Monday, June 2, 2008

Emily Supplies Another Great Meme

This is an original meme by Emily and I had a great deal of fun doing it. Emily, if all the other things you do in your life weren’t enough, now you’re supplying me with material for my blog. And don’t worry, Mr. Green Jeans will call…if he’s still, you know, alive.


1. Name the singer/band/performer you are most embarrassed to admit you actually paid good money to see in concert.


I paid good money to go see a southern rock band named Molly Hatchet. They used to play the hit single Flirtin' with Disaster on the radio every hour or so in, oh I guess 1981? One of the reasons we liked the band was because of its album covers. They were by a guy named Frank Frazetti (not sure of the spelling) who also did the covers for Conan the Barbarian which featured impossibly buxom, half-naked warrior women stretched out over extreme terrain while Conan was cutting a man-bat in half or something. At the concert, we were expecting to see bar-brawls and bikers but there was a pleasant family of six in front of us and very few crazed fans.


2. Which reality TV show have you watched more than once (come on. I don't believe you if you say "none," unless you don't own a TV)?


This might be a little revealing but I, now that I think about it, watch my fair share of this terrible TV genre. I know they choose the most spoiled and extreme people to represent a “true” cross section of the population because the more confrontational fire-works the better, and really I should know better, but I think I have a little train-wreck-itis in me. Mainly I watch the cooking shout-fests featuring Gordon Ramsay—Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares and Hell’s Kitchen—but I watched a couple of seasons of Survivor and The Real World too. The other night I found myself watching a show where women try to win a farmer as a husband (if you can name this show, shame on you). Something about entitled whiney women in daisy-dukes appeals to me I guess.


3. Which complete trash novelist have you not only read but enjoyed enough to read more than one book of his/hers?


I can redeem myself here. Although I don’t claim to be very well-read, I really don’t read that much trash either. I grew up in a house that had its own special Barbara Cartland bookcase (I have three older sisters and a Mom). Today paper-backs with pastel front covers showing lustful embraces beneath the willow still knee-jerk me toward regurgitation. (Funny how the Frank Frazetti covers do the opposite.) Steven King might be the closest to trash, but come on—do we really want to say that about the guy who wrote The Shining? I used to read Ann Rule too. She’s true-crime and might fall into that category.


4. What sappy musical could you watch over and over and over again?


Don’t want to generalize here, but this meme is looking more and more like it’s geared toward the opposite sex. I don’t like musicals but I can admit when they’re good. Singin’ in the Rain is a good one. Do Gilbert and Sullivan count? I loved The HMS Pinafore when my sister’s school did it when I was around six. And…yes…begrudgingly, The Sound of Music. Julie Andrews: my first crush.


5. Who was your first celebrity crush?


I think I just answered this, so I’ll give the second crush. There is absolutely no way to beat Emily’s one-in-a-million answer of Mr. Green Jeans, but I had a very strong crush on Tatum O’Neil after Paper Moon. This is odd because I just read today that she’s been busted again for drug possession. I’m not usually attracted to the bad girls. “Tatum…I can fix you…”


6. Who is the most embarrassing celebrity on whom you have a slight crush today?

Besides the fore-mentioned entitled whiney girls on the “I Want to Marry a Hayseed?” Hmmm, I have to think about this. Oh, got it. Easy, Dana Perino. Sorry, but if this woman was at gitmo trying to get me to talk I’d fess up to everything I’d done, everything I might have done, everything I might consider doing at a later date, and anything I might not consider doing but if she says so…well that too.” The only thing Bush has done right in his life.


7. What movie that everyone else and his cousin and even his dog has seen have you never seen?


This really is the hardest question. Well right now, and get ready for the cop-out, the new Indiana Jones movie. I know that there are still plenty of people who haven’t seen it, like in Java and places, but I always profess to being such a big Raiders of the Lost Ark fan and, after reading Ebert drooling pop-corn all over his lap about it in his review, I had really planned to see it over Memorial Day. But going to the movies has lost some allure for me. But I still plan to see it soon.


8. What were you drinking the first time you ever got drunk?.


Strongbow Cider when I was twelve. Yep, that’s right folks, twelve. Did you know that in England the legal drinking age is five if you are on your own property under the supervision of parents? We would go to dinner parties and watch a thirteen-old-get drunk at the table to everyone’s amusement. I thought I’d give it a try and, sorry to say, wasn’t as amusing. It was the first time I embarrassed everyone, but not the last.


