Wow, I haven’t written anything in over a month! And I know I haven’t done a Top 5 Tuesday entry in several weeks. Today I return with my top 5 favorite sodas/soft drinks/pops/whatever you like to call them.
1. Dr Pepper
2. A&W Cream Soda
3. Mountain Dew Code Red
4. Cherry Coke
5. Coca Cola
Honorable Mention (discontinued flavors):
Coke with Lime
Surge
Since a number of friends have done this lately, I figured I’d add my own humble list to the bunch. The following are all the books I finished in the year 2008. I won’t bother ranking favorites this time, because there are so few of them and they’re so different from one another that it’s very difficult to judge one against another. I’m listing them in the order in which I read them, and I hope the number I read in 2009 is at least twice as large.
1. The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon [began in fall 2007, finished in winter 2008]
2. The Mysterious Affair At Styles by Agatha Christie [the very first Hercule Poirot mystery]
3. The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth
4. A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle
5. A Wind In The Door by Madeleine L’Engle
6. No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
7. Boys Will Be Boys: The Glory Days And Party Nights Of The Dallas Cowboys Dynasty by Jeff Pearlman
Haven’t posted anything in a while, and since I just opened iTunes, it feels like a good time for one of these “put your music player on random and see what plays” lists.
1. The Everly Brothers – Bye Bye Love
2. America – Sister Golden Hair
3. Death Cab For Cutie – No Sunlight
4. Cat Stevens – Tuesday’s Dead
5. Smalltown Poets – Inside the Bubble
6. Oasis – Morning Glory
7. Chris Rice – Smellin’ Coffee
8. Glisten – Untainted
9. Mae – The Sun And The Moon
10. Dave Matthews – Some Devil
11. Peel – Trenchula
12. Howard Shore – The Breaking of the Fellowship
13. The Who – I Can’t Explain
14. Hamilton, Joe Frank, and Reynolds – Don’t Pull Your Love Out
15. Sufjan Stevens – All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace!
16. Editors – An End Has A Start
17. Sanctus Real – Beautiful Day
18. Dave Matthews – Dodo
19. Department of Eagles – No One Does It Like You
20. Neil Diamond – Thank The Lord For The Night Time
I was going to make this a Top 5 Tuesday entry but had trouble coming up with 5 examples I could find video for. While I was at work today I started thinking about my favorite content edits made to movies so they can air on network TV stations. I found a few of the best ones I could think of on youtube, but not enough for a real Top 5 Tuesday, so I’ll have to delay that category’s resurrection another week.
I’ll begin with arguably the two most legendarily awful edits, the ones most frequently brought up in discussions on this topic.
The Big Lebowski: John Goodman takes a crowbar and breaks all of the windows on a nice sports car, yelling at its supposed owner, “You see what happens when you f*** a stranger in the a**?” But in TV edits, the line is heard as “You see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps?”
Die Hard 2: Bruce Willis has just had a fight with a terrorist on the wing of a passenger jet about to take off, and the fight ended with Willis getting kicked off the wing and falling to the ground, but in the process he manages to open the fuel door/hatch thing (do planes really have those right there?) and as the plane escapes it leaves a trail of fuel behind it. Willis takes out his lighter, says his trademark “Yippie ki yay, motherf*****!” line and throws the lighter onto the line of fuel, which eventually gets to the plane just as its taking off and blows it up. But in the TV version, Bruce Willis says, “Yippie ki yay, Mr. Falcon”, and in a voice that is obviously not that of Willis.” High comedy.
The Usual Suspects: Career criminals (played by Kevin Pollack, Stephen Baldwin, Benicio Del Toro, Gabriel Byrne, and Kevin Spacey) are put together for a police lineup of suspects. They are told to read the line on the card they are passed. They all take their turns reading the line, “Hand me the keys, you f****** c*********!” In the TV version, however, they all say “Hand me the keys, you fairy godmother.” That’s one of the more inspired ones I’ve ever seen.
