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 My top 50 greatest things. Number 2: Descendents  Descendents are a band from HERMOSA BEACH CALIFORNIA. There's been like 9 different people in the band. They have some records. My favorite record from them is Cool to be You. I think I like them so much because they are a punk rock band who play punk rock songs but like punk rock songs that are like pop songs from the '60s kind of in a way. They are up really high because they have never made me upset. I can always put on a Descendents record and not feel too worried about anything. 

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 3: Planet of the Apes It's a madhouse! This entry refers to the entire franchise of Planet of the Apes including movies, television series, and comics. I would love to exclude the Tim Burton directed reboot from 2001, however it's preproduction history, make-up and special effects work, and baffling ending are all interesting enough that I do begrudgingly include those aspects in this entry, but will not be speaking on it again. Planet of the Apes is a science fiction franchise that presents the debate about the nature of civilization, questioning whether intelligence and power inherently lead to progress or inevitable self destruction. The first film features a nihilistic astronaut being captured by grown adults dressed as apes and as he fights for his freedom witnesses these apes argue over politics and philosophy. I mean, come on . It's a genius premise that is executed well beyond any expectations thanks to the effective directing of F...

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 4: Alfred Hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock was a filmmaker and directed over 50 feature films. Whether or not someone has seen a Hitchcock, they may already have a grasp on the thematic elements used in most of his movies as they've been a direct influence or parodied in an infinitude of things. He was the "Master of Suspense" as he knew exactly when and how to deliver information to the audience. And most importantly that info was delivered visually in order to make the audience feel like they were uncovering secrets with the characters, and in some cases a step ahead of the characters. There's so much to be said about Hitchcock, but I would recommend reading Hitchcock/Truffaut which contains things about his life and work in his own words.  I was introduced to Hitchcock as a child through his anthology series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", which usually featured the man himself in an introduction and outro for each episode making...

 These are my top 50 greatest things. Number 5: Star Trek Star Trek is a science fiction franchise that contains several television series, movies, comics, novels, board games, basically a whole lot of media. Every fan has different things they like and it's largely dependent on their entry point into the world. It's kind of fascinating to me because someone can be a huge fan of this franchise without even seeing a second of anything released in the 20th century. For me, I've only seen Star Trek, The Next Generation, Deep Space 9, and the 10 movies involving the original and TNG casts. Right now I've been rewatching Deep Space 9 coinciding with Voyager depending on the air date, which the latter is a first time watch for me outside a handful of episodes.  The first Trek I watched was a long time ago at a hotel with my dad. I was flipping through channels until I landed on something that piqued my interest. I wasn't sure what I was watching until my dad said "I ...

  My top 50 greatest things. Numer 6: Eddie Van Halen Eddie Van Halen was a guitar player from the band Van Halen. Eddie's innovative musicianship has had a meaningful effect on a lot of musicians, myself included. I remember as a kid knowing Van Halen songs just based off of their regular radio airplay, but I wasn't aware of who exactly was playing those songs until shortly after I started playing guitar. It was simply being in the car with my mother while a Van Halen song was playing and her mentioning "Oh yeah, that's Eddie Van Halen playing guitar. You should probably know who he is.". That was the start of learning about every member in every band I had ever heard while my family begged me to stop with the barrage of facts I'd projectile vomit in their direction. Above Eddie's guitar playing, he was a guy who advocated for originality and wanted people not to worry about being the most technically proficient or what have you, but to play music in a wa...

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 7: Dr. Pepper I prefer Dr. Pepper in the can, but all forms are welcomed. Pairs beautifully with some Cheez-Its. A cold can of Dr. Pepper brings me back to when I first started playing music with my friends. I can't talk about it too much though because I will leave my house at this absurd hour just to get a taste of that sweet DP. Cherry vanilla add ins at the freestyle machine are the way to go. At Sonic the chocolate and cherry add ins were sublime with it. 

