Top 50 Movies Made Before 1980

One thing that is lacking in my movie watching is older movies. I have watched ver few movies per-year for everything before about 1986. However, I have seen a number of movies from these years, and felt the need to see how they stand up.
So here are my top 50:
1. The Outlaw Josey Wales
2. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
3. Doctor Strangelove
4. Cool Hand Luke
5. Dog Day Afternoon
6. A Clockwork Orange
7. Night of the Living Dead
8. The Godfater: Part II
9. Jaws
10. The Magnificent Seven
11. Apocalypse Now
12. Dawn of the Dead
13. 12 Angry Men
14. A Bridge Too Far
15. Airplane!
16. The Searchers
17. The Godfather
18. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
19. Animal House
20. Star Wars: A New Hope
21. The Jungle Book
22. Hang Em' High
23. Rear Window
24. High Plains Drifter
25. High Noon
26. Casablanca
27. North By NorthWest
28. Blazing Saddles
29. The Seven Samurai
30. Young Frankenstein
31. The Warriors
32. Bannanas
33. Patton
34. American Graffiti
35. The Wild Bunch
36. It's a Wonderful Life
37. The Sting
38. Dirty Harry
39. Mash
40. Enter the Dragon
41. The Dirty Dozen
42. Taxi Driver
43. Rocky
44. Joe Kidd
45. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
46. Zulu
47. The Last House on the Left
48. The Quiet Man
49. The Sword in the Stone
50. The Manchurian Candidate

Well, there's the list.
If you are curious getting to 50 before 1980 required me to look at my top 303 movies

Favorites from Non-Favorites

Yet another music list. This is a list of my favorite songs that are by people who are not among my top 50 bands-artists of all time. In making this list I realized that these non-top 50 bands really add a lot of musical deversity to my list... I like that.
Anyway, we'll go with my top 50:

1. Last Train to Mars, The DethHolz (16)
2. The Princess and the Pony, Sean Na Na (28)
3. Big Pimpon, Jay Z (34)
4. High, Jimmy's Chicken Shack (36)
5. Black Betty, Ram Jam (39)
6. Go Away, Godsmack (43)
7. Can a Nigga Get a Table Dance, 2 Live Crew (46)
8. Rock N' Roll SInger, Mark Kozeorek (48)
9. Sure Was Better Back Then, Steve Forburt (49)
10. Stone Cold Crazy, Metallica (57)
11. Spaceball , Bide Ou Blade, (61)
12. Jacking the Ball, Sea and Cake, (70)
13. Lime in the Cocanut, Harry Nielson (71)
14. Velvet Underground, Jonathan Richmand (73)
15. I Don't Like Mondays, The Boomtown Rats (74)
16. Make You Love Me More, Ryan Adams (77)
17. Johnny 99, Los Lobos (78)
18. Squash That Fly, FuManch (79)
19. No Rain, Blind Mellon (85)
20. Get Out of Denver, Bob Seager (102)
21. Promises, Eric Clapton (104)
22. Honk if Your Lonely, The Silver Jews (109)
23. Where'd You Hide the Body, James McMurrtrey (110)
24. Warren Zevon's Gonna Die, Too Hip For the Room (112)
25. The Appartment Song, Tom Petty (118)
26. Dang Me, Roger Miller, (122)
27. End of the World as We Know it, REM (126)
28. Hey Ya, Outkast (127)
29. Romeo and Juliet, Dire Straits (132)
30. Living it Down, Delbert McClinton (134)
31. TV Party, Black Flag (145)
32. The Great Song of Indifference, Bob Geldoff (149)
33. Hair of the Dog, Nazareth (151)
34. Without Me, Eminem (152)
35. It's Money That Matters, Randy Newman (155)
36. Alphabet Aerobics, Blackalicious (159)
37. Smooth Criminal, Alien Antfarm (163)
38. Working at the Car Wash Blues, Jim Croche (165)
39. Hotel California, Gypsy Kings (169)
40. Surrender, Cheap Trick (170)
41. Keep on Rockin in the Free World, Neal Young (171)
42. You Shook Me All Night Long, ACDC (181)
43. Shady Lane, Pavement (182)
44. Never Get Agead, Bobby Conn (187)
45. Let's Go Dancing, Driving and Crying (188)
46. Bad Reputation, Joan Jett (190)
47. How I Could Just Kill a Man, Cypriss Hill (191)
48. Autom Sweater, Yo La Tango (195)
49. Wrong Way, Sublime (197)
50. Big Yellow Taxi, Joni Mitchel (200)

