Top Five [Whatevers]

[jlh]

longtimegone asked for five songs to put on her iPod for a Clio playlist:

1. First is always Neil, and my favorite song by him is "In the Lowlands." It's really good to sing. I sang it once for Heidi when she was pregnant with Jon I think and calling Cassie at ass-o'clock in the morning because she couldn't sleep. We were all out in a diner, and I'd never actually spoken to Heidi, and I just took the phone and started singing. I think I startled her.
   
2. We need a song that's mostly about the drums, which means Clem Burke of Blondie, and it's a tough call, but I talk about Hanging on the Telephone all the time, so let's go for something more obscure, an album track off Autoamerican, "Walk Like Me"
   
3. Because I can never stop telling people OMG WHY AREN'T YOU LISTENING TO KENNA, a Kenna song, "Say Goodbye to Love." Seriously if you like Justin Timberlake you should be listening to Kenna.
   
4. I know that she can be kinda Essence magazine mother-sister-teacher-friend, but I'm putting in "Golden" by Jill Scott because it's something I aspire to do. Also the vocal is amazing, especially the arrangement of the backup vocals, like at the end when she says, "living MY life like it's golden, golden, golden, golden" and she has those descending chords? Yeah, that.
   
5. It was really hard to choose between Tori and Fiona, but while I adore Tori, Fiona is the one who seems to have plundered my diaries, Killing Me Softly-style, so if "Golden" is what I'd like to be, "Extraordinary Machine" is closer to what I probably am.

mahoni asked for my top five favorite moments in Avatar:

I fear it is quite apparent who my favorite characters are and which is my favorite episode!

1. Mai saying she loved Zuko more than she feared Azula.
   
2. Suki running over the tops of many men's heads in the prison yard at Boiling Rock.
   
3. Zuko and Sokka's conversation about girls in the war balloon, especially for "that gloomy girl?" and "that's rough, brother."
   
4. Toph dressing up in Ba Sing Se.
   
5. Ty Lee joining the Kyoshi Warriors.

kittyjimjams asked for my top five songs that make me think of a specific 'ship even though the song has apparently NOTHING TO DO WITH THAT SHIP:

The thing about me and songs and shipping that actually makes me very reluctant to share my FSTs is that I tend to get motivated by the mood of the song far more than the lyrics, but it's the lyrics that everyone focusses on. Half the time a song makes me think of a ship even though the lyrics don't exactly go, because there's just something about the song that feels right in that "movie soundtrack music cue" kind of way. So there isn't a ton of lyric quoting below. Honorable mention to "Sunshine of Your Love" which reminds me of AI Chris/Blake because Jack Bruce's voice sounds like Blake's, because that song is really slashy, and because for those reasons I got my friend lillijulianne to put it in her 80s high school AU, so now it reminds a lot of other people of them, too, secretly singing that song to each other. I don't put it here because I refer to it below in the "songs I want covered" section.

1. Zeppelin always makes me think of Harry and Hermione, because in the first fic I really wrote about them they dance to "Whole Lotta Love" in a bar because Hermione's Muggle parents would have been the right age to be Zeppelin freaks, so she heard them all the time when she was a kid. But the song that fits best is "Dancing Days." I mean, really: I got my flower, I got my power, I got my woman who knows.
   
2. My current Kirk/McCoy song is "Love Hate Sensation" by Kenna because it feels like hollywood!K/Mc taking a bike ride up the coast, especially that piano part at the beginning. Also give me a ride on that zephyr and rocket away from here / give me all your affection and teach me how to feel is very them, even if "love hate sensation" kind of isn't. But it's much more the way the sound works with the film in my head than anything else. LIke, they pull away from McCoy's bungalow in Venice, more slowly, cruise up Ocean, and by the time the song kicks in they've hit the PCH proper and … yeah, it's all about AU's for me, clearly.
   
