 | Greatest Hits by Pam Tillis
Buy used from: $1.75 I went through a brief country music phase in the late 90's; Tillis was one of the artists whom I really liked. She has honey-dripping vocals over whiskey-sour lyrics. I especially love "Cleopatra Queen of Denial" "Maybe It Was Memphis" and "The River and the Highway."
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 | Soul Singer by Ledisi
Buy used from: $49.95 A little jazz, a little hip-hop, and a whole lot of talent. I raved about her track on "We All Love Ella," but her range is much, much broader than that. ("Can't Find No Peace In A Cup Of Coffee" is a highlight.)
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 | You Ain't Got No Easter Clothes by Laura Love
Buy new: $9.98 / Used from: $1.48 Love's original is a rootsy, bluesy trip; this one is a little more character-driven. The title track has the immortal line, "His big dumb friend looks just like Lurch."
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 | Pan's Labyrinth
Buy new: $7.49 / Used from: $1.94 It's hard to find movies that are really scary that aren't splatter gross-outs; this has its violent moments due to the depiction of fascist Spain, but overall it's the atmosphere of creeping menace mixed with dark fairy-tale elements that really grabs the viewer. The housekeeper/spy completely rocks.
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 | Dusk by The The
Buy used from: $0.01 I'd heard OF The The, but I hadn't heard them till I went to a Depeche Mode concert where they were the opening act. I love this eerie, sweaty, skin-crawling CD, especially "Sodium Light Baby."
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 | Bound
Buy new: $9.99 / Used from: $5.50 Everyone was crazy about hyperstylized gangster pictures in the wake of Quentin Tarantino, but for my money this is the sexiest, trickiest, most enjoyable who'll-get-away-with-it thriller of the past 20 years or so. Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly give the performances of their lives. Love the murder scene in a pool of white paint.
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 | Zipless by Vanessa Daou
Buy new: $21.98 / Used from: $2.62 All you have to know is that this is a pop/jazz album based on the writings of Erica Jong ("Fear of Flying"). While you try to wrap your mind around that, listen to "The Black Forest" and "The Long Tunnel Of Wanting You."
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 | The Notebook (New Line Platinum Series)
Buy new: $11.49 / Used from: $3.98 I don't go for overtly romantic, gooey movies designed to blatantly punch one's buttons, but I have to say that Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling are stellar in this tearjerker.
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 | One Cell in the Sea by A Fine Frenzy
Buy new: $8.99 / Used from: $2.95 This chick opened for Rufus Wainwright at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, and I really liked her dreamy, piano-centric pop against a dissonant landscape. She reminds me of a less-neurotic Tori Amos (if THAT'S not a loaded statement).
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 | Identity
Buy new: $10.99 / Used from: $1.14 A reworking of Agatha Christie's thrilled "And Then There Were None," but updated to the slasher era with a dollop of psychological horror. Some serious jolts mixed in with fine acting, and a double-twist ending that will leave you with the jitters for days.
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 | Cirque du Soleil: Quidam
Buy used from: $11.99 The first time I saw Cirque Du Soleil was when "Allegria" toured, and I was frankly not that impressed. I got dragged to "Quidam," and it is now the standard by which I measure all other Cirque shows. I don't generally dig circuses, but this changed my mind forever.
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 | The Making of the American Conservative Mind: National Review and Its Times by Jeffrey Hart
Buy new: $18.00 / Used from: $9.99 I try to read National Review on a regular basis because I like to know what the right wing in America is up to. With the passing of William F. Buckley, it seems appropriate to give a shout-out to a conservative who was witty and reasonable, even if I think some of his basic ideas were wrongheaded.
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 | Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe by Edgar Allan Poe
Buy new: $15.61 / Used from: $4.98 I hadn't read Poe since 9th grade ("The Tell-Tale Heart" "The Cask Of Amontillado"), but this year I wound up teaching "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Pit and the Pendulum," and I've decided that I need to read more of his stuff. He's verbose and occasionally macabre, but fascinating if you're willing to make the effort.
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 | A.I. - Artificial Intelligence (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition)
Buy new: $8.99 / Used from: $1.95 I tend to think Kubrick's movies are cold, lifeless, and unpleasant, but mixing his misanthropic vision with Steven Spielberg's empathy created this flawed masterpiece. The middle drags, but the first and final thirds are frequently amazing.
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 | Metallica by Metallica
Buy new: $14.49 / Used from: $3.84 I was on a bulletin board a few years ago chatting with a friend who was posting some of the most amazing poetry I'd ever read; he then told me they were all Metallica lyrics. Who knew?! "Enter Sandman" is a twisted "Peter Pan" redo.
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 | Friday Night Lights: The Second Season
Buy new: $18.99 / Used from: $13.99 This is hands down one of the most brilliantly written and acted series on television. Yet I am SO glad I don't play football in a small conservative Texas town, where the residents make little gods out of coaches and high school boys--and then smash them.
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