Tuesday's Top Ten

I read on a friend of mine's blog this idea of creating a top ten list on random Tuesdays and have decided to steal it so I can have something to blog about. So here it goes my top ten favorite musicians:
1. The Beatles: I have grown to love and respect the Beatles more than any other music artists out there. They have the best selection of songs to choose from and have experimented with so many types of music that they cross into so many genres. They have defined what great music is in the 20th Century. With songs like "Hey Jude," "Yesterday," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Let it Be," "Helter Skelter," and "Strawberry Fields Forever" who could compete?
2. The Killers: This has become a band that I really appreciate. Their sound is a throwback to the English invasion sound of the early sixties mixed with an alternative sound that makes them really unique. All three of their cd's out are great each having at least five great songs, five good songs, and a few songs that are just okay. Not bad for an album. Their lyrics are great, their sound is great, overall an awesome band.
3. Lauryn Hill: I have loved Lauryn ever since 1998. I remember first seeing the music video for "Doo Wop" at my friends house because my parents had blocked MTV from our house. Ever since then I have been addicted. I have gone back and listened to the Fugees which she was a part of, but her solo career is what I really love. She blends a combination of R&B, Hip Hop, and rap that is really amazing to listen to. She has a really soulful voice and she writes a tight lyric. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is one of my most listened to albums ever. And recenty she released a song called "Lose Yourself" on the Surfs Up soundtrack that could be my favorite song of hers.
4. Blink 182: I know I will catch a lot of flack for this one, but my jr. high and high school days would not have been the same without them. And for all those who say they sold out, I want to fight. Warning: I have big muscles, some say the biggest in the world. They brought punk mainstream, in order to do so they needed to sign with a real label, so to the few who knew Blink before Enema of the State, congratulations, I did as well, but you sold out on them. They were still great after Enema. This also includes all subsequent bands that have formed out of the break up of Blink- Boxcar Racer, Angels and Airwaves, and +44.
5. Bob Dylan: Another of the all time greats in Rock and Roll. I will make a bold statement and say that he is one of the top two best song writers of all time. John Lennon is his only competition. I know a lot don't like his voice but I think it is original. His folk stuff is great and once he went electric he continued on with creating excellent music.
6. Journey: I love 80's music in all of its horribleness. But Journey somehow rose above most bad 80's music and produced some really great stuff. Steve Perry the lead singer has one of the best voices ever. This is the music I grew up listening to with my two aunts who used to babysit me. I have loved them ever since. Their best of album is one that is constantly switched in and out of my cd player.
7. Alicia Keys: I have had a major crush for Alicia ever since "Fallin" first burst out onto the scene. She has one of the best voices of all time and she writes her own stuff. It is hard to find female r&b musicians who actually do that. She is talented, smart, and freaking hot. I could listen to her all day long.
8. The Ataris: This is a band that also reminds me of my high school days and some of my best friends. I love good lyrics and this band has made some of the most quotable lyrics ever. Here is my favorite, "So long astoria i found a map to buried treasureand even if we come home empty handed we'll still have our stories of battle scars, pirate ships and wounded hearts, broken bones, and all the best of friendships and when this hourglass has filtered out its final grain of sand i raise my glass to the memories we had this is my wish this is my wish im takin back im takin them all back" This band always puts me in a good mood.
9. Smokey Robinson: If I could sing like anyone in the world it might be Smokey. His voice is so good. He can go really high and really low. I think it takes someone with a lot of talent to continue to be in the music business as long as he has and still be successful. Smokey is awesome.
10. Green Day: Again my high school life requires that this band be on my list. I love a lot of their songs and they are the first band I saw preform live in concert. They started me on an illustrious career of concert going that I had while I was in high school and everytime I listen to them it makes me want to do it again.

Well this is not an all time favorite list I don't think that it is possible to make one. But as of right at this moment it will suffice. There are a ton of others I wish I could put up there but can't. Hope you enjoy the list. Let me know what you think.

This is A Picture of my fettuccini alfredo

Okay this post is for Mccall so she can see that my alfredo looks so much better than the OG's. And it tastes much better too. This is unfortunalety the only thing besides cookies that I can make. Also it is important to note that this is the first time I ever made it so it even looks better now.

Across the Universe. Gone Baby Gone, and In Bruges

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE


I watched this movie with my friends Christa, Amber, and Gregg and I think I was the only one who stayed awake for it all. It is a long movie but I really liked it. It is movie that is based off of Beatles songs. I believe that the Beatles is the greatest band of all time. I love their music and everything that they have contributed to the music industry. This movie does their music justice. Basically everyone in the film has a good voice and does a great job singing Beatles songs. I liked the soundtrack so much I went out and bought it the next morning after watching it and really haven't listened to too much else. One of the songs from the soundtrack is on my the bottom of my blog. It is I wanna hold your hand by T.V. Carpio. It rocks. I will own this movie soon because I really think that it is a movie that I could watch a few times a year and not get sick of it. Now as a warning it is a musical, I think that is the correct term for it, and I hate musicals as a general rule but it was a pretty solid movie. I give it a very solid 4 stars, and the soundtrack 4 and a half.


