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If the eye is the window to the soul then the top ten list truly is the window to the psyche.

Whenever I go to my brother’s house we always come up with movie top ten lists, we would love to create a book of them one day, top ten everything lists. Top ten drinks, top ten deaths off screen, top ten guys you want to be like…etc.

I take my top ten lists seriously and always check to update them, I’m lame. pedantically nerdy like that. The best thing to do is work out what’s close but not on the top ten list. I rate Braveheart as one of the best movies ever made, but I also know that it is just out of my top ten list. I know that. From there it’s pretty much just process of elimination.

I should also state that these are just my own lists of ten. They are in no means meant to indicate a global standing point, this is purely my own little opinion. My lists are comprised of what I want to see in there, not what I feel should be in there. I can admit when a movie is great, but it has to be personal to get into my list. That’s how I roll.

I love to see people’s top tens. I think it really gives me an idea of the person, an insider’s view. It should be requisite first date material. Here are my lists for the important stuff.

I will start with honourable mentions, an hors doeuvre tray, to start the process off. This will give you an idea of where I roughly fall. You will also get to see what didn’t make the list, so what must have made the list must surely be awesome stuff. Surely I don’t like dreck…surely. It would be a shame to get to the end and my favourite movie was Shoot ‘Em Up and favourite song was Toxic by that girl with the beers rhyming name. I will also say, my lists don’t pander to the toff-nosed crowd. I’m not going to end with Citizen Kane, 1984 and Good Vibrations. I hate when people’s lists are made up of what they think they should like. I can remember seeing a list of top 5 books from a variety of people in the paper one day. A local politician put down (and I shit you not on this); The Collected Works of Shakespeare, The Bible, The Oxford English Dictionary, Pride and Prejudice and The Odyssey. It was the lamest list I had ever seen, and I can only hope people saw through his crap and did not vote him in. I like a list rich with identity, something personal that reflects character and a brain. If I wanted a list of the ten best I would ask for that, but personal lists need to be just that, personal. I also try to make my lists as varied as possible, it would not be fair for someone to dominate any specific category just because they are my favourite and their stuff just sings to me. So I have given the best cross section I can, and been true as well.

And the categories are:

Top Ten Movies
Honourable mentions: Se7en, The Wanderers, Chopper, The Shawshank Redemption, American History X, Sin City, Good Will Hunting, Pan’s Labyrinth, Braveheart, The Brood, The Usual Suspects, Citizen Kane, Rear Window, Memento, Office Space, GoodFellas, Miller’s Crossing.
This should give you some idea of how I roll with movies. I admit that I like a lot of recent movies, but I don’t see it as a bad thing. I just think that we live in an age of some brilliant cinema, it is just often overshadowed by the absolute glut of garbage that is also put out. I would stand by all of these movies as being very decent, and while some are close, and they are in no particular order, none of them were enoughy to get across the line, or at least displace the other 10 that did. I advise everyone to check out every single one of these movies, and feel free to tell me if you disagree with any, or think I made any ommissions of error, remembering that I wanted a list of really good flicks that just missed out on the honour of the esteemed top ten title.

Top Ten TV Shows
Honourable mentions: The Smurfs, The Outer Limits, Alias, Carnivale, Masters of Horror, Murder One, The Simpsons.
These shows are all very good, some downright brilliant in the way they were made, but not quite enough to get into my list. I tried to make a distinction between shows that I like, and shows that I feel are really something special. I was surprised at home many shows I could think of that I used to watch all the time, but they were just fluff, filler for other things. Good fluff, but fluff nonetheless.

Top Ten Books
Honourable mentions: I Am Legend – Richard Matheson, On Writing – Stephen King, American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis, The Phantom Tollbooth – Norton Juster, The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde, The Moon and Sixpence – W. Somerset Maugham, The Surgeon Of Crowthorne – Simon Winchester, Animal Farm – George Orwell, A Scanner Darkly – Philip K Dick, The Thief Of Always – Clive Barker.
There are some really fantastic reads here, things that have stuck with me for a long time, but this list just came to a point where I had to cut it at ten. Each of these books could easily be in there, but a line in the sand must always be drawn.

Top Ten Comic Books
Honourable mentions: Batman, All-Star Superman, The Order, Casanova, The Boys, Invincible, Alias, Pizza-Man, Criminal.
I am a huge nerd, so this has to be a category. These comics listed are all very very good reads, but they were all just on the cusp of top ten status.

Top Ten Songs
Honourable mentions: Dreaming Of You – The Coral, Hearts A Mess – Gotye, Reckless – James Reyne, Seven Spanish Angels – Willie Nelson, Who Wants To Live Forever – Queen, red light indicates doors are secured – Arctic monkeys, Love’s Not A Competition (But I’m Winning) – Kaiser Chiefs, New Slang – The Shins, Sea of Heartbreak – Don Gibson, Into My Arms - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.
I could go on and name a lot more, but you probably get the idea here. I was interested to note that a lot of my favourite bands didn’t have a single song that stood out as the greatest of their work. I found that it was just albums that I dug and choosing one song was not easy.

Well, now I guess you know me just that tiny bit better, how exciting! I hope you’ll tune in soon for the next instalment, what is number 10 on each list. Be here same stink website, same stink thoughts, same stinkbrown.

Posted on March 8th, 2008 by ryan
Filed under: life