True Confessions

All right, I swore I would never do this in this blog, but I’m going to bare my soul. Splay the whole of it out for all the world to see. Why not? I have no shame. Might as well let all of you know my deepest, darkest secrets and sins.

No?

Okay, how about this. I’m going to confess my lamest guilty pleasures. Last night I indulged in one of them and it got me to thinking about how many times I cringe when I read a scathing review of a movie/book/song/tv show/food that I secretly love. Usually I can understand the reasons for the lousy reviews, but I still love the piece of crap anyway. I can’t help myself. It’s a weakness.

Here goes:

Guiltiest Movie Pleasures

1. Staying Alive starring John Travolta
Just caught this one on TV last night. I know it’s cheesy. I know the dancing is over the top and the costumes are straight out of an S&M nightmare. But I just love JT in this movie, his angry bewilderment at being dumped by ice bitch Finola Hughes and fierce determination to succeed on Broadway. Not to mention the buff bod…yeah, this one’s bad but, dang, I just can’t stop watching.

2. G.I. Jane starring Demi Moore
I confess. I love this movie. All of it. Demi kicking some SEAL butt, shaving her head, and generally shaking up the male-dominated world of Special Forces. I know it’s unrealistic and Viggo Mortensen is borderline psychotic, but I admit it – I own the DVD and watch it regularly.

3. Clash of the Titans starring Harry Hamlin
Textbook example of a B movie, but it is so great. The special effects are so incredibly bad - stop motion claymation badly blended with the real actors. So very, very bad. But the story is a classic. Literally. Perseus, son of Zeus, battling the monsters and gods all to save the fair Andromeda from sacrifice to the sea Titan. Good stuff!

Guiltiest Book Pleasures

1. A Pirate’s Love by Johanna Lindsey
This was one of the very first romance novels I ever read, and I read it a long time ago, before bodice rippers were seen for the trash they are. The story is just awful, full of rape and forced seduction at every turn. But I still have my original copy, and time and again it survives the sweep to the USB. At least I can admit that I don’t reread it very often.

2. Half a dozen titles from the old First Love by Silhouette line
These are the greatest - sweet tales of first love, written and read back when I was a kid and things seemed so much more innocent. I read these books like a fiend and gave most of them away. But a few titles I loved so much I've kept and on occasion pull out for an afternoon of pure feel-good.

Guiltiest Song Pleasures

1. Mmmbop by Hanson
How can you not smile when you hear this song? Come on. Admit it. It makes you smile. And sing “mmmbop”. Yeah, it does. I do claim redemption on this one, though, because I don't own any Hanson CDs. Just this one song, downloaded from i-tunes.

2. Anything by Abba
This may not be a true guilty pleasure because a lot of people like Abba. We all probably shouldn’t, though. Except I can honestly tell you that the musical Mama Mia is amazingly good. So technically, I suppose if you own the Mama Mia soundtrack it’s culture and nothing to be ashamed of.

Guiltiest TV Show Pleasures

1. Smallville
Yep, I’m a…well, a non-teenager…but I like this show. Minus the teen angst, of course. And I’m on the respectable end of the spectrum of Smallville fans because I hate Lana and I love Lex. Even so, I rarely tell me friends I need to rush home on a Wednesday night in order to catch the newest episode.

2. Tarzan
This WB show lasted all of eight episodes before it went off the air. And I was pissed when they took it off although I knew why they did it. It was horrible. Uneven writing, bad guys who weren’t used to their full capacity. It had a lot of problems, not to mention that no one watched it. But dang, Tarzan, played by Travis Fimmel, and Jane, played by Sarah Wayne Callies, had this amazing chemistry. Every episode they came thisclose to kissing but never did. Those dang producers didn’t even throw us a bone in the last episode! But Tarzan did do some very sexy smelling of Jane. I know, it sounds gross. But it was actually very, very hot.

Guiltiest Food Pleasure

1. Pilsbury chocolate chip cookie dough by the spoonful. I lived on this stuff when I was in college.

2. Brownies with chocolate frosting. I know this isn’t necessarily a guilty pleasure because most people think brownies are good. But I’m talking the eating-half-a-batch-in-one-sitting guilty pleasure *g*.

Okay, I've aired my dirty laundry. I'd love to hear of some others that you all have. Believe me, it's kind of liberating to come out of the closet. *g*