Posted 10:59 AM by Anonymous

Top Five Reasons it's Okay for School to Start:
5. Without the school year, we wouldn't appreciate the summer
4. Learning is good for your brain
3. Ensembles (it's lonely playing by yourself sometimes)
2. Friends back from summer vacation
1. Parties!

Posted 10:22 PM by Anonymous

Davis' Top Five Eighties Hits:
5. The Right Stuff--NKOTB
4. Walk Like an Egyptian--The Bangles
3. Come On Eileen--Dexy's Midnight Runners
2. Hungry Like a Wolf--Duran Duran
1. Psycho Killer--The Talking Heads

Posted 3:43 PM by Lorn

Lauren's Top Five Early 90s Musical Artists (in other words, the people who introduced me, at the tender age of 11, to popular music):
5. George Michael
4. Madonna
3. Gloria Estefan
2. Tiffany
1. Janet Jackson

Posted 3:40 PM by Lorn

Lauren's Top Five 80s Songs (inspired by lunch):
5. Land Down Under--Men at Work
4. C'mon Eileen--Dexy's Midnight Runners
3. Sledgehammer--Peter Gabriel
2. Video Killed the Radio Star--The Buggles
1. Our House--Madness

Posted 5:48 PM by Anonymous

Davis' Top Five Favorite Places Visited:
5. Saugatuck, MI
4. Barcelona, Spain
3. Washington DC
2. Orlando, FL
1. Costa Brava, Spain

Davis' Top Five Places to Visit
5. New York City
4. Italy
3. San Francisco
2. Germany
1. Switzerland

Posted 4:17 PM by Lorn

Lauren's Top Five Languagues to Learn:
5) Greek
4) Tibetan
3) Swahili
2) French
1) Russian

all of these are available for study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, however, my attempts to drop French and register Russian have been rebuffed by a lack of room in the class I wished to take. c'est la vie!

Posted 1:46 PM by Bethany

Bethany's Top 5 Fav. Soups (Inspired by a trip to Ivy Inn):
5. Lentil
4. Miso
3. Green Pea
2. Corn
1. New England Clam Chowder

Bethany's Top 5 Fav Chamber Works:
5. Mozart Wind Serenade
4. Britten Serenade
3. Haydn Quintet for String Quartet and Horn
2. Schubert's "Auf dem Strom" for Soprano, Horn, Piano
1. Brahm's Trio

Bethany's Top 5 Optimal Foreign Cities to Visit:
5. Moscow, Russia
4. Budapest, Hungary
3. New Dehli, India
2. Prague, Czech Republic
1. Dresden, Germany

Bethany's Top 5 Fav Pets to have:
5. Fish
4. Iguana
3. Dog
2. Monkey
1. Cat

That's about it for today....

Posted 1:15 PM by Lorn

Okay, this is tough, but I'll try:

Lauren's Top Five Favorite Movies
5. On the Town
4. Disney's Robin Hood
3. Roman Holiday
2. The Red Violin
1. The Shawshank Redemption

Posted 6:22 PM by Anonymous

Yes, and:

Davis' Top Five Ice Cream Flavors:
5. Cookie-n-Cream
4. Vanilla
3. Strawberry Cheesecake
2. Mint Chocolate Chip
1. Chocolate Peanut Butter

Posted 6:20 PM by Anonymous

Maybe I don't rank Doug over Mozart in my mind-- but I love Doug so much in many ways, and he is an inspiration to me as both a composer and a performer and a teacher that I didn't want to not have him on the list.

Davis' Top Five Favorite Movies:
5. Se7en
4. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
3. American Beauty
2. Being John Malkovich
1. Ferris Bueller's Day Off

That's a tough one. Anyone else care to give it a try?

Posted 5:54 PM by Lorn

Hmm....over Ice Cream and the viewing of Alex's new apartment, this list came up:

Lauren's Top Five Favorite Childhood TV Shows:
5. My Little Pony
4. Sesame Street (and its Spanish Version, El Paseo Sesamo, in which Big Bird is green, would later play a big factor into my language education)
3. Salute Your Shorts (a Nickelodeon Classic)
2. Animaniacs
1. Thundercats, Thundercats, Thundercats, HOOOOOOOO!!!

Posted 10:04 AM by Anonymous

Davis' Top Five Composers
5. Doug Hill
4. Shostakovich
3. Richard Strauss
2. Beethoven
1. Brahms

Wow, that is so traditional! Can you tell I'm a horn player (Strauss, Hill)?

Could I please see a similar list from Ben?

Posted 10:00 AM by Anonymous

To answer Ben's #3, I have no idea... perhaps it is the result of the "like seeks like" philosophy that is certainly prevalant in the way in which people seek their companions.

