The Joy of Listing

I just love making lists and ranking stuff.

  • Songs about being a specific age

    Listed chronologically by the age mentioned in the song

    I’ve always looked up songs that mention the age I’m turning before my birthday every year since I was a teenager. When I turned 25 I even made a whole mix dedicated to only songs mentioning being 25 or songs that came out in the year I was born. For some reason there are a lot of good songs mentioning being 25. It’s been downhill since then unfortunately. 🙁

    Also: There are a lot of songs out there mentioning ages, so the list only contains the ones that mean something to me.
    But if you think of one that you think is good please go ahead and tell me. Maybe I forgot or just don’t know about some good ones.
    (I didn’t forget about the Beatles)

    • Kimya Dawson – All I could do: ages 12 and 15

    “And I thought back to when I was 15

    How I was squeaky clean and I wanted to die
    I was feeding the homeless while combating loneliness

    All I could do was keep living a lie

    Then I think back to that 12 year old poet
    How she didn’t know it was what she would be

    All she could do was hide under her bed

    Scared to death that somebody might read her diary”

    • The Smiths – Half a Person: age 16

    “Sixteen, clumsy and shy
    That’s the story of my life”

    • Janis Ian – At Seventeen: age 17

    “I learned the truth at seventeen

    That love was meant for beauty queens

    And high school girls with clear-skinned smiles

    who married young and then retired”

    (fun fact: Tina Fey apparently loves this song. I get it btw, I do too. Not only is it featured in an episode of 30 rock where Liz Lemon sings it at karaoke. One of the main characters in Mean Girls was also named after Janis Ian, who’s mainly known for this one song)

    • The Smiths – Never Had No One Ever: age 20

    “I had a really bad dream

    It lasted 20 years, 7 months and 27 days”

    • Garbage – Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!): age 21

    “She gave you everything she had
    But she was young and dumb

    She’d just turned twenty-one”

    • Daniel Johnston – I Am a Baby (In My Universe): age 22

    “I am a baby in my universe

    I’ll live forever
    Ooh, I’m only twenty-two

    I’ll live forever”

    • Mitski – First Love/Late Spring: age 25

    “And I was so young when I behaved twenty-five
    Yet now, I find I’ve grown into a tall child”

    • 4 Non Blondes – What’s Up?: age 25

    “25 years and my life is still

    tryin’ to get up that great big hill of hope

    for a destination”

    • Kanye West – We don’t care: age 25/26(?)

    “We wasn’t supposed to make it past twenty-five

    Joke’s on you, we still alive”

    • SZA – 20 something: age 20s

    “How could it be? Twenty-something

    All alone, still not a thing in my name

    Ain’t got nothing, runnin’ from love, only know fear

    That’s me, Ms. Twenty-Something”

    • Soko – Happy Hippie Birthday: ages 22 and 35

    “Thirty-five candles blown away

    That I picture in my head
    Thirty-five years old
    and I’m twenty-two
    and I remember how you used to say

    That I was young, but you didn’t care at all”

    • Blumentopf – Manfred Mustermann: ages 46 and (close to) 60

    “Jetzt ist mein Leben doch schon aus mit 46

    Ist doch kein Wunder dass man dauernd deprimiert ist”

    “Auch wenn ich bald 60 bin fühl ich mich immer noch jung”

    (Fun fact: when my sister was a teenager she made our mom a mix CD for her 46th birthday and put that song on it just because of that one line. I still think that’s hilarious.)

    Honorable Mention: “Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl” by Broken Social Scene
    Great song, but the age doesn’t get mentioned once in the song besides in the title. So it felt to me like it doesn’t quite count.

    Fediverse Reactions

  • ANNA’S HOT TAKES: Overrated* movies I hate with a passion

    *in my opinion
    (warning: my opinions get quite heated)

