Poseur

What a poseur I am. Here I am, listing off books, music, movies and television for you to better your life. When, in fact, I have gaping gaps in my pop culture education. This situation requires rectification.

My list of books to read posted previously should help me on the way to literary literacy. But what of film? Left to my own devices, I tend to veer into cult cinema. A movie being interesting is often more rewarding to me than it being good. So I’ve seen Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Repoman and Eraserhead, but have never seen The Godfather. Here are 10 films that I haven’t seen, that I will see, some time in the near future. Maybe by the end of the summer. Or maybe by the time I’m 50. I don’t want to strain myself.

1. The Godfather (And Part II, I can’t make any promises about III.)
2. Casablanca (I’ve seen bits, but never more than 5 minutes at a time)
3. Raging Bull
4. Annie Hall (I’ve seen other Woody, but never this defining film)
5. Top Gun (yes, I see the jump in quality from previous entries)
6. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
7. Amelie
8. The Graduate
9. Seven Samurai
10. Reservoir Dogs

My rock snobbery is also a bit of a lie. A fib at least. This summer I will also be listening to these 8 groups to help better round out my musical education. I certainly know some songs from each, but don’t know nearly enough to consider myself well versed.

1. The Rolling Stones
2. The Who
3. Led Zepplin
4. Pink Floyd
5. The Velvet Underground
6. Simon and Garfunkel
7. The Grateful Dead
8. Iggy and the Stooges

I’m open to comments from the peanut gallery. But hopefully I’ve successfully tricked you over the years into thinking I knew about movies and music so you wouldn’t know of any other lapses in my education. I’ll let you know how summer school goes.