Never gonna say Goodbye

Day seven. Already? That’s so crazy. It feels like just yesterday it was day six!

Honestly though, I actually enjoyed taking part in this challenge for many reasons.

• I was essentially forced to write something every day.
• Writing creative non-fiction every day helped me to work on fiction.
• Music always inspires me.
• I’m glad I never tried to be a songwriter, I need way more words to convey my message.
• I started to understand which writing I enjoyed doing and which I want to let go.
• The battery in my laptop doesn’t last very long at all.
• Living room is better for writing blogs but the office cuts more distraction for fiction.
• I looked at everything with a different eye: one on telling and publishing the story.
• First thing in the morning is when my ideas are freshest.
• I sneeze a lot in the morning.
• Food is important but sometimes less so than getting the perfect words down.
• After the refinance check was deposited I pretended it was a royalty check.
• Now I’m just talking about random shit that has nothing to do with anything.

Ending a challenge like this is always a little weird. Mostly because I never really know how to “end” something like this. Especially because of the third thing in that list up there. And like I already told you on day 1, I wake up with a song in my head almost every day. So to me it seems weird that I’d abruptly stop writing like this. Because it still seems to hold value.

Then again, I’ve been known to stay too late at the party once or twice in my life and certainly don’t want to do that this time around. Which got me thinking about endings.

There are so many songs about the finality of something. Here are some better known tracks documenting a few different types of endings:

♪ Last Dance (Donna Summer)
♪ The End of the Innocence (Don Henley)
♪ It’s the end of the World as we know It (and I feel Fine) (REM)
♪ In the End (Linkin Park)
♪ Goodbye to You (Scandal)
♪ End of the Road (Boyz II Men)
♪ The Party’s Over (Nat King Cole)
♪ Wild World (Cat Stevens)
♪ Closing Time (Semisonic)
♪ I Heard it through the Grapevine (Marvin Gaye)
♪ Fade to Black (Metallica)
♪ My Happy Ending (Avril Lavigne)
♪ When the World Ends (Dave Matthews Band)
♪ Boys of Summer (Don Henley)
♪ The End (The Doors)

In fact I anticipated that last one on the list being today’s post inspiration. Yes, I planned to use a song by The Doors as my last hurrah.

There was no real reason for that other than a brief inspiration I had last night before going to bed. Scrawled a note on a scrap of paper, stuck it under my mouse and everything. It would be ready for today as soon as I woke up and started clicking keys.

My intention? Write a whole post about the lizards coming back onto our patio already. Temperatures being warm enough for their return.

Equating that to the Lizard King.

Doors tie-in.

Boom!

But now that I’ve looked up the lyrics I kind of realize that shit is creepy. Not that “creepy” never makes an appearance here but for my last day’s challenge I’d rather leave things on a high note.

Plus I hate goodbyes.

So in the spirit of that I leave you all with the determined anthem of everyone who ever wanted to pretend the end wasn’t real. And I know if there’s anything I can do about it, I Won’t Give Up on this daily writing.

To be fair, it may not happen every day but I’m sure as hell going to give it the old college try.

• • • • • • • • • • •
In addition to this drivel I also write books, both fiction and non-fiction.
Learn more on my author page.

Best and Worst - The Concert Edition

So earlier today my friend Keith asked us Facebook friends to answer his curiosity question:

“Best & Worst Live band you ever saw? 1,2,3 Go!!”

I thought about it because I’ve seen a LOT of live music over the years.

Since my first concert at age 11 – The Cars where the people in front of us smoked weed during the whole show – to  the last show I’ve been to as of this moment – Banana Gun and Sugar Thieves January 2015 – almost every band/singer/songwriter I’ve seen perform has had a definite impact on my life.

But the reasons are almost as varied as the styles of music I listen to. Because it’s not always just about the music.

Music has permeated every aspect of my life. In fact, that scene in High Fidelity where Cusack’s character is filing his records autobiographically is just about right. So it’s no shock that live music will have an even greater impact on me because of where I am, who I’m with and what made that journey amazing.

Including, but not limited to, the music.

Those songs that remind you of another person can be a blessing or a curse depending on the person in question, am I right?