Apperently I'm not competent enough to make Mac N' Cheese

So the other day I was making some mac n' cheese for dinner. Not really Mac n' cheese mind you but a knock off brand (I'm not a Rockafeller ya know). Anywho my plan was to eat a nice big pot of mac n' cheese before poker at 6. But about 2 hours into poker I realized I was really really hungry. And so I was like "What the hell, I ate so much mac n' cheese, why am I hungry?" At which point I realized I was hungry because I didn't eat any mac n' cheese because I had forgotton to eat it... in fact I had forgotten to stop cooking it. So I called my room mate Jeff who told me he found it about an hour into it's cooking, and that the fire it caused was relatively small, so there was nothing to worry about. So there was no real problems except the horrible smell and the damage it did to the pot (I'm soaking it as I type this). The one bonus was that I got to use the cheese packet from that in my next batch of mac n' cheese. That wasn't as good as I had hoped... but at least now I know.

Best of Lists

Hey, I had some time to kill so I have created a seires of Best-Of lists for several of my favorite bands, and I thought I would post them.

Top 30 Warren Zevon songs:
1. I Was in the House When the House Burned Down
2. Mr. Bad Example
3. The Factory
4. Even a Dog can Shake Hands
5. Indifference of Heaven (Live Accustic)
6. My Rides Here
7. Numb as a Statue
8. Rest of the Night
9. Things to Do in Denver When Your Dead (Live Version)
10. Battleship Chains (With Hindu Love Gods)
11. Ain’t That Pretty at All
12. I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead
13. Angle Dressed in Black
14. Gorilla You’re a Desperado
15. Piano Fighter (Live)
16. Iko-Iko
17. Lawyers, Guns, and Money (Live Accustic)
18. Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me
19. Mama Couldn’t Be Pursuaded
20. Porceline Monkey
21. Trouble Waiting to Happen
22. Play it All Night Long
23. The Envoy
24. Disorder in the House
25. A Certain Girl
26. Seminole Bingo
27. Cadillac Ranch
28. Werewolves of London (Live Accustic)
29. Vigilanti Man (With Hindu Love Gods)
30. Turbulance

Top 25 Modest Mouse Songs
1. Teeth Like God’s Shoeshine
2. Cowboy Dan
3. Tiny Cities Made of Ashes
4. The View
5. A Different City
6. Wild Pack of Family Dogs
7. Might
8. So Much Beuty in Dirt
9. Lounge (Closing Time)
10. All Night Diner
11. What People are Made of
12. Dance Hall
13. Polar Opposites
14. Three Inch Horses Two Faced Monsters
15. Convinent Parking
16. Lounge
17. Paper Thin Walls
18. Float On
19. The Good Times are Killing Me
20. Trucker’s Atlas
21. Trailer Trash
22. Shit Luck
23. Bury Me With It
24. Breakthrough
25. Black Cadillacs

Top 20 Beck Songs
1. Loser
2. Beercan
3. Mixed Bizness
4. Soul Suckin’ Jerk
5. Lost Cause
6. Keg Party Girls (Demo)
7. I Ain’t Got no Home in This World Anymore (Live Accustic)
8. Sex Laws
9. E-Pro
10. Satan Gave Me a Taco
11. Minus
12. Sweet Sunshine
13. Mutherfucker
14. High Five
15. Sissyneck
16. Pressure Zone
17. Where It’s At
18. Novacain
19. Devil’s aircut
20. Scarecrow

Top 15 Violent Fems Songs
1. 36-24-36
2. Out the Window
3. Kiss Off
4. Lies
5. Add it Up
6. I’m Nothing
7. Blister in the Son
8. Life is an Adventure
9. Country Death Song
10. Dahmer is Dead
11. Dance Mutherfucker
12. Prove My Love
13. Special
14. Held Her in My Arms
15. Waiting for a Bus

