Best products from r/WhereDoIStart

Heyo! A little late to the thread, but I have two sources I like to point people to as an introduction to Buddhism and the Buddha himself—they're both secondary: one being a book, the other a documentary.

The book: an introduction to Buddhism, What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula. It was written, primarily, for a western audience unfamiliar with the teachings of Buddha and perceived it as part of "the other." A great starting point (was mine)!

The documentary: it is available on Netflix or on the PBS website, The Buddha by filmmaker David Grubin. It's a great informative and introductory documentary detailing the life of Buddha and his most basic teachings. The narration is wonderfully done and the visuals are titillating.

I hope these help!

Takk probably has the most accessible songs (to me, it's like listening to a fairytale). It's also the most widely used, certainly the BBC used it for an absolute ton of adverts. You may already recognise a lot of it, such as Milano.

Heim Hvarf has some stunningly beautiful acoustic songs on it, and my personal favourite, Ágætis Byrjun.

Also worthy of a special mention is Heima, a DVD recording of their trip around Iceland in 2006 or 2007. At this point, they were already hugely successful, and they returned to their homeland to play a set of gigs across a number of quirky locations in the middle of nowhere, simply to say thank you to their fellow countrymen for supporting them for so many years. It really is the most beautiful DVD I own (the special edition with the gorgeous book is hard to get, but you can buy just the DVD too), and it will make you fall in love with Iceland and its people.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1593633750/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1408156971&sr=8-1#productDescription_secondary_view_pageState_1408157034049

If you enjoyed Macbeth and want to know more, look at this text. It analyzes every scene of the play, provides a history, and makes macbeth easier to understand.

A friend recommended it and after buying it, I recommend it too.

Seeing a play performed certainly helps because performance is the way Shakespeare intended audiences to experience his work.

I hate suggesting a "Best of..." album, but really this one is so good:

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Leonard-Cohen/dp/B00000256G

Linking to Amazon because YouTube only has it in a playlist.

That album is fantastic and serves as a great introduction to his early acoustic material.

If you like that stuff I'd probably suggesting moving onto Songs of Love and Hate.

Dispatch - Bang Bang

This album has a lot of great songs on it including The General, which is probably their most popular. It has some folk and ska influences, and you really have to listen to the lyrics. If you like what you hear, check out one of their live albums Free on Amazon instant download. They're amazing live.

I took a basic music appreciation class in high school, and we used a textbook called Listen, which I really liked. It provided easy to understand information and 3 CDs with a good overview of every era of classical music. It's a good place to start.

Muddy Waters: The Anthology 1947-1972. It covers a lot of ground and there are so many classic fucking songs. If you like that, you can always move onto Hard Again, recorded with Johnny Winter as lead guitarist, which is a great way to make your way into Electric Blues. Hard Again demonstrates just how well Muddy Waters' blues translates into 70s-style hard rock, and shows just how much bands like The Rolling Stones learned from Muddy.. Plus, it includes the re-recorded version of "Mannish Boy," which may be the greatest thing ever put to wax.

Amazon always has some really great compilation digital MP3 albums with 50-100 songs for around $5. Compilation albums will give you a solid collection of all the most popular pieces from a wide era, and from there you can decide if you like a particular composer you can pursue further.

Edit: Here's a couple that I personally own.

http://www.amazon.com/Most-Essential-Pieces-Classical-Music/dp/B0034E7MK0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1372601454&sr=8-3&keywords=classical&tag=s601000020-20

http://www.amazon.com/The-Darkest-Pieces-Classical-Music/dp/B0048NUUS2/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1372601454&sr=8-8&keywords=classical&tag=s601000020-20

This Blu-ray is a really good mix of Porcupine Tree stuff, and it has to be one of the best mixed/mastered live performances of any band I've ever come across, a testiment to Steven Wilson's absolute perfectionism when it comes to audio production.
NOTE: It must be watched on Blu-ray to get the full effect.

I agree with some of the classic albums that have been mentioned. I would add that you should check out John Coltrane's "Giant Steps," and just about any Charlie Parker compilation on top of "Kind of Blue" and "Time Out."

Really though, what you will like is very idiosyncratic. For example, because I play guitar and came to jazz through fusion, my favorite artists are guitarists: Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, Emily Remler, etc. So your tastes will matter a whole lot.

To go with your listening, I would suggest you get a copy of Jazz 101 (http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-101-Complete-Learning-Loving/dp/0786884967) and just start searching on YouTube for famous recordings of standards.

Then, once you've finished Jazz 101, get a copy of Giddins and DeVeaux's Jazz (http://www.amazon.com/Jazz-Gary-Giddins/dp/0393068617) and go through it.

If you are still interested in the history of jazz after going through those two books, Ted Gioia has written a book titled "The History of Jazz," which is on my shelf but I have yet to read.