You Need
December Dozens 1
Our Christmas present to you! How to spend your twelve days of Christmas. Ideas from a dozen people on favourite films, books, CDs, DVDs and games. Martin Littler begins…
I wish I had never seen Jack Nicholson in
As Good As It Gets. Then I could see this wonderful funny touching film
for the first time again this Christmas. I feel the same about Dave Matthews
Listener Supported great on CD, brilliant on DVD. Also "Notes from a
Small Island" by Bill Bryson. Some people will not have seen listened or
read any of these things. Lucky them. I have asked around for eleven more
recommendations to help you enjoy Christmas 2000.
Cheryl Volkman, CEO of AbleNet is a bit of a US style icon and was bound to come up with some good stuff. She took my recommendation for Dave Matthews and gave me Outside in the Redwoods by Kenny Loggins in return. I have got this DVD on order Cheryl. Her book The Killer Angels has already arrived. This Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Michael Shaara is about the American Civil War. Cheryl's recommendation for your Christmas viewing is Heart and Souls.
Terry
Johnson, CEO of Mayer Johnson in San Diego, is an anglophile. I used to
scour Boots to feed his voracious appetite for Wallace and Gromit
paraphernalia. Terry recommends the Moody Blues and Herman's Hermits (Yes -
Herman's Hermits!). He likes Yorkshire based films like Little Voice and
Brassed Off. (Both have big stars like Pete Postlethwaite, Ewan McGregor
and Michael Caine). Most intriguingis Terry's "favorite comedian: Gallagher -
not just a fruit smasher". I am definitely going to follow this one up.
Nigel Wallace manages our
information department: that's exhibitions, consultancy and training. He is on
the road a lot so music is important. He recommends that, if you don't know
them already, you try Van Morrison with Back on Top, John Lee Hooker
with The Healer and Leonard Cohen's I'm Your Man.
If you get
the chance to take in a live show, Nigel really enjoyed Ghost Dances from
Ramberts Dance company. Our other "roadie" Melanie Jones chooses
Beyond Skin by Nitin Sawhney. She says this CD is "Fab". It is on my
Christmas play list.
Any choice by Arjan Khalsa, CEO of IntelliTools is going to be worth a watch. So try King of Masks. Arjan says it is "a brilliant tale about the rough edges of an alternative family's life in modern yet rugged China. The family is an aging street artist and the child he adopts. The street artists craft is to rapidly, almost magically, change the paper mask that covers his face. Somehow, he can flip between dozens of masks in a minute".
Trish
Hornsey, our Development Director, always has a book on the go. Current
favorite is Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks. Musical favorite is still Joni
Mitchell with Blue remember 'Green' and 'My Old Man' - I can hear the
voice now.
Helen Melhuish (responsible for
managing this site and much, much, more) is reading the same book as I am:
The English - A Portrait of a People by Jeremy Paxman. As she says, it
is a funny and thoughtful look at the attitude of being English.
Remember Keith and Candice
Marie in Mike Leigh's Nuts in May? Tim Adshead's DVD
recommendation brought back painfully sharp memories in a 70's film about the
type of English folk who drive a Morris Minors and wear woolly hats. Tim, who
does our technical support, (and looks sort of cultured) has
Innervisions - Stevie Wonder - as his recommended CD and The Remains
of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro as his book.
Helen Carr, our Finance
Director, does not want me to mention Westlife's Coast to Coast because
"that would make me look sad!" Your secret is safe with us Helen. She would
like you to try David Gray's White Ladder and Coldplay's
Parachutes. As a good read Helen recommends Once in a House on
Fire by Andrea Ashworth (Manchester in the 70s) and Sophie's World
by Jostein Gaarder. On video Helen would like you to watch Toy Story 2
which she says is even better than the first and the second series of the
The Royle Family - a very British comedy series set in
Manchester.
Alison Thorpe who
handles our travel, exhibition organisation and credit control recommends
Who Wants to be a Millionaire as a board game or a video game for the
Sony Playstation.
Microsoft's
Midtown Madness is the choice of John Todd of Photoshere -
Britain's leading photographer of sausages (really). John also does the
wonderful shots we use for our catalogue covers and many of the product and
user shot inside each catalogue. On CD he goes for Back in the Day from
Courtney Pine and Arundhati Roy's God of Small Things as his recommended
read. On DVD he is emphatic: "There can only be one film to watch - Ridley
Scott's Blade Runner the director's cut in widescreen.
I have just borrowed the
Blade Runner DVD from Roger Bates our Information Director and
will be settling down to watch it with my own final recommendation: a glass of
Laphroaig single Islay malt whisky. Cheers!
Martin Littler
December Dozens 2 - best selling
access devices of 2000
December Dozens 3 -
best selling software of 2000