Saturday, September 22, 2001

Top Ten Lists

Here's that thing we do that Liza thinks is funny and makes fun of, but--hey--it's the Hi-Fidelity in us... I like to make them every now and then so I can look back a year or two later and go, "Wha? I was stupid."

TOP TEN FAVORITE ALBUMS


Notice this is "favorite," not "best."

10. Rheostatics: Introducing Happiness
9. Belle and Sebastian: If You’re Feeling Sinister
8. R.E.M.: Green
7. The Magnetic Fields: The Charm of the Highway Strip
6. The Magnetic Fields: The Wayward Bus
5. The Magnetic Fields: Distant Plastic Trees
4. The Magnetic Fields: Holiday
3. The Magnetic Fields: 69 Love Songs
2. Weezer: Pinkerton
1. Neutral Milk Hotel: In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Anyway, I think the top 3 are about right. I don't believe all that "one apiece" crap. I can't help it that Stephin Merritt writes better than just about anyone.

TOP TEN FAVORITE MOVIES


10. Quintin Tarantino: Reservoir Dogs
9. Joel Coen: Fargo
8. David Lynch: Blue Velvet
7. David Lynch: Eraserhead
6. Robert Zemeckis: Back to the Future Trilogy
5. John Patrick Shanley: Joe Versus the Volcano
4. George Lucas: Star Wars Trilogy
3. Frank Capra: It’s a Wonderful Life
2. Stanley Kubrick: 2001: A Space Odyssey
1. David Lynch: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

This probably isn't right either, but the first three--again--are probably right. Certainly the first two. Freddy Got Fingered was like #13 as I was writing them out. How's that for a movie which will never be on any movie critic's top 20 list? Or top 500 list?

I would do top 10 books, but that's just impossible. Or is it? Okay, this will be totally wrong, but I'll do it anyway:

TOP TEN FAVORITE BOOKS


Nevermind. I'm not organized in my thoughts about books. I'm not sure if it's a result of my teaching/studying them, or if it's just a bad sign that I can't properly make a top ten list when I do teach/study them. But wait! I think it's because I don't really like movies and music, but I like books, so I feel stupid ranking them. That's why I don't have a Rusty Likes Books page. Maybe. I don't know. Anyway, when I started making the list, some people that popped up were Harold Pinter, Herman Melville, Frederick Barthelme, C.S. Lewis, Shakespeare, Douglas Adams, J.M. Barrie, Fyodor Dostoyevsky... all the kids' books: birthday parties and whales and beaches and fauns and Hamlets and Pans and Russians and Triple-Breasted Whores of Eroticon Six...


TOP TEN BOARD GAMES


10. Mousetrap
9. Risk
8. Taboo
7. Guesstures
6. Sorry
5. Scrabble
4. Clue
3. Bookology
2. Trivial Pusuit
1. Monopoly

Even this probably isn't right, especially since Risk and Mousetrap were just thrown in to fill up 10. You can't beat that Monopoly, though. It's just so darn flexible. I wish that we could have one of those blood-n-guts games with Jason "2-Hip" Pollan again...

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