Vital
Signs, Personal Profile
Tony Polito
Places
Hard
to believe, looking back, but I had the pleasure of making more than two dozen
trips to Vegas over the last fifteen years.I don�t gamble that much, but there is plenty to do
there, that�s for sure !! Over those years, my steel trap mind collected more
information and trivia about Vegas than probably anyone in this state east of
I-95 (at least)!
I have lived in Georgia, Iowa, Nevada,
Music
Now
that I have SiriusXM
Radio and a MP3 plug in for my Zune, I don't play CDs in the car much
anymore ... who does � but when I did, I used to keep these two in the changer
ready to go: Spotlight
on Keely Smith and Best of Chet Baker
Sings.� Hey, it�s my lounge and I
will play my lounge music in it!� J��
Generally,
on SiriusXM, I am listening to Siriusly
Sinatra (SiriusXM
75), Smooth Jazz (SiriusXM 71), Classic Motown Soul (SiriusXM 53),
Adult Contemporary R&B (SiriusXM 51) & 80s Hits (SiriusXM 8).
That last channel is gonna sound sorta
like the spin at "519."
I
also � like lots of people these days � rely on Internet Radio. For that I use
a Logitech
Squeezebox at my desk. Most of the time, its crankin'
Martini in the Morning. Look
no further for the best programmed understanding of the genre. The other
pre-sets are KJUL Las Vegas, Music Of
Your LIfe, CBS 880 New York News,
WINS 1010 New York
News & KXNT
Las Vegas Talk/News Radio.
I have been listening to
more classical music of late (which I did a good bit of way back in my
undergraduate years). My favorite piece of classical music is The Albinoni Adagio; I was introduced to it via the
soundtrack of the James Caan film Rollerball (1975). Now I use the
CD changer to park several of those �most relaxing� classical compilations, for
when driving is just too stressful !!
Here a few of my other CDs;
click through to hear sample tracks:
Louis
Armstrong, Basia, Tony Bennett, George Benson, Dave Brubeck, Jos� Carreras, Nat King Cole, Miles Davis, Celine
Dion, Dr. John, Sheena Easton, Enya,
Ella Fitzgerald,
Billie Holiday,
Bob James, Elton John, Kenny G, Carole King, Earl Klugh, Diana Krall, Selena, Sergio Mendes, Dean Martin, Joni Mitchell, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Linda Ronstadt, David Sanborn, Boz
Scaggs, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington.
Over time, I have been
partial to the work of:
- Nick
Drake � try Bryter Layter or his
compilation, Way
to Blue
- Astrud Gilberto � try Verve Jazz
Masters 9
- Carly
Simon � try the recent Film Noir, My Romance,
or the 1970s compilation, The Best of Carly
Simon
Here
is an odd duck: On a single CD -- from the Beatles' producer --
Here's
a good one, oft overlooked. Sammy Davis, Jr. Sings, Laurindo Almeida Plays.�
Sammy did this 1966 studio set of ballads with only one microphone and
one brilliant Brazilian guitarist.
Btw,
For your perusal, here is Rolling Stone magazine�s list of the top 500 albums of all time.
Books & Magazines
Currently I subscribe to only
four magazines: Our State, Consumer Reports
and Atomic
Ranch.
A
couple of readings a while back that I found interesting were Prisoner's Dilemma:
John Von Neumann, Game Theory and the Puzzle of the Bomb and Powershift:
Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century. In
general, I tend towards such serious non-fiction.
In the
business book genre, here are a few books that reflect the 'new paradigm in
business thinking' from which students of business could benefit:
- Dr. Deming:
The American who Taught the Japanese About Quality
- Maverick: The
Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace
- The Goal: A
Process of Ongoing Improvement
- Leadership is
an Art
- The Seven
Habits of Highly Effective People
- The Death of
Economics
- Rethinking
America: Innovative Strategies and Partnerships in Business and Education
- Built to Last:
Successful Habits of Visionary Companies
- The Death of
Competition: Leadership and Strategy in the Age of Business Ecosystems
- The Age of
Unreason
- Relevance
Lost: The Rise and Fall of Management Accounting
I�m always interesting in
�contrarian� literature. Here are a few other such works that I looked at a
while back:
- Rare Earth:
Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe
- Scientific Literacy and the Myth of the Scientific Method
- Impossibility: The Limits of Science and the Limits of Science
Movies
Here are a few �different�
and/or independent movies I�ve added to my collection:
Rollerball
(1975), Hard Eight, Hoffa,
Network, Norma
Rae, Roger & Me, The
Center of the World, The Insider, The
Straight Story.
Some other movies of
various genre that I find to be notable for one reason or another:
1984 (1984), Amadeus,
American Beauty, American
Dream, Atlantic City, Back to School, Brazil,
Breakfast at Tiffany's,
Casino, Contact, Cool Hand Luke, Cry Freedom, Eyes
Wide Shut, Goodfellas, Groundhog Day, House
of Games, JFK,
Leaving Las Vegas, Local Hero, Man
on the Moon, Mindwalk,
Once Upon a Time in America,
Ocean�s Eleven (1960), Pleasantville, Scent
of a Woman, Silkwood,
Spartacus (1960), The
Butcher's Wife, The
Fountainhead, The Handmaid�s Tale, THX 1138, The World According to Garp, Trees Lounge, Unforgiven, Wall Street.