Pulp Fiction, as you can imagine, is nearly unrecognizable when it appears on edited TV stations. There’s not really one good clip, but there is a pretty good video compiling some of the more obvious edits.
One of my other favorites was a number of Samuel L. Jackson’s lines in Jackie Brown, such as “motherf*****” becoming “my friend”, or “motherfu**ing” becoming “mutual-funded”, but I haven’t found any videos of that. And it’s late and I need sleep. If anyone can think of other good ones, feel free to mention them, or post video links.
Top 5 Tuesday returns after a too long absence, not that anyone noticed. The State Fair of Texas ends this Sunday and I may end up spending that afternoon and evening at the Fair with my family. It’s been two years since I last went (as of today) and in my 26 years I have only been to the State Fair of Texas 3 times. It is an event known for a number of things, but what is most unique about it may be its wide assortment of creative baked and fried foods. In past years they’ve had everything from fried oreos to fried Twinkies. This year’s food list includes another impressive (or excessive) array of totally unhealthy foods that I’m quite curious about. So for this week’s entry, I’ll list the top 5 foods I want to try at the 2008 State Fair of Texas. Food descriptions are from the Fair’s official website.
1. Chicken Fried Bacon – “Thick and peppery Farm Pac® bacon is seasoned, double-dipped in a special batter and breading and deep-fried. Served with a creamy side of ranch or honey mustard sauce.”
2. Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Waffle Balls – “Plump fresh strawberries covered in a thick chocolate shell are dipped in a sweet, waffle batter and deep-fried. Dusted with powdered sugar and served on a stick.”
3. Deep Fried Apple Bites – “Fresh cut apples dipped in a homemade batter, deep fried, and then covered with a caramel sauce and cinnamon topping!”
4. Fried Banana Split – “A mixture of banana and honey peanut butter is rolled in balls, battered and deep-fried and topped with assorted, delicious fixings, including powdered sugar, caramel and chocolate syrups, chopped peanuts, whipped cream and banana split flavored ice cream bites then fittingly crowned with the traditional cherry.”
5. Fernie’s All-American Fried Grilled Cheese Sandwich – “An American classic with a State Fair twist. Two slices of white bread filled with a blend of American and cheddar cheeses, dipped in an egg and milk batter and lightly coated with panko bread crumbs for extra crispness. Served with a side of shoestring potato sticks, a pickle spear and tomato soup dipping sauce. The All American Meal!”
Top 5 Tuesday took the week off last week, as I was ill and otherwise uninspired as far as list topics go. Since I’m gonna be posting a movie list or two later on in the week I’ll make this week’s list my top 5 movies of 2002, which was a very good year for movies overall, and one of my favorite movie years this decade so far.
1. 25th Hour
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
3. Adaptation
4. Punch-Drunk Love
5. Y Tu Mamá También
This week’s category: 5 of my favorite movie dance scenes/sequences (non-musicals only). I’m sure I’ll remember one or two later on that I should have included. I’ll do top 5 musical dance sequences another week.
1. Jon Favreau and Heather Graham in Swingers
I love how they start off somewhat awkwardly and get into it more as they go along with the music, played by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. This is probably the movie dance scene I most wish I could live out.
2. Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFadyen in the 2005 version of Pride & Prejudice
Mainly for the great cinematography and the tension between the two leads.
3. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Highly entertaining movie, and this was one of its better scenes. I should also mention that it is one of two on this list from movies directed by Doug Liman.
4. A reluctant John Travolta and a cocaine-infused Uma Thurman dancing in the Jackrabbit Slim’s twist contest in Pulp Fiction
5. Heath Ledger faking his way through a country dance with Shannyn Sossamon in A Knight’s Tale
The David Bowie music and the sudden shift into modern dance style either makes it or breaks it for most people. For me, it makes it.
This week, my top 5 Blue Bell ice cream flavors, as well as my top 5 from the Ben & Jerry’s line. The flavor descriptions were copied from the official websites for both companies, with the exception of Blue Bell’s Moo-llenium Crunch.
