Top 5 Dramas

So my favorite genre of movies is drama. So I will do my best to figure out my favorites down to 5. This list will be comprised of pure dramas, many dramas tend to flirt between other genres like comedy, romantic, or action...and in time I will do a list for those.

1. American Beauty - Excellent film. Has a very real feel in it, with a dark overbearing feeling of finding the small things in life that make it worthwhile.

2. As Good As It Gets - Great cast and character development. A phenomenal story.

3. Pay It Forward - Sad movie with an awesome ideal goal to make the world a better place.

4. Good Will Hunting - A film that truly shows how one's upbringing really affect the future of your life, and when the right opportunities come along, everything can change.

5. 21 Grams - A creative film with a strong cast that teaches us about life and how every person we come into contact with can affect our whole world.

Top 5 War Movies

Since it was requested....

1. Band of Brothers - Technically this is a miniseries but is the best film that makes you feel the realness of WWII. Geat story about the 101st airborne. Pure excitement and misery from start to finish.

2. We Were Soldiers - Probably the most underrated modern day war film, most likely due to it being the Vietnam War, but it has a great cast and screenplay. Shows not only th warfront, but also the wives and families back home throughout the fim. Realy evokes the emotion of how war can hit home the hardest.

3.Glory - An excellent Civil War film that won a few academy awards and put Denzel Washington's foot in the door of Hollywood. About the first black regiment issued in the Civil War. IT has lots of heart and can really tears down the social/political/racial barriers between soldiers.

4. Windtalkers - This film may have many flaws but it has a part of WWII that I was never taught in school. The Navajo indians were code talkers to help out in the war. It's just a different side of the war that I think goes missed.

5. Letters From Iwo Jima - An American director films a movie from the eyes of the Japanese soldiers during the battle for the island of Iwo Jima. The film is subtitled through the whole thing. The film plucks at your heart strings looking at war as a multi-dimensional struggle, as opposed to a one-sided self-righteous war.

Top 5 Sad Songs

Well...continuing with the music...I figured I would tackle a tough one.

As you all now, I am a bit of a realist at times and not only do I enjoy a good sad or dark drama, not much changes in music for me either. To go on a rant I would say 85% of music is about pain or love and the combination of the two. So I have to break it down into two top 5 lists because for some music is about the sound, while others it is the lyrics. For your listening pleasures, or lack of, I presented you with youtube links to all the songs to evaluate your own opinion (just hover over the artist or name of the song and open the link in a new tab). Some of these are quite clear how sad they are, others that you may not find as sad are for more personal reasons that I relate to, for example number two on the 1st list.

So here's the two lists:


Top 5 Songs (emphasis on sound)
1. Mad World - Gary Jules  - "The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I ever had"
2. Aaron Sprinkle - A Friend I Had - "How can I know where you are love"
3. Hero - Regina Spektor - "Hey, open wide here comes original sin"
4. Hard To Say - The Used - "Since you've been gone it's not the same"
5. Jesus Christ - Brand New - "We all got wood and nails"


Top 5 Songs (emphasis on lyrics)
1. Lived Learned Love & Lost - Ronnie Day - "I'm a lonely guy and I think too much"
2. I Can't Go On - Bayside - "Deflate the air from both of my lungs"
3. Circular Parade - The Beautiful Mistake - "You're in my circular parade of failure"
4. One Eight Seven - Senses Fail - "A gaping hole, shot through my heart"
5. It's Been Awhile - Staind - "It's been awhile since I could say I love myself"

So unless I get some fresh new top 5 lists, you should be expecting some more music top 5's.....who knows, maybe happy songs could be next...

Top 5 Perfect Albums

So once in a blue moon comes along a perfect musical album. Now I did do a top five band list and of all 5 of them, only two of them has a perfect album, so let's see which perfect albums made the top 5 in my book...

1. The Spill Canvas' "One Fell Swoop" (2005). Lead guitarist and vocalist, Nick Thomas, is in my opinion a lyrical genius. This album has an excelllent balance of electric to acousitc mix. It maintains a very open and honest atmosphere discussing love, loss, and lust.
Honorable Mention: The Spill Canvas's debut album "Sunsets and Car Crashes" is quite amazing as well.

2. Augustana's "Can't Love, Can't Hurt" (2008). Augustana started out as a band with a couple of hit singles, "Boston" & "Stars and Boulevards", but they really matured into this album. In this album Augustana progressed more into a mix of progressive rock with a vein of folk pouring through each measure. It's an album with a strange feeling of apathy trying to pull through with a shimmer of hope. I feel this is album of letting go of the past and trying to move foward in life. A struggle I think we all face when we reflect on past fears and heartache.

