So I can’t sleep and lately blogging has helped me feel tired so I figured why not?

As I have mentioned in previous posts I’ve been thinking a lot lately about entertainment, movies and art.  What makes something memorable, beautiful, enriching and of course what inspires the opposite emotions.  I realize these feelings are inherently subjective, but my thoughts have not been on what moves society as a whole, but what inspires ME.

So tonight I am going to write up a best and worst on different categories.  It’s actually really hard thing to do.  It’s hard enough to come up with a top 10 list but to narrow it down to one worst and best is tough.  Try it along with me!

Best Book- I could pick Book Thief but North and South I could read multiple times a year.  I’ve talked about it a lot on this blog so I won’t repeat everything. I’ll just say it has my 2 favorite characters in literature.  I love their journey.  I love seeing them grow and change.  It’s so deep and takes time to develop side characters that are pivotal and fascinating.  I love it.  I think it is perfect.

Worst Book- Catch 22.  I hated all the characters.  I mean truly hated. I thought everyone was disgraceful, immoral, and unlikable.  The women in the story are either nurses or prostitutes and everything that is supposed to be ‘funny’ felt distasteful and kind of sick. I hated this book so much that it is the reason why I have a ‘someone must have read the book rule’ in my book club. Never again.

Best Movie- This is really hard but I have to go with Up.  I could watch it 4 times in a day and still love it.  I cry every time I watch the opening montage. It’s beautiful, sweet, funny and surprising.  I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve seen it and I love it more every time.  I love the music.  The voice casting is perfect.  The artwork is stunning. The message of finding adventure in life is wonderful.  I love it!

Worst Movie- Drop Dead Gorgeous.  There are only 2 movies I have walked out of in the theater, Drop Dead Gorgeous and Superstar.  Both are atrocious but this movie is so cold and hateful towards its characters and it is supposed to be funny that it actually made me cry.  I left the theater and my friends and sat in the lobby in tears until they had finished the ending.  I couldn’t take it any more.

It’s a mockumentary about beauty pageants that has one girl after another blown up, shot, murdered, burned and attacked.  A character mimics the crucifixion, a girl becomes deaf for laughs, a near dead anorexic girl is wheeled out in a wheelchair with an IV, the mentally ill are mocked, all the girls get food poisoning with its accompanying effects.  It’s gross, dark, cold and hateful so much so that 15 years after I saw it I still remember it far too vividly.

Best Sports Moment- This one is really hard and I wouldn’t say I’m the hugest sports fan in the world but I love the Olympics and there are so many good one’s to pick from.  Michael Phelps 8 in Beijing, Jason Lesak final lap in 4 by 100 relay, Sarah Hughes figure skating win, Dan Jansen finally getting his gold medal after 3 falls.  All would be great picks but I have to pick a moment that I actually was a part of.  This was 2002 Salt Lake and I was outside the stadium watching on a big screen when Apollo Ohno got the gold.  Everyone was cheering it was so exciting!

Worst Sports Moment- I have to go with the Lance Armstrong doping admission.  It was so disappointing. I know many suspected him for years and there was a lot of evidence but to be lied to for over a decade and the way he treated people while lying is pretty despicable.

I actually think the lies are worse than the actual enhanced training.  It was an era where he could not win and not do that and certainly not 7 times.  Even his peers have admitted that.  It’s the smug denials and the cocky attitude for years that makes it reprehensible.  Plus, he masquerades as an goodwill advocate which makes the lies even worse.

Best Meal- It’s really hard but I think for sentimental reasons alone I have to go with spaghetti and meatballs because I’ve been to Italy, I love Italian food and I had a moment of truth over the meal years ago that changed my life.  It is the ultimate comfort food.  (Thanksgiving food would be really high too)

Worst Meal- I have to go with menudo.  Whoever thought eating tripe was a good idea must have been nuts.  It looks like bubble wrap.  The soup is greasy with chunks of stomach floating to the top.  It’s gross!

Best TV Show- I have to go with the Simpsons because it has been consistently funny and engaging almost my entire life. It debuted when I was 8 and it is still on and I still watch it every Sunday.  Recently they’ve been doing amazing things with the opening couch montage which is incredible when you think about it- after 25 years they are still coming up with new ways to present a sofa with 4 people.

