By CJ Tiernan Sometimes you hear a song and it just knocks your socks off. You attempt to consume the artist's entire oeuvre or just listen to the song over and over again. But then again, sometimes a song is a miss. It doesn't hit right. It doesn't stick in your mind. You absorb it and move on. That is, until another artist comes along, dusts off the old track, and finds something new in it. Whether it's a new spin or just done in the artist's typical style, a change of scen

By CJ Tiernan I love a good game night. Just hanging out at home, gaming with the fam, is one of my very favorite things in the world. I accumulated a list of my 11 favorite games I've ever played. As a disclaimer, the term "board game" is used a little loosely as several of the games on the list do not have "boards." This term is used in part to distinguish them from games that just use a deck of cards, video games, and the games the Backstreet Boys sang about in the song "Q

By CJ Tiernan I'm writing this one on Halloween so, 'tis the season. The horror movie genre definitely isn't as inextricably linked to the calendar as Christmas movies, but they certainly get a bump this time of year. I know that some people aren't huge fans of the horror genre and I don't blame them. I go to a movie to be entertained but often it's more than just that. In a comedy, you want to be friends with the funny people. In an adventure, you want to be on that adventur

By CJ Tiernan When you first learn to read as a child, it opens up world of possibilities. You can pick up a book and read it all on your own (Awesome!). You can explore a world or learn and grow. It creates your first real moment of autonomy as a human being. Below is a list of my 11 favorite books that I read as a child. I read these over and over and over again. 1. Harold and the Purple Crayon Written and Illustrated by Crockett Johnson Published in 1955 This book, about a

By CJ Tiernan When watching a movie, in pursuit of entertainment I often try to get lost in the world of the film. Sometimes the acting is so compelling it's almost hard to fathom. An opinions gets lost in the character and absorbed by the plot and it's tough to decipher where the actor ends and the character begins. If that happens, you can feel it while watching the movie and it's incredible. Below is a list of the 11 acting performances that were so captivating and unexpec

By CJ Tiernan The song that kicks off an animated show is often the baited hook that brings you into the episode. Back in the day of live television, a show would attempt to ensnare you (or in this case: an unsuspecting child) immediately after whatever previous show you just watched so you didn't change the channel. They come on loud and strong and typically offer an extremely abbreviated sense of the plot and/or characters. I love the energy of a TV show theme song. Below i

By CJ Tiernan Saturday Night Live (SNL) has just entered its 51st season. That is an impressive run in a genre that is ever-evolving: comedy. It is a show that has been on for so long, it has touched and shaped the comedic sensibilities of generations. I've seen clips of some of the shows that came out before I as born, but with one or two exceptions, my list is comprised of people that were on the show when I was old enough to watch. Below is a list of my 11 favorite comedia

By CJ Tiernan Phineas and Ferb is one of my very favorite shows of all time. If you've ever watched the show, you know that there is a small list of boxes that get checked every single episode. The boys are going to invent something great, Dr. Doofenshmirtz is going to invent something that is thwarted by Perry the Platypus, Candice is going to fail to bust Phineas and Ferb, and there is going to be a musical number. I have created a list of my 11 favorite songs from the show

By CJ Tiernan Whether written for adults or kids, there are certain movies and stories that follow groups of children. It can be a difficult task for a film production for several reasons. One is simply that there are child labor laws that limit how much a child actor can work in a day, limiting your window to film a scene. Another reason is that it is hard to find a great child actor. They lack the experience to draw on to always be able to create and embody a character. How

By CJ Tiernan Characters are such an important part of a TV Show. Because the story unfurls over such a long period of time, you get to spend so much more time with a character. If you can't stand a character, or don't understand where they're coming from, you might just jump ship on the show altogether. When you get two characters, who are either friends or partners, that can play off one another, especially for comedic effect, it's the best. I highly enjoy watching characte

