Ithkuil: A Philosophical Design for a Hypothetical Language

A Few of My Favorite Things . . .

What is life without cinema, art, literature, and music? Here are my favorites:

Favorite movies (in chronological order):

W.S. Van Dyke – The Thin Man (1934)
George Cukor - The Philadelphia Story (1940)
Mervyn LeRoy – Random Harvest (1942)
William Wyler – Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Billy Wilder – Double Indemnity (1944)
Alfred Hitchcock – Rope (1948)
Akira Kurosawa – Roshomon (1950)
William Wyler – Roman Holiday (1953)
Alfred Hitchcock – Dial M For Murder (1954)
Akira Kurosawa – Seven Samurai (1954)
Billy Wilder – Witness For the Prosecution (1957)
Sidney Lumet – Twelve Angry Men (1957)
Alfred Hitchcock – Vertigo (1958)
Ralph Nelson – Lillies of the Field (1961)
John Frankenheimer – The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Robert Mulligan – To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Norman Jewison – In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Stanley Kubrick – 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
George Lucas: THX-1138 (1971)
Stanley Kubrick – A Clockwork Orange (1971)
George Roy Hill - Slaughterhouse Five (1972)
Robin Hardy - The Wicker Man (1973)
Akira Kurosawa – Dersu Uzala (1975)
Sidney Lumet – Network (1976)
Paul Verhoeven – Soldier of Orange (1977)
Ridley Scott – Alien (1979)
Andrei Tarkovsky – Stalker (1979)
Bob Fosse - All That Jazz (1979)
Hal Ashby - Being There (1979)
Woody Allen – Manhattan (1979)
Hugh Hudson - Chariots of Fire (1981)
John Boorman – Excalibur (1981)
Ridley Scott – Blade Runner (1982)
Paul Verhoeven - The Fourth Man (1983)
Terry Jones – Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983)
David Lynch – Dune (1984)
Milos Forman – Amadeus (1984)
Woody Allen – Broadway Danny Rose (1984)
David Lynch – Blue Velvet (1986)
Jean-Jacques Annaud – The Name of the Rose (1986)
Gabriel Axel – Babette’s Feast (1987)
Stanley Kubrick – Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Woody Allen - Another Woman (1988)
David Cronenberg - Naked Lunch (1991)
Henry Selick – Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Brian Singer – The Usual Suspects (1995)
David Cronenberg – Crash (1996)
Cameron Crowe - Jerry Maguire (1996)
Alejandro González Iñárritu – Amores Perros (2000)
Peter Jackson – The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003)
Nigel Cole – Calendar Girls (2003)
István Szabó – Being Julia (2004)
Walter Salles – The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)
Jason Reitman – Thank You For Smoking (2005)
Stephen Frears – Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005)
Terry George – Hotel Rwanda (2005)
Paul Verhoeven – Black Book (2006)
Pedro Almodóvar – Volver (2006)
Mike Nichols – Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)
Woody Allen – Midnight in Paris (2011)

 

Favorite Painters: Mario Sironi, Edward Hopper, Yves Tanguy, Xul Solar, Tamara de Lempicka, Jan Vermeer, Juan Gris, George Tooker, Giorgio de Chirico, Camille Pissarro

Favorite Authors: Jorge Luís Borges, Milan Kundera, Knut Hamsun, Ayn Rand, Jerzy Kosinski, Ursula K. LeGuin, Arthur C. Clarke, Jim Thompson, Kurt Vonnegut, Isaac Asimov

Favorite Music Composers/Artists (by genre):

Classical (in chronological order): Thomas Tallis, Tomaso Albinoni, Johann Christian Bach, Franz Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Antonin Dvořák, Aleksandr Glazunov, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Ravel, Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughn Williams, Francis Poulenc, György Ligeti, Krzysztof Penderecki, Arvo Pärt

1930s – 1940s Big Band Orchestras:  Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Glen Miller, Tommy Dorsey

