v2, d424: Top 7 (times 2) Disney Songs

Thanks to Twitter, I learned that it was 22 years ago today that The Little Mermaid first came out in theaters.  Crazy, huh?  I kind of wished I'd known about this date a year ago.  Then we could have made all sorts of "Ariel's old enough to go drinking" jokes.  (Hand me another of those...what's the word again?  Oh, margaritas!)  In honor of this momentous occasion, I've decided to dedicate today's Top 7 to my favorite Disney songs.

Only, the Disney canon is huge!  (Incidentally, I'll bet the Disney Cannon is pretty big as well)  So in order to better capture the scope of the Disney company's impact upon my formative years, I've decided to double the size of this top 7.  Introducing my Top 14 Disney Songs!  (And getting it down to 14 is actually pretty hard, too!)

Oh, a couple notes before we start.  First, I'm only including pieces that are (as far as I know) original to their respective Disney property.  That means nothing from either Fantasia.  Though those are brilliant and perfect.  Except for the celebrity cameos in the second one; those were just weird.  Second, I am a man. That means, when I was exposed to most of this stuff originally, I was a boy. Therefore, my tastes tended to gravitate toward the boy-centric pieces.  For example: I never liked "Part Of Your World."  Even as a kid, I was annoyed when she'd stop to remember the correct word for "feet."  The songs that always won Academy Awards were usually love songs, which means they were probably my least favorite parts of the movies.  That doesn't mean no Disney love ballads are on this list, but it does at least imply that the majority of my choices won't be seen on a lot of well-respected "Best of Disney" lists.  I loved the villain songs, I loved the big ensemble numbers, I loved the chase scenes, I loved stuff that was bizarre and creative, but I wasn't really into what I would have considered "the girly stuff" with very few exceptions.  Sorry, A Whole New World.  Also, I never even bothered with Pocahontas or Mulan.  (And after playing both films in video game form, I don't imagine I ever will)  You can have Cinderella, and I'll take The Lion King or Newsies.  That's just the way I grew up, and this list will reflect that.

Disclaimers out of the way, enjoy my top 7 14 Disney songs. 

#14.

It was between this and Chim Chim Cheree for the #14 slot, and I went with this one because it's just so dang happy.  This is Disney whimsy at its finest.  Uncle Reemus, I wish you were my uncle!  I mean, you just want to sit down and have a picnic with that guy.  He's having so much fun with those cartoon animals.  He's very high on life, but not in an obnoxious way.  It's always been hard for me to listen to this song and not whistle along.  What else can I say?  It always puts me in at least a slightly better mood.  

#13.

Villains almost always get the best songs.  It's true in Disney, it's true on Broadway (though really the two are the same these days), it's true in real life.  It's just the way it is.  This is a prototypical villain song in that the whole thing is the bad guy singing about what a jerk he is.  And loving it.  It's so fun, because he's such a jerk.  Please note Gaston isn't really "evil," he's just ridiculously self-serving.  Obsessed, even.  And through that obsession, he's eventually transformed from the guy in this number to the mob-leader in Kill The Beast.  This number, though, is just fun.  You love to hate the character, and that's exactly what this perfect movie is going for.  Because up to this point, the hero is still kind of dark and scary, so you need the bad guy to lighten things up.  

The stage version of this song is incredible, by the way, with all the refrains and the dancing and the beer mug clinking.  Look it up if you haven't seen it before.  

#12.

Is this one of the best Disney songs ever?  No, of course not.  And it sounds really early-90s as I listen to it now.  But it was a great theme song for a great show.  It sets the mystery-and-adventure mood perfectly and it made you want to sing along every single afternoon.  Admittedly, most of the Disney Afternoon shows had great songs.  (In some cases, the song was even better than the show)  Rescue Rangers hit that perfect balance between awesome song and awesome show (and awesome NES game, for the record), so that's why I chose it here as a representative of the entire DA crew.  But like I said, these were all solid tunes.  

#11

Oh, man.  This song...this movie...

Okay, The Brave Little Toaster is a terrifying film.  At some point in the movie, you are led to believe that every single main character is dead or dying.  Blanket gets lost in a storm, vacuum runs over his own cord, radio is torn apart by the freaky guy, lampy overload and blows his bulb, it's awful.  They go through so much just to get to the boy's new home, and then when they get there, all his new stuff throw them into the dumpster and they get sent to the junk yard.  That's where we have this sad, awesome scene.  It's got to be the most fatalist song Disney has ever done in a kids' movie as car after car sings about its past life just before its compacted into a small metal cube.  It's crazy.  It's sad.  The doomed cars are basically telling the appliances that they're in the junk heap, they're worthless, and all that's left is to wait to be crushed.  It is so intense, and when there was a window of seven or eight years where I couldn't really remember anything about this movie, I always remembered this scene.  Can't say why I've always loved it so much other than it's just intense and exciting.  Even if it borders on the depressing.  (Good thing none of these cars were actual characters in the movie, or this film would have been responsible for an entire generation of counseling--as if the Bambi thing hadn't been bad enough!)

#10.

As with #12, this is kind of on this list as a representative of all the Silly Symphonies, but The Old Mill has always been my favorite.  Walt Disney took short form animation so seriously.  This clip is a work of art.  It won an Academy Award.  It's over seventy years old.  And it still looks so much better than even some of the computer generated animation we're showing our kids these days.  Old Mill was actually sort of a screen test for a new style of animation Walt wanted to use in Snow White.  I think he was pretty happy with it in the end.  Phenomenal piece.  

9. 

Two words.  King Louie.  Two more words: Villain song.  Sorta.  This film has a fantastic cast of character, and this is easily the most memorable scene in the film.  (I also love the vultures and almost put That's What Friends Are For on this list)  It's cool and jazzy and full of great "little moments," like Bagheera hiding by posing as a statue or the white-haired monkey doing whatever it is he does.  Everything about this scene is just fun.  (Though I can't help but wonder how Mowgli bounces back so quickly after being dropped on his head on stone.  Yeouch!)

8.

Pirates of the Caribbean figured out that, if you're going to make me listen to the same song on loop for ten minutes while I ride a slow-moving boat through a cavern of robots, it had better be a pretty dang awesome song.  (Unfortunately, not all Disneyland attractions got that memo)  If you've heard this song once, chances are you've sung it or had it run through your head at multiple points in your life.  Even if most people don't know any words beyond "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.  We mumble mumble mumble mumble Drink up, my hearties, yo ho!"  It's like trying to write music for an old NES game.  It has to be simple and catchy and people have to be willing to listen to it repeat itself many, many times.  Well, twenty years later I'm still humming this tune, so they musta done something right.  

Incidentally, I absolutely loved all the ways they tied the first PotC movie to this ride, and that includes the use of the song.  Very well done.  Now, when will that Enchanted Tiki Room movie become a reality?  

#7.

Any guy my age who participated in musical theatre growing up kept hoping and praying that Disney would do the obviously awesome thing and make this film into a stage show.  Well, they finally have.  And now we're all too old and/or out of shape to be in it anymore.  Go figure.  

Every song in this movie rocks.  The harmonies are always tight, and I'm a sucker for a good harmony.  Mostly, though, they do a phenomenal job of capturing the mood of the scene, the period, and the characters. Which is obviously what is supposed to happen in a good musical.  I would always get so pumped up watching this scene.  It's basically an army of boys all out declaring war through song and dance.  Hm...you know, it works a LOT better than it sounds like it should.  And that's true of most of the songs in this film.  I would say it could be one of the strongest shows of composer Alan Menken's career if not for...

#6

Okay, here's girly romance's addition to the list ;-)  I've actually never minded Disney's princesses or their love songs, but they're not usually my favorites.  (To be fair, Kiss the Girl and Once Upon a Dream almost made the list) Then there's this one.  Everything is just beautiful. Music, lyrics, and animation!  The video I've embedded is poor quality.  The scene is just magical.  I think this romance "works" for me so much more than most others because the Disney formula often relies heavily on love at first sight, and that is most definitely not the case with this one.  Instead you've got two people having to work through their own issues and prejudices to learn to love one another...hm, it's kind of like an actual relationship!  The biggest obstacle to their happiness is not an evil witch, it's their own faults and opinions.  (And then once they get those out of the way, there's the jerk who wants to kill the beast.  Small detail)  This song is lovely, it's placed perfectly in the film (from a dramatic structure standpoint, I mean), and the movie is probably the strongest overall fairy tale adaptation Disney ever attempted.  While not my favorite Disney movie (again, I am a man), it's definitely up there, and this song is nothing short of purely charming. 