Now, Davis' Top Five Songs That Have Been Stuck In My Head This Weekend:
5. "Man of Constant Sorrow" from the O Brother soundtrack
4. That melody from "Shrek" (Mootz and I went to see it)
3. Mozart's Third Horn Concerto (because I just performed it)
2. "Elegy for Horn Alone" By Doug
1. "Come Up To My Place" from "On The Town" by Bernstein (NOT happy about this one)

Davis' Top Five Things That Have Annoyed Her About Being Home
5. Sitting in the car for three hours. I've lost my tolerance.
4. Sorting through my eight million boxes to see what I wanted to bring to Madison, and then repacking it. I have managed to accumulate an amazing amount of junk, and have created some stupid kind of sentimental attachment to them.
3. Waking up at SIX IN THE MORNING to play at church
2. Had to go "back to school" shopping with my sister and my dad, and we all have very different methods of shopping (I get what I want and leave the store asap, Kate wants what is most expensive and then looks at all the clothing, everywhere and anywhere they sell them, Dad scours the store for bargains and tries to get Kate to do the same, despite eher previously mentioned method of purchasing items)
1. Everyone in my family talks at once and doesn't listen to eachother! A cause for many fights.

I must mention that I'm not having too terrible of a time-- It's nice to be home and see my family.

Posted 10:31 PM by Lorn

To answer Ben's # 1 question, I guess I was thinking more in terms of performers...and not composers, and so now I will make a list of my top five composers.

Lauren's Top Five Favorite Composers:
5. Johann DeMeij
4. Maurice Ravel
3. Aaron Copland
2. Leonard Bernstein
1. Sergei Prokofiev
hmm..that ended up a lot differently than I expected (not so much Russian), but I tried to be true to myself.
as for the random account of waterskiing, ignore it. it reappeared on my regular webpage.

Posted 1:28 AM by Lorn

Ah..this one is looong overdue (but of course, this is my first opportunity to post it to the world:

Lauren's Top Five Things Overheard All Summer:
5. That's a lot of beer! (said by a little boy, arms akimbo, to his friend regarding the display of the available alcohol at Casa de Pico, a mexican restaurant)
4. Love me, love my goats.
3. Oh my god, whaat a frrrreak!
2. Okay, let's do Africa.
1. Anton Dvojak must have been a great lover....of nature.

hehe...hey guys, guess what? today i waterskiied! I actually got up! (and then promptly fell down again and got my bathing suit up my...ahem, nevermind) wow! (everyone, just for my sake, be impressed for a little while. thanks)

Posted 12:28 AM by Anonymous

Davis' Top Five Favorite Things About Her Friends:
5. Even when I think a thought or idea of mine is stupid, they're willing to try it out and impress me with how thoughtful they are!
4. Similar tastes in stuff, for the most part (i.e. books, music, shared inside jokes, etc)
3. They are all wonderful, brilliant people.
2. They really listen to me, and give good advice when I need it.
1. I feel soo very comfortable with all of them, and it really is a nice feeling (although that may sound cliched)

Thanks for your posts, guys.

Posted 4:40 PM by Bethany

Bethany's Top 5 Fav Books:
5. The Awakening
4. Watership Down
3. Catch 22
2. Catcher in the Rye
1. Brave New World

I actually could only think of 4 that I really liked, so until I think of anther one that bumps number 5 out, that will have to do. That's how it goes....

Posted 2:22 PM by Lorn

hmm...well, this is lame and a little cliched, but anyway, here are my top five favorite pop/rock/alternative/etc (in other words excluding jazz and classical) bands:

Lauren's Top Five Bands
5. Tower of Power
4. The Beatles
3. Radiohead
2. Sublime
1. CAKE

To counter this there is this list, favorite musical artists, excluding bands and including musicians of ALL genres. This is a little harder.

Lauren's Top Five Musical Artists
5. JJ Johnson
4. Beck
3. Simon and Garfunkel
2. Dave Brubeck
1. Ella Fitzgerald

tres dificil! that also tends to change daily (although cake and ella will pretty much always reign supreme)

Posted 11:01 AM by Anonymous

To kick this off, here are two Top Fives that I've written for my site:

Davis' Top Five Most Intense Infatuations Ever
5. Sean Stevens
4. Jon Rodeghero
3. Aaron Anderson
2. Tony Price
1. Steve Clark

Davis' Top Five Favorite Books
5. The Harry Potter Books-- J.K. Rowling
4. Catcher in the Rye-- J.D. Salinger
3. The Handmaid's Tale-- Margaret Atwood
2. To Kill a Mockingbird-- Harper Lee
1. Cider House Rules-- John Irving

I know-- it's cheap to post precomposed Top Fives, but I had to write something, right?

Posted 10:28 AM by Anonymous

Say hello to "Top Five Blog"! Hopefully this site will be frequently visited, and lots of our friends will take the time to stop in and make a few Top Five Lists of their own. As of yet, there are no rules, so post away!