benny & joon: not only the best johnny depp movie ever, quite possibly my favorite movie ever. it's about this girl with a few mental problems, joon (mary stuart masterson), who has lived under the care of her brother benny (aidan quinn) since their parents died when they were young. against benny's she falls in love with the unusual buster keaton look-alike/wannabe sam (johnny depp) and has to fight to convince him she can make up her own mind and live her own life. it's funny, romantic, and sad all at once...it's a beautiful story.

empire records: the story of a day in the lives of the cast of empire records, a record store. from the start, this day promises to be different with the visit of washed out soap star rex manning to sign autographs, but a robbery, hostile takeover, rebellion, suicide attempt, one very important "i love you", and an unlucky trip to atlantic city, the day proves to be the first day of the rest of the entire staff's lives. major entertainment.

that thing you do!: one of the cheesiest movies ever with one of the most catchy, chessy theme songs to match. it's all about this band the oneders (pernounced wonders, like the beatles are the beat-les, they're the one-ders, later changed to the real spelling to rid themselves of the name the o-nee-ders). the oneders got the lucky break when jazz-enthusiast guy patterson (tom evrett scott) joins takes the place of the real drummer (who broke his arm) the day of a big talent show, screws up the song purposely to make it sound better (which it does) and unofficially leads the band to stardom. along the way he falls in love with faye (liv tyler), the too-often-ignored girlfriend of the lead singer jimmy (johnathon schaech). as corny as it is, it's an incredibly fun movie that i can honestly say i watch too often and can quote from beginning to end.

*david bowie (i suggest the man who sold the world or ziggy stardust)

*the beatles (anything'll do, but i'd check out abbey road if i were you)

*pulp (this is hardcore)

*veruca salt (american thighs is the best with nina, but resolver (sans nina) is good too)

*hole (live through this...ultimate angry girl rock)

*letters to cleo (aurora gory alice)

*kara's flowers (the fourth world)

*phantom of the opera, sunset boulevard, and miss saigon (the london versions)

the phantom of the opera (gaston leroux): the true story behind the myth of the ghost in the paris opera as researched by gaston leroux. after reading this, you find many discrepincies between the book and the musical, but you also gain an incredible pity for erik, the opera ghost. it's one of my favorite stories, and one of my favorite musicals, so it is quite possible to like both.

the phantom of manhatten (frederik forsyth): the sequel to the phantom of the opera, but it's quite obviously the sequel to the musical rather than the book. it's the story of erik, former ghost of the paris opera, after fleeing paris and ending up in manhatten. it tells how he became a multi-millionaire in the creation of coney island and his obsession with building the manhatten opera house, rival to the met, in order to lure his beloved christine daae back to him. despite forsyth's criticism of the book phantom in the foreword of this book and the fact that it follows the musical rather than my beloved book (whose story is better, but wouldn't have made a better musical than andrew lloyd webber's story), it was a fantastic story with some really good twists. of course, i wouldn't bother reading it unless you've seen the musical, read the original book, or are simply familiar to the story of the paris opera ghost.

memoirs of a beatnik (diane di prima): though borderline pornography, it's a pretty good book. it opens a window into a world that was hidden behind the respectable society of the 1950's in new york city. it tells of harder times where food, money, and a home were not always available, and somehow not a necesity as we've come to know them to be. though extremely crude in some points, it's never passes into distasteful and is overall a good read.

on the road (jack kerouac): the journey of sal paradise, a young writer, to the west coast. this is one of the books that helped establish the "beat" style of writing. semi-autobiographical, sal is jack kerouac himself. this book also features many other bohemian writers such as allen ginsberg as carlo marx, neal cassidy as dean moriarty, and william borroughs as bill lee. it's just a really good story written in a manner that's just blatently truthful and honest in the fact that nothing is really glamourized too much and it's written as simply as someone would speak. kerouac makes no attempts to take his story and tell it in what i have been taught as "good writing" in my college level ap composition class, even in my creative writing class, yet as i read this book, all i can think is "damn, if i could only write like this!"