The List Universe

April 2008

Top 10 Greatest Operas

Published on April 30, 2008 - 66 Comments

I, like JFrater, am a lover of opera and have performed in a few as well. Here is my list of the 10 best operas of all time. The items are picked through online voting and my own personal preferences, here ya go! [JFrater would like to publicly protest the exclusion of any 20th Century operas, but defers to the wisdom of the contributor.]

10
Daphne
Jacopo Peri

This one is on the list only because it is the first opera ever written! Though almost none of it survives today, I believe the first of anything should be on a list! (Many historians, and JFrater, believe Hildegard von Bingen’s 12th century “Ordo virtutum” is the first opera, but it is not known if it was ever staged, Daphne was). The clip above is not from Daphne, but Peri’s music is very hard to find, so this is a clip of a counter-tenor singing an excerpt from Invocazione di Orfeo.

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Top 10 Declassified Secrets

Published on April 29, 2008 - 313 Comments

[WARNING: this list contains images that may offend] This is a list of secret projects that have since been found to be true in light of released (either officially, or unofficially) documents. Some have long been the source of conspiracy theories while others have been accepted by the mainstream as real. In no particular order:

10
Churchill and Hitler’s Execution

Winston Churchill 1943 The Famous Victory Salute

Sir Winston Churchill, Britain’s wartime Prime Minister, planned to execute Adolf Hitler in the electric chair if the Nazi leader fell into Allied hands.

Declassified documents reveal that Churchill was opposed to Allied plans for war crimes trials and wanted summarily to execute leading Nazi figures including Hitler who he regarded as “the mainspring of evil” and a “gangster”, and was also content to see Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi starve to death during a hunger strike in 1943.

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Top 10 Vampire Movies

Published on April 28, 2008 - 168 Comments

I’m a big fan of horror movies, and especially of a good vampire movie. While there are tons of cheap crap vampire movies out there, there are is also a wide array of great vampire movies that, best of all, vary greatly from one film to another. The trouble with making a top ten list for vampire movies is that some people like vampire comedies, others like the strange surreal vampire films, while others want blood and guts and the scariest movie they can find.

So for this list, my top ten vampire movie list is focusing on ten great, diverse vampire movies. This list is the top ten for variety among vampire movies. This list will show you the wide array of types of vampire movies, put in no particular order (since taste and preference and the differences between these movies makes it impossible to compare them on the same lines).

10
John Carpenter’s Vampires (1998)

Carpenter22

John Carpenter’s Vampires is one of the better recent vampire movies that actually takes the effort to be a vampire movie, and not an action film disguised as a vampire movie. James Woods plays the role of the main protagonist, a vampire hunter who is obsessed with wiping out vampires with his team after he witnessed his parents murdered by vampires when he as a child.

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Top 10 Guitarists You Don’t Know

Published on April 27, 2008 - 178 Comments

We have a few pretty good guitarists and musicians that frequent the List Universe, so I am expecting this list to garner a lot of interest - and maybe even some criticism. Here is a list of the ten best guitarists you probably don’t know.

10
Michael Lee Firkins

Michael is a shredder with soul. He was one of Mike Varney’s group of technique-obsessed monsters at Shrapnel Records. He has this really cool country-blues thing going on as well. Here he is live doing “Runaway Train”.

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15 Underrated International Destinations

Published on April 26, 2008 - 114 Comments

As an American, I’ve always found the best overseas destinations to be the ones less traveled. In general, they tend to be more authentic, friendly and economical than the more popular vacation spots. But I’ve not been everywhere, so help me out - tell us your favorite out of the way holiday spots.

15
Belfast, Northern Ireland

Ireland-Belfast

Thinking of an urban hell-hole ravaged by warring factions? Think again. Belfast has emerged from its troubled past to become a vibrant and unique cultural center. With its politically-inspired murals and pleasant, green parks, Belfast is a slice of Irish heaven, not to mention it’s easier on the wallet than Dublin.

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