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I am an 'artist' and a bit of a writer, you guys know that.

What you don't know is that I haven't seen anything. I don't watch movies often, I don't even have cable set up, I hardly ever play games. I read the same books over and over again and new music comes to me rarely.

Lately Ive been feeling uninspired and lacking in knowledge. So, I want you guys to help.

Recommend movies, TV shows, books, music, ANYTHING to me. I want to immerse myself in this kind of stuff.

So, go wild. Tell me what I'm missing folks!

Any particular genres?

Firefly?

The Wire is the best Television show ever made. It would be a shame to watch it first, because nothing else compares. I'm only half-joking when I talk about how it has ruined TV for me to some degree. Other amazing shows: Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, The Shield, Arrested Development, 30 Rock, Community, Modern Family.

Most of the classic/oscar-winning movies are revered for a reason. Great directors like Scorsese, Coppola, Kubrick, Tarantino, Spielberg, Hitchcock, Coen Bros, and PT Anderson are considered master filmmakers for a reason. Here's a list of the great movies I've seen in the last 5 years:

No Country for Old Men (2007)
A Serious Man (2009)
There Will Be Blood (2007)
Children of Men (2006)
The Departed (2006)
Zodiac (2007)
WALL·E (2008)
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Michael Clayton (2007)
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
Revolutionary Road (2008)
Atonement (2007)
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
The Hurt Locker (2009)
Milk (2008)
Shutter Island (2010)

Also, anything Pixar is probably a good bet, as far as animated goes. That's all I can think of off the top of my head right now.

Allen: I'm open to any genre.

David: Watched FireFly. Own the DVDs. Loved it. May need to rewatch Serenity at some point.

TLB: Lovin' this list because I've seen nothing on it except PART of Wall-E.

We are off to a good start.

Bah! All the stuff mentioned so far is far too new - if you want a grounding in North American culture, go with the classic movies: Gone with the Wind, Godfather, Jaws, Star Wars (you've seen the original 3, right?? if not, do so), Cassablanca, etc.. All the stuff that everyone else insists on referencing. Oh, and the first 2 Monty Python movies (Holy Grail, and Life of Brian; even the troupe admits that Meaning of Life (the third one) isn't as good). And I concur on the 'anything by Pixar' recommendation as well.

For books, read anything (or everything) by CS Lewis, and I would particularly recommend the "Space Trilogy" (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength). Asimov's 'Foundation' is great. Robertson Davies has some good books as well, and Robert A Heinlein's 'Stranger in Strange Land' is well regarded.

Speaking of Asimov, I, Robot is a great collection of short stories. Avoid the movie like a plague.

As for music, give me a few names you listen to, and let me see what I can stir up for you.

Speaking of I, Robot - you may also want to check out Philip K Dick's work, he's also a very good sci-fi writer. His most well known work is probably 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep', but there a number of short story collections too, which I have quite enjoyed.

Also, (more books), Arthur C. Clarke - the 2001: Sapce Odyssey and Rama series'. (what's the correct pural - seri? serieses? whatever)

I'll recommend some music, especially from a writer's/lyrics stand point. It's country but tends to be classified as Americana.

Robert Earl Keen
Guy Clark
Gram Parsons
Tom Russell
Townes van Zandt
Steve Earl

I agree with many of the recomms above, won't repeat them.

Books:
Creation, by Gore Vidal (historic narrative, around the greek-persian wars period)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's and Agatha Christie's detective novels
Ubik, The Man in the High Castle, and anything by Philip K. Dick
The Silver Key and other stories, by Lovecraft. Nice intro to his writings
I don't know the translated titles, but anything you find by Eduardo Mendoza

Music:
The Celtic Circle (compilation cds, might introduce you to celtic artists you take a liking to)
Loreena McKennitt
Paganini (composer)
Dvorak (composer)
Rhapsody, Blind Guardian (epic metal, the stuff you'd play while flipping through Tolkien-ey books)
Korpiklaani (northern folk metal: drinking, fighting and staring at pretty forests)

