10 Works of Art That Have Changed My Life

You guys have probably seen my Facebook status, asking people which works of art have affected them the most.

I thought I'd share my top ten with you guys, and I would love it if you'd share yours with me.  Also, it's really effing hard to pick ten.

Here they are, in no particular order (with quotes, hurrah!):

1.) Joni Mitchell's "Blue". 
I wanna have fun,
I wanna shine like the sun.
Wanna be the one that you wanna see.
I wanna knit you a sweater,
I wanna write you a love letter,
wanna make you feel better,
wanna make you feel free.

2.) 30 Rock.
I just want to go home and  watch that show about midgets and eat a block of cheddar cheese.

3.) "Sunday in the Park With George" by Sondheim.
Anything you do,
let it come from you;
then, it will be new.
Give us more to see.

4.) "Franny and Zooey"/ "The Catcher In The Rye"  by J.D. Salinger. 
You’d better get busy, though, buddy. The goddam sands run out on you every time you turn around. You’re lucky if you get time to sneeze in this goddam phenomenal world.

Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You’ll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. it’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn’t education. It’s history. It’s poetry. 

5.) "The Tempest" by Shakespeare.
We are such stuff as dreams are made on;
and our little life is rounded with a sleep.


6.) "Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer. 
It was late, and we were tired.
We assumed there would be other nights.
Anna’s breathing started to slow, but I still wanted to talk.
She rolled onto her side.
I said, I want to tell you something.
She said, You can tell me tomorrow.
I had never told her how much I loved her.
She was my sister.
We slept in the same bed.
There was never a right time to say it.
It was always unnecessary.
The books in my father’s shed were sighing.
The sheets were rising and falling around me with Anna’s breathing.
I thought about waking her.
But it was unnecessary.
There would be other nights.
And how can you said I love you to someone you love?
I rolled on my side and fell asleep next to her.
Here is the point of everything I have been trying to tell you, Oskar.
It’s always necessary.  

7.) Helplessness Blues, Fleet Foxes.
I was raised up believing
I was somehow unique,
like a snowflake,
distinct among snowflakes,
unique in each way you could see.
And, now, after some thinking
I'd say I'd rather be
a functioning cog, in some great machinery,
serving something beyond me.
But I don't, I don't know what 
that will be.
I'll get back to you someday soon,
you will see. 

8.) Harold and Maude, directed by Hal Ashby.
Vice. Virtue. It's best not to be too moral. You cheat yourself out of too much life. Aim above morality. If you apply that to life, then you're bound to live life fully.

9.) "Ghost Of Corporate Future", Regina Spektor.
People are just people;
they shouldn't make you nervous.
The world is everlasting;
it's coming and it's going.

10.) Mad Men.
If you don't like what's being said, change the conversation.