Getting to Know You
For my very first posting, I wanted to write something profound. An epic tome. Well, maybe more of a thought-provoking thesis. Or an insightful essay. Okay, even a witty quip would do. Notice the first sentence is in the past tense. I might as well be honest from the start and admit that you might occasionally find my postings lack some depth. But in an omnimedia collective that includes such deep sea divers as Jack Thunder, Lulu, Flipper, and Burb (sorry, Spec), don't you think this blog needs at least one wader?
So here is today's topic: Guilty Pleasures. Flipper and Lulu recently pointed out to me that I preface most of my statements with, "this is one of my guilty pleasures." Could it be that my life is filled with nothing but guilt and pleasure? Probably not. I'd be a lot more interesting. But it makes me wonder why I use the term at all. Is it motivated by snobbery- a desire to distance myself from the masses? Am I a selfish person- only watching what I want to watch, listening to what I want to listen to, reading what I want to read? Is it my churchly upbringing- reminding me that everything I think is fun most likely is wrong? The questions are endless and I'm venturing too far from the shallow end (and my metaphors are tiring like an English Channel swimmer...) so I'll get to the real meat of the matter: what are your guilty pleasures? And, more importantly, what are mine.
T.V. Show: "America's Next Top Model" - It's a show in which Tyra Banks encourages young women to celebrate their individuality and then judges them based on industry stereotypes and calls them "beautiful girls." Hypocritical? Yes! Fabulous? Absolutely!
Music: Neil Diamond- Don't get me wrong. I don't go to his shows and throw my unmentionables on stage, but there's something about the drama of "America" and the sassy devil-may-care attitude of "Forever in Blue Jeans" that gets me every time.
Movie: "Romancing the Stone"- Okay, I'm not even guilty about this one. When the stereotypical Columbian villagers/drug runners are closing in on Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas and he turns to her and says, "write us out of this one, Joan Wilder," and it turns out the kingpin loves her romance novels... that's comic gold. And if you factor in one of my favorite movie lines ("Ah shit, the Doobie Brothers broke up! When did that happen?) with yet another movie where Holland Taylor plays someone's tough yet loveable boss, you've got magic.
Food: I could probably eat an entire dish of green bean cassarole. Disgusted?
Books: good old fashioned bodice rippers- And I'm an ardent feminist. Is there such a thing as a romance-reading feminist? Yes- we meet at the same club as the gay, African-American republicans.
Here's where my list ends and yours begins. (You know far too much about me already.) Come on, people, share the shame! Only then can we ridicule you as much as you deserve!
So here is today's topic: Guilty Pleasures. Flipper and Lulu recently pointed out to me that I preface most of my statements with, "this is one of my guilty pleasures." Could it be that my life is filled with nothing but guilt and pleasure? Probably not. I'd be a lot more interesting. But it makes me wonder why I use the term at all. Is it motivated by snobbery- a desire to distance myself from the masses? Am I a selfish person- only watching what I want to watch, listening to what I want to listen to, reading what I want to read? Is it my churchly upbringing- reminding me that everything I think is fun most likely is wrong? The questions are endless and I'm venturing too far from the shallow end (and my metaphors are tiring like an English Channel swimmer...) so I'll get to the real meat of the matter: what are your guilty pleasures? And, more importantly, what are mine.
T.V. Show: "America's Next Top Model" - It's a show in which Tyra Banks encourages young women to celebrate their individuality and then judges them based on industry stereotypes and calls them "beautiful girls." Hypocritical? Yes! Fabulous? Absolutely!
Music: Neil Diamond- Don't get me wrong. I don't go to his shows and throw my unmentionables on stage, but there's something about the drama of "America" and the sassy devil-may-care attitude of "Forever in Blue Jeans" that gets me every time.
Movie: "Romancing the Stone"- Okay, I'm not even guilty about this one. When the stereotypical Columbian villagers/drug runners are closing in on Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas and he turns to her and says, "write us out of this one, Joan Wilder," and it turns out the kingpin loves her romance novels... that's comic gold. And if you factor in one of my favorite movie lines ("Ah shit, the Doobie Brothers broke up! When did that happen?) with yet another movie where Holland Taylor plays someone's tough yet loveable boss, you've got magic.
Food: I could probably eat an entire dish of green bean cassarole. Disgusted?