Movies:
Primer (time travel mindscrew)
Cube 1 and 2 (tiny mindbender, group dynamics, horrorgore)
Kara no Kyoukai (7 short-ish movies, ghost stories, magic, romance, mystery)

Series/Animes:
Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking (space, time, physics, robot voices)
Lain (mindfuck, collective conscience, individuality, cyberspace, ...)
Ergo Proxy (mindfuck, artificial intelligence, utopia/dystopia)
Texhnolyze (mindbender, despair, cyberprosthetics, dystopia)
Aoi Bungaku (classical japanese books/stories animated to lure younger generations)

Additionally, if you can read spanish, any compilation of Machado's writings/poetry.

Books:
"Me, Myself and Bob" the autobiography of Phil Vischer
"A Night in the Lonesome October" by Roger Zelazny
"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainence" by Robert M. Pirsig

Music
"Sam & Max Season One Soundtrack" Jared Emerson-Johnson
"Kashmir - Symphonic Led Zeppelin" arranged by Jaz Coleman, and performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Peter Scholes.

Movies
"Justice League: The New Frontier" (wait... you've probably already seen this one.)
"Paper Clips" - a documentary about a middle school that gathered six-million paper clips to represent the six-million Jews killed in the Holocaust.

Denbrought said:

Series/Animes: Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking (space, time, physics, robot voices) Lain (mindfuck, collective conscience, individuality, cyberspace, ...) Ergo Proxy (mindfuck, artificial intelligence, utopia/dystopia) Texhnolyze (mindbender, despair, cyberprosthetics, dystopia) Aoi Bungaku (classical japanese books/stories animated to lure younger generations)

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Ugh. I am going to respectfully disagree with Denbrought on this one. It's got an appealing visual aesthetic, but the more interesting aspects that get brought up are eventually left by the wayside, with a pretty unfulfilling ending IMO. I mean, if you're just looking for ideas it might be worth watching the first third or so, but I think there are better uses of your time than to watch the whole series. Also, I believe Aoi Bungaku is currently unlicensed in North America, so you'd need to torrent it, unless it's up on Crunchyroll or Youtube.

If you're into anime, it might behoove you to check out the works of Satoshi Kon (Paprika, Millenium Actress)

One of my favorite authors is David Foster Wallace. "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" is a collection of some of his essays which makes for a really fun read, and it goes by pretty quick. I love his writing style, and while I get the sense that for most people it's a love it/hate it thing, I think it's probably worth checking out.

Dirona said:

For books, read anything (or everything) by CS Lewis, and I would particularly recommend the "Space Trilogy" (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength). Asimov's 'Foundation' is great. Robertson Davies has some good books as well, and Robert A Heinlein's 'Stranger in Strange Land' is well regarded.

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I endorse this list.

---------- Post added at 11:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:45 PM ----------

TV: Republic of Doyle

Killer Klowns From Outer Space. If that doesn't inspire you to say "Fuck it, I can do better than this!" I don't know what will.

But seriously, hmm. How about some comics or comics-related peraphinilia? (I know, I butchered the spelling, there.)

-Kirby: King of Comics. Biography about Jack Kirby, with a lot of art. Really neat stuff.
-The Unwritten, by Mike Carey & Peter Gross
-The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon
-Understanding Comics, by Scott McLeod
-Blankets, by Craig Thompson
-Promethea, by Alan Moore & JH Williams (really, any of Alan Moore's stuff is great stuff; I really dug his ABC line of comics)
-American Gods, by Neil Gaiman (prose, not comic, but still great)

And a few movies:
-Pan's Labyrinth
-Mirrormask
-Inception (seriously, I came out of that with at least one new story idea)

I'd say that's a good start. *grin!*

---------- Post added at 08:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:23 PM ----------

Rob King said:

TV: Republic of Doyle

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Man, as a fellow East Coaster, I seriously have got to check that show out.