3. In my mind Dean Thomas's parents listened to a lot of Stevie Wonder, and "I Was Made to Love Her" is one of the few solidly Seamus/Dean songs for me, even if the lyrics are all about growing up with a little girl in Little Rock.
   
4. I just finished a 90s Kris Allen/Adam Lambert AU and in it Adam lives in Alphabet City and Kris lives in Williamsburg and still has his car from Arkansas and they both work in a club in the East Village and late one snowy night Kris gives Adam a ride home so he doesn't have to walk all the way to Avenue C in his club kid platform boots. So they put in Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and then sing along to "Tonight, Tonight." So that reminds me of them, though some of the lyrics work: we're not the same, we're different tonight, tonight.
   
5. "Sex (I'm a …)" reminds me of Rymon because Ryan has this thing for costumes, and Simon you know, would just always be Simon, so I can see Ryan being like, "I'm many things, la!" and Simon being like, "um, my name is Simon Cowell."

calloocallay asked for top five songs I would like to see covered/performed by specific artists or characters:

Honorable Mention: Because I'm trying not to re-use songs, I'll note here that I'd love to hear a Fall Out Boy cover of "What's He Got" by The Producers, which is below in the top 80s songs.

1. I wanted Cook and Archuleta to sing "Welcome to the Boomtown" by David and David for obvious reasons, but also because it's a really amazing song. Though since it's about drug use and despair in Hollywood, I'm not that surprised that they didn't.
   
2. I want Blake Lewis to sing "Sunshine of Your Love." Singing it with Chris Richardson is optional. I think Blake's voice sounds a lot like Jack Bruce's voice.
   
3. I want Adam Lambert to sing "Promises in the Dark." Because that would be some crazy shit.
   
4. I want Kris Allen to sing "Turn and Run." I'm not sure which girl should sing the Sheryl Crow parts; possibly me.
   
5. I want Tori Amos to over "Can't Get You Out of My Head" because I feel she would make it appropriately creepy.

jenncho asked for five moments on Idol I wish there was post-Rymon fic for:

I'm thinking you mean moments that don't have much fic, which is why I'm not including The Kiss.

1. Any of the water throwing incidents in season three. Season three had tons of Rymon but not much of the fic is any good.
   
2. The whole "matching panties" thing in season one.
   
3. Any of several trips to England, particularly the week between the Concert for Diana and Eva Longoria's wedding.
   
4. Post-Emmys last year or the year before.
   
5. Pre-Rymon fic for that whole Jacksonville limo conversation which was so deeply post-coital it makes my teeth ache.

piratecore asked for my top five beards and/or moustaches:

Mustaches first, with honorable mention to my brother in law, who has an awesome mustache.

1. Clark Gable. The only person other than Clooney who can pull off the pencil, and Clooney was just copying him anyway. This is from It Happened One Night, where he's teaching Claudette Colbert how to dunk a donut.
   
   
   
2. Hercule Poirot, as played by David Suchet. Luxurious! If I had been writing fic at the age of eleven, it would have been Hercule Poirot/Clio.
   
   
   
3. John Lennon during the Sgt Pepper period. I love how they all had to grow them at the same time. Macca wisely shaved his off but looked damn good in a beard. George wisely kept his for the rest of his life. John grew a beard, fine; grew his hair, fine; but long hair and no beard was a bad call. For my money, John is at his most fuckable in the short hair-mustache-glasses combo of Sgt Pepper.
   
   
   
4. Robert Redford, particularly as Sundance. Bonus Paul Newman!
   
   
   
5. Freddy Mercury. Okay, look, I get how people missed that George Michael is gay, because everyone looked like that in the 80s. But Freddie looked like rough trade on Castro Street. Come on, people.
   
   

And beards, and not even any puns!

