The folks over at my hometown paper's entertainment web site, IndyKnow, have come up with a fun project. They've compiled a list of what they think are the top 64 films made since 1980.

Those 64 films are going to be placed in brackets, office pool-style (like the basketball playoffs, dig?) and put to the vote. By voting for our favorites, the top movie picks will be seeded against one another until a winner prevails.

Of course, when I heard of this, I couldn't help but compile my OWN list of what I think are the best films made since 1980. I made a list of 80 films, and here it is.

Of course, I may have overlooked some. And I limited my list to films I've seen. So, please leave me comments if you think there are movies I should check out that need to be on the list! Or if you just want to argue about some of my picks, let's throw down!

Otherwise, if you're looking for a movie this weekend - here is my list of the best 80 movies made since 1980 that I have seen (in ascending order by the year made):

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
On Golden Pond (1981)
Blade Runner (1982)
The Plague Dogs (1982)
Koyaanisqatsi (1983)
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
The Killing Fields (1984)
Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
The Company of Wolves (1984)
Blood Simple (1984)
Brazil (1985)
The Color Purple (1985)
Aliens (1986)
Blue Velvet (1986)
Matewan (1987)
Prick Up Your Ears (1987)
Wings of Desire (1987)
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987)
I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987)
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)
Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (1989)
Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989)
The Nasty Girl (1990)
Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (1990)
Dances With Wolves (1990)
Europa! Europa! (1990)
Tie me up! Tie me down! (1990)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Delicatessen (1991)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
City of Hope (1991)
L.A. Story (1991)
The Player (1992)
Howard's End (1992)
Groundhog Day (1993)
The Remains of the Day (1993)
Heavenly Creatures (1994)
Bullets Over Broadway (1994)
Once Were Warriors (1994)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)
From the Journals of Jean Seberg (1995)
Fargo (1996)
Trainspotting (1996)
Citizen Ruth (1996)
Gadjo Dilo (1997)
The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
Men With Guns (1997)
The Truman Show (1998)
Gods and Monsters (1998)
The Matrix (1999)
Magnolia (1999)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
Limbo (1999)
The Straight Story (1999)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Memento (2000)
Donnie Darko (2001)
The Shipping News (2001)
Spirited Away (2001)
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Solaris (2002)
Rabbit Proof Fence (2002)
Nicholas Nickleby (2002)
Bowling for Columbine (2002)
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Finding Nemo (2003)
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)
The Triplets of Belleville (2003)
Lost in Translation (2003)
The Station Agent (2003)
The Saddest Music In The World (2003)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Mysterious Skin (2004)
Tropical Malady (2004)
The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)

P.S. Don't forget to participate in the Movie Playoffs! Visit The Movie Madness Tournament for more info! 

  About a week ago, a friend of mine had to undergo a "procedure." I don't know why I put procedure in quotes, actually. Maybe it's because, for the procedure she had to have, quotes somehow seem appropriate. Or, maybe it's because I don't really know fully, technically, medically, precisely, in full detail, exactly what she had to have done, so I put the word in quotes to give the procedure the appropriate aura of mystery and intrigue that it holds for me.

Anyhow, she had the procedure and she wrote to tell me that it went well, and that it even wasn't all that bad. Then she added that she did have a bit of a spell just afterwards, which codeine took care of.

Well, this reminded me of the most awful experience I ever had in a doctor's office. I'm about to share that experience with you, my dear readers - just for fun. And because I care about you, and your possibly delicate sensibilities, I will employ TMI ALERTS throughout the story. TMI means too much information, and when you encounter a TMI ALERT, it means that, potentially, the information that follows may exceed the amount of information you care to receive. I encourage you to be aware of these alerts, and respond as necessary.

Those of you who know me may be surprised to learn that my worst experience in a doctor's office was not the time when I had a brain tumor causing a 3rd nerve palsy in my left eye, rendering me cross-eyed, with which I drove myself (one eye closed) to the emergency room only to be accused of being on drugs and sent home. Nor was it the time, a few days later, when I went into surgery to have the tumor removed which involved peeling my face back from my skull and breaking my nose out through my open mouth (oops, that should have been the first TMI alert! ...TMI ALERT).

Anyways... No, my worst experience ever at a doctor's office actually came two weeks after I had the tumor removed.

TMI ALERT

After the surgery, I had a splint holding my nose together, clear up inside my sinuses. After two weeks, I had to go to an ENT to have the splint snipped and pulled out. So I go to this doctor and he sticks his little snippers up inside my nostrils and snips the wires on either side of the splint, effectively cutting it loose. Then he takes forceps and pushes them up into my nostrils and starts pulling these HUMONGOUS cotton tube/swab things out of my sinus cavity (which had been in place, I guess, to soak up blood and mucous). I had NO IDEA they were even in there. They were as long, and about 1/2 as wide, as one of those small Bic lighters (I guess they were kind of like little tampons) - and he pulls at least six of them out of my nose - 3 from each side.

