Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Cole is on a roll !

Bark louder, little dog.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

T R E 4 5 O N

Fuck that bum, let’s go Joe!

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

You are here: Home / Medium Cool / Medium Cool – from Worst to First to Best (of Everything)

Medium Cool – from Worst to First to Best (of Everything)

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Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

Tonight we’ll conclude our 3-part series:   The Worst of Everything, the First of Everything, and now the Best of Everything.

Tonight let’s talk about the best of everything.

Best movies your have sent?

The actual top best movie you have ever seen, if you had to pick THE BEST?

What’s the best kids’ TV show you remember?

The best grown-up TV show you remember seeing as a kid?

Best book you remember reading not for school?  We might have to do this one by decades.

Best mystery series you read?

Best fireworks?

Best ballet?

Best play?

Best musical?

Best play or musical you were in?

Best book you remember reading in school?

Best teacher?

Best concert you attended?

Best concert you attended with friends?

Best holiday dinner ever?

Best food craze you remember?

Best food craze you got caught up in?

Best record you bought?

Best album you bought?

Best librarian or teacher?

The best of everything!   Have at it!

Reader Interactions

138Comments

  1. 1.

    bbleh

    Best teacher: Martha Christensen, bless her soul, former headmistress returned to teaching, took her LUNCH HOUR to teach THREE kids a special advanced math course. What kind of dedication does that take?

  2. 2.

    Llelldorin

    Best children’s book — Taran Wanderer, by Lloyd Alexander.

    About a third of the way through, the main character decides the quest he’s on is just stupid, and fucks off to find something else to do. It blew my mind as a kid that a character could do that.

  4. 4.

    RepubAnon

    Best book I remember reading in school: Witch World by Andre Norton.  It was a great introduction into the idea of fantasy novels not needing to involve goblins, and that could involve technology.

  5. 5.

    Suzanne

    Best book I remember reading in school? Man’s Search for Meaning, and The Executioner’s Song.

  6. 6.

    geg6

    Best books I read in first grade at school were The Borrowers and The Boxcar Children. At the same age, the two best books I read at home were The Pink Motel and Champion Dog Prince Tom.  I still have a copy of The Pink Motel that one of my nieces found on eBay and gave to me as a Christmas present.

  7. 7.

    Geoduck

    One show I will always remember fondly is Eerie, Indiana. Sort of a light and fluffy X-Files, set in the strange eponymous town. Only lasted one season, but it was a fun one.

  8. 8.

    lowtechcyclist

    Best pure* comedy: Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

    *By ‘pure comedy,’ I mean it’s not a drama or romance with a lot of funny bits sprinkled throughout, but where the resolution of the plot matters. Rather, the plot is just an excuse for the comedy.

  10. 10.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    Best book(s):

    Papillion (Henri Charriere)

    Julien (Gore Vidal)

    Song of the Lone Sentry (David Westheimer–he wrote ‘Von Ryan’s Express’ which is also good).

    A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)

    The Making of the Atomic Bomb (Richard Rhodes)

  11. 11.

    lowtechcyclist

    Best book I read for school: Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. Tenth grade.

    Best books I didn’t read for school that I first read in:

    Elementary school: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
    Middle School: The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
    High School: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

  12. 12.

    Suzanne

    @lowtechcyclist: On a related note….. about a year ago, my friends and I were discussing the best song that includes whistling. We settled on “Bright Side of Life”.

  14. 14.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Bests? Or favorites? Both would be hard to do. So much depends on the timing. Where I was in my life when I was first exposed to it and where I am now.

  16. 16.

    Josie

    It’s impossible to pick just one book. One would be Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. The other would be McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove.
    Best movie–Once Upon a Time in the West
    Best ballet–watching my middle son dance the prince in The Nutcracker
    Best album–Paul Simon’s Graceland
    Best holiday dinner–always tamales and chile on Christmas Eve
    Best teacher–Mrs. Dugan, high school junior and senior English. Every Friday we knew a writing assignment was waiting for us on the board. If you ran into the room and started writing even before the tardy bell, you might barely finish before going to your next class. You only earned a good grade if your paper was logical and organized with no grammatical errors or misspellings. After two years in her class, we all aced the test for college credit in English.​​

  17. 17.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    Best kids’ book is a tough one. The Phantom Tollbooth is great, but I’m going with Haroun and the Sea of Stories.

  19. 19.

    eclare

    The best movie that I have ever seen is Ran by Kurosawa.  I was lucky enough to see it on the big screen at the Garden Hills Cinema in ATL.  Steeplejack convinced me to go (a three hour Samurai version of King Lear?), and we went together.  I will never forget that final scene.

    The movie that I enjoy the most and that I know most of the dialogue to is Moonstruck.  I can watch that over and over again.

  20. 20.

    CatRadio

    Wow. Tough choice. But if I had to pick only one movie, it would be seeing Star Wars at the American Embassy in Norway, with the Ambassador in the audience.  Got a big laugh with Where’s your Ambassador?

