3FLM!
3FLM? Qu’est que c’est?
I’m trying to be a myth. Give us cash!
No, it’s Three-Favorite-Living Meme. And, everybody up! It’s audience participation time. Subscribe! One point for answering an existing category, one point for proposing a new category, and an extra point for doing the two simultaneously. And eat one hat for every mistake you realize you made.
Example: Three-Favorite-Living Directors:
- Danny Boyle
- David Fincher
- Quentin Tarantino
3FL Novelists:
- David Mitchell
- Neal Stephenson
- David Foster Wallace
3FL Film Actors (male)
- Robert DeNiro
- Ralph Fiennes
- Edward Norton
3FL Comedians:
- Craig Ferguson
- Eddie Izzard
- Graham Norton
3FL Guitarists:
- Jerry Cantrell
- Tom Morello
- John Petrucci
15 points to me. On to you!
Email subscription
October 29th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
3FL Footballers:
18 points
October 30th, 2007 at 10:43 am
Three-Favorite-Living Directors:
1. Christopher Nolan
2. Brad Bird
3. Michel Gondry
3FL Novelists:
1. Cormac McCarthy
2. Neal Stephenson
3. Richard Adams
3FL Film Actors (male)
1. Stephen Rea
2. Gabriel Byrne
3. Simon Pegg
3FL Comedians:
1. George Carlin
2. Stephen Fry
3. Christopher Guest
3FL Guitarists:
1. “Fast” Eddie Clark
2. The Colonel (Zach Shipps)
3. Jack White
October 30th, 2007 at 10:44 am
All three of my novelists should thank their lucky stars that Vonnegut recently died, or one of them (I’m not sure who) wouldn’t make the list.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:00 am
3FL Megafauna
1.) Elephant
2.) Giant Squid
3.) Polar Bear
3FL Philosophers
1.) Jesus (ZING!)
2.) Martha Nussbaum
3.) Douglas Hofstadter
3FL Titles
1.) Night of the Living Dead
2.) Martha Stewart Living
3.) Livin(g) on the Edge
October 30th, 2007 at 11:52 am
David Foster Wallace has written my two all-time favorite novels, but can you really be considered a novelist when you NEVER WRITE A FUCKING NOVEL? It’s been ten years, Wallace. Get the lead out.
My other two favorite living novelists are, uh, David Mitchell and Neal Stephenson, with Cloud Atlas third on that list of all-time favorite novels.
It’s especially interesting that each of his (Mitchell’s) novels is so very different (well… two of them cover similar territory, but that’s mostly a form rather than content thing). I picked up Cloud Atlas thanks to Booker nomination, tore through it, immediately read Ghostwritten and Number9Dream (which is notable for being, perhaps, the best Haruki Murakami book ever written), fidgeted impatiently until Black Swan Green came out, read it in like a day-and-a-half, and am now fidgeting more and more waiting until 2009 at the earliest.
But for the record: hey, D.F. Wallace: five novels in 10 years is an acceptable pace. Get on it.
I’ve read the Stephenson canon as well, excepting The Big U, which I attempted to read and couldn’t get through. It’s not very good, sadly, and I can understand why he has disowned it. I also haven’t read the (what appear to be) airport novels he’s coauthored (pseudonymously, I think).
Directors are harder. Vying for places in the top 3 are P.T. Anderson, Fincher, Gilliam, and Nolan. Yikes.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
I was going to do philosophers, too, but it was too hard. But it would probably be:
1. Patricia Churchland
2. Daniel Dennett
3. Douglas Hofstadter
October 31st, 2007 at 12:14 am
I’ve thought about something clever to say, but really, those are my 3FL Megafauna too, Bob Mike. Only, I’d alphabetize them.
Wait, you did that. So I have nothing useful to add.
October 31st, 2007 at 9:45 am
3FL Philosophers
1. Rousseau
2. Locke
3. Sawyer
October 31st, 2007 at 11:44 am
Sorry, Dave I got lost halfway through your list.
Seriously, though, I have a Contract here that says you will paint my fence. And pay me for it. With money. Don’t worry, it doesn’t rot. Someone else can have it later, say, when the DVDs come out.
November 6th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
Can I add Wolfgang Petersen and David Cronenberg to my top three favorite directors? And, holy shit, the former is doing Ender’s Game!
November 7th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
I want to love Wolfgang Petersen again, but the only movies he’s made in the last ten years are Air Force One, The Perfect Storm, Troy and Poseidon. Having not seen The Perfect Storm, I’ll be generous and assume that it’s good (everything that I’ve heard about it suggests that it is, anyhow). Even doing that, though, the guy is only batting .250 for the decade.
This does not fill me with hope that he can manage to bring a text like Ender’s Game to the screen effectively.
November 7th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
Das Boot + Neverending Story + In the Line of Fire = free pass from me.
In any case, though, I saw all four of the films you’ve listed, and while they all suffered to some degree from flawed screenwriting, none suffered IMHO from poor directing.