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Top 10s tell a lot about a person. So if you want to know who RedWine is, read on. If you don't want to know, read it anyway. Or don't.

Top10s
1. Songs I like

2. Songs I don't like
(as in "someone poke my ears out, please")

3. Movies I would bring to the "lonely island"
(If lonely island had power supply, a DVD player and widescreen TV)

4. Movies I would throw into the ocean
on the way to lonely island even if these were the only movies left on earth

5. Computer games

6. Books

7. Things I like to do
Top 10 shining good reasons for not being deaf:
1. Tanya Donelly: Mysteries of the unexplained

    I am addicted to her voice. From 10 songs that top my playlist (I am not kidding here, the top 10 songs on my playlist of approx. 3000 are all from her), I decided to select only one. Could have been any of the 10, but this one reminds me of the wonderful time I had in Airstream Cafe / Glen Waverley / Melbourne. Thanks again to all the girls.

2. Pixies: Debaser

    Screaming "Debaser" into a microphone 10 times in a row with a badly played guitar in the background, this is one of my favourites from the Pixies. Because someone screams "Debaser" into a microphone 10 times in a row. Brilliant.

3. Belly: Super-Connected

    Pure conincidence, but Tanya Donelly was lead singer of this band, and this is just a wonderful example for a "Belly" song. 

4. Green Day: Basketcase

    One of the songs you shouldn't hear when driving a car. A miracle I didn't get any speeding tickets so far.

5. Die Happy: Take you on a ride

    My second favourite "don't hear and drive" song.
   
6. Björk: Hyper-Balad

    My favourite from her, but I love most of her albums.

7. Maria Joao: Preto e branco

    If you ever have the chance to see her in concert, do. Pure energy, a voice that melts rock. 

8. Guano Apes: Big in Japan

    Powerful German rock / new metal band. Wonderful cover version of an Alphaville song (a rather lame song that is).

9. Led Zeppelin: Whiskey in the jar

    The perfect drinking song.

10. Tom Tom: Underneath the mango tree

    A wonderful silly song.




Top 10 shining good reasons for being deaf:

1. Time of my life (Dirty Dancing soundtrack)

    So shit it is untrue. How come ANYONE actually liked this song?

2. Bryan Adams: Everything I do

    Another song from a movie. God, I hate movie songs. God, I hate Bryan Adams.

3. Michael Bolton: Love is a wonderful thing

    Mindless pap, this is a song for girls. Girls with no brain or taste what so ever.

4. Shania Twain: That don't impress me much

    I can not say how much I hate her songs. Words have yet to be invented to describe how mindblowingly crap she is. Her voice: unnerving. The songs: 90s female emancipation brochures revisited. In my house, 10 radios have been damaged beyond repair because her songs were played.

5. Dido: White flag

    If I ever hear this song again I swear I will kill somebody. I had to listen to it for 2 weeks in a row because this was the only CD we had with us while working in Japan. It was playing in the car on the way to work, on the way to the hotel, on the way to dinner. We spent a lot of time in the car. And only this CD. Aaaargh! And all songs sound the same.

6. Whitney Houston: I will always love you

    Thank god she is on drugs. That will finish her off quickly.

7. Celine Dion: My heart will go on

    Buckets of filth. See top 10 worst movies.    

8. Chris de Burgh: Lady in Red

    What a shit song. They still play it on the radio sometimes. I have compiled a list of all radio stations I have heard playing this song. I will never ever listen to one of these stations again.

9. Elton John: Candle in the wind

    Every time I hear him sing I think "Oh my god, someone more or less important has died". The lyrics are what really drives me mad. Utter crap.

10. Phil Collins: Another day in paradise

    Again, it could have been any song. This is the one most played on our local radio stations from him. As every single one of his songs it's shit.




Top 10 Movies for my lonely island:

 1. Monty Python: Life of Brian

    There is a good reason why I never managed Latin in school. I always thought there would be some helpful Roman officer around in case you don't get your grammar together properly.  Unfortunately he never turned up when I had a test in Latin.

Favourite scene:    "Romanes eunt domus"
Favourite line:        "Romani ite domum"

2. The 5th Element

    Best Bruce Willis movie ever.

Favourite scene:    Korban is in trouble
Favroutie line:        "Anyone else wanna negotiate?"

3. Reservoir Dogs

    A celebration of violence.  Best movie by Quentin Tarrantino.

Favourite scene:    Cutting the ear off
Favroutie line:        "Fuck it! I'm fucking dying here!"

