Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Okay, I’ll go first with a confession of my own. LKH? Love her books. Love reading the hot sexx0ring that goes on. Yeah, the stories haven’t been there for the last few books, but I still enjoy reading the really hot stuff that goes on.

Same with Emma Holly. I love her books somethin’ awful. So few sex scenes I read in books really turn me on (and that’s how I judge my own sex scenes… they are good if they turn me on. After all, if I can’t turn myself on, how can I do it for anyone else?) that when I find an author who can do that for me, well, I’ll be reading really faithfully.

Nora Roberts does it for me, too. Eve and Roarke? Yes’m, I’m right there!

Oh, I’ve just lost all respect for you! I mean, how can I possibly lend credence to the opinions of someone who likes what you like? It’s just defies logic.

However, you have made me feel lots better about myself in the process. I was reeling from that letter to the editor in the RWR calling me a whore for writing erotic romance, but you’ve salved my wounds with your Spamtastic auto-expose.

I can feel elitist and superior again. Thank you!

~ Alessia

P.S. Oh, and I’m a sucker for campy Piers Anthony Xanth books. *wink*

Pam Stephenson’s biography of Billy Conolly. The writing is clunky, but… I mean, BILLY CONOLLY… how can I not like this book?

I never thought you were harassing Ms Certain Author, merely stating your own opinion about her book. Thing is, when you’re seen to be “in a position of authority”, people often take stuff you do or say a lot more seriously. Rightly so? Not sure. Of course, when lots of people listen to you, what you say has a little more weight than usually. On the other hand: it’s tiresome when you can’t state a simple opinion without people thinking you’re the Pope. (“I’m saying this strictly ex cathedra…”) ...There’s a fine line between those two factors, and I wish I knew where to draw it.

The advantages of age is that it is easier to say, “You think I’m an idiot for liking this?  Fuck you.”  So admittedly I had to dig deep to find something even I thought cringeworthy.

Cream horns—those pastry-that-tastes-like-cardboard things stuffed full of carbtastic powdered sugar and some chemicals whipped into oozy, gooey sweet stuff. (I’m not talking about the upscale ones, but the ones found in Kroger.) When I do indulge I always buy a bunch of other—healthy—stuff so it doesn’t look so bad.

Spam—you like spam?  Ick.

Try saying anything that might be construed as remotely critical of anything Harry Potter.  You’ll be excoriated, and all your books will be said to be trash.  I once mentioned online that she gets away with an awful lot of adverbial tags, and I barely escaped with my spacebar intact.

I don’t know why people get so upset when opinionated bitches like me mention their likes/dislikes and go through and critique something.  It isn’t as if we slapped the author in public and her crowd must exact revenge.  Um, maybe it is.

I think I was trained to do this type of analysis of everything via years and YEARS of English lit classes and being in the Green Group (*the SMART READERS*) every year . . . my teachers at the One-Room Schoolhouse Extraordinaire used to reward those of us who brought up points that showed no book is perfect, not even one by Dickens or Austen or Hemingway.  (“ONLY ONE M IN HEMINGWAY, PEOPLE!” Sister Mary Elephant screams in the background.)  It’s not about hating the author!  It’s about making a scientific observation and bringing it forth for discussion!  Instead, there is often much whining, whinging, and wringing of hands.  No need!  Most people who follow my LiveJournal know this by now, though.

My guilty pleasures?  Okay, I imprinted on the “Donna Parker” mystery series as a kid.  I tried to go back and re-read them (after eBaying them up . . . Mama threw mine away, the sneak, when I was off at Revival Tent Camp one summer), and they are ABYSMAL in terms of prose and mechanics.  I can still see in my mind’s eye the movie that the meta-novel (the entire series) made for me, though, from Donna getting her raincoat switched with Bruce’s on the bus to Donna finding the burned clock-radio at Camp Arawak.  Or was that Cherrydale?  No matter.  It’s there, and it inspired me to want to write.  Same with the Bobbsey Twins . . . they’re really awful seen from my current perspective, but they really engaged me back then.

I also like BIMBOS OF THE DEATH SUN by Sharyn McCrumb (many in SF/F fandom hate that book) and THE BOYFRIEND SCHOOL by Sarah Bird (yeah, it has flaws, but I still love it.)  But I rank Gatsby right up there with ‘em, so that makes it legal in the eyes of SuperProf.

