A few of my favorite things

Last week, Chris from The Collector started the latest Blog Bat-A-Round, listing his Favorite Things-movie, song and baseball set from each decade from the 50s to today. This is something I knew I could take part in...but the decisions would be tough. I knew I wouldn't talk about baseball, and I've already chronicled my favorite basketball and non-sports sets... so I decided hockey would be the topic I cover in this post. Movies was easy, I'm not a big movie fan so I don't have a lot of hard choices there. But music? Oh, that was the hardest to choose from. I have not talked all that much about music on Cardboard History, but it's an integral part of my life, and I've recently found my music collection and have been listening to it a lot lately.

The 1950s is a time long before I was born. I consider it the best decade for automobile design, and I'm still learning about it's music. Back in the 1990s, I listened to the local Oldies station, which was a mixture of 50s and 60s music. At the time, I didn't like the 50s music...I've always considered the 60s the best decade for music. Then, they retooled, and it became mostly 70s music, with some 60s thrown in. I got tired of hearing Elton John and the Beatles every 20 minutes, and eventually stopped listening to the station. But I realized that I missed the 50s music. However, a lot of what I considered 50s music was actually early 1960s music. The music trends seem to change about the 4 of every decade, so the 1960-64 music sounds a lot like the 50s music. My first thought turned out to be from 1962, and my second from 1961. (Duke of Earl and Blue Moon, respectively). So, I struck out there. Thinking about my favorite music, I took a chance to research one that I thought was from the 1960s, and instead find out it was indeed a 1950s song, released in 1957.

The Ballad of Thunder Road by Robert Mitchum, has been a favorite song of mine since I first heard it in the summer of 1998. We had gone to Lake George, and I had just gotten my first CD player that spring. While at the Wall music store in the Aviation Mall in Glens Falls, NY, my brother found a CD called Shut Down: The Legendary Hot Rod Hits. That would become my all-time favorite CD, and two of the songs on this list would be heard by me on that CD for the first time. Ironically, the theme song from the movie does not actually appear in the movie, which was released in 1958, which I have seen. The music plays but the words are not heard. Also...how often do you hear the starring actor singing a theme song?

I have not seen too many 1950s movies. Luckily, I have a fairly complete listing of all the movies I've ever seen on my IMDB watchlist. My brother is a big movie fan, much more so than me, and he has an incredible memory for movies- he can remember things down to line by line dialog of TV movies that aired only once, for example. I would not have been able to make my list without his help, and in fact I made the majority of it by going through his list with him and picking off the ones we've seen together, then filling in the rest. According to my chart, I've seen 13 movies released in the 1950s, 6 of them from Disney. However, my favorite is easily 1954's Godzilla. I've been a fan of the Godzilla franchise since I was a little kid, watching them on tv with my dad, and eventually by myself. I know I have not seen all of them (there's a ton!) but I have seen the original.

For 1950s hockey, I think I have to go with 1957-58 Topps. The designs, well, I don't actually know all of them yet. I only have 4 cards from the entire decade, total. But my very first day actively buying the sport, I luck into an excellent example of the 1957-58 set at a local dealer. The design may not be spectacular, but finding this card on my very first day...it's got the sentimental value building up already.

It's my only card from the set, in fact, the only one I've actually seen in person- at least since I got into hockey. Who knows what I saw back in the days of weekly card shows?

The 1960s is by far my favorite decade for music. There's really no competition...if I'm listening to music, there's a roughly 85% chance it's 60s music. In fact, since we got our new car last July, it's been stuck on the 60s channel so much that I feel like I should be exploring the other channels, but I can't bring myself to change it because there's always something good on it. (although I have been trying to listen to the 50s more lately). Choosing a favorite 1960s song is simply impossible. It would be like choosing which breath of air during a day is your favorite. It can't be done. I could list 100 songs and not be able to cover them all but I have to pick one for this post...so it's Dead Man's Curve by Jan & Dean. I first heard this song on Shut Down, right next to Ballad of Thunder Road (Seriously, they are back to back on the playlist) and it has stuck with me through all these years. For a while, I had stopped listening to music. I had lost my CDs, and didn't have access to them. (The oldies station was gone, replaced by 80s and 90s soft rock...not even good stuff) Then we got the Music Choice channels on TV, and I was able to listen to the 1960s music again. The first time I heard Dead Man's Curve in about 10 years, I literally stopped what I was doing, shut my eyes and just listened...even sent shivers up my spine, something very few songs will do.

 Dead Man's Curve is from 1964, by the way. It feels a little weird not choosing the Beach Boys-tied for my favorite group- and my tied for other favorite group, which will be my choice for the 1970s.

