Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with recommendations

Poetry recommendations

slab_lizard — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 12:20:37 -0800

Please recommend some recent poets to read, for someone (me) interested in exploring poetry for essentially the first time. By recent, I mean since, say, 1980.

Similar song to Christina Aguilera's Candyman

artifarce — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:51:50 -0800

Similar-in-style songs to Christina Aguilera's Candyman? I'm helping plan a wedding dance list, and this modern boogie is a lot of fun, but I don't want to be the one that drops "he makes my cherry pop" into this particular dance hall. In other words, it should be clean too. I've searched the "neoboogie" tag a bit on last.fm, but there's a lot of boring songs there to wade through. I want something hip, fast, and that would make both the old and young generations stand up for a little swing dancing. I'm not explicitly looking through music from the last 10 years, but it'd be preferable. Good covers are great too.

Blow my Mind

god particle — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:01:53 -0800

The world (and universe) is an incredible place, as I've learned from awesome series such as Planet Earth and the Universe. What are some other high-quality mindblowing box sets? Or even just a single eye-opening documentary? I just want to watch something and leave with the sensation of, wow, the world is a crazy/amazing place. I'm not looking for pseudoscience pieces such as What the Bleep Do We Know or "issue" documentaries that show how the people on this planet are insane or evil or suffering (though they are interesting). I'm really looking for things about the natural world and universe, such as the Elegant Universe.

London, Dublin, Cork, Here I come!

majikstreet — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 16:21:39 -0800

TravelFilter: Things to do in London, Dublin, Cork. Places to stay in Dublin and Cork. Indian Restaurant recommendations in London. General restaurant recommendations for either London, Dublin, or Cork I'll be going to London, Dublin, and Cork in August. Do you have any recommendations for things to do? Or places to stay in Dublin and Cork? I know that there is good Indian food to be eaten in London, but I don't want to just wander around trying to find food. Other restaurant recommendations also appreciated.

Recommendations for SF/Fantasy books that deal with "lost civilizations"

papercake — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:44:37 -0800

Recommend me some SF/Fantasy books that deal with "lost civilizations" I'm a sucker for stories with mysterious lost civilizations as the focus, or the backdrop. Can't get enough of 'em. I know that's a pretty general requirement and that they've become a kind of a SF/Fantasy cliché at this point, but what are people's favorite books that deal with lost civs?

For instance, I love Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs novels with the Martian technology strewn around all over the place. (Although am frustrated that we never find out more than we do about the Martians.)

Elantris was an interesting idea that, ultimately, fizzled to me.

Love the LOTR's deep history and, yes, have read the Silmarillion and love it as well.

So, Mefites, any suggestions?

Off the shelf HTPC recommendations?

MaxVonCretin — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:02:40 -0800

Does anyone have any recommendations on off-the-shelf WMC HTPCs? I've been searching high and low, and virtually all the information on the intertubes seems to be about building HTPCs. I know that's the more cost-effective route, but I just don't have the time. Here's what I'm itchin' for: - Stereo component form factor
- HD Recording Capable
- Oodles of storage & memory (min 1TB/4GB)
- Blu-Ray drive/ DVD-RW
- Integrated cable card
- Super-quiet! (perhaps liquid-cooled)
- On-board wi-fi
- Wireless remote/keyboard

I guess I like the idea of having a small touchscreen on the unit itself, thereby eliminating the need to turn on the big TV every time you want to change the music. But does anyone have any opinions on the relative merits of the touchscreen?

I've checked out the websites for VidaBox, VelocityMicro, Niveus, Alienware Hangar 18 - but don't really know anything about those brands. Anyone have any good experience with them - or can recommend others? I can't seem to find any comparison reviews for such off-the-shelf systems.

Any insights, suggestions much appreciated.

Permaculture for Rationalists?

gofargogo — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:23:52 -0800

GardenFilter: Gardening noob wants to start a permaculture garden, what to read? I've recently moved, and have now have a big yard. I'd love to grow a ton of tasty food, but I'd like to do it the most ecological/efficient way. What books, websites, resources should I be studying to get up to speed? Bonus points for references that don't spend a long time on the spiritual aspects of permaculture or organics.

Books on impact of miracles on Latin American politics?

Joakim Ziegler — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:59:21 -0800

I'm looking for recommendations on books on purported (modern) religious miracles in Latin America, and their impact on society and politics. For instance, the Virgin of Cuapa appeared to a man in Nicaragua during the civil war, and ordered him to "burn bad books", which was done, with "bad books" interpreted to mean Marxist literature.