Top 15 Bruce Springsteen Songs
1. Growing Up (Accustic Demo)
2. Highway Patrolman
3. The Big Payback
4. From Small Things
5. Born to Run (Live Accustic Version)
6. My Rides Here
7. My Hometown (Rockabilly Version)
8. This Land is Your Land (Live Accustic)
9. Nebraska
10. Glory Days
11. Summertime Blues (Live)
12. All I’m Think About
13. This Hard Land
14. Held Up Without a Gun
15. Blinded By the Light

Top 15 John Prine Songs
1. That’s the Way that the World Goes Round (Live Version)
2. Sam Stone
3. Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You into Heaven Anymore
4. Quiet Man
5. Often is a Word I Seldom Use
6. Please Don’t Bury Me
7. Fish and Whistle
8. Leave the Lights On
9. Grandpa Was a Carpenter
10. Let’s Talk Dirty in Hawaiian
11. The Sins of Memphisto
12. Spanish Pipedream
13. Quit Hollerin at Me
14. Illigal Smile
15. The Accident

Top Ten Johnny Cash Songs
1. I Never Picked Cotton
2. Cocain Blues (Live version)
3. When the Man Comes Around
4. I’ve Been Everywhere
5. Folsom Prison Blues
6. I Walk the Line
7. Get Rythem
8. Boy Named Sue (Live Version)
9. The Ballad of Ira Hayes
10. Ring of Fire

Top Ten Beatles S0ngs
1. Don’t Pass Me By
2. I am the Walrus
3. Blackbird
4. The Ballad of John and Yoko
5. Back in the USSR
6. Rocky Raccoon
7. The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
8. Two of Us
9. Yellow Submarine
10. Sargent Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

Congratulations Mr. Keen

Well I got around to ranking my backlog of songs added to my computer. There were several very good songs added to the list, the highest being "Lets go Dancing" by Drivin' N' Cryin' which came in at number 187. However, the most important songs are the 4, that's right 4 Robert Earl Keen songs which got added to the list, the best of these songs being "Feeling Good Again" and "Corpus Christi Bay". At my last update Robert Earl Keen had just barely edged his way on to the list in the 49 spot. These four songs I added shot him all the way up to 19th. Is anyone else as shocked as I am by this. The answer I assume I'm getting on this is no, because who the hell else would care. But the important thing is I'M excited about it. Anyway congratulations Mr. Keen, I hope to hear more from you in the future.

Top 50 TV Shows of all Time

It was bound to happen sooner or later. My list-making habbits have broken into the medium of television. I have created a list of my top 50 television shows of all time. I am taking these shows entire histories into account. I am judging them based on how much I would like to watch them right now at this moment. Thus such former favorite shows as X-Men: The Animated Series and The Muppet Babbies did not make the list. Anyway Here it is:


1. The Simpsons
2. Family Guy
3. Aqua Teen Hunger Force
4. Mystery Science Theater 3000
5. Seinfeld
6. Pardon the Interruption
7. Space Ghost: Coast to Coast
8. Deadwood
9. Arrested Development
10. Sealab 2021
11. Late Night with Conan O’ Brain
12. The Kids in the Hall
13. The Dana Carvey Show
14. Futurama
15. Andy Richter Controls the Universe
16. Upright Citizens Brigade
17. The Sapranos
18. The Brak Show
19. Married with Children
20. The Norm Show
21. South Park
22. Malcolm in the Middle
23. Chapple’s Show
24. Home Movies
25. The Daily Show
26. King of the Hill
27. Scurbs
28. X-Play
29. Homicide: Life on the Streets
30. The Sports Reporters
31. Saturday Night Live
32. That 70’s Show
33. Stella
34. Mr. Show with Bob and Dave
35. Sportcenter
36. Curb Your Enthusiasm
37. Strangers with Candy
38. The Critic
39. Wings
40. Salute Your Shorts
41. Third Rock From the Sun
42. Cheers
43. Battle of the Gridiron Stars
44. Bevis and Butthead
45. News Radio
46. The Adventures of Pete and Pete
47. My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss
48. Parker Lewis Can’t Lose
49. The Ben Stiller Show
50. The X-Files

Choices, Choices, Choices

Man do I have a tough descision right now. I want some lunch, and I am very nearly out of food. Now, I could go to the grocery store and by food, and while I'm out get some taco bell or something to sweeten the deal. I like this idea because I kinda feel like hanging out at the grocery store for a while, you know just walking around and whatnot. However, my one concern is that its sunday and the store will be busy and the lines will be long. I would much rather go during the week, and at night if possible. Why must I be tortured by such deep-seated darkly-burning questions that plauge my soul?


