It has been over seven years since I started this blog and the albums list was one of the first that I added in. For years since I have been wanting to expand this cut of 250 albums to 1000, but it has taken two years of me starting the year with the resolution to finish it (and failing) until I got to this point in 2021.
I still had the thoughts about whether I should switch to the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die list, or to continue on with the list on Acclaimed Music. Since I started this blog using the Acclaimed Music site, I am going to continue on. If I somehow end up completing this, then maybe I will switch source.
So, what’s my starting point? Well, aside from the top 250 there are albums (like Dare!) which I had previously written posts for but had since fallen off of the list. I will also be considering albums like Be The Cowboyand A Crow Looked At Meas crossed off as I have already written about them as part of my end of year lists.
On the flipside, albums in my first end of year list such as Vulnicura or Yswill not be counted yet as I never wrote something about them. There are also albums from a previous blog of mine (where I tried to listen to the 1001 Before You Die list), which will not be counted yet – however I will be copying over those posts from nearly 10 years ago as some of the first crossings off of the new list.
List item: Listen to the 1000 Most Acclaimed Albums Progress: 287/1000
It took me 7 years to get to this point – so I guess I’ll see what happens in 2041. Seeing how long I have been doing this blog, I do wonder if I’ll still be finding things to write about when I am entering my fifties.
So back in mid-October I saw an ad on my Instagram feed. It was for a massive box-set that was being released of the Disney Animated Canon available on DVD or Blu-Ray. Considering my love of animated movies and that Disney engage in a scarcity tactic known as ‘The Vault’ – it was a no brainer…
So we bought it. Weirdly I found out later on that this was the ‘European Canon’, meaning that neither Dinosaur nor 2011’s Winnie The Pooh were included. No idea why the canons are different, but there we go.
List Item: Watch The Disney Animated CanonProgress: 0/57
Now, over the course of time I have already seen the vast majority of films on this list. However, I have never gone out of my way to watch them in chronological order and there are still some interesting films from the early and post-Renaissance years that I have yet to watch.
So, here I am adding another list to this already overflowing bucket list blog. Then again, it’s not like I have any plans to die soon and I really would like an excuse to watch Cinderella and One Hundred and One Dalmatians again in the near(ish) future.
This will be a list that continues to grow as Disney release new films on their near-annual schedule so, like my Best Picture challenge, this will be a list that requires regular updating. Not that I mind having to watch a new animated movie every year.
I have been complaining for some time about the list I have been using for my anime challenge. Not only is it incredibly volatile, but the way it splits series into specific seasons AND is subject to the whim of creating Pingu-themed memes just makes it… a little bit difficult.
Still, when there’s nothing else out there that’s really feasible, it made for a good stop-gap until I found a good replacement. A replacement that, thanks to the work of a wonderful Redditor, I will now be following… which knocks me back a couple of places.
List Item: Watch the 100 Anime to See Before You DieProgress: 34/100
Right, so this is a different sort of list. It was compiled to feature anime that are both influential and acclaimed. This means that there are a number of older series (the oldest being Tomorrow’s Joe from 1970) are on the list, although half are still from the last 12 years.
Shows like Gintama and Hajime no Ippoare still on there, albeit bundled up as single entries. I’m also gaining checks for a number of series that were not on the previous list, such as Cardcaptor Sakura, Sailor Moon and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
Given the size of some of these series, I will be following the same rules that I do for the 1001 TV Shows list – which means I won’t have to watch 900+ episodes of Detective Conan and for that I’m thankful. Might be a while before an anime post goes up as I’m in the middle of season 2 of The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.and the latest series of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.
Thanks again Redditor. I’m feeling good about this list change.
It’s been nearly two years since I added the last new project to this blog, so why not add another one? Well that’s pretty much what my husband must have been thinking when he suggested that I do this as we watched an old episode of The Great British Bake Off.
Sure, I laughed him off at first… and then I spent the next week thinking about it and getting excited at the prospect of finding recipes from every nations from China to Comoros. I started making spreadsheets and, as you can see, I have adopted this as one of my many long running goals.
