sircastick89

10 Albums You Must Hear To Be Considered Intelligent By Anyone

sircastick89 — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:26:14 GMT

10 Albums You Must Hear To Be Considered Intelligent By Anyone

Music is not a subject which lends itself easily to the making of lists and rankings. Many people, from the Rolling Stone magazine to my crazy uncle, have tried, and failed miserably, to rank the best songs, artists, and albums of all time. Many people say that ranking music is simply impossible, for the medium is far too diverse for their to be a universally agreed upon "best of."

That said, I have undertaken the impossible, and I am proud to say that I have succeeded in choosing the ten greatest albums ever made in an empirical, scientific way: I listened to a bunch of albums that I own and chose my favorite ones.

And here they are. (In keeping with the spirit of the thing, the albums are in alphabetical order by band name.)

At Fillmore East by the Allman Brothers Band

Probably the greatest live album of all time, At Fillmore East broke the Allman Brothers into international stardom. Recorded at New York's Fillmore East music club, the album shows the famous bluesrock group at the heigh of their power in 1971. Ever wonder why Duane Allman is considered such a musical legend? Listen to his blistering slide guitar on the opening track, a cover of Willie McTell's "Statesboro Blues," or his jazzy solo at the end of "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed."

But the crown jewel of this album is probably the most famous extended jam in the world, "Whipping Post." Duane and the rest of the band draw their biggest hit out to nearly half an hour with scorching solos and incredible musical improvisation. With its unbelievable sound quality and the band's penchant for feeding off of the audiences frenzy, At Fillmore East set the standard for all other live albums and made sure that the blues wouldn't die just yet.

Music From Big Pink by the Band

The Band got its name while touring with Bob Dylan in late 1965/early 1966. Being perpetually overshadowed was an occupational hazard of being even remotely associated with an artist as great as Dylan, and for years the Band labored in relative anomonymity. With the release of their first album without Dylan, Music From Big Pink, the Band finally burst out from under Bob's petticoats and released perhaps the greatest debut album ever.

Music From Big Pink has a scratchy, earthy feel to it, though the songs are drawn from sources as different as country and folk to R&B and soul. Dylan contributed one of the best songs of his career "I Shall Be Released," but the best material was written by the Band themselves (The Weight, Long Black Veil). Achingly beautiful vocals, great lyrics, and soulfull guitars and an incomperable sense of feel make this album one of the all-time greats.

Though the album didn't sell well (it failed to crack Billboard's top 50), it did have a huge impact, introducing a new audience to folk-flecked rock. Eric Clapton and George Harrison have also cited it as a primary motivation to move away from their respective supergroups (Cream and the Beatles), and start making music of their own.

Abbey Road by the Beatles

Given the the enormous amount of tension between the members of the Fab Four at this point in time, it's amazing how cohesive this album sounds. Though their last few albums (Let It Be, the White Album), had been marred by the competing egos and differing musical tastes of the band's three premier songwriters, John, Paul, and George, Abbey Road reveals the Beatles at a rare moment of cooperation and harmony, a moment made even more poignent when one realizes that the group broke up less than six months after this album hit the stands.

The first half of the album features songs by all four of the Beatles: Lennon's gritty "Come Together," "Because," and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)," McCartney's more lighter ballads "Oh! Darling" and "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," Harrison's fantastic "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun," and Ringo Starr's laid-back jaunt "Octopus's Garden." The second half of the album is medley of eight shorts songs that were combined by McCartney in the studio. All of the songs are written by Lennon or McCartney. One of those songs, "The End," features Ringo's only drum solo as a Beatle.

In all Abbey Road is a fantastic offering from the greatest band of all time, featuring, as most Beatles albums do, great lyrical and harmonic depth, huge musical diversity, and an incredibly high standard of excellence.

Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan

1965 may be the most important year in rock history, as the most famous bands in the world, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, broke into new musical ground with Rubber Soul and "Satisfaction," respectively. However, 1965 will forever be known as the year that Bob Dylan broke out of his folk shell for good and became a full-blown rock and roll legend.