1. Charles Ingalls. My first literary crush, probably my first ever crush. That plus a rural childhood led to a continuing weakness for men who know how to do things. First the real Pa:
   
   
   And the one by Garth Williams:
   
   
   
2. Timothy Olyphant in Deadwood, more a modified goatee but that's okay.
   
   
   
3. Duncan Sheik
   
   
   
4. Peter Sarsgaard
   
   
   
5. David Cook, an argument for facial hair if there ever was one.
   
   

ali_wildgoose asked for my top Five Romantic Comedies (film):

Four came quickly, bam bam bam bam, and then I labored over the fifth. Was I forgetting something? Should I have two from the classic period? And then I decided to get over myself.

1. His Girl Friday, written by Charles Lederer from a play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, directed by Howard Hawks, 1940.
   

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2. The Philadelphia Story written by Donald Ogden Stewart from a play by Philip Barry, directed by George Cukor, 1940.
   

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3. The Apartment, written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond, directed by Billy Wilder, 1960.
   
   
4. Breakfast at Tiffany's, written by George Axelrod from a novel by Truman Capote, directed by Blake Edwards, 1961.
   

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5. Some Kind of Wonderful written by John Hughes, directed by Howard Deutch, 1987. I can't embed the trailer, so instead, the opening sequence.
   

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   ali_wildgoose also asked for my top Five Erotic Novels/Stories:
   
   1. The Story of O
      
   2. Ace of Hearts which is like a regency romance novel, except the rake is an actual rake and our heroine is definitely NOT one of the ton.
      
   3. Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure which is actually quite funny.
      
   4. "Elena" in Delta of Venus by Anais Nin
      
   5. "Lady Crim-Con, or They All Do It" in The Pearl
   
   
   jm_cats asked for my top five songs of the 80s. Jesse, you've probably worked out by now that I am one contrary bee-atch. So I can't give you my top five songs of the 80s, but rather, "top 5 80s songs that are mysteriously not on my computer" which disqualifies all of the songs on Juli's fic soundtrack (though I will give you my personal highlights from that). Also, I will give you the 80s mix I made for my friends a few years ago.
   
   
   Top 5 songs mysteriously not on my computer:
   
   1. The Producers, "What's He Got." Okay, it sounds like a bunch of other songs, like Jenny or My Sharona, but I care not!
      
   2. Eurogliders, "Heaven." If I were to make a BSG fanmix, which I will not, this would be my New Caprica song.
      
   3. Peter Murphy, "Indigo Eyes." When I heard it on the radio I thought it was a boy/boy love song. I don't think it is, actually, but who even knows.
      
   4. The Cure, "The Love Cats" is cheating a little because I have it on a tape; I just haven't gotten Standing on a Beach digitally for mysterious reasons.
      
   5. Madness, "One Step Beyond" because that is actual ska, man, from a band that liked to pretend they were Monty Python's Flying Circus. Hey you, don't watch that, watch this.
   
   
   
   Top 5 songs that ARE on Juli's soundtrack and wow am I glad:
   
   1. "Come Back and Stay" by Paul Young
      
   2. "Wouldn't It Be Good" by Nik Kershaw
      
   3. "Love Plus One" by Haircut 100
      
   4. the extended version of "Everything She Wants" by Wham, probably one of my favorite pop singles of all time, including the pre-rock era
      
   5. "A Million Miles Away" by The Plimsouls
   
   
   
   In the Basement is a compilation of 80s songs that met two criteria: (1) they were among my favorites at the time they were released (hence the many references to their videos) and (2) they don’t show up on a typical 80s compilation. The title comes from the B-52s song on the mix. Also, this mix was done for the lovely ladies that hung out in the Avocado, a rather green basement in an apartment in Brooklyn, who were all just wee ones during the 80s.
   
   1. John Waite, “Change”. For me, an almost stereotypical 80s song, especially since I can see the video in my head still--one of those early ones that had a plot and everything. And so, so much better a song than that dreadful “Missing You.”
      
   2. Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, “Perfect Skin”. I loved this song in high school mostly because I was lucky enough to have perfect skin at the time. Cole also has a silky smooth voice. Listen to the words.
      