ThatNickGuy;422671][QUOTE=Rob King said:

TV: Republic of Doyle

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Man, as a fellow East Coaster, I seriously have got to check that show out.[/QUOTE]

I meant it as a silly, but you seriously do. It surprised me how good it actually is.

I've been reading some original fairy tales by Herman Hesse, the author of Siddhartha (which is also good), and I've been enjoying them. I'd recommend them for quick little reads while you don't have too much time for engagement but still want to read something enjoyable.

I've not read many of the other responses, so I will keep the lists short for now.

Music:
Modest Mouse (US & Canada) (Rest of the world)
The Shins
Frank Turner

Movies:
Moon
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Howl's Moving Castle

Authors:
Neil Gaiman, but especially Anansi Boys, Neverwhere, and Good omens (co-authored w/ Terry Pratchett)
Terry Pratchett, especially the Discworld books (there's about 40 of those, but you can read them in any order you like)
R. A. Salvatore, especially his Drow series

TV:
Eureka
Scrubs (seasons 1-8)
Futurama

General Specific said:

TV:
Eureka

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Ooooh! I second this one. Awesome series. It's one of the few shows I get to watch with my family. Our tastes don't have a huge overlap, but Eureka is so good everyone likes it (even my mom who doesn't really connect with most SciFi.)

More

Music:
Gomez
The Postal Service (click on downloads)
Band of Horses

Movies:
Dark City (Mute it until you see Kiefer Sutherland)
Brazil (Director's Cut preferably if you can find it)
Thank You for Smoking

TV:
Farscape
Fawlty Towers
Cowboy Bebop

I forgot a TV:
Band of Brothers Amazingly good
and a few videos to throw in for good measure:

Good heavens, what to recommend? How to keep it short? Let's try:
Without duplicating anything (that I know of--someone else already said Tampopo!) or getting too close (Princess Mononoke v. Howl's Moving Castle, for instance - both Miyazaki films) or getting too popular (Highlander). I'll try to give 4 or 5 of each.

Movies:
-Night of the Creeps - Do you like Horror? Teen slasher flicks? Cop drama? Mad scientists? Monsters? Suspense? Comedy? Space aliens? Zombies? Well, with one movie, you can have it all. Enjoy.
-36 Chambers of Shaolin (Freakin' HUGE influence in my life as I live it, though I've only ever seen it once, and as a pre-teen!)
-Holy Mountain - Absurdist cinema, very 60's-70's, but also very full of imagery and metaphor
-Bruce Almighty - Jim Carrey wackily delivers a surprisingly sobering cautionary tale about what can happen when you try TOO hard to get what you want. The message is far more than the movie itself.
-Who Framed Roger Rabbit? - The movie that changed at least one person's life. It's a landmark. You should see it. It's where the phrase 'bumping the lamp' came from. And it has Christopher Lloyd. And pretty much every WB and Disney character of any consequence.

Books:
-"The Belgariad" - 5 books by David Eddings, some pretty terrific high fantasy, a truly epic series.
-"Midworld" - Alan Dean Foster (one of many books set in the same universe) - I'm sure at least one of the folks at Avatar must have read this somewhere along the line. Also, "Nor Crystal Tears" is possibly the best first-contact novel I have ever read.
-"Tik Tok" - John Sladek - Imagine a robot experiencing a Johnny-5 sort of incident, except that he turns out like Bender. Only much more so. You might also consider "Adam Link, Robot" - by Eando Binder, who is a character very much like ST:TNG's Data, only Link was created way back in 1939.
-"The Man Who Never Missed" - One man decides to make a plan to Make A Difference. And he does. Oh yes, he does. Surprisingly relevant for being 25 years old.
-Any of the Callahan's books by Spyder Robinson. Time travelers, witches, musicians, love, spacemen, nuclear weapons, and some of the best Irish coffee to be found anywhere.

