Sayles primer
I've never seen any Sayles, partly due to his slightly spotty track record. Anyone want to take a crack at a Sayles primer? Which five or so of his movies are best / most representative? LONE STAR has been on my "to see" list for a while now, and I know MATEWAN is well-regarded, but what else do I need…

Agreed. It's the REM album that sounds most like the Feelies, and is therefore my favorite.

Yes on all these, Costello, and THE JAM, who never released a bad album.

Ted Leo, the New Pornographers, Of Montreal
…all completed five-album streaks last year, at least in my book. This is a fun game.

Lou and the VU
One of the trickiest things about navigating Lou Reed's discography (aside from its inconsistency) is the amount of overlap between his 70s output and all the then-unreleased Velvets recordings. Reed's first, self-titled solo album is a pretty fascinating bridge between the VU years and his career to…

The Eames Era
"Heroes & Sheroes" is one of my favorite pop albums of the decade. Had no idea these guys had a follow-up band - thanks for the heads-up!

Breakfast: Just about everything from 65-72 is worth hearing; I'd recommend simultaneously working your way backward (with Something Else) and forward (with Arthur). It's hard to choose a favorite from that period.

Hitchcock's so good that I'm guessing most fans would construct pretty different personal guides - although "Underwater Moonlight" is almost definitely the best starting point. From there, check out "I Often Dream of Trains" or "Eye" if you want acoustic stuff and "Fegmania" or "Element of Light" if you're looking for…

The book is really fun.
And would make a good, nasty series in the right hands. AMC should pick it up and pair it with Breaking Bad.

Mo' Monkey Shines? Martin 2: On the Rocks?

So I'm basically a von Sterndummy…
Which of his movies should I check out? He's one of the few major directors I haven't really been exposed to, other than a high-school screening of The Blue Angel (which has always stuck with me) over ten years ago. Would this set make a good starting point? Maybe a double feature of…

There's also the Postwar Kurosawa box: http://www.criterion.com/bo…

Waylon Jennings…
…was a source of near-daily inspiration for me as a child, thanks to this:

He played a 28 song set when I saw him in DC last year. Twenty-eight!

YES. Westerberg's best songs are either exhilarating in a way that pop music rarely is, or totally crushing.

Yeah, Jorge - the 97s have been a favorite of mine since I heard FIGHT SONGS for the first time in high school. SATELLITE RIDES pretty much owned the summer before I started college. Thought BLAME IT ON GRAVITY was a nice return to form after the hit-or-miss DRAG IT UP, and Miller's last few solo albums haven't really…

Yeah, that one never clicked with me either. It has its moments, and the cast does typically great work, but it's always felt overlong and kind of awkward.

@HAL-900: All those shadows and framings Ford used were more likely learned from Murnau and Borzage, Ford's predecessors at Fox. Take a look at SUNRISE (or CITY GIRL) and THE GRAPES OF WRATH side-by-side, for example.

Also, Hellman directed A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS' ridiculous made-for-TV "prologue," starring Harry Dean Stanton:

Has anyone seen decent-quality copies of these movies? I tried Netflixing THE SHOOTING a while back, but the picture and sound were terrible, so I figured I should wait for the inevitable re-release. Those VCI editions Sam mentions ain't cheap!