   3. Lone Justice, “Sweet Sweet Baby (I’m Falling)”. Maria McKee is such a strong songwriter, and this was my favorite song on MTV for a good long while. Perfectly captures that helpless feeling of falling in love. Horrible to dig a song so much and be completely unable to sing it.
      
   4. Echo and the Bunnymen, “Rescue”. Okay, so this is probably their big single, but still. The guitar riff sticks with you, as does the line, “Maybe I’m losing my touch, but you know, I didn’t have it anyway.”
      
   5. U2, “11 O’Clock Tick Tock”. Oddly not available on the b-sides cd, this song appears on the Under a Blood Red Sky live album, which was the first record by U2 that I bought. I spend half the winter quoting the first line: “It’s cold outside/it gets so hot in here.” While a rarity, it has everything a U2 song ought to have--a tricky yet straight ahead beat, a driving bass line, a ringing guitar, a soaring voice.
      
   6. The Go-Go’s, “I’m the Only One.” I’m a huge fan, and in this song you can hear what a good straight-ahead rock band they had become by this, their third album. The Go-Go’s acted like any male rock band in the 80s, rampaging across the country snorting coke and fucking groupies and good for them. Oh, and Gina Schock is one of my favorite drummers ever.
      
   7. Violent Femmes, “Gone Daddy Gone.” Beautiful girl, lovely dress. Xylophone solo. Groovy beat and you can dance to it; I give it a 10. Makes you want to straighten your hair, don a miniskirt, and do the shimmy.
      
   8. Elvis Costello, “Watching the Detectives.” Because I’m swift like that, it took forever for me to understand what the hell this song was about. For some reason I got house detectives in a hotel into my head, which makes no sense. At any rate, close to my fav Costello song. Can’t beat Elvis for wordplay, and dig that hallmark of the early eighties, that reggae beat.
      
   9. Madonna, “Gambler” On the Vision Quest soundtrack. Great to dance to. Still one of my favorite Madonna songs. Makes me want to put a dozen black rubber bracelets on my arm, it does.
      
   10. Heaven 17, “Penthouse and Pavement”. Again, memories of the video which had something to do with industrial espionage and featured a lot of people in 80s popstar hair and makeup surreptitiously making photocopies. Yet another song I would never have heard on the radio, yet was all over MTV.
       
   11. Go West, “Call Me” A better song than “We Close Our Eyes” Not a single uncomputerized instrument on the track that I can hear, but that’s the secret to its charm. Oh, wait, that might be a guitar way back in the mix there. Is this rock? Does it matter?
       
   12. Berlin, “The Metro.” Teri Nunn was so, so cool. That whole tough-but-vulnerable thing, plus she was always singing about having sex and taking quaaludes, and her hair was blonde with black tips. This video was so, so low budget, and such a literal interpretation, down to the soldier sleeping next to her, but remember it I do.
       
   13. Ultravox, “Dancing with Tears in My Eyes.” Yet another plot video: the wife is at home, the husband spends most of the video rushing home to her amid some sort of chaos, he reaches her and as they dance together next to the crib in their baby’s room, a mushroom cloud appears outside the window. Ah, the eighties.
       
   14. Thomas Dolby, “One of our Submarines.” Creepy song, especially after the Kursk. I can’t put my finger quite on what I like about it so much. Somehow Dolby was able to take that flat 80s aesthetic and put a groove in it, but I’m not sure how.
       
   15. Missing Persons, “Destination Unknown.” Ah, Terri Bozio. She wore plastic clothing, and not much of it. She had teased peroxide-and-pink hair. She wore a great deal of blush. So did the boys in the band. She had chunky Lucite shoes, so she never really moved, just stood with feet at shoulder width and swayed. Besides, the song starts with that old chestnut: “Where do we go from here?”
       
   16. Talking Heads, “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)” Someone reminded me the other day that this song plays over the closing credits of Wall Street. If that’s not 80s I don’t know what is. Regardless, a great love song.
       
