Well if this isn’t the most amazing thing: tree trunks re-purposed to become a pop-up library for strangers to share books.  Makes you wonder, if you could put just one book inside for strangers to read, what would it be? More photos at...

So I don’t know if we’re calling this TV or a web program or a DVD or something else.  My big question is, how are we going to organize our “to watch/read/listen” lists now that everything is split amongst a thousand platforms? In any event, I shall be watching this...

The teaser will debut on 17 December as well, and I’m counting the days…

  Lonely Planet In shops now First of all, hot air balloons are on the bucket list, so I had to pick this one up.  Also the Northern Lights.  And also, swimming with a whale shark.  So here is the Lonely Planet guide to the high-octane travel adventures we sometimes forget are so bloody...

Written by Tim Gray / Foreword by Martin Scorsese Rizzoli In shops now It’s hard to believe that Variety cost just five cents an issue when it was first printed in 1905.  I subscribe to it now and I can tell you that the price has gone up just a smidge. But there is no doubt that it...

  Chronicle Books In shops now I love this stuff.  My Mary Cassat notecards are lovely and all (purchased at a museum gift shop, of course), but innovative designs like these make great stocking stuffers for others or a nice little gift for yourself. This set has 16 writing sheets with the...

Marvel / Paramount Pictures Once we get past the election, it’s all about the delectable offerings for 2013, including what looks to be a much darker, and perhaps a little heartbreaking new Iron Man film.

by Diane Kochilas Chronicle Books In shops now If you’ve seen the previous three titles “The Country Cooking of France,” “The Country Cooking of Ireland” and  “The Country Cooking of Italy,” then you know what a remarkable feat of publishing they...

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment In shops now As you prepare for the reboot of Spider-Man tomorrow (which is WELL worth it), it’s a perfect time to have a look back at the last go-round, which began way back in 2002. These reissues feature “Spider Sense Trivia Challenge” and...

Columbia Pictures In cinemas on Tuesday Considering that there are 16 trailers for “The Amazing Spider-Man” on the Apple trailer website and the abundance of coverage about the film, its cast and Sony’s perhaps-too-soon reboot of the franchise, I honestly thought I would...

This is how I feel on this Monday.  

Disney Blu-ray In shops now Poor Taylor Kitsch can’t catch a break.  Between “John Carter” and “Battleship” he’s doing a lot of big movies that aren’t making big money.  I’m really rooting for him come “Savages” time. Despite all...

by Nichole Robertson Chronicle Books In shops now Nichole Robertson has joined the ranks of many an American author who arrived at that moment of being “over it.”  In the two pages of text that serve as the introduction to this book of photographs, she recounts that moment when...

  eOne Home Video In shops now It’s pretty much impossible to watch “Hell on Wheels” without thinking of HBO’s “Deadwood.”  It was the era when America was just setting stakes into the ground and beginning to define itself as a nation, with nothing more...

Mill Creek Entertainment In shops now I’ve been waiting years for this. Right about now, cinephiles all over the world can’t stop saying the name Ridley Scott.  “Prometheus” will surely be one of the summer’s most exciting events – I have no doubt.  And...

Paul Martineau with an essay by James Crump Getty Publications In shops now The boulevards of Los Angeles have recently been covered in black & white banners announcing the Getty’s current Herb Ritts exhibit, L.A. Style.  It’s hard to believe that it’s been a decade...

Website I have a drawer in my office with a stack of cards ready for almost any occasion.  This includes Get Well cards and general sassiness. Any time I stumble in a stationery shop or a market like Unique LA I stock up on terrific (and, if we’re being honest) over-priced cards for...

by Alex Johnson Thames & Hudson In shops now I have recently gone into a co-habitation phase.  I live in a great house with plenty of space but very little light (it’s not unlike a treehouse), so every available wall surface has been, or is about to be, a window or sliding glass...

This week was broadcast television’s coming out party in New York.  A slew of new shows were announced for the 2012-2013 season.  Some of them I can tell you right now, will be cancelled.  There are others, however, that I really cannot wait to see.  Such...

BBC Home Entertainment In shops now When I first saw ‘Sherlock’ last year I was mesmerized.  First it was the tilt-shift photography and the playful subtitles to reveal text messages and emails, and then it was Sherlock’s gift for piecing together an entire narrative from...

Touchstone Home Entertainment In shops now I’m not usually one for the “combo” pack DVD.  It can feel a little cheesy on the shelf in a proper cinephile’s library, but in this case I will allow it. “Father of the Bride” was a defining movie for me growing...

The Metropolitan Museum of Art In shops now When I lived in New York, I loved nothing more than spending a whole Sunday at the Met.  It didn’t matter how many times I went (I’m still finding little M pins in various colours all over the place) because the museum is so vast and...

Warner Home Video In shops on 8 May Oh, the ’80s.  How wonderful you were.  The movies were about adventure and creatures and buried treasure and family.  Lately there’s not so much in the vein of “E.T.” or “The Goonies” or “Back to the...

  BBC America Premieres Tuesday 1 May @ 1p Seriously, the man does not sleep.  After tackling food by season and by country, Mr. Oliver is now doing his best Rachel Ray and addresses the issue of time by concocting full meals – wondrous weeknight feasts – in under 30 minutes. Of...

Fox Searchlight Now playing in select cinemas Moviegoers have always loved tales about traveling abroad to explore a new world and possibly begin a new life.  From “Roman Holiday” to “Under the Tuscan Sun,” “Vicky Christina Barcelona” and “Eat Pray...

Walt Disney Pictures Watch it here There are so many trailers by now, but the one that was unveiled this morning suggests that “Brave” is one of the best bets on the summer movie...

by Madeline Miller Ecco In shops now I’m a little late to the party on this one.  It’s been a minute since I read “The Iliad” and I never did see Brad Pitt’s “Troy,” so most of the particulars of the Trojan War have escaped my head.  But when I saw...

  Warner Bros. In cinemas nationwide Nicholas Sparks.  I know.  I know.  While the best-selling novelist’s many books may drive many a young woman to a coquettish snicker, for so many of us out there in the dark (the boys, especially) we see these trailers coming down the line and...

HBO Premieres Sunday night at 10p I don’t know how she does it, but Julia Louis-Dreyfus just keeps getting better and better.  She was enjoyable on ‘Seinfeld’ and she was what drew me into the series I never thought I would want to watch, ‘The New Adventures of Old...

Sometimes great things appear on the wall of the Face, and this is one of them.