Saturday, November 17, 2007

Movin' right along

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For an explanation of this alphabet theme, see my first NaBloPoMo post.
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Yesterday, 3Carnations tagged me for a meme, and I thought, "Perfect! Meme starts with M..." It's one I'm pretty sure I've already done (that "seven random or weird things about yourself" list), but I can always come up with seven more absurd things about myself to share.

Or so I thought. Frankly, at the moment, I feel like I have told the Internet everything there possibly is to tell about myself. NaBloPoMo must be wearing on me, I think.

So "M" is not for meme. I'll have to do that meme another day. Meanwhile, I'll stick with the "M" I was planning to write yesterday, before I realized that posting twice in one day just to get through the alphabet by the end of the month was just plain craziness.

M is for movies. Despite the slow track record exhibited by my list for the year (have I really seen only five movies in theaters in the past five months?), I do love movies, and always have. There were many, many times during the run of Gilmore Girls that I related easily to Lorelei Gilmore, and one that always comes to mind is the night Luke first asks her on a date. He suggests a movie, saying, "You like movies, right?" "I do," she replies. "Good, bad, and indifferent."

I know what she means. I love the very experience of going to a movie (provided the crowd around me is quiet and well behaved, which granted, becomes less and less likely all the time). I have never walked out of a theater movie, no matter how awful the film is, and I don't think I've stopped a video or DVD more than twice in my life. Any movie I start, I need to see through to the end.

We all have movies we grew up on--ones we saw countless times during our childhood years. I think it's fun to compare lists and see how many overlap--how many other kids grew up watching the same tapes with their siblings that I watched with mine. Lots of people probably saw The Sound of Music in their parents' living room just as many times as I did, but did they also have Pump up the Volume and Heathers memorized as well? Am I the only one in my generation who didn't see Grease until high school, or who never saw Star Wars in its entirety until a boy in college insisted it was a crime that she hadn't?

I skipped my Friday Five yesterday, so I'll make this "M" post a list and call it a Saturday Six... Six movies my sisters and I watched so many times, we damn-near wore out the VHS tape.

  1. The Sound of Music (I can't sing; I've got a sore finger. It got caught... in Fredrick's teeth.)
  2. The Muppet Movie (Ahh, a bear in his natural habitat - a Studebaker)
  3. The Princess Bride (Stop that rhyming now; I mean it! Anybody want a peanut?)
  4. The Brave Little Toaster (Oh, I'm really scared there, Kirby. What are you going to do, suck me to death?)
  5. Say Anything (Hey my brother, can I borrow a copy of your "Hey Soul Classics"? No, my brother; you have to buy your own.)
  6. Pump up the Volume (The truth is a virus)

Tell, me--what movies are on your most-memorable list?

10 comments:

Aaron said...

The Muppet Movie was one of the first titles we rented when we got our first VCR back in the early eighties. Needless to say, it's one I've seen hundreds of time in my life -- and it never gets old!

A year ago, I would have been shocked that you didn't see Star Wars until you were an adult, but I've since discovered that people like you are all too common.

I feel the same way about movies: I love everything about the experience. Ever since I can remember, I've been excited about the chance to go to a movie, and it doesn't matter if I'm seeing absolute crap because -- hey! -- I'm at a movie! The smell of popcorn in a movie theater lobby is one of my favorite things in the world.

Anonymous said...

I too love to see movies. Heck yesterday I voluntarily took a bunch of twittering teenagers to see Beowulf.

You might feel left out due to Grease- but I? Have not seen Say Anything. I'll bet I am too old to enjoy it. To continue my crime against cinema- I have also not seen the Princess Bride. And I have never even heard of the toaster movie

Anonymous said...

Dirty Dancing, Goonies, Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, Say Anything, Princess Bride, Clue, Better Off Dead.

More recently, Love Actually and Serenity.

And did I mention Dirty Dancing? Because, yeah. Dirty Dancing.

VermontRockies said...

The Muppet Movie was one of those Life Changing Events for me, being the first time my parents allowed me to go to a movie without them. I put my little sister, my best friend, best friend's little brother and myself on a cross-town bus, which we took ALL THE WAY DOWNTOWN. And then we transferred to another bus and crossed the Bong Bridge out of Duluth into Superior to see the movie, because tickets were fifty cents cheaper in Wisconsin, you lucky Badgers, you. So for me, Muppets = Maturity. (What, isn't that equation true for everyone?)

Erm, I loved all the Molly Ringwald tripe when I was in high school. She knew my angst, that Molly.

Sound of Music is on my list, as is Fiddler on the Roof and Annie. Also Carl Sagan's Cosmos, which we watched over and over as a family. (While singing songs from Annie, which by then had no doubt surpassed 'brain bug' and were consuming our remaining neurons.)

I also watched the "Oh, God!" movies with my great-grandfather many many times. Enough to develop a crush on John Denver, which was maybe okay since God had pre-approved him and all. Kind of like a fireman, you know?

I'd better stop now before I remember something REALLY embarrassing.

VermontRockies said...

PS:

I'm not married anymore, but our wedding was held in a birch grove at the Von Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe (yes, they run a ski lodge now), and we opened the ceremony with the classic "Mawwage is what bwings us togwether today" line. The marriage fizzled pretty quickly, but it was a damned fine wedding.

Anonymous said...

I never see movies in theatres anymore. That used to be a full-time thing for me. And I have so many favorites, I can't even start to list them. How's that for a cop-out comment?

-R- said...

I don't think we owned any tapes when I was growing up. We did rent lots of movies, like Overboard, which I have probably seen 100 times. And The Sound of Music was on tv at least once a year, which was somehow enough for me to pretty much memorize it.

I didn't see all of any Star Wars movie until I started dating H.

L Sass said...

I was just telling someone about Sound of Music yesterday... my parents taped it for us off of TV and I watched it AT LEAST once a week. Years later, my parents bought my the 2-VHS set. I was AMAZED at all the additional scenes that had been edited out for TV!

lizgwiz said...

I can pretty much recite the dialogue to "Dirty Dancing," "Young Frankenstein," When Harry Met Sally," "Working Girl," "While You Were Sleeping," and "The Big Chill."

Anonymous said...

First, mad props for quoting one of my favorite lines from Say Anything. You could have gone with the "I gave her my heart..." quote, which is much more trite these days, sadly.

My faves?
Dirty Dancing
Home for the Holidays *a must this time of year
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
St Elmo's Fire
Sixteen Candles
Some Kind of Wonderful
Miss Congeniality (still can't explain that one)
and many, many more....