Carnivalia and an open thread

http://www.churchsigngenerator.com/sign11.pl?text1=Eucharist+Buffet&tex…

Bah, the above only works if you cut and paste into the URL bar.

I think I have a strong monopoly on elitism.

Giant's Shoulders?

I think I have a strong monopoly on elitism.

Obviously you're an amateur. A true elitist doesn't need to announce the fact, it shines through with everything he does.

Open thread? ... apparently, I am not a terribly proud person! :-)

I would like to nominate a Cheez-It cracker for the next Molly awards. Those things are delicious.

Best Albums of the 20th Century [1999]

1. The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
2. Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks
3. The Beatles, The Beatles ("White Album")
4. Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde
5. Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
6. Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited
7. Joni Mitchell, Blue
8. Beach Boys, Pet Sounds
9. The Beatles, Rubber Soul
10. The Beatles, Abbey Road
11. Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon
12. The Grateful Dead, American Beauty
13. Paul Simon, Graceland
14. Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run
15. Bob Dylan & The Band, The Basement Tapes
16. Van Morrison, Moondance
17. The Band, Music from Big Pink
18. Carole King, Tapestry
19. Jimi Hendrix, Are You Experienced?
20. Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street
21. Derek and the Dominos, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
22. John Coltrane, A Love Supreme
23. The Allman Brothers Band, Live at the Fillmore East
24. The Beatles, Revolver
25. Bob Dylan, Bringing it All Back Home
26. The Beatles, Meet the Beatles
27. Joni Mitchell, Court & Spark
28. The Band, The Band
29. Bob Dylan, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
30. Rolling Stones, Let it Bleed
31. The Grateful Dead, Workingman's Dead
32. Neil Young, Harvest
33. Jimi Hendrix, Electric Ladyland
34. Robert Johnson, Complete Recordings
35. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Déjà Vu
36. Neil Young, After the Gold Rush
37. James Taylor, Sweet Baby James
38. The Grateful Dead, Europe `72
39. Elvis Presley, The Sun Sessions
40. Elvis Presley, Elvis Presley
41. Rolling Stones, Beggar's Banquet
42. Simon & Garfunkel, Bridge over Troubled Water
43. Bob Dylan, Desire
44. The Band, Last Waltz
45. The Byrds, Sweetheart of the Rodeo
46. Elvis Costello, My Aim is True
47. Bob Marley , Legend
48. Stevie Wonder, Songs in the Key of Life
49. Various artists, Woodstock
50. Marvin Gaye, What's Going On
51. The Who, Tommy
52. The Beatles, Hard Day's Night
53. The Who, Who's Next tied with
Pink Floyd, The Wall
54. Jefferson Airplane, Volunteers tied with
The Grateful Dead, Reckoning
55. Nirvana, Nevermind
56. Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers
57. The Band, Rock of Ages tied with
Steely Dan, Aja
58. The Beatles, The Beatles Second Album
59. Miles Davis, Cookin'
60. Bob Dylan, Another Side of Bob Dylan
61. Simon & Garfunkel, Bookends
62. The Moody Blues, Days of Future Passed tied with
Jackson Browne, Late for the Sky
63. Fleetwood Mac, Rumours tied with
Frank Sinatra, Songs for Swinging Lovers
64. Janis Joplin, Pearl
65. Joni Mitchell, Hejira
66. Richie Havens, Mixed Bag tied with
The Doors, The Doors
67. Jefferson Airplane, Surrealistic Pillow
68. Bruce Springsteen, The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle
69. Frank Sinatra, In the Wee Small Hours
70. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, 4 Way Street
71. Joni Mitchell, Ladies of the Canyon
72. The Beatles, Let it Be tied with
Van Morrison, Astral Weeks
73. John Lennon, Imagine
74. James Brown, Live at the Apollo
75. Bernstein/Sondheim, West Side Story tied with
Miles Davis, Bitches Brew
76. John Prine, John Prine
77. Muddy Waters, Folk Singer
78. Various artists, Anthology of American Folk Music tied with
Woody Guthrie, Dust Bowl Ballads
79. Stevie Wonder, Innervision
80. Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin IV tied with
U2, Joshua Tree
81. Frank Sinatra, Only the Lonely
82. Dave Brubeck, Time Out
83. Bob Marley , Exodus
84. Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Will the Circle Be Unbroken
85. Ella Fitzgerald, The Cole Porter Songbook
86. The Clash, London Calling tied with
David Bowie, Ziggy Stardust
87. Benny Goodman & others, Carnegie Hall Concerts
88. B.B. King, Live at the Regal
89. Louis Armstrong, Hot Fives and Sevens tied with
Beck, Odelay
90. Duke Ellington, Live at Newport
91. Arlo Guthrie, Alice's Restaurant
92. Talking Heads, Remain in Light
93. Hank Williams, Greatest Hits
94. The Grateful Dead, Aoxomoxoa
95. Johnny Cash, Live at Folsom Prison tied with
Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan
96. Billie Holiday, Songs for Distingue Lovers
97. The Velvet Underground & Nico, The Velvet Underground & Nico
98. Emmylou Harris, Wrecking Ball tied with
Jimmie Rodgers, First Sessions
99. Lucinda Williams, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
100. Gram Parsons, GP tied with
Gram Parsons, Grievous Angel

How many do you have?

