Personal Matters

FAVORITES:

MOVIES:
• The Right Stuff
• Casablanca
• The Usual Suspects
• House of Games
• Much Ado About Nothing (the Kenneth Branaugh version of this delightful Shakespeare play)
• Shakespeare in Love
• Amadeus
• Charade
• The Sting
• The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
• From the Earth to the Moon

BOOKS (recent reads):
• All of the Vince Flynn novels (read in four weeks!)
• 1776, David McCullough
• State of Fear, Michael Crichton
• Black Rednecks and White Liberals, Thomas Sowell
• Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

PERIODICALS/ONLINE JOURNALS (I read dozens every week and these are my favorites. Even more revealing are those publications not included on this list of favorites—that should tell you something about the quality of modern journalism, especially locally.)
• The Economist (by far, the best news weekly in the world)
• Wall Street Journal
• Drudge Report
• Macworld
• Washington Times
• American Demographics
• American Outlook
• OpinionJournal.com

TELEVISION (I don't watch much television, but when I do, I like these shows):
• CSI
• Special Report with Brit Hume
• I am a closet Simpson's fan, and I'm accumulating the series on DVD
• Any magic show by any magician
• Top Chef and Hell's Kitchen

HEROES:
• John Wesley Powell (Explorer of the Grand Canyon basin and Colorado River, entymologist, head of the US Geological Survey)
• John P. Clum (Indian agent; editor of Tucson Citizen; editor of Tombstone Epitaph; mayor of Tombstone--hired the Earp brothers; captured Geronimo without a single shot fired; as USPOD agent, established the postal system in Alaska)
• Julian Simon (one of the brightest anti-gloom and doom thinkers ever, embarrassed and discredited Paul Erlich and the doomsday crowd)
• John H. Glenn (as an astronaut, not a politician)

MUSIC:
• Mozart piano concertos performed by Murray Perahia
• Beethoven symphonies conducted by John Eliot Gardiner
• Vivaldi guitar concertos performed by Angel Romero
• Rock n Roll from the 1960s and 1970s (including disco)
• Country from the Garth Brooks/Shania Twain era
• Jazz from the Wes Montgomery/Grant Green/Miles Davis era
• Modern violin as performed by Vanessa-mae and Bond (think of electronic violins/strings in the hands of saucy violinists playing classical, contemporary, and original compositions at a contemporary, upbeat tempo...you gotta hear and see it.)
• All-time favorite music (tie): Mozart's Symphony No. 25 in G minor (K.183), Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, and Roy Orbison's "Oh Pretty Woman" and "You Got It".

On my iPod are: nearly 4,000 songs (18+ gb) in 75 playlists (of which 20 are classical). Only a total of 45 songs are rated with five stars (I'm a tough music critic).

AUTHORS/WRITERS:
• Thomas Sowell
• Julian Simon
• Ronald Bailey
• P.J. O'Rourke
• Tony Hillerman
• Vince Flynn
• Tim Cahill
• John Allen Paulos
• Steven E. Landsburg
• Tom Clancy
• Edward Abbey
• Mark Twain