The Observer lists 15 web sites that changed
The Observer lists 15 web sites that changed the world, including Google, Wikipedia, Blogger, and Amazon. (thx, dylan)
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Top 50 movies (by gross) that were never
Top 50 movies (by gross) that were never in wide release in the US. Top 3: Rocky Horror, Boyz n the Hood, and Royal Tenenbaums.
The top 50 movie endings of all time. “
The top 50 movie endings of all time. “We’re not talking about the last half hour. We mean the last minute of movie. You know, the ending.” Needless to say, spoilers. (via cyn-c)
List of easily mispronouncable domain names. I’ve
List of easily mispronouncable domain names. I’ve always beeen partial to WhoRepresents.com (or whorepresents.com).
The IHT compiles a list of the
The IHT compiles a list of the best and worst moments and memories from the 2006 World Cup.
Zidane won the Golden Ball award, awarded
Zidane won the Golden Ball award, awarded by journalists to the best player of the tournament. Most of the voting for the award came before halftime of the final. Miroslav Klose’s five goals gave him the Golden Boot as the tournament’s top scorer.
List of the top 5 most popular blogs
List of the top 5 most popular blogs written by scientists. Here’s the top 50 and a list of popular science blogs written by non-scientists. What’s clear is that the blog reading public doesn’t care that much for science…more people probably read Engadget than all of the top 50 science blogs combined.
List of the 10 most beautiful OS X
List of the 10 most beautiful OS X apps. Newsfire is a well-deserved second.
The 10 greatest years in gaming. I’ll always be partial to 1986.
The 10 greatest years in gaming. I’ll always be partial to 1986.
ESPN writer Bill Simmons lists his YouTube
ESPN writer Bill Simmons lists his YouTube Hall of Fame videos.
New York City named the most courteous
New York City named the most courteous city in the world. Since I’ve lived here, I’ve noticed that New Yorkers aren’t rude, they’re just busy and dislike having their time wasted. (via mr)
List of the 25 most popular nouns (by
List of the 25 most popular nouns (by usage) according to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary: “time, person, year, way, day, thing, man, world, life, hand, part, child, eye, woman, place, work, week, case, point, government, company, number, group, problem, fact”
The Chicago Tribune has published their list
The Chicago Tribune has published their list of the 50 best magazines of 2006. Top fiving it for you: The Economist, Dwell, Wired, The New Yorker, and ESPN the Magazine.
The AFI’s list of the 100 most inspiring
The AFI’s list of the 100 most inspiring films of all time. Top 5: It’s a Wonderful Life, To Kill a Mockingbird, Schindler’s List, Rocky, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
Press Photographers Year awards for the outstanding
Press Photographers Year awards for the outstanding press photography of 2005. (thx joshua)
A list of the 100 best corporate citizens
A list of the 100 best corporate citizens for 2006 from Business Ethics Magazine. Nike is at #13, Whole Foods at #47. (via rp)
The worst band names (along with the
The worst band names (along with the best worst band names) of 2006 (so far). Mariospeedwagon!
Short list of hot dog places in
Short list of hot dog places in NYC. What, no Crif Dogs? That’s unpossible.
What’s the most offensive show on television?
What’s the most offensive show on television? MTV’s My Super Sweet 16. “Marissa created an exclusive guest list and announced it at school. If you weren’t on the list, well, sorry. When a few kids begged to get an invitation, she made them have a ‘dance-off’ in front of her. Watching her get off on that was like watching the Emperor zap Luke Skywalker with those fingertip lightning bolts in Return Of The Jedi.”
Re: Jim Emerson’s list of films you
Re: Jim Emerson’s list of films you should see to consider yourself movie literate, what are the essential gay/queer movies?
Playboy lists the 25 sexiest novels ever written.
Playboy lists the 25 sexiest novels ever written. I’ve read only 2 of the 25: Lolita and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Probably a little NSFW.
Top science book prize goes to David
Top science book prize goes to David Bodanis’s Electric Universe, a book about electricity. An odd choice…I read the book and it was good but not great.
A list of the 100 most influential persons
A list of the 100 most influential persons in the world and what religion each practiced. The list should more properly be called the 100 most influential men in the world + Queens Elizabeth I and Isabella I. (via rb)
What Is the best work of American
What Is the best work of American fiction of the last 25 years? Toni Morrison’s Beloved. In a companion piece, A.O. Scott writes: “I was surprised at how few of the highly praised, boldly ambitious books by younger writers - by which I mean writers under 50 - were mentioned. One vote each for ‘The Corrections’ and ‘The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,’ none for ‘Infinite Jest’ or ‘The Fortress of Solitude,’ a single vote for Richard Powers, none for William T. Vollmann, and so on.” (via, sps)
New York magazine does its version of
New York magazine does its version of the power issue for NYC: The Influentials, “the people whose ideas, power, and sheer will are changing New York”. No offense to anyone who made the list, but NYC is unsurprisingly light on technology.
A list of the films preserved in
A list of the films preserved in the United States National Film Registry. (thx, robert)
New Yorker music critic Alex Ross has
New Yorker music critic Alex Ross has compiled a chronolocial 100-song playlist/tour of mostly classical/instrumental music for the 20th century. Starts with Stravinsky & Gershwin and ends with Bjork.