Worst TV Show- There have been some really bad one’s but I have to go with Fear Factor because it is just so gross. It existed only to make people want to throw up. Also, I would say The Tudors because I got it on neftlix thinking it was a Masterpiece Classic type show and about 10 minutes in I realized it was basically midevil porn and turned it off.  For shame!

Best Reality Show- Got to go with Survivor, although I love The Amazing Race.  TAR involves more luck and less strategy.  Just people surviving on little each day in the jungle would be compelling but the fact that a person get’s voted off every day is very exciting and makes people behave in intriguing ways. I also loved Extreme Makeover Home Edition.  What can I say?  I’m a sucker for a needy family getting a house.

Worst Reality Show- Keeping up with the Kardashians.  Why is this still on?  What’s wrong with America?  I resent the Kardashians because I actively try to not know about their lives and yet I know so much.  It’s like a disease that spreads whether you like it or not.  Go away!  I’ve watched one episode and I thought ‘these people are terrible, shallow people’ and nothing over the next whatever years have convinced me otherwise.

Best Dessert- Lemon meringue pie but it has to be very strong lemon flavor.  I’ve had it every year on my birthday since I can remember.  I love it!

Worst Dessert- I mean there aren’t many bad desserts but got to go with rhubarb pie.  I know some people say it is very good but I have never had it made where I like it.

Best Band- This is really hard.  The Beatles are the obvious choice and I love them. However, when I am looking at what was influential on me and not society at large,  I have to with REM.  Automatic for the People was one of the first albums I bought and I’ve listened to hundreds of time with pleasure.

Worst Band- Kiss. I am sure they have some catchy tunes but I heard Gene Simmons on local radio here once and he was such a jerk it turned me off the whole band.  Plus, they look stupid.  Anyone who is trying that hard to get attention isn’t all that talented in the first place.

Best Singer- Got to go with Josh Groban.  I love his voice.  His concert in 2008 was one of the coolest experiences in my life.  (He looked me straight in the eyes and sang to me. No joke).  I love Michael Buble too and he’s great live but if I had to pick one person to sing to me I’d pick Josh.

Worst Singer- So many to chose from…I have to go with Shakira.  She seems like a really nice person but when she sings it sounds like a goat throwing up.  I don’t get it.

Best Song- Over the Rainbow.  I love The Wizard of Oz.  I love Judy Garland.  I love the message of the song. I think I have 13 versions of it.  I love it Hawaii style, Ingrid Michaelson cover, classic.  I love the haunting words (if happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow why oh why can’t It).  Ugh.  So pretty.

Worst Song-  Lovely Ladies- Les Miserables.  I have to pick it because it sullies what is otherwise my favorite thing ever.  I love Les Mis and I love the story of Fantine but this song is so gross and it along with Master of the House are total earworm songs.  They will get stuck in your head forever and given some of the lyrics that is not a good thing.

Best Broadway Musical- Is there any doubt?  It has to be Les Miserables.  Despite 2 songs I dislike, 2 songs that are so corny, I love it.  I love the message, story, most of the songs and it was the first thing I remember really inspiring me as art and music.  It taught me what those mediums could do and how powerful they could be.  I’ve seen it live 4 times, twice in New York and I always have a purse full of tissues at the end.

Worst Broadway Musical- Book of Mormon musical.  Ok I haven’t seen it but I’ve listened to the score, watched scenes.  It is vulgar, distasteful and it paints my faith as naive, stupid and my leaders whom I love as zealous sexpots.  No thank you but seriously read the book…

Best Candy- Reese’s peanut butter cups.  I especially like the Easter eggs. I’m not sure why but they are even better than the cups.  The combination of chocolate and peanut butter is just delicious.

Worst Candy- Good and Plenty.  I think you are either born with the taste for black licorice or you aren’t.  I wasn’t.  Yuck!

So that’s a pretty good list.  What about you?  What’s your best and worst.  You should try it.  It’s harder than you might expect.