Rants and Ranks

On July 28th two years will have passed since my friend Paul Anderson left us.  I think about him a lot, but comfort myself in the fact that he is in a better place.  The following are some funny Paul stories that I wrote down shortly after his passing so I wouldn't ever forget them (not that I could anyway).   RIP Paul One of my first silly memories of Paul was back when I was sacking one evening.  He said, "Do you watch the Simpsons?"  I told him I did, and he said "Rod and Todd Flanders are right over there."  No sooner did he say that then two young boys with curly red/brown hair came walking around the corner.  Paul was beaming his famous grin, and I cracked up.  That was the first time I saw the goofy side of Paul. Paul had all sorts of funny sayings he used on almost a daily basis.  When he told me I could leave, he would say, "You're ghandi!"  When something was old/broken he would say "X is toast."...

I've been a Simpson's nut for quite a while.  I enjoy the hell out of watching the classic old episodes.  Now I realize that the series has been on for at least 10 years too long, and the new episodes are atrocious, and it's not cool to like the Simpsons anymore.  (It's all about Family Guy apparently.)  However, re-watching these gems will make you remember why you loved it in the first place.  I personally have the first 12 season on DVD.  I will tell you without hesitation, that season 6 is the best.  4 and 5 are great, 7 and 8 are really good, but 6 has so many memorable episodes it's ridiculous.  (I would like to point out that I may be a bit biased on this because around season 6 was when I started watching it as a kid.)   Seriously I only dislike one episode of this season (Lisa's Wedding) and love almost every other one.  I'm pretty picky so this is an impressive feat in itself.  Remember when the Simpson's got...

This list was more of a challenge to put together than my  top bands list. I had a vague idea of which ones to include, but I didn't feel a top 10 would totally represent what I feel are "my" tunes.  So this got expanded to 25.  My criteria for the rankings was somewhat skewed.  Some are ranked higher because of sentimental value, some for totally changing my musical tastes, some for having one or two amazing songs, some for just being a well-rounded album.  So if you compare this to my top band lists you may not think it makes total sense, but I plotted it all out, and it makes sense in my brain if nothing else (at least somewhat).  Essentially what I did was pick the ones I would have to have if I was stranded on a island, then rank them against each other to get the final standings.  Also I didn't include greatest hits albums because that would have made it too easy.  I will again point out that I don't think these are the "gr...