  #5

I really didn't like this movie when I was a kid.  Then I got back into it through the music (and through Kingdom Hearts), and now I love it. It's so bizarre, but there's a lot of heart there.  And the songs are fantastic in a grim, quirky, yet charming sorta way.  There's a ton of atmosphere to these songs, and this one probably captures it the best.  Plus, remember I love big ensemble numbers, I love character songs, I love spectacle, and this song is all of those things.  I mean, I can see how you wouldn't like this song, but I love it.  The mayhem and suspense continue to build until Jack's grand entrance at the end, and it's just fun.  

Incidentally, now that Disney has finally got Newsies Broadway-bound, is it too much to hope for that Nightmare might be coming one day?  Imagine if they spent the money on this production that they spent on that one show with the Heelies!

#4.

This scene is perfect.  I love the transformation Ursula goes through from the saintly philanthropic octo-woman of the beginning to the mad cackling witch at the end.  This whole thing just goes berserk as Ariel gets swept away by the sea witch's crafty plan.  And it's clear that nobody has more fun than Ursula when she's being evil.  You can just feel her relishing every moment of this scene. This whole sequence is probably one of the greatest performances by an animated character of all time.  (Not counting motion capture here)  It's also a well-directed scene.  The lights, the color, the angles, everything goes from glum to chaotically revelrous, and I can't help but get caught up in the giddy insanity. 

#3.

This song is everything a showstopper should be.  It starts simply enough and gradually adds more performers, more tricks, more effects, more harmonies, until it's finally this epic celebration of hospitality.  I don't know how the Beast doesn't hear this. It's awesome in the movie.  It's awesome on stage.  It's just awesome.  Nearly the entire supporting cast is featured in this number, and this film has an awesome supporting cast.  A musical about an enchanted castle really should be magical, and this number definitely fits that description.

#2

Ultimate villain song.  I still get chills when I watch this scene.  I love the pairing of Scar with the hyenas--who are excellent henchmen characters.  This is my favorite Disney movie, and this is my favorite scene from the movie.  This is where Scar turns the story on its head.  This is where the earth itself vents steam as Scar struts among the jagged rocks. It's where the hyena army is revealed, and they're not as hapless as Whoopi Goldberg and her pals.  Again, the sense of build and theatricality in this scene is spot on. I can watch this song several times in a row and not get tired of it.  And the final shot is eerie and imposing.  And it could just be that Nazi imagery that the animation brings to mind (wow, that's not pulling any punches), but everything about this number is sinister.  You don't see Scar getting the same scandalous joy out of his evil that Ursula gets.  He's just full of hate, and that's so scary the ground itself vaults him into the sky on a Mountain of Death.  Forget it, this song is just awesome.  It's everything I love about villains, musicals, theatricality, and rhythm rolled into one freaking amazing sequence.  

So, what tops it (in my book)?

#1

JUST KIDDING.  

Though my actual #1 will probably surprise you almost as much.

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I have not actually seen most of this movie.  I don't think I've even heard any of the music from the rest of the movie (except for Hellfire).  In fact, I hadn't even seen this actual sequence of film until I just now looked it up on YouTube.  Before now, my whole experience with this song was my sophomore year of high school, when this was my solo for our high school spring choir concert, which was Disney themed.  (Side note: this is a tough song for a sophomore to sing!) (Another side note: after nothing but the piano/vocal arrangement from my memory, the cinematic version is actually a tad disappointing ;-)   

It's funny, because usually you have the Disney princess singing about how she wants more.  This time, it's the male lead--progress!  And while the facial animation for both Frolo and Quasimodo is a bit...eh...the song itself is still gorgeous.  I love those intervals, and the melody is both haunting and hopeful.  Now, I never hear anybody talk about this song.  Actually, I never hear anybody talk about this movie.  So it may not be very good.  I don't know.  But I'll always smile when I hear this song, and I'll always hope Quasi gets his one day out there among the millers and the weavers and their wives (probably my favorite moment in the piece, apart from the creepy-ish opening).  

And I'll hope it turns out better for him than it did in the book.  

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So there's my list.  This is a tough one to do, and if I were to do it again next week there's a good chance it would look a little bit different.  Over the years, Disney music has really run the gamut, from Silly Symphonies to theme park rides to Broadway musicals, and I've tried to capture some of that variety here.  I'm already second-guessing some of my own choices, because there are just that many great songs to choose from.  But this took SO FREAKING LONG TO WRITE that there's no way I'm going back to redo any of it.  Besides, I'm sure I'd still want to switch things around no matter how many times I revamp the list.  So consider this a top fourteen with an asterisk, if you will.  :-)

And of course, I'd love to hear your faves in the comments section, if you're bold enough to share. 

Honorable mentions go to Once Upon a Dream, I Just Can't Wait To Be King, Chim Chim Cheree, Making Christmas, The Winnie-the-Pooh Theme Song, Oogie Boogie's Song, Kiss The Girl, Pink Elephants on Parade, That's What Friends are For, Everybody Wants to Be A Cat, and the Darkwing Duck Theme Song.

v2, d415: WOF2, #4: Top 7

Well, the time is finally at hand when all Borders stores everywhere are closing their doors forever.  (I can't tell you exactly when, but I know it's some time in the next few days)  As a hopeful writer and a fairly new reader, I'm really saddened by this.  Unfortunately, I have to admit that there is a portion of my life where books and reading were really quite low on the priority scale. A few years ago, however, I started reading again, and I regret those years that I put it down for the sake of...whatever it was I did with my spare time in college. (See, I had so much required reading that I never wanted to do any recreational reading...but that's another blog for another day)  That to say, I'm probably not the best person to express exactly why the end of Borders is such a sad thing, so I'll pass that responsibility off into the very capable hands of the Librarian's Daughter. 

Regardless of my recent history, literature is now a very big part of who I am and what I'm passionate about, so it's after great reflection and many revisions that I'm finally confident enough in my selections to present my Top 7 Favorite Books (not including the Bible).  Most of these books I've already read more than once.  The ones that I haven't, I've severely wanted to and likely will in within the year.  These are all books I either own or plan to own.  They are books I can see myself reading several times over the course of my life.  They are books I am always ready to discuss.  Usually, the act of thinking about one of these books is enough to make me want to reread it.  Because there's no concrete, scientific evaluation process for this sort of thing, I can't guarantee that these seven are may seven favorites every single day or that they don't shuffle around in order from time to time.  I'm pretty sure, however, that this is at least a pretty dang close approximation of my Top 7 Favorite Books.

#7:

Blood Feud: Detroit Red Wings v. Colorado Avalanche.  The Inside Story of Pro Sports' Nastiest and Best Rivalry of its Era by Adrian Dater

I know, I know.  I'm starting this list off with some high literature, aren't I?  But this is one of the most fun books that I've ever read.  Yes, I have the bias that I am an Avalanche fan and that I still remember many of the more memorable clashes between the Avs and Wings in the late 1990s/early 2000s, but the fact is this book is written well enough that you can't help get into the story.  While the Avs and Wings never got the publicity of the Yankees/Red Sox or the Lakers/Celtics, the aggressive, emotional nature of hockey escalated this rivalry into something so consistently nasty that I've never seen anything like it in any sport in the twenty years that I've been a sports fan. Most sports rivalries are perpetuated primarily by the fans.  Somehow, the epic clash of the Wings and Avs was a personal affair for everybody involved.  Players, coaches, reporters, beat writers, trainers.  It was flat-out insane.  What made it even better, however, is that these were two of the best teams in the league from 1996 through 2002, so in addition to the passionate insanity of rivalry, fans were also treated to some of the best hockey games any of us will ever see.

The reason this book works so well is not that the rivalry itself was so great, it's that Dater does a fantastic job of taking eight years of incidents and people and weaving them into a cohesive story that starts with Claude Lemieux ramming Kris Draper from behind in a playoff game in 1996 and ends with the Wings clobbering the hobbling Avs in game seven of the conference final in 2002.  He brings out the stories of the men who made this madhouse so dang entertaining.  He evenly portrays every perspective into each anarchic playoff series, every behind-the-scenes shouting match, every ejected coach and goalie fight, and the reader really gets a sense of what a roller coaster ride this rivalry was.  It was as if the players knew at the time that what they were involved in was something that doesn't come along every day, and Dater's thrilling account makes a fairly exclusive rivalry in a niche sport into a story about people, pride, and passion.  If you can manage the hockey player's vernacular, I'd recommend this to anybody with a mild interest in sports or real-life character studies.  It's sort of the literary equivalent to a summer blockbuster.  But there ain't nothing wrong with that.

#6. 

 Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
There's a reason that there are dozens of film, stage, television, picture book, comic book, ballet, and just about anything else adaptations of this story. Not to mention all the spinoffs, unofficial sequels, unofficial prequels, and the one official sequel. Peter Pan rocks.  It is absolutely off the wall.  It is the essence of a boyhood adventure tale.  The story is wildly imaginative, the prose is delightful, the tone alternates between dark, innocent, whimsical, mischievous, sentimental, and playful, the characters are unforgettable...this is just an amazing book all around.  It's child's play at its most serious, consistent within its own realm but unhindered by adult rationality.  There are several moments that are laugh-out-loud funny (such as the Darlings' sitting on the bed with their pocketbook to determine whether or not they can afford to keep their own baby, or Mr. Smee's attempts at fierce piracy which only end up making him look lovable) and some parts of the story that are actually pretty scary as well.  While every adaptation I've seen tends to make Neverland a physical place (albeit a magical one that doesn't show up on the map), Barrie's Neverland is more the place where fantasy becomes reality, another realm where every child's imagination becomes real.

This book is pure joy from beginning to end, and it has been entirely too long since I read it last.

5. 

 Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling
The seven-book Harry Potter saga is amazing.  It's just an incredibly story that is almost perfectly crafted.  Its themes are positive and universally true.  J. K. Rowling has created some of the most memorable characters in modern fiction and there's a reason so many people all over the English-speaking world just can't let go of this story.

As for myself, I didn't really start getting into the series until this book.  I liked bits and pieces of the first two novels, but they really didn't hook me.  Now, by the time I'd started reading, I'd already seen this movie and Goblet of Fire, so I knew things were going to pick up and get a lot better.  Otherwise I may have dropped the series after the second installment.  But Prisoner of Azkaban was the story that got me hooked, and even now that the rest of the series is over it remains my favorite.  Because I find the whole of the series to be far greater than the sum of its parts, I turn to this book as the volume in which THE story really starts to pick up.  The first two books are pretty similar.  Harry goes to school, Harry and his friends have adventures, something really creepy involving Harry's ultimate enemy happens, Harry goes home for the summer.  Azkaban is the story where you start getting some answers about Harry's mysterious past and Voldemort starts to show his hand.  From this point on, every story thrusts these two closer toward their penultimate confrontation and the battle between the armies of good and evil.

I don't just love this book because it's the one that really gets the story moving, however.  The novel, even as a stand-alone, is fantastic!  Almost everything that happens in this book is cool.  The dementors are cool.  The patronuses are cool.  The werewolf element is cool.  The Marauder's Map is cool.  The plot twists are amazing!  The Whomping Willow!  Azkaban!  Sirius!  Lupin!  Even the hippogriff is cool!  I'm not kidding, virtually everything that is in this book is fun, engaging, intriguing, exciting, or otherwise dynamic.  I enjoyed all of the books after this one quite a bit, but I will always love Prisoner of Azkaban above all the others.

#4. 

 The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
I promise, I do read grown-up books, too.  I first read Winnie-the-Pooh last year when I played the silly old bear in our children's theatre production of, well, Winnie-the-Pooh.  I'd never really gotten into the Pooh cartoons as a kid, though I could recall some of them pretty well and I wasn't altogether unfamiliar with the characters. (Does anybody else remember the live-action Winnie-the-Pooh show on Disney Channel?)  When I read the book, which includes both Pooh collections, I was blown away.

The first thing that surprised me was how funny the book was.  I expected a fairly gentle and bland little series of friendship tales, because that was what I remembered of Pooh.  Instead, I remember several times I had to chase down my wife to read aloud to her the passage I'd just read.  Fortunately, it was even funnier when read aloud.  The second characteristic I came to associate with Pooh was "feel-good."  This book really just leaves you feeling good.  Like Peter Pan, it harkens back to a more innocent time in all our lives, but whereas Pan is a love song to high adventure, Pooh is a surprisingly profound examination of the simple and good things in our lives.  Home, friendship, music and poetry, exercise, pleasant weather, adventures, accomplishment.  Just about the only times Pooh is ever discontent is when he notices one of his friends is upset.  And, good-natured guy that he is, Pooh always refuses to rest until he has made things right for whoever happens to be feeling down.  Even if it's Eeyore, who seems to rather prefer being gloomy.

Man, how much better would life be if we were all a little more like Winnie-the-Pooh?

In addition to Pooh, the supporting cast is memorable and lovable, but it's the story's central character that really holds this world together and gives it such a lasting place in my heart.

#3. 

 The Stand: Complete And Uncut by Stephen King
Here's yet another book I didn't expect to enjoy nearly as much as I did.  This extended version of one of Stephen King's best-known works clocks in at around 1200 pages.  I remembered seeing commercials for the TV miniseries when it came out back when I was a kid, and all I took from those commercials was that a Superflu wiped out most of the people on earth, so I assumed that this was a book about an unstoppable disease killing everybody.

Au contraire!  

What I got instead was a massive tale of good versus evil, a story using ordinary men and women as champions fighting literally on the sides of God and Satan.  Turns out, the Superflu was just the setup for the story.  The Stand is really about the survivors of Captain Tripps disease as they are almost mystically drawn to two settlements--one in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and the other in Sin City itself, Las Vegas.  The settlement in Colorado is headed up by an old black woman named Abigail, a devout Christian who speaks often of prayer and visions.  The Las Vegas community is headed up by a character who goes by the name of Flagg.  He usually appears to be pretty human, but throughout the book there are instances that show that there's something supernatural, even demonic, about this character.

What makes this book scary, however, is not its demonic antagonist.  The real terror comes from the realistic portrayal of evil in the hearts of the human characters.  There's actually quite a bit of sound theology in the pages of this book.  (In fact, I think King has a better understanding of some of these biblical principles than some Christian writers I've read)  Each of Flagg's people are tempted by their own desires into sin, and that's how they eventually find their way into his camp.  This story has some realistic depictions of hideously evil acts--and in most cases you can understand why the person committing the evil made the choices they did.  King's villains are never excused for their choices, but it is made very clear that they are regular men and women, and that the possibility for that sort of evil exists in each of us.  Of course, there are equally heroic acts, and that's why I think this book is so great.  It's a story that's biblical in proportion of both God and Satan using flawed people to impact the world around them.  It's scary.  It's heartwarming.  It's surprising.  And it's amazing.

Granted, I did feel like there was some unnecessary moralizing about the evils of civilization at times, and there were two particular sections that I thought dragged on a bit longer than necessary, and there was one small side-story that I wish hadn't existed at all.  Nevertheless, there are few books that impacted me as powerfully at Stephen King's The Stand: Complete and Uncut Edition.

#2.  

 Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
No, this book isn't on the list solely because I love the musical.  It's here because this is one of the most beautiful stories of redemption I have ever read.  Admittedly, it has been a long time since I've read this book, and a thorough re-read is my tentative November reading project (though it may get pushed back to January, depending on NaNoWriMo), but I remember the story and the characters fairly vividly.  I can't imagine creating a work of this much depth and breadth with so many powerful moments.  This story touches every corner of your soul.  There are almost no pitiless characters.  I feel for each in his or her struggle.  For a story called The Miserable, I'm amazed at how much hope shines through the pages.  Of course, I'm usually looking for light in dark places, and that's probably why I found this book so appealing.  Yes, Victor Hugo is wordy.  Yes, he gets majorly sidetracked at times.  Yes, he likes to talk about Napolean in stories that have nothing to do with Napolean.  But I can let it slide, because this book is just beautiful.  I can't choose a favorite character, I can't pick a favorite storyline, I can't point to a handful of favorite scenes.  It was the first book I ever read that I felt completely satisfied upon finishing it. And whether it comes in November or January, I have been anticipating this re-read for several years now.  Welcome back, old friend.

#1:

 Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
I can't say enough good things about this book.  I first read it five years ago while Kim was pregnant with Robbie.  I read it again this past January, a father of three and a half years.  Each reading gave me a different story.  The book is a journal written by an aging preacher in the 1950s to his five-year-old son.  Because the preacher married his second wife so late in life, he will likely be dead before his boy's sixth birthday, so he's writing these memoirs as a way of giving his son something to know him by.  Most of the book is written in short, loosely-related passages.  This book is heartbreaking.  This book is hysterical.  It's melancholy and wistful, it's hopeful and jubilant.  I was surprised it so recently won a Pulitzer, because it's ultimately an uplifting tale that uses a lot of Christian scripture.  There are so many great passages in this book, you could flip it open to just about anywhere and read for a few pages and you'd probably find something you want to circle, copy down, or memorize.  I recently let my friend Sherri borrow this book, and since she brought it back a couple of weeks ago I've come close to picking it up for another read at least three times.  I will probably never get enough of Gilead, and it's one of very, very few books that I would recommend to absolutely anybody.