    • “The Fifth Element ” (1997)– sexist/misogynistic af and also a blatant fantasy about how hot it would be if a woman didn’t know anything about the world and basically had the mind of a baby (and the body of a total babe, am I right, fellas?), so she’s completely depended on you and thinks you’re a god despite you being completely mediocre.
    • “The Worst Person in the World”(2021) – I don’t have anything smart to say about this. I just hated it. But to sum it up here’s a quote from Letterboxd user “NoCopZone” I strongly agree with: “This is an edgelord anti-feminist manic pixie dream girl wank fest and it’s fucking dull as hell.”
    • “Closer” (2004) – sooo male gaze-y and just plain stupid. Yes, I love Natalie Portman and she looks very hot as a stripper with a pink wig. We’ve all seen the tumblr posts about that. But her character (and all the other ones too btw) sucks so much and is so toxic and unlikeable. Terrible movie.
    • “Call me by your Name” (2017) – How bout we don’t romanticise fucking children? Wouldn’t that be a great idea? The fact that this movie gets put on a pedestal so much as THE queer “romance” 🥴 of the last decade is so fucked up to me. Also I just don’t think it’s that good of a movie, even if you ignore all the unchecked creepiness and grooming.
    • “Licorice Pizza” (2021) – Another movie about a “love story” between a child and an adult. Biggest letdown from PTA.
      Just check out the review I wrote. It says it all: https://letterboxd.com/treelanguage/film/licorice-pizza/
    • “Anora” (2024) – I have also already wrote a lengthy review on my feelings on this movie. But I’d also like to add that there are allegations from a woman (who actually is a sex worker) that Sean Baker stole the story and concept of Anora from her.
      https://letterboxd.com/treelanguage/film/anora/1/
    • “Lost Highway” (1997) – I have a long standing love-hate relationship with David Lynch’s filmography and movies like this are the reason. This feels like a 2 hour+ long perfume commercial. Nothing makes sense, it’s longwinded and boring af and I don’t remember any film I’ve seen feeling as never-ending as this one. That’s my main criticism so this is probably the one movie on this list where I’m more open to it being good actually and me just being too ADHD to appreciate it.
    • “The Whale” (2022) – This is the worst, fatphobic piece of trash I have ever seen. Nothing more to say about that.
      I’m starting to think Aronofsky is only good when he can steal all his best “ideas” from Satoshi Kon (just like many other western directors *cough* Inception *cough*)
      Love Brendan Fraser and Hong Chau but not even they could save this. It’s irredeemable.
    • “Dancer in the Dark” (2000) – I also have a love-hate relationship with Lars von Trier. I love many of his movies, but I think he’s a disgusting vile human being (look up allegations if you don’t know) and I find his obsession with women being abused and tortured really off-putting. It would be one thing if that’s just a theme he wants to explore, but considering how he treated his actresses (especially Björk during the making of this movie) it seems more like his lifestyle. This movie feels like watching torture porn. There is no enjoyment possible (besides Björk’s musical numbers but that’s all her). It’s uncomfortable to the point where it feels unbearable and (unlike other Lars von Trier movies) it doesn’t have anything profound to say in my opinion. To me it feels like he just made this to jerk off to it.
    • “Porco Rosso” (1992) – I have seen (and love) most Miyazaki movies but I just find this one obnoxious. I get that flying/pilots/flying machines are basically his special interest, but I don’t share his enthusiasm unfortunately. And the middle-aged sexist womanising protagonist doesn’t help. I haven’t seen this in a while, so maybe I’d like it more these days, but I honestly doubt it.
    • “The Perks of being a Wallflower” (2012) – I don’t really know how and why I hate this movie, because I love the book and it meant so much to me (I’ve read it multiple times) and the writer of the book adapted it for the movie. But it just doesn’t translate to me. Maybe this story just isn’t meant for film. It doesn’t feel any close to as profound as it did in the book. The movie just feels hollow and pretentious to me.
    • “Her” (2013) – I tried rewatching this recently when I felt heartbroken and just wanted to feel sorry for myself but even with that attitude I couldn’t go through it again. To me the personal history that’s behind this movie is very important. That being that the guy who made this, Spike Jonze was married to one of my favorite filmmakers of all time Sofia Coppola and that she (10 years before this came out) made an amazing movie “Lost in Translation” that worked through her feelings after the break-up. It has an obvious self insert character and a husband character that’s very obviously (iyk) based on Spike Jonze, who’s a bit of an asshole. So 10 years after LIT, Spike Jonze decides to do basically the same: a movie about a sad man who just went through a divorce and needs to find himself. Only that in his version of the story he is the ultimate victim, all women (including his ex-wife) are mean and have ridiculous standards for men (they want someone to care about them as whole people and don’t just fuck them and leave them shortly after) and the only woman who really gets him is his AI girlfriend, created just for him, who for some reason thinks he’s the funniest, cutest, smartest, most irresistible man on the planet who needs protection from the cruel cruel world and all those other shitty women who don’t understand how sweet and fragile this poor baby boy is. Oh, and she’s very sexy and sensual, but in a very coy way (not vulgar and needy like those trashy gals). It’s peak soft boi cinema, even worse than Buffalo ’66, because Vincent Gallo at least has the self-awareness to know that his protagonist is fucked-up and an asshole.
    • “Inception” (2010) – This fucking hack Christopher Nolan just stole “Paprika”, a cinematic masterpiece by one of my favorite directors, Satoshi Kon and remade a worse version of it and then continued to deny that he stole it. Fuck this guy!
      He wishes he were half as talented as Satoshi Kon.
      I agree that it is an interesting movie, but that’s because it took most of its interesting ideas from Paprika. He could’ve just asked to remake it and payed for the rights like a decent person. It probably wouldn’t be on this list then.