I even read “Garfield” strips sometimes.  (*ducking and running*)

Any Harlequin Presents by the fabulous Violet Winspear is my guilty pleasure.

Tamora Pierce…. I KNOW I KNOW she’s damn Mary Sue.  But but but but but red hair!  Violet eyes!  Getting her own magic pony!  *whimpers in girlish delight*

Same with the fabulous “Dragon Singer” by Anne McCaffry.  Hell that woman could be “gay by tent peg” for all I care.  I do so love her dragons and damn the political correctness!”

I always wondered why the leap happens.  It kind of bothers me because people DO have differing tastes and it doesn’t make you an idiot or a horrid person not to like someone.  But inevitably someone brings that up.

I listen to Fergie. 

Voluntarily.

That’s my confession, but you dont have to listen to me.  Know why?  Because I like Darwin.  Know who else liked Darwin?  Hitler.  Ergo, by rabid defensive fangirl standards, I’m a terrible, terrible person.  Be that as it may, here’s my take:

As far as I’m concerned this is SB Sara and Candy’s blog and therefore they can say whatever the hell they want to say.  Anyone who disagrees is welcome to start their own blog—the internet is great that way, isn’t it?  Just because the Bitchery has somewhat of an influence in fans of the genre doesn’t mean they have some sort of responsibility to be nice.  No matter how big their audience gets, this is still their site and they are dealing book reviews in a manner as advertised.  They warn from the get-go that they tough reviewers, so maybe people should stop being so suprised when the guy who says “I’m going to punch you in the face” actually does it.  The title of this page most certainly isn’t “Polite Women who have only good things to say about Romance Novels, all of Which are Written Well” .  Hell, if I wanted to listen to a blathering literature commercial, I’d read the NYTimes Book Review.

The Smartbitches have always been completely upfront about what they think about their reading material.  In fact, if they were more forgiving, I’d have lost interest, because as a relatively new romance reader I’m confronted with a large amount of material to dig through, and I want to know my recomendations are coming from a source that’s being brutally honest with me.  I get just as excited about the good reviews as about the bad reviews, I’m not here just for the drama.  I love reading, and I love hearing from other people who love reading.  Any book reviewer who writes as though they’ve never read a bad book in their lives is like a partner who constantly fakes orgasms: you start to suspect that they’ve never actually had a real one. However, people who know what they hate, also know what they love, and what I love is hearing from people who are passionate about what they’re reading, and who articulate it in more words than “ZOMG HARRY POTTER RULEZ!1!”  (He does rule, by the way…as does Fergie).

I’ve always found SB Sarah and Candy to be very up front about their opinons, and while I’ve disagreed with some of their reviews (The Leopard Prince was such a C+ compared to the A of The Raven Prince in my book) I’ve never gone as far as to feel betrayed or taken it personaly if they expressed themselves in a manner I would not have.

And sheesh, to go as far as to feel like they’re attacking your friends because of how nice your friends are?  I don’t even get the connection with that.  The sweetest girl I know doesnt believe in global warming, but I’m not accusing Al Gore of attacking her.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go sing ‘Glamorous’ into my hairbrush.
Again.

I watched The Adventures of Lois and Clark religiously, so I could drool all over Dean Cain. I loved the theme song for Star Trek: Enterprise (though I couldn’t stand the show.) I like some of Britney Spears’ early music.

And natto isn’t really that bad, if it’s properly prepared.

J.R. Ward.  I know those books are racially-appropriating, misogynistic, ridiculous messes, but lord help me, they’re crack and I love them.

Roses.  Put a red rose decoration on the tackiest piece of kitsch and I’ll love it and want to own it.

M/M twincest is actually kinda hot. Chris Owen’s Gemini was smoking.

I’m not confessing to my Guilty Sticky Pleasures, because a lot of them are from my fanfic days and I’m not giving names. But there’s at least one review out there with my style quirks all over it, that can be summarised as “It’s badly written overblown nonsense, and lots of people hate it for good reason. Even a lot of the people who like it think it’s appalling, the literary equivalent of junk food. And I’ll chop your hands off if you touch my copy. Sometimes I *want* comfort food.”

