can have the "log" (heh) or the homemade (like my Sister-in-law's, yum). Or both. Oh, and "Perfect Circle" by REM is something to be thankful for; now playing on iTunes.

5-4-Fri: Reasons to Be Grateful This Week

This has been a banner week. Many reasons to be grateful. Five, in fact! (Surprise) Here they are in no particular order:

1. Forty-Four - A New President! (Okay, this is actually in some particular order.) Waaaay to go, Nation! What a busy Tuesday.

2. Thirty-Six - Not too huge here in the Colonies but, in the UK, this Wednesday's Guy Fawkes Day is a popular celebration of not blowing up the government in 1605 with, you guesssed it, 36 barrels of gunpowder. Naturally, no one would ever be so frustrated with insane national leadership these days that they'd want to do something drastic. Thank you Mr. President-elect for helping Americans find a more rational way to throw the bums out.

3. One Hundred and Sixteen - The estimable man, founder of The New Yorker, Harold Ross, was born, on Thursday, about a ga-jillion years ago, that's 116 to you, in 1892. His fan-tas-tic magazine, recently, had an inflammatory, ironic cover, mocking the mockers of our new President.

4. Twenty-Eight - People, I know Chapel Hill is a one-horse town (and that horse is Men's Basketball). I know that Roy Williams proved his infinite coolness when he let Obama play pick-up with the Boys in Blue and told Tyler that, "The next President of the United States is open." But the Football Team spanked Georgia Tech 28-7 on Saturday. Niiiice.

5. Seventy-Four - Are you grateful that, as of Sunday, there will be only 74 days until the Monkey Boy is gone, gone, gone? Woefully, there will be ten weeks in which the Bushies can pass all sorts of nutty stuff, install all sorts of nutsy agency staff, and deregulate their heads (psych!) off.

PS - Yes, we did! Oh, and "I Do" by Abra Moore from her album Everything Changed is change I can get behind; now playing on iTunes.

5-4-Fri: Mystery Protagonists

Western civilization has produced many fine things, from the computer to Ingrid Bergman, but its pinnacle may well be the existence of a small cast of extraordinarily interesting fictional detectives. And here you were thinking indoor plumbing.

Mind you, this week’s list includes only characters from novels--yes, there will one day be a 5-4-Fri list that features movies--and these protagonists are exclusively men even though many great female detectives are out there tracking down the killer.

1. Sherlock Holmes -- perhaps not the verrry first but the verrry best. He lives in period London; he invents the deductive method; he endearingly condescends to his sidekick, Dr. Watson; he does more coke than La Lohan; he rules. Check him out in his first appearance in A Study in Scarlet. Thanks, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

2. Jonathan Argyll -- a British ex-pat living in Italy beguiled by its art; its culture; his beautiful sidekick, the charmingly stern Flavia di Stefano; and generally everything continental except its art thieves, whom he dispatches with dispatch. Read The Raphael Affair. Thanks Ian Pears.

3. Sonchai Jitpleecheep -- Son of a steel magnolia whore; adoptive son of the bottomlessly and cheerfully corrupt Chief Vikorn; mentor to a sweet, sassy katooey side-kick; narrator extraordinaire; Sonchai is the light of the Royal Thai Police Force and someone you want to get to know. Go to your local library and check out Bangock 8. Thanks, John Burdett.

4. Adam Dalgliesh -- He’s a sensitive gentleman; a poet; a fierce analyst; and the prototypical modern British detective. The ladies love him and so will you. Try cracking open Cover Her Face. Thanks PD James.

5. - Michael Padillo and “Mac” McCorkle -- Dude. You owe this to yourself. Meet these two DC pals who hang out at Mac’s place, when they are not missing/presumed dead for several books; treat everything with the contempt it richly deserves; booze it up with Dickensian ex-CIA operatives; and solve problems only the US “intelligence” industry can foster. Try Twilight at Mac’s Place. Thanks Ross Thomas.

PS - Woefully, I was forced to exclude the infinitely compelling George Smiley because I think he fits a thriller list better--although a case can be made that John Le Carre invented his own genre. Oh, and "All Mixed Up" by Red House Painters is mysteriously catchy; now playing on iTunes.