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 8: Casablanca Casablanca is a romantic drama from 1942 directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Humphrey Bogart as the jaded nightclub owner, Rick Blaine. Casablanca is one of those classics where, even if someone hasn't seen it, it's probably familiar to them via cultural osmosis. There's so much to be said and has been said about this movie, so I'll keep this entry more personal, I guess. At one of the local theaters there's a still from the movie The African Queen starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn. Every time I'd pass the picture with my dad, he would always state without fail "Damn buddy, that was a good show.". For 16 years I would only see my dad 50 days out of the year and we were at that theater maybe 75% of those days. Every time. One time I believed I asked if we could watch it and for some reason we never did. But I do remember watching Casablanca for the first time with him. I'm not sure if...

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 9: Batman I was exposed to Batman in an onslaught of different versions when I was a kid. The Bruce Timm Animated series, the Goguen and Capizzi '04 animated series, the Burton and Schumacher movies, the Adam West series and movie, the recently released Batman Begins, this was all good for a kid like me who enjoyed the character. But I distinctly remember having the one thought "I want to go where Batman lives" which really meant "didn't this guy come from comic books?".  When I was first enjoying all of that Batman stuff, I wasn't really a comic book reader. I enjoyed the "funnies" in the newspaper and had collected versions of The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes. My mother and I would regularly go to Chapin Memorial library and upstairs there was a little nook that contained three shelves, two which were young adult fiction and one labeled "graphic novels". It was time to go "where Batman lived...

My top 50 greatest things. Number 10: Grim Fandango Grim Fandango is a point and click adventure game released by LucasArts in 1998. In a surreal afterlife inspired by Aztec mythology and film noir, travel agent Manny Calavera uncovers a conspiracy that sends him on a four year odyssey to redeem his soul and help a lost woman find her way to eternal rest. The game's aesthetics hit on a lot I like such as pulp crime noir and retro-futurism, filled with a world of characters who reflect those styles. Its puzzles are impressively creative and thematically rich but can occasionally require a lot of patience, although thanks to the carefully crafted environments I'm never stultified in the world of this game. The score by Peter McConnell also deserves high praise, blending elements of big band swing and jazz with South American folk, all helping elevate the atmosphere.  I absolutely adore this game and doing this list has helped reveal to me that it is in fact my favorite video game...

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 11: Physical Media I like to hold and own the things I love. Comic books, movies, and even what's left of my vinyl collection. I'm not crazy of steelbooks for 4k/blu ray releases but I do enjoy a nice slipcover. For comic books, omnibuses are a bit cumbersome, but I have a few. I prefer to have a run broken up by trade paperbacks or hardcover if that is available. 

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 12: Who Framed Roger Rabbit? - Bob Hoskins This is the other entry with a person and a specific work. Bob Hoskins is my favorite actor of all time. His roles in Long Good Friday and Mona Lisa are these powerful portraits of men corrupted by their own power or chewed up and spat out by the powers that be. However, the Eddie Valiant character in Roger Rabbit stands out for his arc between being an emotionally frozen man who felt that he has been betrayed by what brought him joy to finding his purpose once again. Hoskins' work in the movie captures the cynicism of film noir characters before him and also brings a physicality that matches the cartoons in the world of this movie. He implements subtle changes in facial expressions and speaking rhythms and tones to show the gradual regrowth of humanity in the character. Aside from Hoskins, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is a movie I love for how it recreates a pitch perfect tone of film noir of the past w...

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 13: Chocolate milk Just delectable. One of the best aspects of traveling to me is trying different chocolate milks from different regions of the country. When preparing chocolate milk at home, I use Hershey's chocolate syrup and tend to go a little lighter on it in the mixture. My current favorite chocolate milk is whatever dairy processing plants the grocers in South Carolina buy their stuff from. Great Value, Lowes Food, Kroger... same shit, different label. It is divine. 

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 14: Back to the Future I don't think I need to explain what this movie is, but it was my first favorite movie, and the one that got me interested in the filmmaking process. The dynamic between Marty and Doc always had reminded me of the relationship between my grandfather and I. One of my favorite aspects of the movie is the interior of the McFly household which is the probably the most lived in looking spaces in all of movies thanks to production designer Lawrence Paull and set decorater Hal Gausman and their respective teams. I like the sequels fine enough, but the first one is the tightest and most effective. 

