Lists

I'm all about lists. I hear a song come on the radio, and I might say, "Oh, this is one of my top three songs of all time." And I do actually have that - a list in my head of my top three songs of all time. That list has actually been static for the last several years (Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car", Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road", Arrested Development's "Tennessee"), but, otherwise, I say it without actually thinking about what would be in my top five or top ten.

Last night, for example, we were at Thirsty Dog, and we were playing the game we always play there, and often play whenever we're at a bar that plays music. We hear a few songs, getting a sense of what the playlist might be like, and then we start betting about which artist will be played next. It's a dollar an artist, and the pot remains until someone gets their artist played and the pot is won. Thirsty Dog is a place where it's especially interesting to play this game, because the playlist is usually the I-Pod of a waitress there on random play, and it's fun to try to get hints from the waitress about what artists might be on the I-Pod.

Last night, Weezer and Counting Crows were both played, and I immediately blurted out, "Oh, these are two of my five favorite artists of all time," to which my friend replied, "You know, if we added up all your five favorite artists, we'd be up to 30." And he's probably right. But I put in my dollar for - I forget - Nirvana, another band I loved in the mid-nineties - and ended up losing it to the girl who put in U2.

After reading Snay's list of his ten favorite movies of all time, I thought it would be fun to try to put into writing some of the lists I'm always spouting off. And lord knows I need tomething lighthearted and fun to do for a change lately.

Movies:

1. Magnolia

2. Good Will Hunting

3. Heathers

4. The Royal Tenenbaums

5. The Hours

6. Signs

7. Bull Durham

8. Adaptation

9. 40-Year Old Virgin

10. You Can Count on Me

Musical Artists:

1. Brenda Kahn

2. Weezer

3. Melissa Ferrick

4. Tracy Chapman

5. Kanye West

6. Counting Crows

7. Dan Bern

8. Arrested Development

9. Juliana Hatfield

10. Todd Snider


Songs:

1. "Fast Car," Tracy Chapman

2. "Thunder Road," Bruce Springsteen

3. "Tennessee," Arrested Development

4. "Spaceship," Kanye West

5. "Jerusalem," Dan Bern

6. "I Ain't Never Loved a Man," Aretha Franklin

7. "Anchorage," Michelle Shocked

8. "A Better Place To Be," Harry Chapin

9. "Satisfied Mind," Jeff Buckley

10. "Say It Ain't So," Weezer


Books:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

2. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

3. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

4. A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines

5. Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

6. The Known World by Edward P. Jones

7. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

8. Bee Season by Myla Goldberg

9. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

10. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Albums:

1. Epiphany in Brooklyn by Brenda Kahn

2. Weezer (Blue Album) by Weezer

3. Unplugged in New York by Nivana

4. I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got by Sinead O'Connor

5. College Dropout by Kanye West

6. Tracy Chapman by Tracy Chapman

7. Greatest Stories Live by Harry Chapin

8. 70 People at 7,000 Feet by Melissa Ferrick and Brian Winton

9. Grace by Jeff Buckley

10. August and Everything After by The Counting Crows