It kind of hit me that’s probably the real reason Keith and I have maintained such a strong friendship for so many years – we’re both music junkies. Bonding over music is a very powerful thing.

And our tastes, though different at times, are both pretty well varied. As a DJ my friend has to have a healthy appreciation for all kinds of music. Knowing the exact right moment to play the exact right tune is a talent. For me, a writer, I need to feel the music because it helps me with character and story development.

So there was no way my answer to his question would be short. In fact, I opened my comment with:

I could write a book on this (and I've actually considered it)

Starting with the best and then in no particular order, the concerts that came to mind today include…

Best - Jason Mraz at Irving Plaza in NYC 7/21/2006.

He’d been touring his second album, Mr. A-Z, non-stop and Irving was either the last or one of the last tour stops from that year. This was a while before he started getting healthy & quit smoking so the road had taken a definite toll on the poor guy.

I was a Jason live junkie back then – anything and everything I could get my hands on from his live shows I wanted to have it in my music collection. So I knew his usual personality on stage but that night at Irving his tank was empty. He went through the motions but anyone could tell he needed to stop and go home to sleep.

Despite his one big hit, he was still relatively unknown in 2006. There were only about 100 people in the place.

I was 10 feet from the stage, and feeling bummed that the show was so devoid of character, when someone yelled out 'Jason, have my Asian baby!' and he LOST it. He half chuckled then had to turn away from the mic for a second because of laughing. And it seemed to be just what he needed. He finished the set with a little more energy.

I like to think that Asian baby helped get him through when he just wanted to give up.

Because I like to wonder about those moments in an artist’s life. Moments that could have possibly been a turning point whether realized or not. What if that never happened and he barely held on for the rest of the tour, went home and decided it was too strenuous? What if he’d quit music?

That would have changed the material fabric of my life.

People I know as friends wouldn’t be in my life. Life experiences may never have happened – like one of my backup favorite shows when Matt and I went to see Jason opening for Dave Matthews Band in Hershey, PA. And we saw Centralia that weekend too. Would we have never done that either?

It’s crazy to think about but I like wondering the what if’s. Like I said, character development.

My best backup concerts in no particular order:

• Godsmack in Amherst, MA in 2000 or 2001. I won tix on WAAF and went alone because I was going straight from there up to Waterville Valley, NH where a group of work friends were skiing all weekend. Met a limo driver and convinced him to use my other ticket. We left before the end so he could get back for the clients at the end of the show and we hung out smoking a joint in the limo.
• Godsmack in Manchester, NH a few days after 9/11, every time a plane flew overhead the whole crowd cheered. It was flipping awesome.
• Ozzfest June 2,1999 in Charlotte, NC. It was about 115 degrees and I passed out from heat exhaustion, weed and exertion. I laid down on the lawn then woke up during Pantera, asked my friends for the keys and went to sleep in the car. Totally missed Ozzy! I got in a pit during Godsmack and came home with a bruise on my leg in the shape of Martha's Vineyard.
• DMB in San Diego 2013 . He played “Sister” and in 15 years I'd never seen them perform it before. I danced my freaking ass off all night and it was a really special show.
• Melissa Ferrick at the MFA. Matt and I met her after the show. I was a total fan-girl!
• Tony Bennett 8/23/2014 because who knows if that chance could come again, he IS about 1000 years old. But man, he’s still got it!
• Grownup Noise in Fountain Hills, AZ 2011 (this one is personal because I know the bassist so the band crashed at our apartment that night)

As far as Worst…

Keith knows I was the original Blockhead. New Kids on the Block fan to the nth degree. He even played “Hangin’ Tough” at our wedding. So I knew he wouldn’t believe it but two of the worst shows I ever saw were NKOTB back in the day, at The Garden & Great Woods.

I was 16 years old or thereabouts and getting to see them live was definitely an experience, shows sold out in like a millisecond those days. The problem? That’s 20,000 screaming girls in one place.

Of course they were cute and I was really excited to see them too but that level of squeal is probably the main reason I have tinnitus today.

Even all these years later after endless clubbing, seeing loud as hell bands like Limp Bizkit, Staind, Metallica, Disturbed, Pantera, Megadeath, Godsmack, etc. I have NEVER come home as deaf as I did after a New Kid’s show. Which sucked because I didn’t pay to hear girls scream, I couldn't hear a single thing the band was saying or singing so what was the point? Wasted money.