Although I suppose if I do go to the grocery store it would at least get me to put some pants on...

Yeah, I'll go.

An important question I've been pondering

Zach asked me and Jeff a series of question from a new book he aquired called sex, drugs, and coco puffs. While many of the questions were interesting and thought-provocing there is one that really stuck with me.

Lets say there was an extrodinarilly intellegant gorilla. While the gorilla could not speak it had a sign language vocabulary of over 12,000 words. It had an IQ of 85 and showed signs of being self-aware. Now this gorilla has one dream in life, to be a professional football player in the NFL. Monday Night Football announcer John Madden has theorized that placed at the defensive lineman position the gorilla would be, "nearly unblockable" and would likely average six sacks a game. Keep in mind that the Gorilla has promised never to intentionally hurt another player. You are the commisioner of the NFL. Should you allow the Gorilla to sign with the Oakland Raiders and play in the NFL?

Now my gut reaction to this was to say no. Primarilly because it violates the NFL rule that all players must be three years out of high school. Also because to spite its best efforts the gorilla would likely injure other players nearly every game whether it tried to or not. However, lately I've come to realize something else. The gorilla could use the fame it would gain as the greatest defensive lineman in the history of the world as a spring-board in to a locrative carear in the film industry. I would hate to deprive the world of one of the greatest possibilities for brilliant monkey acting in the history of the world. Furthermore he could likely star in a feature film version of the Warren Zevon song, "Gorilla Your a Desperado". It would seem the answers to lifes most burning questions are not as easy to answer as you might first suspect.

Well whoever was number 1,000 didn't post

But I guess that's not surprising since nobody posts here except Zach and the occasional drifter. But the important thing is that we got to 1,000 hits since I got the counter at the beginning of the summer. I think I got it around the end of june, which means it took me almost half a year to get to 1,000 hits, which is somewhat sad. But as I said the important thing is that I have 1,000 hits, and the 1,000th hit wasn't me!

Who will make the 1,000th visit to The Blake Spot

In perhaps the most momentous occasion since the creation of my blog I am about to reach 1,000 visits to my blog. The question is who will be the lucky person to view my blog? Will it be Zach? The plucky roommate who's vain and innoculous posts we've all come to Love and also hate a little bit? Will it be one of the countless readers who refuse to post because of fear and self-loathing? Will it be some random internet surfer who was acctually looking for beastiality portn? Or will it be me... it'll probobally be me.

Well if you should happen to notice that you are the 1,000th person to view my blog please post a comment if you are cappable.

Went a little Errand Crazy this Afternoon

First off I had to return anit-bordem supplies to two video stores and the library. I also went to the bank to cash a check and transfer some money into my dwindeling checking account. I than traveled into Madison to go to Best Buy to return something and by my sister a birthday. Which brings me to the most interesting stop on my little tour.

I went to Boarders Bookstore to try out my plan. Upon realizing that your average graphic novel could be read in about 2 hours I thought that I could simply read many of the shorter graphic novels in bookstores and than put them back on the shelf when I was done. I tried it this afternoon. I went to the coffe shop and bought a soda (I hate coffee) and sat down with my copy of Dark Days, a graphic novel about vampires which was roughly 140 pages long. I read the entire thing in a little over 45 minutes. I hadn't even finished my soda yet. None of the people that worked in the store hassled me. I assume they never do because everyone in the coffe shop seating area seemed to be doing the exact same thing as me. I think this could be come an exciting new practice for me. The only problem is that I don't believe Winona has a Boarders or a Barns and Noble or anything like that. I guess I'm gonna have to drive into LaCrosse to do this. I suppose it could be a nice little expedition for me though... 25 minute drive to LaCrosse, an hour at the book store, 25 minute drive back... could be a pretty nice afternoon really, especially on days when I don't have a netflix disc. I guess we'll wait and see on this one.

