7.15.2010

You guys play top 10? Top 5? I can't do top 5 of anything, too hard to limit it and get the priority right, and top 10 is just too many for here, so let's stick with top 3.

I have been playing "top" since about 9 years ago when I met my friend Bruce, he was interviewing me for a job. (He became my boss before my friend.)

"Top 3 bands?" he asked. I was flabbergasted. What kind of interview is this? He proceeded to ask about movies and books, and I recently generated top three for TV shows after rewatching Twin Peaks. So here are mine;

Music
-David Bowie
-Bob Dylan
-The Beatles

Films
-Harold and Maude
-The Royal Tenenbaums
-Cabaret

Books*
-Catcher in the Rye
-The Unbearable Lightness of Being
-Still Life With Woodpecker

Television
-Buffy the Vampire Slayer
-Twin Peaks
-Arrested Development


I love asking people this. And I try to always be prepared with my tops.

I asked Emilia's husband (then fiance) once about movies (since that's his jam), it might have been best movies of the decade that I asked about though, being freshly into 2010. He was a little caught off guard, unprepared with a list, but he ended up emailing me a well thought out list of like, 100. It was awesome.

How bout you all?

*I first thought of blogging about this after generating the TV top three, but I was embarrassed about the book section. Guys, I am not as literary as you all. This is a loose list here, one that I am not passionately attached to, so I feel a little, I dunno, like I shouldn't be claiming it, but I have to claim something. Anyways, after Michael** forced requested that Peonies pick her tops in music I had to do a tops post. Lets just not start talking about who we DON'T like, K?

**speaking of michael AKA the Flashdance, have you guys entered to win a free room at the Ace for his industry night?!??!

44 comments:

  1. Harold and Maude is *my* favorite movie. You're just going to have to pick something else.

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  2. Oh lord, trying to commit to three of each gives me palpitations. And will most likely keep me awake tonight. Thanks.

    I love you, even if you don't get it.

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  3. (now I REALLY am unplugging.)

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  4. music:
    nina simone
    bob dylan
    john lennon
    leonard cohen

    films:
    blue velvet
    wizard of oz
    godfather

    books:
    the fountainhead
    great gatsby
    on the road

    television:
    twin peaks
    sopranos
    30 rock
    daily show

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  5. FOUR IS CHEATING.

    {music}
    david bowie
    the smiths
    the magnetic fields

    {film}
    pretty in pink
    labyrinth
    nosferatu

    {books}
    infinite jest
    the master and margarita
    midnight's children

    {television}
    buffy the vampire slayer
    twin peaks
    mystery! (the adventures of sherlock holmes)

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  6. Anonymous8:13 AM

    Ahem ladies, actually Harold and Maude is MY favourite movie! So back off.

    My list, off the top of my head (so unlikely to be exhaustive):

    Music:
    Patti Smith
    Sonic Youth
    Leonard Cohen

    Film:
    Harold and Maude
    To Kill a Mockingbird
    When We Were Kings

    Books:
    Liquidation by Imre Kertesz
    Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
    Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid

    TV:
    The Wire
    Man I love lots of tv but I have trouble thinking of three faves! Other than The Wire, which is duh.

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  7. Good job, ladies.

    Except I'm kind of not joking--it's mine.

    What is WRONG with me today.

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  8. Music:
    Ben Folds (Five)
    Jens Lekman
    The Beatles

    Film:
    The Life Aquatic
    The Science of Sleep
    When Harry Met Sally

    Books:
    High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
    Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
    States of Mind by Brad Herzog

    TV:
    Northern Exposure
    Star Trek the Next Generation
    Twin Peaks

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  9. How to limit to a top 3?

    {Music}
    Pink Floyd
    Neil Young
    Queen Adreena

    {TV}
    Buffy
    Gossip Girl
    SATC (early stuff)

    {Books}
    I just can't pick a top 3. Will return.

    {Films}
    The Virgin Suicides
    The Breakfast Club
    The English Patient

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  10. Anonymous8:44 AM

    Amanda, it's cool. You are a worthy opponent.

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  11. this is very, very hard, but here's my go at it.

    MUSIC
    elvis costello
    pixies
    the smiths

    FILMS
    the graduate
    some like it hot
    amelie

    BOOKS
    east of eden
    middlesex
    where the sidewalk ends

    TV
    mad men
    the office (uk version)
    arrested development

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  12. JENS LEKMAN, cheryl! i very nearly put him on my list. it is actually impossible to listen to him without jumping up and down.