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 15: Digging through back issues at comic book stores Not much to say about this one. Of course I love reading comic books, but the process of completing a particular run or discovering something new is wonderful to me. 

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 16: Morning movie theater screenings Going to a movie at 9 am is always a treat. It's usually an empty theater or maybe a handful of the olds. If the movie sucks, I have the rest of my day to forget about it. If it's good, I have something to think about for the rest of the day. My favorite morning that I saw a movie was going to see Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master with my dad, where afterwards my dad said "I would never do that to sand.". 

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 17: Theme Parks I am a themed experience enthusiast in general, but I love theme parks. I love destroying my neck on roller coasters. I love sitting in a little boat while robots point and yell at me. My favorite ride is the Carousel of Progress where the rider witnesses a slightly older gentleman talk about his kitchen appliances. 

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 18: Steve Gerber- Howard the Duck Okay, so this is one of two entries that include a person and a specific work from them. I enjoy a lot of work from Gerber, such as his Man-Thing run, Omega the Unknown, the Defenders runs, Foolkiller, and even Avengers #178. However, first run of Howard the Duck had a very deep impact on me. I had started with Howard the Duck #9, a random selection from the dollar bin years ago when I was skipping class in high school. It had been up to that point, and probably even now, one of the more bizarre things I've ever read. I'd like you to read the beginning of the synopsis of this issue: " With headlines featuring a doctored photo of Howard and Beverly in a bathtub together (an obvious phony) ruins Howard's chance at winning the election to become President of the USA. The Bellhop at their hotel has traveled up to Canada to tell his employer, Le Beaver, that his mission is a success. " What in the hel...

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 19: Alan Moore Alan Moore is an author more likely known for his comic books. Moore's writing style is dense and layered with meaning. He's very conscious of rhythm and uses that to evoke atmosphere and reveal information about characters. Moore squeezes everything he can out of the English language to get his point across. There's a lot of work from him I could talk about, but I do think everyone should own a copy of Watchmen, which DC has put out a compact version of that goes for like 10 bucks. My favorite works from him are Swamp Thing #32 and From Hell. I would also recommend his novel, Jerusalem, that explores the human experience and beyond.

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 20: Buffalo wings This isn't strictly buffalo wings, but rather any variation of the chicken wing. I prefer a hot, or buffalo, or mango habanero with a side of bleu cheese. I also enjoy lemon pepper, garlic parm, and mustard based barbecue sauce. I'm really down to try any kind of wing. A lovely meal.

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 21: Playing music I'm very fortunate to have been able to play music with my friends for 10 years and will have been doing it as Windley for 8 of them next year. I'm not a huge fan of playing shows, mainly due to nerves, but I still end up having fun. My favorite part of it is making stuff up on my laptop and then figuring it out with the boys. 

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 22: Coheed and Cambria When I first heard this band I did not like them. Then I heard Year of the Black Rainbow at the right time and it clicked. I've been able to see them a lot. It's a nice unique blend of progressive rock and post hardcore with pop sensibilities. As a guitar player, I really admire the work of Travis Stever where he plays leads that support the harmonic quality of the songs and really interesting counter melodies. The drummer, Josh Eppard, is the real star of the group, taking a lot of inspiration from The Police's Stewart Copeland in his playing. My favorite record from them is Second Stage Turbine Blade and my favorite tunes are The Light and The Glass, Iron Fist, and This Shattered Symphony. I don't really care for the comic books, although there's some cool art in them.

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 23: Against Me! Against Me! is a great punk band from Florida. I've been fortunate to see them a handful of times, but never with Warren Oakes, who I think is a wonderful drummer. My friends and I were able to eat at his restaurant, Boca Fiesta, one time. Laura Jane Grace would probably get my vote for the greatest songwriter of the 21st century so far. She has a wonderful and inspiring book about her life called Tranny that I highly recommend. My favorite records from them are Reinventing Axl Rose and Searching for a Former Clarity. 

