Be Excellent To Each Other

Partly inspired by the end of decade lists that are coming out, but also in part by Hi-Fidelity. Make your lists here - they can be games, films, fruit, you name it.

A couple of stipulations:

1. it is not fair game to rip into someone's top five as being 'shit'. You can disagree and put forward the case for the prosecution, but this is a forum of gentlefolk, and we should treat each other's lists with decorum and respect.

2. You can't just reel off a list. You need to put in a few words for justification and to promote discussion. There's no point putting up your top five favourite films if you're not going to give us reasons why they're good. It's more likely we'll go and watch them if you do.

I've got a few I want to do, but I'll need to wait until I get home. I just wanted to get the ball rolling now while I remembered.

Ooh, goody! I'll think this over whilst shelving an' stuff.

Your top stipulations are shit.

Mr Dave - Drums like a pregnant monkey protecting it's calf.

Dimrill - Putting the Ginger back into racism

Craster - Who says New Romantic is dead?

Grim... - Doing his bit to help the economy

markg - Saviour of the PS3

Top Five Cars For Off-road Driving
5: Suzuki Samuri - small, light and, above all, cheap. An ideal entry into playing in the mud which (with the right set of tyres, natch) won't embarrass itself in front of the big boys.
4: Land Rover Discovery - just as happy hammering down the motorway as it is hammering through a river, the Discovery surprised everybody when it came out by not just being capable in the mud, but being damned good at it. Based on the ten year-old Range Rover, it shared many parts, so upgrades were cheap. It's just a shame that there are some damned many of them around.
3: Toyota Landcruiser - in the rest of the world you'll see hudreds of these, but they're pretty rare in the UK. Still, they're cheap, cheerful, and there are lots of bits available (especially if you live in Australia). To be honest, they're not as good as a Discovery, but at least they're different.
2: Land Rover Defender - the 90 inch version is pretty much regarded by a lot of people to be "it" off road, but what most of them don't realise when they see pictures of highly-modified Defenders is that they actually started out life as...
1: Range Rover 'Classic' - the very first Range Rover that came out is still, somehow, the most capable thing in the mud (until you start throwing idiotic money around). Most of them are pulled apart for the 100" chassis and drivetrain, but even as standard they are idiotically good off-road, especially as you'll be sitting in a leather heated seat with arm rests and cup holders. Some poor bugger once paid over £30,000 for the piece of history you're wrecking, but who cares? They are brilliant.

[edit]Oh right, "of the decade". So yeah, ignore all of the above.

No, it was a good rundown. How about changing it to 'Top Five Cars For Off-road Driving as discovered by Grim... this decade'?

top five episodes of the Simpsons
1)Homer goes to Clown College - for Homer kicking the crap out of the Krusy Burglar and a small child crying "stop, he's already dead"
2)Homer gets excited by a TV charcter of the same name who later gets replaced by an idiot - Homer singing about his new name "Max Power, that's the man who's name you'd love to touch, but you musn't touch! That name sounds good in your ear, but when you say it, you musn't fear. 'Cause that name could be said by anyone!" and his new names for Marge "hootie McBoob" and "Chesty La Rue"
3)Lisas Rival - When stung by bees Homer declares "oww, they're defending them selves somehow"
4)Homerpalooza - for the exchange: -
Billy Corgan: Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins.
Homer: Homer Simpson, smiling politely.
5)Homers Phobia - when Homer takes Bart to a Gay steel mill, a steel worker walks past Homer with a big pot of hot metal and Says in a camp voice "hot stuff, coming through". Homer also gets attacked by Reindeer and is asked how he is feeling "I've been tenderized" and finally...Moe: Where you been, Homer? The entire steel industry is gay. Eh, aerospace, too, and the railroads. And you know what else? Broadway.

Edit, actually some of these are 90's but.....meh

Whelp, here's my first Top Five...

Television:

1: The Wire

If it’s become a cliché, it’s because it can actually be argued that The Wire is the ONLY truly great TV show. It’s not even flawed. It’s basically a masterpiece, one that will never date and that has such immersion that Baltimore begins to feel a second life experienced – like some troubling dream. From the drug slinging tenements of the West Side, to the mahoganey veneer of the mayoral office and the dust and concrete of the docks, Baltimore is given life and geography. The acting is incredible, the writing superb, the honesty unflinching and the passion raw. Basically makes me shout at any list that doesn’t include this. Omar comes a-whistling down the office corridor of the Emmy committee, shotgun dangling.

