My Wish List
This is mostly so I can keep track of the things I want. Is this a good thing? One could argue that if I forget about it, I don’t really need it, and so I should let things fall off my list by falling out of the forefront of my thoughts.
Well, that’s great, but I’m going to put things on this list that I keep coming back to wishing I’d already obtained, because I could really use it right now. That sorta thing.
Except the movies section. In there, I plan to list movies that I’d really like to own. That’s the sort of thing that one can forget without much disappointment later, but then I’d be missing out either by never having seen a particular movie or by not being able to go back and watch it again -- or even introduce someone new to it!
Gosh, I’m just so thoughtful, ain’t I?
Misc
(Perhaps these items might make good gifts... :)
Photography
- Equipment
- Studio flash system (2000 Ws or so)
- Nikon 105mm f/2.8D AF Micro-Nikkor
- Chemistry
- 1 gallon / 4 liter glass graduate
- glass stirring rods
- Darkroom supplies
- electronic timer (for enlarger / general-purpose)
- Post-darkroom supplies
Movies
My preferred formats are Laserdisc and DVD; magnetic tapes (video casettes) wear out relatively quickly.
For some time, I was not convinced that there’s a real advantage to DVDs, other than the smaller (easer-to-handle) physical form factor.
Since then, I have discovered one definite advantage to DVDs: on a wide-screen television monitor, you can get higher resolution using an anamorphic transfer. That way, you can then just stretch the image horizontally to fill the screen. With the "letterbox" technique used on laserdiscs (and some DVDs), you have to zoom in on the image, losing vertical lines of resolution. Of course, this technique could be used just as effectively on laserdiscs, but it isn’t.
On the other hand, there are some really bad DVD pressings out there, replete with MPEG artifacts that severely detract from the movie. Of course, there are also superb DVD transfers.
- Real Genius
- Devil’s Advocate, with Charlize Theron and Keanu Reeves
- Bandits (the one about the Sleepover Bandits -- very funny)
- "Three Colors Trilogy" by Krzysztof Kieslowski; White, Blur, Red -- apparently "White" is the weakest (or most light-hearted) of the three, but still very watchable. The others are supposed to be very good. "The 3 movies are supposed to have some correlation with the tri-color flag and ’Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite’. I thought blanc was liberte, rouge was egalite, and bleu fraternite."
I also should pick up these DVD box sets of really decent television shows, recently released:
- Stargate: SG1 (seasons 1 and 2)
- Babylon 5 (at least seasons 1-4)
- South Park
- Monty Python’s Flying Circus (the complete "mega-set")
- and also probably Monty Python Live and The Life of Monty Python
I’ve also been told I should see these movies, but they sound more like rentals than movies to own. Still, I don’t have a better place to put this list, so here they are:
- Galaxina (a bad, bad movie, but worth seeing)
- Orgasmo
- Phantoms -- mediocre movie from which "Gods have nothing to fear" line is sampled
- Going all the Way (unrated version) -- mediocre coming-of-age film with great cast assets
Books
I guess this is similar to the movies section. I might not necessarily remember all the books I’ve come across that I might want, and it’d be a shame to miss out.
Text
- Beyond the Big Bang, by Paul A. LaViolette (ISBN: 0892814578) (may or may not be any good, but sounds interesting)
- Handbook of Applied Cryptography, by Alfred J. Menezes, Paul C. Van Oorschot, Scott A. Vanstone (ISBN: 0849385237)
Photography
- Patrick Demarchelier: Forms, by Patrick Demarchelier (ISBN: 0847821609)
- Patrick Demarchelier: Photographs, by Patrick Demarchelier (ISBN: 0821225146)
- Skin, by Laurent Elle Badessi (ISBN: 3908163145)
- Nude Body Nude, by Howard Schatz (ISBN: 0060195525)
And Amazon thinks I’d also like My Wife, by Petter Hegre (ISBN: 3908163285) and Michel Comte : Kontraste/Contrasts Portfolio, by Michel Comte (ISBN: 3570191656).