Fear Fete

OH
MY
GOSH!!!

You guys.  Did you ever rip the posters out of Bop Magazine, Tiger Beat, Teen Beat, or The Big Bopper or anything? Well, I did.  And I collected them.  I traded them.  I hung up my favorites.  I rotated them out.  They were Serious Freaking Business.  If you ever did that, and especially if it was Serious Freaking Business... and if you ever get the chance to meet one of those boys... even if you're now a 35 year old woman... DO IT.  I can't caps lock that enough.  I should've italicized.  I should've bold faced!  You guys, you have got to take the opportunity if it presents itself.  I met Brandon Adams over the weekend, and even though I promised to play it cool, I freaked the eff out. 

Okay, so like, when you're eleven years old everyone you meet who is your age looks like garbage, basically.  It's a universally awkward stage, from about eleven to fourteen.  Oh, it doesn't last the whole time for everyone, and it's sometimes earlier, sometimes later... sometimes lifelong (just being funny).  But when you're that age and you see someone of the same age who seems impossibly beautiful it's a big deal.  And of course, I know as an adult that is impossibly beautiful, because in real life nobody gets that combination of great genes, great lighting, great stylists, great lenses and filters and great photoshopping in the sixth grade.

At any rate, my hormones were kicking in and my bedroom walls were filling up.  My favorites were -first and foremost, Matthew Lawrence; I still dig him- and then Brandon Adams, Mike Vitar, Jonathan Brandis, Kris Kross, NKOTB, Marques Houston, Macaulay Culkin... and I'm sure some others I don't remember. Point is, one of the ones I do remember, and very clearly, is Brandon Adams (swoon).  When I met him in person over the past two days he was the nicest guy! I seriously reverted back to twelve-year-old, spazzy, squealing Tina and he treated me like a normal person, which must have been a task in itself. And he signed my DVD cover "stay sweet, Cake Eater".  I legitimately got dizzy.  I tend to hyperventilate. *shrug*

After I was done spazzing out (I just realized I could've asked for a hug... what's wrong with me), I walked out of sight around a corner and just... sat.  I don't know how long I sat there staring at the floor but I had to process!  I realized that I'd never really considered those boys real people.  They were impossible people, but my life subtly shifted when I realized they exist.  I shook his hand.  The boy from the poster grew up, like I did, and I physically saw him and touched his hand.  It's surreal.  I mean, I've met celebrities before.  I spent a day hanging out with Jimmie Walker from Good Times once, and that was fun.  But I never had his poster on my wall!  The boys from the posters are a whole different deal.  If you get the chance, do it and please let me know how you felt.  If you've already done it, let me know if you felt the same way.  Plus, as you know, The Mighty Ducks 2 (yes, the sequel for some reason) is one of my ten favorite movies so that added to everything.

Oh, and will someone please, PLEASE explain to me why I kept apologetically repeating that I was a nerd?  Was there really any part of me that thought my awkward social skills, Star Trek dress and Dr Seuss, Star Trek AND Jackson 5 tattoos didn't say that loud and clear?  And why would I even need to apologize for that? Nerds are in right now!  Maybe not us socially awkward ones, but I'm close enough.  Uuuugh.  Whatever.

 Another thing: This is what my hair does in public...

And this is what it does at home at the end of the day

The Princess Diaries

Ya know Julie Andrews? Perfect and beautiful, right? Guys, I know. 
I KNOW! 
And when I saw The Princess Diaries I first noticed Anne Hathaway, who's gone on to become a household name. I've seen most of her movies and watched grow up on-screen since then. I think even still, I mostly love her much because of that bushy hair in this movie!  