2: Planet Earth

If there’s one work that should be somehow preserved for all eternity, it’s this one. Attenborough gets plaudits once again but let us not forget the stunning persistance, skill and fortitude of the crew who brought us this. Whatever lustre the BBC has lost over the decades, every network in the world still recognises that it is the best in the field at nature documentary, and this is their crowning achievement.

3: Band of Brothers

Saving Private Ryan developed the technology and production technique, and nailed the art style. Sadly it lacked in character and storytelling power. Band of Brothers easily triumphs where its father failed by taking a powerful story and sticking to the facts. Easy Company, 101 airbourne has such a perfect cast of characters, and such a varied battlefield history, that it’s almost uncannily perfect for adaptation. With a great cast and a moving but never maudlin score by Michael Kamen, judicious use of special effects and memorable encounters, it sears the memory once seen. Special kudos goes to Damian Lewis as Captain Winters, a man whom you never doubt was born to lead, and who completely assures – and reassures – as the officer who takes care of his men.

4: Battlestar Galactica

The net is voicing its disappointment, but it seems churlish to overlook this great series achievement, and how far it has advanced TV sci-fi. For the first time a completely consistent, determined attempt was made to make a thoughtful, adult space serial with – and here’s the important part – no reset button. Up to this point story arcs had been attempted, but aside from Babylon 5 they mainly tried wriggling out of the dilemmas it placed upon its characters, relying on ambling storylines that failed to challenge. Galactica took Babylon 5’s dogged vision, stripped it of its ham, upped the acting several notches (excepting Peter Jurasik, natch) and gave it truly impressive and passionate production values. Its only failing was that the characters became a little too toxic, and unconvincingly negative personality shifts began to be thrown in for little reason. No matter, BSG overall stayed true to its guns, delivered a punchy story and had a proper ending, even if it wasn’t the one some fans wanted. (Personally I liked the finale.) BSG is a role model for future Sci-Fi productions. More jokes though, please.

Doctor Who

5: Another dozen episodes to grace us with and it might have been Firefly instead. But I have to give this place to Doctor Who. Yes, it’s gone off the boil lately. Yes, it is frequently infuriating. Yes, it is rather too pleased with itself. But the return of Doctor Who proved it was a show that demanded high expectations, because – every so often – it could field the most enjoyable and thought-provoking episodes out there. So maybe Deadwood is more consistent, more mature. So maybe BSG looks better, more polished. But Doctor Who is first and foremost for children, and it’s the only kids show out there that doesn’t talk down to them, doesn’t condescend and gives them a hero worthy of believing in. It has a hero who doesn’t use a gun to solve his problems, but instead uses his mind. In giving children flights of imagination across time and space, it is invaluable. And when it offers up such episodes as Family of Blood two-parter, Father’s Day and The Girl in the Fireplace it shows us it can transcend even its ‘adult’ sci-fi brethren.

Top five bad 'Something big is going on' moments

1 - 9/11. Getting home from work having skived off 'sick' at lunchtime, lying down on the bed with a pack of tissues and an adult entertainment DVD loading in the tray, turning the TV on and not turning off BBC news for 6 hours

2 - Phone call from my best mate about his brother dying

3 - Boxing day 2004. Walking downstairs at my parents in tears having seen the news about the Tsunami, with video clips of a beach that I had been sat on 365 days beforehand. Four weeks of depressed introspection culminating in leaving my girlfriend (not, admittedly, the biggest impact that had)

4 - Glastonbury this year - Messy state. Got a 'joke' text from my Mum about MJ dying which I couldnt reply to due to no reception. Forgot about it until an hour later when the jokes started and all the bars started playing his music

5 - Waking up from a dream that Princess Diana had died and realising I had left the TV on from when I collapsed in the door at 3am and princess diana had, in fact, died.

Not a top five in the traditional sense, you understand.

RAGE

Say you enjoyed it if you like, but saying it advanced TV sci-fi is infuriating. I'm not going to hate on you if Eastenders in Space With Clumsy Religious Overtones is your thing, but if anything it's put sci-fi back, way back.

Fuck you joke-stealing mind-reading mother fucker

Ooh, I can relate to some of these!

1) At the time I was working from home. I think I was on IRC, and someone mentioned a plane hitting a building in NY, there was lots of talk about it being an accident, or on purpose, etc, couldn't see much online, so walked through to the living room and put the TV on BBC News 24, to see the 2nd plane hit live about 10 seconds after I had changed the channel!

3) No real out standing memories of that, just a sense of OMG how awful.

4) I think I found out on the internet, and then went through to tell my girlfriend, and we watched News 24 for a bit, then we watched lots of tribute shows over the course of the next few weeks.

