Okay, here goes. I'm sure nothing will surprise most of you.
20. ColumboI love detective shows in general. A lot of the newer ones (
Monk, Psych, Castle) are great, but they all follow the pattern of Sherlock Holmes. That is, they all have a genius with a sidekick who help out the inept police. Columbo was different. It was just him, always 2 steps ahead of the criminal, and always with an amazing rotation of guest stars. I can't get enough of '70s B-list actors, especially when they're trading in their
Love Boat-quality acting chops and trying to be scene-chewing villains.
19. '70s Disaster MoviesSpeaking of B-list actors from the '70s...this is my absolute favorite rainy day entertainment. I love the big ones:
Towering Inferno, Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake, all of the
Airports. I love the MSTed ones:
City on Fire, SST-Death Flight, Superdome. I love the obscure ones:
Two-Minute Warning, Killdozer.
The backstories of the characters are always the same. The villain (when it's not just a natural disaster) is always one-dimensional. The heroes are always gritty and in over their heads. And when they're played by the likes of Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Karl Malden, George Kennedy, Peter Graves, and Charleton Heston, it's just an awesome way to spend 90 minutes.
18. Moby DickI hated this book the first time I read it. I was in high school and my teacher said it was the perfect book to prepare for the AP Engilsh exam. All I cared about was whether Ahab would kill Moby or not. I couldn't give 2 bits for chapter after chapter about the strategy of harpooneers or the philosophical nature of sperm whales.
I read it again during a time of major transition in my early 20s and it left me speechless. Melville's metaphors and references finally hit me. His philosophical ramblings and telegraphed imagery suddenly became revolutionary to me and my way of thinking. I've read it every summer now for 15 years. I'll be pulling it off the shelf this week for number 16.
17. GenesisI've presented
my detailed thoughts on these guys elsewhere. I have a fondness for progressive rock and a fondness for '80s pop. I have a HUGE love of good musicianship and good songwriting. Genesis fits all of the above. Their career arc was the reverse of the Beatles-- they started innovative and complex and ended commercial. Any band that cites Genesis as an influence is bound to get my attention.
16. The Atari 2600I've played every system that's come down Mario's pipe. From Soho down to Brighton, I must have played them all. They might be full of amazing graphics, exciting thrills, and weeks of replay value, but you never forget your first time. And 8-bit is where it's at. I must have played Defender and River Raid for a combined year of my life.
15. CasablancaThe perfect movie. Maybe it's the classic dialogue. Maybe it's the romantic tension. Maybe it's vintage Lorre, Greenstreet, Rains and Bogart. Maybe it's because I have a massive crush on Ingrid Bergman.
Yeah, it's probably that.
14. Jeff BuckleyMy favorite artist of my lifetime. His creativity with the guitar rivaled anyone in the world. His singing, with its emotion, range, and power was like no one before or since-- although many have since tried. In my opinion, his untimely death, with only one real album to his name, is as tragic to the art world as Van Gogh's suicide at age 37. But what an album it was.
Grace is my favorite album ever, with its twists and turns. I love how it balances the raw power and the sheer beauty from one track to the next. Unparalleled.
13. The Phantom TollboothSimply a classic of literature. I remember the pure joy I had the first time I read it as a 9 year old. That joy was surpassed when I read it to my kids last year. It's a treasure of fantasy and imagination. Puns might be the lowest form of humor, but in Juster's hands, they are works of storytelling genius. What inquisitive child
wouldn't want to be Milo?
12. Fender GuitarsThere's a time and a place for your Les Pauls or your Rickenbackers or your Gretsch hollow-bodies, but you always go back to Fender. Everyone always goes back to Fender. There is no sound on the planet as perfect to me as a Fender guitar through a Fender amp. When Stevie Ray bends that bluesy E-string, when David Gilmour sustains that atmospheric seventh, when Springsteen hits that jangly A-chord, it's the way music is supposed to sound. It's like my ears are eating a perfect piece of steak. Like my ears are seeing a sublime mountain stream. Like my ears are hearing a Fender.
11. RUSH"If you liked the complexity of Genesis, but the power of Black Sabbath, then RUSH was the band for you." Taylor Hawkins, the great Foo Fighters' drummer, said that in the recent RUSH documentary. I absolutely agree. As a musician, I sat at the feet of these guys for years, learning every lick, every fill, every solo, and then going back for more. Neil said in that same documentary that he never gets tired of playing "Tom Sawyer" because, "It's a really difficult song to play, and when I play it correctly, it feels great!" That's what it's like to listen to these guys for me. Whine about Geddy's voice all you want, but RUSH is one of the most influential, best-selling, and consistent bands ever. They still pack out arenas, they're still putting out top-10 albums of new material, and they still are criminally disrespected by the media. Three of the best rock musicians in history AND they all played in the same band? Yes, please.