My own bushy hair

Really, I loved that movie so much that when I heard a sequel was coming I was absolutely delighted! Only, here's the thing: I was deployed to Oahu, Hawaii when it was released, and that happened to be the very week that my mom and her friend (of the moment) came to visit me. Without mentioning the movie, I offered to send them on a nice luau date. Nobody wants their daughter on a Hawaiian date night, so I got to watch The Princess Diaries 2 on opening night! I felt like Heather Matarazzo (who played 'the best friend', Lily, in the first one, and who was really important to the story) kinda deserved more screen time, but it was very responsible of them to make her a good student, so it is what it is. The movie was still amazing and every bit as good as the first one, which is rare for a sequel. The highlight of the whole thing for me was watching Julie Andrews sing. It wasn't a big, juicy song but it just felt like a big, warm, Mary Poppins hug!

Which is what every movie should aspire to. 

Even the scary ones. 

That was a joke. 

Now You See Me 2

A few years ago I saw Now You See me because a friend invited me and as a mom with a new baby, I hadn't been out of the house much.  I went and saw it, asking during the previews what it was about, and I ended up really liking it.  When I saw that there was going to be a sequel coming out on the exact weekend of my anniversary, I knew I had to see it.  Actually, to be honest, I held out hope up until about 9:00 the night before that my husband would agree to go to our local community theater to watch The King and I.  He wouldn't.  But last year we spent our anniversary there watching The Sound of Music, so I guess it was his turn to pick.  I actually loved the sequel a lot more than I liked the original! And I even learned a couple of things.  First, I think it's obvious that Woody Harrelson is an actual hypnotist because he was never a 'Dave Franco' and now he's aging but I'd still... you know... give him the time of day.  And second, Harry Potter grew up HOT!  It's the beard and the eyelashes.  I'm a sucker for em.  This is something I know about myself.  Also, he was the shortest one in the movie.  That's kind of my thing. 

*sigh* So hot. 

Anyway, my recommendation is that you get out there and see that movie.  It's really great.  It even has Lizzy Caplan from Mean Girls! Extra fun!  And the part I was hoping for was a Hogwarts reference.  It's there, if you pay attention.  Watch and see. 

Fame

Here's another movie from my top ten list: Fame. It's a musical, because I'm a nerd, and it's from the 80s because I'm old.  If you haven't seen it yet, shame on you, but luckily I can tell you a little about it (including where to find it.  Here.).  Since it came out in the same year that I did, I feel like I've seen it at every stage in my life, from young childhood when I didn't understand much except broad strokes and that the music and dancing were super fun, to my teen years when all I knew was Leroy, played by Gene Anthony Ray may he rest in peace, to the adult phase of my life when I realized that my mom had wisely shown me the edited-for-TV version when I was a kid, because there is a pretty intense scene with a sexually predatory character that definitely needs a trigger warning.  If all you know of Irene Cara is the songs Fame or What A Feeling from the radio, you can definitely see that she's a hugely talented actress from this movie, particularly that scene. 

I mean...

I may be doing things a little differently this week by detailing SO MANY different characters, but you've got to understand that I've seen this movie so many times that these people are my friends, albeit imaginary friends.  I have hung out with them, sang with them, laughed with them, cried with them and wondered about their futures, their careers and their families.  I love those characters, like you should when writers, actors, directors and the rest of the crew have done their jobs so perfectly.

I'll start with Bruno Martelli, who has somehow always been my favorite character.  With most movies, my favorite character changes every few years as I do.  But Lee Curerri's character always stays my favorite, year in and year out.  He was in the TV series, too, although I remember that I watched it, but I don't actually remember watching it.  I was really young.  I think what I like about Bruno is that he genuinely has the most natural talent of the group.  He works, he learns, he creates... and he's the best.  He lacks in confidence and ambition, which are maybe more important than talent, but his father has the best line in the movie, in my opinion.  Bruno and his father are arguing about Bruno's seeming disinterest in being well-known or winning awards or creating any kind of career.  Bruno says that maybe he'll never get famous until after he's dead and the awards will go to his ghost.  Mr Martelli says, "Does your mama cook and clean and wear old clothes for a ghost? A ghost, Bruno? Elton John's mama's got three mink coats!"  FYI, whenever I want my kids to do something with their lives, like when I tell The Villain to be a doctor, I always think, "Elton John's mama's got three mink coats!"