    Note: the US Ambassador at the time was one of the Lowe’s, of the theater family.

  21. 21.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Suzanne:

    @lowtechcyclist: On a related note….. about a year ago, my friends and I were discussing the best song that includes whistling. We settled on “Bright Side of Life”.

    That’s an interesting category, worth considering on its own merits, and “Bright Side” is definitely a contender.I know I’ve heard a number of rock/pop songs over the years with whistling in them, but my memory would need jogging.

    Two that come to mind:

    First, AIUI, parts of the airplay version of the “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” theme were done by a person whistling.

    Another: “The Walker” by Fitz and the Tantrums, from about 2015.​​​​

    ETA: And thanks to Omnes for bringing “Dock of the Bay” to mind.

  23. 23.

    Mr. Prosser

    Best book in school, Treasure Island with Wyeth illustrations, 6th Grade

    Best first book not in school Donovan’s Brain, 6th Grade

    Best movie as a kid, Rio Bravo

    Best movie as an adult,The Lion in Winter & Amadeus

    Best albums in college, Blonde on Blonde and Out our Heads

    Best book(s) reread often as adult, all the Terry Pratchett Discworld novels except Sourcerer (sic)

  24. 24.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I think I can do high school teachers.  Best:  Ms Hedblom.  When we were preparing for IB exams, she sent my one and only deficiency notice to my parents.  They came in for a conference and she told them that she was sure I would pass the exam with a good score but that I could do even better if I worked.  IB Mathematics was the only exam on which I got the maximum score.  She actually got me to work.*

    Favorite:  Mr Ostertag.  US History II and one year of IB History.  Sarcastic and funny.  An out and out liberal.  His classes were always fun.  I did well on the IB History exam, but not as well as in Math.

    *Ms Hedblom lived with Ms Miller, an English teacher.  In my innocence, I thought they were roommates.

  25. 25.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    Best Movie – Tie among Once Upon a Time in America, Zefferelli’s Romeo and Juliet, The Godfather, Gregg Araki’s Splendour.

    Best Book – Depends.  LotR, Steinbeck’s East of Eden, Hesse’s Steppenwolf, Schrodinger The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, Feynman’s Lectures on Physics

    Music – Everything except Gospel.

  26. 26.

    eclare

    The best book that I read in school is hands down The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner.  We read it in 12th grade AP English, and we had an amazing teacher.  Ms. Ramsey read the entire Benjy section to us because it’s written in stream of consciousness and hard to follow without a guide.  She had such compassion for Benjy, the intellectually disabled son of the patriarch.

  28. 28.

    Major TJ Kong

    I nominate Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl. Classic Flying Circus comedy live. What’s not to like.

  29. 29.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    Unlike Bemused Senior I haven’t been a voracious mystery reader, so I hesitate to name a “best.” Let me put in a vote for Richard Osman’s the Thursday Murder Club. Mostly because it touches my feelings and I’m sure she would have enjoyed it.

  32. 32.

    eclare

    @bbleh:

    I was the only student in Latin III.  My teacher and I (I hate that I don’t remember her name, I can see her face) met in the library and translated Virgil’s Aeneid.  And this was in a public school!

  33. 33.

    Auntie Anne

    Best teacher – hands down, Mr. Crum, who taught AP American History and managed to engender a lifelong love of history in me and many of my classmates. When I learned he’d died recently, I saw it on a class Facebook page and was astounded by how many of my classmates his class had affected.   I hope he knew how many young minds and lives he’d touched.

  38. 38.

    2liberal

    Best bingeable tv series on Prime that I’ve seen recently: Travel Man.  Probably good for tech support types who are fond of dry British humor.  Host is one of the escapees from “The IT Crowd” . With a guest celeb he goes to a tourist destination for a two day visit.

  42. 42.

    prostratedragon

    @eclare: I can’t even do personal favorites, let alone bests (if those two can possibly be different), but for large scale movie epics Ran is one of the first I think of, along with Lawrence of Arabia and The Last Emperor.

  45. 45.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    Best teachers — Ms. Sharitz and Ms. Ryan, who introduced me to Andre Norton, Agatha Christie, and Sherlock Holmes in the 4th grade.  Followed by Ms. Aldridge, who saw I was bored in Latin Class and allowed me to read 2 extra books of the Aeneid.

    Including my mother, who gifted me with an adult library card at age 10.

    Mr. Bullock, who made my 10th-grade art class do FRESCO, oil, and watercolor.  Also for the coolest assignment ever — design a contemporary music album cover (in 1973).

    Lawrence Olivier’s Richard III film, which I saw at a lame arts center in Roanoke, Va,  and was mesmerized by film, theater, and Shakespeare.

  46. 46.

    kalakal

    So hard to choose

    Best films 2001, Ran, Some like it Hot, Arsenic and Old Lace – almost anything with Cary Grant, Local Hero

    Best history books A Savage War of Peace Alastair Horne, The Rules of the Game Andrew Gordon, The Years of Lyndon Johnson Robert Caro, The Mediterranean & the Mediterranean World Fernand Braudel

    Best Travel Books The Worst Journey in the World Apsley Cherry Garrard, A Time of Gifts Patrick Leigh Fermor

    Best TV comedy Yes Minster/Yes Prime Minister

  47. 47.