Watch these movies, then we can talk
Film critic Jim Emerson recently compiled a list of 102 movies that you should see before you can consider yourself movie literate:
…they [are] the movies you just kind of figure everybody ought to have seen in order to have any sort of informed discussion about movies. They’re the common cultural currency of our time, the basic cinematic texts that everyone should know, at minimum, to be somewhat “movie-literate.”
I’ve reproduced Emerson’s list here and marked with an asterisk those that I’ve seen.
* 2001: A Space Odyssey
* The 400 Blows
8 1/2
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
* Alien
All About Eve
* Annie Hall
* Apocalypse Now
* Bambi
The Battleship Potemkin
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Big Red One
The Bicycle Thief
The Big Sleep
* Blade Runner
Blowup
* Blue Velvet
Bonnie and Clyde
Breathless
Bringing Up Baby
Carrie
* Casablanca
Un Chien Andalou
Children of Paradise / Les Enfants du Paradis
* Chinatown
* Citizen Kane
* A Clockwork Orange
* The Crying Game
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Days of Heaven
* Dirty Harry
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
* Do the Right Thing
La Dolce Vita
Double Indemnity
* Dr. Strangelove
Duck Soup
* E.T. — The Extra-Terrestrial
Easy Rider
* The Empire Strikes Back
The Exorcist
* Fargo
* Fight Club
Frankenstein
The General
* The Godfather, The Godfather, Part II
* Gone With the Wind
* GoodFellas
* The Graduate
Halloween
* A Hard Day’s Night
Intolerance
It’s a Gift
* It’s a Wonderful Life
Jaws
The Lady Eve
Lawrence of Arabia
M
Mad Max 2 / The Road Warrior
The Maltese Falcon
* The Manchurian Candidate
Metropolis
Modern Times
* Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Nashville
The Night of the Hunter
Night of the Living Dead
* North by Northwest
* Nosferatu
* On the Waterfront
Once Upon a Time in the West
Out of the Past
Persona
Pink Flamingos
Psycho
* Pulp Fiction
Rashomon
* Rear Window
Rebel Without a Cause
Red River
Repulsion
The Rules of the Game
* Scarface
The Scarlet Empress
* Schindler’s List
The Searchers
* The Seven Samurai
Singin’ in the Rain
Some Like It Hot
A Star Is Born
A Streetcar Named Desire
Sunset Boulevard
* Taxi Driver
The Third Man
Tokyo Story
* Touch of Evil
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Trouble in Paradise
Vertigo
* West Side Story
The Wild Bunch
* The Wizard of Oz
That’s 40 out of 102. My pre-1970 movie knowledge is just plain pathetic, but I’ve seen all six movies on the list made since 1990 (and 5 out of 7 of the 80s movies). And I think I’ve seen Bambi (when I was a kid), but I marked it as seen even though I’m not completely sure. As for what’s missing from the list, I’m not even going to go there given my poor showing. There are some hardcore movie fans reading this…anyone seen them all?
It’s easier to watch movies than to read books
This list of the 50 best book to film adaptions that I posted yesterday inspired Michael Hanscom to mark which of the movies he’s seen and which of the books he’s read. Here’s my list:
1. [BM] 1984
2. [BM] Alice in Wonderland
3. [M] American Psycho
4. Breakfast at Tiffany’s
5. Brighton Rock
6. Catch 22
7. [BM] Charlie & the Chocolate Factory
8. [M] A Clockwork Orange
9. [BM] Close Range (inc Brokeback Mountain)
10. The Day of the Triffids
11. Devil in a Blue Dress
12. [M] Different Seasons (inc The Shawshank Redemption)
13. [M] Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (aka Bladerunner)
14. [M] Doctor Zhivago
15. [M] Empire of the Sun
16. [M] The English Patient
17. [M] Fight Club
18. The French Lieutenant’s Woman
19. [M] Get Shorty
20. [M] The Godfather
21. [M] Goldfinger
22. [M] Goodfellas
23. [M] Heart of Darkness (aka Apocalypse Now)
24. [B] The Hound of the Baskervilles
25. Jaws
26. The Jungle Book
27. A Kestrel for a Knave (aka Kes)
28. [M] LA Confidential
29. [M] Les Liaisons Dangereuses
30. [BM] Lolita
31. [M] Lord of the Flies
32. The Maltese Falcon
33. Oliver Twist
34. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
35. Orlando
36. [BM] The Outsiders
37. [BM] Pride and Prejudice
38. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
39. The Railway Children
40. Rebecca
41. [M] The Remains of the Day
42. [M] Schindler’s Ark (aka Schindler’s List)
43. [M] Sin City
44. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
45. [M] The Talented Mr Ripley
46. Tess of the D’Urbervilles
47. Through a Glass Darkly
48. To Kill a Mockingbird
49. [M] Trainspotting
50. The Vanishing
51. Watership Down
Note: In the cases of more than one movie adaptation (e.g. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), I marked it as viewed if I’d seen any version of the movie. Also, like Michael, I have no idea why the “top 50” list has 51 items.
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