Maureen Teefy plays Doris Finsecker, and Doris is just so great!  All she wants is to be destined for bigger things.  She lives her life surrounded by people with the right look, the most talent and great connections and she sees how easy it is to mess things up, even in the best of conditions.  I like to think of Doris in her mid-thirties winning Tony awards and living in the kind of comfort that it's hard to come by as an actor.  It's important to me to see her that way.  Her boyfriend, Ralph Garcie was played by Barry Miller.  He is an amazing actor and I've shed plenty of tears over Ralph and his struggles.  I imagine his career going just like River Phoenix's, and his life ending tragically and far too soon as well.  It's not what I want for Ralph Garcie, but it's all too easy to trace his path in that direction.

Lastly, if you're an ER fan from the 90s (I'm not, but I think I'm the only one who was around back then and never saw it), you're already pretty familiar with Paul McCrane, who plays Montgomery McNeil.  He's a sweetheart of a character who mostly lived on his own in New York City because his mother was a famous actress and her plays took her all over the country touring.  His father wasn't around, so as young as a high school Freshman he was basically a 24-hr latchkey kid with nobody to answer to except Dr Golden, his therapist.  It seems like a horrible way to grow up, but often that produces the best art, you know?  And bonus fact, Paul McCrane- the actor, not the character- actually wrote a song for the movie.  It's called Is It Okay If I Call You Mine? and this is a link to it on YouTube.  It's beautiful.  Go listen to it now.  Because I'm done here.  Go.

Ken Burns

This week I'm sending a letter, not on my own behalf, but on my husband's.  He loves documentaries; we both do.  While I don't have a favorite documentarian, he definitely does.  He loves Ken Burns and has even said that he's a personal hero.  Burns has produced 32 documentaries, so I'm not going to list them all, but I have watched a handful of them with my immortal beloved, and I've seen some more than once.  The ones that stick out to me are my husband's favorites and I've watched them... well, we'll just say I've watched them enough that I really should know more on the subjects than I do.  The favorites are Baseball, The War, The Civil War and his extra special two, Prohibition and The Roosevelts.  Now, these are all series or miniseries, so I have really spent a lot of time with Ken Burns.  I feel confident that if one man in America knows more history than anyone else, it's definitely him.  What I'll do is find the fan mail address and send a SASE in order to really guarantee an autograph for my dude but remember: It's a surprise.  Don't tell him!  

The Mighty Ducks

When I was a kid, I never watched hockey.  I had literally never seen a game, or even a portion of a game when I watched the Mighty Ducks movies.  In fact, the first time I ever saw even a bit of hockey besides those movies was at age 20, when I saw the local minor league team in the city I'd moved to. Guys, if you've been in that situation, you know that the movies offer nothing by way of education about the rules, which are actually really complicated.  As I discovered.

Anyway, those movies were for sure my favorites of the 90s.  The best of the three is number two, and since I lived in a city with a $1 movie theater, I saw it on the big screen about ten times.  True story.  Now I have them all on DVD, but they've been all over the world with me and they're all scratched up and they skip and I think one of them doesn't even work anymore and MY LIFE IS SO HARD!!!

***Edit*** When I took them to get signed my Brandon Adams I remembered that about five years ago my husband had bought me new copies and they all work beautifully.  Thank goodness I didn't have to haul out the garbage ones to get signed!

Sorry.  Please accept this picture of my in my Goldberg jersey at approx. 15 months pregnant.

I know you're expecting this from me, because it's kind of a theme, so here's the list of my crushes from those movies: Mike Vitar (more on The Sandlot later), Brandon Adams (probably a whole POST on him later), Aaron Lohr (the bigger Bash Brother), Justin Wong (Wu Wu Wu Kenny Wuuuuuuuu!) and Emilio Estevez (of course).  This proves conclusively that I have NEVER had a 'type'.

So here's the story.  There's this real unethical jerk of a lawyer who gets a DUI and has to take a leave of absence from work and do community service.  He's assigned the job of coaching peewee hockey, since he was this big peewee star as a kid, but when he gets to practice, he finds the biggest hockey nightmare ever.  He takes over, makes them champs, and then continues to coach them into two more movies.  And he does you-know-what with the star player's mom.  Like ya do.  Spoilers, but these movies are almost 25 years old so... you should've seen them by now, to be honest.  If you haven't, get on it.  Now.