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 24: Jushin "Thunder" Liger Jushin "Thunder" Liger is my favorite pro wrestler of all time. I first saw him as a child on an old WCW tape and years later when I became more interested in pro wrestling I had the thought "whatever happened to that power ranger guy?". What Satoshi Kojima represents in my pro wrestling tastes is the more hard hitting style of pro wrestling, whereas Liger represents this specific junior heavyweight style that was popularized in Japan in the 90s, that features competitive grappling and high flying moves. Liger is the embodiment of that style, taking what Satoru Sayama and Dynamite Kid pioneered, and elevating it. Liger's entire face and body is covered with his gear, so when selling he had to rely on an even more exaggerated body language than what was already in the nature of the sport. He perfected this and could easily fit into either side of the face/heel dynamic, and was more than capab...

 My top 50 greatest things Number 25: George Pérez George Pérez is my favorite comic book artist of all time. His style was fairly intricate and detailed, with an ability to craft and block scenes that often involved large groups of characters, all while capturing the humanity in each of them. He had the same skill of making action move on the page, similar to Kirby in this regard, but in a more fluid way. When dealing with more cosmic events, he was able to evoke the strangeness of it all, but elevated it with a very specific level of grandeur. His work on Crisis on Infinite Earths is a great example of all of these elements, managing an insane amount of characters and maintaining an authenticity to them and their surroundings. I would have a very difficult time picking a favorite from him. Two books I often revisit are X-Men Annual #3 and The Avengers #168. 

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 26: Jack Kirby Jack Kirby was a comic book creator and still remains the greatest sequential artist of all time. His figures were robust and the action that came from them was so stylized it could trick the eye into believing those images were actually in motion. His designs for machinery and spacecrafts were these massive and surreal depictions that dominated sometimes two pages at a time. My favorite work of his is his New Gods series that obviously involved the elements I mentioned within the context of these "new" Gods battling over good and evil. Another personal favorite is his comic adaption of 2001: A Space Odyssey which has all of that cosmic imagery from the movie being projected through the Kirby lens. More specific single issue recommendations would be Fantastic Four #51 and The Mighty Thor #160. Kirby truly expanded the imagination in relation to what lies out there in the great beyond. He also was disciplined in his storytellin...

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 27: Will Eisner Will Eisner was a cartoonist and a pioneer in the realm of American comic books. His style revolved around deeply emotional figure and facial work, breaking away from traditional panels to create dynamic page layouts, and borrowed a lot of elements of lighting and angles from movies to create his compositions. My favorite work of his is probably Invisible People which contains three stories of isolated people facing dehumanizing forces in their lives. A Contract with God is a famous work from him as well that examines the human condition through the lens of Jewish characters living in a run down apartment building in New York City, which is inspired by Eisner's own background. Before the works I mentioned, he got a lot of acclaim for his pulp crime comic The Spirit, which is about a masked crimefighter named The Spirit. A lot of those Spirit pages are absolutely stunning and I can easily spend an afternoon gazing into and admiring ...

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 28: David Lynch David Lynch is a filmmaker, painter, musician, and... well, he's an artist. He's one of two directors (or three since Frank Miller technically counts) that made this list which kind of surprised me but not really. I do love his movies. My favorite of his work is Lost Highway, which similarly to a lot of things I like deals with themes of identity and dealing with guilt and flaws. I'm not really into dissecting his work and placing meaning in every little thing, it's just a lot of fun to go into those little worlds and think about the stuff I feel while I'm watching. The Elephant Man is also high up there for me. Beautiful performances and lovely black and white photography, it is probably his most perfect movie. I'm sad to see he's not doing well health wise and hope he gets well or as comfortable as he can be.

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 29: Nobuo Uetmatsu In entry #33 I mentioned there was one other element of Final Fantasy that soars above everything I love about the series. That would be the music that plays throughout a player's journey in the game. From FFI to FFIX the music is composed solely by Nobuo Uetmatsu. Uetmatsu blends jazz, progressive rock, folk, new age, and classical styles into his scores. Beyond that, the man is a storyteller, where the music alone gives you a lot of information about a character or an environment. My favorite song of his is Melodies of Life from Final Fantasy IX, which plays in full at the end of the game (while the player bawls their eyes out) and also serves as a motif throughout the game's score. Uetmatsu's music makes me think of my friends and family. A couple years ago I covered Tifa's Theme from Final Fantasy VII:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIyt8kh_x4U

