Monday, April 04, 2005

Top Five Fun


One of my very first blog posts was my top five poetry books. Which made sense, as the blog was going to be a place to publish my grown-up poetry.
But a few years ago I ran a little mail art project inviting people to submit top five lists. The resulting booklet was very interesting. So I thought I might repeat the exercise again as a blog. And here it is…

Send your Top Fives here!
They can be straightforward lists like –

My Top Five Beatles Songs

1 Strawberry Fields Forever
2 I Am the Walrus
3 Something
4 Hey Jude
5 She Loves You


or be more obscure. For example –
My Top Five Surfaces

1 Old wooden table top
2 Good-quality, white drawing paper
3 Manicured lawn
4 A hot cotton under sheet in the depths of winter
5 The surface of the Moon on a crystal-clear night


I’m looking forward to reading yours.

66 comments:

Russell CJ Duffy said...

Top Five Graphic Novels

1. Maus by Art Speigleman
2. From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell
3. Ghost World by Daniel Clowes
4.Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
5. Contract with God by Will Eisner

Russell CJ Duffy said...

Top Five Blog sites

(in no particular order he says palcing a tin helmet firmly on his head)

1. Pica
2. to Norway on a bicyle
3. Spicy Cauldron
4. Searching for Blue Sea Grass
5. SongsWithoutWhich

Russell CJ Duffy said...

Top Five Body Oils

1. Shea Butter
2. White Ginger
3. Cocoa Butter
4. Peppermint
5. Strawberry

Wastedpapiers said...

Top 5 Pencil Grades.

1. 4B
2. 3B
3. 2B
4. 1B
5. HB

Wastedpapiers said...

Top 5 Living Stand-Up Comedians.

1. Peter Kay
2. Ken Dodd
3. Ross Noble
4. Eddie Izzard
5. Billy Connolly

Ostrich said...

Top Five Female Rock Stars:-

1. Janis Joplin
2. Ani DiFranco
3. Bonnie Raitt
4. Grace Slick
5. Chrissy Hynde

Russell CJ Duffy said...

Top Five(?) blood groups

1. O
2. AB
3. A.
4. B.
5. Merlot

Roger Stevens said...

CJ - Maus is brilliant. So is Norway on a Bicycle. Thanks for number 4! And good to see O getting a chance at the top spot.

Michael - I'd have to go for 6B at number one. It doesn't even make your top five. I'd have Billy in at three.

Ostrich - I'll have to think about list. What about debbie Harry?

Anonymous said...

Top Five Smells :-)

1) Scent of the earth after the first rain
2) Jasmine flowers
3) Chocolate - intoxicating!!
4) Chinese food
5) Fresh baked cake!!! Also bread!

sylviasometimes said...

Top Five Rainy Day things to do:
1.Put on classical music, like Vivaldi's The Four Seasons
2.Make a big pot of soup or stew...yummy smells
3.read a book...ready to start "Memories of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden
4.make collages or mailart thingys
5.take a walk in the rain, long as it's not a total drencher!

Russell Ragsdale said...

Top Five things to Make in the Kitchen:

1. Blini
2. Buttermilk Bread
3. Raspberry apple cobbler
4. Mushroom omelet
5. Creamy and thick Sauce Bechamel

Russell Ragsdale said...

Top Five things to Eat:

1. Beef en daube
2. Blini, sour cream, and jam
3. Cashew chicken
4. Grilled Onion and Mushroom Hamburger
5. Assorted good cheeses with fruit and wine

(Wow that was an incredibly tough list for an inveterate fatboy)

Roger Stevens said...

Nicole - I know it's a classic but how about coffee?

Syl - nice list. Not sure about walk in rain. Sheltering from rain in barn with corrugated roof on warm day would be okay.

Heidi - thank you for sharing those lovely images!

Russell - I've never had Blini nor Beef en Daub. Gonna look them up. If you'd like to share the recipe...

sylviasometimes said...

right behind you, Roger, chasing down Russells goodies...salivating...that SALAD is not quite as appealing as it was before I read this!