    CatRadio

    Here I am, back again, separating the movie from its surroundings. I call Ran, for sheer emotional resonance, especially as I’ve never seen it on a big screen. But boy howdy, what a movie!

  48. 48.

    NotMax

    Nearly unanswerable. Ask me again tomorrow and I’d probably rattle off completely different choices from what today’s might be. So giving this one a pass.

  51. 51.

    prostratedragon

    Not as big a mystery reader as many here, preferring to see the stories dramatized. But I’ve read the first 10 or 11 of P.D. James’s Dalgliesh novels and would do so again.

  57. 57.

    Quaker in a Basement

    Best Mystery Series?

    The Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries by Dorothy L. Sayers. They’re British, written nearly 100 years ago and they’re still fabulous, funny, and well-written. They also offer a fascinating look at British cultural artifacts (like the Bonzo Dog!) that are nearly, but not quite, forgotten. Sayers’ vocabulary is compelling as well. I’m constantly looking up rare words that pop up in the novels

    Peter Wimsey is an English lord, son of the Duke of Denver. He lives the leisurely life of nobility and dabbles in solving murders with the help of his bulter, Bunter. Several volumens into the series, he joins forces with Harriet Vane, who is, coincidentally, a mystery writer.

  59. 59.

    prostratedragon

    @CatRadio:
    Oh, I hope you can someday. Another, besides the ones I mentiond above, where the big screen can make a big difference is Barry Lyndon.

  60. 60.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    Best “concert”: The Rock Boat 2001, informal band jams after the regular shows finished.

    Stayed up 30 hours straight and saw some of the best live performances of stuff by anybody ever.

  61. 61.

    hueyplong

    W/r/t concerts and films, sometimes the best experience is one, while what you separately consider the best ones may differ.

    In the mid-80s my (now) wife saw that Once Upon a Time in the West was coming to a big screen in those pre-computer, pre-TCM days.

    Me: You know I don’t much like westerns.

    Her: I guarantee you’ll like this one. It’s practically an opera.

    In the 40 years since, movies have moved in and out of my top ten. That one will never leave. So glad the first viewing was on a big screen. We have a small, original poster signed by Jack Elam, the guy who, in the opening scene, tells Bronson, “Looks like we’re shy one horse.”

    Hell, I’ve made the cat watch it.

    These things are subjective.

  62. 62.

    kalakal

    Best James Bond villain Gert Frobe as Auric Goldfinger

    Best James Bond villian’s Henchman

    Harold Sakata as Oddjob

    Coolest Spy Series ever The Avengers (The British 60’s one)

  63. 63.

    prostratedragon

    Concerts, another embarrassment of riches, and many kinds of music. But I’ve really enjoyed Chicago Symphony Orchedtra concerts the last couple of years, espcially when the chorus is with them. Highest points, maybe: Mahler 2, Beethoven 7&9, Missa Solemnis, and a whale of a Carmina Burana.

  65. 65.

    geg6

    I had two best teachers in high school, Mr. Booher and Miss Crabbe.  Both English teachers and probably the only really good teachers I had in high school.  They were honors only classes.  I had Booher for a modern novel class where we read some very subversive stuff for a white suburban school in the late 70s, like One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Bluest Eye.  Miss Crabbe taught world literature, where I first encountered Don Quixote and Candide (my favorite of all we read in that class).  Sadly, Mr. Booher was murdered a few years after I graduated.  Miss Crabbe is still around and we are friends on FB.

  66. 66.

    Heidi Mom

    Best books:

    1.  The Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett.

    2.  The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.

    3.  The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara.

    4.  Lincoln  by Gore Vidal.

    Favorite mystery series:  It’s a tie between John Sandford’s Lucas Davenport series and the late, great Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn and Chee series.

    Favorite TV episode (I changed the category slightly):  Episode 3 of The Last of Us, entitled “Long, Long Time” (called by some “Love in the Time of Cordyceps” or “The Ballad of Bill and Frank”), starring Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett.

  67. 67.

    Formica

    Best teacher: Bob Hiller, 7th grade US History, circa 1987. He was the first and only US History teacher I had who took a true “warts and all” approach to American history, with twelve year olds. I cannot begin to express how passionate, patient, and intense this man was, that he could explain things like the concept of hegemony and the Monroe Doctrine in ways middle school kids could understand, or his willingness to spend hours talking about the shame of the Japanese internment camps during WWII. He spoke openly about the power of propaganda; again in direct, relatable ways that kids could grok. Above it all, he was a patriot in the truest sense, a man who loved his country and was unafraid to expose and dissect its darkness.

    I tried for a long time to track him down as an adult to thank him, but I couldn’t find him in the pre-social-media era. He was a heavy smoker, so I presume he died long ago. But he was perhaps the most influential teacher I ever had.