5) I was staying at my girlfriends flat, we had fallen asleep with the radio on, and I too had weird dreams about Diana dying, and then woke up to find that they were real. To make things that bit more surreal during the following weeks I was working in an (internet) cafe on Buckingham Palace Road at the time, less than 5 minutes walk from the Palace itself.

Malc

i started watching that yesterday. It looked and felt excellent like most HBO shows but me and my gf fell asleep. That's a reaction i have everytime there's a trial on a show or a movie. I'm sure it will grow on me though

My Top 5 tv shows.

1 - Six Feet Under
2- Rome
3- The Sopranos
4- Band of Brothers
5- Flight of the Conchords

Diana died in 1997 didn't she?

Errrm, I was in a 3 year coma?


ListFail

"Homer to the Max" airdate: February 7, 1999

doh! I should have picked up on that as I moved in with my girlfriend in 1998 and as I stated previously, I was visiting her at the time Diana's death.

Malc

Yowsers!

Well, it's not on the level of book sci-fi, to be sure. That's still way more advanced. And The Twilight Zone is still more intelligent. But as far as non-anthology TV serials go, yeah... I think it's the best one. I'm hoping that TV gurus will see the sensibility, production values, thought and dedication to a theme and an idea and go with that - and not just say, "Oh, toxic people and miserablisim's in then? Great!"

So the onus is one what lessons are learnt. And I liked the religion stuff in it. No, really.

And that's rather my point - I'm not holding my breath on that one.

I've got to say that putting Doctor Who above Firefly strikes me as a bit ZOMGWTF, but then I remembered that you had 'Safe' as your number one Firefly episode*, which means you are probably broken.

*NP wrote his five favourite episodes down at the start of Safe, prompting us to spend the whole of Safe telling him how he was wrong, causing him to miss it.

Mm, considering the 'lesson learned' from idiots in the comics industry after Alan Moore's uncharacteristically grim and grimy Watchmen, I'm not hoping much either.

See also making The Spirit 'Dark' in the vein of nu-Batman. Thanks, Frank Miller, you complete and utter fucking cretin.

Top five surprising things about historical figures what I learned:

5) H.G. Wells was a huge feminist, helped write the UN Charter, revised his views on socialism after meeting Stalin, and invented the tabletop wargame, despite (or possibly because of) being a pacifist.

4) Gandhi was a big racist who held black people in great contempt. He wrote many letters, particularly while in prison, condemning black people as savage animals and suchlike.

3) Cleopatra's sister, Arsinoe, warred against both her and the Romans, and very nearly succeeded in killing Caesar himself - JC's soldiers were killed on a beach, and he himself forced to flee alone by swimming away from Arsinoe's men as they pelted him with stones from the shore.

2) Even while he was Prime Minister, Gladstone used to frequently walk the streets of london at night looking for prostitutes... to talk them out of prostitution and help them get themselves a less dangerous, more stable life sorted out. He was accused of impropriety by critics, but vindicated in court decades after his death.

1) Sir Francis Drake's famous defeat of the Armada was very nearly a disastrous loss for England, which would have meant a Spanish invasion, no English dominance of the seas, and a vastly different future for everyone. Why? Because halfway through leading the chase to catch the Spanish fleet, Drake fucked off with a load of the best ships to plunder a sinking spanish vessel for his personal profit. Queen and country, my hole.

Ooh, neat list, Sinister! If not of the last decade. Who cares eh?

And where's the Games Workshop homage to Wells, eh? Ingrates!

But it didn't though did it? It's the self belief that you can do that and still win that defeated the Spanish.

Malc

Ahaha, but I learned all these things in the last decade. It's a way of reminding myself (and hopefully others) that if nothing else, I have learned a lot of things I never used to know, which is worth a lot more than seeing a really good film.

The Five Best documentaries I saw in the last decade:

5. The Corporation

4. Tetris: From Russia with Love

3. Cosmos

2. In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great

1. The Ascent of Man

Appreciated, but i did add a disclaimer..........

Top 5 things that got on my tits in the noughties.



1. Chelsea getting bought by a Russian with billions in blood money.

2. The rise of the bland singer-songwriter. Blunt, Morrison, Faulkner. Cunts the lot of them.

3. Newspaper coverage of the whole Maddie thing.

actual news: girl gets taken, no-one sees or hears anything from her again.

reported news: some guy/woman in brazil/france/spain/wherever definitely has her OR her parents have her/have killed her OR the police are covering it up OR the police have arrested the parents/haven't arrested the parents OR fucking whatever. The fact that the Express ran with Maddie headlines for over a year with no fucking news whatsoever means that their entire writing staff need to be murdered in front of their fucking families.