Nan said...

Top Five Things that Make My Heart Flutter
1. warm breath and a soft kiss on the nape of the neck
2. art supply catalogs and a discount ticket
3. vanilla-mocha latte' (something about the caffiene I suppose}
4. gourd vines laden with white flowers at dusk
5. "I love you's" from those who do

Roger Stevens said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Roger Stevens said...

Lovely, Cate. Are your sculptures as romantic? Or not?

amiethinggoes said...

TOP 5 ADDICTIONS:
(These I can't leave without)

1. Coffee
2. Movies
3. Books
4. Hotdogs
5. Singing

Russell CJ Duffy said...

Top Five 'Why didn't I's'

1. Why didn't I replace the loo roll before emptying my bowels?

2. Why didn't I put my dinner on a tray before spilling gravy all over my suit trousers?

3. Why didn't I come out with a pack of condoms before meeting this gorgeous person?

4. Why didn't I leave the Mother-in-Law at the service station before her constant back street driving sent me mad?

5. Why did I ever say 5 'Why didn't I's'?

Russell CJ Duffy said...

PS That was meant to be 'back seat' NOT street. Sorry.

PPS. Who was the punk poet who looked a lot like Dylan and who wrote the poem about trains using the F word to give the impression of the clickety clack sound of the trains movement? Help please!

Roger Stevens said...

CJ - You're looking for John Cooper Clarke (see your blog)

So - your mother-in-law doesn't drive madly round the back streets then?

Nan said...

My sculptures romantic? No, not the wine and dinner version of romance anyhow. Amorous is probably more my word of choice. And not all. Just a few who can't help themselves.

JP said...

Top 5 Reasons I stay alive:

1. To see what happens next (aka: the continuity factor)
2. To remember what happened before
3. To be what's happening now
4. Still searching for sound underground
5. Beer

Top 5 things on my desk right now:

1. Let Love In: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (CD)
2. Soundgarden: Screaming Life/FOPP (CD)
3. Christopher Priest: The Seperation (Novel)
4. Two Wills Navy Cuts (cigarettes)
5. One Fevi Kwik (Glue stick)

Top 5 books I read before the age of 20

1. Invisible Cities: Italo Calvino
2. Le Fluers du Mal: Charles Baudelaire
3. A Happy Death: Albert Camus
4. Tales of Mystery and Imagination: Edgar Allan Poe
5. Grimbold's Other World: Nicholas Stuart Grey (I Lost my copy :( )

Anonymous said...

Top 5 Years in School

1) Grade 4
2) Grade 2
3) Grade 7
4) Grade 9
5) Grade 11

amiethinggoes said...

Top Five Payables
1. Condo lease
2. Water Bills
3. Electricity Bills
4. Phone/ Cellphone Bills
4. Credit Cards

Roger Stevens said...

Keep 'em coming folks.

Top five things on my desk -

1 My computer.
2 A mini-mixing desk that allows me to receord directely on to my computer.
3 A Selloptape dispenser.
4 My diary
5 A lukewarm cup of coffee.

Roger Stevens said...

I've just finished the coffee. So I'll put my camera in at number 5.

Roger Stevens said...

I've a little CD holder by my desk where I keep a small selection of well... CDs. Music I'm currently enjoying as I write my blog and do others things that I do instead of working... top five are...

1 Best Of... George Harrison selection.

2 The Shadows first album

3 The Rutles - Archaeology

4 Webb Wilder - It Came From Nashville

5 Damien Rice - O

Lorena said...

top 5 things that inspire me

1. poetry read out loud
2. a great film (ex. motorcycle diaries)
3. listening to an artist performing live
4. book
5. random acts of kindness

Mo said...

Top 5 Napolean Dynamite Quotes:
1. "I caught you a delicious bass."
2. "Lucky"
3. "Do the chickens have large talons?"
4. "Are you guys having a killer time?"
5. "Pedro, just listen to your heart. That's what I do."