    Best book I read during school: Red Storm Rising. Not high literature to be sure, but I was reading it during tenth grade English and found out my teacher loved technothrillers. I probably passed that class because he let me use the book for vocabulary work.

  68. 68.

    Citizen Dave

    @stinger: My best friend said the guy who did the whistling on the Andy Griffith theme came to his NW Ohio school for an assembly. Late 1960s.  Can you imagine?  It’s a minute long.  Can’t recall the full story, such as did the guy do it multiple times, do it with the kids or what

    So many “best movies”.  I’ll suggest Bong-Joon Ho’s (Parasite diector) Memories of Murder.  Viewed a Criterion edition from my library.  Really interesting movie–and so well done.   Two cops investigating a murder.   Based on a true case in Korea.

  69. 69.

    prostratedragon

    Some books: Hamilton, Mythology; Walker, Jubilee; Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment were high points of my high school assignments, along with several Shakespeare plays.

    Not assigned: The Bluest Eye, Morrison; Things Fall Apart, Achebe; The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald; Catch-22, Heller; Selected Fictions, J.L. Borges.

  71. 71.

    Just look at that parking lot

    My top mystery series goes to the British author James McClure story’s of two South African policemen , an Afrikaner lieutenant Tromp Kramer and his Bantu partner , sergeant Mickey  Zondi. Between 1971-1991 , he wrote eight books featuring these two. They all take place during apartheid in South Africa. They’re full a violence, wry humor, sexual innuendo and do not gloss over the racism of this time. Well worth a read if you enjoy this genre.

  72. 72.

    TiredOfItAll

    Best children’s tv show:  No contest. The CBS Children’s Film Festival, hosted by Kukla, Fran and Ollie, circa the late ’60s/early ’70s.  It’s where I first saw “The Red Balloon,” “Skinny and Fatty,” “Hand in Hand” and a host of other notable international short films targeted at children. (The theme song runs through my head as I type this.)  Best children’s books: Best Friends and Best Friends in Summer by  Mary Bard; Miss Osborne the Mop by Wilson Gage; Let’s Kill Uncle by Rohan O’Grady; Sir Kevin of Devon by Adelaide Holl; The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill; and many, many more.  I miss my childhood.

  73. 73.

    prostratedragon

    @hueyplong:  “I guarantee you’ll like this one. It’s practically an opera.”

    Took me seeing this on a big screen to realize this is absolutely correct. It has recitatives, arias, the whole shebang. Something there about the relationship of time and (movie screen) space that seems to work with many “slow” movies.

  75. 75.

    prostratedragon

    @geg6:  Oh yes, forgot Garcia Marquez in my important post-school reading. Very sorry about your teacher. Among other things murder is nearly always an injustice.

  76. 76.

    Craig

    Best movie; 3 way tie with Chinatown, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, and Repo Man.

    Best record; Jimi Hendrix, Electric Ladyland; Charles Mingus, The Clown; Melvins, Ozma on any given day.

  78. 78.

    hueyplong

    @Craig:  I shall not cause harm to any vehicle nor the personal contents thereof, nor through inaction let the personal contents thereof come to harm.

  79. 79.

    UncleEbeneezer

     

    The actual top best movie you have ever seen, if you had to pick THE BEST? – Barbie.  Just kind of a perfect movie, imo.

    What’s the best kids’ TV show you remember? Mr. Wizard

    The best grown-up TV show you remember seeing as a kid? I loved the original Law & Order when my parents watched it.

    Best book you remember reading not for school?  The Stand by Stephen King.  Sad that the miniseries’ have never captured how great the both is.  A true, modern masterpiece of story-telling, imo.

    Best play? Hamilton, but I haven’t been to many

    Best musical? West Side Story

    Best teacher? Mr. Lowe (Physics)

    Best concert you attended? Living Colour at Hammerjacks in Baltimore with Bad Brains as the opener.

    Best concert you attended with friends? The Great Wendt (Phish festival in Limestone, ME)

    Best food craze you remember?  The spicy chicken sandwich at Popeyes, just a year or so ago.

    Best food craze you got caught up in? Not really a “craze” but in the West, Pho has definitely been having a moment for the past five years or so and I’m so glad it coincided with our trip to Vietnam and my learning to love this great culinary gift to the world.

    Best record you bought? Xanadu Soundtrack.  I only owned maybe a dozen actual LP records, including Thriller.  I may be the only person aside from Jeff Lynne who legit puts Xanadu before Thriller, lol.  yes, I know I’m weird  Though I also LOVED Thriller.

    Best album you bought?  Siamese Dream– Smashing Pumpkins.  One of the best and most overlooked albums of the early 90’s.  Butch Vig engineering/sound with some of the greatest drumming (Jimmy Chamberlain) on any rock album, ever!  And because Vig is positively obsessed with drums, he always gets the best tones/mix for them.  I love Gish (their first album even more, but Siamese Dream is the one I remember rushing out to buy on the day it was released and on first listen it just made my jaw drop, and it still does.  Some tracks (Today, Disarm) I’m a bit over because of MTV overplay, but that still holds up as an absolute masterpiece of musical exploration.