In general, I'm interested in purported miracles leading to mass movements, political change, and societal impact. Additionally, if there are some really good books out there on the influence and impact of the Catholic Church on modern Latin American politics (big subject, I know), specifically as it relates to the Latin American right wing, and possibly the various "dirty wars", I'd also be interested.

Academic works are preferred, but more popular reporting works too. Prefereably books I can get on Amazon.

Purely psychosomatic

Bakuun — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:09:59 -0800

I fell in love with "Frontier Psychiatrist" by The Avalanches all over again this week. Can you recommend similar songs or artists, particularly with that amusing juxtaposition of voice samples as part of the track? There's a youtube video to that song available here.

Books that take place in Knoxville/East Tennessee?

timetoevolve — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:39:59 -0800

I'm looking for books, either fiction or non-fiction, that take place in Knoxville, Tennessee or other nearby places in East Tennessee. As happens every summer, I am missing my Southern homeland something fierce, and I would like to pepper my reading list with books that are set in Tennessee, preferably in Knoxville.

Some notes:

-I read A Death in the Family in high school, and Suttree is already on the list.
-I have no preference in genre, but I especially like memoirs, travel literature, and creative nonfiction (of the John McPhee variety).
-Since my tastes run more to non-fiction these days, some more fiction would be lovely.

Any recommendations?

Recommend a book - fiction or non-fiction- dealing with the uncertain, endless posibilities of life

rbf1138 — Fri, 30 May 2008 18:47:42 -0800

What should I read? Recommend a book (fiction or non-fiction), life affirming, something to be read after a heartbreak/letting go. Possibly involving fate/destiny, and the uncertainty/infinite possibilities of life.

Downtown Philadelphia Hot Spotss

priested — Thu, 29 May 2008 11:24:46 -0800

Philly-filter. One evening, mid-June, mid-week. Need watering hole recommendations for city center. Business trip and first time to Philly. Made reservations at Vetri. Any other spots that are a must to squeeze into an evening? Would love to see the range from dives to upscale. Also wondering about live music spots, preferably jazz (but not picky), also downtown. Thanks.

What are some good backpacks for petites (women's)?

jdruk — Thu, 08 May 2008 11:30:33 -0800

What are some good backpacks for petites (women's)? Hi all!

I'm having awful back problems from carrying a messenger bag with me everywhere, but when I put a normal backpack on my 5'1" body, I look like some sort of comic book turtle-villain.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a modern, stylish (not kids'!) backpack that is designed for a tiny person? Bonus points if it's under $75.

Any and all ideas much appreciated - Julia

Wrist Splints?

otherwordlyglow — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:17:19 -0800

Please recommend to me a less ugly and more comfortable wrist splint for carpal tunnel alleviation. I've had mild carpal tunnel in the past and it's back with a vengeance. It's mostly due (this time) to pregnancy (I'm 32 weeks) and it is at its worst at night. I'm tired of waking up every 45 minutes with numb and/or achy hands so I'd like to find some splints for both hands that I can wear while sleeping and probably during the day as well. I was given a pair by my doctor a few years ago but they're super ugly and old and should be replaced. They're the kind with the metal plate that runs parallel with your wrist to keep it in alignment with velcro straps to adjust. I've tried using the kind that are just basically an ace bandage wrapped around the wrist and they do nothing besides make things worse.

I have talked to the advice nurse today at my doctor's office and she recommends splints+ice and I also have a doctor's appointment scheduled for next week so I think I'm covered on the medical front. I just need some good ideas for the type of splints that people have found to be useful. Also any other recommendations for carpal tunnel relief would be appreciated but I don't think I can take NSAIDs.

Unhip to the hip hip hop

carbide — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 03:45:43 -0800

A rap education for an picky atheist feminist weaned on indie, punk and new wave - primarily music but books/essays would be good too. I'm finding lately that I really like listening to rap while working, but I know so little about it and could do with some recommendations. I'd love to have some kind of broad knowledge, and also to find some avenues worth exploring that might lead to stuff I love. Discovery by myself is fun but it's a bit aimless right now and it's too broad a question to be finding much help via Google - I didn't find a past question with the same scope, either.

Here's a bunch of background information:

- I really, really like Run DMC (especially 'It's Tricky') and Public Enemy, and have always loved how 'Rappers' Delight' sounds
- I know the Beastie Boys are typical overlap territory here but they irritate me
- Slick production doesn't do a whole lot for me
- I listen to indie, punk (hardcore and folk-punk), 60s garage, some country, some blues and bluegrass, and I'm tiptoeing into electronica. For reference, here's a recent muxtape.
- Crossover with those genres isn't really what I'm looking for, though
- I don't like reggae, smooth jazz, r&b, anything with slick female singing vocals
- I don't need it to line up idealogically 100% with me at all
- That said, proselytising or new ageyness reeeally turn me off

Thanks!