OK, so I'm surprised and just a little startled that I could even accomodate all that in my nose - and he still hadn't removed the splint. He pulls out the right-side splint first, and it totally stretches my nostril to get it out... then he does the same with the left side. Now I'm staring at a tray upon which is a shockingly large pile of crap the doctor has just pulled out of my nose, and I think, "Whew - it's over!" - but no he hasn't even gotten started.

(Seriously - TMI alert)

He reaches for the wall and grabs a hose, flipping a switch that generates a sound similar to a vacuum cleaner... which I quickly realize is exactly what he just turned on. Up my nostrils goes the vacuum hose, and he proceeds to suck out the very thick bloody mucous that has been building and coagulating over the past two weeks and is clinging like hot glue to the insides of my sinus cavity - which I am now intimately aware is more akin to the Carlsbad Caverns than, say, my previous conception of the human nose.

It is no exagerration to say that it felt to me like my brains were being sucked out of my skull through my nostrils. "What is this madman doing to me?" is all I could think.

When he finished, my skin had, apparently quite noticeably, turned a shade somewhere between "volcanic ash" and "wind-driven snow" as both my mom and the Dr. asked if I was OK.

Isn't it funny how you don't necessarily recognize when you're almost unconscious? I said I thought I was OK - even though I couldn't actually see. And it didn't occur to me that I should take it as an indication to lie down with my knees up for a bit. Instead, I was simply puzzled by the odd outline of what looked like a chair sitting
2 feet in front of me, and the fact that my mom had dissolved into a mere swash of blue and pink. "Is that a chair?" I finally asked, pointing to the chair 2 feet away, which looked as much like the wall as it did a chair.

"You need to lie down!" they told me... so I did. And thus ended the worst experience I ever had in a doctor's office.

Do you have any fun doctor stories to share? 

  As you know, I have three blogs. You probably don’t know that I have more than three. But trust me, you’re not likely to be interested in the others. You may not even be interested in the three that I have. But anyway, as you know, I have three blogs.

One of the things I enjoy about the blogs is looking at the traffic statistics. Traffic statistics give me all sorts of information about everyone who visits my blogs. I use a web site called StatCounter to track my traffic. I just stick a piece of code into the templates for my blogs, and StatCounter does all the work for me. Among the information I get, they tell me how many people visit my page every day, which ones are returning visitors, and their geographic locations.

For example, as I write this, of the past 100 visitors to Anarchestra, there were 74 from the U.S., 4 each from Malaysia, Australia, and France, 3 from Israel, 2 each from the U.K. and Germany, and 1 each from the Netherlands, Mexico, Lithuania, Hong Kong, India, Spain and Japan. Of the 74 U.S. visitors, 48 were from California, 7 were from Nebraska, 6 from Colorado, with several other states also represented.

I can break it down further: of the 7 Nebraska visitors, 4 were from Lincoln, with 1 each from Omaha, Grand Island, and Henderson. I can even see the individual ISPs of each visitor.

The availability of this type of information has revolutionized the way businesses operate and transformed the marketing and advertising industries. What was once very much a guessing game has evolved into a near-science – at least when it comes to observing people’s Internet purchasing behavior. An Internet business can track the number of times every one of their web page buttons, images, and sale items gets clicked on, and by whom. And they do.

Every single Internet business in the world is collecting this type of data about every single one of its customers every day (including you), gauging customer behavior, how customers respond to different sales tactics, and basically figuring out – through trial and error, but with incredible amounts of data to guide them – how to get you to give them your money.

But that’s not what I want to write about today. Today, I want to write about my favorite of all the statistics I get – and that’s the "came from" info, specifically the search strings that led people to my blogs.

You see, in addition to all the other great information I get that tells me all about you, my dear visitors, I get to see the page that you came from, if that page contained a referring link to my blog. By and large, most such pages are from people using search engines such as Google, who saw one of my blogs come up in their search results, and were intrigued enough to click through and see what the blog is all about. I can click back to those search pages, see the actual search string, and where my blog (or blog entry) appeared in the list of search results.

For example, if you use MSN’s search engine to search for “Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys,” the second item in the list of search results is Kraigg’s MindScrapes post titled Mamas don’t let your babies grow up to be pandering mutant amputee cowboys.

It's pretty funny to see the things people are searching for that lead them into one of my blogs. At least, I think it is. So, here’s a list of the three blogs, and the actual search strings that brought random visitors to Parallaxis, MindScrapes, and Anarchestra in the past few weeks.

Parallaxis received random visitors who were searching for the following:

Pictures of the Nebraska 2005 Blizzard
Pursuit of Happyness Chris Gardner
Blizzard Etymology
Star Trek Convention Lincoln Nebraska
Harriet’s Danish Dannebrog Nebraska
Shadowland Haunted Places Index
Fast way from Nebraska to San Francisco

MindScrapes received random visitors who were searching for the following:

Karmel Korn

(Oddly enough, the most popular search by far. I’m amazed at the number of people searching for “Karmel Korn.” Although, I’m not surprised these people are clicking through to read my post titled Karmel Korn’s New Product Line – I’m sure they’re all very excited to learn about Karmel Korn’s new offerings. Imagine their disappointment when they figure out it was only a dream I had, and that they won’t actually be able to buy caramel-coated oranges, or cinammon-applesauce-dipped potatoes the next time they go to the mall. Sorry folks!)

