A Lifetime of Music—Year By Year

Though not specifically mentioned, I thought this looked like a really interesting meme from Mr. F.  You start with the year of your birth on Wikipedia and pick you favorite album.  Other ATK contributors and viewers (Tony), give this a try if you want.

1969--Tommy - The Who

1970--Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Emerson, Lake & Palmer

1971--Electric Warrior - T. Rex

1972--Will the Circle Be Unbroken - The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

1973--We're An American Band - Grand Funk Railroad

1974--Autobahn - Kraftwerk

1975--Hair of the Dog - Nazareth

1976--The Ramones - The Ramones

1977--The Grand Illusion - Styx

1978--Van Halen - Van Halen

1979--The Wall - Pink Floyd

1980--London Calling - The Clash

1981--Escape - Journey

1982--The Number of the Beast - Iron Maiden

1983--Seven and the Ragged Tiger - Duran Duran

1984--The Unforgettable Fire - U2

1985--Scarecrow - John Cougar Mellencamp

1986--Licensed to Ill - The Beastie Boys

1987--One Way Home - The Hooters

1988--...And Justice for All - Metallica

1989--Mother's Milk - Red Hot Chili Peppers

1990--Fear of a Black Planet - Public Enemy

1991--O.G. Original Gangster - Ice T

1992--The Predator - Ice Cube

1993--Chaos A.D. - Sepultura

1994--No Need to Argue - The Cranberries

1995--Alice In Chains - Alice in Chains

1996-- Boys for Pele - Tori Amos

1997--Come on Over - Shania Twain

1998--No Substance - Bad Religion

1999--Enema of the State - Blink-182

2000--The Marshall Mathers LP - Eminem

2001--Satellite - P.O.D.

2002--Bunkka - Paul Oakenfold

2003--Faceless - Godsmack

2004--Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand

2005--The Warrior's Code - Dropkick Murphys

2006--Sam's Town - The Killers

2007--Dark Passion Play - Nightwish

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8 Random Things You Really Don't Care to Know

Thanks to that wonderful but inglorious bastard Rickey over at Riding with Rickey (an extremely well-written humor blog, if not also a source of over-biased East Coast baseball trivia), I have been tagged with a meme. This one's clever subject matter is "8 random (but true) facts about me."

After this, I am supposed to "tag" 8 other people. Well, most of whom I socialize with reds this and other blogs, but have none of their own, or are actually contributors. This is where I found my loophole to avoid sending it to less than 8 people, and make it as easy as possible: all of the otjher contributors to this blog are hereby required to be tagged by the meme and respond in kind in the comments section. Ha ha, internet Goids! You can't punish me with 1,000 generations of bad luck or whatever the punishment is for not forwarding the digital age's take on a chain letter...I am making an honest effort.

1. I hate scrambled eggs, passionately, unless they have loads of cheese mixed in them or are in the form of an omelette. Mrs. Smitty and Smitty Jr. love scrambled eggs, but they love them completely unadorned. Thus, the Smitty household goes through lots of eggs every weekend.

2. While I bitch very publicly about having to drive a minivan, I secretly really like it. It's roomy, it handles likke a dream, it's got an 8-cylinder balls-out engine, a plug for a full-sized television and gaming system, it can haul loads of building supplies and it has loads of electronics gear. What's not to love? Plus, it says "I'm a dad, motherfuckers."

3. Despite 8 years in the Marines, I have never been to any Asian countries, except the Phillipines. The legend of the banana and the (shall we say) practiced stripper? True.

4. I am afraid of heights. Not paralyzingly so; I can force myself up ladders and out of helicopters. But I nearly have to wear a diaper to do it. I get shaky and nervous climbing a 30' ladder to my roof top. Hanging Christmas lights is an exercise in controlling fear and vomit, and I have to have a stiff drink afterwards.

5. I won a 5th of Jack Daniels riding an electric bull at a country bar.

6. While I am an unapologetic metalhead headbanging freak, I consider Mozart's Piano Concerto in D Minor, K 466 - Romanza to be nearly the height of musical accomplishment. I am pissed I can't get it as a ring tone.

7. In the 5th grade, I won a Greater Lansing Area School District story writing contest. My book was entitled Blue Snow and the Seven Little Breakdancers (an adaptation of Snow White and the 7 Dwarves). It was such a hit that my co-author and I made it into a little play that we and 9 friends performed for our class. No kidding. That was the last creative thing I have ever done, I think.

8. I have never watched Casablanca all the way through, nor do I plan to. Classic or not, it bores the living shit out of me.

So there you go. 8 random, but true, statements. Tag, you're it Bob/Poindexter, Sopor, Steves, Joel, B Mac and Andy.

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