*crawls out of the shadows and into the comment box*

Frankly, this blog is all about creating a shelter for a group of people whose taste level is, in society’s eye, not all that it ‘ought’ to be.  If anyone understands the dangers inherent in correlating literary (or musical or visual or whatever) taste to a value system, it’s us.

And, as someone who is constantly called a Marxist by her professors, I have to agree with the argument that this is less about art than it is about class.  Take, for example, my town.  Home to a rather well-respected university, there is not a trashy *ahem* - mass market - romance in sight.  Not in the school book store.  Not in any of the three bookstores on our main street.  It is a barren wasteland full of academic books and chicklit that wishes it could be this trashy.  If, however, I jump on the bus (don’t even get me started on the bus and classism) and head to the local WalMart, I can have my selection of such books.  Not to mention the fact that in an ‘upscale’ book chain—think a Barnes and Noble—employees never seem to know or care about trashy romances and the people who buy them.  I can go to my local B&N, buy a $15 Noam Chomsky book and, suddenly, I’m an intellectual goddess come to life.  If I buy $200 worth of mass markets, however, I can never get any sort of real help and usually end up feeling like they expect me to apologize for the whole interaction.

Wake up, people!  Welcome to the post-feminist world!  I can read these books because I fucking want to and you just have to deal with that!

*inhale. exhale. end rant.*

My own weaknesses?  Well, really good sex makes up for a whole lot in my book.  And Nicola Cornick—not always the best writing…or plots…but she’s BRITISH, people.

And bastard children.  I have a real weakness for them.  Give me a hero and his ‘ward’ and I’ll melt into a little pool of Meg-goo. *sigh*

Oh, and Fergie is totally underrated.

Now off to write the 15 pages I have to turn in 9.5 hours from now.

People get so damn offended by your (or my) opion, and they seem to forget, that is just what it is, an opion…everyone has one, you don’t have to agree, as a matter of fact, try to make me see how you arrived to your opinion, it may open me up to something I didn’t see before, I’m always open…okay usually

on that note I LOVE the Harlequin Presents line…yes it can be aboulutley awful, women I want to smack the crap out of and men I wouldn’t give the time of day, but I still love them!

I own Kindergarten Cop on DVD. And I watch it. Repeatedly.

And I am a sucker for any kind of rescue fantasy/bodyguard romance. Doesn’t matter how bad it is, if the heroine is in some sort of danger and is in need of burly protection, I’m all over it.

Don’t even get me started on my music tastes. If a song has been used in an “Alias” fan video on You Tube, it’s probably in my iTunes library.

I totally heart Virginia Henley booke. Her prose is a most violent shade of purple, and in one book a mothertruckin’ LYNX nearly goes down on the heroine. AND I DO NOT CARE! Her books are so very much fun!
Oh, and my all time fave romanace novel is Morning Song by Karen Robards, a book I know you SBs also enjoy, so ha! That’s right- stepdad/daugher sex00ring and I LOVE IT! Oh, sweet freedom!

Flo, I have to point out that Tamora Pierce’s Alana series is rather Mary Sue, but her later books get better.  In fact, I lived on them through middle school, and still read the new ones when they come out.  Just wanted to make that distinction.

My guilty pleasure?  Christine Feehan.  Yeah, I even occasionally buy them (though not the hardcover) still.  I cringe at some of the dynamics, and the world-building… yet something draws me back.  But strong males protecting/loving their feminine counterparts?  MMMMM.

Romances with Male Angels (or the universe equivalent in the story). (Not females so much, must be the male)  There’s something that really hits my buttons like wings.  Especially feathered wings.  I can excuse a lot of badness to get my angel fix.

And LKH.  And I will also admit to buying the comic books and drooling over the illustrations.  ‘Cause it’s bad, but it’s soooo good.

My guilty pleasure?  I am sooo into grabbing one of the older (1980s) romance novels.  You know, the ones with the classic bodice ripper covers!  I too love that older hero and the young virginal heroine.  And the punishing kiss?  Love it!  And love it even better when he throws her over his shoulder (with her kicking and screaming the whole time) and carts her off and throws her on the bed!  Absolutely love it!