Music:
-Search for "Dr. Demento" and listen to whatever comes up. This may take a while. I'll wait. No, keep looking.
-"Hand Built by Robots" - Newton Faulkner
-"Further in Time" - Afro Celts (and Robert Plant, and Peter Gabriel)
-"Music for Peasants" - Urban Farmers - I can almost guarantee you won't be able to find this one, but if you do, it'll be worth it.
-"Wild Serenade" - DuOuD - Middle-Eastern instrumental music played electronica-style. It's actually pretty cool.
Television:

-Twilight Zone/Night Gallery/Tales from the Darkside/Monsters (I tend to lump them all together)
-Tiny Toon Adventures/Animaniacs/Pinky and the Brain (likewise)
-Special Unit 2 - didn't run very long, but you gotta check it out. If you like it, look into Psi Factor as well.
-St. Elsewhere - Before there was House, Chicago Hope, or ER, there was St. Elsewhere. Plenty in there to soak up.

Games:
-Shadow of the Colossus/Ico - These games know where your chains are, and pull them plenty.
-Morrowind
-Myst/Riven (Feel free to play Exile and the rest if you want, but make sure to catch the first two)
-Any of Microsoft's "Age of ..." games. They're not Starcraft, but they're still plenty entertaining RTS/Resource games.

--Patrick

I also agree with many of the lists above. I'll try not to replicate too much.

Books:
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny (anything by him, really)
Good omens - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaimann (anything by either of them, really)
Time Enough for Love - Robert A. Heinlein
Germinal - Emile Zola (I'm guessing you're not a native French speaker, so might have to go for English - it's -very- difficult French to read. Well worth it, though.)
The World according to Garp - John Irving (He's got quite a few other great books, but mostly his earlier work, imnsho.)

Games:
If you don't mind legacy software (as in, crappy visuals :-P): Daggerfall. It's the predecessor to Morrowind and Oblivion, and has a lot more options and possibilities than a lot of people give it credit for.
World of Goo
Freelancer
Empire: Total War or Napoleon: Total War, depending on whether you prefer huge and sprawling and hard to keep track of, or more slimmed down, easier to understand but just as hard to master and with a better storyline.

Wow! This is great!

A larger variety then I ever thought would be suggested!

Making List Number 1 now to take out to the used book shop/video store with me...although I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be forced to download some of these.

Keep 'em coming guys. I watched Paprika last night and actually started WRITING something that may or may not be kind good.

Don't trust the Hun. He may not be entirely serious. Just guessin' here, of course.

I am loving this thread, I am always looking for new books, movies, and tv series.

Books
George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.

Neil Gaimen - Neverwhere, American Gods, Sandman novels (if you can find them), Good Omens, Stardust, Smoke and Mirrors, Harlequin Valentine

Ursula le Guin - Earthsea series

Bram Stoker - Dracula (because I think everyone should know what the novel is like vs. current pop culture vampires)

Diana Gabaldon - Outlander series (ok, it's kinda part historical fiction, part sci-fi, and part romance...a little sappy sometimes, but it was great to read over a boring winter)

Terry Goodkind - Sword of Truth series (to be honest I loved the first book, liked the second, and the third made me want to slit my wrists so I stopped reading them. I think the first two in the series are worth a look at least).

Television

Rome an HBO series that I adored despite it's inaccuracies.

Farscape because seeing Ben Browder in black leather every week makes the dragging moments in the storyline seem to vanish. Guh.

Star Trek the original series, especially.

Doctor Who Tom Baker's version of the time lord is my favorite with David Tennant as a very close second.

Monty Python's Flying Circus


I'll think of more later.

The Vorkosigan series by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Not really High Literature, but also not too low and if you get into it it's one sideturning novel after the other and some characters you really grow to love!

Oh here's a movie: Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain otherwise known just as Amélie.

Anything by Weird Al.

thehun: You almost had me there. The minute I saw your desciption of Caligula I thought to myself: "I'm pretty sure that isn't what the Cinema Snob said...."

It is still worth watching Caligula, just to say that you've seen the most decadent Hollywood movie made.