Here are a number of more
popular foreign films I have seen and recommend� � and a number of which I now own:
Au hasard
Balthazar, Belle De Jour, Bob
Le Flambeur, Cinema Paradiso, Fahrenheit 451, Farewell
My Concubine, Ikiru,
Indochine,
Jean de Florette,
La Belle Noiseuse
(The Beautiful Troublemaker), La Sir�ne du Mississippi (Siren of the Mississippi, Mississippi
Mermaid), Like Water
for Chocolate, Manon des
sources, Monsieur Hire, Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud,
Nikita, Raise the Red Lantern, Solaris,
The Hairdresser's Husband,
The Last Emperor, The
Seven Samurai, The
Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Vanishing, Un Coeur En Hiver
(A Heart in Winter), Xizao (Shower), Y Tu Mama Tambien.
My first recommendations
for light romantic comedy:
Continental Divide, Joe Versus the Volcano, Manhattan, Moonstruck,
Rare Birds.
Here are a couple of truly
fascinating murder mysteries based on actual events:
����������� Echoes in the Darkness and The
Thin Blue Line.
All time favorites?�
2001: A
Space Odyssey, Apocalypse
Now, The Godfather,
The Natural, The Shawshank
Redemption, Tucker: The Man and His Dream,
Wild at Heart and Vertigo. Each argues a truth
with powerful eloquence.
I
recommend that everyone should see the classic �blonde� Hitchcock films: Marnie, North by Northwest,
Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo. The complex and
meticulous symbolism Hitchcock wove into these films through the dualities, the
colors, the flowers, the jewelry, the costuming, the �flawed� male versus the
icy blonde � it�s all just very fascinating. I discovered that Fran�ois Truffaut �borrowed�
large parts of the storyline and imagery of Vertigo � and then threw in
some Marnie for good
measure � to develop La Sir�ne du Mississippi �
but even in casting Catherine
Deneuve as the cool blonde, Truffaut�s product simply didn�t measure up to
Hitch quality.
I
suspect that a lot of people don�t realize how many foreign films have been
remade for American audiences. Here�s just a few examples:
Blow
Out (1981), starring John
Travolta � borrowed its basic storyline from Blowup
(1966), directed by Michelangelo
Antonion
Breathless (1982), starring Richard Gere
� is a remake of Breathless (1960), directed by Fran�ois Truffaut
Basic Instinct (1992), starring Sharon Stone � was heavily
influenced by The Fourth Man (1983), both directed
by Paul Verhoeven
City of Angels (1998),
starring Nicolas Cage � is a
remake of Wings of Desire (1987)
Dark Water (2005) ... is a remake of the 2004 Japanese film Honogurai Mizu No Soko Kara
Fistful
of Dollars (1964), starring Clint
Eastwood � is a remake of Yojimbo (1961),
directed by Akira Kurosawa
Insomnia (2002), starring Al Pacino
and set in Alaska � is a remake of Insomnia (1997), set in northern
Norway
Original Sin (2001) � is a remake of La Sir�ne du Mississippi (1969), directed
by Fran�ois Truffaut
Point of No Return (1993), starring Bridget Fonda � is a remake of Nikita
(1990), directed by Luc Besson
Scent of a Woman (1992), starring Al Pacino
� is a remake of Profumo di Donna (1974).
Solaris (2002), starring George Clooney � is a remake of Solyaris (1972), directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
Shall We Dance (2004) starring Richard Gere
� is a remake of the 1996 Japanese film Shall
we dansu?
Star Wars (1977) borrowed its basic storyline from The
Hidden Fortress (1958), directed by Akira Kurosawa
Sweet Charity (1969) � is based on Fredrico Fellini�s Nights
of Cabiria (1957).
The Magnificent Seven (1960), starring Yul Brynner, Steve
McQueen & Charles Bronson
� is a remake of Seven Samurai (1954), directed by Akira Kurosawa
The Man Who Loved Women (1983), starring Burt Reynolds � is a remake of L� Homme Qui Aimait Les
Femmes (1977), directed by Fran�ois
Truffaut
The Ring (2002) � is a remake of the Japanese film Ringu
(1998)
The Vanishing (1993), starring Jeff Bridges & Kiefer Sutherland � is a remake
of Spoorloos (1988)
Unfaithful (2002), starring Richard Gere
� is a remake of La Femme Infid�le
(1969), directed by Claude Chabrol
Vanilla Sky (2001) starring Tom Cruise � is a remake of Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes)
(1997)
�[ Just in case you�re interested in broadening
your knowledge of movies, here are links to several �all time best� movie lists
� AFI�s Top 100 � IMDB�s Top 250 � Roger
Ebert�s Top 100 ]