Okay, let's try this again.

Literally the day after I made my last post, my brother coincidentally mentioned to me that there's also a 1001 albums to hear before you die list. Now we're talking my language: music. But I'm going to do this one a little differently. If I have at least one song from the album in my iTunes library, I'll include it here. If I have the whole album, I'll star it.

And keep in mind, reading this list has caused me to want to make some additions to my iTunes collection, but I'll do that later. And there are several albums on here that I do own in their entirety, but don't want to put in their entirety in my iTunes, so they're not starred.

Elvis Presley – Elvis Presley
Fats Domino – This is Fats
The Crickets – The Chirping Crickets
Little Richard – Here’s Little Richard
Dave Brubeck – Time Out
Joan Baez – Joan Baez
The Everly Brothers – A Date with the Everly Brothers
Ray Charles - Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music
The Beatles – With the Beatles*
Bob Dylan – The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
Sam Cooke – Live at the Harlem Square*
Stan Getz & João Gilberto – Getz/Gilberto
The Beatles – A Hard Day’s Night*
Bob Dylan – Bringing it All Back Home*
The Beatles – Rubber Soul*
Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited
The Who – My Generation
The Beatles – Revolver*
The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde
The Mamas & the Papas – If You Can Believe Your Eyes & Ears*
The Rolling Stones – Aftermath
Simon & Garfunkel – Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme*
The Beatles – Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band*
Cream – Disraeli Gears
The Who – Sell Out
Donovan – Sunshine Superman
Jimi Hendrix – Are You Experienced
Jimi Hendrix – Axis: Bold as Love
Aretha Franklin – I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You
The Rolling Stones – Beggars Banquet
Jimi Hendrix – Electric Ladyland
Simon & Garfunkel – Bookends*
The Band – Music from Big Pink
The Zombies – Odessey & Oracle
The Beatles – The Beatles [aka the White Album]*
Crosby, Stills & Nash – Crosby, Stills & Nash
The Beatles – Abbey Road*
The Rolling Stones – Let it Bleed
Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II
Sly & the Family Stone – Stand!
Derek & the Dominos – Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs
John Lennon – Plastic Ono Band*
Led Zeppelin – III
Van Morrison – Moondance
George Harrison – All Things Must Pass*
Simon & Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water*
Paul McCartney – McCartney
Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On
John Lennon – Imagine*
Don McLean – American Pie
Led Zeppelin – IV
Rod Stewart – Every Picture Tells a Story
Nilsson, Harry – Nilsson Schmilsson
Neil Young – Harvest
Stevie Wonder – Talking Book
Paul Simon – Paul Simon
The Temptations – All Directions
Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Stevie Wonder – Innervisions
Paul McCartney & Wings – Band on the Run
Queen – Sheer Heart Attack
Bob Marley & the Wailers – Natty Dread
Led Zeppelin – Physical Graffiti
Bruce Springsteen – Born to Run
Dion – Born to Be With You
Queen – A Night at the Opera
Billy Joel – The Stranger
Electric Light Orchestra – Out of the Blue
Peter Gabriel – Peter Gabriel
Elvis Costello – My Aim is True
Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols
Elvis Costello – This Year’s Model
B52s – B52s
The Clash – London Calling
Michael Jackson – Off the Wall
AC/DC – Back in Black
Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five – The Message
Bruce Springsteen – Born in the USA
Paul Simon – Graceland
Michael Jackson – Bad
NWA – Straight Outta Compton
Black Crowes – Shake Your Money Maker
Nirvana – Nevermind
Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream
Liz Phair – Exile in Guyville
Nirvana – In Utero
Sheryl Crow – Tuesday Night Music Club
Portishead – Dummy
Beastie Boys – Ill Communication
TLC – CrazySexyCool
Offspring – Smash
Blur – Parklife
Notorious BIG – Ready to Die
Jeff Buckley – Grace
Nirvana – MTV Unplugged in New York
Nine Inch Nails – Downward Spiral
Green Day – Dookie
Foo Fighters – Foo Fighters
Garbage – Garbage
Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness
Elastica – Elastica
Oasis – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?
Beck – Odelay
The Eels – Beautiful Freak
Fiona Apple – Tidal
Fugees – The Score
Ash – 1977
Blur – Blur
Radiohead – OK Computer
System of a Down - System of a Down
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication
Coldplay – Parachutes
Eminem – Marshall Mathers LP
Gorillaz – Gorillaz
The Strokes – Is This It
The White Stripes – White Blood Cells
Norah Jones – Come Away with Me
Coldplay – A Rush of Blood to the Head
Johnny Cash – American IV: Man Comes Around
The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Beck – Sea Change
Justin Timberlake – Justified
The Vines – Highly Evolved
Radiohead – Hail to the Thief
The White Stripes – Elephant
OutKast – Speakerboxxx/Love Below
Rufus Wainwright – Want One
Brian Wilson – SMiLE
Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand*
Kanye West – College Dropout
Rufus Wainwright – Want Two
The Killers – Hot Fuss
The White Stripes – Get Behind Me Satan

Only 134?! Well, that's better than the other two, at least. And I've heard of a lot of the stuff on the list, but it's just not on my iTunes. Sigh. Where's the "1001 pieces of renaissance choral music to hear before you die" list? I'd rock that one.

