The Christopher Myers

Another introduction that we have to keep short, because Chris has provided us with his own commentary. This is not a bad thing, but why would you want to hear from me when you can hear from them?

A man who needs little to no introduction around these parts. He posts every once-in-a-while on this blog as poor poor pitiful me, usually when he has a problem with the way things are run. He's an all-around good guy, good softball player, good voice that will melt you like butter, good predecessor to my Calvert Hall math award, good egg baby, good Disney collector, and some kind of television expert, etc. He also posts pretty infrequently at a blog called The French Inhaler. If you backtrack I highly recommend you check out the kids who prank call him. Really good bit.

Anyway, Chris twisted the concept of Friends Recommend by recommending to you things he now likes that he was originally determined to hate. Here we go, in his own words:

THINGS I WAS DETERMINED TO HATE:

TV:

Friday Night Lights ---I thought that High School Football + Goofy Looking Teens and Dementiated Grandmas = A terrible show. Every episode on hulu.com. If you watch the first episode and don't want to keep watching, you're heartless. Tyra Collette, Matt Saracen, Tim Riggins, Buddy Garrity, Smash Williams, Coach Taylor, Tami Taylor, Matt Saracen's grandma, Jason Street, Landry "Lance" Clark...I have no clue how to determine my favorite character. I can't think of many other shows where I can list the first, last and nick name of nearly every possible character.

Battlestar Galactica ---While frustrating sometimes because of their "We'll make it up as we go along" long-term plotting strategy, this Sci-Fi is so much more than just some lame spaceship show and I can look past the little WTF-were-they-thinking detours. Gaius Baltar.

30 Rock ---Was a staunch supporter of "Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip" in the battle of the "Behind The Scenes at a Sketch Comedy Show" shows, so I resented this show when Studio 60 got canceled and this one lived on. This one is good, it turns out. I included this so that Adam could riff on an episode of this and then pretend I didn't recommend anything else.

Corner Gas ---The most unattractive cast in all of television would turn anyone away initially. Find yourself a good Oscar-centric episode (Mail Fraud? Spin Cycle? Mosquito Time? Slow Pitch? Dress For Success?) and fall in love.

Movies:

Memento ---Once it was released on DVD, I decided to give it a chance and see if Dave Wright could actually act or not. Turns out he's awesome.

Music:

Jonathan Richman - Surrender to Jonathan
Randy Newman - Sail Away / Good Old Boys ---Spent my first 18/23 years throwing these two in the category of "Supposed genius songwriters who were blessed with a non-voice and record their music in a style that makes it almost unlistenable." I included this so that Adam could pretend that "I Love LA" is on one of these two Randy albums and then call it a day.

Nick Lowe - Rose of England/Jesus of Cool ---Spent my first 26 years thinking he was some lame old guy.

Gram Parsons - GP/Grevious Angel ---Spent my first 20 years thinking he was Graham Parker, whom I incidentally have never heard either, but seems like a lame old guy.

Bee Gees - Main Course ----Spent my first 24 years thinking this would be too much high singing for me, then heard rumors that their first few albums were considered by some to be the Lost Beatles albums, which is pretty accurate. Then I explored the disco era in depth. This Main Course is something special.

Kenny Rogers - Eyes That See In the Dark ---Spent my first 20 years thinking that Kenny was a chicken-eating borderline douchebag. Barry Gibb wrote and produced this album. Sure, there's "Islands In the Stream," but on top of that, we have some of the best songs I've heard in my adult life. Perhaps too Adult Contemporary for some.

Miscellaneous:

Google Reader. ---Google Reader is Google's best invention. It has made me better friends with friends of mine who also use it to read internet stuff. I was never determined to hate it.