Your personal pop culture

We all have our pop culture favorites. They might be very mainstream and known to everyone, completely unknown to everyone else, or they might be known but only truly loved by a certain part of the pop-culture-consuming population. Sometimes we want to share these things with others, but sometimes we want to keep them close to us, so they still feel special and don't become too popular and get ruined.

But as your mom used to say, it's better to share. So here's a list of great TV shows, films, albums, musicians and writers you may not have heard of, or maybe you have heard of them but aren't familiar with their work for some reason. I'm curious to see your lists, too, of the stuff Pop Candy readers should check out. (Do they still call them albums?)

Marshall Crenshaw. You probably know him from the song Someday, Someway in the early '80s, but he has done so much good since then. I don't know if this has ever been said before, but he may just be the best American rock songwriter in history.

Tommy Keene. He has that tasty alternative crunch (sounds like a cereal that college kids would eat), but there's a true melodic side to him, too. The albums Based on Happy Times and Isolation Party are fantastic.

Matt Dusk. You might know his song Two Shots, written by Bono and The Edge and featured on the short-lived Fox reality show The Casino, but this guy should be known more. If you like Michael Bublé, you'll probably like Dusk. Check out the album Two Shots first and then Good News.

James Sallis. Sallis became well-known after his novel Drive became a critically acclaimed Ryan Gosling movie, but Sallis has been writing for decades. He's the type of writer who does everything — novels, short fiction, essays, poetry, biography, book reviews, the whole bit — and he might just be one of our greatest living writers.

Hard Eight. My favorite Paul Thomas Anderson film, with John C. Reilly as a down-on-his-luck guy in Vegas getting involved with Phillip Baker Hall, Gwyneth Paltrow and Samuel L. Jackson. A very well-written, smart film, and you won't predict where it's all leading.

Havana. I'm not sure why this film gets dumped on so much — they even joke about it on an episode of Seinfeld — but it's a beautiful film, with Robert Redford as a gambler in late-'50 Havana, getting involved with politics and a married woman (Lena Olin from Alias).

Dinner for Five. For several seasons on IFC, Jon Favreau would get actors, writers and musicians and other creative people together for dinner at a real restaurant and just talk with them about a variety of subjects and let the camera roll. I wish this show was still on, but you can get the DVDs.

Oh, I could list more, but it would start to get out of hand, heh. What's on your list?

You can find Bob Sassone on Twitter and at his personal site.