It's trash, but there is a couple of good actors in it.

If you have not read anything by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, find some and read it. Crime & Punishment is probably his most famous, and there's the Brothers Karamazov (which I'm currently reading), The Idiot (next on my list), The Gambler, Demons... I particularly recommend the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translations of his work. They've also translated Tolstoy to great acclaim.

I love classics, and I just read A Tale of Two Cities while I was travelling... Even though I knew the story going in, I was gripped from the beginning and could not put it down and completely invested in everything that happened from the beginning.

Oscar Wilde. Everything. The film version of The Importance of Being Earnest was great, if I remember correctly, so there's a movie too! For his novels, I specifically mention The Picture of Dorian Grey as it is my favourite by him.

For lighter reading, find some books by Christopher Moore. They're... amazing. They're pretty short but they're hilarious, and creative. He writes fantasy, I suppose, based in our modern time; Bloodsucking Fiends, You Suck and Bite Me are about vampires, Practical Demonkeeping is about a guy who accidentally summoned a demon, Fluke is about talking whales and also goo.

MOVIES!

Mediterraneo - An Italian film about a group of Italian soldiers who get sent to occupy a Grecian island during WW2 and are eventually forgotten about by their superiors. Funny and very touching.

City of Lost Children - A French film about a mad scientist who only wants to be able to dream and a giant simpleton who only wants to find his adoptive little brother again. Also, Ron Perlman. This movie is unlike any other film I've seen. It's whimsical and dark and feels kind of like a steampunk fairy tale. Kind of.

Amores Perros - A Mexican film by the director of Babel with three interconnected stories. Each story deals with a character's relationship with the person they love and also with their dog. There are a lot of dogs in this movie. Very very good, very heavy, somewhat intense.

Spirited Away - A Miyazaki anime about a young girl who gets stuck working in a bath house in the spirit world. She must find a way to not only escape, but also save her parents from the evil witch who runs the bath. My all time favorite Miyazaki film.

Eastern Promises - An English nurse takes in an abandoned baby and becomes entangled in London's Russian mob as she attempts to find the mother. Also naked Viggo Mortenson. It's...not played for sexy.

Adaptation - Charlie Kaufman attempts to find inspiration to write a screenplay based on a book about orchids after the success of his work on Being John Malcovitch. Has a lot of meta humor. Features Nicholas Cage in one of his all time best roles, Meryl Streep being fantastic as she always is, and Chris Cooper giving an Oscar-winning performance.

Doubt - Based on a play, this film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as the charismatic Father at a Boston Catholic School and Meryl Streep is its strict head nun. Follows their conflict as she tries to prove that the Father molested a child at the school.

Up in the Air - George Cloony is Ryan Bingham, a motivational speaker and "career transition counselor." He flies around the country giving speeches and laying people off for companies who are too chicken shit to do it themselves. Bingham is faced with obsolescence as an up-and-comer within his company proposes a new remote system for laying people off. As he tries to show her the need for a human touch when firing someone, he comes to face the real consequences of his job and whether the success of his demanding career has been worth the sacrifice of his personal life.

Prizzi's Honor - Starring Jack Nicholson and featuring Marisa Tomei, this movie is kind of like Mr. and Mrs. Smith except with the mafia instead of rival intelligence companies.

A Fistful of Dollars - Clint Eastwood is the Man with No Name in this classic Western. He drifts into a town torn apart by two rival gangs and goes about cleaning up the place by pitting the gangs against each other while killing his fair share himself. An absolute classic.

For a Few Dollars More - The sequel to A Fistful of Dollars. This time the Man With no Name is a bounty hunter and teams up with fellow bounty hunter Colonel Mortimer (Lee van Cleef) to hunt down and bring the famed outlaw El Indio and his gang of bandits to justice.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - A prequel of sorts to the first two Dollars movies. In this one, the Man With no Name (the Good), the slimy Tuco (the Ugly), and the suave Angel Eyes (the Bad) race across the desert to find a cache of Confederate gold. This movie is a real epic, both in length and scope. Sergio Leone uses amazing cinematography and Enrico Morricone's beautiful score to tell the story without cluttering up the movie with excess dialogue.