So there you have it.  My top seven books.  A heartwarming father-son memoir; a wordy, epic work of historical fiction; a dark fantasy set in a post-apocalyptic reality; a lovable bear with very little brain, a riveting adventure for young adults; the original riveting adventure for children; and a nonfiction account of my favorite hockey team.  If you're wondering what some of the titles that just missed out are, I thought long and hard about including The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan, Identity Crisis by Brad Meltzer, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, The Silver Chair, The Magician's Nephew, The Silver Chair, and That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Don Miller, 1984 by George Orwell, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, and The Game by Ken Dryden. 

v2, d399: Chris Drury Retires

Chris Drury retired from the NHL today.  He's been one of my favorite NHL players since he came on to the scene with the Avs.  I still remember the day we traded him--as Dater points out in today's post, it was really the only boneheaded trade Pierre LaCroix ever made for the Avs.  Even after this past season--where Chris was banged up, injured most of the year, slow and ineffective after two years of injuries and surgeries--I and a lot of other Avs fans were hoping he might re-sign for a third- or fourth-line/penalty killer role.  (I think some of the Sabers fans wanted to see him back, too)  However, he decided his body just couldn't do it any more, and he hung 'em up. 

Robbie's middle name--Christopher--is taken from Chris Drury.  I loved the way he played, but I always respected the man he was off the ice as well as on it.  He played hard, but never dirty.  He never responded to crap in kind.  I remember an incident in Buffalo where he was hit into the board from behind with his head down and he missed some time with a serious head or neck injury (sorry, don't remember exactly which).  When asked by a reporter what he thought of the guy who did it to him, he only responded that it was in the past, there was no point dwelling on it, and he was going to put in the work he needed to get back on the ice and do his job.   He never sank below his own level of integrity. 

I won't go on and on about the guy, because there have been much better (and more concise) tributes posted today, and I'll just give you those.  First, Avs beat writer Adrian Dater's blog.  Second (and more highly recommended for the uninitiated), Puck Daddy editor Greg Wyshynski. 

Drury was known for scoring "clutch goals."  He always seemed to come up big in the playoffs.  His four playoff overtime goals puts him in the company of Hall of Famers.  When Joe freaking Sakic says you're the most clutch player he's ever seen, that's saying something. Sure, people got tired of hearing that he pitched the winning game of the Little League World Series when he was 10, but that's just because every channel mentioned it every time his name came up.  The man did win the LLWS.  He also won a Hobey Baker Award, a Calder Trophy, two Olympic silver medals, and a Stanley Cup.  He also spent his day with the Stanley Cup visiting his college teammate Travis Roy, a guy whose career ended when he was paralyzed on his first shift of college hockey. While his career was on the decline, he was named to the US Olympic Hockey Team roster in 2010.  Said GM Brian Burke, "We picked Chris Drury because he's Chris Drury."  And of course, he scores two clutch goals in that tournament as well. 

Look, there were always better players than Drury, I know that.  But if you look at how many NHL personalities today put out congratulations or "best captain I ever played with"/"one of the classiest guys I've ever known" comments on their Twitter throughout the day, how many tribute blogs and stories were posted by sports networks across North America, and how many fans who wish he could have had one last year to end his career on a higher note than his 2010-11 season, you get the feeling that the guy is special. 

Incidentally, I do have a Top 7 Drury moments.  I won't make it as big a deal as my usual Top 7's, but here you go:

7. Drury's response to the hit from behind in Buffalo
6. Skating around all 5 Vancouver players for a last-minute goal against the Canucks
5. Drury and his boyhood idol, Ray Bourque, throughout the 2000-01 season. Lots of great hijinks/stories there
4. Jeremy Roenick publicly apologizing for questioning the selection of Drury to the 2010 Olympic squad
3. Game 5 vs Detroit in 2002, overtime winner.  (We lost the series anyway, but that was a glorious moment)
2. Telling Travis Roy's story on national TV
1. Of course, the Cup in 2001.  Drury's retirement leaves only 3 guys from that team (Hejduk, Tanguay, Reinprecht) still playing in the NHL.  

So, thank you, Chris, for being a role model and a leader. Thanks for the Cup in '01 and the consistent presence at USA Hockey.  Thanks for being the kind of guy I'd want to name a kid after. 

*sound of  alone stick tapping against the ice*

v2, d317: Top 7 Defunct Disneyland Rides

I love amusement parks. We've been over this.  I used to design my own as a hobby.  I always hated games like Roller Coaster Tycoon because I found them so limiting in their options for park and ride designs.  One of my favorite elements of heading to southern California for two weeks each summer when I was a kid was the fact that there was no shortage of people willing to take us kids out to a theme park or three.  I considered myself pretty good friends with Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and (later) Six Flags Marine World, Great America, and even Universal to an extent.  But obviously, as time marches on, parks change.  Rides and shows come and go.  And eventually you do a quick web search to check in on your old friends and realize they're not quite the same as you remembered.  And sometimes, those changes hurt. 

With that in mind, here are my Top 7 Defunct Disneyland Rides

DISCLAIMER: Major thanks to Yesterland.com for helping jog my memory.  It's an awesome site with a plethora of trivia tidbits.  For example, did you know that there was once an intimate apparel shop on Main Street complete with an animatronic figure named the Wizard of Bras who would teach you the history of underwear?  True story.

#7: Motor Boat Cruise

Okay, to be honest, there was never anything all that exciting about this ride, but without it my list was topping out at six.  Before they closed it for good, I remember there was a period where Disney converted a large section of Fantasyland into a Disney Afternoon stretch.  That meant lots of Duck Tales, Tale Spin, and Rescue Rangers pictures were thrown up, and there were maps and stamps you had to collect and shows and whatever.  Anyway, the only time I actually remember riding this ride, it had been half-heartedly converted into a Gummi Bears ride as part of that transition. 

Couldn't find an embeddable video of the ride itself, so here's all that's left. I believe they closed it down to make something cool, like Mikey's ToonTown or something. 


#6: The Skyway

This was a pretty fun way to get all the way across the park without walking.  Basically, you sit in a bucket and ride from Fantasyland to Tomorrowland suspended from a wire. You even went straight through the Matterhorn mountain, which was awesome.  Though it would frequently get stuck.  That was disconcerting.  Especially on windy days.  Nevertheless, it was fun.  Though undoubtedly dangerous.  I think some guy jumped from the skyway and then tried to sue the park, so they shut it down. 

I fond an embeddable vid, but instead I'll just provide this link to a better one that features an underscored version of A Whole New World underneath the video.  Cuz it's kinda awesome. 

#5: Mission to Mars

Mission to Mars was an update to what I believe was an original park attraction, Mission to the Moon.  It was probably pretty boring, and even by the time I rode it it wasn't nearly as technologically advanced as pretty much anything else there, but I think even then I found its lack of coolness to be cool.  Basically you step in and wait for the next mission, you get briefed by some animatronic scientists, then you go sit in this huge circular room with a portal (round TV screen) at the top and the bottom of the room.  Your rocket takes off (I don't remember if the seats shook or it was my imagination) and you can see Mars getting closer in the top screen while Earth gets smaller on the bottom one.  And after you go to Mars, you come back and the process reverses.  That's pretty much it, I think. 

It's now a pizza place.  Here's what the entrance used to look like from when I remember it:


#4: Country Bear Jamboree

Yes, this is the show they based the movie off of.  I never saw the movie.  I don't care to.  I know who the real Country Bears are.  I believe the full name was the Country Bear Jamboree Vacation Hoedown, but I don't think we ever called it anything but Country Bear Jamboree.  I think we caught the show every time we went, even though it never changed.  Walt Disney just loved robotic performers, didn't he?  My favorite part of this show was always the moose, elk, and buffalo heads on the wall.  A very creative show.  Some great characters.  And the audience always had a blast, every time I saw the show.

It's now a Winnie-the-Pooh ride.  It's okay. 


#3: Peoplemover

The People Mover (Through the World of Tron!) was basically a ride designed to get you excited about all the other rides. So you pretty much got a fairly relaxing tour of Tomrrowland and got a sample of all the rides, and for some reason that was the coolest thing to me.  Also, C-3PO!  And, before Kingdom Hearts 2, this ride was everything I knew about Tron. 

After shutting this ride down, they tried to put something new in it.  I never got a chance to ride the Rocket Rods, but they didn't last long.  Now it's just empty space.   The video quality here isn't great, but you'll get the idea.


