Amazon's Tenth Anniversary

Amazon.com is doing lots of neat stuff in honor of its 10th Anniversary. I still remember the first time I visited the Amazon site - it was in the fall of '95 after returning to school and they were trying to replicate the model of an online CD seller whose name I can't remember and which ceases to exist any more (anyone else remember what they were called??) Thought it was a neat idea, but at the time, I was more interested in that CD site. My parents, of course, had no idea what the hell I was talking about and over dinner one night with a family friend who was an executive at Exxon I was trying to explain what the internet was and said friend all of a sudden knew what I was talking about. It seems, the son of one of his colleauges had started Amazon.com.

Anyway, one of the things they are doing is creating Hall's of Fame for their top selling artists.

They have one for authors, musicians, and DVD's (which is an interesting concept cause it forces TV shows to compete with movies and other forms of entertainment.

As for the actual selections - can't really disagree with them. Yes, the Beatles should probably be the number #1 musician choice, and while I would have rated Pink Floyd higher than 18 its nice to see them actually even acknowledged. Its also interesting (though probably not surprising considering Amazon's market) that there are so many female singers represented - Norah Jones, Diana Krall, Eva Cassidy (who was from DC and was pretty darn good but a total shock to see listed here), Enya, Sarah McLachlan, and Celine Dion. Its almost like a gathering of the Lilith Fair all stars. The Austin, Texas Commie Chicks are also listed, but I won't mention them.

The other thing thats interesting is in the DVD section - the first three spots are taken up by the three Lord of the Rings Movies - thats fair enough, but #4 is the original Star Wars trilogy. If they were gonna do that, then not count LOTR as one selection and provided places for two more DVDs on the list. Like Star Wars, the Godfather and the Raiders of the Lost Ark Trilogies are also on the list (Raiders is one of my all time favorite movies - seen it dozens of times - but I've only seen the second one a couple of times and never saw the third with Sean Connery). Like LOTRs, The three Harry Potter movies are also listed seperately. And I am glad to see Band of Brothers (my box set is missing - don't recall if I loaned it to someone, or my son grabbed it and misplaced it - either way, I wanted to watch it the other night and can't find it).