Y is for Year Zero: Grunge killed hair metal. Acid house changed everything. Punk saw off progressive rock. These dividing-line stories are always attractive, always useful for a while— and then always revised. The grandfather of them all, though, has proved harder to shift— the idea that something happened in the early-to-mid-fifties to mark a change of era and fix a boundary of relevance. The next 10 or 20 years, as the 60s slip deeper into unlived collective memory, will be crucial and fascinating (for historians, anyway!).

— Current music criticism, from A to Z. I always had some trouble with the myth that pop music started with network television, somewhere in the 1950s, at the time of Elvis’ or Buddy Holly’s first appearences. (via The Null Device)

Jason Kottke has been doing a great job tracking 2000s Best Of lists. And to be honest, you could devote a whole blog to those. I’ll do some lists of my own in due time, but this one I did enjoy: Movie Posters of the Decade. (via Natalia on Facebook)

Forty Useful Web Development Tools and Resources

Might seem like a repost, but it’s not. Noupe really is the place for useful webdesign-related lists.

One Hundred Things Restaurant Staffers Should Never Do (Part 1)

So it’s actually Fifty Things Restaurant Staffer Should Never Do. Oh man, where to start? Some advice seems directed at high-end restaurants I can’t afford to go to, but in a nutshell this lists tells us what we’ve always knew: portuguese restaurants are pretty crap. And so are the bars, and the coffeeshops. Some highlights:

2. Do not make a singleton feel bad.

8. Do not interrupt a conversation. For any reason.

17. Do not take an empty plate from one guest while others are still eating the same course.

18. Know before approaching a table who has ordered what. Do not ask, “Who’s having the shrimp?”

25. Make sure the glasses are clean.

33. Do not bang into chairs or tables when passing by.

Most restaurants I’ve been to, even the more expensive ones, easily break twenty of the fifty recommendations. (via Kottke)

Update (Nov.5): And here’s part two. So one hundred things it is.

892: Sigurd the Mighty of Orkney strapped the head of a defeated foe to his leg, the tooth of which grazed against him as he rode his horse, causing the infection which killed him.

— The Wikipedia’s List of unusual deaths, ranging from the funny and stupid to the appaling and gruesome. Some are all that. (via The Null Device)

Ten Dirty Little Restaurant Secrets

It’s an interesting reminder, even though nothing on this list is new. You should never ask for well-done meat in restaurants, and the same goes for being careful in those joints where they pepper your steaks - basic tricks in hiding bad meat. There’s also another cheap trick they haven’t mentioned, which is done in almost every ‘better’ restaurant - using a salt ‘bed’ to tenderize the meat.

The Fifty Greatest Movie Trailers. Citizen Kane’s may be at #6 and Psycho at #2, but it’s interesting most movies in this list aren’t that good, are at least not historically resonant. For instance, I have no issue with Cloverfield’s trailer being third on the list - the great work of art was exactly the trailer, not the film.