Aaron Emerson » Lifestream http://aaronemerson.com At Your Service Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:16:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 My Favorite Movies http://aaronemerson.com/my-favorite-movies http://aaronemerson.com/my-favorite-movies#comments Mon, 19 Nov 2007 10:54:34 +0000 Aaron http://aaronemerson.com/my-favorite-movies
read more..]]> Movies are a huge part of my life. I’d actually love to retire and spend the rest of my days writing scripts, but until then, I settle for watching about 5 movies a week. Truthfully, I like to have them playing in the background while I’m writing and end up having to watch some movies several times before I see the whole thing.

Over the years, I imagine I’ve seen over 1000 movies and I’ve somehow managed to choose 25 of them to go in my Top 25 Movies Of All Time list. After the first few movies, it gets very difficult to rank movies in order, so the movies after the first 10 or so aren’t in any particular order. Let me know what you think and please leave some recommendations for other movies you think I’d enjoy.

1. The Godfather : Part II

2. Pulp Fiction

3. The Usual Suspects

4. American Beauty

5. Shawshank Redemption, The

6. Magnolia

7. Casino

8. The Godfather

9. Scarface

10. Goodfellas

11. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back

12. Se7en

13. Fargo

14. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

15. Good Will Hunting

16. Fight Club

17. Being John Malkovich

18. Contact

19. Once Upon a Time in America

20. As Good As It Gets

21. American Gangster

22. The Departed

23. Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead

24. Transformers

25. Austin Powers In The Spy Who Shagged Me

]]> http://aaronemerson.com/my-favorite-movies/feed 0 My Favorite Music http://aaronemerson.com/my-favorite-music http://aaronemerson.com/my-favorite-music#comments Mon, 19 Nov 2007 05:27:41 +0000 Aaron http://aaronemerson.com/my-favorite-music
read more..]]> While I’m a fan of most music and even listen to different types of music every day, I’ve been a true fan of hip hop for over 20 years now. My tastes have evolved over time, beginning with party hip hop, moving on to gangsta rap and jiggy and resting comfortably with underground conscious hip hop today. Below you will see all of these eras represented as I go over my list of Top 10 Favorite Hip Hop Artists and my favorite albums of theirs.

1. Jay-Z

  1. Blueprint
  2. Reasonable Doubt
  3. The Black Album
  4. In My Lifetime Vol. 1
  5. Kingdom Come

2. A Tribe Called Quest

  1. The Lowend Theory
  2. Midnight Marauders
  3. People’s Instinctive Travels and The Path Of Rhythm
  4. Beats, Rhymes & Life
  5. The Love Movement

3. Outkast

  1. Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (contains my favorite hip hop song EVER)
  2. ATLiens
  3. Aquemini
  4. Stankonia
  5. The Love Below

4. Talib Kweli

  1. Reflection Eternal
  2. Eardrum
  3. Black Star
  4. Quality
  5. The Beautiful Struggle

5. Atmosphere

  1. You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We’re Having
  2. God Loves Ugly
  3. Lucy Ford
  4. Seven’s Travels
  5. Overcast

6. Wu-Tang Clan

  1. Only Built 4 Cuban Linx (my favorite hip hop album EVER)
  2. Enter The 36th Chamber
  3. Tical
  4. Liquid Swords
  5. Wu-Tang Forever

7. Zion I

  1. True And Livin’
  2. Mind Over Matter
  3. Deepwater Slang 2.0
  4. Heroes In The City Of Dope
  5. Curb Servin’

8. Cee-lo

  1. Cee-lo Green Is The Soul Machine
  2. Soul Food
  3. St. Elsewhere
  4. Cee-lo Green And His Perfect Imperfections
  5. Cell Therapy

9. Masta Ace

  1. A Long Hot Summer
  2. Disposable Arts
  3. Slaughtahouse
  4. Sittin’ On Chrome
  5. Hits U Missed

10. Brother

  1. The Undisputed Truth
  2. Shadows On The Sun
  3. Champion
  4. Rites Of Passage
  5. Lasting Impressions

If you haven’t heard any of these artists or albums, I highly recommend them all. I could probably tinker around with the order a bit, for instance I like Wu-Tang Clan more than Atmosphere though I listen to Atmosphere much more currently than I do WTC. Jay-Z is definitely my favorite hip hop artist of all time and there are some artists that could’ve made the list but didn’t really have 5 albums I could say I truly love (i.e. Eminem, Dr. Dre, Scarface/Geto Boys).

Top 10 Favorite Non Hip Hop Artists

1. Earth, Wind & Fire

2. Led Zeppelin

3. Bob Marley

4. Queen

5. Sublime

6. Nirvana

7. Natalie Merchant

8. John Mayer

9. Jack Johnson

10. Norah Jones

Off the top of my head, that’s a pretty accurate depiction of my favorite non hip hop/r&b artists. Earth, Wind & Fire is probably my favorite group of all time, regardless of genre.

Well, thanks for reading my list. Hope you find some new music you’ll enjoy as much as I do. If you are interested in finding more great new music, I highly suggest trying out Pandora. It’s an awesome free music application that learns your tastes over time and serves you up new music related to songs you like based on a number of musical attributes.

]]> http://aaronemerson.com/my-favorite-music/feed 0 My Favorite Girls http://aaronemerson.com/my-favorite-girls http://aaronemerson.com/my-favorite-girls#comments Sat, 17 Nov 2007 14:20:31 +0000 Aaron http://aaronemerson.com/my-favorite-girls
read more..]]> One of my biggest joys in life is watching my three daughters grow up. Being a father is a truly amazing role, one which offers constant satisfaction and a fountain of inspiration.

My Favorite Girls

I’m a natural born teacher and nothing is more gratifying to me than to teach my children about the world around them and letting them live their lives and make their own choices. I want my daughters to be strong women that make good decisions in life, and they can’t do that if I make them all for them. More and more, they make decisions that make me proud to be a part of their lives.So who are these amazing people?

Shawna – I can’t believe my oldest daughter is already 11. She is my mini-me and just reminds me so much of me as a child that it teaches me new things about me all the time. She’s a great student, an avid reader, an awesome gymnast and a pro with many Web 2.0 applications.

Alexia - Lexi recently turned 9 and is growing in leaps and bounds. She looks and acts just like her mommy and plays all day long with her dog Snoopy. She’s a tomboy (for now) and loves to show the boys they don’t have a monopoly on any activity and finds a new hobby seemingly every day.

Jessica - At 6 1/2, Jessica is the baby of the family, but boy does she have big spirit. A true free spirit, she isn’t much like me or her mother. On of the girliest girls I’ve ever met, Jessi loves to play dress up, pretend she’s a princess, primp herself with tubs of makeup and most of all, TALK.

]]> http://aaronemerson.com/my-favorite-girls/feed 1