  80. 80.

    Laura

    Best concert – Steely Dan at the Revel Casino in Atlantic City in 2013. Fabulous concert hall and they played some songs they usually didn’t.

    Best book – The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez Reverte.

    Best mystery series – Rachel Getty and Esa Khattack books by Ausma Zehanat Khan.

    Best movie – Nicholas and Alexandra

  81. 81.

    Math Guy

    Best book(s). “Cryptonomicon” and “Reamde”, both by Neal Stephenson. Not particularly deep, kinda science fiction, but FUN! Sometimes I just want to read something fun, and these hit the mark so well that I’ve reread each one twice over the years.

    Best meal: Some beef jerky, half a pound of semisweet chocolate, two thirds of a can of beer, whole wheat bread slathered with strawberry preserves. I’d just spent two weeks at 15,000 – 22,800 feet living on freeze dried camp meals, pasta, instant oatmeal, and drinking hot chocolate made with melted snow and really, really needed to taste something different. When we got back to base camp, we traded leftover fuel and equipment we no longer needed with other climbers on their way up.

  85. 85.

    prostratedragon

    @Craig:
    Just watched Chinatown last week — 3 times, since I fell asleep the first 2. It is and always will be part of a tie at the top of my list. It has shared space with All about Eve, The Godfather, and Vertigo among others.

  86. 86.

    GB in the HC

    Most under appreciated comedy, “ The Imposters “ Stanley Tucci’s endlessly entertaining, star studded, masterpiece.

  87. 87.

    p.a.

    Maybe bit of a different take:

    Best thing from childhood: bookmobile & scholastic books.

    Best, not books (views vary over time) but authors: Faulkner, Austen, C Vann Woodward & Gordon Wood (US history)

    Books I would recommend: see ^, also The USA Trilogy by John Dos Passos, the works of Carlo & Primo Levi (not related, I believe) The Iliad; Fagles’ translation is good, Alexander Pope’s is beautiful but I hate the Romanized names.

    Best world builder: JRRT

    Best movie: Oh Brother Where Art Thou?

    Best concert: Social Distortion, Sonic Youth, Neil Young & Crazy Horse (together for, IIRC, Young’s Weld tour.)  Also The Who with Keith Moon still extant.

    Best TV show: Rockford Files

    Best small-venue/club bands: The (New Orleans) Radiators, The Young Adults

  89. 89.

    Craig

    @prostratedragon: John Huston’s Noah Cross is one of the most terrifying villains in cinema. And Faye Dunaway is amazing as Evelyn Mulwray, such a wide ranging performance.

  90. 90.

    Craig

    @p.a.: I saw Sonic Youth with Neal Young at William &Mary Hall in Virginia. There were some confused Young fans there. The men’s room conversations after SY were fucking hilarious.

  93. 93.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Craig: Oh man, I got Electric Ladyland cd as part of one of those cd club deals and it was my first Hendrix album…fucking mind blown…especially as a budding guitarist.  1983 (A Merman I should Turn To Be) and Voodoo Chile (the long version with the killer Steve Winwood organ solo) are two of my fave “deep cut” Hendrix tunes.

  94. 94.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Craig: Corey Glover of Living Colour climbed up the speakers to that mezzanine, walked all the way around then dove into the crowd from the other side.

  95. 95.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Citizen Dave:

    I gotta try Memories of Murder again at some point.  We watched 10 minutes or so but gave up because we just weren’t in the mood for that sort of thing at the moment.

  98. 98.

    WeimarGerman

    No disrepct to my high school teachers but best teacher hands down was Professor McClain who taught German Lit at Johns Hopkins. He served with Ike at SHAEF HQ then worked at a consulate in West Germany right after WW2. He lived and breathed Goethe and Schiller. After 1 class I signed up for every class he taught for my 4 years there.

    Regrettably he was killed in a mugging outside his home some years later.

  99. 99.

    Phein64

    @TiredOfItAll: Skinny and Fatty is one of my favorite childhood memories.  I would love to show it to my children and grandchildren today.

    Did you ever read Butterfly Revolution?  A great children’s book about children revolting (not revolting children, not necessarily).

  100. 100.

    Phein64

    @hueyplong: I did at least one hit of acid everyday for a year in the 70’s.  You’d think I’d get at least one flashback for free, but no:  Big Acid doesn’t care about the little guy, just their 3rd quarter profits.  Norm MacDonald’s take on this is hilarious.

  101. 101.

    TiredOfItAll

    @Phein64: I don’t know Butterfly Revolution. I will look for it, thank you!!  Google “watch Skinny and Fatty” — you’ll find it on youtube.

  102. 102.

    Mike E

    Too many concerts to say “this one was the best” but I gotta brag about seeing Itzhak Perlman at the Phila Academy of Music back in the day, performing with just a piano accompaniment. The Prokofiev piece was magnificent.

