Top 20 Albums of the Last 20 years

I like lists, especially "Best of" or "Top.." lists. Spin magazine recently did the Top 100 albums of the past 20 years. Now this is a totally subjective thing and being Spin magazine and wanting to appear cool they have a lot of music on there that in my opinion is overrated or just plain not very good.

I tried to find a copy of the magazine but couldn't find it anywhere here in Switzerland or neighboring France. I did find a link to a guy's website that has the list though.

Anyhow, below is my list of the Top 20 Albums of the last 20 years. These are albums that I listened to for a long time and still listen to regularly or at the very least still will pick up periodically.

Top 20 Albums of the last 20 years (1985-2005)

1. Tragically Hip – Fully Completely
2. The Smiths – The Queen is Dead
3. The Cure – Disintegration
4. Guns & Roses – Appetite for Destruction
5. Sarah McLachlan – Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
6. Radiohead – O.K. Computer
7. Public Enemy's - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
8. Tool – Aenima
9. Depeche Mode – Violator
10. The Strokes – Is This It
11. Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream
12. Sugar – Copper Blue
13. Loreena Mckennit - The Mask & the Mirror
14. Metallica – Master of Puppets
15. New Order - Substance
16. Sonic Youth – Goo
17. Jane’s Addiction – Nothing Shocking
18. Delerium - Morpheus
19. Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral
20. U2 – The Joshua Tree

Just missing the cut were:

• A Perfect Circle – Thirteenth Step
• Pearl Jam – Ten
• Nirvana – Nevermind
• Lush – Split
• Skinny Puppy – Bites
• Coldplay – A Rush of Blood to the Head
• Soundgarden - Superunknown

Comments?

White Water Rafting

Yesterday we went white water rafting in the River Dranse just over the border in France. A group from work specifically from Betsy's project had organized the event and we decided to go.

Neither one of us had been before, I had always wanted to do it but never had and Betsy seemed keen though a little more concerned about the whole thing.

We ended up having a great time, it was much less scary then I expected it to be. We didn't flip the boat once though we did have a couple of people fall out including my wife! The water was extremely cold but we had wetsuits, life jackets and helmets on to help protect us.

All in all it was a good time and something we'd both definitely do again. Today was a lazy day spent watching movies and playing on the computer.

Neglectful Blogging

I've been very neglectful with the blogging recently. I'd like to blame it on it being summer or just being too busy but to be honest it is pure unadulterated laziness. Its not like we haven't been doing lots of things that I could blog about and there are always issues of the day that I could go on for pages about (Karl Rove, Supreme Court, London Terror Attacks, the French).

So what have we been up to the last 3 weeks:

• We went to Rome for a weekend, average food, amazing sites, overall a fabulous city. Pictures will hopefully go up soon.
• We went to the Montreux Jazz festival to see Craig David. I can't say I am a fan of his music (Betsy is a big fan) but it was a fun time and Montreux is a very cool town, we'll definitely head back there sometime when it is a little less crowded.
• I've been golfing a fair bit and playing well shooting 80/81 my last two rounds.
• We've had a couple of major heat spells though the weather is comfortable now.
• We had a wicked hail/thunder/lightning/rain storm this past Monday. Nickel size hail, 100million CHF in damages, lots of vines destroyed, 15000 cars damaged, pretty intense stuff!
• Last Sunday we went for a drive through the Swiss countryside near our house, lots of beautiful scenery, views of the lake, vineyards, little Swiss villages etc.

What is upcoming for the Kuchta's:

• This weekend we are going white water rafting with a group from work. Neither of us have been so it should be a lot of fun and the weather is supposed to be warm but not hot (mid 20's C).
• Next weekend is a long weekend so we are going to Prague for 3 days another city that neither of us has been to but that we've heard nothing but great things about.
• We will hopefully get some biking/hiking in sometime soon. It seems like the weekends we have been here have either been extremely hot or wet & rainy. Neither of which is particularly condusive to outdoor activities.

Better late than never for an update and I'll try and get pictures from our Rome & Seattle/Vancouver trips up on the web soon.