4. Inane fucking adverts.

Anything involving a 'Dragon' that ends with "so I'd definitely not say 'I'm out' to that".

The bread advert that said 'Hovis' All-In-One is proven to help control kids' hunger'. OH FUCKING REALLY? YOU DON'T SAY.

"I can't stand bad odours". WHORE!

5. Alternative music going mainstream as fuck.

From metal bands that can't help throwing in a bumfuckingly commercial chorus wherever possible (see Trivium, Avenged Whateverfold, Slipknot et al) to emo bands that have taken a pinch of Rites Of Spring and dilluted it with pop-punk songwriting and by-the-numbers hairstyles.

Also: screamy vocals. Used to be good. Now it's fucking bent as a can of chips.

A mere 0000.1% of my life was consumed by adverts this last decade, either through skillfull eye movement and la-la-la-ing, leaving the room or, which is really the case, not watching TV at all and relying on DVD's and iPlayer instead.

I haven't even SEEN the Hovis one you speak of, or the Dragon one. I feel like I'm mastered a Simon Quinlank advert-avoiding hobby. Ha! HA AHA HA!

The five best Doves tracks of the decade.

I've decided that Doves are my band of the decade, their first album came out in 2000 and I saw them support Oasis a couple of months later at Wembley. I started trying to pick another four bands, but there was too much internal conflict and my head would have exploded.

Also, they appear to be the preferred source of incidental music in every single TV programme this year.

Anyhoo

1 - There goes the Fear. Used as the 'Signing of the register' music at my wedding
2 - Kingdom of Rust - I liked it before went to america, but driving across the Mojave with that blasting out was fantastic
3 - The Cedar Rool - First song I knew by them, great track and now thankfully back in their live set
4 - Pounding - Play. Loud.
5 - Spaceface - technically cheating as it is a track from when they were Sub Sub, but it was released as a B side this decade. It works very well as the closing song of every gig they do, especially when you are off your box. Not so great to listen to in your living room though.

Best <6 numbers of the decade

1 - 3
2 - 5
3 - 2
4 - 1
5 - 4

I don't generally watch much telly but this Christmas I've tried to veg out on the sofa rather than sitting in front of my PC all the time so I've been subjected to more ads than usual and, as its been Christmas, loads of stupid perfume/aftershave ads. They all smell the same to me anyway.

Was their first album really 2000? I remember seeing them at Glastonbury 1998...

Top 5 depressing things to happen to music in the 2000's as my viewpoint.

1. Electro losing its soul and becoming Electro house.
It seems anyone can make a vaguely dancey record these days and call it Electro, see Mason Exceeder and several nu synthpop bands. Of course there are still Electro tracks that get made that are still true to the underground and sound great, but these are few and far between (and tend to be produced by the Dutch). I didn't mind the whole electroclash thing going on but thats about it.

2. Autotune as a way of fucking life.
Remember how good it was to hear a track where they had a vocoder in it and it didn't sound like the most overused thing in the world. You can blame R+B for that, and Kanye West, in fact blame them all.

3. The rise of the reality TV singer.
Sure, some may have talent. But they are all bland and stage managed within an inch of their lives.

4. Youtube bootlegs.
This one is personal, do a search on Youtube for any popular R+B track and add techno to it, chances are you'll get a track that doesn't sound like techno. Best I've found is either trance or happy hardcore, worst covers the whole range of euro pop its as if 2 Unlimited have risen from the grave. I've yet to find one that sounds like techno.

5. R+B.
Its everyfuckingwhere, and it all sounds like audio cotton wool to my ears. Same bland tracks on every radio station and that. The women all think they should be Mariah Carey with overblown vocals, and screeching. The men are similarly loathesome, either wankers like Justin Timberlake, or gangsta chic like 50Cent. A shame really as the tracks have some good ideas that with Goldwave and a surgeons hand for editing can be transformed into something good.

Are you "in" the music business then BoB?

I'll dig out top 5 forum posts of the decade later, maybe.

Excellent post.



I bet they'll say that they only meant well... well of course they did



I'm sick of it. I loved dance in the mid 90s but the only 'dance' station around now is KISS and while that plays dance it's almost entirely during the 'Kisstory' shows, everything else is R&B. With no XFM in South Wales any more, every station playing the same dreary top 40, I'm kinda scuppered for hearing GOOD new music.

Yep. Although I realise now I first saw them at Glasto in 2000, which was before Oasis

Top 5 things that have really annoyed me about modern filming techniques in the last decade:

1. Rapid Editing - One of the first times I noticed it was in Alias. The show was literally unwatchable for me because the camera angle changed more than once a second throughout the entire time the episode lasted.