And the worst backup award goes to Fiona Apple at Jones Beach, LINY in July 2006. One of the reasons I always loved her is her jazz-smooth voice mixed with raw, emotional, angry lyrics. The juxtaposition of those polar opposite things is something few bands can pull off (think: Sublime).

From the opening word Matt and I were shocked and disappointed. She maintained ZERO control over her voice and I don’t think it was because she was sick or anything like that. She was just angry screaming every lyric. No melodic softening. No balance to the torture. It was too much. That was the only time we've considered walking out of a concert we paid to attend.

All in all this is just today’s list. Ask me again in a week, month, year, decade and my answers will likely change!

How about you? What were your best and worst live music experiences?

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Have You Ever Just…

…wanted to scream, laugh, cry, shake, dance, yell, applaud, thank and shout all in the exact same moment?

Well if you have then you’ve got a teeny clue about what the inside of my brain has looked like for the past couple months. I used to come over here and use this space to rant as my personal form of therapy when I felt like my head might just pop off at any second.

But since this summer started my ADD and overwhelmed, overflowing, over capacity mind has been in full-steam overdrive and I couldn’t seem to reign it in enough to even rant.

“I feel like I am spinning…”

Every last word of that song just segues so perfectly into the entire point of all of this stupid bullshit that I couldn’t figure out how to stop from taking over my life. But then it all took over anyway.

This past weekend Matt, my mom & I went to see Jason Mraz perform live here in Phoenix. It was the first time I’d seen him take the stage in over four years and I was looking so forward to the show that I could hardly contain my excitement.

As I predicted, the show was amazing. I soaked in all the positivity he spewed from the stage. I let the whole vibe just wash over me like a big fuzzy blanket of awesome and I felt so great.

Then something really weird happened.

The next day we were invited to go and enjoy an afternoon with some great friends. Nothing fancy. No pressure. Just some pool time, wine, fun in the sun. And I couldn’t get my ass off the couch.

All of the blackness that had been bubbling for so long came flooding up through that blanket of awesome, coated it in sludge, and pulled me into its depths of suckage.

Quicksand inside my head that folds my good thoughts into suck-tion and no matter what I do to try to swim out, I just can’t break free.

I was in such a terrible place in my head that I couldn’t imagine spending one second with anyone. I felt insanely vulnerable. Overly self-conscious. But I know it was for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

Seriously, no reason. I look fine. I don’t have any weird health stuff going on right now (thankfully). I just couldn’t wrap my head around anyone being around me. I disconnected. I was sitting here on my sofa with my mom and Matt but I was so far away from present I wondered if I would ever get back.

My mind was racing at a billion miles a second with way too many horrible things. Stuff that doesn’t matter for shit in the grand scheme of life. But stuff that makes me feel like I’m balancing precariously on the edge of that proverbial razor blade.

But I know it’s just me. Sometimes it happens and I have no choice other than to sink into it and let it happen.

I hate it though, especially when it stops me from having a good time, but I realized this morning that I can’t feel bad about it. Because when it happens I always come out the other side of it understanding more about who I actually am. I have a greater sense of what I want, what I need in my life. And also what I don’t.

A big house. A cool car. Half an acre of underutilized land. Makeup in every shade under the rainbow. Area rugs for every room. 6 colors of the same pair of jeans.

Stuff.

So much fucking stuff.

I should really follow around one of these urban legends I’ve heard about and find out how they do it. You know the people – they only work 25 hours a week, make over $100,000 a year, have a spotless fresh smelling home, totally weed-free front yards at all times, homemade organic non-GMO meals on the table every night, and bath towels that don’t smell because there hasn’t been a moment to wash them in 3 weeks.

Yeah, I know they don’t really exist, but in this world of “everything in my life is fucking great!” internet perfection it’s easy to be convinced that they do.

And it’s just too much for me to deal with anymore.

I’m weeding down.

Starting today I’m fleshing out all the things I don’t need in my life. I don’t need a Pinterest account. I don’t need a twitter account for my old company. I don’t need email addresses of people I never communicate with. I don’t need tax files from 1999.