While Dylan had experimented with a full rock band at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival in his previous album Bringing It All Back Home, it was in Highway 61 where he truly trancended folk music and indeed all of art with his beautiful melodies, baffling lyrics, and the rough, angry, hate-filled voice for which he would become world famous.

This album features angry put-down ballads ("Ballad of a Thin Man" and "Like a Rolling Stone," a song that was eventually voted to be the greatest rock song of all time by an authority no less than the Rolling Stone magazine), scorching blues, ("Tombstone Blues" "From a Buick 6,"), and ballads with lyrics so surreal they envelope you in their seeming meaninglessness (Desolation Row, Just Like Tom Thumbs Blues).

While the lyrics are famous for their obscurity, at least the title reference is clear: Highway 61 is probably one of the most prestigious centers of blues in America - stretching from New Orleans through Memphis and into Iowa. Elvis grew up near it, Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil on it, Bessie Smith died in a car crash on it, and Martin Luther King met his death in a roadside hotel.

To many, Highway 61 Revisited is more than just a rock album, but a grand sweeping statement about art, love, war, peace, politics, and indeed all of life. Said a young Bruce Springsteen: "That snare shot that [kicked it off] sounded like somebody'd kicked open the door to your mind."

The Doors by the Doors

By 1967, while most of America lingered in the post-war era, the music industry was moving far ahead of its listeners into the dark underground of counter-culture, mind-bending drugs, and the sexual revolution. No single band exemplified this movement more than Jim Morrison and the Doors.

Their self-titled debut album represented everything that America was heading towards but not quite there yet. Their dark and ominous sound, Ray Manzarek's jazz-infused organ, and Morrison's raw sexual energy fueled this band and kicked the door open on America's counter culture. Fittingly, the album was repeatedly censored - from Morrison's f-words on the trippy status-quo knocking "The End" to the shortening of "Break on Through to the Other Side's" "she get high" to "she get."

The Door's first album was actually something of a mistake - the only reason they started to record an album was because of their expulsion from their nightly club, Whiskey A Go Go due Morrison's obscene Oedipal references during their performances. However, their experience at playing live carried over to the studio - all of the songs on the album were constantly polished during their live sets.

This album will always be known for the Door's biggest hit single "Light My Fire," and though that helped the Doors in the popularity department it unfortunately overshadows the rest of the album, which contains surprisingly consistent material. "Back Door Man" is an excellent cover of the classic Willie Dixon song, and one hasn't truly contemplated the edges of possible existence without listening to the dark and cerebral "The End." This is one of the very few albums in which all of its songs are first rate and a pleasure to listen to.

Workingman's Dead by the Grateful Dead

The Grateful Dead is most famous for their live appearances which feature incredible improvisation and hour long jazzy-influenced jams. However, the band's energy and improvisation did not translate well in the studio and therefore their first few albums were mostly disappointments. However, in 1970 the band broke into new ground with the country flavored classic Workingman's Dead, from which jams and solos were conspicuously absent. Influenced in large part the folk-rock of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, band leader Jerry Garcia pumped out one country ballad after another. The band performed surprisingly tenderly during these recordings, with complex vocal harmonies and light, melodic acoustic guitars.

The album was by far their most commerically successful, and featured two hit singles, "Uncle John's Band" and "Casey Jones." "Dire Wolf" and "Cumberland Blues" were two underrated, though excellent cuts also included on the album. Because of the success of Workingman's Dead, Jerry Garcia began immediately on a followup project which ended up as the similar American Beauty album.

Are You Experienced by Jimi Hendrix

Though he would become the most legendary guitarist of all time, Jimi Hendrix had to first travel to England to gain notoriety. Several UK singles, including "Hey Joe" and "Purple Haze" soon convinced America of its mistake. However, even the excellence achieved by his first few single's couldn't compare to Hendrix's tour de force debut album Are You Experienced.

A pioneer in the use of distortion and playback, as well as the inclusion of drug-fueled science fiction-like imagery, Hendrix achieved new heights with this album, with his unbelievable performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in which he set his guitar on fire, he sealed his name into the pantheon of great rock'n'roll guitarists.