So here we are at the start:
List Item: Cook something from every countryProgress: 0/193
Now, I am nowhere near the first blogger to start on this idea. Just a simple Google search for some recipe ideas of the more far flung countries (like Vanuatu) unearthed a whole heap of them, most of them seemingly unfinished but there are a few who have already succeeded. That really gives me hope!
So, why 193 countries? Well, there’s no real comprehensive list out there so I made a choice to go with the members of the United Nations. It means that I won’t be doing Kosovo or Taiwan, but maybe they’ll join the U.N. by the time I finish off this list. Who knows, weirder things have happened since I started this blog (i.e. Brexit).
As an additional thing, I am going to be trying to make either a main dish or a dessert for each country. If the country has a vast amount of foods to choose from (e.g. France, Japan and U.S.A.), I am going to try and make a main and a dessert.
I will be starting this challenge tomorrow where I’m going to be marrying this new list with the other food list. So see you then.
Okay so I must be insane. However, I have a feeling this will be the penultimate list to be added to my bucket list blog (other than replacement lists should I actually complete something).
It is hard to find any comprehensive best ever list for anime. I’ve been looking for a while and it would have been included in this blog with the TV and comics lists had found a earlier.
Since I am not in the position to create an anime list like I did with video games I will be relying on the opinions of fans. Maybe in future I’ll shift lists, but until then I’ll follow the myanimelist.net top TV series list.
Since this is a solo effort rather than doing it with my husband my rules will be different. For example, if I am five episodes in and I absolutely cannot stand it then I will call it the day.
One issue about this list is how volatile it is… to try and counter-act this I will temporarily skip over shows that are part of the current season in the hope that groupthink will work things out. Also, I will be updating this list semi-regularly with the main list page having a date of the update. Until a good publication comes out this is the best I can do (looking at you AV Club and IGN – please make a best of list).
List Item: Watch the 100 best anime TV seriesProgress: 7/100
As you can see, it’s a long way to go. The shows I have so far seen are: Steins;Gate, Nichijou, Usagi Drop, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, two seasons of Ghost In The Shell and Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai. The first and last in this list being my favourite animes of all time.
A large number of the shows on this Top 100 list appear to be based around sports – especially traditionally American sports like baseball and basketball. Therefore, I will be going for one of these sporting shows as my starting point.
Other than these sporting shows – I am looking forward to finally seeing Gintama, Cowboy Bebop and Mushishi! This’ll be fun.
Over a year ago I made a post with what I thought was a pretty cool and definitive list of the best ever video games. Enter a rather amazing collaborator who furnished me with 1000+ extra lists!
That’s right, over 1300 lists have been amalgamated to create a new list of the best video games. With titles like Assassin’s Creed IV falling out to be replaced by the likes of UFO: Enemy Unknown the credibility of this list is feeling a little bit more… professional.
The great thing about having so many lists is stability. Yes, a new list always brings movement, but it is no longer as foundation shaking as before. This means that I am happily able to expand this to a Top 1000 – which can now be viewable at Play That Game
For the purposes of this blog, however, I am going to stick with the Top 100. Also, now that the list is in a FAR more complete state than it was last year, I will now be starting on these games for blog purposes. A lot of time has been taken up by making this as conclusive as possible. I feel I am pretty much there now.
Please enjoy, share and send any comments about this new list.
I think it is pretty well established that I am both a glutton for punishment and have an unrealistic expectation of how many ‘cultural things’ I can get through. I mean, I am working on the gaming meta-list and I am not even halfway through the books or films list. Not to mention all the foods I want to try.
Still, I have an excuse for all this: hubby (he seems to prefer ‘hub’ to ‘hubby’, but this is my blog). We’ll be doing these together, which means that we have agreed some rules regarding what we consider complete. For both lists I am going to aim for half first, just to make things feel that little bit more manageable.
