 | Under the Tuscan Sun (Widescreen Edition)
Buy new: $11.99 / Used from: $2.68 Every now and then I find a movie that makes me completely, utterly, blissfully happy, and sends me out of the theater on a cloud of euphoria. This was one of those movies.
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 | The Dana Owens Album by Queen Latifah
Buy new: $10.97 / Used from: $3.00 Silky 70's-style R & B mixed with some contemporary jazz; what's not to love? All hail The Queen (with apologies to Aretha).
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 | White Oleander (Oprah's Book Club) by Janet Fitch
Buy new: $10.07 / Used from: $0.01 Just finished reading this stunning book after loving the movie for years. The prose is some of the most gorgeous I've had the pleasure of reading in quiet awhile, and the novel fleshes out some characters and incidents trimmed for the film.
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 | Elliott Yamin by Elliott Yamin
Buy new: $11.98 / Used from: $1.68 The was the first CD I bought by an "American Idol" vet (I'll get to Kelly Clarkson at some point), because I love his blue-eyed soul voice and his obvious love of performing. This doesn't have Hathaway's "Little Ghetto Boy"--which is transcendent when Yamin performs it in concert--but it's still a solid R & B/pop confection.
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 | CSA: The Confederate States of America
Buy new: $16.49 / Used from: $5.99 Jaw-dropping "mockumentary" that posits what would've happened had the South won the Civil War. The fake "commercials" alone airing during the documentary are worth the purchase price.
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 | Rebel Without a Cause (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Buy used from: $9.47 Showed this to some kids in juvenile hall recently. Aside from some clothing styles and the mostly-white cast, it's amazing how little has changed for troubled youths in 50 years.
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 | Hide Nothing by Matt Alber
Buy new: $14.99 / Used from: $2.95 Magnificent, heartbreaking, rapturous, gorgeous, spellbinding; all adjectives describing the song and video "End of the World." Oh, the rest of the CD is pretty good, too.
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 | Scrubs - The Complete First Season
Buy new: $20.99 / Used from: $9.19 Let us now praise John C. McGinley: a man whose Dr. Cox is in many ways a terrible human being, but a brilliant doctor. Bonus points for the line "...and my GOD, Fiona!" to Braff's J.D.
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 | Goodnight Bush: A Parody by Gan Golan
Buy new: $10.79 / Used from: $2.66 It's funny now because he's gone.
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 | Follies (Highlights from the 1971 Original Broadway Cast) by Stephen Sondheim
Buy new: $10.99 / Used from: $3.63 Sondheim's masterful examination of lost dreams and middle-aged regret, swinging from black humor to bittersweet sorrow to seething rage. The highlight? Yvonne DeCarlo's weary but triumphant "I'm Still Here."
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 | 2008 Grammy Nominees by Various Artists
Buy new: $14.99 / Used from: $5.95 A great sampler of current-ish music, with standout tracks from Maroon 5, Feist, Christina Aguilera, Amy Winehouse, Kanye West, Nelly Furtado, the Plain White T's, etc.
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 | True Blood: The Complete First Season (HBO Series)
Buy new: $54.99 / Used from: $18.88 Over-the-top but addictive, this New Orleans-based vampire soap has plenty of bite to it. Not for the squeamish or prudish; all others will be (dark, disturbing) heaven, especially if they've outgrown "Twilight."
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 | Milk
Buy new: $12.49 / Used from: $3.24 Sean Penn is brilliant, but the entire cast is perfection in Gus Van Sant's spot-on look at the 70's San Francisco political scene. A sequel with Emile Hirsch's Cleve Jones creating the AIDS quilt, please?
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 | Darkside Zodiac by Stella Hyde
Buy new: $14.36 / Used from: $2.94 Laugh-out-loud examination of the "dark side" of one's astrological sign, with special attention to foibles, failings, serial killers and dictators. It's as if Jeanne Dixon was brainwashed by the Sedaris siblings.
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 | My Romance by Carly Simon
Buy new: $6.99 / Used from: $0.37 A glowing, seductive CD that's as warm and luxurious as a White Russian in front of the fire. Understated orchestrations, honeyed vocals; what more could one want from this epitome of romance?
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 | Free to Be...You and Me (The 35th Anniversary Edition, Hardcover) by Marlo Thomas and Friends
Buy new: $13.57 / Used from: $0.01 Generation X, your childhood is calling. Pick it up, and be pleasantly reminded of this feminist/humanist milestone compiled by Marlo Thomas, who may have very quietly changed the face of America.
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 | Doubt
Buy new: $18.99 / Used from: $3.40 Crackerjack acting and a strong feel for time and place helps make this gripping drama go to the front of the pack. Most fascinating aspect? Philip Seymour Hoffman as a priest who probably doesn't even conciously realize his own heart.
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 | Mean Girls (Special Collector's Edition)
Buy new: $12.49 / Used from: $1.58 Lindsay Lohan gives the best performance of its kind since Winona Ryder in "Heathers" in this comedy of high school mores. Sharp writing, great acting, never preachy and even wise.
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 | I Saw You...: Comics Inspired by Real-Life Missed Connections
Buy new: $10.36 / Used from: $4.49 Oh come on, you know you've read them at least once in an alternative weekly. Now see what a bunch of talented artists do with a premise that hasn't had a good workout since "Desperately Seeking Susan." Funny, poignant, and thoughtful.
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 | Folkzinger by Christine Lavin
Buy new: $17.98 / Used from: $7.00 The composer/performer of "I Love Hillary (But I Voted For Obama)" mixes up another brew of hilarity and trenchant satire.
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 | Cabaret: The New Broadway Cast Recording (1998 Broadway Revival) by John Kander
Buy new: $8.99 / Used from: $2.95 "Hello, darlings!" Liza Minnelli may have stronger vocals, but the (sadly late) Natasha Richardson still creates a blousy, boozy Sally Bowles for the ages, with a tear hiding behind every line and lyric.
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