And I don’t need a house or yard this big.

Another thing we did over this past weekend was watch the short documentary movie Tiny: A StoryAbout Living Small and it finally hit me:

Matt and I are killing ourselves just to keep up with some perceived notion of what we should have and how we should live. And for what? So I have a place to store books I haven’t read since I was 10 years old just so I can say I have them?

I started thinking about Jason being on tour. Sure, he’s got a home base where he can house all the things that mean something sentimental or otherwise, but for months at a time he lives out of a bus, or a suitcase even, but he’s enjoying the things that matter and not needing to be surrounded by copious crap all the time just to feel fulfilled.

At least I think that’s the case. I don’t know the guy or anything but based on his own statements I believe that all to be true.

And I believe it to be the most inspiring thing I’ve ever heard.

Because, why should Matt have to work 50 hours a week, me at least 45, just to make the money to pay for all of this stuff we don’t really need? It’s a pitiful existence and causes stupid shit like this to spew out of my fingers but it doesn’t actually do anything for either of us.

All it seems to do is make me feel like crap because I have too much crap. An avalanche of stuff that doesn’t help me feel any happier.

The time has come to sit down together and figure out how to release all the things that don’t matter so we can embrace more of the stuff that does.

Laughter. Hugs. Family. Friends. Passion for my career. Music. Travel. Love.

Maybe if I do that I’ll be able to make it to the next pool party my friends invite me to. Because instead of feeling chaotic, like I’m nailed to the floor but could tornado across the world at any second, I’ll have a fighting chance for a calmer mind. 

It's time to fight for focus.

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This List Should be Shrinking not Growing, Right?

I’ve been pitching for a bunch of different writing gigs lately and this morning THE ideal job posting came across the wires – a travel blog writer. For money. Holy crap! I don’t really have experience writing articles so much but I’m an expert reviewer. Not to mention an expert traveler by car as couples.

So that’s what I based my pitch on. Along with some creative and flowery adjectives describing my own backyard. Hey, travel starts in your own neighborhood right? Especially when you’re an “expat” like me – a Townie in a new land.

But anyway, while I was going back through my blog posts to see what articles I could share as samples of my style, I came across a post from April 16, 2011 titled Something to Do Before I Die. I re-read it and had to laugh. My bucket list that I wrote back then included a bunch of good stuff but the list itself has definitely grown since I wrote that post. But a few things got knocked off and they sure were fun!

Let’s break it down and see where I’m at as of September 2013…

The Bucket List – as originally published on 4/16/2011

• Be on the New York Times best sellers list, “The” list not one of those offshoots

Um, not quite there just yet. Don’t know how soon this one might get crossed off but I’ll keep giving that old college try!

• Travel to Spain, specifically Barcelona

We have some friends with a condo in Rocky Point, Mexico. Their place is right on the beach and only about a 3 or so hour drive from Phoenix. And they go almost every weekend in the summer and keep inviting us to go with them. Why am I telling you this on a point related to Spain? Well, we haven’t even gotten our passports updated to go 3 hours away by car with friends. So looks like Spain is on the back burner for a while, huh?

• Travel back to Amsterdam (with Matt this time)

See above…

• Travel back to Ireland

Someday…

• Travel to Hawaii

We actually have the opportunity to stay with my sister’s BFF and her husband who just recently moved to one of the Hawaiian islands to live permanently. No passport required? Free place to stay? Challenge accepted!

• Travel to Portugal

You know the answer by now.

• Live and make a living in San Diego

Not yet but this is definitely on both mine and Matt’s radar right now. We got home from our anniversary trip and actually seriously started talking about how we could make it happen to get a condo out there that we rent out until we’re ready to “retire” (I use quotes because I’ll be writing until my fingers fall off, the retiring part can be left to Matt).

• See the Red Sox play the Yankees at Fenway in a game 4 for the sweep and kick their sorry asses right back to the Bronx where they belong (if this season is any indication I’ve got a couple years before this occurs)

As predicted, not so much the past couple seasons. Although this one is looking pretty promising. But I can 100% guarantee I wouldn’t be able to catch the game even if it happened as I laid out here. Too much other travel this fall for weddings. We won’t be able to get back to Boston until next summer unfortunately.