Tim Conway (People seem very interested in knowing how Tim Conway Tried To Steal My Man)
Dorf Tim Coway
Gary Busey
Mind Trips
VW Thing
Gassing Rats
Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys
Coco Puffs Cereal
Types of Captain Crunch
Scrapes Hunting (What is Scrapes Hunting? Anyone?)
Skate Queen

Anarchestra received random visitors who were searching for the following:

Photos Folsom Street Fair
4Wheeler Games
Tannery in Morocco
Anarchestra (Yes, someone actually was searching the word “Anarchestra!”)
Claudine Longet Noting (sic) to lose
Buca di Beppo MySpace
Sunshine Buddy Dancing

(Searching for “Sunshine Buddy Dancing” on Yahoo brings up Anarchestra as the FIRST TWO search results. I’m so proud!)

Sunshine Buddies
Deepdick Collective (This is a rap group, if you’re wondering)
Roni Skins (I was puzzled by this one, but then remembered that I recently wrote an entry about someone making Rice-a-Roni…)

That's it.

Well, I think it's interesting... 

  ickify

Main Entry: i·cki·fy
Pronunciation: 'i-k&-"fI
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): -fied; -fy·ing
transitive senses: to make icky
intransitive senses: to undergo ickification
synonym see YUCKEFY, GRODIFY

ickification

Main Entry: i·cki·fi·ca·tion,
Pronunciation: "i-k&-f&-'kA-sh&n
Function: noun
1: The ickifying of matter; especially: the typically anaerobic splitting of proteins by bacteria and fungi with the formation of foul-smelling incompletely oxidized products
2: the state of being ickified

Used in a sentence: Sherman grows weary of Mookie the Mook repeatedly ickifying his water dish. Too often, Sherman finds his water dish in a state of ickification. 

  Lesson #98424(a)

Never feed the kitties the last of their food before you go to bed at night.



Lesson #98424(b)

Make sure the garbage lid is secure. 

  (PREFACE: Jay recently expressed some discomfort over my use of his name in my blog, especially now that more people are reading it. So, starting now, I will no longer use his name when I blog about him.)

The other night, somebody dirtied nine dishes while making dinner. (Uh oh, I can hear you murmuring, he’s counting the number of dishes being used to make dinner – their relationship’s in trouble! And nine isn't even that many! No, no, no, let me assure you, I hardly ever do that. You don’t know what he made yet, but I’m going to tell you...) He made Rice-a-roni.

Rice…-a-roni.

I realize that Rice-a-roni is the San Francisco treat, and that you might not make Rice-a-roni where you live. But if you’ve ever made Mac-n-cheese from a box, you pretty much know the steps that go into Rice-a-roni. You have your rice, and you have your flavor packet. That’s it. So…

Now that you’re all caught up, if you’re like me, you’re asking, How does somebody dirty nine dishes making Rice-a-roni? The answer is quite simple: I HAVE NO IDEA.

Seriously, if this were a Survivor challenge, and Jeff Probst had just told me You must prepare this box of Rice-a-roni and dirty at least NINE dishes to win reward! I’m not sure how I would do it. I guess that’s why I need somebody on my team…

Now the thing is, I don’t fault somebody for using nine dishes to prepare Rice-a-roni. There is no doubt in my mind that each and every dish he used played a vital and irreplaceable role in his preparation of the Rice-a-roni dinner. I know this. I know this about my boy. That’s one of the reasons I love him, you see. Because he can make even the seemingly simple preparation of Rice-a-roni into a glorious escapade worthy of Baron Munchausen - yea, into a grand adventure that is uniquely somebody. He made that Rice-a-roni special.

How can you not love that? 

  Last weekend, Golden Gate Park hosted the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. The three-day long free event was topped off with a performance by Dolly Parton on Sunday evening. Jay and I joined our friend Melissa shortly after lunch and sat in the grass all afternoon in anticipation of seeing Dolly up close and live.

The band that played right before Dolly, Split Lip Rayfield, was awesome. They banged out bluegrass with such energy, you could hear the strings snapping off their instruments. They're from Lawrence, Kansas, and will be playing Knickerbockers in Lincoln on November 2. If you can, go see them. You won't be disappointed.

Dolly was incredible. She looked a bit unreal - not sure if it was the plastic surgery, or just the stage makeup - but her voice was as incredible as ever. I'm planning to get her new CD, which comes out Oct 15. I've written a more detailed description of the event on my IndyKnow blog, Parallaxis. Give my new blog some support - go read it!

Check out my pics from Sunday's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Keep in mind, we were pretty far away (from where we sat, we could pretty much just see her hair and glittering rhinestone boobs). My camera and I did our best to get good shots, but those of you who have come to expect utter perfection in my photography will have to be a bit forgiving this time around!