Books: good old fashioned bodice rippers- And I'm an ardent feminist. Is there such a thing as a romance-reading feminist? Yes- we meet at the same club as the gay, African-American republicans.
Here's where my list ends and yours begins. (You know far too much about me already.) Come on, people, share the shame! Only then can we ridicule you as much as you deserve!
posted by Anonymous at 4:32 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Hey man . . . my life is an open book, most of the time. If you EVER read my blog, you know lots about Burb . . . and what else you need to know about Burb is for Burb to determine.
But, guilty pleasures? I am well-known for my love of "Smallville" and it ain't exactly Chekov is it? In fact MOST of the TV that I watch is shall we say, less than intellectual? Indeed, I cringe in shame and bow before the likes of Jack Thunder and Lulu who watch little TV. I always feel a bit ashamed, like I should be reading "Ulysses" or something instead.
Then I remember that, without TV I would be a sad, boring, unenergetic man that has nothing of importance to say to anyone! So I revel in the TV I watch, but hell yeah, I've got standards. I don't watch reality TV at all, preferring completely unreal, fantasy, sci-fi, mysterioso-island-related scripted drama.
Other guilty pleasures? I am ashamed at how many chocolate cookies I have been eating lately. Sometimes I can't stop.
You can hook up to my i-Tunes and cringe at the awfulness of the Ray Coniff Christmas singers . . . so there is that.
I watch sports, not obsessively, but semi-regularly. I certianly read up on it via the Internet.
Ah, the Internet, my newest and perhaps strongest guilty pleasure of all. It provides so much and asks for so little in return. Television Without Pity, Sluggy Freelance, Damn Hell Ass Kings, and all the rest. I visit each of you every day. I wallow in you inanity, your minisculeness, your utter pointlessness and I LOVE IT!!!
So, how's about you?
I'm not guilty about anything--I'm a hard-workin' grown up, and if I want to watch 1/2 a season of "Sex and the City" AND down an entire bottle of $60 champagne while I'm at it, I'm a gonna!
I buy fabric--expensive fabric--that I don't need.
I have a lot of "teen" movies around, though I'd like to think they are a notch higher than anything starring Freddie Prinze. Clueless, Valley Girl, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Election (not really a teen movie, but one featuring teens in unwholesome ways), Dazed and Confused--I have watched each of these many times, probably in an attempt to replace my teen year memories with something better.
Other than that, rest assured that I am a true interectual and much, much better than you in darn near every way.
Where to start? Like Jackthunder and Lulu, I'm not big on guilt . . . but I am often haunted by the nagging feeling that I'm shirking something. Is there a difference? One of the GOOD things about getting older, though, is I'm starting to realize more and more that I'm NEVER going to reach the point where I have completed everything. There will always be something more to do--a room to paint, a picture to hang, papers to organize, blinds to clean, closets to clean up, etc. It will never be all finished, and so there's no escaping the shirking-something feeling--EVER! The best you can hope for is balance. If, for example, I clean the bathroom when I get home from work, I then feel free to watch a little TV.
Another way to achieve balance is to try to stagger one's leisure activities between the potentially guilt-inducing ones and the "good" ones that contribute to this site's theme--GROWTH! Some examples:
GUILT-INDUCING:
TV
Talking about TV in chat rooms
Online poker
Sleeping on couch with cat on chest
GOOD:
Reading
Writing
E-mailing friends
Playing fiddle
Of course, there are many, many times when I fail to achieve any balance at all, as those of you who have been following my recent online poker obsession know. Oh well. And really, who cares if those two wall hangings Jackspatula and I bought at an arts festival over four years ago are still leaning against the wall in our bedroom, unframed and unhung? Who cares that a year and a half later, our wedding pictures are sitting unorganized in a box in the office closet? Who cares that I never finished the Clinton biography that I tried so diligently to get through? Is the completion of tasks like this the key to happiness? Or is the key, rather, sitting down at the computer with a bottle of wine and $50 in your poker account and giddily playing to your heart's content (something you've been looking forward to all day)?
So, Raisenette, watch away--and if calling something your "guilty pleasure" helps you feel less guilty about it . . . who cares? :)
Raisinette! Raisinette! Not Raisenette! Obviously, senility has set in. Sigh.
Post a Comment
<< Home