Actually, having “good taste” goes the other way, too. Here are some things I’m supposed to like, but don’t.

Anything by Stanley Kubric. My movie channels are having a marathon. Those few movies I’ve ventured to try - because I don’t like horror or war movies - bore me to homicide.

Opera. Yes, I’ve been exposed to it. A lot. Still hate it.

Shakespeare. I know, I know. But I don’t like poetry, either. A few lines of imagery here and there are wonderful, but having reams of poetry masquarading as dialogue drives me nuts.

I love Martha Stewart. I want to be her. I know people make fun of her and her glue gun. I know the stuff she makes is impractical and over the top but I love her anyway. I also love “She’s Crafty” on HGTV even though my hubby thinks she’s borderline retarded.

I think it’s your blog. Write what you want.

Stephanie Laurens.
Page after page.
Shouldn’t
Wouldn’t.
Couldn’t.
Inexorable inabilty to deny
That this sex scene
Goes on six pages—-
Perhaps eight—-
And that’s only the kiss.
Scorching.
Burning.
Give me those sinful Cynsters
And every other male,
No matter how tenuously related to them—-
the distant cousin, the boot boy grown.
I am putty in her hands.

I can’t believe I’m the first to say it. Add some eggs to that Spam and up the nutritional content . . .

Georgette Heyer, from before I grew boobs. (Maybe helped me grow boobs!) And Mary Stewart. I still read This Rough Magic and get gooseflesh when she’s in the water saving the dolphin.

Two words:

Bertrice. Small.

LOVE it. It’s awful prose and clunky porn, but I. Love. It.

I have them all, and I’m backed up in my opinion by my bunny who thinks the covers are quite tasty - she didn’t touch any of my other books on the shelf, but she pulled down a bunch of the Bertrices.

So the rabbit has spoken!

Moira said “I loved the theme song for Star Trek: Enterprise (though I couldn’t stand the show.)”

I feel exactly the opposite. But I think we can agree that they didn’t belong together!

I <3 all of you. Also fried spam sandwiches, early LKH, and Britney Spears. Also bad movies, like Python (wth Robert Englund!) and Killer Clowns from Outer Space.

Don’t get me started in Christine Feehan’s Drake sisters. Oh! The sisterly bonding, the superpowers, the protective men! I’m such a sucker for that. If they were British, I might try to marry them myself.

I also a huge fan of any romances involving a rake and a spirited virgin. Because, you know, I’m a spirited virgin. Bwhaha.

(And I’m right there with you, Moira, not liking Kubrick.)

I like Barry Manilow.

Make of it what you will

Geeze, if I confess are y’all going to get judgy on my ass? Because really, I have some pretty deficient taste.

1. J.R. Ward’s books.  The whole premise and the way it’s set up just squicks me out.  But I Can. Not. Stop.  Those books are like a fucking drug, dude.

2. Kraft Mac&Cheese with a whole extra lot of salt.  Mmmm.

3. Candy, I’m glad you confessed to loving Temptation Island because, damn.  That show was so trashy and just plain bad but could I stop watching?  Hells no. (I still cringe at the whole nerdy Dave and bitchy Charla thing.  Cannot believe I even *remember* that.)

4. Two romance novels I should hate because the gender politics just so so so rub me the wrong way?  Whitney, My Love and also Shanna.  But do I hate them?  No.  I love them.

5. I know I’m supposed to be all love all the time for microbrew beers and Czech imports and etc.  I still always choose Miller Lite (and used to drink Rainier fatboys by the truckload).

On the flip side, things I should love that would show my fine taste and cultcha, but lo, I do not:

1. The Lovely Bones.  My god but that book depressed the hell out of me, bored me, and made me roll my eyes more than any romance I’ve ever read.

2. Atonement.  Jesus Christ.  The first half was gripping and wonderful and lovely.  The second half was as flat and soggy as a first pancake.

3. Crash.  I found that movie to be utterly patronizing. 

4. Diamonds.  Sure, they’re pretty enough, but I far prefer gemstones.

Wow.  That ain’t even the tip of the iceberg, sadly.

Dak

Nora, you are not alone.  Right now I’m sitting at my desk gazing at my treasured picture of Barry Manilow in the frilliest of frilly shirts….

