Me Manifesto - Part 1 (movies and music)

Okay, I sincerely apologize now because I am about to type a novel and you're going to read it out of shear curiousity and it will likely take you all night. Sorry. Also, while I want to take your advice (although not indirectly at me, I agree) and start another topic, actually, topics. You see, even though it would be wise for us to pause and catch up and actually follow through on our thoughts, my mind is already a few steps ahead of itself and while I shall try to cover as much ground as possible on back posts, I shall also start newer, larger topics that are much more...how should I say? Out there than previous thoughts? I don't know, I think my ambition is finally seeing a possible outlet and it wants to create something now. Therefore, in this post (so I don't forget) I shall discuss 1) my movie list, 2) explain my music list, 3) explain my concept list as best as possible, 4) bring up "life lists" as to the best of my understanding, 5) bring up Harry Potter for no particular reason and finally 6) propose a new project for us to undertake...something completely unrelated to everything we've talked about so far, and yet at the same time, totally inclusive in all of this. I would also be lieing if I said this was my plan all along, and yet, I'm not at all surprised my mind took this to that step. Anyways, onwards and again, I apologize for the long read.

Section 1: Movies
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
2. High Fidelity
3. Jaws/Texas Chainsaw Massacre (original)
4. Alice in Wonderland
5. the Simpsons Movie
Runner-ups: Donnie Darko and For the Love of the Game

My first selection, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is long and by far my favorite movie of all time. It has been ever since I saw it for the first time with Brooks my sophmore year at RIT. I was so blown away I watched it four more times within the next two days. I think that this movie appeals to me so much is because it is how I picture love, or at least the concept of love. I'll be honest, my heart always stepped in front of my head when dealing with women as a young man and it burned me twice, real bad, in identical situations and although I have definitely landed on my feet as far as relationships go, it is hard for me not to picture love as this very bitter, painful experience, one that I hold a lot of resentment towards, and yet at the same time, it is the most pleasurable feeling I can imagine to have that. This movie encompasses that love/hate perspective beautifully, and it's funny to boot! It is also done by my favorite director Michel Gondry, which just adds to the bonus points on that one. I feel completely confident in saying that if I were to see every movie ever made, this would be still by my number 1, I can't imagine a movie experience more complete than this movie is for me. I also recomend, The Science of Sleep.
My second choice, High Fidelity, holds a similar place in my heart focusing on the pain surrounding that magical feeling of love, and it also benefits from using music as a major plot device. I could probably sum up my love for this movie with two quotes from it, "Am I depressed because I listen to pop music, or do I listen to pop music because I'm depressed?" and "I've been listening to my guts when it comes to women for years and I've come to conclusion that my guts have shit for brains." If there is a character I relate to more than John Cusack in this movie, please let me know.
As a horror movie buff, at least somewhat of a- I felt it necessary to include my two favorites. First I shall talk about the Texas Chainsaw Massacre which still holds the only scene in any movie I have seen that made me cringe - when 'leatherface' put that girl on that meat hook, I still have nightmares about that...no wonder I'm desensitized to Eli Roth's supposed gory genius, I'm sorry, the guy is boring. Anyways, this movie sparked my love for horror movies and I'm yet to see it's match in pure horror, the closest being the Blair Witch Project which was more of a chills scary than a full body dirty, sleep with the lights on, scary. In short, the movie changed my life, in that it changed my taste in movies significantly, forever (Children of the Corn had a similar, although less permanent effect in that it lead me to Texas Chainsaw Massacre). Now Jaws - I've seen this movie a lot, and I still don't understand why it is listed as horror, nor do I care. The movie is brilliant - the man versus beast plot to it's most extreme. It features many of my favorite things (if you look at my list) but mostly, water which is 'Jaws' most useful weapon in that it has so much space to terrorize our protaganist with. Other movies have tried to use the shark (the subsequent Jaws movies, Open Water, etc...) but none have come close to reaching that power or fear of the original. As a bonus, both Jaws 2 and Jaws 3 have killer scenes which rank among my favorite cinematic moments, if the movies as a whole were wicked lame. Also, somewhat ironically, it is the second (of three) movies based on books in my list, and yet this is probably the least known book (and rightfully so - it was quite the forgettable read). Completely ironicly, I own neither of these movies (just pointing it out - my birthday is in September and Christmas is only three months after that).
My fourth entry is probably the oddest, although if anyone knew me, they'd understand - Alice in Wonderland is the most brilliant cartoon ever. The movie, for me, not only kind of idealizes my childhood (I actually, don't remember seeing it as a child, although I'm sure I did) but kind of holds that innocence for me when my mind wasn't restrained by the concepts of reality. When my creativity reigned free over my world. The music composes one of the best soundtracks ever (I vote we petition Disney to re-release it), the comedy is on more levels than any movie since, appealing to both observant adults and naive children ("ahoy! That's another nautical expression!") and one cannot help but smile after watching it. Insanity is by far, the greatest comical device...and no, I have never read the book and yes, I understand it is supposed to be much darker than the Disney version portrays - but you know what? It's Disney and I'd rather take in their sugar-coated, rose-tinted version than some dark, drugged out interpretation. Afterall, dark in not necessarily deep.
My final entry, The Simpsons Movie is, well, not even out yet. To be honest, I haven't seen it yet either (I didn't get a bootleg copy or anything) but I'm putting it on the list because I don't feel right not including the Simpsons when they have meant so much to my life and they are, afterall, now in a movie I feel it was only right. Originally I was going to say all past and future Simpsons episodes on DVD, but that would be a very cheap 'movie' to list, since this is afterall my idea to list these things anyways. I don't think I can possibly be disappointed by the movie, even though I am obviously putting a lot of faith in it rocking my world, because I have full and complete trust in the writers and Matt Groening to put out the best possible product for this, if for nothing else, but one more reason to put a finger up to the now miserably failing, Family Guy which fizzled out faster on it's return than my hopes that when Futurama returned, it would return to Fox...actually, I wonder if that is still coming back or what, haven't heard much recently. Anyways, since I haven't seen the movie, I can't actually comment on it's qualifactions to be even on the list, but suffice to say, the Simpsons are as much my family as anyone I'm actually related to and their cinematic debut belongs on this list and I wouldn't be surprised if it climbed a few spots after I see it.
My runner ups are excellent movies in their own right and to be honest, I don't really know why. I think I like Donnie Darko because of it's brilliant anti-hero, his self-sacrifice and his girlfriend, Jena Malone - my one true mega-movie crush. I think my main attraction to the movie is the fact that no matter how many times I see it, I don't think I really truly understand what is going on. As for For the Love of the Game, I really couldn't tell you...it just pulls that emotional string somewhere in me. I wish I had a comparable football movie, since I don't much care for baseball, but this one gets me and it would be near impossible to recreate. It could also be Jena Malone again...I'm going with that. Should I add Saved and Cheaters real quick just to cover my Jena Malone bases?

Section 2: My Music List
First my two runner-ups, Led Zeppelin IV and Abbey Road. These albums are perfect, the latter occasionally drifts into the nonsensical realm that the Beatles were somewhat known for in their later years and it doesn't always work, but with songs like "Come Together" and "Here Comes the Sun" (the latter of which ranks on my top 16 songs) it's hard to argue with it as an album even with it's faults. The former of those albums would easily make this album had I discovered it earlier in my musical formation - the songs are all fantastic and it flows like most albums made today wish they could, but I feel that this is when Led Zeppelin really became cold and distant lyrically, only "Going to California" is able to create that emotional connection that albums that did make my list are. Yes, musically this is best album I have ever heard (although Mastodon's Blood Mountain gives it some harsh competition, even with the obvious influence of...) and most of Led Zeppelin's most memorable songs ("Stairway to Heaven" "Rock and Roll" "Black Dog") but, like I said, this is when Jimmy Page really dove into the fantastical thoughts of black magic and the like and as interesting and possibly captivating as these topics are, lyrically the album does not reflect the full emotional range of previous Zeppelin albums nor does it create that sense of belonging in the band, simply put the album just rocks with no strings attached - it's like the best one night stand of your life, it was great, but you're not likely to remember much in the morning other than the fact that it rocked.
My number one album, like my number one movie, defines me as a person, probably moreso than I should let it. I jumped on the Bright Eyes' band wagon along with the press at the release of Lifted OR the Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground. The first song I heard (via illegal download) was "False Advertising" and as soon as I heard the lyric "fuck my face, fuck my name, they are brief and false advertisements" I knew I had found my voice - the one person who understood me (a common misconception looking back, but I was a teenager and that's pretty much what I've determined teenagers do...create a world surrounding themselves). This lead me to an obsession with Bright Eyes that lives on this day, with each new album I discovered a new facet of myself I had no idea existed. Fevers and Mirrors spoke to my wounded heart, letting off the Happiness spoke to my wandering thoughts, so on and so forth, but it all started with this album and my favorite song of all time comes off of it ("Nothing Gets Crossed Out"). It's bombastic - speaking to my ambition, it's self-depreciating - speaking to my ego, and it's long (78 minutes) giving the most possible music since I'm only allowed five CDs all of a sudden. Bonus - I listened to the complete album from start to finish at least once daily for over a year...nothing should be that obsessed over.
XTC's Skylarking ranks second although I have owned for a little over a year and only heard one song off of it prior, but what a song it is. "Dear God" blew me away the first time I heard it and it still does to this day. I now label myself as agnostic, but this still stands as my theme song for my religion if anyone asks. As for the rest of the album, I truly can't complain - it starts out with possibly the best five song lineup I can imagine and they meld together so brilliantly it's as if walking through some fantastical forest where the sun shines through the trees and no evil thoughts can ever enter your mind. Throughout the album it is the most relaxing, tranquil experience and you never want to leave. It's hard to explain everything that you can find on this album, so I recommend you just put it on and shut up.
Oh yes, my cliche pick. If asked a year ago I probably would have said Wish You Were Here since it is mandatory I include a Pink Floyd album on my list and while that album is just as good as Dark Side of the Moon I really cannot deny this albums power. Yes, the lyrics are more often than not, pretty shoddy and yes, the studio gimmicks are kind of a novelty, but on this album with this band with these songs - it works, and it works better than any other album I've ever heard. There's a reason it is one of the best selling albums of all time and occasionally still enters the Billboard 200 - there's no denying it's universal, and yet personal appeal. Enough said - that ominous cover (which I'm coincidentally wearing right now on my shirt) defines album perfection and no one has come close since to matching it's brilliance.
There's a lot to be said about Bob Dylan and many of his albums would fall on a variety of different lists, but for me, nothing is better than Time Out of Mind his triumphant 90s return to form. Including another one of my top songs ("Love Sick") it also includes such masterpieces as "Not Dark Yet" and "Make You Feel My Love" giving us an optimistic dark view of our lives and society. The only sidestep, in my mind, is the sixteen minute "Highlands" which ends the album - without it, perhaps throw in a pair of old Dylan classics in it's place, this album is my quintessential Dylan album for me. Bonus - I was never into Dylan prior to listening to this album, now I'm a huge devotee, ranking him ninth on my top ten artists.
My final album selection is by far the oddest and would perhaps be better replaced with a double disc of "the Best of..." when it comes to the Fiery Furnaces, but alas - that's not the question here, is it? Blueberry Boat stands as my favorite Fiery Furnaces album, although occasionally I may rank it behind Bitter Tea or Gallowbird's Bark or even EP (although never Rehearsing My Choir) it stands the test of time as always returning to the top the list. Honestly, to paraphrase the whole album for you, I could play you the ten minute opus that opens the album and you will be blown away at the sounds coming from the stereo. It's really as if twenty bands decided to play thirty second songs and then mesh them all together and while it sounds terrible, it's bloody brilliant. The best part? This is probably the worst song on the album - songs like "Blueberry Boat" which finds us relating to a Blueberry Boat captain being killed by pirates, or "I've Lost My Dog But Now He's Found" with a clever story about a lost pup, or "Chris Michaels" with it's fast paced, easy to lose yourself plot leading to the anthematic ending. I could go on and on about what this album brings and like Lifted it clocks in around 78 minutes making it the most music for the least CD, but I think I'll end with the albums finale, "Wolf Notes" which encourages every listener to pick up any instrument they can find and just play - who cares what comes out, music is music. Bonus - the best live band I have ever seen, period.

So I began typing this up upon being called into work to finish up somethings and now while I am done (I typed this in my spare time), I have decided to post this and continue to the onslaught at a later date (let's knock down sections 3 and 4 Saturday morning, or at least aim to). I could of course stay and continue working, however as you can tell already, I have a lot ot say and I'd be here all night, most of tomorrow and probably all of tomorrow night and thus, for now, good night. Ta.