    Fediverse Reactions

  • My Top 10 favorite filmmakers

    1. Charlie Kaufman – Favs: “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (2004), “Adaptation.” (2002), “Being John Malkovich” (1999), “Synecdoche, New York” (2008)
    2. Miranda July – Favs: “Me and You and Everyone We Know” (2005) and “Kajillionaire” (2020)
    3. Paul Thomas Anderson – Favs: “Magnolia” (1999), “Punch Drunk Love” (2002), “Boogie Nights” (1997), “There Will Be Blood” (2007)
    4. Sofia Coppola – Favs: “The Virgin Suicides” (1999), “Lost in Translation” (2003), “Priscilla” (2023)
    5. Wes Anderson – Favs: “The Royal Tenenbaums” (2001), “Rushmore” (1998), “Moonrise Kingdom” (2012)
    6. Wong Kar-Wai – Favs: “Chungking Express” (1994), “Fallen Angels” (1995), “Happy Together” (1997)
    7. Michel Gondry – Favs: “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (2004) and “Science of Sleep” (2006)
    8. Todd Solondz – Favs: “Welcome to the Dollhouse” (1995), “Happiness”(1998), “Storytelling” (2001)
    9. Yorgos Lanthimos – Favs: “The Favorite” (2018), “Poor Things” (2023), The Lobster” (2015)
    10. Richard Linklater – Favs: “Before”-Trilogy (1995, 2004, 2013), “Waking Life” (2001), “Dazed and Confused” (1993)

    Honorable Mentions: Park chan wook – Favs: “Oldboy” (2003), “Lady Vengeance” (2005), “I’m a Cyborg, But That’s ok” (2006)

    Mike Mills – Favs: “20th Century Women” (2016) and “C’mon C’mon” (2021)

    Greta Gerwig – Favs: “Ladybird”(2017), “Frances Ha” (2012), “Mistress America” (2015)

    Jim Jarmusch – Favs: “Night on Earth” (1990) and “Only Lovers Left Alive” (2013)

    Gregg Araki – Favs: The Teen Apocalypse Trilogy (1993, 1995, 1997), “Mysterious Skin” (2004), “Smiley Face” (2007)

    Terry Zwigoff – Favs: “Ghost World” (2001), “Crumb” (1994), “Art School Confidential” (2006)

    Jordan Peele – Favs: “Get Out” (2017) and “Us” (2019)

    Coen Brothers- Favs: “The Big Lebowski” (1998), “Fargo” (1996), “Blood Simple” (1984)

    Satoshi Kon – Favs: “Tokyo Godfathers” (2003), “Perfect Blue” (1997), “Paranoia Agent” (Miniseries, 2004)

    Diablo Cody – Favs: “Juno” (2007), “Young Adult” (2011), “Tully” (2018)

    Fediverse Reactions

  • My Top 10 favorite forms of fries

    Another request/idea from a friend and a really good one I think.

    1. Public pool or ice rank fries – I have no idea what the reason or secret is but the fries you can get at small kiosks at pools or ice ranks are out of this world. They taste like childhood (in a good way).
    2. Curly Fries
    3. Sweet Potato Fries
    4. Waffle-cut Fries
    5. Croquettes/tater tots
    6. Fresh(!) McDonalds Fries
    7. Cheese Fries
    8. Tornado Fries
    9. Potato Wedges
    10. Potato smiles

    Honorable Mentions: flemish fries, steak fries, crinkle cut fries and Patatas Bravas.