• Settle for seeing the Sox beat the Yanks in any regular season game at Fenway

And because we can’t get back east until 2014 I’d settle for seeing it happen on TV.

• Sit beside my Aunt at the finals when the Bruins win the Cup for the first time in 38+ years (yes, I mean this year damn it!)

I did not get to sit next to Sue when they won the Cup but…

• Settle for seeing them win the cup at all (either in the stands or on my sofa next to my Aunt) and getting to go to the parade

GOAL ACHIEVED!!! (Pun intended). That was THE BEST WAY EVER to wrap up our Boston lives before moving to Arizona! The parade was insanely cool and something I’ll remember the rest of my life. And I’m so glad I got to share that day with Sue, Matt and my Uncle!

• Becoming a millionaire, not through inheritance or anything like that, my own blood, sweat & tears

Still working on this one…

• Graduate college

No longer caring to work on this one…

• Be in a big budget movie (I’ll even take a small part like “Friend’s neighbor” or something but it has to be a speaking role [one line will do] and I must be credited

Not yet but I’ll keep it in the back of my mind. I am so not attractive on camera and I really dislike my recorded voice, but maybe with the right lighting and direction, plus the fact I wouldn’t have to be the “star” would help me be better at those parts?

• Make my living as a published author (book tours, readings/signings, etc included)

I think I should’ve said published Writer, not Author, because that’s more in line with my real life goals. And I’m actually making major headway toward that now doing freelance and publishing books. I love my job!

• Get to see all 50 states & spend time in each of them seeing sights (20 down -- MA, NH, VT, ME, CT, RI, NY, NJ, PA, OH, MD, DE, NC, FL, TX, AZ, CA, DC, LA, GA -- of course the only time I really spent in Delaware was at rest stops but what else is there to see, really? I imagine we’ll knock at least 7 more off the list just driving out to our new home and probably another 5 within the first year we live out there. That only leaves 18 more!)

OK, I’m up to: MA, NH, VT, ME, CT, RI, NY, NJ, PA, OH, MD, DE, NC, SC, VA, FL, TX, AZ, CA, DC, LA, GA, TN, MS, OK, AR, NM

That’s 26 states and one Capital. Only 14 to go, mostly stuff in the middle and northwest.

• Drive a race car around a track at over 125 mph

Not yet!

• Go white water rafting again

Done it once so it isn’t as crucial I get back, just something I’d love to do with Matt.

• Get Matt to Disney World

This will happen for our 15 year anniversary. I’m making the declaration now.

Stuff that should’ve been included (some of which is already crossed off)

Catch a Green Bay Packers game at Lambeau

Get to a game at every NHL arena (2 down, only 28 to go!)

Become a season ticket holder of a professional US sport – Coyotes here we come!

Be in the studio audience at the Maury show when the DNA test results are revealed.

Meet Jason Mraz (preferably not as a fan-girl but maybe at a party or something)

Renovate a home (not in the ghetto) that we intend to live in – Currently in process!

Get a byline in a major market publication (I’ll take magazine or newspaper and online is ok)

Publish something that goes viral

Chase a tornado

Own a second home used only for vacations or rental income

Make enough as a Writer that Matt can quit working Corporate (if he wants to)

Learn to surf (even though I’m terrified of sharks I still can’t shake this one)

Get to Australia & New Zealand

I’m sure there’s more but I just can’t think of them off the top right now. Maybe I’ll have a lot to cross off and more to add in another 2-1/2 years. Until then, it looks like the top item on the list should be ‘Update passport’ huh?

What are your top 3 bucket list items?

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Content Marketing Strategist and Blogger for hire, Jenn has over 12 years of freelancing experience. Read her blog

A Long and Torrid ♥ Affair

I have to confess. I’ve had a one sided love affair going on for well over a decade now. In fact, since about the summer of 2002 I’ve devoted my listening ears to one particular songwriter and (it won’t be a shock to anyone who has been around this blog for more than, oh say, about 10 minutes that) the name of this lyrically limber lexicon lover is Jason Mraz.

