peacehammer (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} peacehammer) wrote,@ 2006-03-20 21:59:00 |
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My 7-year-old son is big on absolutes. He always wants to know what my favorite this or that is. Movie, book, super hero (DC and Marvel), Japanese monster, etc. The truth is I haven't thought much about any of it.
I have five movies that rotate being my favorite: Citizen Kane, The Seven Samurai, The Matrix, Arsenic and Old Lace, Annie Hall. Depends on where I'm at in life.
But after giving it some thought, I do have two absolute favorites that share a pedestal all their own on my list of tops. I have a favorite album and I have a favorite book. Strangely and admittedly, neither are particularly great in their medium. But they're my favs.
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway Genesis 1974 is my favorite all time album. Weird as hell. Dense. Parts are horrid. And I have it memorized, nearly verbatim. Rolling Stone voted it one of the top 100 worst albums ever made. It does it for me though. I get it.
Shibumi by Trevanian is my favorite novel. A spy thriller. One of the only ones I ever read. I've read it three times. I've only read Lord of the Rings twice. I don't know how it beats out LOTR, or Breakfast of Champions, or Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, but there it is. I picked up a first edition the other day and couldn't put it down for the fourth time.
I don't care for Trevanian's other work so much. But that book...
Trevanian died this December in England. His real name was Rodney Whitaker and he was something of a pompous ass. He hated his success with Shibumi. I know now, I will never have an autographed edition of that book. Bummer to that.
I have five movies that rotate being my favorite: Citizen Kane, The Seven Samurai, The Matrix, Arsenic and Old Lace, Annie Hall. Depends on where I'm at in life.
But after giving it some thought, I do have two absolute favorites that share a pedestal all their own on my list of tops. I have a favorite album and I have a favorite book. Strangely and admittedly, neither are particularly great in their medium. But they're my favs.
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway Genesis 1974 is my favorite all time album. Weird as hell. Dense. Parts are horrid. And I have it memorized, nearly verbatim. Rolling Stone voted it one of the top 100 worst albums ever made. It does it for me though. I get it.
Shibumi by Trevanian is my favorite novel. A spy thriller. One of the only ones I ever read. I've read it three times. I've only read Lord of the Rings twice. I don't know how it beats out LOTR, or Breakfast of Champions, or Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, but there it is. I picked up a first edition the other day and couldn't put it down for the fourth time.
I don't care for Trevanian's other work so much. But that book...
Trevanian died this December in England. His real name was Rodney Whitaker and he was something of a pompous ass. He hated his success with Shibumi. I know now, I will never have an autographed edition of that book. Bummer to that.
