The Best-Laid Plans of Mice and Men...

Okay, I seriously cannot resist posting something about this magazine that I just finished reading. It's Entertainment Weekly, one of my favorite magazines, and it lists "The New Classics," the best movies, TV shows, albums, and books of the last 25 years only. Hence the title "the NEW classics." I had the best time reading their picks for the 100 best movies, shows, etc. I'm excited to try some of their picks out, especially the books. I always like reading book reviews before I pick my next book to read. I thought I'd put each of the top ten of the aforementioned categories on here, just for fun. It's fun to see if what I've watched/read/listened to makes their list.

Top Ten Movies

1. Pulp Fiction. I won't be watching this, because it also has the highest amount of f-bombs in a movie - 269, I think they said.

2. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

3. Titanic

4. Blue Velvet

5. Toy Story

6. Saving Private Ryan

7. Hannah and Her Sisters

8. The Silence of the Lambs

9. Die Hard

10. Moulin Rouge

Top Ten TV Shows

1. The Simpsons

2. The Sopranos

3. Seinfeld. Well said. My favorite TV show of all time. Also, the Elaine dance from when she was at a party was listed as the top "new classic" dance moment. That visual of her dancing still makes me giggle.

4. The X-Files

5. Sex and the City

6. Survivor

7. The Cosby Show

8. Lost

9. Friends

10. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Top Ten Albums

1. Purple Rain by Prince. I'd just like to take this moment to rub this in the face of all my Prince-hating friends and family. And there are many of them. See? Prince is a genius!!

2. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill by Lauryn Hill

3. Achtung Baby by U2

4. The College Dropout by Kanye West

5. Madonna by Madonna

6. American Idiot by Green Day

7. The Blueprint by Jay-Z

8. Graceland by Paul Simon

9. Back to Black by Amy Winehouse

10. In Rainbows by Radiohead

Top Ten Books

1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

3. Beloved by Toni Morrison

4. The Liars' Club by Mary Karr

5. American Pastoral by Philip Roth

6. Mystic River by Dennis Lehane

7. Maus by Art Spiegelman. I actually read these graphic memoirs in high school, when I was doing research for a holocaust project. In this two-part retelling of his dad's experiences in a concentration camp, the Jews are mice; the Germans, cats; the Americans, dogs. It is actually really interesting.

8. Selected Stories by Alice Munro

9. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

Top Ten Plays

1. Angels in America

2. Rent

3. August: Osage County

4. Doubt

5. Jersey Boys

6. Fences

7. Glengarry Glen Ross

8. Avenue Q

9. The Heidi Chronicles

10. The Producers. The only one I've seen on this entire list is Rent! And I saw The Producers when it was a movie. Phantom was number 12, Lion King was number 13, Les Mis was number 15, Wicked was number 16. I'm surprised Mama Mia didn't make the list. Chess was number 50 - I'm glad Chess made the list, because it has the all-time best song on it - "One Night in Bangkok." Aw yeah.

Anyways, this issue totally jazzed me up. I now have an enormous list of stuff to rent, check out, go to, watch online, and buy. If I want to get Ben a CD, I can just look on this list and pick one from one of his favorite artists that he doesn't happen to have yet. If I'm in the mood to watch a TV show that I never had a chance to see when it was first on, I can rent it from Blockbuster. If I ever take a trip to New York City and want to go to a show, I have a list to refer to. Now I just have to find the time to do all these things. And shouldn't I be using this time to study the Book of Mormon? Shame on me. :) I'm interested to hear your opinions on these lists - what should have made their top ten lists, in your opinion? What do you think of the ones they chose?