The US version of the album also contains his earlier singles because of the large segment of the American population unfamiliar with his work. And they had never seen anyone like Jimi. A black man playing white man's music and indulging in the largely white hippie-culture - and that's not even counted the music. Hendrix didn't play his guitar as much as he made love to it on stage. From the firy solos of "Foxy Lady" to the tender, heavily overdubbed "The Wind Cries Mary," Are You Experienced introduced the world to a level of virtuosity as yet unseen in rock.

Led Zeppelin IV by Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin IV is unique in that it actually does not have a title. The only writing present on the album are four cryptic symbols (representing the four members of the band) on the inside of the jacket cover. In the band's previous album, Led Zeppelin III, they moved away from the sonic sound of English hard rock for which they had become famous and towards a more acoustic, folk-inspired sound, a move which troubled fans and baffled critics.

Led Zeppelin IV masterfully achieves a balance between the two genres, with acid-folk songs like "Going to California" and "The Battle of Evermore," numblingly loud hard rock songs like the edgy "Black Dog" and the amped-up "Rock and Roll, and songs that were both folk and rock-inspired like the ultra-heavy "When the Levee Breaks" and perhaps the most famous song of all time "Stairway to Heaven."

This is by far Jimmy Page's best album - he dashes off solo after solo until you are bleeding from the ears. His incredible musicianship and chemistry with Robert Plant is never more evident than on "Black Dog" which brilliantly mixes Plant's harsh screams and falsetto pleading with Page's supersonic blues rock riffs. With this album, Led Zeppelin confirmed their status as the rocking-est rock band in the world, a position they would hold until drummer John Bonham's tragic death and the group's subsequent breakup in 1980.

Let It Bleed by the Rolling Stones

Surprisingly, most Rolling Stones fans do not consider Let It Bleed the best Stones album ever - rather it is relegated to the position of "part of the great four album run" of Beggars' Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile on Main Street. It's too bad though, because Let It Bleed is clearly the best of the bunch. With classic songs like "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and country-flavored underdogs like "You Got the Silver," you can't possibly go wrong on this album.

The Rolling Stones have been said to be the opposite of the Beatles in every way. While that's not really true, it does shed some light on this album - the name itself is a play on Paul McCartney's "Let It Be," but the differences go beyond that. While the Beatles may have kicked off the Summer of Love in 1967 with Sergeant Pepper and songs like "All You Need Is Love," the Rolling Stones definitively ended it with this 1970 album that turned its back on hippie-culture with songs like "Gimme Shelter."

The album's depiction of turmoil and destruction may reflect the state of the band at that time. Brian Jones had just quit the band due to his cocaine habit and drowned in a pool several weeks later, and the duo of Jagger and Richards had just finished their second battle of several million battles with England's drug and tax laws. However, this album, more than any other by the Stones, stands the test of time and truly sums up "the dark underbelly of the '60s."

Tommy by the Who

While many people consider this 1969 rock opera as pretentious at best, from a musical standpoint, this album can't be beat. Tommy finds the Who at the height of their creativity and skill. Though it is not, as it is often considered to be, the first album of its kind, Tommy was by far the most interesting and innovative piece of music crafted at that time.

Tommy's songs are linked by a single story line, which follows a young boy who becomes deaf, dumb, and blind after witnessing a murder. Tommy's parents take to all sorts of specialists, from a doctor who says that his problem isn't physical can't therefore be cured to an old gypsy healer who gives him LSD. Tommy also develops a strange skill for pinball, a remarkable, miraculous event given that he has only two working senses. Eventually, Tommy is released from his self-imposed prison when his mother breaks a mirror that he is staring into. He then becomes the leader of a cult which believes that he is the messiah. The album ends on an ambiguous note, as the members of Tommy's cult abandom him and as a result he gains true enlightenment.

Pete Townsend, the main archetect of Tommy, wrote several recognizable riffs that appear spread throughout the album - on "Pinball Wizard," "We're Not Gonna Take It," "The Overture," and "The Underture," as well as others. The Who's songs are surprisingly tender and lyrical, especially when compared to their earlier and later works. Tommy also contains a huge number of different instruments, yet despite this the Who became famous for playing the entire album end to end in concert, most notably at Woodstock.

