What was the first movie you remember seeing in a movie theater?
Question submitted by mainmor.
According to my parents, I saw my first movie when they took me and our two dogs to see Lady and the Tramp at a drive-in theater. Apparently, I spent the entire movie arguing with Zeke and Joey about seat space.
The first movie I actually remember seeing in the theater was Star Wars. I'd never heard of the movie before, and when I asked my dad what it was about, his answer was along the lines of "Just like the title says." I had visions of two round balls of fire repeatedly crashing into each other and was less than eager to see the film.
Do you have any tattoos? If not, if you were going to get inked, what would you get?
I've got a generic rose on my left shoulder blade. I was feeling punchy after taking my Master's comp exams, so my housemate and I drove into Wilmington Delaware, stopped at the cleanest looking parlor, and I picked a flower from the designs on the wall. The total amount of time I spent thinking about the decision? Maybe the 20 minutes we spent driving from Newark to Wilmington, but I think I was on a post-exam high at the time, and probably singing along with the radio, so I don't know how capable I was of rational thought.
I never think about this tattoo because I can't see it. And it really has no meaning for me beyond "Oh, pretty flower." So for my second tattoo, I selected one of my favorite illustrations, a flower from Aubrey Beardsley's cover of the 1893 edition of Malory's Morte D'Arthur (mine's, of course, in black).
Then everyone got a tattoo. Even librarians. So while I the time, I thought my tattoo would say "I refuse to live a boring life," now all it says is "I had disposable income in the 90s."
I still like it though.
If you had a band, what would you call yourselves?
Question submitted by Zoot.
In grad school, my housemates and I would keep a running list of possible band names on an antique typewriter in the living room. The two I remember were "Uppity Wench" and "Ghee!!!!!"
In the interest of decreasing their future therapist bills, I resolve to stop referring to my children as "Spazpants" (the eldest) and "Fatty Fat Fat Fat" (the baby). Said resolution will go into effect as soon as they FREAKIN' NAP!!!!!
The semester is starting up again in 2 weeks. I still need to finish grading the finals from my summer World Lit class, and I need to create syllabuses for three classes. One of them is online, which means I need to type out all of my lectures, and the college has switched course management software this semester.
So what I am doing with my time?
Chrono Trigger! SNES Emulator! Naming the characters after family members! Good times.
I still have 14 days. That's an eternity, right?
Steve posted a short video of Nicholas on his blog. Nick loves to imitate his big brother, and since Luke loves rockets at the moment, so does Nick.
He's ridiculously cute.
If you could be on any reality TV show, which one would you pick and why?
In an alternate universe, where I was amazingly fit, looked great in a bikini, and didn't completely lose my shit when faced with the possibility of any airport uncertainty, I would be on The Amazing Race. But in this universe, I would also be phenomenally rich, so the pressure to win would be off.
And I would be traveling with Johnny Depp.
On a unicorn.
And ice cream would be good for you.
What was the question again?
Scrubbles sent me down a completely unnecessary flashback the other day with a through-away link to a YouTube version of Agnetha Faltskög's 1985 video "Can't Shake Loose." There's nothing memorable or remarkable (or even particularly good) about the song. I think I probably remembered it because a) it was on MTV, and therefore it seeped into my longterm memory, probably replacing a good chunk of the periodic table or some other useful fact and b) I was an embarrassingly avid ABBA (of which Agnetha is one of the As) freak when I was in middle school. I still have vivid memories of leaping around my room to "Super Trooper"; thank GOD YouTube didn't exist back then or I might have had the misguided urge to broadcast my "dancing."
The only think remarkable about the video is how watching it jostled loose a perfect recall of the song from my brain. I don't think I've thought about the melodic stylings of Ms. Faltskög for 21 years, but when I watched the video, I could recall every word, moments before she sang them. Why does my brain think I'm going to need that information? Why have I forgotten the names of my high school teachers, my college suitemates, and many of our country's Presidents, but these inane lyrics (sample: " I don't wanna stay here / But you know I can't leave /Please let me go dear / Please let me leave") are superglued in some dusty corner of my cerebellum.
And when could you ever rhyme "leave" with "leave"? That's cheating.
Here's the video for your viewing pleasure. Notice the trappings of the 80s video: everyone's afraid to move during a scene, the director has only the most literal interpretation of the lyrics ("These old shoes keep walking . . " Cut to Agneatha looking at her shoes), and the makeup gun is set on "Whore."