Oh, Moira!  I am so with you on this one.  Yes, yes, Kubric is supposed to be a genius.  But still?  Yawn.

Dak, I’m totally with you on the Kraft—and now I’ve got a killer craving for some.  I know I should prefer my Grandma’s gooey cheesy authentic stuff, but really?  I’ll take the Kraft over it any day.

Ummm, I own EVERY. SINGLE. Backstreet Boys album. And still listen to them. And I’m 36, they were in no way, shape or form part of my formative years. I just *love* them.

Also, there’s pretty much nothing I love better than a secret baby plot. I love the hell out of it.

I’ll take your Kraft Dinner and up it one, I still put ketchup on it. mmmmmmm

Haha—I ketchup my eggs (which, in the Northeast, get you some really fun looks) but never my precious Kraft

Make-over scenes. I know beauty is on the inside, but man, do I love a make-over scene, both in books and movies. Pretty clothes! Contact lenses! A new hair-cut! All of a sudden, the hunky hunk looks up, arrested at the sight of this beautiful, heretofore unnoticed creature standing before him. Swoon!

Also, I love the Monkees. I don’t care if they were the original boy band. Their greatest hits album gets plenty of play in my house.

Hello, my name is Kimberly and I listen to Britney Spears.  On purpose.

My love for Demolition Man (three seashells=comedy gold) knows no bounds. 

I watch A Smoky Mountain Christmas every single time it comes on, even if that means twice in one day.  I want to be Dolly Parton when I grow up.

And I love the cardboard cakes from the grocery store.  Especially the frosting.

Liverwurst. LOVE.IT. Oh, and Anchovies.
(don’t all gag at once)

Guilty books? J.R.Ward’s come to mind. Christine Feehan’s as well.

TV? Any show about Rock bands. I’m a “Rocker Mom” here, and damn proud of it!

Books I couldn’t do- Mark Twain. Just couldn’t stand his “voice” or whatever. Same for Steinbeck. Just couldn’t get through them.

Coffee ( ala Starbucks?) never will see a dime from me. Give me a Diet Coke or whatever.

That’s just for starters

I have a friend with whom I trade books.  Recently I discovered she’s come to the conclusion that if I pick a book apart, or even pick at one or two bits of it, it means I didn’t like the book at all.  I’ve tried explaining to her that taking it apart and seeing how it works is part of the fun for me but she’s not getting it.

Things I love and of which I am slightly ashamed:
Cheese Wiz on club crackers
One Fergie song - Clumsy.  My husband plays the other ones just to torture me.  I haven’t even admitted to him I like that song.
Certain categories on Literotica.com

Lately I feel like people are trying to make me ashamed to like Robert Heinlein. Oh the misogyny!  Oh the proselytizing!  Oh the fascism! 

Don’t care.  Love him.  Love him anyways and everyone running around complaining about him can stick it up their bums.

I have them all, and I’m backed up in my opinion by my bunny

Does it make me low class if I admit that t first I thought you meant your battery operated bunny?

The Hardy Boys series.  *embraces the shame*  I read ‘em all.  I re-read ‘em all. 

I love the taste of that cherry sore throat spray, and have been known to fake a sore throat just to have some.

“Most Amazing Videos” on Spike TV.  That shit is just wrong, people.  That episode where the zoo-keeper is cleaning the elephant’s back feet and the elephant sits down and the zoo-keeper’s head goes up the elephant’s butt?  WHY THE HELL WOULD ANYONE WANT TO SEE THAT?  Yet I laughed myself sick.

The Godzilla movie remake in NYC with Matthew Broderick?  Love it.  Own it.  Watch it often.  Same with The Chronicles Of Riddick. 

Sardines in mustard sauce.  Shaddup, they’re good!  Okay, I know they’re bad, but… they’re a good source of calcium?

I could go on, but I’m afraid more horror might crash the website.

KCfla -
I used to be totally with you on the whole soda over coffee thing.  Then I moved to Italy, had real, honest to god coffee and got hooked. 
Of course now I can’t get the good stuff anymore and I’m hooked on crap.  (Though I’ve been doing better lately.)

Oh, and I love the movie Judge Dredd.