  103. 103.

    Michael Dixon

    I’ll join in;

     

    Movies (in no particular order – all are classics!

    The Godfather part 1 and 2 – I consider this one movie

    Casablanca

    Lawrence of Arabia

    Chinatown

    The Wire (watch all 5 seasons – epic as any movie)

     

    Mystery series –

     

    Anything by Raymond Chandler but especially The Long Goodbye

    Kurt Wallander series by Henning Mankell

    The Last Good Kiss – James Crumley

    The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – just the trilogy by Stieg Larsson, the later novels are trash.

     

    Lots more but the above are my favorites.

  105. 105.

    ellie

    Best Concert: New Order, PiL and the Sugarcubes, Pine Knob, MI 7/1/89

    Best book from school: Beloved by Toni Morrison

    Best firework: Military Academy at West Point, NY on July 1976

  106. 106.

    Seonachan

    Not the best concert, but my first and most memorable: went to see Hüsker Dü at the Channel in Boston. I was a high school sophomore, went with 3 friends who were seniors. Saw Manute Bol as we walked past South Station (didn’t know who he was at the time – he was still playing college ball). We couldn’t help but turn back an look at this impossibly tall and thin dude, and he was looking back at us 4 punk rockers.

    I was looking forward to slam dancing, which I’d only done among friends at parties. After the 2 opening acts (Rash of Stabbings and Plan 9), I made my way to the center of the mosh pit. As soon as Bob Mould hit his first chord, the pit erupted, and within five seconds I got sucker punched in the face by a skinhead. I left the pit and found my friends, one of whom had gotten whacked in the forehead. He complained of a headache for the rest of the show.

    After the show, he passed out on the T. We pulled him off at Park Street, but only managed to get him halfway up the stairs before he vomited and started screaming in pain. I stayed with him while the others went to get help. People would come to the exit turnstile, look up at him, and turn around to find another exit.

    Except one scruffy guy, who asked me, “What’s wrong with your friend?” I said I didn’t know. “Oh, that’s too bad. Do you have anything to drink?” I knew what he meant but I offered him my soda, which he took, saying “Bless you, bless you. I’m going to say a prayer for your friend. My name is Jesus Christ.” He lifted up his shirt, revealing what could easily pass for two huge puncture wounds on his chest. He recited an incantation in what I assumed was gibberish (but who knows?) and went on his way.

    We got our friend to a nearby hospital, called his parents, and sat in the waiting room for hours. It was a school night and we’d missed the last commuter train home. Finally he walked out of the ER totally fine, albeit sheepish. His parents drove us home at like 3 AM. To this day all our parents are convinced we’d been doing drugs.

    A few years later, the same friend was working at a supermarket with someone we’d gone to high school with. She was in college, and one day she told him “You know you and your friends are in my sociology textbook.” She showed him a photo of us outside the Channel that day – an illustration for the chapter on social deviance.

  107. 107.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for US?

    My favorite concert, I guess that makes it the best?…seeing Camper Van Beethoven on their Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart tour. Not sure what they did to piss off the record label but whatever it was I think the label is still pissed at them because the two albums they recorded for them are the only ones that don’t stream on Spotify. I still have both (the other is Key Lime Pie) on CD.

    Best fireworks…I’ll go with the first ones I remember which was the bicentennial summer of 1976. Runner up for the first time I saw the fireworks on the National Mall. They were the biggest I’d seen to that point.

    I really have a hard time picking a best book but Salman Rushdie’s The Moor’s Last Sigh was great. Also loved Lonesome Dove which has already been mentioned. Another from childhood that doesn’t get as much love as some fantasy books is Ursula K. LeGuin’s A Wizard of Earthsea. The original trilogy was great. Also Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series.

    Favorite adult TV show that I watched as a kid. Well, I have a Paramount+ membership because it came free with T Mobile and Taxi streams on it and that show holds up really well. What a cast! Starting with bona fide Hollywood movie stars Jud Hirsch, Christopher Lloyd, and Danny Devito who…you know is super talented because when a guy who looks like that is carrying major feature films he’s got to have talent. Also Andy Kaufmann, who was a one of a kind comedic genius. Then Jeff Conaway (Grease) who if his addictions hadn’t gotten in the way probably would have been in more movies.  Also Carol Kane and Marylou Henner were great in it and also Tony Danza, who was sitcom royalty in the 1980s…when he’s your sitcom weak link you really have something. Plus occasional guest star appearances from Rhea Pearlman. No way they could keep that cast together for long but it was stellar while it lasted and the writing really holds up too. Still hilarious almost a half century later.

  108. 108.

    Ajabu

    Three things come to mine immediately.
    1) Best concert – For my 14th birthday My father took me to the Apollo in Harlem for a matinee performance. (This was in the mid 50s). Lineup included Buddy Johnson Orchestra with Nolan Lewis, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, The Moonglows, The Five Keys and about 10 other doo-wop acts. Total Cost; $2.00!