2. Inability to get two people on screen at once - Similar to rapid editing, conversations now take place with two camera angles rather than just showing two people talking. At least Tarrantino didn't do that with the start of Pulp Fiction. We've got widescreen TVs now you know, you can show more than just faces.

3. Inability to afford light bulbs - It's a shame you can't see what's happening a lot of the time in modern productions. One light bulb per set must be a rule these days. Or is it 'natural' and 'realistic' to have your actors' faces half in shadow? Still it helps cover up those fight scenes in such as Batman Begins not being very good..

4. People in front of the scene - It's bad enough having people in front of you at the cinema without having someone on screen in front of what's happening. See Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley for a good example of this.

5. Shaky cam - Bourne Supremacy is a film that was literally unwatchable for me. It made me feel ill. Star Trek almost did this too by having a camera that was rarely still and whizzed past things quite close for no good reason. You don't need to have the camera moving to have movement in your film.

Top 5 Animated Series:

1. Justice League/Unlimited - Many excellent mature storylines, particularly in the first two series, that many 'grown up' TV shows would wish they had. From the makers of the Batman animated series.

2. Avatar: The Last Airbender - Sometimes a bit too aimed at kids which is a shame as it often reaches some quite epic heights of emotive quality. They even did an episode in black and white which was quite daring for a 'kids' show. The occasional excessively silly comic relief moments spoil what could have been the best animated serial of all time.

3. Obaan Star Racers - Girl pretends to be a boy and becomes a mechanic for futuristic motor racing company run by her dad. They race for the ultimate prize which is control of the galaxy or something, against lots of other planets. She's there to try and win favour with her father who had abandonned her in a boarding school many years ago. It's often deeply moving and serious with little kiddy stuff going on really. It's just the crazy alien designs and exciting races which are probably the kids stuff. Did last long enough to be as epic as the above series but it was perfectly formed as it was. A French production originally I believe.

4. Iron Man Armored Adventures - It shouldn't work. It's computer animated and Iron Man + pals/adversaries are teenagers. Yet it's made so well with subtle character and plot development along the way it's hard not to love it. It seems to have been made with love and care by people who really know what they're doing. It's never as deep as the above productions but it's really solid. Also a lot of French involvement in the production.

5. W.I.T.C.H. - Because I'm a 12 year old girl and want to be a pretty fairy with magical powers/pedophile. It was just solid action entertainment fun. Nothing wrong with that.

My Top 5:

1: Mrs. Goatboy - She must be the best if I spent 3/4 the decade with her!

2: The French one in Manchester - Forthright and enigmatic, she made wonderful breakfasts and was the only thing in the world that could distract me from my new £1200 PC in 2001. Dumped me for introducing her to some of my friends. Confusing race, the French.

3: The one from down south - Dirty, filthy bitch.

4: The next-door neighbour - Get drunk, watch eviction night, shag. Repeat to fade.

5: The Psychologist - psycho herself but had a sports car and lived by the park.

No, 'fraid not, I'm a janitor / caretaker by trade, but I do listen to an awful lot of music, (its repetitive work). I have made my own tracks and posted them on Youtube but thats as far as it goes. Mainly it was a vent at music in general.

Incidentally I wanted to go with top 5 odd stuff found in my bins but thats another story.

Top five things I witnessed this year.

5. Faith No More at Donington. One of my top three bands of all time, I've loved FNM since I was about 14. And never saw them play, as they split up in the late 90s. From out of nowhere (arf arf), they reformed and decided to headline Donington. They walked out and played some ludicrous jazz song, at a metal festival. They were great. And it was probably the best festival I've been to (and I've been to lots).

4. I met my dog for the first time. She ran into my house like a dervish, teared around a bit, licked my face and then went upstairs and had a big shit in my bedroom. It was love at first sight.

3. Usain Bolt breaking all known laws of physics. I think everyone can appreciate this guy's unfettered genius. Until he gets caught taking nandrolone, that is.

2. First Ashes Test in Cardiff, Day Five. I was there and have never been in an atmosphere that awesome in my life. There were more twists and turns in this day than in most series. Just as it seemed like England were getting comfortable, the Aussies would take a wicket. When Colly got out after a magnificent, battling innings, I almost cried. And then Monty and Jimmy showed the best rearguard action of all time. And to think I nearly didn't bother going as I was hungover.

1. My wife in the nip. Self explanatory, really.

I largely agree, but please "put in a few words for justification and to promote discussion".