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  13. see now i want to rearange my booklist already.
    @celia my sister is reading middlesex right now and i want to re read it AS SOON as she is done. AND my soon to be nephew (brothers fiance's son) is coming to visit this weekend, we bought where the sidewalk ends for him!

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  14. Anonymous9:45 AM

    Oh man, I'd answer, but it's already a perfect blend of yours and Celia's. Especially the Buffy and The Graduate. I guess I'll change my Top 3 artists to mix it up: The Stranglers, Scott Walker, and Otis Redding :)
    Oh. Crap. Maybe The Damned, too.

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  15. Not to be a brag or anything, but Jens actually slept on my couch after a show once. It was a totally surreal night and I was much too nervous to have a decent conversation with him. Some of the ladies that play music with him stayed with me as well, they were so sweet and pretty. One of my best days ever, hands down.

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  16. @cheryl i have a similar story about will oldham. ;)

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  17. was it when he was on his anti-shyness tour?

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  18. Oooh I LOVE top 5! It is a regular occurance at all of our family gatherings.

    Top three seems harder (how to choose?? I love so many things! And my tastes are always changing...)

    Music:
    The Beatles
    Mason Jennings
    The Avett Brothers

    TV:
    The (British) Office
    Sex and the City
    True Blood

    Film:
    The Princess Bride (hands down my fave!)
    The Anniversary Party
    Garden State

    Books:
    High Fidelity (this is also in my top movie list)-Nick Hornby
    The Handmaid's Tale-Margaret Atwood
    Water for Elephants-Sara Gruen

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  19. i love playing top 3. but it is HARD!

    ok... (i still have some more i want to trade around - so difficult)

    *music*
    pixies (especially kim deal so i am kinda saying the breeders too... i know i am cheating so hard!)
    david bowie
    sparks (tied with the pretenders)

    *films*
    all about my mother
    party girl
    holy mountain

    *books*
    i love dick (chris kraus)
    kicking (leslie dick)
    catcher in the rye (j. d. Salinger)

    *tv*
    6 feet under
    the muppet show
    glee

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  20. music:
    richard buckner
    the beatles
    danny schmidt

    movies:
    in america
    harold and maude (sorry amanda)
    rushmore

    books:
    franny and zooey
    east of eden
    slouching towards bethlehem

    tv:
    freaks & geeks
    arrested development
    house

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  21. I have never been able to play this game! Not even a little bit. My mind starts racing and then I get nervous and then I start to freak out a little. I can't even name my top three books. Paralyzed with indecision, every. single. time.

    I think it stems from childhood trauma. They used to do this stuff as an icebreaker in school, except just with favorites. Favorite food, favorite song, favorite TV show. I was raised by a hippie (no normal food, no TV, lots of cohen records), so I knew that if I was honest my answers were going to make me sound completely weird. But if I tried to fake it then I would inevitably pick the wrong fake answer (like the popular TV show from 2 years back) and I would look even worse. God, school was terrible.

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  22. I'm going to have to stand in the corner with Rachel because I can never decide, either. Other than Bob Dylan and The Princess Bride. I change my mind too often.

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  23. MUSIC
    The Band
    The Beatles
    Bruce Springsteen

    FILM
    Breathless
    Manhattan
    Breakfast at Tiffany's

    BOOKS
    Big Bad Love
    The Boys of My Youth
    To Kill a Mockingbird

    TV
    Mad Men
    Deadwood
    Arrested Development

    ... I like this game; this is fun!

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  24. I am having an anxiety attack just thinking about my tops list. I'm going to need at least 24 hours and 1.5 bottles of wine before I decide.

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  25. the only band that matters is GBV (but only because of the reunion tour...)!

    and hey, here's that list of 100, but only bc i feel like filling up a lot of space here...which might be a little nerdy, but whatever....

