Unabashed

My top ten songs ever. Disclaimer: For me, a song generally has to age before I’ll put it in my top ten. There are tons of newer songs that I love, and if you check back with me in ten years, some of them will be in my top ten. So. Most of my top ten are from ten+ years ago. Also: You’ll see a recurring theme among these songs. A lot of times they have horror elements involved, are about murder or serial killers or evil in general. This is “normal” for me ;-)

1. Sympathy for the Devil, Rolling Stones: I loved this song the first time I heard it and still do.
2. Cochise, Audioslave: Sometimes a song is great because it has balls. This is one such song.
3. Twilight Zone, Golden Earring. Radar Love could have easily made this list, but just missed. Curiously these are the only two songs by GE that I even remotely like, and they are two of my all-time favorites.
4. Lunatic Fringe, Red Rider: Creepy, freaky tune that I’ve always loved.
5. Sun King/Fire Woman, The Cult: These two songs complement one another so perfectly that I almost consider them a single entity, despite the 3-second space between them. Powerful, dynamic.
6. Spoonman, Soundgarden: I don’t know anything about heroin or drugs in general, but I love this freaking song.
7. Plush, Stone Temple Pilots: Nobody really knows what this song is about, exactly, but whatever it is about is creepy, regardless.
8. Still of the Night, Whitesnake: Everybody likes a little cheese, right? Most people can’t stand Whitesnake, but I loved them back in the day, and this song, with it’s macabre solo in the middle (is that guy playing an electric guitar with a violin bow?) and wolves on the hunt is like manna for my ears.
9. Don’t Fear the Reaper, Blue Oyster Cult: Another band with only two songs that I like (the other is, of course, Burning For You), but those two I like intensely. Great lyrics that are imminently quotable in the horror novel of your choice.
10. No More Tears, Ozzy Osbourne: I’ve never been a big fan of Ozzy, not like some of my friends were in high school. I liked the Randy Rhodes stuff, Crazy Train and such, but none of it was what might be counted as my favorites. But for some reason, after I’d already given Ozzy up for washed-up, I bought No More Tears and discovered he still had one more album in him. Mr. Tinkertrain is great, too.
11. Honorable Mention: Orgasmatron, Motorhead: I don’t like many Motorhead songs, but the lyrics of Orgasmatron are brutal, wicked. This is the hardest rock song that ever was.

If my house was on fire, these are the records I would go back in to get. Picking my top ten albums of all time is a tough chore. For a record to even qualify I have to at least like every song on it, and that’s rare; very, very rare. Sometimes my favorite albums are compilations and soundtracks, for that reason. Here’s the list:

1. Alice In Chains, Dirt
2. Metallica, …And Justice For All
3. Motley Crue, Too Fast for Love
4. Metallica, Load/Re-Load
5. The Crow Soundtrack
6. The Matrix Soundtrack
7. Soundgarden, Superunknown
8. Boats, Beaches, Bars and Ballads, Jimmy Buffett
9. Led Zeppelin, Boxed Set
10. Bob Marley, Legend

And, lastly, my wife, who is a therapist, tells me that everyone should have a couple of personal theme songs for themselves (hers are “Dancing Queen” by Abba and “Walk Like a Camel” by Southern Culture on the Skids). Mine are:

Interstate Love Song by Stone Temple Pilots and Kickstart My Heart by Motley Crue. Do you have a theme song?

written by Matt Mitchell

In my search for knowledge of FTL travel, hyperspace and all things geek, I found this top 10 Movie Spaceships page (and I do love me some top 10 lists), via SpecFic on Blogspot. Being a Douglas Adams fan I would have put the Heart of Gold higher, and I don’t think I would have put Alien’s Nostromo on the list at all: intergalactic tug boats need not apply, even though the name (Nostromo) is very cool. In my view, if you put in Nostromo you’d have to include Serenity as well, at least in a tie (I might put in both of them at no.10 now that I think of it). I don’t like Apollo 13 being there either, just for the simple fact that Ap13 wasn’t exactly capable of an extended trip. It barely made it back from the short run it took. I like the addition of the Independence Day mothership, but can’t believe the Death Star was left off the list. These would be my top picks:

10. Nostromo/Serenity
9. Romulan Warbird (Chosen over the more-recognizable Klingon Bird of Prey. Just personal preference, I guess)
8. Alien Mothership from Close Encounters of the Third Kind
7. Tie: Cylon Raider from the original Battlestar Galactica (I know it’s not a movie; sue me) and Tie Fighter from Star Wars (esp. Darth Vader’s kick-ass pimped-out version)
6. Independance Day Mothership — Big. Scary. Lots of firepower, lots of defences; like the Deathstar, however, one significant oversight.
5. Heart of Gold — Two words: Improbability Drive
4. Death Star — The biggest and the baddest, with one slight overlooked weakness.
3. USS Enterprise — Not much needs to be said about starship Enterprise that hasn’t been said already.
2. Tie: Colonial Viper from Battlestar Galactica and X-Wing Fighter.
1. Millennium Falcon — A space cowboy’s wet dream; famously makes the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: adams, battlestar, cylon, death star, douglas, drive, enterprise, galactica, heart of gold, improbability, nostromo, raider, serenity, ship, Space, spaceships, star trek, star wars, viper, x-wing fighter