I Cut A Greatest Hits

With only a few days left in Italy, I've already run the entire gambit of leaving sentimentality. I was eager to go home, then eager to leave, afraid to return to a world that passed me by, looking forward to reinserting myself into society, hungry for fried chicken, anxious to watch English television, nostalgic for Italian television, but I have finally come to terms with the separation. I think the mark of all good break ups are a Greatest Hits - not favorite moments or melodramatic cream clouds, but the actual entertainment that gets one through the entire debacle. So here is mine.

Whilst here, I've read around 8000 pages, watched and listened to countless hours of iPod, and I tell you this not trying to top any story, but so that you can understand my newfound position as ne're do well. As it turns out, when you take away my immediate friendset, I'm out of ideas.

I didn't include things like iTunes, the institution of writing, or Luke Holland, simply because they weren't mass marketed entertainment. A good rule of thumb is that the selections have to be able to be preformed in charades. Which is another thing I didn't include on the list, but might be an Honorable Mention.

I also didn't include my computer, because it left me, and I'm still bitter. Since it died, I've been having to post from an internet cafe that's more like a computer closet. I have an account here, under the name Donald Turbo, which is something that I did not instigate. It was an honest mistake by the Indian proprietor. I also didn't include psuedonyms and false prefixes, though I've used a lot of them in traveling, from Captain Cass to Doctor Donald.

And so on.

10) THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY; Michael Chabon. When my mother came to visit at the beginning of March, she brought this book. It won the Pulitzer or something. Whatever. It was not only a fantastic story about growing up, but it was thick as a stone when it came to the world it took place in. Years, literally years of research went into it before Chabon started writing. That's heroic. Plus, it was suggested to me by Seth Cohen.

9) THE SUMMER BUMMER; episode six of the fourth season of THE O.C. Pivotal episode in THE O.C. canon. It's the point where THE O.C. ceases to be THE O.C. anymore and becomes something wholly different. But I love it. It's the end of all the drama and the true beginning of the end, plus there are some great Seth Cohen moments, and a solid O.C. music montage at the end.

8) GALAPAGOS, BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS, and OTHERS; Kurt Vonnegut. I read Kurt Vonnegut's books simply for the prefaces - completely serious. Any Vonnegut books I could find in Rome, in English, I would sit down with and read the preface, where Vonnegut spins so many metaphors so quickly that it all goes over my head, and all I'm left with is what seems like a congenial conversation with a wise, innappropriate friend. I then bought the book. I've actually bought every Vonnegut book I could find in Rome.

7) BATTLESTAR GALATICA; seasons three and four. Though the fourth season only debuted a month ago, I have been watching BSG at intervals scattered across the semester. Before the start of this final season, I watched about half of the third season, choice juicy selections coming from the beginning, middle, and end. And you may ask, why didn't you go outside? You're in Rome! But at this point in the year it was too cold.

6) FEEL THE ILLINOISE; Sufjan Stevens. Stevens may have become my very favorite musician, which is a position I know he has been personally jockeying for, going on a year or two now. Well, congratulations, Sufjan. You did it. You impressed me, with your sly lyrics, your trumpets, and your sublte wisdom. Kudos to you, my friend.

5) HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY; Douglas Adams. I was looking for something else to do (you know, besides walk around Rome starstruck) in the Lionhead Bookstore, the big English bookstore near Piazza Popolo, when I found this box set of the five books of the series. It all went quick and so swimmingly - Adams has a masterful imagination but stops short of seriousness, and, as we all know, seriousness is what keeps science fiction out of the mainstream. Plus, the GUIDE was invaluable when I went to London, for various landmarks it provided.

4) ARMCHAIR APOCRYPHA; Andrew Bird. This album was declared the official album of Rome by the Pope a few weeks ago, right before he went to America and started a Catholic (read: universal) revolution. It has a string section like Bocelli's larynx, and lyrics that fall into the category of "Don't Mean Anything But Sound Like They're Very Deep," which are a favorite of mine. The song Scythian Empires was the official theme song of Rome (so said the Pope).

3) LOST; season four. So season three, yes, it might have drug a little. There were some misfires. And this season, too, has had a few misfires, and several miscues, but these do not usurp the show from it's position as the network arena's Zeus - it is the best show on television, and the Desmond episode early on, The Constant, proved it. Look for a strong finish.

2) DAVID COPPERFIELD and A TALE OF TWO CITIES; Charles Dickens. No one knows more about growing up than Dickens, other than, say, God. And he's a master at telling these type stories, any which way: with a slow moving, cuddly plot in COPPERFIELD or an action story in CITIES. Also, he may very well be the funniest writer that talks as if he's recently turned into Samuel Johnson's dictionary.

1) PUSHING DAISIES; season one. And there's only been one season so far. It returns in the fall. In fact, there's only been nine episodes so far, due to the strike, but I've seen them all. Three times. Yes, in my semester stay, I've watched the entire first season of PUSHING DAISIES three times over. And I love it. It's a fairy tale soap bubble that doesn't pop, and involves drama that provides little unwanted tension, so the show's climaxes can still be watched by smiling faces. If only so the world.

Reading over the record of my semester, it now occurs to me that I may not have gone out of doors much. Well - that may be true. I did visit some monuments, but all that is becoming hazy now. There was a great big...thing...you know what, these things don't matter. I can always look at pictures. I just want to be entertained.