    Fediverse Reactions

  • My Top 10 favorite things to watch when you feel like shit and like no one likes you and you wanna wallow in that feeling

    1. All of Fleabag Season 2, most importantly the last episode of the season (most most importantly the wedding “love is awful” monologue + “It’ll pass”!!)
    2. “Me and you and everyone we know” (2005) – That one’s probably the least depressing. I use it like a tool to make the transition from wallowing to feeling like I’m gonna be okay.
    3. Bojack Horseman – One or all of the episodes: “Downer Ending”, “Stupid piece of shit” (pool scene!!!) or “Funeral”
    4. Mitski music videos, especially the ones for “Your best American Girl” and “Nobody”
    5. “Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind” (2004) – I usually just rewatch my favorite scenes: atm it’s the Bird scene and the one where baby Joel is bathing in the sink, when I was younger I would rewatch the “Am I ugly?” scene religiously.
    6. “Magnolia” (1999) – again, I usually just rewatch my favs: all the Donnie Smith scenes + the restaurant scene between Claudia and Jim + the ending)
    7. The last two songs from Bo Burnham’s “Make Happy” special – “Kanye rant” and “Are you happy?”
    8. Euphoria -“Trouble Don’t Last Always” (the special episode focused on Rue where she meets her sponsor and the whole episode is just them having a conversation. Great episode to watch as a stand alone piece, even if you haven’t seen the rest of the show.)
    9. “Synecdoche, New York” (2008) – specifically the Funeral monologue and the songs from the movie: “Little Person” and “Song for Caden” by Jon Brion. Especially the ladder always hits so hard. It captures a distinct sadness I feel a lot and have felt for most of my life, better than almost anything else.
    10. All the therapy scenes from “Good Will Hunting” (1997) where Robin Williams is giving Will harsh pep talks. My favorite is the one where he talks about people not being perfect, where he improvised the line about his wife farting in her sleep. One of my all time favorite scenes in any movie.

    Honorable Mentions:

    – The music video by Soko for the song “Sweet sound of Ignorance” one of my favorite songs of all time and the video is also a vibe.

    – Science of Sleep (2006) – the ending scene is my favorite

    – “Adaptation.” (2003) – best movie to watch when you’re feeling self loathing and insecure. Also one of the best movies of all time in general in my opinion.


    – The recording of the last concert Elliott smith ever played (19/03/03), specifically his acoustic cover of Heatmiser’s (his own band’s) “Something to lose” he played during that show


    – From an episode of “The Jon Brion Show” from 2000 where Elliott Smith was on, the videos of when they play “Trouble” and “Happiness”.

    – Videos of Fiona Apple singing “Paper Bag” and “Fast as you can” during a live show at Club Largo 20-25 years ago. I love both songs in general, but the live versions from that show specifically are some of my favorite stuff on all of YouTube. I think I have watched both those videos at least 50 times each. 
    There’s also a live version of “I know” at Largo from the same era that’s soooo good. I just rediscovered it again after writing this list.

    – Trisha Paytas – “I’m a chicken nugget” YouTube video

    Fediverse Reactions

  • My Top 10 favorite horror movies

    I got a request from a friend for a “Top 10 horror franchises” list, but unfortunately, despite having seen a lot of horror movies, the only franchise I have really strong positive feelings for/feel dedicated to, beyond watching 1-2 movies is “Scream” (I’ve seen every single one). So that would’ve been a very short list.
    I thought instead I could just do horror movies in general. I hope that’s fine, too. 🥺

    1. Silence of the Lambs (1990)
    2. Get Out (2017)
    3. May (2002)
    4. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
    5. The Wicker Man (1973)
    6. Funny Games (1997)
    7. The People Under the Stairs (1991)
    8. Us (2019)
    9. Scream (1996)
    10. Midsommar (2019)

    Honorable Mentions: Carrie (1976), Jennifer’s Body (2009), Audition (1999), House (1977), The Addiction (1995), The Shining (1980), Black Swan (2010), Repulsion (1965),

    Also there are some movies that are labeled “Horror” but for some reason just don’t feel like horror movies to me, which is why I omitted them from this list, despite loving them a lot.
    -> Freaks (1932), Perfect Blue (1997), American Psycho (2000), Sinners (2025),

    Fediverse Reactions

  • Top 10 2000s teen movies

    Fun ones only. So no “Thirteen” (2003) or Speak (2004), even though I really love both.

    1. Ghost World (2001)
    2. Juno (2007)
    3. Mean Girls (2004)
    4. Freaky Friday (2003)
    5. Twilight (2008)
    6. Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004)
    7. High School Musical 2 (2007)
    8. The Princess Diaries (2001)
    9. Superbad (2007)
    10. The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003)

    Honorable Mentions: Whip It (2009), St. Trinians (2007), She’s the Man (2006), New York Minute (2004), A Cinderella Story (2004),

    Fediverse Reactions

  • My Top 10 favorite true crime documentaries

    1. The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (2015, 2024)
    2. OJ: Made in America (2016)
    3. Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes (2019)
    4. West of Memphis (2012)
    5. I’ll Be Gone In The Dark (2020)
    6. The Menendez Murders: Erik Tells All (2017)
    7. Mind Over Murder (2022)
    8. Lorena (2019)
    9. Phoenix Rising (2022)
    10. Athlete A (2020)

    Honorable Mentions: Ted Bundy: Falling for a Killer (2020), Valentine Road (2013), Party Monster: The Shockumentary (1998), Menendez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed (2023), Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003), I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth v. Michelle Carter (2019)

    Fediverse Reactions

  • My Top 10 favorite podcasts

    on the request of one of my readers
    (that sounds so fancy. I love it!)

