Rant of the Week

100 Reasons Why Life is Still Worth Living as of January 13, 2007, 2:30 p.m., in no particular order.

 
1 Tom Waits
2 Carey Mulligan in "An Education".
3 the possibility of someone smart being elected president in 2008
4 Studio 60
5 Bon Ivor's "Flume"
6 Nikon Digital SLR cameras
7 fried eggs on Saturday morning
8 movie:  Pan's Labyrinth
9 ratchet sets
10 battery powered drills
11 the stick shift
12 the satisfying resolute click of a key being pressed on a 15-year-old Northgate computer keyboard, or an IBM model "M".
13 the original Minolta 70-210mm f2.8 lens
14 curried chicken
15 the Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich
16 Linux
17 Jennifer Connelly
18 Peter Sellers, especially in "Dr. Strangelove"
19 Ingmar Bergman
20 Hockley Valley in the fall
21 blizzards with clingy snow
22 driving through Hastings, Ontario
23 Algonquin Park
24 Bob Dylan
25 Apple pie a la mode
25 Tiger ice cream
26 the jetcycle
27 community theatre
28 Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall
29 PBS's Frontlilne
30 High Definition and Surround Sound
31 peaches
32 strawberries
33 Keira Knightly not getting breast implants.
34 Director Werner Herzog
35 Jon Krakauer
36 Ozu's films
37 Greta Gerwig
38 Charlie Chaplin
39 Buster Keaton
40 Pierre Trudeau
41 ice bergs
42 the jetcycle, only available in Newfoundland
43 Stanley Kubrick
44 shelties
45 the drive from Banff to Jasper
46 E.B. White
47 Larry Marshall as Simon Zealotes in "Jesus Christ Superstar"
48 Jules et Jim
49 Jean Seberg, especially in "Breathless"
50 MySQL databases: efficient, stable, and free
51 Arcade Fire
52 Lea Seydoux
53 Wes Anderson
54 balsamic vinegar salad dressing
55 Lightwave 3D
56 the Minolta 50 mm f1.7 lens, on a Sony Nex 7 camera
57 The Sony VX-2000, in it's day, a terrific video camera
58 the Sony minidisc, in it's day, a terrific audio recorder and I'll be damned if I can believe how long it would run on that tiny little battery.
59 blueberries
60 the massive, belching, bleeping, monstrous "Big-Boy" UP 4023, 4-8-8-4 ALCO Steam Locomotive, or this one, a similar model.
61 The T-34 tank
62 PBS News Hour
63 PBS Nova: Science is really very interesting
64 Alice Munro, especially "Who do you Think you are?"
65 oral sex
66 the bikini
67 San Francisco
68 The Musee Mecanique in San Francisco
69 Robert Duvall
70 Rutger Hauer as the dying android in "Blade Runner", and his beautiful final speech
71 Anchorage by Michelle Shocked
72 "Silence is Golden", weirdly beautiful, by the Tremeloes
73 Bob Dylan doing "Just Like a Woman" in an Italian accent at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto in February 1974, with the Band.
74 The Band, especially "Stage Fright". and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", and "Cripple Creek": if there's one thing in the whole wide world/I sure do like to see/It's when that love of mine dips her donut in my tea".
75 The guy who gave Bob Kelly a job after the scandalous reckless prosecution of the Little Rascals Day Care case in North Carolina.
76 Judy Collins doing "Someday Soon".
77 Keith Richard still being alive
78 Ofra Bikel, documentary film-maker
79  
All contents copyright 2006 Bill Van Dyk