My favorite 60s movie, is really not a hard choice at all. Herbie the Love Bug, from 1968, is one of my all time favorite movies...it has cemented the Volkswagen Beetle in daily life a special thing..so much so in fact that most all Volkswagen Beetles, including the new ones, are referred to as Herbies. Although I could just as easily have chosen the 1966 Batman movie as well. According to the IMDB watchlist, I've seen 22 1960s movies.

For favorite hockey cards...my favorite design is actually the 1965-66 set...but I don't have a single one in my collection!

The 1970s music is a kind of a lost decade for me. I like the early 70s stuff, and I don't dislike the later 70s, (not even disco) but I don't really listen to them often, they were too new for the Oldies station, but not new enough for the popular stations I grew up with, so I don't have much access to them. We have a 70s station in the car, but as noted above, I can't pull myself away from the 60s and 50s stations to actually listen to it. I was drawing a bit of a blank on what to choose, then I though to look at the discography for my other favorite music group, the Grass Roots, and was quite happy to see that they spanned the late 60s AND early 70s. Problem solved!

It was really a tossup between Sooner or Later (which I chose) or Temptation Eyes, both from 1971. But I just like Sooner or Later a little bit more.

For the 1970s movies, there should be zero question what that is. Yep, it's Star Wars. Listing the movies by number of times I've seen them, 4 of the top 5 would be Star Wars movies. All three of the original trilogy and Attack of the Clones would be in my top 5, as would my movie choice for the 2000s, which you'll see below. As you may recall, my first ever cards were Star Wars cards, so this website would not exist without that franchise. I have seen 19 1970s movies.

Fun fact- I was so engrossed in writing about music, I forgot to write about a 70s hockey set, and had to go back and edit it in!

While most people seem to give 71-72 the nod, for me it's 74-75. I like the stick design, and you get some action photos, like this one. The 1971-72 set is all posed photos in front of a color cutout- no real photos. I have less than 10 cards from the set.

Moving to the 1980s, the music choices get a lot harder for me. I was born in 1984, so some of the earlier music is a little hazy for me. The later stuff, I have fond memories of but it blurs together with early 90s music, and sadly, I've forgotten a lot of it. I remember listening to the radio regularly in those times, up until about 1998, but I can't remember the songs, the artists, or when they are from. It's actually quite frustrating, because I generally remember things well up to 1998, and post-1998 is a blur to me. With music, it's the opposite. I remember almost nothing. Well, not opposite, because I don't remember post-1998. Basically, I only remember the 60s music, which I really began listening to regularly in 1998, anything I listened to before that is out of my head. What I do know, however, is the 1980s is the debut decade of my all-time favorite single musician (as opposed to group) and that's Weird Al Yankovic. There's only two music groups/people that I've heard most of their library, and that's Weird Al and the Beach Boys. Statistically, I'm pretty sure that Weird Al actually has the higher percentage, as I've heard everything he's released with the exception of the two newest albums.
I had to choose between two Weird Al songs, and in the end I chose Yoda.

Sorry for the sub-par recording. There was never an official video or single release for this song. The other song that I could have chosen, and probably should have because it's pretty much my theme song- Fat, a parody of Michael Jackson's Bad.

With that choice, is there any doubt that my favorite 80s movie is Empire Strikes Back? The second movie of the Star Wars series, it's actually my favorite Star Wars movie. The Battle of Hoth is one of, if not THE favorite, cinematic moments in history for me. I've seen 54 movies released during the 1980s.

My favorite 80s hockey card design, would be 1984-85.

You get a large picture, you get a secondary picture, and a team colored border. What's not to like? I have exactly 10 cards from the entire season, combined between Topps and OPC.

The 1990s is my favorite decade. Not just in my life, in history. Keep in mind, I am a history nut. I've read about the entire 5000+ year documented history of humankind. In my opinion, the 1990s were the best time. (The 1580s were the worst decade, in my opinion, in case you're wondering). It was the best decade for cards, by a mile. Movies, too. I've seen more 1990s movies than any other decade, and 1997 will probably forever hold my record for most movies seen in a year- 22. 1990s music, however, is not as good as the 1960s, but, I do have some favorites. My favorite 90s song is a song I didn't actually hear in the 1990s, though. As I mentioned above, I listened to whatever was on the radio from when I was born until roughly 1998. I switched to classic music in 1998- and listened to that until I was no longer able to, since the local Oldies station retooled into crappy stuff. (I derivatively call it elevator music). I switched back to the popular music around then- never having fully left it, but with no other options, listening full time again. In 2006, we got a much better tv package, which included CMT, which, at that time, actually played music. I started listening to country music, and became a big fan. To this day, if I'm listening to modern music, it's country, 100% of the time. I have not listened to K104- THE popular music station of the Hudson Valley, the same station I listened to from the 80s to mid-2000s, for many years now. Although I'm not a very big fan of most modern country music, the stuff from the mid-2000s and older is quite good. I don't know when or where I first heard it exactly, but my favorite song is 1992's Neon Moon by Brooks & Dunn. Brooks & Dunn became my favorite country artist/group/whatever you want to call them. I like almost everything they have done, but this is actually my favorite.