LA LOCAL MUSIC

klangklangston — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 10:55:27 -0800

LOS ANGELES LOCAL BANDS, recommend me. I used to cover local music in Ann Arbor. Now that I've moved to LA, I'd like to engage in some more blatant localism, to cop from JFA. I read the Weekly, City Pages, Onion and Record. I keep up with a couple of local blogs. Still, I want more, especially based on the WEST side, including West LA, Westwood, Santa Monica, Venice and Culver City.

Please tell me: Their name, where they're based, WHAT THEY SOUND LIKE, whether they have shows coming up, whether they have records out, WHETHER THEY HAVE FREE SAMPLE MUSIC UP ANYWHERE.

I tend to favor weirdo punk like No Age, Crystal Antlers, Underground Railroad to Candyland, as well as pop, hard rock, jazz (preferably freakout/skronk jazz), metal and rap. But the important part is that they're local and they're playing out, and, ideally, I don't have to drive for an hour to see them.

Romantic books that aren't necessarily romance or chick lit?

Xere — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:56:21 -0800

Recommend to me books with romantic relationships (not necessarily romance or chick lit) that I can sigh happily, wistfully over? Chick lit has this as a staple, BUT. The endings I've come across recently don't leave me with the weeklong glow of "Ah, excellent!" Also, most chick lit I've come across strikes me as mostly about designer shopping, or retellings of Bridget Jones.

Please, not paperbacks from the Romance Novels section with Fabio & Friends on the cover. Not VC Andrews getting me all hot and bothered and feeling dirty. Fresh stuff that isn't Danielle Steele, Barbara McCartland, and Co. If it's a physics textbook, then hey, let me know the ISBN.

Help me immerse myself into romance by proxy. (I know, I know, I'm lame and should just go out and date, forget all this book stuff. But this is all post-breakup and I don't care for real men right now.)

Thanks all!

Make a winelover's birthday wish come true!

n'muakolo — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:36:20 -0800

What can you tell me about buying one 1978 vintage wine? My boyfriend is turning 30 this year and is getting very into wine and I want to buy him a single bottle of wine from his birth year.

Some factors:
- He likes big, juicy west coast reds (or french or italian).
- I like them too, but don't particularly like wines with a lot of tannins.
- I don't want to spend more than $300, but I do want it to be special.
- I am in MD (apparently you can't receive wine by mail in MD), he is in FL but has no way to receive wine by mail. I could probably have wine sent to a friend in DC or VA. With some more trouble I could possibly find someone to receive a bottle of wine for him in FL.
-I have looked at vintage charts, and it looks like california cabs were good in 1978, but I'm not sure what other options I'd have.
-We would drink this in the next month or so, so it only has to be good until about 2008. Some of the reviews of california cabs I read about sounded like they would have passed their peak by about 2005. Does that matter?
- I have tried good local wine shops but they've told me they don't carry wines like this and they wouldn't order me one bottle.
- How do I find out the history of the bottle - i.e. if it's been through a fire/flood etc. How concerned should I be about this?

General advice & resources about choosing older wines and then actually finding them and buying ones that are not spoiled would be appreciated as would very specific advice per my factors.

Horummmm mmmmmuuuuuuuummmm oweeeeeeeeee horrrrrrrrrrrrr

Skyanth — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:41:31 -0800

I love listening to the groaning music of Mark Morgan (the Fallout soundtracks) and Lustmord (dark, dark ambient) while I read. I've been trying to find some similar music, but last.fm insists that Mark Morgan is like all other game soundtrack composers and Lustmord is akin to gothic wailing*. So I turn to you. What other artists make music with this grinding, eerie, screetchingly dark post-apocalyptic quality? * Nothing wrong with gothic wailing, just not when I'm reading.

Help introduce me to new indie music.

phyrewerx — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:00:09 -0800

Help introduce me to new indie music and any blogs that cover them. I really enjoy Canadian rock - works by The Weakerthan, Stars, Metric, the Most Serene Republic are constantly on my playlist. CBC Radio 3 is my online radio of choice. Could any one introduce me to blogs/sites that talk about this type of music elsewhere in the US or Europe? Pitchfork is a decent site, but it doesn't seem too accessible for quick browsing.

Additionally - my only source of learning about American indie/college rock was from the OC. Now that show is over, are there any good sources to expose oneself to bands like those or similar soundtracks? Last.fm's referral seems too vauge.