List Item: Read half of the 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You DieProgress: 7/501
Okay, so I have always wanted to be a comic book reader. Also a lot of the manga and comics that I have read (e.g. Cardcaptor Sakura, Dilbert, The World God Only Knows, Nichijou and Usagi Drop) just are not on the list. Guess it means that my taste doesn’t quite align to the book. Still, means that the seven I have read (Persepolis, Scott Pilgrim, Watchmen, Death Note, Bleach, Genshiken and The Walking Dead) can be crossed off of the list.
Now, rules. These are rules that we agreed together since some of these comics have been going for 50+ years:
Type of Comic
Amount to read
Graphic novels
All
Daily comics
1 year’s worth minimum
Weekly
2 year’s worth minimum
Monthly
3 year’s worth minimum
So yes, I have a long way to go to get to 500 comics. It’s a damned sight more than the number of regular books that I still need to read. Rather exciting in a way, and it will provide a nice prolonged piece of relief after I get around to War and Peace.
List Item: Watch half of the 1001 TV Series You Must Watch Before You Die
Progress: 163/501
It, sadly, makes a lot of sense that this is a list that I have done particularly well with. I mean, I do watch a lot of TV. Some of it had to be of value. Then there are shows like I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here which are somehow on this list… I guess it did start something.
As with the comics this had to have some rules attached:
Type of TV Show
Minimum to watch
Annual Events (e.g. Eurovision)
5 episodes
Mini-series and Made for TV Movies
All episodes
Regular broadcasts – >1 hour long
15 hours or 3 episodes (whatever is greater)
Regular broadcasts – <1 hour long
20 episodes (or all if less then 20)
There are some additional rules to go with this. If we decide to start on a really long lasting show such as The Ed Sullivan Show or Brookside we will instead opt to only watch episodes picked out in the book or by articles on the web to ensure that we get a good flavour of what makes the shows worthy of inclusion on this list.
Due to our own rules there are shows like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt which are yet to be crossed off since, despite having seen all of it, we have yet to reach out 20 episode cap that will be reached once the second season comes out on Netflix. Swings and roundabouts eh?
I have no clue where we are going to start on this. I just know it isn’t going to be chronologically done.
List Item: Listen to the 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die
Yes, I am adding another of these books to my general consuming of all things list. In fact, I am going a bit nuts here and am taking the list from the original book from 2010 and tacking on the 20 entries that were added to the end of the 2013 and 2015 reissues.
Were some songs added further into the book? Maybe… I actually haven’t checked…
Anyway, I will be doing these songs in order of year (not complete chronological as I have not checked) in chunks of at least 10 songs. If I chose to listen to these non-stop I could get them all done in less than 3 days, but where’s the fun of that.
My looks at these songs will be done in microblog style since there will be a number of these songs that I don’t have much to say.
So, let’s get it started!
O sole mio – Enrico Caruso (1916)
World War One was raging and yet we were still attempting to create beauty. Obviously being 100 years old the quality is scratchy, but still amazingly clear considering the technology.
The music is not as clear as the voice – but it’s an operatic song so of course the voice is there to drive the car. Actually impressed with this.
St. Louis Blues – Bessie Smith (1925)
Fallout 3? Are you calling to me from the games shelf?
9 years later now, Louis Armstrong arming the cornet in the background. Well, fairly foreground as it did overpower her voice.
It’s a really old blues recording – a genre that is nowhere near as popular now in its pure form. Her voice is deep, soulful and melancholic. Wonder how it will sound in a later recording.
Allons a Lafayette – Joe & Cleoma Falcon (1928)
1001 showing its colours already. These lists are great as they will not be the 1001 best, but showcase a lot of different genres.
This has a genre of ‘cajun’. So I guess that means gumbo, swamps and Gambit exploding frogs with this explosive playing cards?
It feels like a really early version of country music in the construction, only that it is in French and sports an accordian. Already glad I’m doing this chronologically.