There's my list. By the way, thanks for stopping by my place.

Lorena said...

had to add 1 more (this is fun)

top 5 favorite things to do in spring weather

1. picnic
2. sipping coffee w/good company at an outdoor cafe
3. people watch in a park
4. bike ride
5. playing frisbee

Roger Stevens said...

Hi The Wife. Who is Napoleon Dynamite?

Lorena. So what would be the best live band to watch? And where would the best picnic take place?

Nicole. 6,8 and 10 weren't so hot then?

Russell Ragsdale said...

With the dubious privilege of age comes but one unique benefit that I am aware of, the ability to visit (in memory) places that no one else gets to know intimately because they no longer exist (see Proust). Here is my list of top five places only I get to see with my own eyes (in chronological order):

1. Fullerton, California where there were lots and lots of orange groves for a kid to play in (1951)
2. West Los Angeles, California where there were vacant lots for my sister and I to run around and play in (1953)
3. Honolulu, Hawaii where I could run through the vacant lots to go to play with Anna (but watch out for the little fire ant mounds, 1955)
4. London, England where I could wonder around the outskirts watching ordinary lives coexist with the nightmare of bombed out buildings (1958)
5. Paris, France ah Classical Paris without any modern buildings and statues in a visual concert of old, sophisticated, and tasty (1958)

I am sorry young people will never see this world which has passed away and which I still profoundly enjoy (and to some extent, live in) to this day!

Wastedpapiers said...

Top five animators (this week)-

1. Max Fleischer
2. Ub Iwerks
3. Friz Freleng
4. Tex Avery
5. Nick Park

Mo said...

Roger--If you enjoy witty movies then you should definitely see Napoleon Dynamite. Great great movie. See about it here:

http://tinyurl.com/2msmh

erl said...

Top Five CDs to Take to a Desert Island

1. Tool/Undertow
2. Tori Amos/Little Earthquakes
3. Portishead/Dummy
4. Massive Attack/Blue Lines
5. Alice in Chains/Jar of Flies

Russell CJ Duffy said...

Top Five Signs of the Zodiac

1. Aires (of course)

2. Gemmini

3. Leo

4. Taurus

5. Scorpio

Lorena said...

top 5 picnic places :)

1. music pavilion @ chicago's millenium park
2. in a garden
3. park
4. by the lake
5. at home w/significant other :)

top 5 live artist (concerts i've been too)

1. celine dion
2. ani difranco
3. ricky martin
4. marc anthony
5. rachel yamagata

Nan said...

Top Five Pleasant Surprises
1)The weatherman erring in his forecast of cold and rainy
2) An afternoon all to yourself
3) Writing that locks you in
4) Your smallest grandchild being able to get his kite in the air by himself
5) A compliment when you didn't see it coming

Roger Stevens said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Roger Stevens said...

That's lovely, Cate.

Russell Ragsdale said...

Cate, Roger!

3) !!!!! Yeah, words you can't keep in a moment longer!

Ed Giecek said...

Top 5 Canadian TV shows:
1. Red Green
2. This Hour Has 22 Minutes
3. Curling
4. Canadian Antiques Road Show
5. The National

Russell CJ Duffy said...

Tpo Five Graphic Novelists (thats comic book writers to you mate)

1. Alan Moore
2. Neil Gaiman
3. Frank Miller
4. Daniel Clowes
5. Gilberto Hernandez

Sue hardy-Dawson said...

Top five things you don't want to find under the bed.
1. something fluffy that used to be sticky.
2.A monster.
3.A library book that is a month over due.
4.Something the cat caughed up.
5.My mother inlaw, particularly if she's just found, something fluffy that,ect....

Roger Stevens said...

Jaded - but what would be the top 5 things you'd like to hear?

JC - On your recommendation I bought Ghost world and enjoyed it. The ending was strange, though. Sort of tailed off...