Listy goodness to prove my lack of pop culture immersion

Through Kottke I found a list of 1001 movies to see before you die. I decided to make a list of my own of these movies, of what I'd seen. I also added some from the alterations of the list here. And like Kottke, I starred my favorites. It's only 1000 movies, right? Surely I must have seen at least 100 of them, right?

Wrong.


A Trip to the Moon (1902)
Seven Chances (1925)
The Gold Rush (1925)
Triumph of the Will (1934)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
Gone With the Wind (1939)
West Side Story (1961)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
A Hard Day’s Night (1964)*
The Sound of Music (1965)
The Jungle Book (1967)
Woodstock (1970)
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
The Godfather (1972)
Sleeper (1973)
The Godfather Part II (1974)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Star Wars (1977)*
Grease (1978)
The Muppet Movie (1979)
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)*
Airplane! (1980)
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
A Christmas Story (1983)
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)*
Amadeus (1984)
This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
Ghostbusters (1984)
Back to the Future (1985)
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
The Naked Gun (1988)
Big (1988)
Rain Man (1988)
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Glory (1989)
Goodfellas (1990)
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Raise the Red Lantern (1991)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Philadelphia (1993)
Forrest Gump (1994)*
Clerks (1994)*
The Lion King (1994)*
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Babe (1995)
Toy Story (1995)
Clueless (1995)
Independence Day (1996)
Scream (1996)
Titanic (1997)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
American Beauty (1999)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
The Matrix (1999)
Gladiator (2000)
Meet the Parents (2000)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)*
Amelie (2001)*
Moulin Rouge (2001)*
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Adaptation (2002)
Chicago (2002)
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
Lost in Translation (2003)
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
Sideways (2004)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)

That's 73. And the problem with that is I don't even remember if I've seen some of these in their entirety. See, most of these were not seen by me by a distinct desire to go see that specific movie. I half-watched them when they appeared on cable or I watched them for a class (like I would watch Triumph of the Will voluntarily. come on). I'm just not a movie person, I guess. I don't have the attention span to sit through them. Speaking of, there's at least three movies on that list where I definitely have not seen the ending, due to my falling asleep beforehand.

Surely the number I've read on the 1001 books to read before you die will be better, right?


Beloved – Toni Morrison
Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
Breakfast of Champions – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.*
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou
Slaughterhouse-five – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.*
Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut
The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov*
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell
Animal Farm – George Orwell
The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
The Awakening – Kate Chopin
The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Frankenstein – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Candide – Voltaire
Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift

Crap. Only 25, and all of them books I've read for a class for read with the intention on writing a paper on them for a class. At least I've reread many of them willingly. I shall blame this on that I either read more non-fiction, or more crappier books. (There's probably about five books on that list that I was supposed to read for a class and then didn't. Heh.)

I guess I shall be spending my summer watching movies and reading books. But it will probably end up being movies I've already seen and books I've already read. Oh well. I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that I have seen and read bits and pieces of many more on the lists, and probably know the general story of even more. This is the trick to making yourself seem smart: Know a little about a lot, and everyone will think you know what you're talking about, even when you haven't read the book, or seen the movie, or seen the movie based on the book.

A Lack of Truth in Advertising

Yesterday, Jarret and I were wandering around one of those stores that have clothes in the front and an odd assortment of housewares in the back. We were in the housewares section when I spotted an item called a "cube shelf" - I suppose it was for displaying your special stuff a little higher than your crappy stuff.

"Hey Jarret, do you want your very own cube?" I handed one to him. He peered at it.

"It doesn't look very cubey."

"Well, maybe the packaging makes it look funny."

Jarret then turned the box over and found this.

The "cube shelf" was, by definition, not a cube.

I feel so cheated.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

It's teacher appreciation week, and Tuesday was teacher appreciation day. My school's key club celebrated by making ice cream sundaes for all the teachers.

It tasted better because it was free.

(Update) And the national honors society provided us with brownies. Oh yeah.