Nikki Bazan (Major Superstar)

It's my sister's birthday.  She's obviously a major superstar and I can hear what you're all thinking: "What kind of movies does Nikki like?  You know her, you've GOT to tell us!"  Alright, calm down, I'll tell you.  Books and TV shows, too.  But you've got to be patient.  First, here she is relaxing at home. 

Wait, I think that's a TMZ photo...

As you can see, she likes to joke around, but please don't testify in court that I posted this picture or the judge will let her off scot free.

Anyway, back to what you wanted to know.  What does she read?  What does she watch?  Basically... not the same things as me.  She likes to read Nicholas Sparks, which is NOT my style, but I can't really say much.  I've never actually read one of his books and they might be wonderful.  I have seen The Notebook, although I never thought I'd ever mention it on this blog.  I like to keep this blog only to things that I like, and The Notebook is my #1 least favorite movie of all time.  I've given it a lot of thought, and that's what it is.  The Notebook.  So... yeah.

Nikki likes some TV shows that I dig, though.  Like, she recommended Supernatural to me and I'm totally loving it!  I actually started Merlin, then got distracted by Supernatural... then got distracted by Haven.  But someday I'll finish one of them.  Probably.

When I asked her what her favorite movie was, she said October Sky but listen, I grew up with her.  I can tell you her exact progression of favorite movies.  You know how kids get obsessed with one movie at a time and just watch that every day, as many times as you'll let them?  Here's the evolution of my sister's childhood:

101 Dalmatians (She wanted a Dalmatian Plantation)

The Jungle Book (She scaled back to just the Bear Necessities)

Drop Dead Fred (That's not how the pigeons do it!)

And finally... Andre.

Oh, holy crap.  Would you like to know how many times she watched Andre?  So many times that eventually it wouldn't come out of the VCR... and we barely noticed!  We just kept watching it over and over again until the tape inside the cassette finally snapped.  This is all true.  As is the fact that when she was in first grade she wrote 'I love Ryan Beeson' on a bathroom wall.  Also, if I ever go missing, she definitely did it.  But seriously, Nikki.  Don't be mad, I didn't even mention the bean! 

Love ya, Nik.  Don't kill me.

An actual non-Snapchat picture of her.  She's hilarious and gorgeous and I lover her!

Happy Birthday!

 

The Dark Tower

This is the second of what will probably be many Stephen King related posts.  Stephen King is my favorite writer and there's plenty of material to cover, so just expect them to keep coming.  Today I'm writing about The Dark Tower, which is a seven-book series* about a gunslinger named Roland who teams up with three other people (and one pet, a billy-bumbler) to save the world... and in fact, all worlds.  They travel between parallel universes to places that are much like what we know but have moved on, to our own world and back again.  They fight dangers both magical and natural, and they become a unified group, a family, a team.  An idea very much like fate is Ka.  Ka is a wheel, you can't get off and you can't change the direction.  You can fight all you want or you can just ride along but you have to know when to do either one because Ka is a wheel that can crush you in an instant. Roland's group is called his Ka-tet.  

The whole series, via Viking Press/Schribener

First is Eddie, a drug addict who was born in the 1960s and joined the Ka-tet at age 22.  Next is Susannah, who joined the group from the 1960s as an adult who had seen a very difficult life, and whose mind contained multiple personalities.  Last in the Ka-tet is Jake, who is only a child but possesses 'the touch'.  He is very sensitive to the signs and clues that the universe shows us and he uses this intuition whenever he can.  The Man in Black is a force of evil who has been working for hundreds, if not thousands of years to balance out all the world's good.  Well, that's maybe not quite right but it's close enough to get you started.  In the quest for the Dark Tower, not everyone makes it to the end (a bit of a spoiler, but that's how King works in general so you really should've guessed that much).  If you want to find out if ANYONE  does, I guess you'd better read for yourself. 

