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Book |
Of All Time:
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943)
By Betty Smith
This story simply and elegantly explained, for me, love, death, loyalty, writing – my life. Nothing has everreplaced its raw and tenacious power.
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Right Now:
The Water’s Lovely (2007)
by Ruth Rendall
Pavlovian-style, this woman writes a book; I buy and love the book. This, about the ironic rivalry of two “maiden” sisters is just so Rendall – so literate, so delicate, so ineffably weird.
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Movie |
Of All Time:
The Godfather, Part II (1974)
Director, Francis Ford Coppola
I grew up with these guys, except when this movie was made and I was a kid, the era of criminal royalty was already over, although Tony Soprano (and Tony Pellicano) apparently didn’t know this. The rich palette of a Titian landscape in every scene, the echo of mythic tragedy in every line – Frankie, take me, I’m yours.
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Right Now:
The Descent (2005)
Director Neil Marshall
I love great scare; but don’t show me too much. Give me ‘The Blair Witch Project’ or Julie Harris’ mad innocence in ‘The Haunting’ over ‘The Hills Have Eyes’ any windy night of the week. I’ve seen this indie from the UK four times, and like ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock,’ it just better every time. There’s the snap of the wry dialogue of these girls of the North country, the furious ambivalence of Juno, the leader of the gang, the sheer mental toughness and athleticism of the doomed women on possibly the creepiest soundstage ever built, an wet cave in the Appalachian hills where they are ever so not alone….
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Musical |
Of All Time:
West Side Story (1957)
The absurdly magnificent one-time collaboration of Leonard Berstein, Jerome Robbins and the 26-year-old genius Stephen Sondheim, writing what I believe were he lyrics of his life, and a story that gets truer every year, it’s all the beautiful sounds of the world in a single show.
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Right Now:
Jersey Boys (2005)
I grew up with these guys, too, although, like the guys in ‘The Godfather,’ they were grown when I was a baby. I sing this music. My kids sing this music. There is no end to the longing in this music of the streetlight and the street. |
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Play |
Of All Time:
The Children’s Hour (1934)
I have no idea why I still love every word of a play that manages to be dated and yet terrifyingly novel – in that our need to examine and approve the personal acts ofothers is still a cornerstone of our national consciousness. There were probably some things Lillian Helllman thought she could do better than she actually could but this wasn’t one.
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Right Now:
Copenhagen (2001, by Michael Frayn)
Even the luminous performances of Philip Bosco and Blair Brown as the wife of the Danish physicist Neils Bohr didn’t distract from the daring centerpiece of this play – the meeting between Werner Heisenberg and Neils BohrIn which they discuss the camaraderie and excitement that attended the realization of the Theory of Relativity --- and the sight of people “getting it” for the first time. Critics said this play was more to be admired than enjoyed; but I truly loved every second of it, fully as much as the revivial of ‘The Crucible,’ of which it, in some way, reminded me.
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TV Show |
Of All Time:
The X-Files (1992-2002)
Even when I had no idea at all what Chris Carter was on about, this show gave me nine years of pure joy, though my husband balked when I wanted to name our last child Scully. Best episode ever: ‘The Family.’ Second best ever: ‘Wetwired’ Every episode: Total class.
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Right Now:
The Tudors (Showtime, 2007)
If the life of the young Henry VIII was anything like its portrayal by 29-year-old Jonathan Rhys Meyers It really must have been, as Mel Brooks said, good to be king. If you missed the reason that three more women married arguably England’s greatest monarch after he’d beheaded the love of his life, you need not wonder further. He was an athlete, a thinker, a warrior, a poet, a fierce and He was an athlete, a thinker, a warrior, a poet, a fierce and ardent prince – rather like Prince Charles. Not.
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Musical group |
Of All Time:
The Beatles
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Right Now:
The E Street Band |
Male pop singer |
Of All Time:
Stevie Wonder
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Right Now:
John Mayer |
Country |
Of All Time:
Dolly Parton, George Jones
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Right Now:
Carrie Underwood, Vince Gill |
Jazz |
Of All Time:
Nancy Wilson
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Right Now:
Ben Sidran |
Song, pop |
Of All Time:
Stardust
(Hoagy Carmichael, 1929)
This is the song that was eveyrone's parents' song during World War II and if everyone knew it today, it would be eveyrone's parents' song, too.
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Right Now:
I Don't Like Mondays
(The Boomtown Rats, 1979)
Neither of these is generation-specific to me – and neither is particularly current. |
World Song |
Of All Time:
La Vie en Rose (1948)
(Edith Piaf)
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Right Now:
Four Green Fields (1990)
(Tommy Makem) |
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Reportage |
Of All Time:
Walter Cronkite on Watergate
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Right Now:
Nothing |
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Clothing |
Of All Time:
Babette San Francisco
Those wrinkly clothes, especially the raincoats, of which I (embarrassingly) have three, you can crush into your purse and take out in exactly the same condition of freshness are unbeatable for the weary traveler.
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Right Now:
Sophie NYC
Black tops and bottoms with artsy patches that, unlike most artsy clothes, don’t make short women look as though they are the mayor of the Muchkin City. |
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Shoes |
Of All Time:
Steve Madden
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Right Now:
Steve Madden
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Jeans |
Of All Time:
Cambio
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Right Now:
Not Your Daughter’s Jeans |
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Food |
Of All Time:
Gnocchi
These little Italian pasta dumplings made with potato flour are so filling that to eat two is to weigh ten more; but decadence never tasted so good. The best I ever had were pumpkin spinach gorgonzola at a restaurant distinguished only by the chicken over the lintel.
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Right Now:
Gordonio’s Veggie Burgers
They said nothing could be both but these are. |
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City |
Of All Time:
New York
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Right Now:
Seattle |
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Place on Earth |
Of All Time:
Bellagio, in Tuscany
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Right Now:
Massachusetts |
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Hobby |
Of All Time:
Riding horses
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Right Now:
SCUBA Diving
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