Federico Fellini

Okay, so ... big subject here.  What makes Fellini the greatest artist in cinema history is that he didn't do just one thing well.  He incorporated all available cinema motifs into a series of personal statements.

His films, generally, use humor and vulgarity to make their points.  Whatever those points are - they don't decode into anything simple.  Something about a species whose being is dominated at times by sexual desire, who are frequently in denial of their true nature, and who are capable in that denial of real creativity and inventiveness.

Skipping straight to the work, here are my most recommended Fellini films :

Nights of Cabiria - An outwardly tough prostitute in Rome muddles through life.  With humor and energy, and more poignancy than males are thought capable of, Fellini examines the human condition.  A couple of scenes make me cry every time.

La Dolce Vita - Bitter at the core, or maybe bittersweet; a big sprawling masterwork about the death of the old world, and the birth of a new one.

Fellini Satyricon - Puts a lot of people off, with its depiction of pedophilic Rome, but I get it.  It's a movie about decadence, about the point where pleasures of the flesh come to dominate human existence. Visually I think that this is the most impressive film I've ever seen.

Roma - This one grew on me.  It's big, it sprawls, it's a Fellini movie for sure.  Not so much about the human psyche or experience this time, but about a city.

City of Women - His wildest film, and most imaginative, and most distinct.  A world dominated by women, albeit as imagined by one creepy old man.

Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick's novels have in them the primary characteristic of great literature - psychological insight and an understanding of the human condition.  In fact Dick was in his younger days fascinated with psychology, and a knowledge of it permeates his work.

They also have that characteristic of science-fiction that you don't get elsewhere - an attempt to illustrate the nature of reality by examining "what if" scenarios.  With a wild degree of imagination.  And in Dick's case, a conscious attempt to at least sometimes reflect the anarchic nature of the universe rather than to stick to tried-and-true dramatic structures.

No one else, that I've ever read, managed to do both of these things well at the same time.  And to interleave them into a philosophical picture of what reality is, while delineating strong human characters.

If you consider yourself a "serious" reader, and want to read his most serious books, I recommend "Martian Time-Slip" and "A Scanner Darkly".

Beyond those, if you want to read great books full of imagination and depth, I recommend (in order of preference) :

The Penultimate Truth
We Can Build You
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldridge
The Crack in Space
The World Jones Made
Ubik (either the novel or the screenplay)
A Maze of Death
The Man Who Japed
Now Wait For Last Year
VALIS
The Divine Invasion
The Simulacra
Vulcan's Hammer
Dr. Futurity
Galactic Pot-Healer
Counter-Clock World
The Man in the High Castle
Dr. Bloodmoney

Indian Food

For those who haven't really indulged in it ... here's what I like about it.  (My wife's opinion is included here also; one of the things in this world that we agree on entirely is Indian food).  I'll try to keep this short and to the point, and written from an average American's perspective.

Indian food is mostly spicy, but the heat is mitigated by other flavors, kind of spread and smoothed out.  The flavors lend themselves especially to vegetables. I'm not a big lover of vegetables, but prepared Indian style, I am.

For what we meat-eaters would tend to think of as "main dishes", there are a variety of curries which are best served over (bismati) rice or "naan" which is a popular flat bread; these counteract the flavor of the curries and spices nicely.  Lots of chicken, beef, goat, and lamb curries are available.  And "vindaloos", which are hotter curries.  Trader Joe's actually sells a good, fairly spicy Lamb Vindaloo. 

"Butter chicken" is a popular and great starter dish; not terribly hot and very tasty.

The afore-mentioned rice and naan are starches :

Additionally, the Indians know how to cook potatoes better than any other culture I think.

If you MUST eat something not spicy, Tandoori Chicken is popular and usually tasty, and really a nice way to cook chicken.

For vegetables there are a variety of options.  Cauliflower and pea related dishes are a staple and a favorite of mine.

Okra is always done up well.  My mouth waters looking at this image :

Another popular entry point into Indian food is Palak Paneer, which is like creamed spinach with spices, with cubes of cheese in it.  Trader Joe's sells this; theirs is not definitive, but it's pretty good.

Recommended :

The thing to do, really, is to go to a lunch buffet at some Indian restaurant near you and try a lot of different things.  If you want to start slowly, i.e. not go too hot, popular moderate dishes are Butter Chicken, Tandoori Chicken, Palak Paneer, and Naan.  I say don't sleep on any potatoes and califlower, or okra, that you see.

And if you shop at Trader Joe's, I'd try these :

These have I think the best taste of their Indian entrees - they're something like Hot Pockets with spicy vegetables on the inside.  Opinion is split on these, but I love them and would recommend this as an example of a strong taste, that might grow on you.

For deserts, rice pudding is always good and these little Gulab Jamun balls are my wife's favorite - they taste like little honey-drenched hush puppies.

If you get a chance to eat some little pastries known as Khaja or Jalebi, you might find them, as I do, to be as often as not the best tasting thing in the world.

In summary, it's arguably the best tasting food in the world, and they particularly make the most out of vegetables.  It's possible to cook many of the dishes, but they take some time and you do run the risk of getting yellow tumeric stains in your kitchen or dining room; I've decided over time to leave Indian cooking to the professionals.

 

Purpose of this Page

The idea here is to pass down some quick thoughts about why some of the things that I love are lovable.  Along with tips on where, in this modern world of connected information and convenience, one could best start exploring these things further in my humble opinion.