Time to hide under a rock until the shame goes away.

Ah, this is so cathartic, isn’t it?
First - YES! Damn, I’m glad someone else said this too! I recently just went off on my website with quite a rant about the whole concept of: “I’m an opinionated bitch - I’m going to say how I feel about well…pretty much everything. If I think your taste in something (books, movies, food, music, men - whatever) sucketh - it doesn’t mean I think the same of you!” Why do so many people make that mental jump and get offended? I have a close friend who LOVES Clay Aiken - she travels the country to see his concerts. I laugh at her, I tease her, I think she’s freakin’ weird! But I love her all the same.

As for me?
I adore romance novels with men in a kilt. Plot, characters, language - all become more acceptable if in Scotland. That goes double if the heroine is a redhead, because I’m a vain bitch too.

Remember that tv series from the late 80’s with Josh Brolin and Stephen Baldwin among others? Young Riders. I bought that DVD set and still get all junior high girly about it.

North & South the mini-series. That was like porn to me as a kid, and I still love it.

I will see your Barry Manilow and raise you Copacabana: The Movie.  Oh, yes.

But Meg, doesn’t everyone put ketchup on their scrambled eggs?

Oh, and I forgot to mention MXC.  Sinkers and Floaters gets me every time.  “Stay dry good, get wet bad!”

Lorelei—I’m so with you on the Heinlein. He was such an integral part of my adolescence. I used to go to sleep at night praying to wake up in one of his worlds. I never saw the misogyny others rant about.

My brother-in-law once, as a joke, gave me an old poster of Barry Manilow he’d found when cleaning out an elderly box of his. I LOVE Barry, too. Perhaps if there’s enough of us, we should form a support group. Or meet at a bar somewhere, get drunk and sing all the Barry songs we know by heart. Another confession: I had a Barry Manilow song sung at my wedding: “Keep Each Other Warm.” Making note to go dig out that CD and listen to it incessantly…

Other guilty pleasures? Well, in 5th grade, I will admit that I publically confessed to my entire class that I loved Shaun Cassidy. Yeah, the shame over that STILL burns to this very day.

I love the movie *Independence Day* and will maintain until my dying breath that there is a romantic element in there… buried deep. You hafta know what you’re looking for.

Guilty book pleasure: Trixie Belden mysteries. Re-read one last year. It hurt, but I think the brain bleed has stopped.

Candy wrote

I may shit all over the book you love, but that doesn’t mean I want to deprive you of the right to read it and enjoy it. In fact, I want you to engage me about why you enjoyed it, and disagree with me about the points I’m making. I loves me some vigorous, informed argument.

This is the part of Candy’s post that really stuck out for me, and in my opinion, is probably the most telling thing about this issue. Before I say why, I want to explain something that was once said to me, which I found so extraordinary that I’ve never forgotten it.

About 8 years ago, when I was 19, I was working as guest liaison at a hotel in one of the Whitsunday Islands in Australia (if you’ve never been there: summer all year, lots and lots of drinking). My job was to keep guests entertained by playing sports, drinking with them, going on excursions, whatever. After I’d been working there a few weeks, my female boss took me aside and told me that I needed to be careful. She said that many women would find me intimidating, and that I needed to make an effort to speak to the woman in a couple as much as (if not more than) the man, because otherwise she would think I was making a play for him.

After realising that she had struck me dumb (to this day, the thought of me being intimidating boggles my mind), she explained that I was articulate, well educated and outgoing and while many people were comfortable with that, many others were threatened. While I enjoyed arguing and disagreeing with people, many people found that to be aggressive behaviour, which made them defensive and on edge.

Which brings me back to my point here. By no means am I saying that Candy and SB Sarah should be less argumentative or opinionated. I love the articulate way they, and everyone else, in this community express their opinions, realising that an exchange of opinions can get heated without involving name calling and bickering.

But I have to wonder if this attitude is intimidating to some? This willingness to front up and have a “vigorous, informed argument”? Could this part of what has provoked the response? And by response, I mean not specifically from the author Candy mentions, but in general? I’m not trying to say that either side is right or wrong (this is me, trying to be neutral!), I’m just trying to understand.

I own Air Supply’s Greatest Hits.  And I listen to it.  And like it.