American Beauty - Stars Kevin Spacey, Anette Benning, Christopher Columbus, and Allison Janney. This is the story of how the members of a disfunctional suburban family fall apart and discover how to put themselves back together. Alan Ball's writing and Sam Mendes' directing are good, but Conrad Hall's cinematography is what really makes this movie great. Also the acting, that's great too.

Citizen Kane - A classic film if there ever was one. Orson Welles plays CHARLES FOSTER KANE, the incredibly wealthy owner of an expansive media empire. The movie is told in flashbacks as a news reporter interviews Kane's surviving friends and relatives to try and learn the meaning of his final word: Rosebud. This film pioneered a lot of cinematic techniques that are still used today.

Orson Welles and Me - While we are on the subject of Welles, this movie follows a young performer as he charms his way into Orson Welles' Mercury Theater troupe as they put on their inaugural performance of Julius Caesar. Features Christian McKay in his first performance as a great Welles and Zac Efron in a role that shows he is quite capable of acting well.

Children of Men - read it, then watch the movie

Bubble181 said:

Games:
If you don't mind legacy software (as in, crappy visuals :-P): Daggerfall. It's the predecessor to Morrowind and Oblivion, and has a lot more options and possibilities than a lot of people give it credit for.

Click to expand...

I did consider this instead of my Morrowind recommendation (since the Daggerfall world is generated randomly every time you play!) but I was also concerned about how the graphics would be received. It does have one other big thing going for it. It is free for download from Bethesda's website. Get yourself DOSBox (also free) and go to town.

Wasabi Poptart said:

Terry Goodkind - Sword of Truth series (to be honest I loved the first book, liked the second, and the third made me want to slit my wrists so I stopped reading them. I think the first two in the series are worth a look at least).

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He gets a bit preachy, some things get a little repetitive, sure. Try to stick with it until you finish Faith of the Fallen, quite possibly the best book of the bunch (of the ones I've read, anyway). It's very impactful, but it is even more impactful if you've read the books leading up.

--Patrick

Songs I find inspiring lately:





This is a cover of a Jojo song that I find really really cool, I really like the contrast between this and the original. I actually like the cover better.



And watch Religulous from Bill Maher... I've seen it two times in the last 6 months, it cracks me up AND I really do think everyone should watch that movie, maybe not take it literally but at least just watch it.

Just a note: a lot of the classics Chad Sexington recommended are available free at Project Gutenberg.

For books, I absolutely loved Daniel Abraham's The Long Price Quartet. One of the best fantasy series written in years, IMO. Up there With A song of Ice and Fire for sure.

Here's some music I enjoy a lot at the moment...

Other movies you should watch if you have not seen them already:

• Memento
• Princess Mononoke well, why don't we make this easier and say anything by Hayao Miyazaki
• The Big Lebowski
• Clue
• A Clockwork Orange
• High Fidelity
• This one is going to be weird, but you will like it more and more as it grows on you, Orgazmo (it's Trey Parker & Matt Stone's work prior to South Park, it is also kinda softcore porn, so be careful watching it)

Oh, I feel kinda stupid for forgetting (re:anime): the Studio 4 C guys. Some of their work is kinda out there, but it's interesting stuff. You can find clips from their Genius Party anthology up on Youtube. If you dig it, check out Mind Game or maybe Noiseman Sound Insect, among others.

I started watching some of the movie suggestions!

I've been thinking to myself...would people be interested in me just getting on web cam or some shit and saying a short peice on each thing I experience? Tell you how inspire I feel or what I thought?

I love getting these suggestions. I fee like I should give back.

Being human, we would all like to hear about what a wonderful job we did, picking neat new stuff for you to experience. People love affirmation.

