Black Irish

_"Our intention is to affirm this life, not to bring order out of chaos, nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply to wake up to the very life we're living, which is so excellent once one gets one's mind and one's desires out of its way and lets it act of its own accord."_ - John Cage, *Silence: Lectures and Writings* _"We work in the dark — we do what we can — we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the madness of art."_ - Henry James, *The Middle Years* _"Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living."_ - Arthur C. Clarke, *2001: A Space Odyssey* Favorites [In Progress] - Authors: William Faulkner, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Eugene O'Neill - Musicians: John Adams, Ludwig van Beethoven, Bon Iver, Charles Ives, Joy Division, Franz Liszt, Gustav Mahler, Arvo Pärt, Radiohead, Erik Satie, Sigur Rós, Igor Stravinsky - Visual Artists: Eugène Atget, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Thomas Eakins, Caspar David Friedrich, Francisco Goya, El Greco, William Hogarth, Winslow Homer, Wassily Kandinsky, August Sander, Andrew Wyeth - Literature: *Absalom, Absalom!*, *The Crossing*, *The Ghost Writer*, *Go Down, Moses*, *Light in August*, *Long Day's Journey Into Night*, *Memories, Dreams, Reflections*, *Le Père Goriot*, *White Noise* - Television: *'Allo 'Allo*, *Arrested Development*, *Blackadder*, *Fawlty Towers*, *Friends*, *Jeeves and Wooster*, *Parks and Recreation*, *Yes, Minister* "Most Anticipated Films of 2014:":http://mubi.com/lists/2010s - "*Boyhood*, Richard Linklater":http://mubi.com/films/boyhood--2 - "*The Grand Budapest Hotel*, Wes Anderson":http://youtu.be/1Fg5iWmQjwk - *Horse Money*, Pedro Costa - "*Land Ho!*, Aaron Katz & Martha Stephens":http://mubi.com/films/land-ho - *Mr. Turner*, Mike Leigh "Top 'Ten' of the Decade:":http://mubi.com/lists/2010-2012--2 - *Happy People: A Year in the Taiga* (Vasyukov/Herzog, 2010) - *Mistérios de Lisboa* (Raúl Ruiz, 2010) - *A Dangerous Method* (David Cronenberg, 2011) - *The Deep Blue Sea* (Terence Davies, 2011) - *Wuthering Heights* (Andrea Arnold, 2011) - *Amour* (Michael Haneke, 2012) - *Après Mai* (Olivier Assayas, 2012) - *Frances Ha* (Noah Baumbach, 2012) - *Marriage Material* (Joe Swanberg, 2012) - *Before Midnight* (Richard Linklater, 2013) Top Ten Non-Contemporary Films of the Year: - *The Silence* (Ingmar Bergman, 1963) - *Winter Light* (Ingmar Bergman, 1962) Ten Films to See Before Year's End: - *Dekalog* (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1989) - *J’ai Tué Ma Mère* (Xavier Dolan, 2009) - *Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles* (Chantal Akerman, 1975) - *The Long Day Closes* (Terence Davies, 1992) Rating System: 1 star = 1 - 2.5 | 2 stars = 3 - 4.5 | 3 stars = 5 - 6.5 | 4 stars = 7 - 8.5 | 5 stars = 9 - 10