9. Which old re-run will you still pause to watch if you’re flicking through the channels and see that it’s on?


Good Times. John Amos and Esther Rolle rule the planet.


10. What book/movie/t.v. show that only a fifteen-year-old would think is funny makes you laugh?


Tommy Boy. But there are so many more. I think part of my development halted at age fifteen. I like the humor of Will Ferrell and Chris Farley. Physical slap-stick, if it’s done well, is my favorite gut-busting form of humor. I like the guy who bangs his head on a pipe and is okay physically and emotionally afterwards.

Question: I know what they say about ending a sentence with a preposition, so how bad is it to end a blog post with one?

11 comments:

IM said...

I'm posting the first comment myself. I'm not embarrassed to admit to seeing Molly Hatchet. They kinda rocked.

Jeremiah Paddock said...

Your blogs always make me smile. I hope that your doing well. The other day we were having class outside the library and I saw you walking out, but thought it might be a tad rude to go off hollerin' at ya.

Anonymous said...

I'm embarrassed to admit I paid money to see Rod Stewart TWICE.

i don't read trashy novels and I hate musicals. a movie I haven't seen and won't see is Da Vinci Code and the first time I got drunk was on blackberry nip

*yuck*

IM said...

Rod Stewart, not too bad, I mean he was with the Faces and has a great rock voice. I knew I shouldn't have generalized about the gender preference of the meme. I'm sure there are plenty of women who hate musicals and trashy novels. My biggest problem with the The Da Vinci Code is that it's so poorly written, and I don't know what blackberry nip is but it sounds potent--like Strongbow cider.

IM said...

Out of order but hello Jeremy. It seems you had fun in Seattle, yup I've been keeping up. Do they have a Starbucks shrine? Still need to get together so I can hear you play uke. Time for another video.

Anonymous said...

Question about sappy musicals means this meme is directed toward the opposite sex? I BEG TO DIFFER! Anyway, good choice on "The Sound of Music," but no need to be embarrassed about that in my world. In September I'll be going to my 8th annual singalong Sound of Music with 18,000 other fans at the Hollywood Bowl. Charmian Carr (Liesl) always shows up to host (one of MY first crushes!).

Just read the reports about poor Tatum O'Neal. She NEEDS you!

Had a crush on Wilona, Thelma, and Penny (Janet Jackson) on "Good Times" but could not stand "Kid Dyn-o-mite!"

IM said...

I know, I know, Danny, wrong choice of knee-jerk observations on my part. The truth is I would know every word at your Sound of Music sing along. Tatum needs me, ya think? Hope I can do better than McEnroe. JJ got on my nerves a little too, but I liked that he was an artist (any idea who the original artist was) and his Big Mac fetish.

Anonymous said...

That was talented artist (and former pro football player) Ernie Barnes who did all of JJ's paintings on "Good Times." His painting called "Sugar Shack," used in the credits of "Good Times" also appeared on a Marvin Gaye album cover. Barnes lives not far from me in Los Angeles.

JJ had a Big Mac fetish? I don't remember a lot of product placement on 1970s TV.

Emily Barton said...

I'm suddenly realizing there are TONS of old re-runs I'd watch. Good Times would be one, as well. I remember our family was late in coming to Happy Days, back in the days pre-VCRs, because Happy Days came on at the same time as Good Times did. Oh, and for some reason, I never read any of those Barbara Cartlands (or any other romance authors, including the much-respected Georgette Heyer). The only one I read was Woodiwiss (most of which I checked out of the library). I think she was a little too "racy" for Mom. But it's true: I don't remember you reading much trash (other than Conan, of course). Stephen King doesn't count. Perhaps The Fog, when we all read it in England counts, but Herbert's become a pretty well-respected horror writer, like King, so probably not. I'd forgotten you went to see Molly Hatchett. And, come on, you and I went to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show so many times, we lost count, so musicals aren't just for us girls.

Froshty said...

Two bad bands: Pablo Cruise (my best friend at the time loved them and she happened to be visiting Carolina the weekend they were playing, so I got us both tickets) and 38 Special (the brilliant folks at UNC scheduled them to open for the B-52s. They were booed the entire time (I mean c'mon: southern rednecck rock and the B-52s?). I felt sorry for them.

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