 My top 50 greatest things Number 30: Mike Mignola  Mike Mignola is also a comic book creator most known for his work on the Hellboy series. Mignola, like Frank Miller, implements shadows and exaggerated angles in his minimalistic line work. He mainly explores horror mythology and blends that with noir and sci-fi elements. One of my favorite things he does is include aspect to aspect transitions inspired by eastern sequential art that focuses on the environment his characters are in, helping the reading really immerse themselves into the story. Hellboy and the surrounding B.P.R.D. universe is my favorite of his works (particularly the story The Corpse) but I have to shout out his Legends of the Dark Knight story Sanctum and his work on Gotham by Gaslight.

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 31: Frank Miller Frank Miller is a comic book creator and again with the actual people on this list I'm more so referring to their work. Miller's work is gritty and dark and highly influential, but above all, the guy conjures atmosphere. His frequent use of the chiaroscuro effect draws out tension and suggests deeper emotion within his characters. I'm a huge fan of his brutal reimagining of Daredevil and his pulp crime series Sin City, but I think my favorite work of his is the experimental masterpiece that is Ronin. Ronin connects the path of a disgraced samurai with a dystopian New York City in a bonkers cyberpunk adventure(? if that's the right word). Several of the characters are forced or have a desire to redefine themselves and those sort of themes really resonate with me.

My top 50 greatest things. Number 32: Sam and Max Another one of my favorite video game genres is the point and click adventure game. However, this entry's origins are in comic books. Sam and Max! An anthropomorphic dog and rabbit who are officers of the Freelance Police. They were created by Dave and further developed by his older brother Steve Purcell. Steve Purcell basically adopted the characters (with his brother's permission) and started using them in their owncomic series that bounced around different publishers. When Purcell was hired by LucasArts he helped develop what would become Sam and Max: Hit the Road, the duo's first video game. That game in particular is where first I met these characters on the family's Gateway computer. The game is a hysterical parody of classic Americana that involves visiting the world's largest ball of twine, the celebrity vegetable museum, and bungee jumping off of Mount Rushmore. Over a decade later, Telltale would launch a t...

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 33: Final Fantasy I adore JRPGs like Chrono Trigger, Breath of Fire, and Dragon Quest, but the handful of Final Fantasy games I've played are some of the greatest storytelling experiences I've enjoyed. I have a cousin who was already a fan of the series and when they were playing whatever new thing on their PS2, I'd break out their old PS1 and play some Final Fantasy. I haven't played every single mainline entry and barely scratched the surface on the spinoffs, but the ones I have played were very moving and plus turn based rpgs are just a style I enjoy playing. My all time favorite is IX followed by VI and VII. The games do revolve around the questions of purpose and self disovery, but the way IX handled those themes hit me just right. That and I think that game plays really well with blending classic elements from the earlier entries with what had been developed for the more recent ones. I've had a lot of fun playing these games,...

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 34: Walt Simonson Walt Simonson is a wonderful comic artist. He's most known for his work on Thor, where in 1983 he took the writing mantle as well as art duties in a run I love. Simonson's style is very dynamic featuring some angular figure and facial work as well as using a dense black in his line to create some dramatic lighting. His Ragnarok series that further explores the mythology of Thor (outside of Marvel canon) is also superb. 

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 35: Standing and crouching to scan a movie selection at any store I love looking at shelves filled with movies. It's a little taxing when it comes to the lower shelves. I do this at Barnes and Noble at least twice a month, but any store where it can happen is just as good.

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 36: Tobasco sauce I like spice. I like a lot of sauces and trying whatever I can. Tobasco may not be a super compelling sauce, but it is reliable and provides a lot of support. Great on eggs. I tried a Tobasco chocolate bar once. Not a great day.

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 37: Adult Swim It was hard for me to narrow it down to just one show so this entry is for my favorite Adult Swim shows. Among them would be Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, 12 oz. Mouse, Home Movies, and Harvey Birdman. I still lay in bed and put on these shows to lull me to sleep, but the specific feeling I'd get doing the same thing 15 or so years ago with commercials, less stress, and school the next day is something of the past I'll always cherish. The block exposed me and a lot of viewers to a wide range of wonderful animation. Dragon Ball Z never clicked with me, but discovering things like Ghost in the Shell and Cowboy Bebop were huge revelations for younger me. 