Blue Bell
1. Candy Jar
- Rich caramel ice cream containing all of your favorite candy pieces – peanut butter cups, chocolate chunks, peanut brittle, chunks of caramel and chocolate crisp pieces.
2. Moo-llennium Crunch
- Vanilla ice cream with dark chocolate and caramel chunks, roasted pecan halves, chopped almonds and walnuts
3. Cookies ‘n Cream
4. Mocha Almond Fudge
5. Peaches & Homemade Vanilla
*Honorable Mention (Grand Jury Prize):
Homemade Vanilla, because you can mix it with practically anything; warm peach cobbler, cakes, candies, other ice cream flavors, you name it. It’s the most flexible of flavors and my favorite brand of vanilla ice cream.
Ben & Jerry’s:
1. Cherry Garcia
- Cherry ice cream with cherries & fudge flakes
2. Stephen Colbert’s AmeriCone Dream
- Vanilla ice cream with fudge covered waffle cone pieces & a caramel swirl
3. Phish Food
- Chocolate ice cream with gooey marshmellow, a caramel swirl & fudge fish
4. Willie Nelson’s Country Peach Cobbler
- Peach ice cream with cinnamon-sugar shortbread pieces
5. Neapolitan Dynamite
- Cherry Garcia and Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice creams, side by side
*Honorable mention (favorite discontinued flavors):
1. Nutty Waffle Cone
- Vanilla malt ice cream with fudge-dipped waffle cone pieces, fudge-covered peanuts and magnificent fudge swirls
2. One Sweet Whirled (its name was inspired by the Dave Matthews Band song “One Sweet World”, and some of the profits from this flavor’s sale went to an environmentalist organization that band supported)
- Caramel & coffee ice creams with marshmallow & caramel wwirls & coffee flavored fudge chips
This week: favorite live music videos (Professional division)
1. U2, “Where The Streets Have No Name” (from the Elevation Tour 2001: Live from Boston DVD)
At the 1:14 mark, this clip has one of the most goosebump-inducing camera shots I’ve ever seen in any concert film.
2. Coldplay, “Clocks” (live at the 2006 Isle of Wight festival)
This one has a great ending, I wish they’d ended the album version that way.
3. John Mayer, “Belief” (from his Where The Light Is DVD)
Has some of the most infectious guitar licks of any song I’ve heard lately.
4. The Who, “Baba O’Riley” (live at the Concert for New York)
The band has given far more energetic performances than this (see: here), and Roger Daltrey’s voice is almost painful to listen to in the early verses, but this was possibly the most emotionally-charged performance of their career (which just happened to be one of the last, if not the last concert they played before bassist John Entwistle died). They were part of the lineup of bands that played the Concert For New York at Madison Square Garden barely a month after 9/11, and the audience was filled with New York firefighters, law enforcement officers, and their families. By almost all accounts, The Who gave the best performance on the night, and this was one of the 4 songs they played at that concert.
5. Ray LaMontagne, “Three More Days” (live on the BBC Four Sessions program)
I also really love his performance of “Forever My Friend” on the Late Show With David Letterman, but I could only choose one of them, so I went with this, one of a few songs he did for the BBC Four Sessions show. His performance of “Be Here Now” on the same show was excellent as well.
I realize it’s technically Wednesday, but I wanted to start a new weekly series now rather than later.
This week: favorite live music videos (Amateur division)
1. Sufjan Stevens, “The Transfiguration” (live in Milwaukee, WI 9/25/06)
2. Mute Math, “Noticed” (live at La Zona Rosa in Austin, TX 10/15/06)
3. U2 & Arcade Fire, “Love Will Tear Us Apart” [Joy Division cover] (live in Montreal 11/28/05)
4. Five Times August, “Audience of Zero” (live at a Virgin Megastore, probably in Grapevine, TX)
5. Jars of Clay, “Light Gives Heat” (live in Minneapolis, MN October 2006)