#2: Submarine Voyage

I think part of the charm of this ride was that I figured out the trick.  You were in about seven feet of water the whole time, yet it felt so much like you were actually diving deeper.  This effect was achieved by shooting jets of bubbles past the portholes in the submarines at appropriate times.  Other than that, it was more animatronics, and you got everything from sharks to mermaids to giant squid to an awesome sea serpent at the end.  Plus, you were riding in a submarine!  I mean, how cool is that?  Now the line for this line was ALWAYS long because it took so long to unload and load each sub, but it was pretty much worth it.  Ultimately, however, this ride was dated, even when I was young, so they closed it.  It's a Finding Nemo ride now, which is a pretty good update.  They even reference the original quite a few times in the new ride, so well done, Disney. 

"Captain, we shouldn't report this in the log, should we?" "No.  Nobody would believe it anyway..."


#1:  America Sings

Okay, this is the one I'll never quite forgive Disney for getting rid of.  This show was awesome.  Again, it was Walt's love of Animatronic performers taking center stage. The entire theater rotated between sets.  It was awesome.  I have vivid memories of the whole audience clapping alone with "Yankee Doodle" during each blackout. It's a lightning-quick musical revue--like 30 or 45 seconds per song--but it's really thorough and fun.  I'm only posting the first part of it on here, but do yourself a favor and find the rest. 

Most of the cast is in Splash Mountain somewhere or other, so I'm glad they're still finding work, and the rotating building is now the Innoventions exhibit.  Which is not nearly as awesome.  Hard to believe that out of the three musical animatronic shows from my childhood, the Tiki Room is the one that survived.  (No disrespect to the birds who sing words, mind you)

v2, d242: Top 7 Theatre Moments of 2010

A friend today posted the following on Facebook: "Theater friends - what's your favorite role or accomplishment of the past year? Or favorite moment."

She then took the High Road and said that her favorite part was going through it all with her friends. I realized I couldn't answer after that, because anything I wrote would feel shallow and self-centered after such a fantastic response ;-)

It did get me to thinking, however, about my favorite moments from the 2010 year. (Started with Secret Garden rehearsals, wrapped up with Littlest Angel and early Hobbit rehearsals) And I came to a relatively disappointing conclusion:

2010 was a fairly unfulfilling year for me from an artistic standpoint.

Don't get me wrong, there were definitely high points (as are described below) and lots of good memories, but most of my assignments this year left me drained, frustrated, bored, or something similarly discouraging. The bad, I'd say, outweighed the good, theatrically speaking. In addition, two of my biggest Must-See shows came to town this year--In the Heights and Barrie's original script of Peter Pan--and had to ask friends who went how they were, because I missed both. The combination of family time and going nearly completely broke for half the year saw to that. And to cap it off, the only thing I wrote in the entire calendar year was a Christmas play that I threw together in eight hours and wasn't very good.

Not to bring the room down or anything, but on the whole, this wasn't exactly the creme de la creme of my artistic career.

I still loved it, though. Can't imagine anything I'd rather have done with the past year. I'm sure I have a "Theatre Burnout" level somewhere, but I haven't come close to it yet. This post, then, is to commemorate the high points within the general artistic doldrums that was 2010.

Here's to the good times!

TOP 7 THEATRE MOMENTS OF 2010 (in no particular order)

#1: The last Teammates booking (May)
I believe we were in Liberty.  This is generally one of my favorite bookings every year.  They've got a super-nice auditorium with actual theatrical lighting and a staff that's willing to help out when we arrive.  At least, that's usually the way it goes. Somehow, the wires got crossed this year, and nobody in the theatre department knew we were coming.  So the usually-spacious backstage area looked like a tornado had just gone through it, there was nobody to let us in, and the contact seemed pretty cross with us (for some reason) that she didn't know what we needed for setup.  (Also, there was some incident that happened at McDonalds on the way there that had one of our team members extremely cross, and I'm fairly surprised one of us didn't get kicked in the face at any point in the long van trip as a result of not letting a particular inside joke go)  So, in all honesty, this was not one of our "better" bookings overall.

The moment, however, comes within the show itself.  Now, this is a show I wrote, so I know I'll always have a fondness for it on some level, but I also got to originate the role of the hapless fourth-grade doughboy Bruce Dumpling.  It was a really fun role to play, and it was extremely satisfying (as the playwright) to see the way the show connected with our audiences in all the ways I'd hoped it would when I penned it.  The real kicker, however, came in the show's final moments, as (spoiler alert) Bruce makes the shot the wins the climactic basketball showdown against the two bullies.  Every performance we did of this show, the crowd went absolutely nuts when that happened.  It.  Was.  Awesome!  I've toured a lot of shows into a lot of elementary schools, and this was the only show that consistently received that strong of a spontaneous reaction from every audience.  It was always cool, too.  I mean, the first time we weren't expecting it, because it had  never happened before.  The next couple times, we thought maybe the first kids were an anomaly.  By the end of the year, though, you knew it was coming, and it sort of drove your energy toward the big moment.  Every other moment in educational children's theater where I've received that sort of reaction, it's always been directly solicited in the script.  "Okay, kids, say it with me!  Word power!"  "Do any of you know the secret word to break the Balloon Man's balloons?  What?  It's 'No'?  Quick, say it with me!"  "When I say 'You,' you say 'Tell!'  You!"  "Hello, everybody!  Oh, come on, you can do better than that!  I said hello!"  We never asked for a response in Teammates, though.  They just went on the ride with us and got psyched all on their own.  It served as a reminder of the power that live theatre can still have in today's kids.

Plus, it made me feel a little bit like a basketball star ;-)


#2: Sing Ho! (Winnie-the-Pooh, October)
I've posted on here how much I loved doing the show Winnie-The-Pooh.  So I don't need to go into all gushy philosophical warm fuzzies here.  It just felt good.  Doing the show always made me feel a little better about life.  I don't usually play larger roles; this was an exception.  And it was a character I actually came to love.  This is also unusual: I've usually got a pretty strong detachment from most characters I play after enough analysis and rehearsal time.

The particular moment I shall always remember about this show was the very last note of the very last song.  The four actors in the cast ended evenly dispersed around our in-the-round performance space.  Each of the members of this cast were people I love dearly, and I think we (far more often than not) enjoyed the cast dynamic.  We had just finished singing, "Sing Ho for the life that we live! Sing Ho! for the life that we live!  I don't much care if it rains or shines, 'cuz I've got a lot of honey in my house in the pines. Sing Ho! for my life!"  Such a simple, joyful celebration of the little things that made these character happy.  Friends, music, and life.  What more do you need?  One day, as we were singing our final Ho!, I looked around the stage as both Pooh and Will.  I saw three friends, having fun together, doing something we loved, being adults playing as children's playthings, singing together.  Huge smiles on our faces as well as the kids and adults surrounding our celebration.  And I was so utterly, completely happy.

And yes, I have been accused of being a sentimentalist.  Why do you ask?

#3: First week of Little Foxes rehearsals (March?)
I know, I know.  Little Foxes became an utter nightmare and was a key contributor in one of the darkest periods of my year.  But!  I loved the first couple weeks of rehearsals!  Almost everyone was really excited to be involved and the script is so well-crafted that it was an honest pleasure to watch such a talented cast sit down and work.  I learned a lot about directing from the process, some "What To Do" and some "What Not To Do," but there were points in that first week where there was some serious synergy happening.  Between actors.  Between actor and director.  People were even working out scenes and moments while on break and were doing extracurricular reading and discussing it before and after rehearsals.  Those early rehearsals never felt to me like they were three hours long; the time flew by.  And I wasn't really doing anything at all!  Just watching.  Watching committed actors throw themselves into a fantastic script.  I don't care how hokey it sounds, it was downright inspiring.

And, of course, pretty soon after that, the whole thing went to hell.  But we still put up a dang strong show and, as I've said, even the bad experiences are valuable learning experiences.

#4:Texas Christian Writers' Conference (August, I think)
I won a playwriting contest.  I didn't really expect to win it, because the script I sent in wasn't overtly "Christian," and these sort of competitions are usually looking for very direct Biblical application plays.  Which I don't usually do.  However, I had a sweet little fairy tale that encourages its audiences to keep faith in tough times.  Even though it uses Evil Things like magic and fairies and such.

Amazingly, it did win.  More amazingly, it won despite being judged on only the first 25 pages.  Which don't really connect to the story's faith element much at all.  Still, the judge enjoyed the story and the writing so much she went ahead and gave it the first prize.  It was a modest prize and a smaller contest, but it was exactly the boost I needed at that point in August.  Or July.  Whenever that thing was.