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I Say, Nigel - How To Play Cricket

sircastick89 — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:05:20 GMT

I Say, Nigel - How To Play Cricket

One of the most baffling sports in the entire world, especially for Americans, is cricket. With its talk of test matches and bowling and overs, not to mention the practice of playing a single match for nearly week, cricket can seem like an absolute conudrum to the naked eye. To make it easier for Americans, cricket is often compared to baseball, but to me the only similarities between the two sports is length and the centrality of food and boredom.

However, do not despair! Cricket is not as complicated as one might think! Take five minutes to read this twist and then the next time Nigel asks you out for a match of cricket and a spot of tea with his chums, you can feel intelligent and not at all pear-shaped.

The Playing Field

Cricket is played on a oval shaped grassy field. Like baseball fields, there is no fixed dimensions of the outer boundary, but the field usually measures around 450 feet across.

At the center of the field is a rectangular area of dirt called the pitch, where most of the action takes place. The pitch is 66 feet long and 10 feet wide. At each end of the pitch are the wickets, which are made up of 3 upright posts called the stumps, and the bails, 2 small pieces of wood that sit on top of the stumps. Around the wickets are circles drawn in chalk.

The Rules

Cricket is played in teams of eleven. The teams take turns batting and fielding in innings, a concept similar to the one in baseball. A member of the batting team stands at each of the wickets. The team then decides which member will bat first. Once that is decided, the fielding team places its bowler at the opposite end of the pitch.

The bowler then throws the hard, fist sized cricket ball towards the batter. A member of the fielding team, usually called the wicketkeeper, stands behind the batter in the manner of an American catcher. The wicketkeeper is the only person on the field allowed to wear a glove. The batting team's goal is to score runs, while the fielding team's goal is to produce outs, or dismissals. A run is scored in one of several ways: if the batter hits the ball and the members of the fielding team move their respective opposite sides of the pitch (that counts for one run), if the bowler fails to bowl the ball into the circle around the wicket, or if the batter hits the ball out of the boundary of the field (four if it goes out on a bounce, six in the air). The batters may switch sides more than once or not at all after the ball has been hit.

The fielding team makes an out in several instances: if the bowler bowls the ball past the batter and the ball his the wicket, causing the bails to fly off stumps, if a fielder catches a batted ball in the air, or if a fielder knocks the bails off of the stumps with the ball while the batters are attempting to switch sides. If the batter is not within the circle around the wicket when the bails are knocket off, the batter is out. Batters may keep batting until they are dismissed or injured. When they are dismissed, they may not bat again in that innings. Once ten of the members of the batting team are out, leaving the final, eleventh batter without a partner, the innings is over, and the teams switch roles.

The game is divided into a series of overs, or a set of six balls. At the end of an over, the bowler and wicketkeeper and the umpires switch sides on the pitch. The fielders also shift in between overs. Also, there may also be breaks between overs for tea-time or lunch. In a game of limited-overs cricket the innings is over when a certain number of overs have been played.

Key Facts of the Game

In order to truly impress your British/Australian/South African/Bangladeshi friends, you'll also have to know more than just the rules of the game. Some good things to know:

Test Matches - the highest form of cricket, Test Matches are ultra long matches (usually about 4 or 5 days) that feature the best teams of the biggest cricket-playing nations in the world. The ten countries that currently play test matches are: Australia, England, South Africa, West Indies, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Inda, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The most famous test match in the world is The Ashes, which is a yearly competition between England and Australia.

One Day Cricket - in the 1960s, one-day cricket was developed to create more exciting and dramatic matches. One Day Cricket features limited overs (usually 60). Other than it's shortened length, One Day Cricket follows all of the rules of traditional cricket. The highest form is called First-Class, which is considered to be just a step below test cricket.

Twenty20 Matches - a newer form of cricket designed to generate more fan interest. There is a limit of 20 overs per team, and many of the rules are tweaked to invite more scoring and excitement. The game is usually played at night.

Cricket World Cup - the World Cup is the most prestigous one-day cricket tournement in the world. First held in 1975 by England, the World Cup is held every four years and has been won by Australia four times. In the 2011 World Cup, 14 teams will participate.

Sir Don Bradman - widely recognized as the greatest batsman in histoy, the Australian averaged 99 runs per innings, which is nearly 40 runs higher than the next highest average.