Sorry, but IMO - that list is mostly crap. Where's "Queen" -"Rush" - "Elton John"?

Neil Young ... bleh! It hurts my sensibilities just to think of his voice.

Does anyone know how Blue Collar Scientist is doing since he got ill? I haven't seen any posts recently.

You'll have mine by Wednesday or Thursday. Hopefully it'll be elitist enough to qualify as a legion unto itself. ;-)

Queen - definitely. Elton John - for sure. Yes? ELO? Mahavishnu John McLaughlin? Emerson, Lake, and Palmer? Judy Collins? Creedence? Blood, Sweat, and Tears? Chicago? The Doors? Jethro Tull? Big bands (and jazz in general) are definitely underrepresented. And where's the classical?

Personally, I'm proud to have lived my entire 55 years in an Elvis-Free Zone. I'm not fond of Neil Young's whiny voice either, although I must admit he does have his moments.

For a bit of blatheration you can go to this story on this deadly new (not really) exploding (it doesn't) knife.

Journalistic incompetence. It's not a bug, it's a feature.

Thanks for the roundup, PZ.

But you missed Oekologie #17: the special summer double issue!

And I'll send you something for the Elitist Bastard shortly.

Hmmmm...

I just found out this morning about a woman summoning angels in her living room in Florida. I don't know if I come off as an elitist bastard in what I've written about it, though.

Waddya think? Was I bastardly or merely skeptical?

Queen - definitely. Elton John - for sure. Yes? ELO? Mahavishnu John McLaughlin? Emerson, Lake, and Palmer? Judy Collins? Creedence? Blood, Sweat, and Tears? Chicago? The Doors? Jethro Tull? Big bands (and jazz in general) are definitely underrepresented. And where's the classical?

I agree... especially since a handful of artists have virtually everything they ever did on this list. In a few cases (The Beatles, Dylan), multiple entries are obviously required, but as for the rest... well, is anybody's fourth- or fifth- or sixth-best album really better than A Night at the Opera or Don't Shoot Me, I'm Just the Piano Player or Yessongs or Aqualung (or two or three others by those artists, if you don't like my choices). And as you point out, no classical (to include everything from chamber ensembles to grand opera, and all historical periods), no cast or soundtrack albums (can it really be true that even the best show recording ever is inferior to all those albums?[Ooops, on review, I see West Side Story is included. Still, no movie scores? No Rodgers and Hammerstein?]), too little jazz and big bands, too little (or none, depending on how you define it) country, very spotty and idiosyncratic selections of folk and R&B. Gospel? Rap/hip-hop? Punk (other than The Clash)? Disco? (I know, I know... but was there really no disco album worthy of historic note? Even though I disliked the genre, I suspect some of it achieved "greatness" on its own terms.)

In order to be meaningful, a list like this either needs to define itself more narrowly (e.g., 100 best popular music albums) or limit the number of entries from any one artist: All those Dylan, Beatles, Joni Mitchell, and Grateful Dead albums are no doubt great, but limiting each of them to two or three titles would've opened up spots for some very deserving albums.

Also, this list is really only the greatest albums by famous artists; there are almost certainly individual albums that belong on this list that were the one shot of greatness by an otherwise obscure artist. For my own personal example, I'd listen to Joan Osborne's Relish again before I'd spin half the discs on that list. It's just brilliant, from start to finish.

Personally, I'm proud to have lived my entire 55 years in an Elvis-Free Zone. I'm not fond of Neil Young's whiny voice either, although I must admit he does have his moments.

Well, I'm not sure I agree that living Elvis-free is something to be proud of, but in any case, you need to be more specific: Presley or Costello (and BTW, doesn't Armed Forces also belong on this list?)?

And Neil Young, "whiny" voice and all, is a freakin' genious... but even so, I'm not sure he deserves as many spots as he got. (And BTW, where's CSNY on this list? Their eponymous first ablum was a classic, with "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," "Marakesh Express," "Wooden Ships," "Helplessly Hoping," and "Long Time Gone.")

And speaking of rock singers with less than traditional voices, where's Rod Stewart? I know he's spurted out a lot of egregious dreck over the years (no, Rod, I don't think you're sexy...), but Every Picture Tells a Story would deserve mention on this list for "Maggie May" alone, nevermind the title track, "Mandolin Wind," and "Reason To Believe"... classics all.

[DeepBreath]...but I guess this sort of kvetching just points out what lists like this are good for, eh?

PS: One last thought. Notwithstanding his subsequent descent into Islamic weirdness, doesn't at least one of Cat Stevens' albums belong on this list? (Think about the music; ignore the woo.)

Aughhh! Maybe I'd be a freakin' genious, too, if I could only learn how to spell genius! [sigh]

One more time for those local to Boston:

Ken Miller will present a lecture at the Newton Free Library tomorrow (July 22) at 7:30 PM.

... And though I'm not a fan - Michael Jackson's "Thriller" probably ought to be there as well.

The BBC staff and their favoured pets and sycophants are still labouring under the misapprehension that there's only one set of "10" commandments in the Bible and are trying to spread that falsehood further by advertising their idiocy on the h2g2 front page:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A30560762
from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/