#5: That One Alice Rehearsal (April?  Also March?)
I'ma be honest with you people.  (I usually am, actually)  I was not certain I was going to be able to pull off Alice.  I know Hero Squad had gone over fairly well, but that show was easy for me.  The playwright and I were pretty well in sync the whole time.  Alice was a whole other animal. And while I was pretty sure I could make it work, it was probably the first project I've headed into here (as a director, at least) that I didn't go into certain I was going to pull out a good product.

I had a lot of fun with Alice.  On the whole, this process was probably the high point of my artistic year.  I loved my cast and crew, I'm proud of the work we put into it, and given that we were handed a really cumbersome adaptation of a book that's fairly inane and non-linear in the first place, I'm happy with what we ended up with.  My favorite "moment" in the process probably came during the rehearsal where we were "table working" the mad tea party scene.  My approach to this show was that every scene was a game with its own set of rules and its own objective.  Each character operated with its own unique sense of logic, and it was up to Alice to try to understand them on their terms.  In other words, she either caught on and started playing that character's game or she'd just get frustrated and leave.  It happens in almost every scene.  In the tea party, however, she's confronted with three different characters who seem to be living in different worlds while enjoying the same tea set.

We talked about this scene.  We asked a lot of questions.  We kept getting conflicting opinions.  We went around and around and around in circles trying to pinpoint what was the actual happening of this freaking tea party.  After about half an hour of discussion that was getting us nowhere but frustrated, I called for a short break and made a quick stop in the men's room.  As I was washing my hands I was trying to analyze why the scene wasn't working.  Why the conversation was going nowhere. And then it hit me: This is exactly what's happening in the scene!  All four characters have a different idea of what's important, conversations are constantly interrupted and reconvened with no notice, and Alice is trying to make sense of them all at once!

I strode back into the rehearsal space and grabbed a few basketballs, a bag, some cones, and a few pillows from our touring props.  "I want each of you three to take some props and engage in some activity," I said.  "Alice, when you're talking to someone, I want you to try to join in with what they're doing.  When you start talking to someone else, you have to drop what you're doing and join them in their activity.  You guys have about twenty seconds to figure out what you want to do."  Half a minute later, the Dormouse was asleep on the pillows, the March Hare sat cross-legged bouncing a basketball, and the Mad Hatter was dribbling another ball between his feet, soccer-style, through the cones.  Poor Alice was jumping up from lying down on a spare pillow to playing soccer with the Hatter to sitting with the Hare and back the entire scene.  It was chaotic.  Each of the Wonderland characters existed completely independent of the others.  It created clearer conflicts.  And it left Alice decently out of breath.

It was perfect.

And we didn't have any major trouble with the scene again after that.  It was a great day, because it felt like we'd hit our first major roadblock and obliterated it as a team.

Good lord, I really do sound like a motivational cassette tape from the 1990's, don't I?

#6: Hero Squad gets published (December)
I posted in depth about this recently, too.  Wow.  I put five years of work into that script.  I felt I'd been helped by SO MANY PEOPLE along the way.  You really have no idea what all goes into every single script you hold in your hands until you've been through the process yourself.  Looking back, getting this play published was so hard.  But one of the most fun and ultimately rewarding artistic challenges I've ever faced.

#7: Look ma, I'm the Cheshire Cat! (April, I think, but maybe May)
I'm really dropping the ball on remembering when things happened, aren't I?

I love the team/ensemble atmosphere of the rehearsal process.  My college professor used to always say she was sad and even a bit jealous when a show opened, because she wanted to be in the actors' place, up there on the stage instead of just watching.  I share her jealousy, but not her reasoning.  I don't really want to be in the performers' place once a show opens.  I want them to be performing.  That's why I cast them in the first place.  However, I've usually had such a blast working with them, trying crazy things, finding things that worked, overcoming blocks and obstacles, that I'm really very disappointed to see them go on to the run of the show and know I'm not an active part of the team any more.  I feel a little left out.  Not in a "Poor me!" sort of way, but you know.  I enjoyed my part in the process.  I enjoyed working with those actors.  And now that thing we worked so hard to put together is going on, and I'm not going on with it.

Obviously, this wasn't the case with Hero Squad, because we needed an extra body to be a ninja and a Bottlenose Boy (plus some Man-Strength to heft the cage that lowered from the ceiling) so I was actually a part of that show from first readthrough till closing.  Alice was the first time I'd really be shut out of a show once it opened.

....or so we thought!

I was not glad that one of my actors was in such serious pain that he could not go on.  I never, ever, ever with that on anybody.  Given my preference, I'd still wish he'd have been able to play the full run and not miss the one performance that one morning.  However, since he did have to miss a show, I can't tell you how much fun it was to go on in his place.  To be a part of Team Alice again.  To be invited back into the sandbox one last time.  To share a curtain call with the cast I'd put together and led through this creative process.  One last unexpected trip down the Rabbit Hole.

I honestly don't remember much about the show other than the fact that I totally blew the cat dance.  I just remember getting a little bit psyched from the point when the stage manager called the night before and said "We may have a problem," lying in bed and running over the entire show in my mind that night to make sure I could do it, and trying to contain my giddiness during vocal warmups with the cast the next day.  (It's not manly to be "giddy."  "Psyched," yes, but not "giddy.")  Oh, and I remember that the show was a total blast.  A whirlwind fourteen hours that served as one of the highlights of my year.

And I was very glad that my actor felt well enough to play the show that evening.  Because he is incredibly talented, he's far better than me, and he's the one who did all the work to earn the stage time.

But there's still a small part of me that wishes I'd had a second crack at that darn Cheshire Cat dance.

v2, d209: Top 7 Favorite Video Games

First off, I have to say that I'm not what you call a hard-core gamer.  I played a LOT of video games back when the NES was pretty much the only show in town, but once consoles got into 16-bit I really didn't keep pace with the industry.  I played some SNES at my friend's house and eventually I owned a Genesis system, but by that point games had moved on to 32 bits and I was pretty heavily involved in theater most evenings and just didn't play as much.  I completely missed out on 64 and PS1 and didn't actually own another system until I got a PS2 as a wedding present.  By that point, the PS3 and XBox 360 were practically out.  So, I've always been behind.  I've never played much XBox, so I know I've missed out on one of the most popular video game franchises of all time.  This is not going to be a terribly well-informed list.

Nevertheless: I have spent hours upon hours of my life playing video games.  Saved many worlds many times over.  Won several Stanley Cups.  Died many, many deaths and even rescued some princesses.  And there are some games that I would still play at the drop of a hat.  (Providing, of course, after the hat was dropped, the hat-dropper said, "Hey, let's play this video game")

Here, then, are my top 7 faves.  (Some of my favorites come in series; where that's the case, I'll just choose my favorite of the series to speak for the whole slew of 'em.  Gives the countdown some more variety)

#7: Rock Band (Xbox 360)


Rock Band, Rock Band 2, 3, Beatles, whatever.  I love this game.  I don't actually own this game.  I don't really even generally have access to this game.  In fact, I've played it twice.  Ever.  And it rules.  Look, it's been stated on here once or twice how one of my few big regrets at this point in my (admittedly short) life is that, save for one evening on the Craig Dorland stage, I've never been in a rock band.  Playing Bat Boy came close.  And no, obviously, playing this game isn't the same thing.  But it's the closest I'm likely ever going to get.  And playing the drums is actually pretty similar to playing a true electronic drum kit.  Plus, it's playing with three other people, which makes it hecka more fun.  Then again, I've always been more of a team player than a solo artist.  Even if I did own this game, I don't know that it'd be that much fun, because most of my gaming time comes late at night when everybody else is asleep.  And I just don't think it'd be nearly as much fun playing solo.

Anyway, this game is at #7 because, well, I've only played it twice.  So I guess there's always the possibility that it's not fun anymore when the novelty wears off.  But I doubt it.



#6: Punch Out!  (NES)
 Oh, man.  What a simple-yet-addicting game.  Anybody could play this game.  Both your buttons punch.  Left and right move you left and right.  Down blocks.  And up makes you punch up.  Occasionally, start gives you a super punch.  And that is all you need to know, my friends.  Box away to your heart's content.  (Unless you lose three times.  Because apparently, three losses means it's time to retire)

The utter ridiculousness of this game only adds to its mystique.  You've got this seventeen-year-old kid planning to box his way up to fight Mike Tyson (or Mr. Dream, depending on which version you have), boxing through opponents who are literally three times his weight.  (I think Little Mac was something like 97 pounds; the guys he fights get upwards of 300)  His opponents are so big that he has to jump in the air in order to land a blow to their head.  And somehow, he's still got enough momentum behind those blows to send these big guys flying.  The only thing more ridiculous than this concept is the roster of Mac's opponents, an A-list of the most politically incorrect characters you're likely to find in one video game.  You've got the whiny pansy French guy; the cold, heartless German military instructor; the giant Japanese man who spews out foreign automakers as part of his vernacular; the flamboyant Spanish dancer with the great hair; the Indian mystic (complete with turban and tiger skin); the tough-talking black hoodlum from Philly; the 50-something celebrity type from Hollywood; and my personal favorite, the big drunk Russian who shows up to the fight sloshed.  (Sure, that's root beer, Soda Popinski.  I totally believe ya)  (Note: I don't know if King Hippo should be offensive to obese people or not.  Likewise the insane Bald Bull to Turks)

The more you play this game, the more you realize that every fight has its own rhythm, and once you get that down, it's actually pretty easy.  This game was great for teaching pattern memorization and reflex reactions.  However, even after you could beat the entire thing almost by rote, the redundancy somehow became part of the fun.  This game was so fantastic that they recently remade it for the Wii and changed very little.  If it ain't broke, why fix it?



