#96 Psych

Psych is a tv show on USA network which deals with the work of Shawn Spencer (James Roday) a highly perceptive private detective who masquerades as a psychic to get cases and often works with the Santa Barbara police department. He has a partner, his best friend and straight man Gus (Dule Hill) and has a flirtationship with police detective Juliet O'Hara (Maggie Lawson). The show sparkles with great witty writing and hilariosly charmng performances by Lawson, Hill, and most of all Roday. Shawn's intelligence, observational skills, and irreverant sense of humor chock full of obscure pop culture references all make him charater I identify with. The realtionships between the charachters are strong and Shawn-Juliet is the rare fictional relationship that doesn't suffer from (s)he's-to-good-for-him/her syndrome, you really end up rootting for them. The show's entusiasm is infectious and when the writing is "on" it's more enjoyable to watch then any sitcom I've ever seen.

#97 Spring Awakening

I'll double your pleasure tonight with two posts since I was remiss in putting one up last night. This spot was originally earmarked for a different musical until I set my itunes the other night and realized just how incredible Spring Awakening's score is. Spring Awakening is a musical based on a turn of the century German play which deals with the subject of teen sexuality, touching on abortion, homosexuality, suicide, and sexual abuse. The musical benefits from a gorgeous, emotionally powerful rock score. Not one of those crap rock scores that you find in other musicals (Chess, Jesus Christ Super Star, even Rent at times)but real gritty compelling music. As it stands I have listened to My Junk 82 times on my itunes (the most of any song), Don't Do Sadness 51 times, the Bitch of Living 46 times, and the Dark I Know Well 35 times, and I had the soundtrack for significantly longer than I've had my ipod. And your fun fact of today is that this is the only work on the list set in Germany so don't hold hope for Cabaret.

On Horstmania & Related Topics

I have found it difficult to write posts without using the word Horstmania so I'm going to go ahead and explain it. Horstmania is the nation of the Horstman family meaning my sisters, parents, brother-in-law, and me. Each of us theoretically has our own region of Horstmania but only mine, Ronyomar, is at all well fleshed out. Ronyomar is supposedly Elven for fox den and I use the word Ronyo to describe things that relate to me. For example the colors blue and cerise, leopards, and rainy days are all particularly Ronyo. Additionally, I should bring up Ronyomar's prestigious entertainment awards, the Shizue awards, which are awarded every December to movies books and the like. The Shizue's have inspired knock-offs in Llira (my mother's region) and Me'ashae (Lauren's) the latter of which are named the Lala's. We Ronyo snicker at this name when no Me'ashaer's are in sight. I realize that all of this is a bit silly and pathetic but when you have as many excess brainwaves as I do you have to think about something that entertains both the creative and fact oriented parts of one's brain and hence Ronyomar was born.

#98 Seven Types of Ambiguity

Seven Types of Ambiguity is the current "it" book in Horstmania. I bought December of '09 and it has since gradually made the rounds to Lauren and Mom receiving near universal praise. It tells the story of Simon, a man obsessed with his ex-girlfriend Anna and the dramatic actions he undertakes in order to reenter her life. The book is a Horstmanian classic for three main reasons. Firstly, the plot is told in a Rashomon-esque style with each section being narrated by a different character who has their own unique voice. Secondly, the language is on the whole stunning, so much so that I'll add a few quotes at the end of this entry in an attempt to get you hooked. Thirdly, the character of Angel(a)(ique) is heart breakingly well drawn, her depth and sweetness are what elevates Seven Types from being a good book to an all time great. By the way, Seven Types set a record by winning more of my year end awards than other book, although this is largely due to 2009 being a slow year for literature. On to quotes:
“He was one of the loneliest people you don’t see anymore.”
“Hell is the special pain that dwells in that loss which you yourself have caused.”
“The ability to relive past emotional states is both an aptitude and a curse. It’s a curse because it doesn’t allow you to get on with your life. Every cut, every bruise, every rejection, yields a harvest which is then stored. The pain is kept on ice and can be relied upon to taste as fresh as the day it was inflicted.”

#99 Auntie Mame

Auntie Mame is the 1958 film adaptation of a play based on a novel all of which share a title. It begins in the late 1920's and covers several decades in the lives of Mame Dennis (an eccentric socialite) and her nephew Patrick of whom she has become guardian. I love the film for a variety of reasons. Foremost is that I adore Rosalind Russell, she so funny, smart, talented, and down to earth. she brings Mame to life in such a way that you can't help but wish that she was your aunt. I love the scene where she goes on a fox hunt and ends up passing the other riders, the hounds, and even the fox itself before crashing and ending up holding and comforting the poor fox. Any friend of foxes is obviously a good person. I also love Mame's famous mantra "Love is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death" so fun, so true. However I must warn to be wary if you decide to go out and see Auntie Mame, because they made it into a musical and made the musical into its own film titled simply Mame. Mame features a well past her prime Lucille Ball in the main role attempting to belt out show tunes despite a terrible smokers voice and a face on which either the years or the cosmetic procedures have taken a toll. The one redeeming factor of Mame is that it features Bea Arthur offering the classic line "I have an astronomical discovery for you. The man in the moon is a bitch" trust me it makes sense in context.

#100 Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)

Brandy was 1972 pop song by the band Looking Glass which tells the story the title character, a young woman who works in a bar in a port city and falls in love with a sailor who ultimately decides he can't stay with her because he loves the sea to much. You might be wondering why I love or have even heard of a song recorded 17 years before I was born, well it all goes back to a commercial. In approximately 2001 there was a commercial for a cd called "Once Upon a Song" which contained songs from between 1967-1974 and had some sort of plot. Long story short we purchased the cd and it became a staple of road trips out to visit my sister in Pittsburgh. I loved Brandy's tune which seemed to evoke pacific blue effortlessly, and the imagery,particularly "finest silver from the north of Spain". Songs like Delta Dawn, At Seventeen, Bobby McGee, and American Pie became some of my all time favorites but Brandy holds a special place in my heart because of a later event. During a board game Brandy happened to come up in conversation and a friend of the family asked "Brandy, isn't that the song that was written about a dog?" It isn't, she was thinking of "Mandy" but the joke has lived on, now I can't listen to Brandy without picturing Brandy as a golden retriever, carrying a tray full of whisky on her back, staring loving into the sailor's eyes, and most of all wandering forlornly around the town at night perhaps nosing the trash morosely.

Getting Started

After more than once being told that I should share my modest wit and wisdom with the world I'm finally getting around to it. I have my doubts that anyone other my mother, sister, and Kristin will read this but c'est la vie. What you should know about me is that I am a 20 year old male college student from Springfield, Ohio. Other details will no doubt be addressed as we get into things although I suspect that my readers will all already know me. I chose the name afictionado for my blog because so much of my life is lived through fiction including not just literature, but movies, television, theatre, video games and other media. Since I find the idea of coming up with topics to write about daunting, I have decided that I will present, for your reading pleasure, 100 entries about the 100 works of fiction I've deemed the greatest in a list I made a year ago and have been constantly updating since. I ranked them not only on their quality but also on the amount of influence they have had on my life. The list is not perfect, nor is it set in stone but I've done my best to make it as accurate as possible. For each entry, I plan on introducing the work, explaining why I love it, how it affected my life and perhaps a fun anecdote associated with it. I apologize in advance for any grammatical or spelling errors I may make, I love language but I don't always use it well. So without further ado let's get on with work 100.