When I started my journey to the tower with book one, I really just couldn't get into it.  Granted, I was only 9 or 10 years old, but I've had other people tell me the same thing.  If you find yourself in that situation, my advice would be reading the second book, then going back to the first one.  The second book has more action and less back story, so if you read it first, you actually ask the questions before you get them answered.  That worked for me.  There was one in the series that I didn't love, and that was Wizard and Glass.  Some people like it best though, so please don't think it isn't well- written.  It's just not my favorite part of the story.  Read it, though.  Decide for yourself.

If you try it and like it, let me know.  I'd love to hear your opinions on it, especially if it's because of my blog that you find new books that you love.  If you've already read it or tried and it wasn't your thing, let me know that too.  I love a good book discussion, especially with the new movie version being filmed as we speak.  It's an exciting time in the journey!

*I say seven books because that's what it originally was, but then later on Sai King added another book in between books 4 and 5.  Also, as you follow on the journey you'll see where a lot of his other books are either loosely related or VERY closely tied in with this series.  They stand alone just fine but whey work even better when you're one of his Constant Readers.

Coming to America

One of the funniest movies of the 80s is easily Coming To America.  If you haven't seen it for a while, I suggest you go straight to Netflix and add it immediately to your list!  If you haven't seen it ever... I don't understand you.  Maybe you're just really young, or maybe you don't like Eddie Murphy... or maybe you just hate yourself and don't want to be happy.  I don't know.  Like I said, I don't understand.  I'll let you go watch it now while we all WAIT FOR YOU!

Have you really not seen it?

Okay, you've just improved your life.  Let's discuss.  Basically, Eddie Murphy and Arseniooooooooooooooooooooo Hall played every character in the movie, so there's that.  No, that's not true but they did each have four or five roles.  It's also got Darth Vader and the dad from Good Times and Samuel L Jackson in one of his 70,000 credited roles and it's so HILARIOUS!  An actual African prince trying to find a pretty American woman and make her rich for real.  I keep checking my inbox but so far they all want my credit card number.  Oh, well. 

When I was deployed to Okinawa about a decade or so ago, I had this friend who would sing at the top of his lungs to get everyone laughing and it was one of my favorite things about our crew.  Imagine a bunch of construction workers basically digging ditches all day every day and out of nowhere, "She's your QUEEEEEEEEN to-oo BEEEEEEE" as loud and as high as he could sing.  Ray Boudreaux, you're the real MVP of that deployment.  That was definitely my favorite deployment.  One day my friend caught an octopus with a shovel.  Good times.

Anyway, if you didn't watch it when I told you to or if you need a refresher, take the time now to let your Soul Glow with Mufasa and Axel Foley.  Thank me in the comments or by subscribing to the email list.  It's only polite.

Beetlejuice

Do you guys remember Beetlejuice? It was the greatest, wasn't it? I keep hearing rumors about a remake so I wanted to just review what I loved about the original in case the new guys are scouring obscure blogs for input. I absolutely loved the waiting room scenes, those were my favorite parts. Seeing the complex stories being told only by makeup is really, really fun for me. Always has been. 

Another thing I never really appreciated at the time, being so young when the movie came out, was that Alec Baldwin was a total Baldwin! I can really appreciate that now, although it's super weird to think that I'm probably DEFINITELY older now than he was back then. Crazy. 

The music in that movie is the best, too! Remember when they all danced around the table to Harry Belefonte? I wanted a ghost to turn me into an expert dancer too! And at the end with the football team on the stairs? I was super jealous of Winona Ryder. She got to do that, plus be all emo angsty teenager. Unfair. 

Of course I loved that Kevin McAllister's mom was the bad guy, and I totally watched the cartoon every Saturday morning, but I'm pretty sure that movie is where my life-disrupting eye phobia started. You can't win them all, Beetlejuice. But good try.

