On albums, iPods, Alan Embree, and the end of Six Feet Under

Because Eric did, my top 50 albums of the last 25 years:

1 OK Computer , Radiohead
2 Tigermilk , Belle & Sebastian
3 The Queen is Dead , The Smiths
4 Grace , Jeff Buckley
5 Nevermind , Nirvana
6 Things Fall Apart , The Roots
7 If You're Feeling Sinister , Belle & Sebastian
8 Rain Dogs , Tom Waits
9 The Bends , Radiohead
10 Paul's Boutique , The Beastie Boys
11 Reckoning , REM
12 Homogenic , Bjork
13 Stankonia , OutKast
14 Siamese Dream , The Smashing Pumpkins
15 Loveless , My Bloody Valentine
16 Chutes Too Narrow , The Shins
17 Being There , Wilco
18 Wowee Zowee , Pavement
19 Dummy , Portishead
20 Surfer Rosa , The Pixies
21 Fear of a Black Planet , Public Enemy
22 A Northern Soul , The Verve
23 Aenima , Tool
24 The Low End Theory , A Tribe Called Quest
25 Thriller , Michael Jackson
26 Van Lear Rose , Loretta Lynn
27 Agaetis Byrjun , Sigur Ros
28 When the Pawn… , Fiona Apple
29 The Marshall Mathers LP , Eminem
30 The Chronic , Dr. Dre
31 Parklife , Blur
32 Elephant , The White Stripes
33 New Adventures in Hi-Fi , REM
34 Weezer , Weezer
35 Aquemini , OutKast
36 Moon Safari , Air
37 XO , Elliot Smith
38 In it for the Money , Supergrass
39 Dig Your Own Hole , The Chemical Brothers
40 The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill , Lauryn Hill
41 Yankee Hotel Foxtrot , Wilco
42 Ritual de lo Habitual , Jane's Addiction
43 Poses , Rufus Wainwright
44 Sea Change , Beck
45 Central Reservation , Beth Orton
46 The Stone Roses , The Stone Roses
47 Is this It? , The Strokes
48 Exile in Guyville , Liz Phair
49 Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia , The Dandy Warhols
50 Daydream Nation , Sonic Youth

In quasi-related news, my upgrade to a 60GB photo iPod (I bought it more for the extra 10,000 songs worth of space than the photo capability) has gone less than swimmingly. My first major stride towards a 4500-song database on the new toy came this evening, when I gave up on my over-iTunesed laptop and installed iTunes on Jill's desktop (using my external hard drive for storage, of course). By tomorrow, I anticipate having a third of my collection in the car with me.

I don't make a practice of quoting others in this space, but the ever-clever Bill Simmons dropped this gem earlier this week: "Watching the Yankees keep throwing Alan Embree out there is like watching your arch-enemy in college unknowingly start dating a girl with VD." God bless 'em.

And finally, as I blog, I'm watching the last episode of Six Feet Under. I always thought I'd watch the last episode of The Simpsons and think 'there goes the best television show of my (or probably anyone's) lifetime'. But after four or five supbar seasons of The Simpsons possibly stripped it of that title, I'm feeling the same way about a show that debuted long after The Simpsons peaked. I probably won't even know when the Simpsons' series finale happens, so I'll relish this moment, bidding farewell to a masterpiece with my fiance in her chair, a bottle of Pinot Noir in my hand, and my iPod filling up at about 2 gigs an hour.