#5: EA Sports NHL 2004 (PS2)
Okay, I've enjoyed the entire EA sports NHL series that I've played, even going back to 1992 when it was NHLPA (instead of NHL) on the Genesis.  EA consistently makes the best hockey simulation out there.  And hockey is really a sport that translates well to video games.  Several gamer friends of mine (not hockey fans) have commented that hockey sim games are usually more fun to play than the other sports.

So why is NHL 2004 the one on the list?  2004 is the point where they really started getting some pretty realistic results.  Unfortunately, it was also the year where they stopped using quirky commentary.  ("That goal was as chunky as the milk in my fridge!"  "What he lacks in compassion, he makes up for in lack of compassion!")  However, my junior year of college, my RA bought this game, and he and I would play it to all hours of the night, playing through an entire season in the elusive quest to go 82-0 and then sweep our way to the Stanley Cup.  Fun times.  One night, while he was working night security, I stayed up until about 3 with him with this game.  He had a pack of Oreos and we decided we'd toast every goal with an Oreo.  Man.  That was a bad choice.  We scored a lot of goals that night.

So 2004 gets the nod here for the memories.  Dang, this makes me want to pick up the latest game and play through the season with some poor guy who I drag along for the ride!  Note: This video, the players had it set on Easy Mode.  That means the commentary occasionally stops to give you "helpful hints" like, "Hey, you should hit the pass button to make a pass!"  or "Good job!  Next time, try hitting the other player!"


#4: Megaman III (NES)

I love the entire Megaman series.  It's like a choose-your-own-adventure video game.  You decide what order you want to do the levels in.  And then, when you beat the boss, you get his weapon!  And you can use it on other robots!  And you can experiment and find out which one works best against which enemies!  (Or you can cheat and use the strategy guide)  Now, a lot of Megaman fans cite #2 as their favorite of the series, and that's a solid choice.  It's actually tough for me to pick between the two.  However, Megaman 3 is where they started getting creative (without getting silly).  It's the first game to use the slide.  It's the first game to use a robotic dog.  It's the only game with Doc Robots (I know a lot of people hated Doc Robot, but come on!  After you beat all the levels, you have to re-play half-destroyed versions of four of them and fight through all of the Megaman 2 bosses!  Oh, snap!)  Plus, there's the first bit of major story intrigue: "I have a brother??"

Plus, there's no alien at the end.  MM3 gets my vote.


#3: Final Fantasy VI (SNES)
Originally, this game was released in the U.S. as Final Fantasy III (because FF 3-5 had not been released in the U.S.).  A lot of FF fans pick between this, FF VII, or (for the Johnny-come-latelies) FF X as their favorite.  I think it probably depends on which one you fell in love with first.  This is the game I would go to my friend's house to play his SNES in order to play.  It's the game that eventually convinced me to download an SNES emulator for my computer at college.  It's the first cartridge to max out the capabilities of the SNES system.  The story was gripping.  The characters are fantastic.  The music was gorgeous.  (In fact, official FOMW Favorite Powerglove's lead guitarist commented that this was the game that made him realize how powerful music could be--specifically, the Opera House Scene)  The game was easy to understand--I even got my sister into it for a weekend once while she was home when I had it on my computer.  The story wasn't hard to follow, which isn't something that can be said for all the FF's.  It was also the first to successfully blend the sci-fi/tech elements with the fantasy/magic element.  It was a very accessible RPG that served as a good jumping-on point for the series, because it avoided the tedium of some of the earlier titles and prepared the amateur gamer for the complexity of some of the later ones.  So, while this probably wasn't even the best RPG Squaresoft put out before the SNES was a thing of the past, it's always going to have a special place in my heart.

Now, when I first played this game, I didn't get past the 10 hour mark.  It was close to ten years before I ever played past that point.  So for about a decade, this was my favorite scene in the game (this player is somewhat over-leveled for this particular fight):



#2: Super Mario Bros 3 (NES)
 Now, as for SMB3...this may just be the most complete 8-bit game Nintendo ever created.  It struck a perfect balance of fun and difficult.  It added all sorts of fantastic new creative elements to the Mario mythos.  It allowed Mario to fly.  It turned Mario into a frog.  It let Mario be a freaking Hammer Brother!!  It introduced the Western World to the tanooki (which, apparently, cannot actually turn into a statue)  It introduced a whole new generation of Koopas!  Mario jumped around in a shoe!  Mario stored items for use at a later date!  Mario took out the sun with a green koopa shell!  Mario battled tanks and submarines and jets! There was even a throwback mini-game to the original Mario arcade game!

Mario was awesome!!!  

This game was so highly anticipated due to some ninety-minute-long product-placement film that we're not going to talk about (It's so bad) and it somehow managed to live up to and destroy those expectations!  This was one of the first games to come along and blow everybody away.  The individual worlds were unique and exciting.  (Ice world!  Water world!  GIANT WORLD!!!)  The new two-player cooperative play was a good addition.  But my favorite innovation of this game was probably the new boss fights, so this video shows the brothers Mario kicking some Koopa tail (and rocking out to the Boss Battle theme)


 
#1: Kingdom Hearts II (PS2)
This probably doesn't surprise anyone.   I've played through both main titles of this series multiple times in the past five years and almost played through the Chain of Memories in-between game.  (I stopped because it made me want to play the main titles again, so I went back to them instead of finishing CoM)  Also (because SquareEnix are kinda weird about this) there have been several recent support games that have been released on other systems--like I can afford to have more than one video game system--so I've been following them through fan sites, youtube, and gamefaqs.  This is really an incredible story.  And it's an idea that should not have worked in the first place.

For those who are unaware: the people who made Final Fantasy RPG games decided to create an original story centered around a 12-year-old hero whose world is consumed by darkness.  He is the wielder of a special weapon that can vanquish this darkness and is eventually accompanied to many other worlds looking for his friends by traveling companions Donald Duck and Goofy, who were also sent to stop the darkness by King Mickey.  So the majority of this story happens in and around these different worlds, most of which are specific Disney movies.

Should.  Not.  Have.  Worked.

But it did.  The Final Fantasy fans loved it. Disney fans loved it (my wife loves it!).  Kids.  "Older" gamers like myself.  And so, when they made KH2, they took everything that made KH1 work and made it even better.

It's hard to do this game justice.  It's a button-masher, but it's not a tedious button-masher.  It's an RPG, but there's not so much thinking/strategizing that you can't enjoy the flow of the battle.  It's difficult, but not so hard that anybody can't enjoy it and eventually beat it.  It's intense, yet safe.  It's corny yet sincere.  Even the spaceship shooter missions (called "Gummi Missions" and a definite low point in KH1) are addicting.  You can play straight through the story and have a perfectly fulfilling gaming experience.  If you want a bit more depth, though, there are dozens of side quests you can complete.  There's enough to keep you busy for a long time without falling into the boring endless-leveling that KH1 eventually fell into. Even the Winnie-the-Pooh bonus games are more interesting this time around.

This is a beautiful, fun game.  It is something for everybody.  It has high replay value, memorable characters and cinematics, fun and creative level designs, and a nostalgia factor that is through the roof.  

In fact, get out and play these seven games.  Right now.  This has been a fun Top 7 to write.

v2, d163: Top 7 "Unknown" Five Iron Frenzy songs

My all-time favorite band is/was Five Iron Frenzy.  Most of you know that.  Maybe I'll have a post up someday about exactly why that is.  Or maybe several posts.  Dunno.  They've been broken up for almost seven full years now, and I can still get psyched listening to pretty much any of their albums.  FIF didn't have a huge fan base, but it was (really, still is) a hard-core fan base.  You get some hard-core Five Iron fans talking Five Iron, and it's like we just saw a show last weekend.  It's crazy.