Videos

Best of Cricket (Compilation)	Funny Cricket	cricket bowling at its best. bowled ! bowled! bowled!
borat	Nike Cricket TV Commercial	indian cricket team fielding at thier best
Top 25 catches of all time

The Dark Knight

sircastick89 — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:07:49 GMT

The Dark Knight

I've got to admit: I'm not the biggest fan of comic-book inspired action films. It seems like they all have the same plotline, though that doesn't stop various directors from taking on such movies and making 500 million dollars.

And even though The Dark Knight was well on its way to being the highest-grossing film in American history, I was skeptical. (After all, I'm not the biggest fan of big box-office blockbusters either.)

However, when I finally was dragged off to see this new installment in the newest Batman series, despite the fact that I accidentally angered an old woman while standing in line in the theater, I found, to my utter surprise, that I was really enjoying myself.

The fact is, there's actually a reason that this film had the highest earning first weeked in history - it succeeds in the many areas that most comic book movies do not.

The Movie

The Dark Knight, the sequel to the newest resurrection of Batman, Batman Begins, is not your typical superhero movie. It's dark and bleak and somewhat psychologically damaging and wonderful. It doesn't follow the formula at all, and yet it doesn't seem like it's trying too hard to be original either.

The movie introduces two new villains that are famous to comic book aficionados - the Joker and Two Face. The Joker, played by an absolutely terrifying Heath Ledger, is the ultimate nihilist who just wants to "see the world burn." And what is not so frightening about him is his ability and willingness to do evil, but his willingness to do anything. He's not motivated by anything except a desire to inflict chaos in any way possible, which makes it especially hard for Batman. You see, unlike in most action movies, Batman's task is not to defeat the angry villains to save the citizens of Gotham, but to save the city from the mindset of despair and utter chaos that the villains represent. Batman's struggle is largely new in film in that is primarily a psychological one, which ultimately makes for a much more interesting movie. In a movie with this sort of struggle, the good guy is often seen as a violent vigilante, and the bad guys are often seen as good guys who have simply turned to evil out of despair and longing for what they cannot have. Instead of telling the familiar story of the hero triumphing over evil, the movie asks its viewers to ponder the definitions of "hero" and "evil."

As an open eschewer of popular movies in favor of smaller-budget films, it pains me to say this, but the fact remains: The Dark Knight is one of the best and most interesting films of the year and is certainly a must-see.

You Decide

Trailers and Such

THE DARK KNIGHT - FANS REVIEW	THE DARK KNIGHT - BATMAN SPEAKS	Batman - The Dark Knight Trailer HD
NEW The Dark Knight (2008) - Theatrical Trailer 3 HD	THE DARK KNIGHT - OSCAR FOR JOKER?

Good Songs for Beginning Guitarists

sircastick89 — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 19:20:29 GMT

Good Songs for Beginning Guitarists

As a beginning guitarist, I know the excitement when you find a good guitar tab for a song that you can actually play. The fact is, it's rare. Most songs out there are too complicated for novice players, and so at first it's hard to find new songs to learn.

Here are some classic songs that you can learn on your own without much trouble!

The Classics

Mr. Tamborine Man by Bob Dylan

This song couldn't be easier! It's just three basic chords, A, G, and E. Here is the progression:

G A D G
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
D G A

I'm not sleepy and, there is no place I'm going to

G A D G
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
D G A D

in the jingle jangle morning I'll come following you

Brown-Eyed Girl by Van Morrison

This song has three chords as well, but it also includes a cool opening riff!

Here is the intro:

e|7----8---10----8----7----12---13---15---13---12----7---8---10---8--7---5--2--3-5
B|8---10---12--10---8----13---15---17---15---13----8--10--12--10--8--3-------
G|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
D|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And here are the chords!

G                     C       G                    D
Hey, where did we go, days when the rain came
G                  C       G            D
Down in the hollow, playing a new game
G                    C                        G                  D
Laughing, and a running, hey, hey Skipping and a jumping
G                C                G                 D                  C
in the misty morning fog, with our hearts a thumpin' and you

D G Em C D G

my brown eyed girl You, my brown-eyed girl

House of the Rising Sun (the best version of this song is by the Animals)

Am       C        D           F
There is a house in New Orleans,
      Am        C      E
They call the "Rising Sun",
      Am       C       D           F
It's been the ruin of many a poor boy
     Am     E        Am    E
And God, I know, I'm one.