Hey Ed - an hour's got 60 minutes. Is time different in Canada then?Jill's in London. Is that anywhere near you?

Sue - don't you just hate finding your mother-in-law under the bed? Happened to me only the other day...

Sue hardy-Dawson said...

Did the cat caugh her up or was she just over due

Sue hardy-Dawson said...

Did the cat caugh her up or was she just over due

Sue hardy-Dawson said...

Oops Seem to have posted twice somehow

Jonathan said...

Top Five Painters...

!. Piero della Francesca
2. Philip Guston
3. Fra Angelico
4. Howard Hodgkin
5. Lucien Freud

amiethinggoes said...

Top 5 envious Things About Roger

1. 55 comments in one post! uh make that 56

2. Got a number of books successfully published

3. Can create fantastic poems probably in mere seconds

4. Popular

5. He got a band of his own

Anonymous said...

Top five year seasons

1.indian summer in Siberia
2.early spring in Venice
3.real summer in Kazakhstan
4.spring in Korea
5.Arctic winter

angel-A

Anonymous said...

Top Five time of a day:

1. midnight always
2. 9 p.m. to midnight every day except Sunday
3. 6 - 8 a.m. except Mondays
4. 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. Sunday
5. all night

angel-A

Anonymous said...

Top five letters:

1. A
2. n
3. g
4. e
5. l

Anonymous said...

Top Five emotions/moods
1. love
2. humour
3. excitement
4. relief
5. transcendent, philosophical, Zen

0:-)

Wastedpapiers said...

Top 5 worst 48 hours of-

1. Winter Vomiting Sickness
2. Drizzle
3. Pre-election Waffle
4. The Squitters
5. Calling Ralph on the big white phone

Roger Stevens said...

Thanks, all. Keep 'em coming.


(You're having a nice time at the moment, then, Michael?)

Wastedpapiers said...

Top 5 strange tummy sounds-

1. ominous rumblings
2. alarming gurgles
3. distressing wobbles
4. faint warblings
5. tiny squeakings

Roger Stevens said...

Bit boring this maybe - but in reply to Jonathan

Top Five Artists

Magritte
Schwitters
Roth
Escher
Ingres

Freud would make my top ten.

Roger Stevens said...

I just spotted this...

Artist's Acrostic

Roth is productive
Ingres seductive
Magritte is a man of his times
Escher's endeavour is ever so clever and
Schwitters does collage and rimes.

Russell CJ Duffy said...

Top Five Fruits

1. Peaches
2. Pineapples
3. Strawberries
4. Pears
5. Mango

Russell CJ Duffy said...

Top Five Recently read novels

1. The Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor
2. The Crimson Feather and the White by Michael Faber
3. Brick Lane by Monica Ali (absolutely gorgeous UK asian girl)
4. The Collected works of Edgar Allan Poe
5. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Anonymous said...

Top 5 Arabic sayings

1) Illi kallaf ma mat.
(He who reproduces does not die)

2)Al jar gabl ad-dar.
(Choose the neighbour before the house)

3) Al jamal ma yishuf sanamu.
(The camel cannot see its own hump)

4) Gar'a bititbaha bish'ar bint ukhtaha.
(A bald woman brags about her niece's hair)

5) Idha iltagat al 'aynan istaha al lisan.
(When eyes meet, the tongue becomes shy)

Sue hardy-Dawson said...

Top ten things you don't want the children in your class to say.
1) Who made God?
2) Simon's just been sick on the projector.
3) Does copper sulpate kill goldfish? How much would it take.
4) Our last teacher had a nervous break-down.
5)That blouse is really nice, my granny has one just like it

Sue hardy-Dawson said...

6, 7, 8, 9, 10 you cant count miss.

Anonymous said...

Top Five Bert Jansch Albums

(not including the obvious gems that were his first few solo albums!)

1. From the Outside
2. A Rare Conundrum
3. Toy Balloon
4. When the Circus Comes to Town
5. Thirteen Down