Day: October 28, 2004

My request for vacation time in january has been green-lighted. I will be spending the holidays in the UK!

Ahem, yay!

LONDON – Two giants of 1970s cinema, Robert De Niro (news) and Al Pacino, have topped a British magazine's poll of the greatest living movie stars over the age of 50. The two stars of the “Godfather” saga took the top two places in a poll, released Thursday, of 10,000 readers of British film magazine Empire. Anthony Hopkins, in sixth place, was the highest placed British actor, and “Alien” heroine Sigourney Weaver, in 10th place, the top-rated woman.

1. Robert De Niro
2. Al Pacino
3. Jack Nicholson
4. Paul Newman
5. Marlon Brando (who died in July before voting was complete)
6. Anthony Hopkins
7. Morgan Freeman
8. Dustin Hoffman
9. Clint Eastwood
10. Sigourney Weaver
11. Gene Hackman
12. Harrison Ford
13. Sean Connery
14. Meryl Streep
15. Ian McKellen
16. Christopher Lee
17. Sidney Poitier
18. Robert Redford
19. Alan Rickman
20. Judi Dench
21. Samuel L Jackson
22. Peter O'Toole
23. Bill Murray
24. Albert Finney
25. Woody Allen
26. Helen Mirren
27. Christopher Walken
28. Ben Kingsley
29. Lauren Bacall
30. John Hurt

Is there danger on board? Yes. And it's in your CD player or radio!

Turns out, if you listen to certain songs or musical compositions while driving, you could be courting disaster. And the No. 1 tune to avoid is, oddly enough, classical music: Richard Wagner's “Ride of the Valkyries.”

That's the word from Britain's RAC Foundation for Motoring, which has helpfully released a list of the top five songs you should never listen to while driving. The raucous “Ride of the Valkyries,” written in the mid-1800s, earned the top spot because it's too loud and the tempo is too fast. You might be tempted to match your speed to the beat.

Top five tunes you should ban from your car CD:

“Ride of the Valkyries” by Richard Wagner
“Dies Irae” from Giuseppe Verdi's “Requiem”
“Firestarter” by the Prodigy
“Red Alert” by Basement Jaxx
“Insomnia” by Faithless

Original link: http://channels.netscape.com/ns/autos/package.jsp?name=fte/drivingmusic/drivingmusic