Lists

Last week, I was hanging around outside Lula's, a charming Chicago neighborhood cafe that has very nice wild rice cakes and really excellent coffee for Sunday brunch. I was with Linda and a bunch of childhood friends, and we were back in 1972 and being a little awkward about splitting up after a damn good meal. So, naturally, we made sure we all had the our current email addresses.

'You can always get Mark's from his weblog -- along with the movies he's seen and every book he reads.' That's Linda, helpful as ever. 'I think,' she adds, 'I'm the only one who doesn't read it.'

OK, that's sort of embarrassing, but I think the books and the movie list are worth it. Worth it for me, anyway; it's nice to be able to look back on Oscar night and see exactly what I watched in the past year. And, Tinderbox makes it easy -- adding a movie takes seconds, I don't have to be online, I dont have to wait for the server.

By my count, last year I saw 29 feature films and four TV series seasons -- two years of Buffy and two of Babylon 5. Only three weren't much fun, and none at all were downright lousy. It's nice to look back and remember the good ones -- Lord of the Rings, Adaptation, The Apartment. And it's nice to remember the ones I saw at nice times -- the quiet evening with Linda and The Red Violin, the relaxing train trip with A Mighty Wind, the long night of Midnight Cowboy. Seeing Mystic River at Assembly Square, the old Edsel plant alongside the Mystic River.

I also think it's interesting to hear what other people are seeing and reading. If you know someone who keeps good lists of current reading, film, or other media, let me know; perhaps I'll put together some sort of list.