I would be interested in knowing what you've distilled/gleaned/learned from some of the suggestions. What inspiration did you get from each one?

--Patrick

I think the question is, upon reading Dostoyevsky, will you be able to resist going on webcam and praising my advice? No. No you will not.

Oddbot said:

-snip decemberists video-

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I'm so glad someone mentioned the Decemberists. They're great.

While it isn't their best work, I highly recommend The Hazards of Love. It's a concept album that, from start to finish, tells the story of a young woman who falls in love with a shapeshifting forest prince, and how their short love affair is torn apart by a devilish Rake that desires the woman, and the controlling mother of the forest prince, the powerful Queen of the Forest.

preview:



Edit: Also, since I haven't seen many games listed, I'll go ahead and list the first one that comes to mind when I think of inspiring. It's no secret that I love all things Infocom, and one of their most thoughtful games was A Mind Forever Voyaging. It's a text-based adventure game like near all infocom titles, where the player takes control of PRISM, an artificial intelligence living inside a computer simulation that spent the first 20 years of its life thinking it was human. It's tasked with saving society, as it crumbles into riots and suicide set somewhere in the future.

Also, to keep with the music videos, an old favorite that's related:

Chad Sexington said:

I think the question is, upon reading Dostoyevsky, will you be able to resist going on webcam and praising my advice? No. No you will not.

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Truth.

Any kind of feedback, either written or recorded on video, is a good idea. It will help you to solidify any new ideas that these experiences are giving you.

I'm getting through these suggestions guys!

I will be doing some video feed back soon. Just got get my camera charged up and reinstall premier.

I think the video feedback idea is a really cool one. Good thinking, Sin.

This thread makes me feel guilty for not opening myself up to more things that might inspire me. And it's finally enough for me to admit it.

Gusto said:

This thread makes me feel guilty for not opening myself up to more things...

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Sounds like my prom ni...

Gusto said:

that might inspire me.

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Oh. Never mind!

I have this video ready ut I can't get it to upload ANYWHERE.

You tue says it's too ig so I'm trying lip and it just sits there...for 8 hrs evev. Any ideas?

You could try rapidshare or megaupload.

The above post of mine is what you get when you type with a bay in you lap, by the way.

Will do.

Okay. Found the problem. My file is a little over two gigs. It needs to e smaller.

Anyone know how to do this? it's an AVI file. I have Adobe Premier Pro CS3 at my disposal. I'm still really new to using it so I'll need a little help getting through it.

I swear to God...if I get this to work I'll be eternally grateful!

For now, I'll just suggest two TV shows that, unless I missed it, nobody has mentioned yet.

Spaced- two season long British comedy by Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Jessica Hynes-Stevenson and produced by Nira Park. The same group of individuals responsible for Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Its great on its own, but its also fantastic to see the birth of some of the jokes from those movies.
QI- stands for Quite Interesting. Its a hilarious quiz show hosted by Stephen Fry, with a constantly rotating cast of who's who of British comedy. And you might learn something!

Recent music I have liked:
Ok Go
The Strokes
Franz Ferdinand
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

I like the "indie rock" channel on Last.FM.

I have no idea what you have access to and what you've seen. If you have access to Netflix Instant, some of these become even easier to watch. I'm not listing a lot in each section, mainly the first few that come to mind.

TV
Avatar: The Last Airbender - I'm late to this party, but just watched through it twice in the last month or so. It's my favorite cartoon, with good action, humor, and an interesting universe. All three seasons are available (or at least were very recently) on netflix instant.

Bones - We just started watching this series. Like most series, the actors take a few episodes to get their legs under them, but once they do, the behaviors I found irritating become quirky and more believable. I find some of the subject matter a bit disturbing to think of in a real world situation, yet find myself believing the situations (not the process) more than I do a show like SVU. We are halfway through the second season and we are really enjoying it.

Angel/Buffy - Vampire series done right (for the most part).

