iPod Top 100: July 1, 2005

OK, I got my iPod for Christmas, and have used it more or less every workday since, and whenever I’m in the car, via a cassette deck adapter meant for portable CD players. (Much cheaper than the iPod adapters that do the exact same thing.)

So, after countless hours of play, here’s what my Top 100 list looks like, minus surf music, which is sorted into its own chart for me to play. (“Theme from ‘Endless Summer'” by the Sandals would be the only surf song that would chart had I included them, but it would have come in at #19 with a bullet.)

1. “Golden Touch” by Razorlight
2. “Bad Boyfriend” by Garbage
3. “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane
4. “Love Spreads” by the Stone Roses
5. “Blue Orchid” by the White Stripes
6. “Hey Ya!” by Outkast
7. “Bombs Away” by Paris Texas
8. “Rocks” by Primal Scream
9. “She’s a Knockout” by Social Distortion
10. “C’mon C’mon” by the Von Bondies
11. “Fell in Love with a Girl” by the White Stripes
12. “Give It Up” by Pepper
13. “Walkie Talkie Man” by Steriogram
14. “Born With a Tail” by the Supersuckers
15. “Ya Think She’d Be Good to Me” by CC Adcock
16. “Heroin Girl” by Everclear
17. “Eleanor” by Low Millions
18. “Dyslexic Heart” by Paul Westerberg
19. “What’s Up?” by 4 Non Blondes
20. “Miracle Drug” by A.C. Newman
21. “Jerk It Out” by Caesars
22. “Wonderful Night” by Fatboy Slim
23. “Stacy’s Mom” by Fountains of Wayne
24. “Cold Hard Bitch” by Jet
25. “No New Tale to Tell” by Love and Rockets
26. “Ashes to Ashes” by Steve Earle
27. “Beverly Hills” by Weezer
28. “Hey Mama” by Black Eyed Peas
29. “Word Up!” (7″ Vocal Version) by Cameo
30. “Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing” by Chris Isaak
31. “God Is a Bullet” by Concrete Blonde
32. “Mr. Jones” by Counting Crows
33. “Butterfly” by Crazy Town
34. “Fall Behind Me” by the Donnas
35. “Boyz-N-The Hood” by Dynamite Hack
36. “Here I Am” by the Explosion
37. “Are You Gonna Be My Girl” by Jet
38. “Polyester Bride” by Liz Phair
39. “So Alive” by Love and Rockets
40. “(I’m Your) Hoochie Coochie Man” (1954 Single Version) by Muddy Waters
41. “Common People” (Full Length Version) by Pulp
42. “Black Betty” by Spiderbait
43. “The Geeks Get the Girls” (Album Version) by American Hi-Fi
44. “Intergalactic” by the Beastie Boys
45. “Hey Ladies” by the Beastie Boys
46. “Short Skirt/Long Jacket” by Cake
47. “Brimful of Asha” by Cornershop
48. “Friend of the Devil” by Grateful Dead
49. “Fell In Love with a Boy” by Joss Stone
50. “Somebody Told Me” by The Killers
51. “Figured You Out” by Nickelback
52. “Higher Ground” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
53. “Bad Luck” by Social Distortion
54. “What I Got” by Sublime
55. “Diamonds and Guns” by the Transplants
56. “Blister in the Sun” by Violent Femmes
57. “So What’cha Want” by the Beastie Boys
58. “Girls” by the Beastie Boys
59. “Girl” by Beck
60. “GHETTOCHIP MALFUNCTION (Hell Yes)” by Beck
61. “Where It’s At” by Beck
62. “Song 2” by Blur
63. “I Love You ‘Cause I Have To” by Dogs Die In Hot Cars
64. “Times Like These” by Foo Fighters
65. “New Sensation” by INXS
66. “The Rainbow Connection” by Jason Mraz
67. “Club Foot” by Kasabian
68. “The Denial Twist” by the White Stripes
69. “Ch-Check It Out” by the Beastie Boys
70. “Everything Zen” by Bush
71. “We Used to Be Friends” by the Dandy Warhols
72. “The Rainbow Connection” by the Dixie Chicks
73. “Santa Monica” by Everclear
74. “Big Me” by Foo Fighters
75. “Maureen” by Fountains of Wayne
76. “Been Caught Stealing” by Jane’s Addiction
77. “Till I Get to You” (Radio Edit) by Nikka Costa
78. “Californication” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
79. “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes
80. “The Metro” by Berlin
81. “I Don’t Want to Be” by Bo Bice
82. “1985” by Bowling for Soup
83. “Cannonball” by the Breeders
84. “Kung Fu Fighting” by Carl Douglas
85. “I Will Buy You A New Life” (Live) by Everclear
86. “Learn to Fly” by Foo Fighters
87. “Hate To Say I Told You So” by the Hives
88. “Slow Hands” (Dan The Automator Remix) by Interpol
89. “Devil Inside” by INXS
90. “Insanity” by Liz Phair
91. “Erecting a Movie Star” by Liz Phair
92. “True Faith” by New Order
93. “Come Out and Play” by the Offspring
94. “Starry Eyed Surprise” by Paul Oakenfold
95. “Glory Box” by Portishead
96. “No One Knows” by Queens of the Stone Age
97. “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong” by Spin Doctors
98. “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder
99. “Werewolves of London” by Warren Zevon
100. “Hazy Shade of Winter” by the Bangles

Some of this stuff is pretty surprising — How the heck did I end up with so many Foo Fighters in the top 100? Where is all the Sublime and Social Distortion I listen to? — but it’s (obviously) indicative of what I’ve been listening to since December.

If someone can come up with a way to track a week at a time — iTunes seems to only know how to track lifetime play counts, not shorter periods — let me know.

It’ll be interesting to see how much this list has changed by January 1, 2006.

Sauron is real and he lives 25 light years away

OK, maybe not the Eye of Sauron, because that was shot with a special filter that blocks out most of the light from the star Fomalhaut at the heart of its solar system. What’s really significant about this — beyond it looking cool — is that it’s pretty definite confirmation of a planet nearby, sweeping through stellar dust as it orbits.

From the New Scientist:

The most likely explanation is that the gravity of one or more unseen planets is dragging the ring askew. The fact that the inner edge of the ring is relatively well-defined adds further weight to the argument because it suggests the unseen planets are sweeping up stray dust within the radius of the ring.

The image was captured by astronomers at the University of California, Berkeley, US, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center using Hubble’s coronagraph. This device blocks the glare of a star while gathering the faint reflected light from any surrounding ring.

Odds that the planet will be called Mordor are pretty high, I’m guessing.