    2) Best movie – Black Orpheus. Modern telling of the Orpheus legend updated to Carnival in Rio. My first exposure to Brazilian music, which I’ve loved and enjoyed playing my entire life. I saw this movie 12 times. Every time I dated someone new, I take them to it. It was my litmus test as to whether we get along.

    3) Best Broadway show – In the early 60s I was living in New York trying to jumpstart my career. I became friendly with George Shearing’s Road manager who regularly attended Broadway matinee openings. Frequently invited me along and one I saw when it first opened and no one knew anything about it was West Side Story. I haven’t recovered from that experience yet!!

  110. 110.

    Citizen Dave

    @UncleEbeneezer: We think alike.  I also think, and described it that way at work, that Barbie is a perfect movie.  Heroine’s journey, done to fit our times.

  111. 111.

    kalakal

    Late entry but one of the best things in my life has been BBC Radio 4 comedy shows.

    Over the years they’ve launched a zillion careers and produced some of the best comedy ever – many British TV comedies started out as radio shows

    Some highlights The Goon Show, I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, Just a Minute, Old Harry’s Game, Goodness Gracious Me, Fry & Laurie, Mitchell & Webb, Cabin Pressure, Bleak Expectations…

  113. 113.

    Citizen Dave

    @Seonachan: Thanks for the awesome story!  Only time I saw Husker Du (probly New Day Rising era) was grad school days, visited my friend at Ohio State.  My friend went up to Mould at the bar post concert to shake his hand and say Nice Show Bob.  Much different ending than yours. :)

  114. 114.

    pajaro

    Best ballet, Prokofiev, Romeo and Juliet

    Best musical, West Side Story, and playing in the pit for WSS was the best musical in which I participated.

    Best recent concerts, featuring two amazing women, Brahms Violin Concerto, with Hilary Hahn, and Prokofiev 3rd Piano Concerto with Martha Argerich

  115. 115.

    laura

    The best concert I saw this weekend was Asleep at the Wheel at Rancho Nicasio in the west hills of Marin County, to celebrate Roadie Brother the Younger’s birthday. A beautiful drive past several cheese makers, perfect weather, good company and a set list that hit all the spots that itched. I spent most of the set relaxed in my little chair looking up at a blue sky, wheeling hawks, big trees and the like. As “an old” I cannot say enough good things about a show that starts at 4 in the afternoon and ends before 7 pm.

  118. 118.

    Craig

    Best Concert: too many. 2nd year of Gwar in Richmond Virginia, around 1986. Pixies in a tiny room in Richmond 89ish. Wayne Shorter Quartet at Monterey Jazz 2010ish. Nirvana opening for Loop at the old 9:30club in DC. Jane’s Addiction at twilight, first Lollapalooza in DC. Butthole Surfers on The Mall in DC on July 4th for Rock Against Reagan. Melvin’s, many times. Multiple times with The Jesus Lizard at The Kennel Klub and Great American SF. Don Cherry at a tiny weird place in Charlottesville, late 80s. Ludicra at Lucifer’s Hammer SF late 90s. Oh yeah, Stevie Ray Vaughn opening for The Pretenders in Williamsburg VA. Music Rules!

  121. 121.

    Subsole

    The Wire is the best t.v. drama, hands down.

    It’s pretty much the great American novel of t.v. dramas.

    So many memorable characters and poignant moments wrapped up in hilarity and just…the strong sense that this is all stuff that happens.

  122. 122.

    Subsole

    @Craig:

    Best concert has to be Nine Inch Nails, the With Teeth tour. Absolute fucking beast of a show, made even better by the fact that Queens of the Stone Age were opening.

  123. 123.

    Ruckus

    @Cheryl from Maryland:

    My mom got me an adult library card about that age. The librarian was an old bitty that thought no one under the age of 21 should have an adult card. I thought mom was going over the counter and I’m pretty sure the librarian did as well. But I’d read all the actual books in the kids section, other than see Jane see Spot. She used to give me the side eye whenever I was in the library. I always used to check out any adult section books with her, just to piss her off. Some things are worth pissing off some people. It was worth it with her.

  125. 125.

    Subsole

    The Fifth Element is probably the best lighthearted action sci-fi movie, while either Empire Strikes Back or Wrath of Khan are best classic sci fi.

    Apocalypse Now or the Big Red One are probably the best war movies.

    Alien (the first one) is pretty damn close to perfect sci fi horror, while Predator is pretty close to perfect 80s action sci-fi.

  127. 127.

    Subsole

     

     

    @kalakal: It’s hard to pick a best Bond villaun, because the movies are so very different depending on the time.

    Goldfinger is probably the best of the classics, while Silva is probably my favorite of the new era Bond villains.

     

    Best Bond theme song??

  129. 129.

    Ruckus

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    When I was 14 I machined the cavities for the torso of the second set of Barbie doll molds. All by manual pantograph. A bit of an awakening for a 14 yr old male. I also met one of the founders of Mattel and his wife who was the model for Barbie. When she was a lot younger……

  130. 130.

