Category Archives: lists

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The 20 Most Influential Albums In the Development of My Current Musical Sensibility

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I think I said I was going to work on a Top 50 Records list about a year and a half ago. It was probably longer.

Anyway, I came up with a starting point (a top 20) early last spring, but I lost the list for a time. Fortunately, I had made Michelle a DVD for music fun at work, and I was able to remember everything on the list from there.

A couple quick disclaimers:
The list is in no particular order. As I recall, when I made it, I referred to my Top 10 Fave Artists list, and pressed on from there.
That said, this list is not meant to be indicative of the 20 Greatest Albums Ever Recorded or something like that. It might not even be my 20 favorites at this moment. I guess the most apt description would be The 20 Most Influential Albums in the Development of My Current Musical Sensibility. You *might* also get away with calling this a Desert Island Top 20.
I knowingly and willfully violate The McCulloch Principle more than once. This was primarily a consequence of the project’s original motivation (creating a DVD for Michelle, and so all of these albums had to be available on my server).

So, as my friend and Internet compatriot Mr. Schneider would say, “onward.”

20. “Led Zepplin II” by Led Zepplin
19. “Sinatra Reprise – The Very Good Years” by Frank Sinatra
18. “Nevermind” by Nirvana
17. “Good News for People Who Love Bad News” by Modest Mouse
16. “The Moon & Antarctica” by Modest Mouse
15. “Siamese Dream” by Smashing Pumpkins
14. “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd
13. “Pulse” by Pink Floyd
12. “Echoes” by Storyhill
11. “Kid A” by Radiohead
10. “The Bends” by Radiohead
09. “Rubber Soul” by the Beatles
08. “the white album” by the Beatles
07. “The Joshua Tree” by U2
06. “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” by U2
05. “Recovering the Satellites” by Counting Crows
04. “The Colour & the Shape” by Foo Fighters
03. “The Ultimate Experience” by Jimi Hendrix (& The Experience/Band of Gypsys, et al)
02. “Purple” by Stone Temple Pilots
01. “1984” by Van Halen

I’m going to post this list in the ‘Lists’ forum as well, so feel free to discuss/debate it there with me if you like.

I’m going to try to finish the list (i.e., get to 50), and if you’re lucky, it will take less than 18 months.

General, lists, Sports, Uncategorized

Makin Lists

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Hey.

Help me remember all the stuff I have to get done this week before heading out on the road with Michelle for a week.

Today I did all the laundry that I had around the house. I went shopping for another pair of shorts (I have a few that are pretty old and ratty and need to be disposed of). I cleaned out the car, took out all the crap that was laying in the trunk, re-packed only the stuff I’ll need, and I started a list of things I need to take so I can pack tomorrow.

I was pretty pissed at the end of the Brewers game today. Seems to me that there are certain areas where the team is obviously falling short, and if don’t pick it up, or make a move or three to turn things around, the season’s gonna be a wash. It seems weird, though, to be thinking about being all upset that the Brewers are falling behind in the playoff race.

Anyway, my GF is on the phone, so I better take this. Talk to you tomorrow.

General, lists, Uncategorized

The Listing Challenge

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Hey.

I’ve been busy with work and… other stuff. Been gone a lot of weekends lately, too.

Not that I’m complaining about how my weekends have been playing out at all. Cuz I’m definitely not. I love weekends. They’re pretty much the best part of the week.

I have some things to say about summer movies, independence, automobiles, DVDs, Best Buy, thread counts, baseball, and the atmosphere, but being at work I have time for none of them right now.

What I would like to do is hatch my latest idea for ‘audience participation’ here in the realm of soloshootsfirst…

In the past, there have been occasions where we, as a web community, have forwarded opinions on the Best or Worst of something, and I was scrolling through my CDs yesterday, trying to decide if I could come up with a list of my Top 50 All-Time? Favorite Records. I’m going to make a go of it, and I encourage any and all of you to pop over to the “Lists” forum and post yours as well. While certainly not necessary, it would be neat to have a little blurb about each. I’m curious to see the breadth and variety (as well as commonalities) that are sure come out in our respective lists…

General, lists, Uncategorized

First!

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Yeah, so this is the first time in a while that I’ve done any work on the website at all while actually seated at my desk and clocked in at work. Man, been since Res Life, I tell ya.

You may have noticed on the first page this thing about “Top-V.net,” which, if you go ahead and type that URL into your browser, you’ll see it’ll direct you to this same website. For those of you who freak out when there’s a change in Internet status for a friend or relative (Schneider), rest assured, all your old links still work, and my email address is still the same. Basically, I just wanted to register a new domain so when I tell new folks where the site is, I don’t have to explain which key is for the tildae, or however the hell you spell that.

Where did the name “top-V” come from? Well, clearly this site has now been declared the Roman edition of “Top Five dot net,” because I was thinking about how often I share an on-the-fly top five list with people in conversation. I’m not sure if my propensity to make the lists makes it less enjoyable or more enjoyable to talk to me, but, as you would’ve seen on the top page with the holiday greetings, I’m not caring too much about that because I know it’s just not too significant.

Anyway, topfive.com was taken, and so was .net, and so were top-five.com and net, as well as top5, top-5, and so were all the .org’s. At that point, I thought about picking a different number, and wouldn’t you know it? All the permutations of “top ten” were gone as well. The URL search engine @ Server Central suggested I go with something like “greatestfive,” which is completely available, but what the computer didn’t realize was that “greatestfive” is available for a reason. Thought about going with some other numbers as well, and for whatever reason, I picked “topeight.net”

I was *this* close to registering that one when my roommate Dave walked in and suggested that I try top-“romannumeralfive,” but of course, spelling out “romannumeral” is ridiculous, and I said to Dave, “What if I just use the Roman numeral itself?”
“A smashing idea,” he replied.

And that’s all. There it is. Top Five dot net, the Roman edition.

In other news, I sat at the desk here for some time this evening, doing jack squat, so I tried my hand at playing “Othello,” everyone’s favorite race-relations game, on my PDA. Results were as follows:
Game 1: Computer, 57-7
Game 2: Computer, 61-3
Game 3: Computer, 64-0
Game 4: Computer, 61-3
Game 5: Computer: 61-3

Those were my top five scores. After I finished five games, I realized that I had no idea how to play this game.

Well, time to knock off for the day. Have a Merry Christmas, talk to you again soon.