Lagrimas negras – Trio Matamoros (1928)
Whip out that Spanish guitar, it’s time for our first Latin song. Racistly, visions of mariachi bands are making their presence known in my head.
Black Tears it is called, a song that is based on seeing a woman crying in the streets and is a variation of bolero.
Already beginning to notice the improvement in the recordings.
Pokarekare – Ana Hato (with Deane Waretini) (1929)
Another song of lament, roaming across cultures and they are all lamenting their lost loves. Insight into the human condition there.
It’s a Maori song, but feels very conventional. In fact, it actually feels Irish in the same vein of ‘Oh Danny Boy’.
Hard to put the finger on this one.
St. James Infirmary Blues – Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five (1929)
Being the strange person I am, I know this song from a Betty Boop cartoon.
Like many of these songs it is, again, sad. Sure it makes for great background listening and Louis Armstong’s vocals is like listening to velvet. It’s just death talk again and loud brass instruments.
Not a bad thing though! Just maudlin when you listen to it closely.
El manisero – Don Aspiazu & His Havana Casino Orchestra (1929)
Thank God, we’re back to something a bit more upbeat. Love the maracas in the beginning. Or is it a bag of peanuts? No, it’s maracas.
The sway of the percussion is really rather enjoyable in this song.
Apparently, this is a song that started a rumba craze. And… oh god I am swaying in my chair listening to this. The only Spanish word I could understand was ‘corazon’ as in heart. So, probably another love song.
And… I’m back to the swaying again. Shit.
Minnie the Moocher – Cab Calloway & his Orchestra (1931)
Oh lord it’s Betty Boop again in another racist cartoon. I can’t shake the images of skeletons and ghosts as Betty and her dog(?) friend Bimbo are roaming through a maudlin landscape.
Drugs, blues and scat music. I miss the peanut vendor.
Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl – Bessie Smith (1931)
First repeat performer and it’s on an old fashioned sex song. She needs a little hot dog between her rolls. Actual quote. Things never really change do they?
I know this more from the Nina Simone version of this dirty blues song. Although this feels a lot more explicit as she looks at a man’s snake and tells him to stop fooling. Okay then…
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? – Bing Crosby (1932)
The first of what is going to be a number of crooning numbers. Who better to start it off than the molasses-tones of Bing Crosby.
Years before White Christmas and the whistling postman (don’t ask) this song is a real relic of the Great Depression. It’s all about someone who has nothing because of the failure of capitalism and is looking for help.
Sadly, a sentiment that still applies to this day.
Right, this post today is not me ticking off another item on my bucket list nor is it an update about me getting closer to accomplishing one of the longer list items.
Since I started this blog about a month ago there have been posts every day since there are a number of things that I have already done and I wanted to get myself a bit up to date. However, I am beginning to run low on things that I have already done so instead of leaving this blog a ghost town with a post every fortnight I will start to ration out the updates which allow me to be more timely when I actually accomplish something.
In other news, I would like to thank one of my readers TeeJay for sending in a suggestion for something to be added to the list:
You’ve never smoked your own Meat/Fish/Cheese and that is definitely something that needs to be added to your bucket list 🙂
So, as of posting this the bucket list now has a new item on it and I will be looking at how much a smoker is.
Now here is an item where being part of a long running gaming blog will give forth its fruit. I mean… look at this amazing treasure trove of games!
The search for a good list of the 100 best computer games lead me to many different sites. The fact that there is no TSPDT or Acclaimed Music for games is rather telling (and makes me wish I could come up with the code to start my own). Failing to find this I happened up this post made by the people of Gamesradar earlier this month and saw it as a sign.
One reason that this list appeals is that games are grouped by franchise which stops series such as Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda and Mario from over populating it. So I now have a list… how many have I played?
List Item: Play 100 of the greatest computer games Progress: 52/100
Well, instead of giving a long ramble about every game on the list I have already played what I am going to do is list them (in order according to the Gamesradar list) and link them to Pong and Beyond (in the case of multiples I will link to the game I liked most).
Before I Kick 