1940s – 1960s Jazz vocalists: Frank Sinatra, Helen Forrest, Nat King Cole, Lurlean Hunter, Mel Tormé, Jeri Southern, Jack Jones, Bobby Darin

1960s Pop and Soul/R&B: The Beatles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Hollies, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Rascals, The Beach Boys, The Doors, The Mamas & the Papas, Petula Clark, Simon & Garfunkel

1970s Classic Rock & Pop: Led Zeppelin, Heart, Santana, Styx, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Van Halen, Supertramp, Boston, Chicago, America, David Bowie, The Doobie Brothers, Be-Bop Deluxe, Bad Company, The Cars, Crosby Stills Nash (& Young), Fleetwood Mac, Robin Trower, Dire Straits, The Rolling Stones, The Carpenters, Abba

1970s Soul/R&B: Al Green, The Spinners, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Staple Singers

1970s Krautrock and Kosmische Musik: Amon Düül II, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze

1970s – 1980s Progressive Rock and Progressive Jazz Fusion: Yes, Genesis, Camel, Triumvirat, Starcastle, Renaissance, Rush, Eloy, Gentle, Giant, Locanda delle Fate, Passport, Al Dimeola, Iceberg, Guadalquivir

1970s – 1980s Zeuhl: Magma, Weidorje, Eskaton

1970s Punk Rock: The Ramones, The Clash, The Drones, The Saints, The Vibrators, Generation X, The Buzzcocks

1970s – 1980s Post-Punk/New Wave: The Jam, Wire, Joy Division, The Stranglers, Japan, Talking Heads, The Police, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Magazine, U2, Simple Minds, Ultravox, XTC, The Teardrop Explodes, Wah!, TV21, The Psychedelic Furs, Gary Numan & Tubeway Army, Missing Persons, New Musik, The Pretenders, Bill Nelson/Red Noise, Bauhaus, Killing Joke, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, The English Beat, Flock of Seagulls, The Human League, Blondie, Big Country, Echo & the Bunnymen, The B-52s, The Cure

1970s-1980s Roots Reggae: The Wailing Souls, Burning Spear, The Mighty Diamonds, Culture, The Meditations, Dennis Brown, Steel Pulse, Gregory Isaacs, The Itals, Ijahman, Israel Vibration, Bob Marley & the Wailers

1980s-2000s World Music (zouk, soukous, mbalax, makossa, rai, samba, soca, world fusion, etc.): Kassav’, Angelique Kidjo, Baaba Maal, Youssou Ndour, Guy Lobé, Tshala Muana, Ismaël Lô, Touré Kunda, Khaled, Mahmoud Ahmed, Hamelmal Abate, Pablo Lubadika, Papa Wemba, Tarika, Gal Costa, Gilberto Gil, Ricardo Lemvo & Makina Loca

1990s Alternative Rock: Ride, Catherine Wheel, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Green Day, K’s Choice, Lightning Seeds, Our Lady Peace, Smashing Pumpkins, Lush, Curve, The Clarks, Dubstar

2000s - 2010s Alternative Rock: Minus the Bear, Kemopetrol, Iris (the American darkwave band), Little Purple Circles, The Gathering, Paatos

Contemporary Catalan Rock/Pop/Folk: Relk, Xot, Dept., Vuit, La Porta dels Somnis

Contemporary Mellow Jazz Pianists: John Taylor (including his work with the Peter Erskine group), Alan Pasqua, Fred Hirsch

Indian Classical Raga: Nikhil Banerjee, Ali Akbar Khan, Ravi Shankar, Ram Narayan

Other Music Favorites: Patsy Cline, Los Lobos, Michael Jackson, Mafalda Arnauth, Miles Davis (his cool bop period), Farlanders, Inna Zhelannaya, Michael Bublé

For those who would like a copy of the Ithkuil Grammar in book form, it is now available! And while you’re at it, you can check out the novel I co- wrote with my twin brother Paul, also now available! (It’s a political thriller/science fiction story that explores the philosophical implications of quantum physics, and features Ithkuil as a “para-linguistic” interface to a quantum computer.)

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