Guilty Pleasures

Confession....I cannot resist Hanson's Mmm Bop....I hear it and I am forced by some power beyond my brain's capacity of understanding to not only listen to this piece of bubblegum pop but to also play it LOUD. Something about that kids voice makes me think of Michael Jackson before he became a punchline to a joke. These guilty pleasures don't stop there...same thing happens when I hear EMF's Unbelievable....I used to justify my love of the song because of the Andrew Dice Clay sample but the truth is, you cannot resist the song. Its groove puts you into a hypnotic state and then mocks you with its brilliance. The same thing happens whenever I hear Semisonic's Closing Time, which with each listening, becomes to my ears the best song of the 90's. I'm also a sucker for The Sound of Philadelphia, the great soul sound of the early to mid 70's. Barry White and the O'Jays always leave me in a good mood.

These guilty pleasures go beyond music tho. For instance there's the White Shadow, the 70's tv show with Ken Howard as a white dude coaching an inner city Chicago high school basketball team. It should have been the 90210, the O.C. or One Tree Hill of its day. I must find out if its on DVD. How anyone can resist the comedic stylings of Redd Foxx in Sanford and Son is beyond me. That dude was flat out funny. As was Freddie Prinze, no not the modern version from the Scooby Doo flicks, his Dad. Chico and the Man is coming back to tv this winter and I can't wait to see it again. Good Times remains Dy-no-mite to me after 30 odd years. I'd still watch What's Happening with Rerun, Raj and the gang if someone were to run it again.

Charles Bronson was an ok actor who made a lot of bad, violent flicks. Yet I'm powerless to resist the majesty of the Mechanic or the Death Wish series. That awful movie Showgirls? Can't look away when I see it. Same with some of the bad teen comedies of the 80's like Losin' It, Porky's and the Last American Virgin. Some of these I even own on DVD. Sadly, Hollywood Knights isn't one I own but I need to get that one. Would make a fine double bill with a pre-Oscar winning Tom Hanks Bachelor Party. Anytime I stumble upon Valley Girl I have to watch it. A guilty pleasure that I have drifted from but must come back to is watching flicks that bypass theaters...the straight to DVD or cable flicks. Some of them are quite good...anything that features Andrew Stevens is of course terrible. Note to self....see how much adding Cinemax to Directv lineup will cost...

Did I mention I read For Better of For Worse every day? Or Beetle Bailey? Or Hi and Lois? Heck, Hi and Lois has never been funny yet I read it.

Feel free to post your own guilty pleasures. I just admitted to liking Good Times...top that.

Quick hits from the weekend:

Bummed the Packers lost but they deserved it. New York outplayed them. Patriots looked flat but I think they'll win the Super Bowl. Come too far now.

Saw Cloverfield...wow. I really enjoyed the heck out of that movie. Some good scares tho the shaky handheld camera will make ya wanna puke at times.

Bummer of weekend...Star Trek movie trailer was to have been attached to Cloverfield and it was...just not at the theater I was at.

Did see trailer to Iron Man tho and it looks killer. My pal Unky Rory looks more like Robert Downey Jr all the time.

Suzanne Pleshette died. She and the chick from Get Smart had the best chick voices ever.

Allen Melvin, Barney from All in the Family and Sam the Butcher from the Brady Bunch died too.

Georgia Frontierre, the owner of the St. Louis Rams died to complete the trilogy of death. I think to get even with her for moving the team from LA, she should be buried in St. Louis and then dug up every so often and put in a different hole.

Bundle up gang...its cold out there.