Movies

Good Will Hunting
The Shawshank Redemption
Unbreakable (Bruce Willis' best performance, IMHO)

Books

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

Music

Yield (Pearl Jam) - While this isn't my favorite Pearl Jam album, it's the most newbie-friendly album they've put out to date. PJ isn't for everyone but they are the closest thing my generation has to a Led Zepplin, The Who, or Pink Floyd...a classic rock band that puts out relevant music over the course of a few decades with little change to personnel. That is, if you like rock music.

No More Kings/The Flying Boombox (No More Kings) - NMK is a cool indie band out that made a video for their song "Sweep the Leg" that featured the male cast of the original The Karate Kid and was directed by the dude that played Johnny in that movie. Their music is more pop-rock than I normally listen to but is full of pop culture and geek references. In fact, there's a song on The Flying Boombox that's called "Critical Hit" and is about playing D&D.

LittleSin said:

Okay. Found the problem. My file is a little over two gigs. It needs to e smaller.

Anyone know how to do this? it's an AVI file. I have Adobe Premier Pro CS3 at my disposal. I'm still really new to using it so I'll need a little help getting through it.

I swear to God...if I get this to work I'll be eternally grateful!

Click to expand...

Try this. I think you may want to save it as an MP4 using Xvid or h.264 for compression; that's just a guess, though, as I don't have much experience doing video compression.

KCWM said:

.
Bones - We just started watching this series. Like most series, the actors take a few episodes to get their legs under them, but once they do, the behaviors I found irritating become quirky and more believable. I find some of the subject matter a bit disturbing to think of in a real world situation, yet find myself believing the situations (not the process) more than I do a show like SVU. We are halfway through the second season and we are really enjoying it.

Click to expand...

Stop after season 3. Trust. Me. You will be so much happier.

drifter;427232][QUOTE=LittleSin said:

Okay. Found the problem. My file is a little over two gigs. It needs to e smaller.

Click to expand...

Try this. I think you may want to save it as an MP4 using Xvid or h.264 for compression; that's just a guess, though, as I don't have much experience doing video compression.[/QUOTE]What Drifter says. SUPER is a quick front end for ffmpeg, which will shrink it down nicely. x264 has the best support right now across most platforms (Mac, PC, Linux, etc), but Xvid isn't that far behind. Youtube allows you to upload a file up to 2GB in size, but it still has to be less than 15min in length. So if you crush it down to even 1.5GB, you should be well within the limits.

According to Speedtest.net, the average upload speed in Canada is just under 1.5Mb/sec. At that rate, uploading 1.5GB of data would take between 2.5-3 hours, and that's assuming nothing goes wrong.

--Patrick

Oh boy. Necro much?

When my computer crashed I lost everything. So, I re-recorded, re-edited, and did everything right!

BTW, this is super embarrassing...yet it was fun. I may do more.



Any comments, leave em for me.

PS: I can't get the ads disabled. Oh well...a few pennys for me?

My roommate just showed me this video and told me about this artist's music. The fact that this thread is back up at the top of the forum is clearly a sign:

LittleSin said:

Oh boy. Necro much?

When my computer crashed I lost everything. So, I re-recorded, re-edited, and did everything right!

BTW, this is super embarrassing...yet it was fun. I may do more.

Any comments, leave em for me.

PS: I can't get the ads disabled. Oh well...a few pennys for me?

Click to expand...

My favorite scene:

General Specific;443478][QUOTE=LittleSin said:

Oh boy. Necro much?

When my computer crashed I lost everything. So, I re-recorded, re-edited, and did everything right!

BTW, this is super embarrassing...yet it was fun. I may do more.

Any comments, leave em for me.

PS: I can't get the ads disabled. Oh well...a few pennys for me?

Click to expand...

My favorite scene:

[/QUOTE]

That's another of my favorite scenes.

Episode two is up!

And it's about Fahrenheit 451!

New episode!

I'm impressed Sin Look at you go, keep it up!

Do Trick 'R Treat! It's Halloweeny AND fun.