*This isn't a discussion about the quality of Schwartz's work, he picked upbeat and decent music that I could study to.

Engrossing books that make you think until it hurts a little bit.

takeyourmedicine — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:18:03 -0800

What books have transported you to another place, and occupied your thoughts for days whilst you read them? When I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for the first time last summer I got really caught up in it, and was for reading 3 or 4 times the amount of time I could usually bear doing anything. The Road was similar. I couldn't put The Life of Pi down, but it didn't effect me in such a similar way.

I don't just want to know "books you couldn't put down" but the books you read which then continued to spin about through your head until you had finished them, or at least until you had done some research and understood it a little better.

I was reminded of this phenomenon after reading a post at mp3 blog Motel De Moka:

"Lately I get bored of my friends easily and I have an increasingly disgust for my family and my city. For the past few days I’ve been avoiding going out and I’ve spent most of my time alone at home trying to understand this book"

From the books description "there are plenty of reasons not to read Peter Weiss’s monumental novel The Aesthetics of Resistance. It is long and difficult, filled with obscure references and intractable ideas. Few of its characters can easily be imagined or identified with. Its byzantine paragraphs stretch on for pages a time, sometimes containing only a single unrelenting sentence... In spite and because of all this, the book gives a rich reward. There are many novels which convey the bitter experience of Europe’s twentieth century, but few which range so widely or reflect so deeply on that history."

I like the sound of that and would love some suggestions.

Non-Fiction or Fiction is fine. Out-of-copyright/ free librivox audiobooks are a big plus.

It can be a difficult book, but one that is ultimately rewarding which might just occupy all of my thoughts for a whole - books that make you think really hard, in a very differenct way for all the time you've been reading them for. The opposite of a summer read may be pushing it to far - Zen &... was fairly easy to read and enjoyable - but totally engrossing.

I've got infinite jest and gravity's rainbow but I've yet to venture into them...

Suggest some mood enhancing music

stashdot — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 01:51:58 -0800

Suggest some mood enhancing music. I find music to be therapeutic, especially after a long day, when I need to keep going. An ideal example would be Frank Sinatra's "That's Life". Not very particular about the genre of music - it could be anything from gospel to classic rock to pop. Simple, uncomplicated songs with peppy lyrics are much appreciated. Please mention artist and song name - if a particular version is the one that suits the purpose - do mention the album name too. Thanks for your time.

What games would our group love?

Carillon — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:55:42 -0800

What are some good board games from my group of friends? So in a similar manner to DetonatedManiac, I have a group of friends that love to play board games. As a group we have played Here I Stand and A Game of Thrones plus the two expansion packs. We play Game of Thrones the most consistently, as it is the easiest of the two to note positions and put away for another day. We love A Game of Thrones, but novelty is the spice of life, and we would like to try some new games.

Outside of the group, I have played Axis and Allies and Risk, I also have played some Euro games like Catan and Carcassone, and while great, I too would love to expand my gaming horizons beyond those games. I know that one of our members will be getting Puerto Rico in a few months too.

So what would be some good games to buy and play, especially outside the classic strategy games like Chess and Go? We would probably prefer more limited dice-rolling than Risk and Axis and Allies, but it doesn't have to be chanceless.

To sum up: complicated is fine, moderate to minimal dice-rolling would be good, what games would our group love?

Sci-Fi easy readers?

Janta — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:46:32 -0800

Book-rec-filter time! Looking for sci-fi themed books for a young child. Can you suggest any? My son, who is not quite 5, is hugely interested in space, rockets, the planets, robots, etc. He's also just becoming comfortable with reading to himself. I'm looking for picture books and/or easy readers that have a scientific or sci-fi feel to them; do any of you have recommendations to share? Fiction or non-fiction -- he loves both.

Well, I hope we're not too messianic, Or a trifle too satanic

FlyingMonkey — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:52:54 -0800

Ms Monkey and I are getting married in the fall. Current plan is to walk down the aisle together. What are some songs about monkeys we can walk to? We're interested in almost all kinds of music, including bluegrass, blues, country, folk, punk, rock. (See last.fm somewhat recently-played list.)

(We're also broadly interested in music about monkeys (& mammals in general), so if you've got something that probably wouldn't work for the wedding (or wouldn't be appropriate to play for our 5-year-old cousins and 80-year-old grandparents) but which we oughta hear anyway, let us know about that, too.)

(I think maybe I use too many parentheses.)

We already thought of The Monkees theme song, but we hate that song. I suppose it would be a bit too much for the Animals to have done a song about monkeys. . . .