4. Twelve Monkeys

    Completely mad story, Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis at their best.

Favourite scene:   Blueberry Hill
Favourite line:       ""

 5. Pirates of the Caribbean

    Anyone who ever played one of the "Monkey Island" computer games will understand. This is my secret dream, being a complete joke of a pirate, fighting a ghost pirate. And winning in the end.

Favourite scene: The rum party
Favourite line:     "Welcome to the Caribbean"

6. The Usual Suspects

    One of the best stories, and the best ending of a movie ever. Anyone who tells you they guessed the end when first seeing this movie is a liar. Period.

Favourite scene:  At the pier 
Favourite line:      "And just like that he disappears"

 7. Miller's Crossing

    One more movie celebrating violence.  In a way I can only describe as pure genius. 

Favourite scene: "Oh Danny Boy"

Favourite line:   "Look into your heart! - What heart?"

 8. Leon

    I love Luc Besson movies. The stories are always a bit odd, so refreshing in the otherwise dull world of Hollywood.

Favourite scene:   The trap
Favourite line:       "You understood?"

 9. Lawrence of Arabia

    Sounds a bit odd in this collection, but I love this movie. Big 60s cinema, wonderful pictures, movie stars by the dozen. And the desert. I love the desert. Because it is so clean.

Favourite scene:      Death at the well
Favourite line:          "Because it is clean."

 10. Bladerunner

    Cult.

Favourite scene:     all
Favourite line:         "...time to die."
Top 10 Good reasons to be deaf and blind:

 1. Titanic

    My wife made me watch this movie. Being a good husband I went along. After the movie we agreed to respect each others opinion about movies and never again force the other into a movie he/she does not want to see in the first place.  It was pure agony. There is one question I have: Why? Why in hell?

Best scene:     When DiCaprio finally dies.
Worst scene:   The rest of the film.

2. Dirty Dancing

    Dance movies are crap. Period.

Best scene:     Never seen enough to find a best scene
Worst scene:   The whole film, I guess

 3. Pretty Woman

    I hate Richard Geere. I hate whatshername. One of the most ridiculous and idiotic stories ever. This film basically lacks everything: Story line, pirates, violence, bad guys, humour, everything.

 4. Independence day

    If there is one thing I can not stand, even under the threat of being shot, it is the oh so glorious American patriotism. Oh my god, this is a shit movie. Saw it in a cinema in Banff/Canada. The Canadians in the theatre were the only reason I could stand through this ordeal. The whole audience laughed their heads off throughout the whole film, the film was just too stupid.

 5. Sleepless in Seattle

    You guessed it, this is another one of these "Darling, we haven't been in the cinema for such a long time" movies.  Meg Ryan? She's shit.

6. Bodyguard

    If Whitney Houston is an actress, I am the emperor of China. If whatshisname is an actor, I am a chair. The only purpose of this movie is:
- to have another Kevin Costner movie
- to sell an awful song because Whitney Houston sings it
- to make people like me feel completely sick

 7. Message in a bottle

    Shit running along the Sleepless in Seattle lines. If it worked once, it will work again. So true, I hate it just as much as I hate Sleepless in Seattle.

 8. Waterworld

    Unbearable. Kevin Costner? Shoot him. Please. And what a story! How can you have a map of a planet with only one island? I bet they had their GPS switched on.

9. The day after tomorrow

    So idiotic in any aspect of the "story", it causes physical pain. An insult to any intelligent life form. And most semi-intelligent life forms.

10. Email for you

    What a story. Someone uses some kind of communications method to date someone else. Sounds familiar? Look at "Message in a bottle". "Sleepless in seattle". I mean, what next? How about a plane pulling one of those long advertisement signs? Or a blimp with a large text on it saying "I am looking for someone to have sex with! Dial 1800-IAMHORNY now!". Movies running along these lines are what cat's vomit is for food.
Top 10 Computer games:

 1. Monkey Island

    I bow in deep admiration before the people who invented this game. The amount of time I spent playing it, and the amount of fun I had, would be sufficient for a number of lifetimes. Guybrush Threepwood, you are my all time computer hero.

2. Monkey Island II

    Came close to part I, but as a sequel can only rank on 2.

3. Sam and Max hit the road

    What a lovely adventure full of violence, fun, puzzles and little games. I liked wak-a-rat and gator golf most. Lucasarts rule.

4. Day of the tentacle

    Like the top 3 this is a game I spent ages to play. And play again. And again. 