10. Lord of the RingsMy dad read these books to me when I was a kid. They'd easily make this list strictly as literature. Tolkien invented a genre, and every sci-fi or fantasy storyteller since, whether in movies, TV, or books, has stolen from him. Then, they made movies of the books, and the movies didn't suck! One of the great memories of my life was the day
Return of the King came out. I had a ticket to the all-day showing of the extended editions of the first 2 films, followed by the midnight premiere of RotK. It completely spoiled me for any moviegoing experiences again.
9. DiscworldTake my love of British humor, my love of satire, my love of fantasy, and it's like Sir Terry Pratchett is writing just for me. There are over 35 books in the series, and some are better than others. But his characters, use of language, and sheer inventiveness show that his work is a model for any aspiring writer.
8. C. S. LewisI did my Master's thesis on Lewis, and it was worth every minute of research and study. Lewis was an Oxford professor of Medieval and Renaissance Lit., and always had the ability to balance truth and beauty in his thinking. His faith journey (from cultural Irish Catholicism to Atheism to becoming a Christian apologist) is always compelling. He was passionate about reason, but also loved poetry. He loved language and demanded accuracy in meaning. His
Narnia books are bona fide classics. He wrote a pretty decent trilogy of sci-fi books. He foresaw the abandonment of objective meaning and the rise of postmodernism. His apologetic essays are still quoted everywhere today. I have a recording of John Cleese reading
The Screwtape Letters, and it's as amazing as you would think.
7. The Moon LandingI am a space nerd. Unabashed. I eat up anything and everything from the NASA run to the moon of the 1960s. Since this is an arts & entertainment thread, I'll reference the great productions about that era:
The Right Stuff, Apollo 13,
In the Shadow of the Moon, and the outstanding HBO miniseries,
From the Earth to the Moon. I've also enjoyed the biographies & autobiographies of Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins, Gene Kranz, and Deke Slayton. If I could be anyone at any time in history, I'd be an Apollo astronaut.
6. Back to the FutureThis was the first movie I saw in the theater without adult supervision. My best friend and I got dropped off at the mall as 10-year-olds. My parents picked us up hours later, after we had watched BttF 3 straight times. The perfect movie at the perfect time for me, and a movie that keeps getting better through the years. Have I dressed as Marty McFly for Halloween, and do I have a model Delorean and a "Save the Clocktower" t-shirt? Maybe.
5. BaseballKeep your NBA. Keep your overexposed NFL. Keep your NCAA "amateur" sports. Baseball is the greatest sport. Growing up in Chicago, I went to Wrigley Field a dozen times a year. Here in Colorado, I got to experience front-row seats to the amazing 2007 run to the World Series. I'll follow the Cubs and Rockies every day for six months. But it's deeper than that. I'll watch all 9 innings of a Nationals-Pirates game. I'll DVR a spring training game. I've seen
The Natural, Eight Men Out, Field of Dreams and
Major League at least 100 times.
4. The Coen BrothersThese guys are why I go to the movies. If I listed my top 30 favorite movies, at least 7 of them would be Coen Bros. films:
Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, Fargo, Hudsucker Proxy, The Man Who Wasn't There, No Country for Old Men, and
A Serious Man. Their dialogue makes other screenwriters look like film school dropouts. Their cinematography makes me stare and then shake my head in awe. They mix comedy and violence, they mix picturesque and surreal, they combine the innocent with the shocking. What Pratchett is to satirical fiction, what Jeff Buckley is to music making, the Coen Brothers are to film.
3. '80s MusicI've
detailed this elsewhere, as well. Suffice it to say, I love my nostalgia, and nothing in arts & entertainment shaped me as much as the 5 years I spent tethered to my Walkman listening to the radio from 1983-1988. It was the glory years of MTV, and the last time an artist could be truly original and still have a hit record. I'm not going to defend the quality or ignore the cheeziness. But there's nothing ironic about my love for this stuff. I feel no guilt for loving Lionel Richie. I feel no shame for singing along to Hall & Oates in my car. I have nothing but a smile when I think about the Thompson Twins or old Huey Lewis videos.
2. Cult TV ShowsMy favorite shows seem to be the one- or two-season wonders:
Brisco County Jr., Sledge Hammer!, Firefly, Freaks & Geeks, Arrested Development, Voyagers and
Sports Night. Throw in a couple other shows that lasted longer, but are still considered cult favorites:
Newsradio, Quantum Leap, Dr. Who, LOST, and
Twilight Zone. I'll take any of these shows over any episode of
Seinfeld, Friends, Two and a Half Men, Survivor, American Idol, Glee, or any other piece of popular pabulum.
1. MST3KWell, duh.
Honorable mention: The Beatles, Kurosawa, early Simpsons, Futurama, Iron Maiden, The Shawshank Redemption, Mel Brooks, and classic '80s comedies like Caddyshack, Vacation, Ghostbusters, Spinal Tap, Blues Brothers, Three Amigos and Airplane.