By CJ Tiernan The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) has been playing games since 1997. It currently has 13 teams and is working on getting up to 18 teams by 2030. A lot of the teams exist in the same cities as NBA teams. I have always enjoyed the uniqueness of team names in sports. The WNBA has several names that you don't see anywhere else and a lot really fit the city they're in. Below is a list of my 11 favorite WNBA team names. Note: I didn't include previous

By CJ Tiernan Before the ubiquity of the smartphone, Sportscenter was the one. It was THE way to get your sports highlights. You'd also watch the bottom line to find scores and other important tidbits. When I was in High School, Sportscenter anchors were deified and revered. Sportscenter has lost a bit of its charm in the intervening decades, but it never gets old to go back and watch the old "This is Sportscenter" commercials. They would very humorously place athletes and an

By CJ Tiernan Adele was born exactly 2 weeks before me, in May of 1988. Her album titles are, or have been to date, named for the age at which she writes and composes her albums, though they're usually released a year or two after that. That means it is very easy for me to track what age Adele is when she releases these albums and compare myself at that same age to her. (Yikes! I changed my mind. I'm not interested in doing that.) Her first album was 19. Her huge, game-changi

Robin Williams was a remarkable actor. He brought an unrivaled energy and enthusiasm to his performances. While rightly remembered for his comedic chops, he was so good at bringing a tenderness and humanity to his characters. Robin Williams is one of my very favorite actors of all time. Below are my 11 favorite Robin Williams movies of all time. John Mathew Smith & www.celebrity-photos.com, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons 1

By CJ Tiernan To quote Michael Scott: "Pizza. The great equalizer. Rich people love pizza. Poor people love pizza. White people love pizza. Black people love pizza." Pizza is awesome and everyone that doesn't have some allergy to one of its ingredients, loves the stuff. Below I've crafted a quick list of my 11 favorite toppings on a pizza. 1. Pepperoni This one is the best and it is the most popular for a reason. It's weird because, unlike a lot of the other things on this li

By CJ Tiernan Movies that cram the whole 2 hours into one day hold a special level of charm. It is a subset of a genre that, when done right, you may not even realize that you've just watched events unfold in near real time. There are comedies, action flicks, and thrillers on this list. You can very easily feel the urgency that leads to a movie transpiring over a very thin slice of life. Below is a list of my very favorite movies that take place in a single day or 24 hour per

By CJ Tiernan The opening scene of a movie can be used in so many different ways. It can be used to drop you into a new world, introduce an important character in an impactful way, or sometimes it's just B-roll with the credits rolling by. I love being transported into a world to see or feel something different from what I know. Most of the movies I have on the list below establish a tone or tension that carries well past the opening scene. The beginning establishes a tone th

By CJ Tiernan Pat Hughes, the radio play-by-play broadcaster for the Chicago Cubs, brings a joy and energy to the broadcast on a daily basis. He has been on the call for the Cubs since 1996 and was recently inducted into the Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame. I have always delighted in his idiosyncrasies when listening to him call a game. The Cubs are my favorite baseball team and I quite enjoy listening to him when ever I can't watch the game. Below is my list of my 11 favorite thin

By CJ Tiernan I like to watch TV shows that make me laugh. Some of the most fun comedy is the comedy that is born of breaking free of its previously established conventions or commenting on the standard conventions and styles. Meta means self-referential, as in referencing itself or its own genre. Below, I've compiled a list of the TV Shows I consider to be the most meta, or best at being self-referential. Please enjoy and feel free to offer up your own list in the comments.

By CJ Tiernan This list, as most lists are (at least on this site), is pretty arbitrary. Left Field Alert! I have selected celebrities with varied histories and put them up against one another without really revealing my criteria. They're just people whose names and/or bodies of work I enjoy or respect. Heck, I might just be digging on their vibes. Anyway, here is a list of my 11 favorite celebrities that have an animal in their name. 1. Robin Williams Birth Name: Robin McLau