5. Elite

    On the Amiga 500. What a brilliant game. Became "Elite" after ages of playing. I am still proud of this....

6. Battlefield 1942

    My favourite online game. The offline mode is boring. My favourite scenario: Caen, playing on the Canadian side.

7. Super Mario Cart

    The only thing I really remember from uni time is that we played this game thousands of times.

8. Space Invaders

    My first computer game and probably still one of the best ever invented.

9. Tetris

    Sounds a bit strange, but I really liked this on the Gameboy. Top score was something around 300000.

10. Turricane II

    ...on the Amiga 500. Played this one a lot...



Top 10 Books:

 1. Douglas Adams: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

    What a surprise. A computer nerd likes HGTTG? I actually like the BBC radio show even more than the books.

2. JRR Tolkien: Lord of the rings

    Also a choice that needs no explanation.

3. JRR Tolkien: The hobbit

    See Lord of the rings.

4. T.E. Lawrence: Seven pillars of wisdom

    To me Lawrence is one of the most interesting persons in history. You read his book, you share all his thoughts on his time in Arabia, but you know that you know nothing about him. A complete mystery.

 5. Miguel de Cervantes: Don Quijote

    If fighting the wind mills is all you know about Don Quijote, rest assured that you know nothing. Granted, this book is huge, but so is LOTR. It makes for some of the funniest reading I have found so far, and it is worth reading every single of the 1000 plus pages.

6. Friedrich Schiller: Wallenstein

    Probably unknown to English readers, Schiller (1759-1805) is one of the best German playwrights. The play, staged in the 30 years war, is the German equivalent of Shakespeares Richard III or Julius Caesar.

7. Mario Vargas Llosa: The feast of the Goat

    Deeply unsettling. This is the story of a dictator in the Dominican Republic and the ways he plays with the people around him to get his will. The really shocking bit is that large parts of the story are actually true.

8. James Cook: The journals of Captain Cook

    A great adventurer, an amazing book.

9. Allan Bullock: Hitler and Stalin - parallel lives

    A perfect analysis of the worlds 2 worst dictators.

10. Stefan Zweig: Decisive moments in history

    The English title does not fully capture the original German title's meaning, which runs along the lines of "Magic moments in history".  I especially like 2 of the short stories, Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo and the composition of the Marseillian march / French national anthem.



Top 10 Favourite passtimes

1. www.b3ta.com

    Took me about 3 minutes to get fully addicted.  Started to learn Photoshop. Still in the learning phase.

2. Pissing my wife off by saying "I want a new cat"

    See "A tribute to my cat" for details. I loved my cat. Then he died. Now I want a new cat. Just a tiny one. I would take care of everything, even cleaning the cat loo, but my wife's answer is "no".

3. Lying in the garden, drinking red wine, watching the sunset

    Actually this is my no. 3, 4 and 5. There is no other method in the world that can give you such a resound feeling of basic happiness. Well there is: sex.

4. Listening to music

    Most of my other favourite passtimes would not be complete without music. My day is made up of 8 hours sleep, 8 hours work and 8 hours listening to music. Unforunately listening to music at work is not allowed.

5. Movies

    One day when I'm rich I'll buy me a home cinema system. Until then I like to go to the cinema.

6. Reading

    Mainly history, any period from ancient Greece to the end of the USSR. Since Mr. Cat died reading is no longer my most favourite passtime, because Mr. Cat liked to sleep on my lap or legs while I was reading.

7. Dinner

     I am a good food addict. I get EXTREMELY grumpy when I'm hungry. And very disappointed when the food is not to my liking. Thanks to god there is not much that I don't like,  I even like uncooked vegetables (with the exception of pepper). What I really hate is junk "food" by the likes of McDs or Burger King. Kids, this has nothing to do with food!
Dinner is my favourite meal, because it usually involves not doing something else afterwards. For me dinner can take hours. And it means wine. Red wine.

8. Badminton

     It's not that I am a sports person or anything, but I like to play badminton. I play in a team in the lowest league, which means we don't have too much pressure. It's very satisfying to know that there will be no useful rewards whatsoever, I simply play for fun - but I'm dead serious when playing.

9. Travelling

     I like travelling abroad. Not that I hate being at home, but it's nice to see other things. I like to go abroad for my company, because it usually means everything is paid for and you still have a chance to see some sights. Holiday is definitely better, but I can't afford a decent holiday at the moment. 

10. Garden & pool

     My wife's favourite hobby, and I like it a lot as well. We built our own natural swimming pool in the garden.