You can strum the chords, or, if you want to sound like the Animals do, you can finger-pick it like so:

For the A-minor and the C-major: Hit the A chord, and then slowly strum down to the e chord, then hit the B chord and then the G chord.

For the D-major and the F-major: Same thing except start with the D chord.

For the E-major: Start with the E chord.

Wild Thing by the Troggs

This song is great to practice your bar-chords. Here are the chords with the words (instruction down below)

A         D      E    D
Wild Thing,            you make my

A         D      E     D
heart sing             you make my

A         D      E     D
everything...groovy    yeah,yeah,yeah,yeah

A         D      E
Wild Thing

CHORUS

G A G A
           Wild Thing, I think I love you

G A G A
           but I wanna know for sure

G A G A
          come on hold me tight

G A G A

I love you.

Instruction:

For the A-chord, just play it normally.

For the D-chord, go to the fifth fret and place your index finger on all of the strings except the E. Then, place your ring finger on the seventh fret and cover the D, G, and B strings. Make sure you do not mute the e string or your sound will be way off.

For the E-chord, do the same thing just on the seventh and ninth frets.

For the chorus, I just like to play the power chords, which is just the base note and the fifth above.

So for the G-chord, put your index finger on the E-string at the third fret and your ring finger on the fifth fret of the A-string. Strum it, but make sure you're only hitting the E-string and the A-string.

Same goes for the A-chord, just start on the fifth fret instead of the third.

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones

This is perhaps the most famous guitar riff ever, and luckily for you it's pretty easy to play!

e|---------------------------------------------------------
B|--------------------------------------------------------
G|--------------------------------------------------------
D|--------------------------------------------------------
A|-----2----2----2--4--5----5---5/4---4--------------
E|--------------------------------------------------------

This is obviously just the very beginning of the song, but it still sounds cool on its own!

Photos

Bob Dylan	Van Morrison	Eric Burdon of the Animals	The Rolling Stones
The Troggs

Listen and Learn

Get a good idea of what the songs are supposed to sound like!

The Troggs- Wild Thing	The Rolling Stones - Satisfaction	Animals - The House Of The Rising Sun
Bob Dylan - Mr. Tambourine Man	Brown Eyed Girl

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The Increasingly Inaccurately Named Hitchhikers Trilogy

sircastick89 — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:40:09 GMT

The Increasingly Inaccurately Named Hitchhikers Trilogy

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy is a collection of science fiction books that follow the life and travels of an Englishman named Arthur Dent and his friend Ford Prefect, an alien from the vicinity of Betelguese who is a researcher for the famous enclycopedia The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a book that helps hitchhikers "see the wonders of the galaxy on thirty Artrillian dollars a day."

Other main characters include Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, out-to-lunch president of the Galaxy, Trillian, Zaphod's, and later Arthur's, human girlfriend, and Marvin, a chronically depressed robot who, due to frequent time travel, is actually 30 times old than the Universe itself.

The series, which evolved from a 70s BBC radio program, has five books, all of which were penned by the late Douglas Adams:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Restaurant At the End of the Universe
Life, the Universe, and Everything
So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish
Mostly Harmless

The Plot

The series begins with the destruction of the Earth to make way for an inter-stellar bypass by the Vogons, a race of insanely bureaucratic aliens. The humans to survive are Arthur Dent, who hitches a lift from a passing starship with the help of his alien friend Ford Prefect, who was on Earth doing research for the Hitchhiker's Guide, and Trillian, who was whisked off the planet some weeks before by President Zaphod.

All five of the books revolve around the hapless, inter-world wanderings of Arthur Dent and the quest to find the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. The Answer to the Ultimate Question is 42, although that doesn't mean much since no one knows what the question was. It is revealed that a giant computer was built to find the Ultimate Question, but it was destroyed by the Vogons moments before the completion of its ten-million year program - the Earth. In one attempt to find the Ultimate Question, Ford delves into Arthur's subconcious and discovers the question to be "What do you get when you multiply six by nine?" Eventually, the characters discover that the Universe is controlled by a insane old man who lives alone on a remote planet with his cat.