Fight Club

A while back, I listed my favorite movies and one of them was Fight Club.  Now, often when I enjoy a movie, I have a specific story explaining why I came to love it, or how it's affected me.  Fight Club... not so much.  It's just two incredibly attractive men being manly.  That's it.  If you read the other post, though, you'll remember that my friends and I tried to fit the snack into the theme of the movie the night we watched it.  Wanna know what I put together for this one?  It was tapioca pudding with pink food coloring served in Ziploc baggies.  We had to bite off a corner and slurp it out without spoons.  I think they all thought I was crazy until the part with the bags of cellulite outside of the liposuction clinic.  When we got to that part, everyone put their pudding down.  I was pretty stoked.

It was good times.

I mean...

Saving Private Ryan (Buddy Checks)

I think I've mentioned before that I'm a veteran.  In America, an average of 22 veterans a day commit suicide, so because this is the first time my blog has had a post publish on the 22nd of a month, I'm using this opportunity to write about what I think is the most important and true-to-life military movie I've ever seen (if you disagree, please feel free to share your opinion in the comments section, but it should be noted that I don't watch many military movies).  When I was in high school, I worked in a movie theater and I'm actually SO OLD that this is when Saving Private Ryan came out.  It was released in the summer, so it's one of the movies that played during a weekday afternoon.  In smaller towns/cities they only do that when school is out which, I guess, is why summer blockbusters are a thing.  That's also why one day we had a movie that literally only one single person showed up for.  It was one of my teachers, Mr Stallons (remember the toilet seat, THS alumni?) and I stopped to chat with him for a few minutes.  He just really wanted to see it and couldn't wait for someone else to be available to come with him, so he sat there for three hours, all alone, watching one of the most emotionally draining movies of all time.  When it was done, I asked him if he'd liked it.  With his eyes still red, he assured me it was worth his time. 

http://savingprivateryan.wikia.com/wiki/File:Saving_Private_Ryan_by_Narusargent.jpg

When I watched it myself, I was so distraught that I decided never to see it again, but I did.  I bought it and I watched it over and over again, and it became one of my favorite movies.  I don't know the statistics on WWII veterans who took their own lives, but I know it happened.  And I know that today it's 22 veterans every single day.  So, if you know a veteran, whether he/she seems to be struggling or not, let the number 22 or this post serve as a reminder to give them a call or shoot them an email to check in and make sure things are going okay.  That's called a Buddy Check (particularly if you're a veteran yourself... in the Army they have a Battle Buddy system).  If they think they might need it, be ready with a number to a suicide hotline.  The veteran crisis line has a hotline that can be reached 24/7, 365 days a year.  It's completely anonymous and they're specially trained to deal with the many concerns that veterans face.  You can call and talk to someone at 1-800-273-8255 (veterans, press one when it picks up) or if you'd rather text, send a message to 838255.  I've checked it out and it's legit and still in order.  After your session ends, they even send you a message confirming that your entire conversation has been deleted, so they don't keep anything for their records. 

It's a pretty good deal.  Call if you need it, even if you're not a veteran.  They're there to help.

Me in my Seabee days.

 Pics by Matt Layton

Movie Night

I got the idea in my head one day to do a weekly Movie Night with my friends and family and it was really a success.  We had themed snacks and tried to match the movies to the appropriate time of year.  It was so fun! There were five of us and we all picked ten movies, so that after one year we all watched each other's favorite movies together as a group.  It was a fun way to get to know each other better because a person's top ten list can say a lot about them.  This will be one of my shorter posts, but you should learn a little bit about me from it.  Please, post your top ten in the comments so I can learn a little about you, too (I know it's tough to keep it down to ten but usually 12 or 15 is a doable goal).  Maybe sometime I'll do an entire 'list' post to tell you my favorite TV shows, books, songs... who knows what else.  In no particular order, here are my top ten favorite movies:

• Tommy Boy
• The Goonies
• Fight Club
• The Color Purple
• Elf
• A Christmas Story
• Fame
• Chorus Line
• You've Got Mail
• The Mighty Ducks 2

Bonus: A few that barely missed the top ten are Slumdog Millionaire, Hairspray, Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction and Jersey Boys.