Vital Signs, Personal Profile, Tony Polito

Vital Signs, Personal Profile

Tony Polito

Department of Marketing & Supply Chain Management, College of Business, East Carolina University

Places

Hard to believe, looking back, but I had the pleasure of making four recent trips to Vegas (Summer, 2004; April, 2004; October, 2003 & Summer, 2003). When I add it up, I actually “lived” in Vegas for a month last year ! I don’t gamble that much, but there is plenty to do there, that’s for sure !!

I have lived in Georgia, Iowa, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Virginia and Wyoming. In my travels, I especially enjoyed Jackson Hole, The Outer Banks, Key West ... and, of course, Durham.

Movies

Here are a few “different” and/or independent movies I’ve recently (2004) added to my collection:

Rollerball (1975), Hard Eight, Hoffa, Network, Norma Rae, Roger & Me, The Center of the World, The Insider, The Straight Story.

Some other movies of various genre that I find to be notable for one reason or another:

1984 (1984), Amadeus, American Beauty, American Dream, Atlantic City, Back to School, Brazil, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Casino, Contact, Cool Hand Luke, Cry Freedom, Eyes Wide Shut, Goodfellas, Groundhog Day, House of Games, JFK, Leaving Las Vegas, Local Hero, Man on the Moon, Mindwalk, Once Upon a Time in America, Ocean’s Eleven (1960), Pleasantville, Scent of a Woman, Silkwood, Spartacus (1960), The Butcher's Wife, The Fountainhead, The Handmaid’s Tale, THX 1138, The World According to Garp, Trees Lounge, Unforgiven, Wall Street.

Here are a number of more popular foreign films I have seen and recommend … and a number of which I now own:

Au hasard Balthazar, Belle De Jour, Bob Le Flambeur, Cinema Paradiso, Fahrenheit 451, Farewell My Concubine, Ikiru, Indochine, Jean de Florette, La Belle Noiseuse (The Beautiful Troublemaker), La Sirène du Mississippi (Siren of the Mississippi, Mississippi Mermaid), Like Water for Chocolate, Manon des sources, Monsieur Hire, Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud, Nikita, Raise the Red Lantern, Solaris, The Hairdresser's Husband, The Last Emperor, The Seven Samurai, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Vanishing, Un Coeur En Hiver (A Heart in Winter), Xizao (Shower), Y Tu Mama Tambien.

My first recommendations for light romantic comedy:

Continental Divide, Joe Versus the Volcano, Manhattan, Moonstruck, Rare Birds.

Here are a couple of truly fascinating murder mysteries based on actual events:

Echoes in the Darkness and The Thin Blue Line.

All time favorites?

2001: A Space Odyssey, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, The Natural, The Shawshank Redemption, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, Wild at Heart and Vertigo. Each argues a truth with powerful eloquence.

I recommend that everyone should see the classic “blonde” Hitchcock films: Marnie, North by Northwest, Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, Vertigo. The complex and meticulous symbolism Hitchcock wove into these films through the dualities, the colors, the flowers, the jewelry, the costuming, the “flawed” male versus the icy blonde – it’s all just very fascinating. I discovered that François Truffaut “borrowed” large parts of the storyline and imagery of Vertigo … and then threw in some Marnie for good measure … to develop La Sirène du Mississippi … but even in casting Catherine Deneuve as the cool blonde, Truffaut’s product simply didn’t measure up to Hitch quality.

I suspect that a lot of people don’t realize how many foreign films have been remade for American audiences. Here’s just a few examples:

[ Just in case you’re interested in broadening your knowledge of movies, here are links to several “all time best” movie lists … AFI’s Top 100 … IMDB’s Top 250 … Roger Ebert’s Top 100 ]

Music

Now that I have Sirius Radio, I don't play CDs in the car much anymore ... but when I did, I used to keep these two in the changer ready to go: Spotlight on Keely Smith and Best of Chet Baker Sings. Hey, it’s my elevator and I will play my music in it! J

Generally, On Sirius, I am listening to Songbooks & Standards (Sirius 75), Smooth Jazz (Sirius 71), Motown Soul (Sirius 53) and Adult Contemporary R&B (Sirius 51).

Recently (December, 2005) I picked up several new CDs:

· Carly Simon’s Moonlight Serenade

· It’s Time … the latest from Michael Bublé (the Sinatra-esque guy in the Starbucks commercials)

· Sammy Davis, Jr. Sings, Laurindo Almeida Plays. Sammy did this 1966 studio set of ballads with only one microphone and one brilliant Brazilian guitarist.

I have been listening to more classical music of late (which I did a good bit of way back in my undergraduate years). My favorite piece of classical music is The Albinoni Adagio. I am now keeping several “relaxing” classical compilations in the car’s CD changer, for when driving is just too stressful !!.

Here are some of my other CDs; click through to hear sample tracks:

Louis Armstrong, Basia, Tony Bennett, George Benson, Dave Brubeck, José Carreras, Nat King Cole, Miles Davis, Celine Dion, Dr. John, Sheena Easton, Enya, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Bob James, Elton John, Kenny G, Carole King, Earl Klugh, Diana Krall, Selena, Sergio Mendes, Dean Martin, Joni Mitchell, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Linda Ronstadt, David Sanborn, Boz Scaggs, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington.

Over time, I have been partial to the work of:

Nick Drake … try Bryter Layter or his compilation, Way to Blue
Astrud Gilberto … try Verve Jazz Masters 9
Carly Simon … try the recent Film Noir, My Romance, or the 1970s compilation, The Best of Carly Simon

Here is an odd duck: On a single CD -- from the Beatles' producer -- Cher, Meat Loaf, Bon Jovi, Elton John, Sinead O'Connor and others all paying tribute to The Glory of Gershwin !!

Here is Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the top 500 albums of all time.

Books

A couple of readings a while back that I found interesting were Prisoner's Dilemma: John Von Neumann, Game Theory and the Puzzle of the Bomb and Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century. In general, I tend towards such serious non-fiction.

In the business book genre, here are a few books that reflect the 'new paradigm in business thinking' from which students of business could benefit:

I’m always interesting in “contrarian” literature. Here are a few other such works that I looked at a while back: