Chronic Listaholic

Chronic Listaholic officially ceased publication in February 2007. It has been resurrected here both as a source of reference and an exercise in nostalgia. Although new lists are no longer posted, please feel free to browse the archives.

Enjoy!

If you are looking for my NaBloPoMo blog, it’s over on The Write Coast.

If you are looking for my current blog, it IS The Write Coast.

No, I haven’t officially retired Chronic Listaholic. I just got burned out on making lists. Perhaps I should re-title it Recovering Listaholic . . .

To inspire Belinda, who has upcoming surgery … and a new iPod

Why do some songs make us feel good, just hearing them? Sometimes it’s the lyrics. Sometimes it’s the music itself. Sometimes it’s simply a memory associated with the song. And sometimes you can’t explain why, it just does. What songs make you feel good? Post your choices in the comments!

1. I Can See Clearly Now, Jimmy Cliff
2. Rock Of Ages, Def Leppard
3. Eggs And Sausage, Tom Waits
4. Blister In The Sun, Violent Femmes
5. Brown-Eyed Girl, Van Morrison
6. Heartache Tonight, The Eagles
7. Follow Me, Uncle Kracker
8. Pink Cadillac, Bruce Springsteen
9. Blue Bayou, Linda Ronstadt
10. The Boys Of Summer, Don Henley
11. Ripplin’ Waters, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
12. Kryptonite, 3 Doors Down
13. Summer In The City, Lovin’ Spoonful
14. All Night Long, Lionel Richie
15. Crocodile Rock, Elton John

As seen on Blogography, a long, long time ago

Songs That I Loathe To The Core Of My Being
1. “Boobs Alot” by The Fugs. Too annoying to be funny.
2. “Because Of You” by Kelly Clarkson. If I want to be depressed, I’ll watch the news.
3. “Rape Me” by Nirvana. Whatever it does or does not mean, it offends me.

Musical Artists That I Loathe To The Core Of My Being
1. ABBA. Their songs can change my mood from great to bitchy in three notes. (Sorry, Dave2)
2. Britney Spears. Neither musical nor artist, in my opinion. Blech. See also: Mandy Moore, Jessica Simpson, et al.
3. James Blunt. A lot of people (my daughter included) really like him. For me, his singing is actually painful to listen to.

Rolling Stones Songs I Love
1. “Sympathy For The Devil.” LOVE it. I know every word, and can barely sit still when it’s playing.
2. “Play With Fire.” Early Stones, almost too melodic to believe it’s them. If you’ve never heard it, do yourself a favor and look it up.
3. “Start Me Up.” A damn sexy song. What woman doesn’t want to be thought so hot she’d “make a dead man come?”

Beatles Songs I Love
1. “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away.” The quintessential unrequited-love song, and Lennon’s voice never sounded lovelier.
2. “Norwegian Wood.” A mellow, beautiful song that makes you feel gently stoned even when you’re not. Too bad it’s so damn short!
3. “Don’t Bother Me.” From their first album, written and sung by George Harrison. And he hadn’t even met Eric Clapton yet …

Read the rest of this entry »

Happy Birthday, girlfriend!

Remember how disappointed Dave was when he found out we faked this?

I always loved this soft portrait of you, and I really liked how this experiment turned out.

Are you MOCKING my constant picture-taking?!?! (Look, there’s Chou-Chou!!!)

Great colors in this. Geez, we lived in that pool, didn’t we?

Your wild and crazy rock & roll years with Britain.

You look so cute here with Vinnie Vincent! Total rocker babe.

Disneyland 1993, kissing Chip … or was it Dale?

You, me and Sheryl at my Groovy Hippie Wedding. Happy, happy day!

Reunion Day. God, that was fun! I call this “Sherbet Girls.”

Ah, Lia, you’ve never looked lovelier!

If every song’s worth listening to, it’s a Perfect Album. I really struggled with this list, and no one is more surprised than me at what’s on it — and what’s NOT on it. Had to dig pretty far back to come up with ten flawless ones!

1. Godsmack, Godsmack. Yes, it includes one of my favorite songs of ever, “Voodoo,” but what earns the album top spot on this list is the raw richness of Sully Erna’s voice, and that no two songs sound the same. Unmistakeably Godsmack, yes, but not cookie-cutter anger rock. The band’s so good, you actually enjoy hearing how pissed off they are.

2. Nighthawks At The Diner, Tom Waits. A live recording from 1975, this is quintessential Waits: raspy-voiced slices from the grittier side of life, served on wry with a whiskey chaser.
3. The Shore, The Shore. Every time I listen to this CD, I decide a different song is my favorite. Lyrically and musically a work of art, you couldn’t ask for a better soundtrack for a night of love. Ben Ashley’s voice gives me warmbumps.
4. 15, Buckcherry. One of my current favorites, there’s not a single track I don’t enjoy. A rare case of one song (”Crazy Bitch”) leading me to an album full of fun stuff. And a surprisingly melodic love song, too. Well worth every penny.
5. Guero, Beck. Since the day I bought it, this has been one of my “feel-good” CDs. I can’t listen to it without feeling upbeat and bouncy. That’s the best thing about Beck: His music makes you feel (usually in a good way). Love, love, love this guy!
6. Blood Sugar Sex Magic, Red Hot Chili Peppers. If someone held a gun to my head and forced me to choose a favorite track from BSSM, I’d pick “Breaking The Girl.” But ONLY if there was a gun to my head, because I love them all.
7. Rubber Soul, The Beatles. To be honest, most Beatles albums would qualify to be listed here, but after 40 years, this one’s still my favorite. It’s also the only Beatles album I own in CD format. That’s right, kids — I’m a child of the Age of Vinyl.
8. Discipline, King Crimson. Less prog-rock Crimson, a masterpiece of musical chemistry infused with the mad brilliance of Adrian Belew. All but two of my favorite KC songs come from this one album, and I never get tired of hearing it.
9. Heartbeat City, The Cars. Five of the 10 songs on this album were released as singles. At least two of the others, “It’s Not The Night” and “Looking For Love,” should have been. I’d name this as one of the five best albums from the ’80s.
10. Synchronicity, The Police. Brilliant and innovative and timeless. Back in the day, I used to keep this on repeat all day long. When I listened to it today, it sounded just as good.

The Write Coast and Chronic Listaholic are both now going through Feedburner. If any of you feed-reader users out there are having problems with either feed, please let me know ASAP. If I screwed something up between WordPress, Globat and Feedburner, I’d like to know so I can fix it. Thanks!

Seriously, why are you being so difficult?

I can’t find one damn reason for you to be putting big fat spaces under the images I place in my lists (which I will be doing A. LOT.). You are being a VERY BAD TEMPLATE, and it’s starting to piss me off. After all we’ve been through, do you really need to pull this petty shit?

Just a reminder that I DO have another template I’m working on. You could be replaced. Yes, it’s in German, but I’m halfway through translating it, bitch, so STFU.

Oh, bollocks. I’m going to bed. You will, like an unwelcome house guest, still be here tomorrow.

I’m-on-top-tonight-whether-Bret-likes-it-or-not-because-by-God-
I’m-mastering-SOMETHING kisses,
SJ

[UPDATE 8/17: It turns out this is a BROWSER issue. I finally happened to visit Chronic Listaholic via Internet Explorer [insert projectile spew], and the text wraps perfectly. Furthermore, most of the older lists I imported from Blogger display correctly. Interesting. So, WordPress, which sometimes promotes Firefox as the browser of choice, includes in their DEFAULT TEMPLATE basic coding which only works in IE. What is up with that shit?]

[tags]WordPress, templates, Templates Behaving Badly[/tags]

All of these appear on multiple worst-movie lists

1. Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959). Often called the worst film ever made, there’s no question this is ultralow-budget Ed Wood (cardboard tombstones that blow over, visible boom mikes and innumerable other goofs). But it’s so campy, so corny, it never fails to make me laugh out loud.
2. Staying Alive (1983). This sequel to Saturday Night Fever takes Tony Manero from the discos of Brooklyn to a Broadway stage. It was co-written, directed and co-produced by Sylvester Stallone. Almost everyone thinks calling it a piece of crap is undue praise. I’ve liked it from the first time I saw it. I like the (predictable) story, the (stereotyped) characters and most of the (very ’80s) music. And jeebus, Travolta was ripped.
3. The Postman (1996). Okay, so it’s not the same as the superb novel by David Brin. Not many books do survive the translation to film. It’s still very well done, and its concept of a post-nuclear-war world is more plausible than most. And Kevin Costner is gorgeous.
4. Jason X (2002). Too many people fail to appreciate the creepalicious combination of sci-fi and horror in such movies as the Alien and Predator series. But how can you not love a cyborg Jason Voorhees? (Can you believe I even found the original classic Friday the 13th on some bad-movie lists?!?! Madness.)
5. Mars Attacks! (1996). I don’t get why this movie caught so much flak. Did people not realize it’s a spoof? I thought it was funny as hell. You gotta love a movie with Jack Nicholson AND Jack Black in the cast. Plus, Tom Jones saves the world!!!
6. Waterworld (1995). Although it’s widely regarded as the Heaven’s Gate of sci-fi films, I’ve never understood why this movie bombed. The massive budget is evident in the stunning cinematography, the acting is excellent (Dennis Hopper as a one-eyed dictator!), and the story fascinating. Oh, and Kevin Costner is the most gorgeous he’s ever been.
7. Shanghai Surprise (1986). There are two reasons this movie was panned: Sean Penn and Madonna. People weren’t ready to accept her in a role so opposite her singing persona, and everyone was sick of hearing about the famous couple. I saw this movie in 1986, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Entertaining story and decent acting. In my mind, this film’s bad rep was simply a case of punishing the stars for their celebrity.
8. Sahara (2005). You can’t make me not like a Clive Cussler-book-based movie! You can’t, you can’t, you can’t! Not even if you cast Matthew McConaughey as the macho Dirk Pitt and Steve Zahn as hirsute Italian Al Giordino.
9. Grease 2 (1982). John Travolta made the first one a huge hit. The sequel has a young Michelle Pfeiffer instead. This time it’s good boy-bad girl. But what I most love is the soundtrack (especially “Who’s That Guy?”) — and the good memories associated with viewings of this movie.
10. Armageddon [1998]. The only reason people trash this movie is because it has Ben Affleck in it. Come on! BRUCE WILLIS, people! Bruce Willis saves the world! What more could you ask for?

[tags]Bad movies, sci-fi, people are mean[/tags]

Chronic Listaholic has been converted to WordPress. I wanted to get all the content safely transferred before I started fooling with the look. Now that that’s done, onward with the redesign!

Importing all my previous lists from Blogger has screwed up the coding on them a bit. Gah. I’ll be working my way backward to fix them all over the next 10 or 20 years, so please excuse the state of less-than-perfection.