Though the fifth book, Mostly Harmless, ended with the deaths of every single main character, Douglas Adams had stated that he was intending to write a sixth book, though that possibility was ended with his death at age 49. In his honor, May 25th is known as National Towel Day in the U.K.

The Hitchhiker's Guide

The series often includes quotes from the Hitcherhiker's Guide to the Galaxy itself, whose tone often indicates that its editors were probably slightly tipsy:

"The best drink in existence is the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster.The effect of a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick."

"The Guide is definitive. Reality if often innacurate."

"It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination."

"Space... is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mindboggingly big it is. You might think it's long way down the road to chemist's, but that's just peanuts compared to space."

On the subject of towels:

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to- hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Buy

	Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Video) The production values aren't the greatest here, but this adaptation does capture some of the ebullient, hilarious anarchy of Douglas Adams's book. Arthur Dent discovers that his f...more Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (See the reviews) List Price: $19.98 Lowest Used Price: $0.01 (as of 12/4/2008@10:02 AM) Lowest New Price: $39.25 (as of 12/4/2008@10:02 AM)
	The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide: Five Complete Novels and One Story (Deluxe Edition) (Book) Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5 (See the reviews) List Price: $19.99 Lowest Used Price: $19.99 (as of 12/4/2008@10:02 AM) Lowest New Price: $19.59 (as of 12/4/2008@10:02 AM)
	The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Book) ''IRRESISTIBLE!''--The Boston GlobeSeconds before the Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is plucked off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a r...more Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (See the reviews) List Price: $7.99 Lowest Used Price: $0.01 (as of 12/4/2008@10:02 AM) Lowest New Price: $3.37 (as of 12/4/2008@10:02 AM)
	The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Book) At last in paperback in one complete volume, here are the five classic novels from Douglas Adams’s beloved Hitchiker series.The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the GalaxySeconds before the ...more Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5 (See the reviews) List Price: $20.00 Lowest Used Price: $6.42 (as of 12/4/2008@10:02 AM) Lowest New Price: $11.15 (as of 12/4/2008@10:02 AM)
	The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Book) ''DOUGLAS ADAMS IS A TERRIFIC SATIRIST.''--The Washington Post Book WorldFacing annihilation at the hands of the warlike Vogons is a curious time to have a craving for tea. It cou...more Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (See the reviews) List Price: $12.95 Lowest Used Price: $3.90 (as of 12/4/2008@10:02 AM) Lowest New Price: $7.37 (as of 12/4/2008@10:02 AM)
	Life, the Universe and Everything (Hitchhiker's Trilogy) (Book) ''HYSTERICAL!''--The Philadelphia InquirerThe unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky above their heads--so they plan to destroy it. The univers...more Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (See the reviews) List Price: $7.99 Lowest Used Price: $0.01 (as of 12/4/2008@10:02 AM) Lowest New Price: $2.95 (as of 12/4/2008@10:02 AM)
	So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (Book) Back on Earth with nothing more to show for his long, strange trip through time and space than a ratty towel and a plastic shopping bag, Arthur Dent is ready to believe that the p...more Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (See the reviews) List Price: $7.99 Lowest Used Price: $0.01 (as of 12/4/2008@10:02 AM) Lowest New Price: $3.00 (as of 12/4/2008@10:02 AM)
	Mostly Harmless (Book) Douglas Adams is back with the amazing, logic-defying, but-why-stop-now fifth novel in the Hitchhiker Trilogy. Here is the epic story of Random, who sets out on a transgalactic qu...more Average Customer Rating: 3.5 out of 5 (See the reviews) List Price: $7.99 Lowest Used Price: $0.01 (as of 12/4/2008@10:02 AM) Lowest New Price: $3.00 (as of 12/4/2008@10:02 AM)

Videos

Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy Movie Trailer	The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (BBC) Nr. 1 Part 1/3	Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy - Opening
The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy - BBC - Ep1P1	Hitchhikers Guide To the Galaxy. God non existence of.