GONE BABY GONE


This movie was a disappointment for me. I was really excited to see it because it has a pretty good cast. Casey Affleck is great, at least he was in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, but in this one not so much. The same goes for Ed Harris and Michelle Moynahan. And the saddest part of it all was that Morgan Freeman was not up to par. For those of you who don't know I think Morgan Freeman is the best supporting actor of all time. He rocks every movie he is in.....until this one. I guess everyone has to have a bad one sometime but it was sad to see such a great fall into such a sad role. It could have been a great movie but the acting seemed forced and the story a little too unbelievable. There a few parts that were really suspenseful and a little disturbing but for the most part I was disappointed. I watched it with Wes, Jesse, and Jeff and I think they would all agree with my review. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great. A mediocre film that will get a 2.75 star rating from me.







IN BRUGES

This was such a funny movie. I went and saw it over the weekend with Wes, Jesse, A.J. and a few other people. It is one of the most vulger movies I have ever seen. But it is so ridiculously funny that I can look past it. I never really thought of Collin Ferrill as a comedic actor before but he was really really good. There were so many funny parts to it. I really don't know how to describe it without giving away too much about it but if you don't mind hearing more f words than the departed with a few more vulgarities than I reccomend this flick. It is a British film I think that is why it was so vulgar. Swear words here aren't as bad there. Anyways I will give it 3 and a half stars. Not a movie I will own but one I will definately rent and watch it again.

Writing a paper........sort of.

So I finally had a free Saturday with the full intentions of doing school work. In fact I saved most the day to do it. I have two seven page papers due next week and a midterm. So my goal when I woke up was to do nothing but school work for a good portion of the day. But that didn't happen. It did for a few hours but that was it. I have this horrible habit of whenever I have a lot of school work I feel the need to clean my room. So that is what I did. I did three loads of laundry, cleaned my room, dusted my furniture, cleaned a part of the bathroom, and washed dishes. I also then thought it was neccessary to organize my movies and books. Then I thought my shoes were really unorganized so I needed to go to the store and by a shelf for them. I did manage to squeeze some fun into my day. I watched some All Star stuff with Wes and grabbed some dinner and watched some Curb Your Enthusiasm with my roomate Jeff. But all in all I really didn't accomplish a whole lot other than cleaning my room. So to further my procrastination I decided to take some pictures and post them on my blog. One day I will overcome procrastination.......but that is obviously not today.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

To continue on with my movie reviews I recently rented this movie. I think it has one of the coolest titles ever and the movie rocks. It is another awesome western like 3:10 to Yuma. It is a long one lasting over two and a half hours. It moves slow like a lot of westerns but the acting and cinematography is really great. I don't know why it wasn't big in the theaters. Casey Affleck definately deserves his oscar nom for best supporting actor. He is ten times better than his brother Ben. Brad Pitt did really good as well. It is rated R, but I don't remember why. I will give it a solid 4 stars. Great flick.

Tennis

All of you who know me know that tennis is my favorite sport. I love everything about it. I love to watch it, I love to play it, I love to play it on xbox. I even love the smell of tennis balls when you first open a new can. I play it two or three times a week and for the past two weeks I have been in a slump. It seemed like no matter what I was doing it just wasn't good enough. My serve was off. My backhand is always a little off but it seemed like I could barely return the ball. And then yesterday my forehand began to suck. I was beginning to give up. My forehand is the one tool that I have in my tennis game that I thought I could always rely on and it was failing. So tonight I played with my roomate Wes. He is really really good at tennis. I have played him a lot and have lost to him everytime. I am beginning to wonder if the fun of beating me has worn off. But anyways we played the first set and my bad luck was continuing. He beat me 6-0. Now even though I have never beat Wes I rarely lose that badly, normally it is 6-3 or 6-4. So It seemed like that was the way it was going to be again in the second set. He one the first two games to take an early lead. Then it was my serve and I do not know what happened but I found my serve again. I was able to hit hard and with some decent placement. I won that game. Then I broke his serve. Then I won serve again. Then we rotated winning our own serves until it was 3-4 Wes with me serving. He took the first point due to a lousy second serve. Then I took the next three points. I was up 40-15 with two opportunities to take the game to tie it up. I was finally in the zone playing tennis and concentrating on the game. Until I went up for that serve. I tossed the ball in the air and let my mind wander to my badly parked car out on the street wondering if I was going to get a ticket for my inability to parralell park. Served it into the net. So I went up for a second serve with the same worry and boom hit it into the net again. I repeated this again making it tied at 40-40. I had blown my lead, my chance to tie the score and have a chance at winning the set. Dissappointed with myself for letting myself get so easily distracted I had a hard time getting myself back into the game. Wes broke my serve and took the next two games to close out the set 6-3.

So we came home and I have given some heavy consideration on what happened to make me lose concentration and I have finally figured it out. I let my mind wander away from what was really important. I tossed the ball up to serve and didn't concentrate on how hard I was going to hit it or where I was going to hit it to. Instead I focused on something entirely different and unimportant. The result was a horrible mishit that had a ripple effect on the rest of my game. It seemed like I couldn't get my mind back on what it was I needed to do. As I have been thinking about it I have realized that it is a great metaphor for my life as well. It seems like sometimes things are going great and I am getting things accomplished when all of a sudden I let something distract me from what is really important and then I have a heck of a time getting back on track. So the goal for me is to not allow that to happen. If I could have kept focused on the game of tennis I possibly could of had a chance to finally beat Wes. If I keep my eyes on what it really important in life then I will have a much better chance of succeeding. I know it is such a simple and easy concept but it is one I definately need to do much better at. Who would have thought a stupid tennis match would have taught me so much about myself?