There aren't a lot of FIF songs I don't like.  When they come up on an iPod shuffle, I never skip them.  However, as is the case with any band that puts out more than four or five albums, you've got the songs that "everybody" always associates with them and then the songs that nobody really talks about.  Now, it's hard to qualify the statement "Nobody talks about this" with a niche fan base anyway, but conversations with both hardcore fans and those who liked the band in passing AND a quick glance around the Five Iron community reveals that there are a lot of clear favorites.  There are lots of screennames that are a variation on One Girl Army, for instance, and everybody who saw them play live can tell you what the last three songs on the playlist were.  (Note to FIF fans: that third link could get a touch emotional for you.  You've been warned) 

And then, there are songs that are still great but, for one reason or another, never reached Oh, Canada! or Handbook for the Sellout or A Flowery Song status.

So, it was hard for me to whittle this down to seven.  Some really awesome, relatively obscure songs didn't make it.  But 7 is the gimmick, and so 7 we have.

TOP 7 "UNKNOWN" FIVE IRON FRENZY SONGS

#7: Giants from All The Hype that Money Can Buy

"Who's behind that curtain anyway, who pulls the levers and tells the lies?
Giants roam the land today, gaining dominance with every stride..."


ATHTMCB was a weird album.  It felt like the band completely switched styles on almost every single track.  It was this totally eclectic, often quirky collection of tunes that, ultimately, produced very few Fan Favorites.  (Phantom Mullet, World Without End, and A New Hope are the only ones you hear much about anymore)  They jumped from pseudo-salsa to '80s faux-metal to a slower Caribbean flair to a hip-hop spoof to a Tom Jones cover to a worshipful circus-y sounding tune. 


And then there was Giants.  It's hard to classify Giants, but with its dramatic pseudo-frightening orchestration, its character-driven melody, and its overall theatrical presentation, it sounds almost like something that wouldn't sound too out of place in an off-Broadway musical.  I remember listening to this song once on a bus driving across a dead Kansas prairie at daybreak in the winter and getting legitimately creeped out.  (Why hello, creepy little girl reading poetry!) 

Now, with all its oddity, it's not hard to figure out why Giants was never a mega-hit.  (Also, apparently punk-rockers don't rally around a song that uses fantastical imagery to illustrate the evils of Corporate Darwinism)  However, the very elements that made the song relatively inaccessible to much of FIF's loyal legions are also probably the ones that gave it a definite cult status in my own heart and mind.

(As for the picture on the video...as I said, All The Hype was a bizarre album)


#6: Juggernaut from Five Iron Frenzy 2: Electric Boogaloo

"Freedom lifts me like a song, where the weak shall be made strong.
I may sink before I swim, but I'm not giving in to you..." 

FIF 2 was also a relatively unpopular album.  It's actually one of my favorites.  To me, it felt like the closest the band did to a pure rock album.  Which, again, is why the hardcore rudeboys hated it.  "You can't skank to it!" was a common complaint. 

Juggernaut was not one of the best tracks on the album, musically speaking, but it had a lot of character.  It sings of struggling, suffering, and patiently enduring in the hope of one day overcoming.  There's never a "Yay!  Jesus delivered me again!" moment of triumph; rather, the song keeps coming back with "I may sink before I swim, but I'm not giving in," and "Freedom like a song, the weak shall be made strong."  It's hope in a victory that has not yet been achieved, and a lot of times songs like that tend to come off as major downers.  Juggernaut is different, though.  I always found it really encouraging when I was face in the dirt.  And for that reason, it's on tonight's Top 7.


(Another note on Electric Boogaloo: best album artwork, from front to back, of any FIF record.  I think Dennis' wife did the photos, and they're amazing)

#5: Second Season from Our Newest Album Ever!

"I wonder if these minutes were my last,
If I should choose to feast or start to fast.
Will I pray or will I thirst, hope for good or something worse?
What emotions will I feel, will I run or will I kneel?"

This was years before I Can Only Imagine ever hit the airwaves, by the way ;-)

This song is so obscure, nobody's uploaded a youtube video of it! :-( 

Second Season, in a lot of ways, doesn't feel like a FIF song.  Reese isn't singing, Dennis is.  There's no snarky wit.  The horns are really subdued.  I can see why most FIF fans don't remember it.  But it's such a nice, mellowing sort of song!  It's one of those that you just sorta end up feeling nice after.  It's not mind-blowing, it's not even majorly mood-altering, but it is a very pleasant three minutes and a nice, easy reminder that, regardless of what's falling apart in this world, everything will be perfect in the world to come. 

#4: Litmus from Our Newest Album Ever!

"They ripped you off, they entertained, 
They never tried to ease your pain.
You thought you knew where God belonged,
But songs were sung and the band played on..."

Like Second Season, Litmus was buried on an album full of many of FIF's most popular songs ever.  Handbook for the Sellout, Where is Micah?, Superpowers, Blue Comb '78, Oh, Canada!, and Every New Day ALL came from this 1997 release.  In fact, Our Newest Album Ever! is probably the album that made FIF "big."  So naturally, some great songs were going to fall by the wayside, and this was one of them. 

It was also a bit harder-hitting than most of the album.  Also, not a ton of folks know what litmus paper is.

I mean, other than that, I really can't figure out why more people don't love this song.



#3: Fahrenheit from All the Hype that Money Can Buy!

"I was in eighth grade, I said he was a queer.
I thought he had it coming. He died of AIDS that year.
My liberty, like Christ's death meant nothing to me..."

Here's another song I can't find on youtube.  Sad day.

This is a really honest song about a pretty tough topic, and that mans it'll never have the mass appeal of "Gotta rock the screen with co-sine graphing on my calculator!"  The story behind the song: as a kid, FIF frontman Reese Roper's favorite record was Queen's Flash Gordon soundtrack.  He loved Queen.  Then, in junior high, he learned that Freddy Mercury was gay, and suddenly he hated Queen.  He joined in all the queer-talk as he and his buddies would bash the band.  Later that year, Freddy Mercury died of AIDS, and Roper later became broken-hearted at how callously he'd mocked a dying man who needed Christ.  "Predisposed to bigotry; the regular run-of-the-mill American story. Stench of greasepaint on our faces, pass the mask to our next of kin, instead of wiser idioms like 'Love the sinner, hate the sin.'"  

Any time a songwriter gets that personal, it usually makes some listeners at least a little uncomfortable.  And it was a controversial topic to begin with.  Plus, it was on that one quirky album.  But it's a great song, if a sad one, and it makes a valid and challenging point about grace. 

Incidentally, one thing I always loved about FIF was that they were a band that forced me to face some ideas I wasn't totally comfortable with in my own faith, and I'll forever be grateful to them for it.  This was one of the songs that did that. 

#2: Car from Five Iron Frenzy 2: Electric Boogaloo

"Imagine you held so tight your best friend,
Left him to fly, and never could reach him.
Standing on the shore where two waves meet,
Are you just beyond the other side of music?"

Another song with no vid.  Sorry.  Also not a ton to say about this song, other than it's another song that brings a hopeful feel to a terribly sad situation.  The song was written in remembrance of saxophonist Leanor Ortega (who really never shook the "Jeff the Girl" tag from the band's early years and is also no longer an Ortega)'s brother, who died in a car wreck.  Obviously, it's a moving song that promises to look ahead in honor of those who are left behind.   "Now he will be used in our Father's army," Leanor writes of her brother, "Not as one who kills, but one who always heals.  Can I take his burden? Who am I to follow?  We are blessed, we endure.  I am blessed, I will endure."  Fantastic stuff.


#1: The Greatest Story Ever Told from All the Hype that Money Can Buy!
"Welcome to the longest mile, more costly things we'll never hold,
Wonderful is our journey, the greatest story ever told..."


Why yes, it is a little odd that the only video I can find of this song has Veggie Tales characters.  But what are you going to do? 


Apparently I really consider ATHTMCB to be a really underrated album.  I don't know that that's the case, but I think a lot of the songs are better than people give them credit for.  Here we are, at number one on my list, and I can't really think of all that much to say about this song.  It's a tough one to dance to, the melody is kind of weird, but I love it.  It's about...well, it's about life.  Life as a journey.  A journey worth taking.  A story worth telling.  And while the writer in me wasn't even a writer back then, I think that's a beautiful picture.



Honorable mentions: Third World Think Tank from Upbeats and Beatdowns; You Gotta Get Up from Happy Christmas (a Rich Mullins cover that, to this day, Roper regrets having done), Four Fifty-One, Hurricanes, and All the Hype from All the Hype that Money Can Buy!, and Far, Far Away and Plan B from Electric Boogaloo.  Look them up for yourselves.  Enrich your lives.  Go forth and rock out, my friends.