5-4-Fri: Online Dance Videos

This week you are rewarded for your loyal readership with five engaging dances, available through the tubes of the Web:

1. David Elsewhere - This is the greatest thing I think I have ever seen on the Internets. David is the second act to perform and he is not from Santa Anna, he is from the future: a beautiful, beautiful future.
2. Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center - Some 1,500 prisoners recreate the awesome Michael Jackson video, "Thriller." Who cares how this got made, it is spectacular.
3. Benny Lava - New rule: don't swim or watch this within an hour of eating or your stomach will hurt. Someone translated what they think people are actually saying in Bollywood musicals.
4. Where the Hell is Matt - Endearingly goofy dude does awesome dance for no reason; almost a pure thing from one of the first modern global citizens. (Note: select "view in high quality")
5. Christopher Walken - Fatboy Slim convinced Walken to work it on the video to his "Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars." Dude (serious pause) enjoy.

PS - Woefully, I cannot dance as well as any of the above-mentioned folks. Oh, and "Rock and Roll (Could Never Hip Hop Like This)" by Handsome Boy Modeling School is eminently danceable; now playing on iTunes.

5-4-Fri: Fantasy Series

If you are like me, and you aren’t, when you were a teen you didn’t have to furtively search the used book stores of major cities for dogeared copies of There and Back Again like your elders--you simply rode the wave of America’s fantasy novel explosion. Okay, there was a downside to reading fantasy: no girlfriend (or was that the headgear?), no respect, and no more money for comics anymore bacause these books went down like a cool bottle of Mountain Dew on a hot summer day and you had to own all of them, right.

Here are five series that I enjoyed at various ages:

1. The Prydain Chronicles -- Lloyd Alexander’s classic Welsh mythology about Taran Wanderer coming into manhood during a time of threat and darkness. What elementary schooler doesn’t love an oracle piggie?!

2. The Shanara Series -- With cringe-inducing titles (Sword of Shanara, Elfstones of Shanara and Wishsong of Shanara), Terry Brooks follows the adventures of three generations of Ohmsfords--Shea, Wil and Brin--as they face doom at the side of the wise and powerful Allanon. Teenage goodness.

3. Incarnations of Immortality -- the somewhat sexist but hilarious Piers Anthony is the Steven King of fantasy (sorry, Uncle Stevie, The Dark Tower didn’t cut it). Among his series are this one that posits the notion that our anthropomorphic icons--Mother Earth, Father Time, Death--are real job titles. Sometimes, folks get tricked into taking the job. When you discover girls it’s time to discover Piers Anthony.

4. Lord of the Rings -- As I got older I understood these masterpieces more thoroughly. It’s as if Jo Rowling wrote The Sorcerer’s Stone and then pulled a Melville and veered off into creating her own shadowy meta-narrative on Northern European mythology and providing a critique of WWII. You know them. You love them. Time to re-read them, which I did as the recent movies came out. ‘Nuff said.

5. Dresden Files -- Lately, I have been enjoying the exploits of Harry Dresden, Wizard. A sad sack denizen of Chicago, Harry plays detective, fumbles with the ladies, unwinds his personal history, and fends off the unwanted repercussions of having a hot fairy godmother while sharing the couch with his dog-sized cat (and then also with his adoptive dog). Get a case, get beat up, pull everyone’s bacon from the fire, nurse your wounds with a pint of "Mac" McAnally’s homemade beer--lather, rinse, repeat.

PS - Woefully, I have to recommend the cliched path of starting each series with the first novel. In order: The Book of Three, Sword of Shanara, On A Pale Horse, The Fellowship of the Ring, and Storm Front. Oh, and "American Girls" by Counting Crows is great to read by; now playing on iTunes.

5-4-Fri: Mixed Drinks

Well, if it's Friday somewhere I should eventually probably do a happy hour-oriented 5-4-Fri. Usually I provide just a quick publishing citation or a short provenance, something tres brief; this time I'll include more robust info--the actual recipes. Without further ado, please to enjoy five delicious mixed drinks:

1. Sidecar--this is the litmus test for a bar. Many is the time I have asked some woefully talentless hottie or some barkeep poser to make this deco classic only to be met with a blank stare worthy of Sarah Palin. RECIPE = 2 oz brandy; 1/2 oz triple sec; 1 oz lemon juice; mix, shake, strain.
2. Dark and Stormy--new to me and fan-tas-tic. Thanks to my pal and bartender extraodinare, Damon. RECIPE = 2 oz Black Seal Dark Rum; Ginger Beer; serve over ice.
3. Black Crush--Introduced to me on a "We're Turning 40 and Going to Vegas! But What Happens in Vegas Need Not Stay in Vegas 'Cause We're Too Damn Old To Get Up To Much" trip with the fellas. Patent-pending by the Bellagio, which sells this stuff like hotcakes. RECIPE = muddle 3 blackberries with fresh mint; 2 oz rasberry-infused vodka; dash sour mix; two dashes Frothee; mix, shake, strain; float club soda on top and garnish with mint sprig.
4. Jack and Coke--My standard. The best. And it used to be that the thick and delicious irony of JD coming from a dry county in TN was a special bonus. Like this Lynchburg liquor so much I roomed with a Moore County native. RECIPE = Put some Jack in some coke.
5. Whiskey Rickey--Find the speakeasy HummingbirdtoMars and order this. Who cares if you can only afford it with a $700 billion line of credit from the feds; it's worth it. RECIPE = 1 1/2 oz whiskey; 1/2 oz lime juice; 1 tsp simple syrup; club soda; lime wedge; serve over ice.

