Straight No Chaser

I Could Go On Forever This Way

on music:

81. "naima" (john coltrane), though wordless, epitomizes woman worship. it turns me on.

82. richard rodgers (of rodgers and hammerstein) is an underappreciated genius in his own right. few scores display the kind of unified melodic beauty woven through the sound of music and, to an extent, cinderella. and everything else that bears his print.

83. dave matthews songs that stand head and shoulders above the rest: "out of my hands" (from his newest album), "two step," "dancing nancies," "warehouse," "the stone," "spoon" and "crush," in that order. i have gigantic musical crushes on boyd tinsley and stefan lessard.

84. i could listen to the star wars score and narrate the story with no visual or verbal cues at all. john williams deserves an academy award. did he get one, in fact? i think he did, at least the first time around.

85. the first album i ever bought with my own money was jamiroquai's "traveling without moving." it still gets the most straight-through listens of anything in my (fairly vast) collection.

86. i've got an ever-growing list of songs i'd like to have sex to someday.

87. i like most kinds of jazz (discounting blues and new york stride), particularly swing, fusion and avant garde. i'm very possessive about jazz; i don't like to see it misused or underappreciated, and whenever i write someone a personalized story, i include a self-compiled jazz soundtrack. my future house will probably have a pretty elaborate speaker system, not for show but to offer the best sound quality possible when it's blaring herbie hancock. just trying to spread the love.

88. top seven artists i'm almost ashamed of being really into: cher, tom jones, johnny mathis, the spinners, the fifth dimension, django reinhardt, tenacious d and donna summer. i tried for ten, but i'm not ashamed of any of the rest, and barely of those seven. oh well.

89. chopin is my favorite composer to play on the piano.

90. tchaikovsky is my favorite composer to listen to.

91. and yet, rimsky-korsakov composed my two favorite pieces of music.

92. i am now, and always will be, hugely appreciative of michael jackson's unparalleled talent and contributions to the world of pop music. they truly defined an era, and some of his "short films" (his euphemistic term for music videos) were nothing short of brilliant. he's achieved more over the span of four decades than most artists do in a lifetime. what's happened to him is really tragic.

93. "hurricane" is my favorite bob dylan ballad; from simon and garfunkel, "the boxer." (just can't figure out why anyone would call me a hippie, i swear i can't.)

94. "to love you more" (celine dion) made me want to take up the violin again after an eight year hiatus.

95. stevie wonder deserves every bit of the recognition he's always gotten, but i never agree with the popular opinion as to which of his songs are best. "as" is great, i won't deny that, but i think "superwoman/where were you when i needed you" is underrated magic. try listening to it and concentrating on the guitar accompaniment. water guitar. if only i could do that. sigh.

96. quentin tarantino does a mean soundtrack.

97. still, my favorite soundtrack of all time would have to be the phantom of the opera, followed closely by evita. andrew lloyd webber is a rock opera genius, and the cause for every lick of air guitar i've ever played.

98. "stairway to heaven" (led zeppelin): poetry. one of the greenest songs i know (green being my favorite color, and the color of the forest that echoes with laughter). "tribute to the greatest song in the world" (tenacious d): dead on accurate.

99. "summer breeze" (the isley brothers--and, to a lesser extent, seals and crofts) is probably my favorite summer song ever, even more favorite than vivaldi's "summer."

100. the title of this entry is simply true. but thank god i'm done, finally.