I was on vacation this weekend, and just came back to receive EW's 1000th issue: full of their elected choices as the 'new classics' of the last 25 years.  I was both overjoyed in sections, as well as disappointed and mildly confused in others.  Below are my reactions.

MOVIES

I expected Pulp Fiction, in all its iconic glory, to top this list, but Blue Velvet at #4??  David Lynch did "pick past the cliches of white-picket fence America," but as a result made a film with all questions and few answers.  In short, it was nonsensical, much like Lynch's collective works, and had no right to beat out Saving Private Ryan.  Likewise, how did Moulin Rouge, Die Hard, Spinal Tap, Do The Right Thing, and, above all, Edward Scissorhands (WTF?!?!) top Schindler's List? I'm still shaken up about There Will Be Blood's placement at 51 and No Country for Old Men's 64, especially considering the fact that Men in Black placed above the two, but I suspect in at least another ten years, these two movies will have aged more gracefully than many of these, and will earn places among history.  It will take some time, though.

TV

In short, yellow bimbos, cougars in strappy heels, quirky New Yorkers, and idiots facing ridiculous challenges and false drama on an island beat out LOST.  I do love the Simpsons, Sex and the City, Seinfeld, The X Files, The Sopranos (especially), and The Cosby Show (Survivor...now that's just wrong), but Lost will become the most revered show of the past 3 decades.  No contest.   They screwed up a bit here.  The West Wing and 24 did show up here, but where is Band of Brothers??

MUSIC

Purple Rain.  What a massive joke.  A Michael Jackson imitator, Prince, has supposedly made the best album of the past 2.5 decades.  What a joke.  I was glad to see Achtung Baby at no. 3 and In Rainbows at a surprising #10, considering it's only about 7 months old.  Another surprise were indie favorites of mine, like Interpol's awesome Turn On the Bright Lights, Arcade Fire's beautiful Funeral, and Modest Mouse's fascinating The Moon and Antarctica (at 25, 27, and 37, respectively.).  Coldplay came in at a just okay 49 with A Rush of Blood, but are certainly going to place much higher in the future with their chart-topping new release Viva La Vida (if you haven't bought this album yet, you live an unfulfilled life).  Some others that stood out were Spoon's Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga at 52, Radiohead's OK Computer at 62, U2's Joshua Tree at 63, Moby's Play at 74, The Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream at 91, and Death Cab's Transatlanticism at 98. 

BOOKS

I turned the page here and gasped with glee: Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece The Road appeared in a photograph that spanned 1.5 pages, mangled and torn and lying on a road sprinkled with ash.  McCarthy is my favorite author, and with such accomplishments such as All the Pretty Horses and No Country for Old Men (the novel), made possible with his fragmented style and uniquity, he earns himself a place as one of the greatest american writers of all time.  It is rightfully so that this should beat out Harry Potter: McCarthy's prose is unbeatable, and, to quote the NY Times, "he puts most other American writers to shame."  That just about says it all.  The Road is the most recent "Great American Novel," and if you have not read it yet, it is almost a requirement that you do so: there is nothing else like The Road.

Then there was style, stage, and videogames, yet these aren't things I'm really qualified to judge.  I'll take their word for it (except Guitar Hero III is really, really fun; especially Cherub Rock and 3s and 7s).

And I did vote the iPod as the top pop culture moment.

Feel free to leave your feelings and thoughts below.

-DA