Month: December 2022

Over the past year, had the chance to list my top 12 movies, music and other media. The last list being top 12 Christmas movies. The lists are intended to reflect sheer likability. The lists are not created in an attempt to rank the movies. Just twelve of my favorites.

Top 12 Christmas Movies

1. National Lampoons Christmas Vacation
2. It’s a Wonderful Life
3. A Christmas Story
4. Scrooged
5. The Nightmare Before Christmas
6. Home Alone
7. A Charlie Brown Christmas
8. The Year Without Santa Claus
9. Prancer
10. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
11. The Little Drummer Boy
12. Gremlins

Top 12 Sports Movies

1. Major League
2. Field of Dreams
3. A League of Their Own
4. Rocky
5. Eight Men Out
6. The Hustler
7. Kinpin
8. Hoosiers
9. FoxCatcher
10. The Mighty Ducks
11. The Bad News Bears
12. Bloodsport

Top 12 Movies

1. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
2. Batman (1989)
3. Dracula (1931)
4. Casino (1995)
5. Pulp Fiction (1994)
6. American Graffiti (1973)
7. Easyrider (1969)
8. The Exorcist (1973)
9. Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
10. Private Parts (1997)
11. The Big Lebowski (1998)
12. Young Guns (1988)

Top 12 Bands

1. The Beatles
2. Tool
3. Black Sabbath
4. Foo Fighters
5. Stone Temple Pilots
6. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
7. Led Zeppelin
8. The Rolling Stones
9. Pearl Jam
10. Steely Dan
11. Van Halen
12. The Doors

Top 12 Songs

1. Tool – The Patient (2001)
2. The Beatles – Something (1969)
3. Pearl Jam – Once (1991)
4. Soundgarden – My Wave (1994)
5. Steely Dan – FM (No Static)(1978)
6. Tom Petty – Wildflowers (1994)
7. The Supremes – Where Did Our Love Go (1964)
8. Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – I Second That Emotion (1967)
9. Duran Duran – Ordinary World (1992)
10. Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys – Stay A little Longer (1945)
11. Stone Temple Pilots – Sour Girl (1999)
12. Little Richard – Long Tall Sally (1956)

I sit here thinking about the coming Christmas holiday with dread. As a father, I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of keeping it all together during this season of giving. I am talking momentarily, of course. I saw a post on social media that said, “finish your Christmas shopping..”. I thought to myself, “who has it all done, that they could finish their shopping this weekend with this particular event”? Are we expected to have it all done by now? I haven’t even given one thought to Christmas this year yet. I was even reluctant to include the ‘yet.’ In life, there is opportunity cost. I am waging my opportunity cost against attaining a Bachelor’s degree from Gaylord College to increase my earning power. I cannot even think about Christmas gifts until after finals week. Even then, where is the money going to come from?
I mentioned opportunity cost earlier. Mine include being unable to work a legitimate full-time job or have expendable income for Christmas. Let’s face it, this holiday’s meaning is lost in online shopping, Black Friday bullsh*t. I remember as a kid, there was this scent of evergreen that was present throughout my childhood. Up until a few years ago, I had not even recognized the smell, but I have recently been on the search for it. I know it sounds ridiculous and such a waste of time, but that scent, for me, signaled Christmas. I seemed so pervasive when I was young. This change, I get older, and the scents dwindle. This post swerved into traffic a paragraph ago, have a good day.