   17. Squeeze, “Tempted”. What can I say? It’s one of those perfect songs.
       
   18. The B-52s, “Legal Tender”. The first B-52s video I ever saw. I still remember the members of the band handing a little toy truck from one to the other at the line, “latest model getaway jeep”. And man, if you’ve heard them but have never seen them, it’s a bit of a shock.
       
   19. INXS, “Don’t Change” Another video I have memorized. The band is on the back of a truck in a warehouse or a barn, and while Michael Hutchense always looks good, the cutest member of the band was of course Tim Ferris. Yes, the drummer. What?
   If you want this mix, let me know and I can upload it!
   
   jm_cats also asked for my top five songs of my generation:
   
   Representative songs for Xers, as follows. Since I just gave you a billion 80s songs, I'm skipping them entirely.
   
   1. Schoolhouse Rock, "Lolly Lolly Lolly." Everyone knows "Conjunction Junction" (sung by the trumpet player for the band on the Merv Griffin show, btw) but this is the song I remember everyone singing on the playground when we were kids. Also, "We the People" is responsible for all of us having the preamble of the Constitution memorized. I could have put a Sesame Street song here, but Sesame Street still exists, while Schoolhouse Rock really doesn't. And all that really good children's television was pretty much made for us Xers.
      
   2. Seals and Crofts, "Summer Breeze"; could easily have been England Dan and John Ford Coley, "I'd Really Love to See You Tonight" because they are the same song and because England Dan's last name is Seals, so the bands are brothers. I couldn't decide between a song about a hook up, and a song about how great coming home to your wife is. But everyone I know my age has a great love for 70s yacht rock, because that's what was on the am radio in the car when we were like, six. People ten years younger than us are horrified by this.
      
   3. So back in the day, when I was on the college radio station, we got Straight Outta Compton and we had to sit down and work out what we could actually play on the radio-this was before anyone was doing radio edits. (Note that the guys who ran the R&B dept at our radio station went on to found The Source; we were serious about our shit.) I had a trainee in the station and I said to him, "okay, the songs we can play are circled, cue one up." (Yeah, we were playing VINYL, holla.) And the kid cues up "Fuck tha Police" and I had to like, get something else on in a second and a half, and I was like, "What the FUCK, Negro?" and he was like, "but it's a good song" and I was like, "Well, the FCC don't give a shit about that!" And that is my "Fuck that Police" story.
      
   4. Look, I can't do it; I can't actually put that song on this list, because I'm too contrary. So instead, "Come As You Are."
      
   5. "Silent All These Years." The beginning of the deluge of girls on the radio. And really, a sentiment that most of the women I know would agree with at some point in their lives.
   
   
   jm_cats also asked for top five moments that define my love for Rymon:
   
   1. First season, very first semifinal show, so the first live show. Ryan for some reason is wearing a transparent black shirt over a black tshirt. Simon asks if the shirt came with matching panties, and Ryan tells him to stop flirting with him.
      
   2. Season four, Ryan is standing next to the judge's table intro'ing someone, and he's leaning on his hand, on the table. Simon watches, and then for no real reason bops Ryan's hand with his fist. Jacob at TWoP referred to it as a gesture of affection from one wizened old partner to the other.
      
   3. NOT the "sweetheart" thing, but the week after, still the season six semis, when Sligh sang some love song or another, and he said he was changed by the love of a good woman. Simon looked at him, totally sincere, and said "so was I" and as Ryan comes up on the stage he's wearing his little secret smile. Because seriously, who else could Simon have possibly been talking about?
      
   4. Season seven, when Simon's first kiss calls, and Ryan wants all the dish but otherwise pretty much acts like the wife, in that "I know you want me to act jealous, Simon, but I in fact have nothing to be jealous of because you are completely in my back pocket, and you know it and I know it" sort of way.
      
   5. The kiss.