    200 Or So Well Spent Hours in the 00’s

    1. Duck Season
    2. Mulholland Drive
    3. Ballast
    4. Oceans 11
    5. Kings and Queen
    6. The Royal Tenenbaums
    7. Lord of The Rings Trilogy
    8. 40 Shades of Blue
    9. Goodbye Solo
    10. Battle Royale
    11. Gozu
    12. Half Nelson
    13. Children of Men
    14. Y Tu Mama Tambien
    15. Talk to Her
    16. Volver
    17. George Washington
    18. Rachel Getting Married
    19. A Christmas Tale
    20. Wall-E
    21. Grizzly Man
    22. Capturing The Friedmans
    23. Twilight Samurai
    24. Cabin Fever
    25. Great World Of Sound
    26. 28 Days Later
    27. Broken Flowers
    28. Bad Lieutenant
    29. Punch Drunk Love
    30. Monster’s Ball
    31. City of God
    32. Grindhouse (as the double feature)
    33. Inland Empire
    34. Gerry
    35. Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind
    36. Hedwig And the Angry Inch
    37. Wet Hot American Summer
    38. The Good Girl
    39. Up The Yangtze
    40. Spirited Away
    41. Be Kind Rewind
    42. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
    43. Sideways
    44. Capote
    45. Friday Night Lights
    46. Let The Right One In
    47. Squid and The Whale
    48. Moulin Rouge
    49. Red Road
    50. I Love You, Man
    51. In The Bedroom
    52. Margot At The Wedding
    53. Chop Shop
    54. Hustle and Flow
    55. The Son
    56. Amores Perros
    57. Inside Man
    58. Last King of Scotland
    59. American Psycho
    60. Almost Famous
    61. The Company
    62. Cache
    63. You Can Count On Me
    64. The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys
    65. The Secret Lives of Dentists
    66. The Fog of War
    67. All The Real Girls
    68. Far From Heaven
    69. Gosford Park
    70. Audition
    71. Pan’s Labyrinth
    72. The King
    73. Shortbus
    74. Donnie Darko
    75. Old Boy
    76. In The Mood For Love
    77. Big Bad Love
    78. Wendy and Lucy
    79. There Will Be Blood
    80. Amelie
    81. The Barbarian Invasions
    82. Spiderman
    83. The Lives of Others
    84. Far From Heaven
    85. Goodbye, Lenin
    86. Maria Full of Grace
    87. The New World
    88. The Swimming Pool
    89. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
    90. Tarnation
    91. The Edge Of Heaven
    92. Dogville
    93. The Descent
    94. Whale Rider
    95. Borat
    96. Synecdoche, NY
    97. Chuck and Buck
    98. Superbad
    99. No End In Sight
    100. Two Lovers

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  26. Anonymous3:38 PM

    Bianca, I think my husband has a crush on you now for putting Holy Mountain in your top 3 movies!

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  27. Dude...we had two readings from Woodpecker in the ceremony!

    Ok I'm going to attempt this but never asked me to repeat it because most likely it cannot be duplicated.

    MUSIC
    fuck...I'm stuck already...
    um.
    ok.
    Nirvana (I'm a 13 year old from 1993 stuck in a 30 year old's body in 2010, what can I say)
    Tom Wait and Leonard Cohen (hey, they're tied)
    PJ Harvey

    FILM
    The Women
    Une Femme est Une Femme or Amelie
    Labyrinth

    BOOKS
    People of Paper
    Jesus' Son (actually I have to reread this and see)
    The Book of Laughter and Forgetting


    TV
    Six Feet Under
    My So-Called Life
    90210 (don't judge)

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  28. PS: I apologize for my husband. He is a madman.

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  29. obviously not the only person who cheated (um, felt cheated by 3 choices!!!) love reading everyone's bests... @emilia NIRVANA!!!!????!!! yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!

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  30. Yes! Harold and Maude is my perennial favorite, too! I first saw it about six years ago, and it was love instantly. Catcher in the Rye is tied for first in books for me, along with Cat's Cradle (Vonnegut... actually, any Vonnegut book).

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  31. ok, yeah I'm sucked in now.

    music:
    bob dylan
    richard ashcroft
    the beach boys

    movies:
    Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
    Breaking the Waves
    American History X
    Gone with the Wind (i'm a cheater too)

    books:
    the alchemist
    siddhartha
    i shock myself: the autobiography of beatrice wood

    tv:
    breaking bad
    mad men
    my so called life (holla Emilia!)

    THREE IS SOOO HARD. MIND SPINNING.

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  32. Novels (last 10 years):
    A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
    The History of Love
    Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

    Novels (pre-2000):
    East of Eden
    Anna Karenina
    The Bonfire of the Vanities

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  33. p.s. I'm so glad you did this. Summer reading list.

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  34. F*CK!!! MY SO CALLED LIFE! WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT?!!

