Stop reading now if you're not a Mac user, but as a switcher, I have discovered an app called LaunchBar that I can't imagine working without.
It provides instant access to any document, file, folder, bookmark, email address, application or preference pane anywhere on your Mac, by simply entering the first few letters or a learned short abbreviation of the searched item's name.
Hit Command-Space to display LaunchBar's drop-down from the menu bar (see the screenshot), enter an arbitrary abbreviation, and as soon as you start typing LaunchBar displays the best matching choices, ready to be opened immediately. It's way harder to explain than it is to use.
If you are a Mac user, try it--I predict, like bringing home a puppy dog, after you have it around for a few days you won't be able to part with it. I paid for it the second day I had it--a bargain at $19.95. It's a shareware license, so try it out, but be nice and pay them if you find it as useful as I do.
I like Keanu Reeves. There. I've said it. And yes, I mean "like" in the sense of appreciating his career as well as "like" in imagining him in a wide variety of romantic fantasies. I'm tired of defending his abilities as an actor too, despite an estimable film career.
That linked article, focused on box office success, misses some great performances though. While he has been horrible in some roles ("Bram Stoker's Dracula," 1992, for example), wooden in others such as "Much Ado About Nothing" (1993), if you like him at all, you should dig a little deeper at the old video store. Rent River's Edge, a stunning film from 1986, based on real-life events starring a 22 year-old Reeves (and also featuring a stunning manic turn by a young Crispin Glover). 1988's Permanent Record is another gem, with Reeves as a high school senior rocked by a friend's suicide.
Keanu stars in an ensemble cast including Cameron Diaz, Vincent Donofrio, Courtney Love and Dan Akroyd in the oft-overlooked Feeling Minnesota, a real sleeper that is worth a look. I also enjoyed him in Walk In The Clouds, a moody, langorous atmospheric look at post-war romance, directed by "Like Water For Chocolate's" Alfonso Arau. A real high point is his role as spoiled, slumming rich kid turned hustler, alongside River Phoenix in the 1991 Gus Van Sant film My Own Private Idaho. If you're still interested, check out his comic turn in Parenthood his undercover FBI agent posing as a surfer in Point Break or his tough guy-turned romantic alongside Charlize Theron in the (somewhat saccharine but satisfying) Sweet November. Keanu is much more than the stoner dude in Bill & Ted, the tough but sensitive cop in Speed and more than the savior of the free world in The Matrix series. This Lebanese/Hawaiian hottie is a versatile, under-appreciated actor, in my humble opinion.