Told you it wouldn’t be a surprise. Most of you are probably sick of me writing about him at this point (too bad this is my blog and I’ll fan-girl geek it out if I want to!). Other than a brief mention of a new album here or there would you believe the last post I wrote about Jason was back in 2009 when I saw him in Hershey,PA opening for Dave Matthews Band? Yeah, I wouldn’t have believed it either except I just did the research and it’s the stone-cold truth.

I like that I was a fan years before anyone knew who he was. That I got to see him at Irving Plaza in NYC with only about 100 other people in the place. That Matt and I drove all the way to NJ from MA. Then the two of us, my friend Trayce and her daughter took off for Susquehanna, PA to catch Jason on the ‘Music, Magic and Makepeace Tour’. That Matt and I drove all the way to Hershey, PA (also conveniently close to Centralia, PA [yes I filmed this documentary]) for that above referenced show that I wrote about.

Then about 11 days later my mom and I caught Jason headlining the Bank of America Pavilion in Boston with the smell of the harbor wafting into the enormous tent as we danced our butts off all night long (all night).

And then Matt and I made our way to the Life Is Good festival to see a whole slew of amazing artists (Emily Elbert, OK Go, They Might be Giants, Brett Dennen) and of course Jason headlining the whole night.

That was the last time I saw him perform live.

In freaking 2010.

What a sad, sad shame.

But a lot has happened since September 12, 2010 and as a grown up with big girl responsibilities it wasn’t like I could chase the guy all over the country or anything. No matter how much I really wanted to.

And now we’re in Phoenix, a five hour journey to San Disco Raggaefornia (give or take). And I just looked up the last time Jason played here. It was October of 2012. And we were recently moved into our house so there wasn’t much extra to go around; meaning I didn’t get to the show.

But now this morning I was wasting some moments scrolling through Facebook and came across this:

Um, yes please!

I’d say it’s about time he released something new because waiting between releases has kind of been the norm – Rocket in 2002, Mr A-Z in 2005, WSWDWST in 2008 and then love in 2012.

But we’re only talking about a year since love. And believe me, knowing every lyric on that album front and back (because frankly there hasn’t been another disc in my car’s player since the day I got the album), I’m already ready for more.

But aren’t all the former Sexheads? I mean seriously. The guy’s music is like a drug. A sweet and melodic drug that plays on your mind, body and soul. Best. high. Ever!

Thank god that shit is still legal. 

I just hate that part where I have to wait for it. Especially now that I know it’s on the way.

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Published in multiple print and online sources, Author, Blogger and Freelance Writer Jenn Flynn-Shon has been writing for publication since 2001. Follow her antics on twitter @jennshon

I’m Not a Non-Conformist but I Play One on the Internet

For a long while now I’ve been following the blog Chick Lit Is Not Dead. A year or so ago I even sent them a print copy of Ripple the Twine to see if it would be something they’d be interested in reviewing – slash – featuring on their blog. The lovely ladies over there took a pass on my book but I wasn’t disheartened. Can’t please all the people right?

Since then I’ve followed their blog pretty regularly as a subscriber. Delivered right to my inbox, the stories and interviews were easily accessible and in finding out more about the Author and their books I was sure that either my Kindle storage space would shrink or my time at the library would grow. But a funny thing happened, I felt little connection to any of the Authors featured on the site and never downloaded more than one or two books. In a year that’s not a whole lot of material.

A while back CLIND changed their feature format and started a new thing where they asked the Author to give their best ever in a few standard categories – song, movie, book, moment, bit of advice. I thought it was pretty clever. But other than Jen Lancaster I felt like I couldn’t relate to a single one of these people. Because their top five references were far too obscure for me.

I wondered, am I stuck too much in mainstream pop culture? Is it possible that every single Author who writes Chick-Lit or Rom-Com is a hipster? Or whatever the new, trendy title is? Am I actually a conformist? Is that even a bad thing anymore? If I say I love The Goonies, Stephen King and Jason Mraz am I going to sound like a boring follower even though I’ve been reading King & listening to Jason for far longer than it's been a thing?

Then this morning I got around to reading a favorite email subscription, Catherine Caffeinated, and there it was. The answer to my pop culture follower prayers. She had posted a top 100 movies of all-time list and right there in the number one spot was a movie that finally caused me to sigh with relief. She picked Jurassic Park.