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 38: Iron Man I was really surprised to see that ol' shell head cracked the 50, but I really like Iron Man! Before RDJ played the character, he was a lower tiered Marvel character, but I think the runs writer David Michelinie had with the book is really compelling. That featured the Armor Wars arc and plus some issues where Iron Man has to team up with Doctor Doom. My favorite Iron Man issue is #232 written by Michelinie and art by Barry Windsor Smith. It's after the Armor Wars affair and contains this insane cyborg space nightmare. The way Tony Stark prioritizes his suit over his well being at times is what really fascinates me with the character. He's a guy that struggles with his own flaws and insecurities, but strives for perfection in his creation and extension of himself. It's probably the most interesting battle throughout all of the pages in comics about him. I think the movies are pretty good. I like RDJ's take, but I'm...

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 39: Target Clearance Section I'm not talking about the cheap stuff at the front of the store, I'm talking about the sometimes tiny clearance shelves they keep in the back. Most of the time it sucks, but when it hits... it hits.

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 40: KFC Buffalo Chicken Snacker (early 2000s) Easily the greatest fast food item I had the pleasure of digesting. A small sesame bun, a fried chicken filet covered in buffalo sauce, lettuce, and mayo. There was nothing quite like it. I believe there's been attempts to bring it back, but none of these redos have come close. I don't believe this is purely a nostalgia thing because I ate so many of this things that I can distinctly remember what every bite was like and it was delicious. Other discontinued fast food items I miss are the McDonald's Chicken Selects and the Wendy's Asian boneless wings, but neither comes close to the snacker.

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 41: Satoshi Kojima Satoshi Kojima is pro wrestler with a 30 year history. He's a large man known for his giant arms that deliver a lariat inspired by Stan Hansen. When I first got into New Japan Pro Wrestling he was usually placed on the undercard with the other veterans and lower card wrestlers, but he stood out to me as a guy who had a bit more spring in his step compared to the other veterans. When I went back to learn more about the promotion's history and other things I missed in Japanese pro wrestling history, I was very impressed with his work. His style really connected with me as far as what I want out of pro wrestling. He's known as being one of the few people to have hold the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship, and All Japan's Triple Crown Championship. And also he held the GHC Heavyweight Championship which I think puts in only the company of Keiji Mutoh who also held all these titles (which ...

 My top 50 favorite things. Number 42: Jalapeno Poppers Absolutely my all time favorite appetizer. I prefer a bacon wrapped pepper that is filled with cream cheese. I appreciate all variations of this food, however the breaded ones tend to rank lower. TGI Friday's had a breaded variant that stood out because of the jam sauce that complimented it. My girlfriend makes a lovely jalapeno popper grilled cheese that is probably dangerous for my body to ingest but is savory and wonderful. 

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 43: Toys Look, I'm not a huge toy guy, but I have a few and I like them. Toys are just really cool. I'm more into like figures and what not but vehicles are also cool. Right now I have figures of (SPOILER), (SPOILER), and El Desperado displayed. I also have (SPOILER) from the late 90's that's really cool and a specific version of (SPOILER). I would like a Enterprise and more He-Man stuff. I'm planning on starting a collection of (SPOILER) figures because they look kind of cool and are very affordable. That's the thing about toy collecting, I don't have a lot of space and don't really want to dedicate all of my funds to it. 

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 44: Isaac Asimov Asimov was a science fiction author most known for the Foundation and Robot series. I'm mainly a fan of those two series. Foundation is basically about this mathematician who figures out that the world is going to go shit but there's a way to shorten how terrible things will be and he's granted to start a Foundation for the new civilization. It takes place over thousands of years and features people chomping on cigars and debating. The Robot series is about... robots. Asimov just had a lot of wacky ideas and implemented an insane amount of world building. My favorite book from him that I've read is Foundation and Empire which features the story "The Mule" (which is my favorite story). I HIGHLY recommend pounding through the first Foundation book and "The General" (the first story in the second book) just to get to the "The Mule". I had to take a walk when I was done the first time. 