PS - As far as we can tell, my brother and I invented a drink called The Austin, which includes 3 oz lime mix (2 parts sweet lime juice, 1 part unsweet lime juice; 1 part water); 1 1/2 oz gin; 1/2 oz triple sec. It's named in honor of the now-dead-to-me Austin Grill (alright, maybe I still go there every Sunday like clockwork but someday a real rain is coming), which just went corporate but which was once an oasis of Tex-Mex goodness in Ye Olde Towne. The LBJ was the Best. Rita. Ever. Oh, and "Rocky Took a Lover" by Bell X1 is grrrreat; now playing on el iTunes.

5-4-Fri: Great Album Liner Notes

This week it's time for--ta-duh!--five great sets of album liner notes. I am a beeg fan of learning more about how a song got developed or where or whatnot. It gets my goat when you buy an album and you don't even get the lyrics. Props to Michelle Shocked for even listing the key of the songs on her Short, Sharp, Shocked.

So, I asked one of most knowledgable music friends, Steve, to recommend a handful of his fave liner notes:

1. Girlfriend: Deluxe Edition, Matthew Sweet. Athens (GA): Volcano. 2006. Liner notes by Bud Scoppa.
2. Live at Leeds: Deluxe Edition, The Who. Santa Monica (CA): MCA/Geffen. 2001. Liner notes by Mike Shaw, Shel Talmy and Andy Neill.
3. Loaded: Fully Loaded, The Velvet Underground. New York (NY): Atlantic/WEA. 1997. Liner notes by David Fricke.
4. No Direction Home: The Soundtrack, Bob Dylan. New York (NY): Columbia/Legacy. 2005. Liner notes by Andrew Loog Oldham and Al Kooper.
5. First Rays of the New Rising Sun, Jimi Hendrix. Seattle (WA): Experience Hendrix. 1997. Liner notes by John McDermott.

PS - I am not necessarily one of those people who mourns the woeful loss of vinyl and all that space for album art and liner notes. I think CDs have shown some pretty cool visuals and those little insert booklets actually make for even more liner space. Oh, and "Caring is Creepy" by The Shins, made famous by the Garden State soundtrack, is suh-weeet; now playing on iTunes.

5-4-Fri: Natural History Books

As you can see The Bloguscript's "Five for Friday" feature now has a hep new catch phrase: "5-4-Fri." Coming to a tee shirt near you soon.

'Kay, here is this week's list. It's The Five Bestest Natural History Books Ever (Not Counting Literally Tons and Tons of Other Great Natural History Books):

1. Aku-Aku, Thor Heyerdahl. Garden City (NY): International Collector’s Library. 1958.
2.The Flight of the Iguana: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, David Quammen. NY (NY): Delacorte Press. 1988.
3. A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson. NY (NY): Broadway Books. 2003.
4. Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, Jared Diamond. NY (NY): W. W. Norton. 1999.
5. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman. Cambridge (Mass): Helix Books. 1999.

PS - I felt that also including The Song of the Dodo by David Quammen would either make the list "Six for Friday" or, woefully, put two books by the same author on one list, but: You. Must. Read. This. Book. Also, as your lawyer I recommend Quammen's Natural Acts and his Outside magazine columns of the same name. And The Soul of Viktor Tronko. Oh, and The Postal Service’s “Recycled Air” is the goodness; now playing on iTunes.

Five For Friday: 2007 Movies

This is something I came up with for my secret other blog. Every Friday, I’ll post five semi-related things that might be of interest. Here goes the first list, my condensed and edited version of Stephen King’s “2007: My Top Movies,” Entertainment Weekly, December 14 2007 (Thanks for the B'Day gift, NGG):

No Country for Old Men (#1)
Breach (#4)
Children of Men (#5)
3:10 to Yuma (#7)
In the Valley of Elah (#10)

Put 'em in the Netflix queue, friendo.

PS - While I always like Your Uncle Stevie’s features in EW, woefully I am not so keen on his novels. Funny. Oh, and “Oceans” by the Canadian band Heartbeats Rhythm Quartet is so catchy; now playing on iTunes.