What's Murray Watching?

So, today in class (I'm in Week 3 of a four week summer school marathon) -- actually, during the coffee break -- Mary asked me if there was some way she could know what I'm watching. I sent her to my blog, which gives me a feeling of responsibility, that now I should put up some sort of "highlights" of my cultural consumption recently. So here goes.

First, I'm going to list things that I'm watching/listening to/reading that I haven't seen/heard before (mostly). Little of this stuff is actually current or "new", but it does reflect my current and 'new' interests. Then I'll say a few words about old favourites.

TV:

• South Park
• Smallville
• Canadian Idol
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
• Firefly
• Grey's Anatomy
• Criminal Minds
• The Ultimate Fighter
  

Movies:

• Priest (1994)
• Goodfellas (1990)
• Superman Returns (2006)
  
• Gattaca (1997)
• The Station Agent (2003)
• Jesus Christ Superstar (2000)
• The Apostle (1997)
  
• Nacho Libre (2006)
  

Music:

• Leonard Cohen
• Neil Young
• U2
• Don McLean
  
• Songs featured on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel"

Books (extracurricular):

• "Red Mars," "Green Mars," "Blue Mars," and "The Martians" by Kim Stanley Robinson
• "Iterations" by Robert J. Sawyer
  
• "Fray: Future Slayer" (graphic novel) by Joss Whedon
• "A Theology For Ministry: Creating Something Of Beauty" by Gordon Jackson

So, that's about it... There might be one or two things I'm forgetting. In terms of old favourites, I have given ratings for 310 different films on the Internet Movie Database, and folks can view my voting history by following this link. It may seem like my voting is top heavy (ie. I'm giving more high scores than low scores) but that's because I'm more motivated to vote for movies that I like. There are four or five hundred movies that I've seen and not voted for, and most of them would receive lower scores.

As for old favourites in the TV category, I should of course mention Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff series Angel, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is a personal classic, as is Star Trek: The Next Generation. As I've gotten older, though, I find I prefer DS9 to TNG. I guess I have a fair amount of The Simpsons in my background, too, though I haven't really watched it in years. Also The Kids in the Hall and Saturday Night Live, which I still tune in to from time to time.

My musical standbys include REM, Barenaked Ladies, Queen, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, CCR, Jann Arden, Simon & Garfunkel, and The Tragically Hip.

My favourite books are mostly graphic novels. By series: The Sandman, by Neil Gaiman, Preacher, by Garth Ennis, Strangers in Paradise, by Terry Moore, and Transmetropolitan, by Warren Ellis. Also The Watchmen, Top Ten, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, by Alan Moore, and Powers, by Brian Michael Bendis (I feel like this list isn't complete without Frank Miller and Grant Morrison, so I'll just mention them). Robert J. Sawyer is my current favourite novelist, and I recommend his books Factoring Humanity and Frameshift, and his two trilogies, "The Neanderthal Parallax" and "The Quintaglio Ascension," plus all of his other works.

So, far from an exhaustive list, this is a sense of what sort of voices are looking for attention in my mind right now. In a month or two, much of this will have changed, I'm sure. Maybe I'll do this again down the road? We'll see.