In the spirit of High Fidelity, here are some of my Top Fives as of today (different moods do seem to create different lists.) Not in the spirit of HF, these are in no particular order.
CDs:
Peter Gabriel: So - every time I listen to this, I am blown away by how great each song is. I love "Us," but "So" has so many great songs.
Sting: Sacred Love - Cerebral, spiritual, musical, literary, haunting - he just keeps getting better
The Phantom of the Opera Movie Soundtrack - oh my, what a smorgasboard of great stuff! Eerie, moving, romantic, downright HOT in places, clever and witty, emotionally draining. Sigh.
Children of Dune Miniseries Soundtrack - why yes, I AM a geek. Thank you for noticing. The music embodies so much of what I feel when I read the 1st three Dune books. Just amazing. "Inama Nushif" is so stirring and everything is a fantastic backdrop for writing.
I only get one more. I fear to pull the trigger. I saunter out to the living room to peruse my collection and come back with my mind reeling. So many CDs are vying for slot number 5, but only one will be chosen. Annie Lennox believes she deserves the place, and on some weeks, she does. Tears For Fears claims the slot is rightfully theirs because they've been with me for so long, and when I want that driving Oleta Adams piano solo, boy is it theirs. Chicago 17 says I have to pick it because it's the first contemporary music I ever bought. It doesn't realise how little I play it anymore, though I'm sure it's aware of its power to transport me back across the years. The other Sting and Peter Gabriel CDs jump out at me, begging, and I nearly choose one, but then Sarah catches my eyes. Yes, Sarah McLachlan, Surfacing gets slot number five.
Books:
This will be hard, won't it? Why am I even trying to narrow it down to 5??
Dune - the first 3 books. I'll pretend they come in one volume. Maybe somewhere in the world they do. If I have to pick only one, I'll choose #1.
Ender's Game - I'd like the whole Shadow series, but I'll take Ender's Game.
Atlas Shrugged - Read it to death, but have a new one and will read it again I'm sure.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - again, I'd take them all if that would work.
Again, my collection creates a horrible ruckus, each book screeching for my attention. Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl, Douglas Adams's Dirk Gently books, Orson Scott Card's Homecoming series, Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey, P.G. Wodehouse, oh so many books, but in the end I choose The Mists of Avalon, an epic that appeals to so many different parts of me.
Movies:
You know I watch a lot of DVDs. I take after my dad to some extent in my love of films. This will be hard.
Star Wars - my first love. My first theatre movie, even though theatre movies were verboten at the time. *grin* They will always have a special place in my heart.
The Thomas Crown Affair - I have watched this one probably more than any other film, except maybe Star Wars. Yummy!
Captain Ron - what's not to love?
D'oh!! Where's POTO?? What kind of drugs was I on?!?!? POTO will have to knock out Captain Ron. Sorry, Captain. I love you, but I love POTO more.
Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail - how could this not make the list, I ask you?
Again, dilemma time. Notting Hill? Bridget Jones's Diary? Down With Love? I think I'll go with Four Weddings and a Funeral. I love it so much, it's what I put on for distraction when giving birth to my last child at home. Sadly, I tuned out pretty much as soon as it started. Things were moving along quite rapidly. Who could forget that moving W.H. Auden poem? Oh, but A Fish Called Wanda is soooooo good. Ack. I think A Fish Called Wanda edges out Four Weddings.
Minis or collections:
Pride and Prejudice - BBC miniseries. Need I say more? Sigh.
Wooster and Jeeves - pure genius!
Coupling - I will never have my fill of Jeffisms.
The Vicar of Dibley - So many quotable lines!
Children of Dune - I have enough comedy on here already I guess, and this was very, very well done. Especially considering how much I love the books. Usually these sorts of things are a disappointment.
Foods:
Curry - comfort food and oh so delicious. My dad used to make a lot of curries. His years in India as a child gave him a taste for them.
Tacos - the best ones I ever had were a batch my sis and I concocted in CA. We attempted to make tortillas from masa harina - a delicious failure! They didn't wrap, but sure were yummy! Fresh avocados mixed with lime and salt, black beans with garlic, cumin and salt, fresh tomatoes, sour cream, lots of cheese, oh, my!
Sushi - so versatile and yummy. We make the roll kind. John likes Spam sushi, I like whatever - kimchi, chives, cucumber, fake crab, fresh ginger, carrot, scrambled egg, avocado, blah blah blah. . .
Potato Thing - the running joke with my sis-in-law, sister and myself is that we scoop out a serving of Potato Thing and the rest belongs to us (whoever has possession of the pan at the time.) This is a concoction of shredded or diced taters, sour cream, cream of chicken (or cream of whatever) soup, and cheese, topped with cornflakes. I could eat this forever.
#16 from Lao Laan Xang, ginger tofu/chicken/protein - one of the few things I could eat while preggers, still one of my all time favourite foods. Mmmmmmmmm!
Desserts:
Do you like how I got around the food thing that way? I do.
Chocolate - well, duh. Um, Cadbury.
Chocolate cookies - (Homer-like appreciation noise)
Chocolate Chip Cookies - cuz, yum!!
My mom's chocolate cake and icing - which I just can't duplicate
Maurie's chocolates - if I have to pick one, I'll go with the Elemental or Essential (?) truffles. Otherwise, one of everything, please. Especially the Grand Mariner butterflies (ah, this is apparently what you get when the Ancient Mariner gets soused on Grand Marnier :oP ) hazelnut thinggies, dark ting-a-lings, turtles - oooooh yum! I guess it's a good thing I don't live in Madison anymore.
Well, I've killed way too much of my evening doing this. So goodbye in my top 5 languages:
Dzai Dzien (sorry, She-Ra - Mandarin will always sound less whiney to me, even though Cantonese sounds like home, LOL!)
Annyong he ka seyo
Goodbye (in any accent besides American)
Shalom
Arrivederci!
9 comments:
Us is one of the best albums to come out of the '90s. I love So, but if forced to choose I'd have to disagree with you and go with Us...
It was a tough choice, aided by the fact that I'd been listening to So today. :o) My very fave on Us is Blood of Eden, with Steam a close second. Ooh - Kiss That Frog! (twinkle) Digging in the Dirt, Come Talk to Me. Heh. Guess what I'll be listening to tomorrow. :o) But I do so love In Your Eyes, Red Rain, Mercy Street, Sledgehammer, Big Time. . . Then again, Solsbury Hill is awesome, as is Shaking the Tree - ahhh - gotta love the access we have to great music!
For the record it's Grand Marnier and not mariner. Je suis désolé. Peter Gabriel is the shit. Whenever I hear the song In Your Eyes I cry just a little bit. Damn him.
D'oh. My interest in all things nautical (OK some things) comes out in a Freudian typo. :o) Merci. Gotta fix it now, too. Peter is singing just for me in my living room while I write. How kind of him. He's thoughtful like that.
I read everything I can on the Arthurian legend. My favorite is Mary Stewart's series. My least favorite was the Mists of Avalon; sorry. I liked the whole sisterhood theme, but the rest of the plot just didn't do it for me.
Holy Grail is THE BEST of Monty Python!!
Hey, no need to be sorry. I'm going to check out the Mary Stewart series. I've been very interested in Arthurian legends lately. Fascinating, aren't they?
Let me know what you think of it.
I will! :o)
PS have you read T.A. Barron's Merlin series? What about White's The Once and Future King? I just got that on sale at Borders and I have I think 4 of the 5 Barron books that I got at a used bookstore. They're in my reading queue waiting. . .
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