 My top 50 greatest things. Number 45: Faith No More Faith No More is one of my favorite bands. I started listening to them in high school thanks to my friend Devin and his uncle. It's kind of hard to describe their sound. There's some funk rock and metal and alternative stuff. I don't know. My favorite album of there's is King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime. It's a more straight foward, guitar driven rock album. I got to see them live once and it was lovely. King for a Day has my favorite drum sound on any record and when I saw them live I remember thinking that was probably the best live drum sound I've heard. Not sure if Mike Bordin just makes drums sing in a particular way or what.

 My top 50 greatest things Number 46: Chicago Cubs I am a casual baseball fan. I sometimes watch older games on youtube and during the season I mainly watch the Cubs. I really love baseball on the radio though, there's nothing like it. My grandmother was a huge Cubs fan and would basically watch every game. One of my largest regrets is not taking the week off of work and staying at her house for the 2016 World Series. Cubs games do bring me calm though as they remind me of earlier days of my family sitting quietly in the living room, doing their own thing with the game on. Currently, I really like Shota Imanaga. He's a lot of fun to watch. One day I hope to watch a game live at Wrigley.

 My top 50 greatest things Number 47: Richard Widmark Another person. Again, like Vonnegut, I don't much about this guy but he was an actor and there's two particular roles that I think about often. One being his film debut in Kiss of Death (1947) as the psychopath Tommy Udo. Widmark's portrayal of Udo is electric and constantly being a smart ass and calling the lead Victor Mature's character "squirt". The other role I love is Harry Fabian in Night and the City (1950). He's the lead in that and his character is just a guy who bets on his schemes and always comes up short. Part of Jules Dassin's great run between Brute Force and Rififi. Widmark was a talented guy with a long list of credits usually playing some military fella but those two particular roles are laid like bricks in my mind and I highly recommend checking both of those out.

 My top 50 greatest things Number 48: Kurt Vonnegut Here is our first person. When a person pops up, I'm mainly concerned with their body of work as opposed to the actual person. I actually don't know much about Vonnegut outside of a handful of his novels that really resonated with me. I first read Breakfast of Champions either in high school or right after and the main thing that struck me was the simple syntax that is used. It dumbed a lot of things downs like the discovery of America and mental illness to the point of meaninglessness that I found very striking. I've read Breakfast of Champions, Player Piano, The Sirens of Titan, Cat's Cradle, and Slaughterhouse-Five. I can't really decide which would be my favorite since it's been a while but I guess Slaughterhouse. I should revisit these and read the rest of his work maybe. But most of those gave me some feeling or lead me to some thoughts that I can't quite compare to anything else. I perhaps don't ...

 My top 50 greatest things Number 49: PS1 (just the look) This pick is mainly concerned with the look of the first iteration of the Playstation. I just like it a lot. Great shape and color and the colors in the logo really pop. Ken Kutaragi is responsible for the development of the console and Manabu Sakamoto did the logo and apparently actual design of the console. I mean it's probably my favorite console even if it's just based on how cool it looks. Most of my favorite games can be played on it. The controllers are pretty sweet too. Maybe not as sexy as the PS2 ones, but you hand me the ones without the analog stick, boy howdy. I was really tempted to buy an anniversary pack at Target that had some goodies that surrounded the console, but I didn't go for it. Someone got me a grey shirt with the logo on it just because of how much I love the look of this thing.

      I decided to rank all of the things I love. There's a lot of different things, people, and activities on this list. I entered about 60 items into a database and pit each thing against each other. I learned a lot about myself and assumptions I had about my preferences were untrue. So join me on this journey that explores my top 50 things. note: I'd like to add that I decided to do this because I love everything in this list and wanted to celebrate that love. Number 50: Buying $5 movies on itunes In the streaming age, it seems silly to want to purchase movies when there's countless services that contain huge libraries of films to watch at a monthly rate. I personally prefer physical media (we'll get to that later) and buying movies on the cheap via iTunes is a second best option for me. Earlier this year I obtained an Apple TV which aside from it's smooth user interface and higher grade capabilities, I wanted to be able to access my movies and shows I've col...