While I’m not an extreme adventure romantic, I was moved by the honesty of Jeff Johnson’s voice and the activism of both indigenous Patagonians and global travelers transformed by their experience of the land.

The soundtrack with Ugly Cassanova, Mason Jennings, the Shins et al was filled with music after my own true heart.

An interesting complement to Into the Wild.

I enjoy Idris Elba. alot. smouldering with strength and intelligence, beloved for his role as Baltimore gangsta consigliere Stringer Bell on The Wire and the conflicted survivor protagonist of Sometimes in April. compelling.

Here he plays a homicide DCI with an anger management problem and a specialization in serial murderers. By midway through episode 4 of 6 this series jumped the shark for me. Interesting characters and strong performances carry it a long way, but somehow the producers felt the need to rachet up each plot point to its most extreme conclusion resulting in a lot of gore, emotional and physical.

Worth watching if you, like me, like watching Elba. otherwise, you should be okay with giving it a rest about episode 3 or so.

Not the most awesome movie ever. But if you, like me, have a soft spot for Will Ferrell (the movie version) and for critique of the financial industry, then you’ll appreciate this. You can get your early 90s nostalgic TLC itch tickled, while appreciating tongue-in-cheek car, motorcycle, bus and helicopter chases. Like most Adam McKay/Will Ferrell collaborations it’s also both a loving and occasionally frighteningly ugly spoof/interrogation of man-boy masculinity.

I got this book for my brother, who introduced me to graphic novels. Then I had to read it before passing it along.

It’s quiet and lyrical and humane. Among many other things it pays attention to what a son inherits from a father and passes to his son. It contains small moments of love and loss and loneliness.

I’m glad to gift it to him and grateful to him for helping me to find it.

A quirky character driven show, in the form of a police procedural, with the twist (or gimmick if you will) of a progressively revealed mystery about how and why the Damien Lewis’ police detective character was wrongly convicted of multiple murders in the past.

I get a little irritated with shows that go for the gritty but cast and style all the women as if they’re prepping for a fashion shoot.

Attention was also paid to cinematography there are a lot of good looking scenes in here, and especially loving use of many LA sites, which I appreciate.

Overall, I was engaged by what they were trying to do. But not enough to leave me wanting more.

As much as this is a mystery, and even something of a thriller, this book is about questions of intergenerational and transnational justice and injustice. Henning Mankell is in good form and his rendering of the conflicted and even somewhat compromised woman judge at the center was complicated and restrained and compelling.

I find this album brilliant. Extraordinary energy and emotion, great for singing along at the top of your lungs in the car.

An ambitious documentary project following seven arab and israeli children representing an extreme diversity of circumstances and perspectives in 97-00, all of them touched directly by violent conflict. At the very end, the filmmakers arrange for two of the israeli children to cross barriers and meet palestinian kids at a nearby camp. The encounter is both heartbreakingly hopeful and devastating.

It was difficult to watch this film about the insidious and enduring way in which the Protocols of Zion continues to justify and inspire hatred and division. The narrative is complicated and deepened by filmmaker Mark Levin’s inclusion of his father in his far-ranging inquiry which includes fearless conversation with extremists (of many kinds, Aryan, Palestinian-American, reformed), interfaith activists, talk-radio hosts, Ted Haggard and other born-again Christians, Matisyahu, 9/11 conspiracy theorists, and a medical examiner responsible for identifying remains in the World Trade Center.

Inspirational film about women’s political power in the face of catastrophic and intractable violence in Liberia. Not made by Africans – but with a sensitivity to mediating the subjects voices only minimally. action-packed and engaging. And chock full of brilliant and charismatic women.