3. Seabird's "Rocks Into Rivers" (2009). Seabird is a band that may get compared to the likes of piano driven artists like The Fray, but make no doubt this band has someting fresh going on in this album. Throughout this album they use many dissonant and imperfect chords creating a jazz/blues atmosphere all tied together with Aaron Morgan's rustic voice, allows for such an intoxicating sound.
Honorable Mention: Seabird's debut album "Til We See The Shore" could easily  be a contender for a top album as well.

4. Ace Enders and A Million Different People's "When I Hit the Ground" (2009). Arthur "Ace" Enders creates a continuous album that must be listened to from start to finish. The opening few songs feel angry as he vents about the last few years of his life. The anger subdues and moves into a movement of love and changing the heart of mankind. An absolute gem.

5.  Fifth Place Tie:

Ronnie Day's "The Album" (2006). - Another continuous album about a perfect relatinship coming together and then falling apart. Virtually an entire acoustic album with gut-wrenching lyrics as he expresses in detail how it all went down, and his willingness to keep fighting for "Jamie" no matter what.

Secondhand Serenade's "A Twist in My Story" (2008). Singer John Vesely writes all his music for his wife, hence the name "Secondhand Serenade", and he really created a good one here. An album you can turn on and listen from start to finish over and over again. I et I listened to this album 100 times the summer of 2009.
Fun Fact : Ronnie Day and John Vesely we're in a band together when they we're much younger called "Sounds Like Life".

10 Honorable Mentions that didn't make the cut but almost did:

Fair - The Best Worst Case Scenario

Fair - Disappearing World

Brand New - The Devil and God are Raging Inside of Me

Cartel - Chroma

Every Avenue - Picture Perfect

The Classic Crime - The Silver Cord

16 Frames - Where It Ends

Acceptance - Phantoms

Funeral For A Friend - Hours

Gin Blossoms - Major Lodge Victory

Top 5 Worst Smells

1. Vineger - Tops in at #1 maybe because it's not too uncommon. But I hate the smell of it, it is horrible to me.

2. Fermented Fruit - Nothing pleasant about this one. I always recall this because at camp cleaning the juice hoses have that odor.

3. Vomit - Awful smell, luckily it's not as common as many others one may have to experience.

4. Sulfur - Hmm...yea...rotten egg smell....no thanks...

5. Dead Animal - if an animal has died and decayed for a about a week....definetly not pleasant at all.

Oh, and if you haven't checked it out yet, I posted a new blog here - Separations.

Top 5 Names

I debated if this should be real names or crated ones...I am going to go with ones that I like based on whether they are real or fake.

1. Ender -  Cool name.

2. Bryce - I lke this name as well.

3. Porcelain - No one I know likes the name Porcelain, but I don't care I think it's awesome.

4. Joshua - I like the name Joshua, but not so much if it's shortened to Josh.

5. Cierra - I like this name not too different but it just sounds cool.

Top 5 People I Would Like To Meet - 2 Part

Ok this was a proposed list idea so I'm going to run with it. But I thought for a second why limit myself here? So I will do a top 5 People I Would Like To Meet From The Past and a top 5 People I would Like To Meet in the Present. Basically a list of living and a list of dead people I would like to meet. Oh, and I am only going to choose people within the last century for those that are dead.


Top 5 People From The Past I Would Like To Meet

1. Mother Teresa - I think she truly was one of the truest examples of what it means to live a life of servitude.

2. Jim Braddock - The "Cinderella Man" story. It's absolutely wonderful to see a man inspire a nation during the the most impoverished time in our nation - The Great Depression.

3. Martin Luther King Jr. - Now I do feel he is a bit overhyped in the wrong ways and I think most people don't truly look at what he did. I think it's really cool to see a movement happen without violence, words are powerful men like him and I should throw Booker T. Washington in as well. Just an inspiring story.

4. Thomas Edison - I've always been fascinated with the idea of being an inventor and he was one of the most well-reknown.

5. Edgar Allen Poe - I love the way he writes and his vocabulary is so vast I envy his innovative word usage in virtually all of his work.



Top 5 Current People I Would Like To Meet

1. Erwin Raphael McManus - One of my favorite writers, very down to earth, and has such a great way to challenge one's faith.

2. Francis Chan- I find him inspiring, and pretty legit. I like the way he speaks and the way he writes

3. Chris Carrabba - Lead singer of Dashboard Confessional. Seeing him in concert I just find him a very down to earth guy. I think he is very grateful for his fans. His lyrics are some of the best in the history of all music in my opinion.

4. John Cusack - One of my favorite actors. I just think it would be cool to talk to him and hear about his favorite roles and what not.

5. Steven Spielberg - Great Director. He has done so many good movies, I'd like to see his insight and approach to taking on a film.