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  35. Ben Left8:50 PM

    tom waits
    neil young
    kinks

    rumble fish
    up in smoke
    the party

    post office
    the hero with a thousand faces
    me talk pretty one day

    twin peaks
    buffy the vampire slayer
    wonder years

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  36. little sister8:54 PM

    Books.
    James & the Giant Peach
    How to kill a Mockingbird
    23 Minutes in Hell

    Music.
    Sublime
    Chiodos
    Escape the Fate

    Movies.
    The Labyrinth
    Dazed & Confused
    Alice in Wonderland(the original)

    Teli.
    The Cleveland Show
    Aqua Teen Hunger Force
    Family Guy

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  37. Oh, this is fun- I'm a HUGE list person!

    MUSIC

    Kate Bush
    Arcade Fire
    The Smiths

    BOOKS

    The Remains of the Day
    Wuthering Heights
    The Scarlet Letter

    FILMS

    The Science of Sleep
    Away We Go
    In the Name of the Father

    TV

    Dawson's Creek
    McCleod's Daughters
    Grand Designs UK

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  38. I can't believe Ben and I don't have ANY of the same top threes in music. But that's just the thing, (ahem, naurnie) it might change day to day. This is really just a snapshot of what we think today, our all time favorites are, right? Wow, harold and maude represent!
    ashley for a GREAT summer reading list check out this post, looking for book ideas for my little sister, but SO MANY are on there that I enjoyed as an adult.
    @emilia yeah kundera!
    @bill, you slay me. But are those in order? There are a few I can't get behind. I couldn't even finish watching I Love You, Man. Ben either, so it is not just my distaste for that general genre.

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  39. J.
    those are not even remotely in order....and that was just a 00-09 list.
    as for i love you, man...i can't say i don't blame you. the apatow universe can get tiresome, but i still think it's a well done bro-mance and one of the funnier films i remember seeing from that time. crush on RUSH? indeed.

    but if you want to know my absolute, 100% all time fav....a woman under the influence. so real and perfect and wonderful....

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  40. Anonymous1:23 PM

    jamie.

    i'm doing this. because i lurv you. and for no other reason. this also comes w/ the disclaimer that these things change for me on a daily basis, but the number ones never change for me. just the #2 + #3 slots can change on a whim.

    ready, set go:

    music:
    bob dylan
    tom petty + the heartbreakers
    gram parsons

    books:
    to kill a mockingbird
    other voices/other rooms
    middlesex

    movies:
    harold + maude (yes, i'm adding to the list of harold + maude crazies. i first watched it at camp at age 11 when an amazingly cool counselor made us watch it on a rainy day).
    almost famous.
    the goonies.

    tv shows:
    the wonder years
    freaks + geeks
    hoarders

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  41. oh geez. I wasn't going to play, but now I'm sucked in. This is terribly difficult, btw. And these are just off the top of the head, mind you. Without serious pondering... Must qualify my answers in case I remember something better after I commit these to the blog-space forever.

    Music
    The Beatles
    Bob Marley
    Bob Dylan
    (come on with only picking 3, I feel I must pick classics)


    Films

    The Party
    Best in Show
    The Life Aquatic (insert other w.a. title here)



    Books

    East of Eden
    Sometimes a Great Notion
    The God of Small Things

    (the books category REALLY isn't fair, btw. I am leaving out only 47 others that I love as much. Maybe this category should have been authors? So I could have included everything by Tom Robbins, Tom Wolfe, Michael Chabon, Anne Lamott, ... man I really suck at this)

    Television

    Mad Men
    Sex and the City
    (sorry, I cannot think of other shows that I REALLY insanely love)

    That became oddly stressful at the end there.

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  42. Why is my post all weirdly spaced?

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  43. This is such a fun post and the responses have been great. I had to share the idea on my blog too - you've inspired me.

    Mine are (but subject to change):
    Music
    - Radiohead
    - The Beatles
    - Tegan and Sara

    Films
    - The Life of Brian
    - Amelie
    - Donnie Darko

    Books
    - Everything Is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer
    - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
    - Jonathan Livingstone Seagull - Richard Bach

    Television
    - Twin Peaks
    - Buffy the Vampire Slayer
    - Spaced

    I shared with my blog readers here www.rosalilium.blogspot.com

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  44. if you like the royal tenembaums (like me) you probably like this: http://www.casablock.com/2011/07/royal-friday.html

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