~~ "She has so many aliases, you'd think she was a spy!" ~~

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Oh, the guilt!

Words Written: um, nothing today
Writing Stats: Sale! “College Reunion” will appear in C is for Co-Eds. Request for revision for a Wicked Words story. Collated snippets of scenes from Cat Scratch Fever for an erotica contest in a UK magazine.
Exercise: walking

So, one of the journallers I read started a thread on guilty pleasures, and as much as I hate me!me!s, this seemed less of a me!me! and more of a fun thing to ramble about.

I define a guilty pleasure as something I feel a vaguely guilty or embarrassed about liking, or feel I have to defend. Styx, for example, is not a guilty pleasure. Styx kicks ass from here to next Tuesday. This is not for debate.

But for guilty pleasures, I submit to you…

  • When nobody is around (including Ken), I sing to the cats. (I talk to them, too, but doesn’t everybody?) So, yeah, I sing. Obvious songs like “Smelly Cat,” but I also essentially filk to them. “Tiny Kittens” to the tune of “Tiny Bubbles.” Etc.
  • Office supplies. I really have to be good and restrain myself, because I have more Post-It notes already than I could use in a lifetime. But like Pavlov’s Bimbo, I salivate at the sight of an Office Depot truck. I’ve been known to follow them…
  • Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. If it wouldn’t eventually kill me, I’d probably live on it.
  • Streets of Fire. It’s not just the Jim Steinman music. I don’t know what it is. It’s a rock-n-roll fantasy, okay?!
  • Charmed. Especially the season with the entirely unabashed “what excuse can we come up with to put them in a silly skimpy set of outfits” theme. Oh, I miss this show. I miss Holly Marie Combs’ cute nose most of all. Jenny Crusie has a wonderful essay about the show here.
  • Abba. 'Nuff said.
  • US magazine and Google Entertainment News and Sky News Showbiz. It’s that whole pop culture trivia thing. I especially love Us’ column about where stars were spotted, and trying to figure out if I’ve been there, and whether I’d’ve recognized the celebrity in question. You can take the girl out of the small upstate NY podunk town, but you can’t make her stop being just the tiniest bit astonished that she lives near celebrities. I can’t explain it. I just accept it.
  • Bring It On. I’m not so sure I feel guilty about this. Yes, I love it because it’s Eliza Dushku in a skimpy cheerleading outfit (and Kirsten Dunst in a skimpy cheerleading outfit). But it’s surprisingly more intelligent and witty than you’d expect from a cheerleading movie. So.
  • Goth girls. Blue-black hair, pale skin, lots of eyeliner, (hopefully) ripped fishnets. Yum.
  • Night of the Lepus. Giant killer bunnies. Made to look big by putting the camera thisclose! and filming rabbits hopping through model sets. Oh, the cheesy glory. I swoon just thinking about it.
  • Chess, the musical. American or British version, who cares. Stuck in the 80s, utterly goopy and over-the-top, and I will sing it at the top of my lungs on my deathbed if I can. If I can’t, I might as well be dead already.

So, what are your guilty pleasures? Spill the beans! ‘Fess up!

<>-<>-<>

In other news, Ken’s home!

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Currently Reading: The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner
Lately Listened To: tappity tappity tappity…
Recently Watched: kinda hard with no TV… :-(

5 comments:

extemporanea said...

I not only have guilty pleasures, some of them are the same as yours. Celebrity gossip, definitely. Just like gossip (for which I have a total weakness), but with particularly beautiful people. I watch Go Fug Yourself and read the IMDB gossip page. Abba, although I play it on my piano when no-one's around rather than listening to the originals. And (blush) Neil Diamond. And I hate to say I really enjoyed Bring It On, although my comparable guilty pleasure rewatch movie is The Faculty. Other guilty pleasures: cream doughnuts, Kentucky Fried Chicken, french toast. Watching shirtless joggers. Georgette Heyer. Kiddie lit. ShadowMagic.

Yay that Ken's back! please say hi for me.

Dayle A. Dermatis said...

See, now I don't know if kiddie lit would be something to feel guilty about--some of the stuff coming out now is really good! I haven't read Georgette Heyer, so I don't know if there's a guilt factor in that. (I suppose I always feel I have to apologize for not liking Regency fiction. I don't get the whole Jane Austen fervor, and I feel bad because so many people do...)

Dayle A. Dermatis said...

Oh, and you would have loved my ex-husband--very cute, and jogged shirtless. In fact, a friend who hadn't met him yet once started telling me about this guy who jogged by her house everyday (she called him JoggerBoy) and when he did she'd run out and sit on her porch and watch him. I was all, um, that's my husband, and she absolutely freaked. :-D

extemporanea said...

Ah, but I'm supposed to be a Serious English Academic. This puts a whole lot of literary pleasures into the realm of Guilty, like kiddielit, or fanfic. Not that I let it stop me ;>.

Georgette Heyer creates beautifully-written, beautifully-researched romantic fluff. I recommend it. It's my favourite post-serious-academic-work chill-out read.

Anonymous said...

I LOVE Georgette Heyer! The Corinthian. These Old Shades. Devil's Cub. Oh man, she is Fab!!!

Um...I like toasting Kasseri cheese until it's bubbly and brown, grinding fresh pepper on it, and eating it with sourdough bread and red wine. At midnight.

I like peppermint mochas. And and and powdered sugar donuts, the tiny kind. And all sorts of other yummy stuff.

And fires. Inside, outside, campfires, the more smoky the better. Champagne. I don't know if they're all guilty pleasures...but they sure are pleasures!