    Ruckus

    @Math Guy:

    I remember first meals on board the  guided missile destroyer that I was stationed on, reported onboard January 1971, the head cook was a god of food. He retired 2 or 3 weeks after I reported on board and the quality seemingly fell off the Matterhorn. No that’s not correct, there was no seemingly about it.

  131. 131.

    Chris

    Best movie: Star Wars.

    Best TV series: Stargate SG-1. 

    Best band: Queen.

    Best song: The Devil Went Down To Georgia. 

    Best mystery series: Arsène Lupin. Which, being what it is, the mystery isn’t who done it, which we know perfectly well, but how he done it/gonna do it. I can’t say enough good things for how, when attempting to give France its own figure of Sherlock Holmes like stature, the author didn’t just make him another detective, but went completely the other direction. And they really just sort of work as avatars for their respective nations: Holmes the trusty guardian of law and justice embodying the Victorian era British, Lupin the authority-mocking thief embodying the more joyfully anarchic French coming off of a hundred years of popular unrest.

  133. 133.

    Kosh III

    The actual top best movie you have ever seen, if you had to pick THE BEST?   Babette’s Feast

    The best grown-up TV show you remember seeing as a kid? Star Trek

    Best book you remember reading not for school?  Lord of the Rings and Dune

    Best concert you attended?    Dorothy Love Coates, circa 1978 in Nashville

    Best album you bought?   Amazing Grace–Aretha

    Best librarian or teacher? My mother was school librarian so….

  134. 134.

    bluefoot

    @eclare: ​
      I know this is a dead thread, but god, Ran is such a stunning movie. The story (yes, it’s King Lear, but so well done), the cinemetography, the acting, everything. I can only watch it maybe once every 10 years or so because it just kills me every time.

  135. 135.

    bluefoot

    Best concert: San Francisco Symphony on September 13, 2001. They did Mahler’s 6th and the emotion the musicians put into it in light of what had happened just two days previously was just….I don’t even have words. Audience members and musicians were openly in tears during the performance.

    Best book I read for school: Probably A Separate Peace. It spoke to me about the complexities of friendship and was pretty relevant to me at the time.

    No way I would be able to figure out the best book I’ve read.

    Best musical was hands down The Lion King.

    Best album is a hard one. The best is different from my favorite. One of the best: Queen, A Night at the Opera. A very complete album, each song is great to excellent in themselves and also really work as a whole, deceptively simple album cover and sleeve which was in nice juxtaposition to the music. Probably the first album where I was really motivated to dig into the liner notes (except perhaps Abbey Road) to understand how the music was made. The “No Synthesizers!” note at the end just capped the experience.

  136. 136.

    cvannatta

    This is a fun exercise! Some were too hard to choose just one!

    Best grown-up TV show: Star Trek (original) (Cemented my already firm foundation in science fiction)

    Best ballet: Afternoon of a Faun. Groundbreaking in its day; its undercurrent of awakening sexuality is still refreshing after seeing yet another Nutcracker.

    Best play: Copenhagen by Michael Frayne. I love strong characters, physics, and Frayne’s intense thought-experiment of a play. With the right actors, this play is stunning.

    Best play or musical I was in:
    • Play: Medea (I played the murderous title role and had very odd dreams during the entire run)
    • Musical: Three Penny Opera (I played Mrs. Peachum, the alcoholic wife of the corrupt beggar king, with a particularly excellent cast.
    • Opera: The Ballad of Baby Doe (I was in the chorus), with a brilliant cast of talent singers who could also act. The modern classical score has some compelling arias.

    Best concert attended with friends: Carmina Burana, as performed by a collaborative effort by a local orchestra, two chorales, and a guest conductor. Sublime!

    Best teacher: Dr. Zanardi (St. Edward’s Univ., TX), who threw out the entire Philosophy 101 curriculum and substituted it with an exploration of responsibility and authority, because several notorious politicians the previous year got off scot-free for claiming “official business,” the equivalent of today’s notorious “executive privilege.”

  137. 137.

    Mel

    Best teacher:  Mrs. Albers, kindergarten. She was a newly minted teacher, and a suburban girl who came to teach in a three room rural school, and didn’t bat an eye when kids brought ponies and goats in for show-and-tell. She was endlessly patient, kind, and funny. She made every child in the school feel special, and we thought she was the coolest person on earth, in her go-go boots and minidresses. Her classroom was a safe haven for me while my mother was fighting cancer.

    Around thirty years ago, I was a new-ish teacher at a first week of school “Meet the Teacher” night. I went to get a coffee in the cafeteria during a break, and somebody called my name from the information table. It was Mrs. Albers, and she somehow recognized me after all those years.

    Her son ( just as lovely a human being as she is) was a student on my class roster for the upcoming year. I had seen his last name, and had thought – nah, just a coincidence.

    I’m so thankful that I got to tell her what her kindness and care meant to me.

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