Classic Pink Floyd poster from their Oakland Coliseum concerts on May 9 & 10, 1977

After seeing the ads for "The Bucket List" I decided to make one of my own. Then a few others decided they wanted to make lists, but they had different time frames than before you die. The lists are really quite different, and what's on them is clearly influenced by where the creators are in life. Feel free to add yours to the comments for this post.


56 Year Old Man -- Things to do before he dies

Dive to 200 feet one last time
Write a Novel
Fly in a Fighter like an F 15 or Mig 29
Travel the Pacific Coast Trail on Horseback
Photograph Africa
Return to Vietnam
Go to the Kentucky Derby. Preakness and Belmont Stakes all in one year
Attend a World Series (Preferably one in which Boston was playing)
Drive a Ford GT anywhere
See an Ivory Billed Woodpecker

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The poor guy in this funny video cannot get a word in regardless of how hard he tries.

The Hand Cost Extra

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Janis Joplin covered Summertime while she was with the band Big Brother and the Holding Company. Band Images and lyrics to Summertime are below.

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Going to extremes to put the zest back into things

In this 1944 classic cartoon a pack of wolves raids a flock of sheep, and just as it seems the wolves are going to have a feast Mighty Mouse appears to save the day.

Handle With Care

Spanky and the gang's plans to play hooky go afoul in this 1936 classic.

No Country for Old Men
It’s a cold hearted world in some parts of west Texas and No Country for Old Men realistically captures all the mayhem, passion, and indifference for life that you could ever want to not experience. Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, this thriller is definitely on the must see list.

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Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice

Until recently the Ivory Billed woodpecker was thought likely to be extinct. Then in 2004 this marvelous bird may have been spotted in the swamps of Arkansas. Although careful analysis of the 2004 video by Cornell's Ornithology Lab have many convinced the bird in the video is an Ivory Billed Woodpecker, the evidence isn't so concrete that it is beyond dispute. The images below are some of the last undisputed photographs of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker. With the exception of the 1948 John Dennis image, the images are from the Cornell University 1935 Singer Tract, Louisiana expedition. The 2004 video in question is presented as well.


John Dennis took this photo in 1948 while exploring Cuba

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If you're a member of the ShelbySuperCars team that created the SSC Ultimate Aero it can get you the production car speed record. Guinness World RecordsTM has certified that the SSC is the fastest production car in the world. The record is obtained by averaging the top speed of two passes from opposite directions. The official speed record is 256.18 mph. The SSC Ultimate Aero shattered the Koenigsegg CCR's previous official record by over 15 mph, and the Bugatti Veyron's unofficial record by over 3.5 mph. As fast as 256 plus mph is, wind tunnel tests suggest the SSC is capable of top speeds of over 270 mph.

See the video and images below to get a look at this monstrously ultra car in action and at rest.

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When I think of great victories nose to nose finishes usually come to mind. However, in 1973 Secretariat won the Belmont Stakes--arguably the most grueling horse race in America--by an unbelievable margin. No other horse has even come close to matching the great Secretariat's feat, and possibly no other horse ever will.

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As kids many of us put up gallant battles with sleep to stay up and see Santa arrive with our presents. For most of us sleep won out. In the 1940 cartoon "Bedtime for Sniffles" the great little mouse valiantly struggles to see Santa too.

In 1931 Coca-Cola Company commissioned the talented illustrator Haddon Sundblom to create a jolly Santa to be used in their Christmas ad campaign. While Sundblom could have used many different visions of Santa for inspiration, he chose the Santa in Clement Moore’s “A Visit From Saint Nicholas.” The Santa Sundblom created was so popular that variations on his original theme were used until 1964. Generations came to see Coca-Cola and Christmas as going together as naturally as milk and cookies. Through the years the Coca-Cola Santa became such a powerful icon that it helped shape the modern-day perception of what Santa Claus looks like.


        

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In this 1951 Classic Disney cartoon, Mickey and Pluto make themselves a beautiful Christmas tree. But two pesky chipmunks named Chip and Dale come with it, and Pluto isn't happy about that.

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Bing Crosby and David Bowie sing a unique version of The Little Drummer Boy for Bing Crosby's 1977 Christmas Special.

Update:
The couple above was discovered in a burial site that is 5000 to 6000 years old. They were found outside the Italian city of Mantova by a construction company that was preparing to build a factory on the site.

The lead archaeologist for the dig, Elena Menotti said “Double burials from the Neolithic are unheard of, and these are even hugging.” Based upon the condition of their teeth, the couple is thought to have died young. They are definitely a man and a woman. Flint tools, arrowheads and a knife were found buried with the couple. How they died has not been determined.

This guitar comes with its own Ouija Board so you can tell if you're going to play well tonight or should just claim you have the flu and stay home. Michael Vrtis is the creator of this guitar.

In the mid 50s most white Americans were enjoying an economic boom not seen since the roaring 20s. Their energies were focused on chasing the American Dream. After the Great Depression, World War II, and the Korean War the middle and upper classes were essentially oblivious to flaws in American society and culture. They were weary from decades of struggle and determined to enjoy "the good life." But there was an undercurrent of Americans who were not ready to accept the flowery picture Americans had painted of themselves.

Allen Ginsberg was one of those who could not blind himself to America's ugly side and the challenges faced by those who did not fit in American's collective image of themselves. Ginsberg's poem Howl was written in 1955. Everything about Howl challenged mainstream America's view of itself. The poem unnerved the establishment so much that it was attacked using obscenity laws, which, in the end, made the poem and Ginsberg even more potent and influential.


HOWL

For Carl Solomon

I

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by
madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn
looking for an angry fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly
connection to the starry dynamo in the machin-
ery of night,

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Illustration by Victor Moscoso