Interestingly, Neon Moon never got a video, which is unusual for the 1990s to be released as a single without a video.

I've seen 82 movies from the 1990s, which is a ton for me, as I stated, I'm not a big movie person. There are some really good ones to choose from, but in the end, I have to come back to Star Wars. The lead up to the new trilogy was amazing. I remember it well, it's sort of one of those things which defines my generation. A lot of people dislike the prequals, but I am not one of them. I like the first two Prequals, and watched them regularly up until 2015. Of all 1990s movies, the one I've seen the most is The Phantom Menace, from 1999. What Disney did to Star Wars killed my love for the franchise, so I have not watched any of them since 2015. I probably will someday, but the motivation is not there right now. After three decades in a row, the next decade will not be a Star Wars movie, even though 2002's Attack of the Clones is my favorite of the Prequals and to be honest, I like it more than Return of the Jedi.

My favorite 90s hockey card set is 1990-91 Pro Set. It's a huge set, over 700 cards. It includes the all-stars, coaches, and even the history of the teams gets a card. if it had had a highlights/recap of the previous season, it would have been structurally perfect. And it's color coded to each team, leading to a bright, colorful set, which I appreciate. Unlike the previous sets on this list, I have a lot of them- according to the Trading Card Database, I have 531 of 751 possible cards, or 70.7%. Luckily, they probably made more copies of each card from this set than any others in the history of the sport.

 I'm in a little bit of trouble picking a song from the 2000s- the one I had originally chosen was actually from 1999. There's no question it will be country music- that's the only music I really remember from the decade. One that speaks to me on many levels- my historian nature, my love of photography, etc., is Jamey Johnson's 2009 "In Color". It's a little bit sad but it really resonates with me. With that said, there's a lot of songs from this time I really like and the answer might change at any time.

I've seen 49 movies from the 2000s, and this is the hardest choice of all to make: Is it Big Momma's House 2 or The Simpsons Movie? I love both. I will watch both every time they are on. However, I think I will give the nod to the Simpsons Movie, since the Simpsons play a daily role in my life, and have for the last almost 30 years. It's my all-time favorite TV show, I've seen every episode, all except the current season multiple times, it's just an integral part of my life. There is not a day that goes by without a Simpsons quote in my life.

For hockey cards, I went with 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee. It's a big set, at 800 cards. It's very colorful, team color coded, something you may have noticed that I'm a fan of. The one thing that I dislike about it is that the player's name is so small.

I have 52 of 800, or 6.5%.

Moving to our current decade- for the next 6 months anyway- the music is probably my least favorite. I do not like the popular music at all, and the country music has mostly lost it's identity. However, there is one song that is a perfect country song. By an all-star cast of country music's greats, (some of whom had been retired so long I didn't know they were still alive!) THIS is the song I would tell anyone to listen to if they wanted to know what country music is really all about. If you've never listened to a country song before, this should be your first. You'll understand a little bit of what it's all about.

My favorite movie from this decade is 2011's Captain America, The First Avenger. I grew up reading DC Comics, and not liking Marvel. But the Marvel movies? Wow, they are great. The Avengers series has actually supplanted Star Wars as my favorite movie series, and this is my favorite movie of the Avengers series (although I have not seen Endgame yet...going to the theatre make me sick so I have to wait for DVDs to come out)

this is actually card #1 in the card set

I've seen 53 movies from the current decade, with 21 of them being part of the Avengers series.

The hockey card part of this post was actually the easiest. I had known my top two favorite sets would be here, and this is #2. (1990-91 Pro set is my favorite set for the sport). This set is large, team color coded, and documents the previous season. It's almost perfect...which is surprising, because Panini produced it. What's interesting about this set is that the card back design is rather fluid. It changes to fit each player's career length, and full statistics are included.

I have 183 of 548 cards, or 33.4%. An added bonus for this set is that many of the players in it are still active, so once I began watching the sport regularly, I knew many of the names, largely from this set. It's possible that my first ever card of Henrik Lundqvist, my favorite player, came from this set, although I have not looked that up yet.

And that's my favorites...I wrote this all today, July 4th. It's too hot to have a cookout on this holiday, (high 90s) so I spent it watching music videos, writing about cards, and watching NASCAR- it doesn't get much better than that.