65. Baba O'Riley

Completing the Baba trifecta is Baba O'Riley, also known as Teenage Wasteland, or perhaps "That The Who song with the electronica opening."

YouTube link

64. Baba Yetu

Baba Yetu is a Swahili translation of The Lord's Prayer, arranged for a choir. In February, it won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists. None of which would be terribly remarkable, except that Baba Yetu was written as the theme music for a video game. Hooray for video games (or components thereof) gaining legitimacy as art! The screenshot above is Civilization IV, the source of the music.

The YouTube link...

63. The Baba Yaga mythos

Baba Yaga is an Eastern European witch. She flies around in a mortar using a pestle as an oar and lives in a hut that walks around on chicken legs. Also, like any good witch, she enjoys eating the occasional child. I've seen some of those European forests, and I have no doubt that Baba Yaga is out there somewhere.

62. Foundation

Good, old-fashioned science fiction. This series has an interesting historical twist in that it's really telling the story of the decline and fall of the Roman empire; it's just that it's set in space.

61. Titian's Venus

Probably should have gone with this one for Valentine's Day, huh?

60. The Margherita Pizza

Mmmm... Delicious.

Did you know that the Margherita pizza was invented to honor Queen Margherita and that the tomato, mozzarella, and basil are meant to mirror the red, white, and green of the Italian flag? If you're reading this blog, you probably did know that already. I have a well-informed readership.

59. Fanfare for the Common Man

The video is grainy and inexplicably subtitled in Japanese, but the music is good. I don't know why, but this piece always feels like such a good representation of America to me. It's probably just been used in a lot of documentaries.

58. The Haydn Surprise Symphony

The "surprise" has almost certainly been ruined by the popularity of the piece. Nevertheless, if you don't recognize the name, give it a listen. (The surprise is in the second movement. The first movement, linked here, is also fantastic.)

57. The Wizard of Oz (the book)

If you've only ever seen the movie, you should give the book a read. (It's even in the public domain now. You can download it here.) I love the stark, matter-of-fact storytelling. It leaves room for filling in the details on your own. And the book, unlike the movie, has a very harsh, old-fashioned fairy tale feel about it.

56. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

A look inside the workings of a corrupt mental facility and the disorganized mind of the narrator. In addition to the popular movie adaptation, it was also adapted into a Broadway play, which I imagine was just awful.

55. Machinarium

The first game to make the list! I finished playing through this the other day, and I can guarantee that it's worthy. It's an adventure game the follows a heartwarming story of robot friendship. The design is beautiful, the storytelling is innovative, and it's fun! (Joel, I know you have a copy. You should play it.)

54. The Old Man and the Sea

If I haven't read it, does that mean it isn't art? I'm pretty sure all I know about The Old Man and the Sea is that a guy goes fishing, catches a big fish, and dies. And I'm not even sure of that last part. Still, it's a classic, and I'm willing to count it without having read it.

[I just looked it up on Wikipedia and it's only 127 pages. That's short enough that I may actually read it!]

53. The champagne coupe glass

Elegant, right? Legend has it that this style of glass was modeled on the shape of Marie Antoinette's breast. That legend is false, but it's fun anyway.

52. That big molecule thing in Belgium

Pretty cool, huh? It's called the Atomium, and it celebrates, I don't know, science?

51. Eleanor Rigby

Sorry for the somewhat depressing Valentine's Day juxtaposition.

Ah, look at all the lonely people.

Listen here...

50. Nighthawks

For my first mini-milestone, a mini-callback. Nighthawks is currently on display in the Art Institute of Chicago, where, as I'm sure you recall, Cameron famously looked at Seurat.

49. Bart Sells His Soul

It took a while, but TV makes its first entrance on the list. Now go back and watch this episode. It's better than you remember.

48. The Statue of Liberty

Ellen accused me last night of "going too mainstream." Apparently the Antikytheria Mechanism and The Cattle Raid of Cooley were just much too obvious. So here's a nice obscure one for you.

Interesting facts about the Statue of Liberty:

• Her face was modeled after that of the sculptor's mother.
• An early design plan had Liberty holding a broken chain, but that was scrapped as it might have been too divisive in the post-Civil War atmosphere.
• She's 200 years old, 500 feet tall, and weighs 400 tons.
• This gigantic woman will devour us all!

47. The Cattle Raid of Cooley

Here's one you almost certainly haven't heard of. An early Irish epic poem in which our hero, Cú Chulainn, a teenage Irish demigod, singlehandedly fights off an entire army. To make a long story short, Ulster decides to go to war because they want a magically super-fertile bull which is owned by Cooley. When they attack, a curse causes everyone in Cooley to be sick for months. Everyone except Cú Chulainn, that is. But how do you stop an army on your own? Apparently by invoking the right of single combat and fighting them individually, one after another, for months on end. So now you know. You don't mess with Cú Chulainn.

46. The Antikytheria Mechanism

I'm breaking my usual format by posting two pictures: One to show what the mechanism looks like today and one to show how it initially would have functioned. This was an ancient Greek device for calculating astronomical positions. I think it's beautiful as well as functional, but I'm a sucker for ruins, so what do I know?

45. The Washington Monument

Can't go wrong with a big old obelisk.

44. The solo from Freebird

The picture is not exactly related, but it is a composite from Wikipedia of a whole lot of free birds, so that's worth something, right? I'm also posting a link to a YouTube video of the song, but maybe don't look at the guys in the band, because it's a little hard to take them seriously.

The song...

43. The Last Supper

Pretty self-explanatory.

42. In the Hall of the Mountain King

This is the choice for the day because it featured heavily in my dream last night and it's still stuck in my head. Also, did you know it was composed as accompaniment for a scene in an Ibsen play? You probably did know that, trivia-obsessed readership. I did not.

Listen here...

41. Waiting for Godot

Samuel Beckett's classic, starring Magneto and Professor X. Originally written in French although Beckett was Irish. That's just how he rolled.

40. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The source of the classic "Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink." Also my personal favorite line: "slimy things did crawl with legs upon the slimy sea." (For bonus points, work that one into the next academic paper you write.) And remember, kids, don't kill an albatross.

Read the whole thing here... (Caution: It's longer than you expect.)

39. Lost in Translation

Since it's Groundhog Day, my first thought was to make the classic Bill Murray movie my piece of art for the day. But then I remembered that I'm looking for art and it has to be better than that scene in Ferris Bueller. Groundhog Day is funny (and in fact it's in the National Film Registry, which is quite exclusive), but I'm not sure it's good art. Lost in Translation, on the other hand, is so artistic that every time I try to watch it I fall asleep.

38. Machu Picchu

South America makes its first appearance in the list with some pretty sweet Incan architecture.