Oh happy day! I’m not the only one out there who can appreciate that sometimes mainstream pop culture is fun, that it is fine to appreciate and enjoy and that no one cares if you admit it out loud and proud. Not that it would ever bother me to admit who I am, I just started wondering what I’d have to talk about with Authors I ran into at conferences. All I could visualize was me, outside during lunch, smoking a cigarette in my crappy car while listening to Dave Matthews and they’d all be inside discussing the finer points of the latest Louise Erdrich novel. And I’d be all ‘Um, I just finished downloading Gone Girl and will probably get around to reading that in a year or so.’

In the spirit of proving just how uncultured (read: non-hipster) I really am, I’m going to post the other 99 movies that rank below The Goonies in terms of favorites. These are essentially in no particular order other than the order in which they came to mind while making the list.

Thanks for the idea Catherine. And Jen, if you ever need advice on kick ass eighties hair band metal to rock out to just give me a shout. Preferably with two fingers tossed in the air. I’d be happy to help in that department.

Top 100 Movies (but you already know #1)

1. The Goonies
2. Lord of the Rings trilogy (it’s one book, I count it as one movie and it’s not the only trilogy taking up a single spot on this list)
3. Office Space
4. The Day After Tomorrow
5. Death to Smoochy
6. Rudy
7. Blue Crush
8. Reality Bites
9. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
10. The Breakfast Club
11. The Ref
12. Love, Actually (side note - I think you can tell everything you need to know about a person by which is their favorite coupling in this movie)
13. Armageddon
14. The Cutting Edge
15. 200 Cigarettes
16. Clueless
17. How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days
18. Groundhog Day
19. Die Hard (1-3 but 2 was not as good)
20. Happy Gilmore
21. Singles
22. Fight Club
23. Almost Famous
24. The Princess Bride (inconceivable!)
25. Dogma
26. X-Men (1-3 mostly but Wolverine was pretty good too)
27. Team America: World Police
28. 8 Mile
29. Fever Pitch
30. Back to the Future (the trilogy)
31. Indiana Jones (the original trilogy)
32. Jerry Maguire
33. Old School
34. Grandma’s Boy
35. Twister (we’re goin’ green!)
36. Good Will Hunting
37. The Wedding Singer
38. Waiting
39. Girl, Interrupted
40. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
41. Stand By Me
42. Pulp Fiction
43. Legally Blonde
44. Point Break
45. Dirty Dancing
46. Better Off Dead
47. Honeymoon in Vegas
48. Can’t Hardly Wait
49. Rear Window (one of very few psychological thrillers that make the cut)
50. Say Anything
51. Tommy Boy
52. High Fidelity
53. Forces of Nature (no judgment)
54. American History X
55. The Crow
56. Xanadu
57. Toy Soldiers
58. Castaway
59. Brokeback Mountain
60. The Fox and the Hound (seriously, I still cry every time)
61. The Sixth Sense
62. The Bourne movies (1-3)
63. Three Men and a Baby
64. Grease
65. When Harry Met Sally
66. Sixteen Candles
67. Noises Off
68. I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (he og’d!)
69. Saving Grace
70. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
71. America’s Sweethearts
72. 9 to 5
73. Practical Magic
74. Dazed and Confused
75. The Lost Boys
76. Drop Dead Gorgeous
77. Just Friends
78. Lucas
79. Rock Star (again, no judgment)
80. So I Married an Axe Murderer
81. Shawshank Redemption
82. E.T. the Extra Terrestrial
83. Napoleon Dynamite
84. The Birdcage
85. An Affair to Remember
86. Hot Fuzz (just saw this again recently & still love it, hilariously dark)
87. It Could Happen to You
88. Idiocracy
89. Keeping the Faith
90. Ocean's trilogy
91. Sleeping with the Enemy
92. Pretty Woman
93. Speed
94. Ever After
95. The Lake House
96. L.A. Confidential
97. White Water Summer
98. The Jerk
99. Empire Records
100. Steel Magnolias

What movies make the cut on your list? Or are you more a reader, listener, television watcher? I'm sure I'll think of 100 more as soon as I put this list up but sitting around all day thinking of movies isn't on the agenda for this Saturday so there it is.