Rhino Ramblings

Rhino by john Lennon
(yes – you read correctly. John Lennon designed this Rhino)

So I could be accused of taking advantage of Oscar night to write a time relevant blog, but while I have actually been pondering this blog’s theme for awhile, the coincidence of Oscar night just struck me when I started writing.  And really, this would have been more time relevant in Jan when I put together my lists for the year.  Instead my blogs mirrored the rather (very) difficult past few months and while the difficulties still weigh heavily on me and I had considered several much more personal and/or darker topics, I decided that I and you kind readers out there deserved a break.  So a blog on how I decide what books to read, movies to watch, music to listen to.  It is all about the critics of the world.  In late Dec or early Jan (although this year for music I did not do so till the end of Feb – see previous remarks about the past few months of my life) I survey or use surveys – specifically metacritic – to capture what the critics think were good(?), worthwhile(?), or maybe just weird art media from the past year. I used question marks because I have to doubt some of the tastes out there particularly for movies.  But let’s start with books.  For last year I used top 10 lists from 19 sources (Wash. Post, NY Times, Vulture, Oprah, Slate, People, etc). I track how often a book shows up and then sort accordingly.  I then cut off around 20 books.  In 2021 this gave me 24 books with 3 or more top ten listings and for this year (using 2022 lists) it is 23 books on at least 5 lists.  I use this approach as with the other categories – not because the critics are always right but I end up with a variety that has interesting facets that caught someone’s eye.  I tend to get a good smattering of fiction and non-fiction.  A couple of years ago I read a bio of US Grant.  I would never have self-selected such a long book about an old historical figure but ended up finding it fascinating.  I recently finished The Furrows by Namwali Serpell (the book apparently was also on Barrack Obama’s must read list).  It is about grief and I can understand why it was a critic’s hit (on half of the lists I used) but I would not say it was one I would recommend. Still happy I read it. I am finishing Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin.  For me a more interesting read about a set of friends in the 90’s/00’s who created video games and an array of relationships amongst them. I have also recently read a non-fiction, An Immense World by Ed Yong, which is about the diverse and broad array of senses (many more than our common five) in nature.  Likewise, for movies, I use metacritic which compiles the top ten lists of almost every critic out there.  Unlike books, I do not restrict my list, I take every movie on anyone’s list and put them on my “to watch” list.  That is how I ended up with 1200 movies still to watch and over that many that I have already watched.  Unlike books, which are mostly reasonable and often good, some movies befuddle me as to why anyone would recommend them; while others are quirky or weird (I just watched A Love Story  – very quirky with really only one main character and a couple of minor side characters. )  Alot if not all popular films make the list – this is why I have watched the John Wick series.  I also end up with a lot (I mean a lot) of foreign films.  And then there is music.  This year for the first time I also used metacritic for a melding of the film approach (surveying all the critics) with the book approach (limiting myself to the top 50).  I then go old school and use the library (which allows selection from any Maryland library) to obtain CDs and then add   into my song library.  Today I added 6 CDs.  Nick Cave was the only artist I knew.  The mix includes Pop, Latin, Rap, Indie, Soundtrack and Folk.  This has given me 16,322 songs that I could listen to for 45 days without stop and without repetition. And it is a variety that I can now say even includes Opera (my last hold out genre).  So, why?  I crave variety.  An eclectic mix that can surprise me, with many delights mixed in with some WTF’s and rarely but occasional real duds.  Fun.  And yes, I do throw in some non-critic’s based choices particularly with books and music as I do have favorites I seek out.  So I will finish up this blog after having watched 4 movies this weekend and am now listening to the second of the 6 new albums.  Critically speaking, you are all welcome to critique and rate my critic’s choice approach to arts and life.