Edited My Song and Bands Lists Today

I worked on them for about 7 hours today. I ended up almost completely redooing the bands list. While it was a relatively good time the one dissapointing thing was that the bands list was changed very little. The primary difference between this list and the last is that the last bands list only took 500 songs into account while this one takes 600 into account. Anywy for my song list here are all of the changes to the top 101 songs:

Fighting Texas Aggie by Robert Earl Keen moved up to number 32 from 186
Indifference of Heaven by Warren Zevon moved up to number 68 from 136
Velvet Underground by Jonathan Richmand moved up to 73 144
Take My Tempreture by Kaiser Chiefs moved up to 95 from 212
Hockey Monkey by The Zambonies moved up to 98 from 129
Numb as a Statue by Warren Zevon moved up to 101 from 147

And here is my new top 50 Bands with their scores derived from my top 600 songs list.

1. Warren Zevon - 9715
2. Modest Mouse - 8617
3. Beck - 6943
4. The Violent Fems - 5259
5. Bruce Springsteen - 4811
6. John Prine - 4677
7. Johnny Cash - 3573
8. The Beatles - 3415
9. Rage Against the Machine - 3055
10. Ween - 2669
11. The Bouncing Souls - 2642
12. Nirvana - 2457
13. Rancid - 2544
14. The Rolling Stones - 2428
15. The Offspring - 2398
16. The Beastie Boys - 2375
17. Ramones - 2340
18. Cake - 2293
19. Husker Du - 1923
20. The Magnetic Fields - 1910
21. The Dead Kennedys - 1796
22. The Velvet Underground - 1794
23. The White Stripes - 1729
24. Greenday - 1513
25. Steve Earle - 1509
26. Billy Joel - 1480
27. Queen - 1443
28. The Misfits - 1395
29. Camper Van Beethoven - 1384
30. Man... or Astroman? - 1374
31. The Hold Steady - 1317
32. Dynamite hack - 1291
33. Bob Dylan - 1244
34. Jump Little Children - 1233
35. Stiff Little Fingers - 1194
36. Generation X - 1159
37. Sweet - 1134
38. Andrew WK - 1119
39. Bloodhound Gangs - 1080
40. The Zambonies - 1045
41. The Dambed - 1043
42. The Buzzcocks - 1034
43. The Clash - 990
44. Electric Six - 981
45. Joe Jackson - 969
46. The Strokes - 960
47. The Might Be Giants - 954
48. Kaiser Chiefs - 928
49. Robert Earl Keen - 908
50. The Who - 898

Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night

So a couple days ago I get a call a few minutes after midnight. Zach tells me he's leaving for Chicago in a little under 8 hours and asks me if I want to come with him. I decide that I do in fact want to go with him. I was very excited to go to Chicago because I had never been there and was getting a free hotel room. While in Chicago I did the following things:
1. Ate some delicous Popeyes Chicken
2. Went to a number of loud sports bars
3. Went to a very fancy bar where the following occured. An employee asks me to take my top gun hat off. Politelly appollogized and took my top gun hat off. Waited 5 miuntes. Put the hat back on. Repeat.
4. Hugged a homeless man
5. Licked Wrigly field
6. Beat Zach at Fussball
7. Sang Bob Dylan Songs on the L Train
8. Had a cab get its fee up to 2 dollars and 80 cents while we were still in the parking lot of the hotel where it picked us up.
9. Had a very good time.

Anyway on the whole I would mark the night as a success and will go directly back to Chicago the first chance I get.

I'm Considering a New Form of Communication

I've grown weary 0f concvercing through traditional methods. What I am no considering is communicating through a seriese of numbers. Here is how it would work. I would come up with a list of 200-300 words, phrases, and sentences that I commonly used. These numbers and corresponding phrases would form my speaking database. Than everyone I know would have to memorize that database, and they would understand what I meant. I feel this is an excellent idea, and have been working on the list for some thime.
Heres what I have so far:

1. Yes
2. No
3. Hey, hows it going?
4. Fantastic!
5. Oh, you know, this and that.
6. Not to much actually.
7. We could watch a movie.
8. I don't care.
9. How do I know you again?
10. That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard.
11. How many times do I have to explain that I WON!
12. I already explained that... it was a scavenger hunt.
13. Hey... I should be mad at you.
14. I dont care... he doesn't care... we're all gonna die!
15. Come again?
16. Pass the ketchup.
17. Of chorse we have ketchup.
18. Did you look in the kitchen?
19. Well get off your fat ass and go to the kitchen and get me the damn ketchup!
20. I guess we should just split up and hope for the best.
21. I told you that bitch was crazy.
22. Uh-huh.
23. Sounds great.
24. I'd believe it.
25. Sweet Sassy Mo-Lassy!
26. Your Bringing Me Down Man!!!
27. My ideas are appropriate and good.
28. Entertain me.
29. Yeah I think I read that somewhere.
30. Like all those Hippies down in Austin wearing orange and sipping Tea!!!
31. Your Phones ringing dude.
32. Well this is quite a predicament.
33. Just drink more.
34. Happy Birthday Grandma.
35. Do you think I'd be more successful If I had people call me Mr. Beefy?
36. And than had a lot of shirts and coffe mugs made up that all said Mr. Beefy on them?
37. Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby, oh baby.
38. Of chorse you may not.
39. This is just like the time I killed that guy.
40. No, I was just clearing my throat.
41. Welp, see you later!
42. Cool Runnings.
43. Don't you think you've had enough to drink Jeff?
44. So what's the special today?
45. Dude, can we get a ride?
46. Doesn't it look better with a bayonet?
47. I don't care.
48. Silly Rabbit, tripping is for teenagers, murder is for murderers and hard drugs are for bartenders.
49. I think it was like a six out of ten.
50. Dude, I need my power cord back.
51. You know you make an excellent point about boobs.
52. Are you guys watching the game?
53. Actually I kinda gotta take a shower so...
54. Shouldn't you be in left field?
55. You mean the ugly one?
56. Tacos?
57. Look you don't have the kind of income that I do, and you've never even seen my amazing rocket car.
58. OK Shanron Thumb.
59. This is important for reasons that can not be explained by man.
60. No I am the one who wants jeans!
61. (screaming) WHERE IS MY PDA!!!!!!!
62. Wow that escallated quickly.
63. I told you I don't do dishes.
64. Turn of the damn carpenters.
65. Huey Lewis is completely unappreciated in his era.
66. I am not a racist, I hate that word as much as you... but it was a TRIPPLE WORD SCORE!
67. This is a piece of news that makes me quesiont the meaning of my own existnce.
68. This is not a problem.
69. You will die in agony!
70. Uhh lets see... I'll take 12 zesty ranch and 6 Honey Barbeque
71. Dude I came up with the BEST idea ofr a movie.
72. Hey check out this cartoon I drew in class today.
72. Dude I gotta pee... are you just making faces in the mirror again?
73. You're crazy, the rolling stones are SOOO much better than the who.
74. Nahh, I don't feel like it... you wanna just watch Sin City again?
75. So what have you been up to?
76. Me? I've been listening to Warren Zevon alone in the dark for the past two hours.
77. No there not coming... Zach went home for the weekend and Jeff is studying.
78. Did you remember to tape arrested Development?
79. He's shooting at us man!
80. The only thing we have to fear is fear its self... and bees.
81. 47.
82. Baseball?
83. You wanna take this outside?
84. No, I quit.
85. Allright, one couldn't hurt.
86. I don't care what I said, just shut up and give me another one.
87. Look your not my fucking mom alright, now shut up and give me another chicken fried steak.
88. No I'm pretty much set for envelopes... thanks though.
89. Yeah, I liked it.
90. No man, he is Guster Drunk.
91. Tatter-Tot Cassarole.
92. I'm all in.
93. That's why I have TWO feet, dumbass.
94. Oh man towmorrow we are gonna be able to watch 3 episodes of Homicide and 2 episodes of Deadwood... life is sweet.
95. No, I'm pretty sure it was Pat Bennetar.
96. This reminds me of something but I can't say what.
97. And your not a stickler of a tickler.
98. And so thats ANOTHER law suit I'm facing.
99. As the voice of reason I insist you skip class to drink with us.
100. Well, I finished another list.