And I Only Am Escaped Alone To Tell Thee

Today's the birthday of Herman Melville, who wrote a bunch of good stuff, but is best known for two works which have changed a lot of worlds: Billy Budd, which was made into an opera by Benjamin Britten; and Moby-Dick, one of the greatest adventure novels and psychological profiles of all time, except for that part in the middle where it stops dead for a hundred pages to talk about whaling.

There is an ass-kicking musical of Moby-Dick (the original cast album of the whole show, to my mind the best, is available here).

And, of course, without Moby-Dick, this would never have been the same.

What single novel has changed your life the most? In my case, without question, it's The Lord of the Rings, although Dune is right up there.

Batman. DARLING.

Heath Ledger cast as the Joker in the next Batman flick. Thoughts? And, try to keep the Brokeback jokes to a minimum.

DVD Day

A number of interesting things today. A special edition of V For Vendetta, and another of A Fish Called Wanda. A collection of three of Olivier's Shakespeare films (Henry V, Hamlet, and Richard III). A Beavis and Butthead collection, if you must. Richard Pryor Live in Concert, which I'm not sure has ever been on DVD before. A box of Peter Lorre's Mr. Moto films. The online animated saga Broken Saints.

Anything need to be on your list?

New RiffTrax

The Fifth Element.