Lists, cont.

Frank Wilson of Books, Inq. has posted a nice comment on my post about my Amazon DVD list. Yes, I know just what he means about lists ;-). One problem I have is that I keep thinking of things to add to them after I've finished. The escape velocity needed to create a list in the first place means that I only make them when they are about something I'm really interested in, and then it is hard to limit them to 10 items (or 25, in the case of the Amazon software). But my Amazon DVD list is possibly at least useful in recommending some movies to rent that I at least have enjoyed, given today's Hollywood output is criticised for being substandard (on the whole, there are always a few gems). Of course it misses out great movies that aren't now available, eg Charlie Bubbles. And some that I've remembered since, eg Sunday Bloody Sunday. Some lists I see seem a bit like "vanity publishing" to me, as bloggers send them to each other and put in their own answers. If you like reading lists, I highly recommend Bonnie Calhoun's site Bonnie Writes. It's a great site: she's very funny and wise. One laugh-aloud example of a list of hers concerns National Girlfriend and Sisters' Week. Love it! However, on looking at my DVD list again, I realise that apart from the magnificent Lord of the Rings, almost all of the 25 items on it are 15 years old or more, reflecting my "before and after" life (children, that is). Maybe a lot of these movies have dated now. I've bought several of them cheap on the wonderful Amazon over the past couple of years, with the goal of watching them again "when I have time" (ha ha). I did this, in fact, the other week when by coinicdence both daughters were out in the evening and so I could see a movie I wouldn't want them to. So I re-watched "Sea of Love". And really enjoyed it again! The denoument is OK, someone wrote a script, the acting and direction are good --- etc. Recommended to pass a pleasant hour and a half, if you like the genre -- as I do (crime thriller, with NY to add the icing ) -- though, given what I have written earlier in this paragraph, set in the 1980s ;-) . Some lists that I have thought about making but never got around to. First, guys with beards. I am a big fan of a "certain type" of beard (don't know what to call them but I know what I mean). I got as far as Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen in his Lord of the Rings persona), Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp in his Pirates of the Carribean persona), Ken Sampson (a lovely guy who used to do Nature's typsetting years ago), Frank Wilson of Books, Inq. (;-) ) and then I ran out of subjects. I'll probably remember or notice a few more if I put my mind to it but it isn't that high on my priority list. The other list I dreamed up was "Things you'd never dream of doing before you had children but afterwards do as a matter of course." I don't mean things you actually do for your children that you didn't do before, eg live in the suburbs, I mean things you just find yourself doing that you never would have done before. Heat up cold tea/coffee in the microwave Use a dishwashing machine Buy yoghurts and actually eat them Pay all your utility (ie non-fixed) bills by direct debit See movies only on video or DVD Eat leftover, congealed baked beans and enjoy it (I have never actually done this one but I have seen my brother-in-law do it) musing