I do an end of year list every year. Here it is.
Movies
I saw 47 movies this year. Three more than last year,
these are my favorites in the order I saw them:
The Pledge
O Brother Where Art Thou
Memento
The Dish
With a Friend like Harry
Ghost World
Apocalypse Now Redux
Pornstar, The Legend of Ron Jeremy
Ocean's 11
The Royal Tannenbaums
How High
A Beautiful Mind
(It was an interesting year in that some of the worst
movies ever made came out this year, A.I. Traffic, Glitter,
Planet of the Apes, Moulin Rouge, Harry Potter, and
especially Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring were
all among the worst things I've ever seen.)
I put video, broadcast, DVD, TiVo, and lasers together.
I saw 99 video things (36 more than last year) - here's
the ones I liked in the order I saw them:
Frantic
Year of the Horse
The Boston Strangler
Being John Malkovich
Cannonball Run
Foxy Brown
The Sixth Sense
P.J. Proby, Wedding & Bar Mitzvah Outtakes, Michelle (Steve Vai)
Love Commune a.k.a. Ghetto Freaks
The Long Hot Summer
Things Change
The Star Chamber
Hollywood Palms
The Cruise
Road to Rio
Waiting for Guffman
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
God of Cookery
American Pimp
Cockfighter
Theremin
Rope
The Producers
Badlands
Play Misty for Me
Welcome to the Dollhouse
BackTrack
Legends, Neil Young
Blackula
Heavenly Creatures
It's a Gift
Time Code
How to Murder your Wife
7 Days in May
Memento
Monkey Shines
The Old Fashioned Way
Glenngarry Glen Ross
Horse Feathers
I'll Say She Is
The Godfather
Dawn of the Dead
The Godfather, Part 2
Ayn Rand: The Sense of Life
Palmetto
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Wildman Blues
Seven
Bound
House of Games
Wonder Boys
Finding Forrester
I saw 31 bands (10 more than last year) in 2001 and my
favorites were:
Debbie Reynolds
Bob Dorough
J.D. Walter (Steve Varner - bass)
Jonathan Richman
Cook E. Jarr
Joe Jackson
Jose Mari Chan and Verni Varga, Legends of Love and Jazz
The Noel Freidline Quintet
Mike Jones (Jonesy)
Roy Haynes
NRBQ
John Scofield, Bill Stewart - d, Jesse Murphy - b, Seamus
Blake - s
Lou Rawls, Nancy Wilson
The Lon Bronson Band
Noel Friedland Quintet
Spinal Tap, the Folk Men
Bob Dylan
Ray Brown
Ray Brown
Neil Innes with Yo Le Tango
Ray Brown
Stanley's Washboard Kings
Hendrix and Ross
I saw 12 comedy shows in 2001 (3 more than last year) and
my favorites were:
Debbie Reynolds
Otto and George
Steven Wright
Carl Balentine
Spinal Tap, the Folk Men
The Passing Zone
Todd and Krista's Wedding
Bob Saget
I saw 8 magic shows in 2001 (3 fewer than last year) and my
favorites were:
Carl Balantine
Mac King
Mike Close
Todd and Krista's Wedding
I saw 8 plays (5 more than last year) and my favorites were:
Feet
Girly Magazine Party
Proof
Rocky Horror Show
I saw 38 Vegas shows in 01 (two more than last year), my
favorites were:
Debbie Reynolds
Ouchy, the Clown
Cook E. Jarr
Joe Jackson
Jose Mari Chan and Verni Varga, Legends of Love and Jazz
The Noel Freidline Quintet
The Steve Martin Collection
Roy Haynes
John Scofield
Lou Rawls, Nancy Wilson
Otto and George
Mike Jones (Jonesy)
Mike Close
The Lon Bronson Band
Noel Friedland Quintet
Steven Wright
The Passing Zone
Mac King
Bob Dylan
Hendrix and Ross
Books
Some people have asked me about
the books I really liked in 2001. Well, here's kind of a
list (but not as careful as the others):
The Biology of Doom - Ed Regis
Beneath the Underdog - Charles Mingus
Guns, Germs, and Steel, the Fates of Human Societies -
Jared Diamond Chang and Eng - Darin Strauss
Flu - Gina Kolata
The Collected Stories of Richard Yates