    The list consists mostly of true crime podcasts because that’s my favorite genre and what I know about most.

    1. H3 Podcast

    Wouldn’t recommend it at this time, but I haven’t invested anywhere near as much time into a podcast as I have with this one, so it’s gotta be no. 1 per default.

    2. Your own Backyard

    One of the best true crime podcasts there is and most famous for being extremely influential in the reopening and later solving of the cold case it is about. It’s about an (at the time) unsolved disappearance/murder of a young woman at a party.
    TW sexual assault(s)

    3. S-Town

    Probably the only podcast I have listened to over and over again.
    It’s about the (real) life story of a guy named John B. McLemore. He’s very eccentric, sad and sympathetic. Major themes of the story are mental health, obsession, queerness and feeling stuck in a shitty life unable to change or move forward. The podcast is considered to be kind of controversial for multiple reasons, one being that a lot of people consider it voyeuristic and explorative.
    I totally get the critiques, but it still means a lot to me.

    4. The Shrink Next Door

    Very strange and interesting story about a very fucked up therapist who exploited the trust of his patients to enrich himself. Extremely captivating and just bizarre in a very entertaining way.

    5. Serial (Season 1)

    THE true crime podcast and one of the firsts that really got me into the genre. Unfortunately it still bugs me a lot that there still isn’t that much clarity on the case despite all the time that has passed and the massive amount of attention it got due to the success of the podcast.

    6. Musicalsplaining

    A podcast that Lindsay Ellis, one of my favorite youtubers started about 5 years ago. The premise of it is that she loves and knows a lot about musicals and her co-host and friend Kaveh hates them.
    Every episode they watch another musical together, review it and share their knowledge about it. I really wasn’t that interested in the topic when I started the podcast but then I started watching all the shows they talked about and really got into it for a while. The enthusiasm is contagious!

    7. Uncover (The first 10? seasons)

    Very well made canadian true crime podcast where the subject changes every season. I’ve listened to the first 10-11 seasons (I think) and it took a long time til I got bored and stopped listening, so I think that kind of speaks for itself. Seasons 1, 3 and 6 were my favorite if I remember correctly.

    8. Chameleon (Seasons 1 and 3)

    Another anthology true crime podcast, but about less gruesome crimes. Every season is about a different scammer case. Unfortunately the quality of the seasons differs a lot, so I would only recommend season 1 (queen of the con) and season 3 (wild boys). I really really liked those.

    9. Monster (Seasons 1-3)

    Anthology true crime podcast about serial killers. The first season is about a case I have been very interested in for years, the Atlanta child murders. That’s how I first got into it. At the time I listened to all the seasons that were available and never followed up on it again. Now that I’m making this list I’ve discovered that there are 3 more seasons I have yet to listen to. So, yay!!
    Thanks, person who asked me to make this list. I can listen to the 3 new seasons now. \o/

    10. In The Dark (Season 1+2)

    Another canadian true crime anthology podcast. I don’t remember a lot about the first season (except that I liked it), but the second one made a lasting impression. It’s about a man who’s been wrongfully convicted of murder, which would normally be the type of story I’d avoid because it’s so depressing and happens way too often, but the show is so well made and captivating that I couldn’t stop listening. Spoiler: it ends with the guy getting out of prison (after decades!!) and I remember crying all the way through the last 1-2 episodes. Really really good.

    Honorable mentions: Truer Crime, Devil in the Dorm, Bear Brook (S1), The Thing About Pam, The Teachers Pet, That Chapter Podcast, Rotten Mango, The Dropout, Finding Samantha, oh and this really obscure one, I don’t know if you’ve heard of it…it’s called “This American Life”. 🙃

    Fediverse Reactions

  • My Top 10 favorite Binding of Isaac characters

    Ranked by how fun they are to play.

    1. Tainted Lilith
    2. Judas
    3. Tainted Apollyon
    4. Azazel
    5. Samson
    6. Cain
    7. Isaac
    8. Tainted Cain
    9. Eden
    10. Apollyon
    Fediverse Reactions