Meg, I see we are not alone in our Kraft Blue Box love.  Long live the Blue Box!

Although never with ketchup.  Never.  But I have been known to cook plain macaroni, liberally butter, salt and pepper it, then squirt some ketchup on top.  Nasty, but also?  Tasty.

And Amy, sardines in mustard sauce are indeed very, very delicious!  As are sardines in tomato sauce, spicy sauce, olive oil & garlic & dill sauce.  I do have the sardine love.

Candy, I love you. Can I bear your babies?

(Now I’ll read what all intelligent stuff everyone else has said so far)

That episode where the zoo-keeper is cleaning the elephant’s back feet and the elephant sits down and the zoo-keeper’s head goes up the elephant’s butt?

Not just staking the plot bunny, but cutting off its paws, filling its mouth with salt, packing the coffin with garlic, burning it, and scattering the ashes over at least two oceans.

Hi, my name is Rosemary and I watch Rock of Love.

I also eat ramen noodles at least twice a week, even though I can afford better.

I own MULTIPLE Vin Diesel movies.

I would rather read Linda Howard than Nora Roberts. 

I hate vampires.

Whew!  I feel better.

What I think bugs me about the “Candy and Sarah are mean” stance is that I don’t think anyone would be saying that if you were male. I doubt anyone would even think it.

And I, lover and champion of stinky imported high-falutin cheeses, love EZ Cheese. The stuff in a can. Yes: love.

My best friend and I have a system of judging movies. There are good movies—movies that fit the objective standard of an excellent piece of cinematic art. And then there are awesome movies—movies that are probably bad, but OMG so cool. National Treasure? Awesome movie. (And then there are films—pronounced feeeeeeeeeeeeelms—like Stanley Kubrik et al. I have very little to do with films.)

I have seen Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves 34 times. I love it. LOOOOOVE it. Can recite significant chunks of it. Periodically look at angry people and mutter, “Something vexes thee?” Told a friend of mine yesterday that she had accessory leprosy, and was leaving “bits and pieces of herself all over

England

[the town we live in].”

Any bad disaster movie, especially those airing on cable tv? I am there. Love bad disaster movies. Love good ones. Love mediocre ones. If something is going to blow up, and a dog is going to heroically and improbably survive, I’m there.

Books: I still occasionally enjoy my Babysitters Club novels. I love Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar books. Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes books? You’ll pry them out of my cold, dead fingers before I’ll give those up. I love a good, well-written Mary Sue. And I consume Harry Potter fanfic like it’s part of my recommended daily allowance of calcium.

One of my mentors keeps pestering me to be able to answer the question of whether or not the material I’m writing my dissertation on (1820s-1840s sentimental poetry) is any “good,” and I finally told her that I can’t answer the question. Because I think a lot of it’s good, but I think I have terrible taste. So.

Also, I adored the first season of Joe Millionaire.

And if they ever release it on DVD, I’m so there. Ditto with both of the first two seasons of Average Joe. GOD I loved that show.

Thing is, when you’re seen to be “in a position of authority”

Eek!
Our Goddess
Who art Nora Roberts
Hallowed be thy name
May I never be seen as someone in authority
Ever
Amen!

~love the movie *Independence Day* and will maintain until my dying breath that there is a romantic element in there… buried deep. ~

Damn right there is! Plus Will Smith. Hot. And Goldblum—also hot. Nerd hot.

I LOVE that movie!

“Welcome to Earth!” Pow!!

It doesn’t get better.

Argh! In all my earnestness, I forgot my confession of bad taste!

I will stop dead still in front of a tv to watch any form of soap opera. Days of our Lives, Young and the Restless, Bold and the Beautiful, I’ll watch any and all of them. I’ll also watch the Aussie versions (which involve less inter-family marrying, but more earthquakes/floods/arson and other things involving fire and lots of water): Neighbours and Home & Away. I can’t help myself. If there’s a soap opera on you’ve lost me.

Hell yes, MXC. The bad dubbing on that show? I laugh SO hard. It’s the ultimate no-brow entertainment.

Seconding Demolition Man. Sandra Bullock sings the Oscar Meyer wiener song.

The Flashdance soundtrack was my staple in my teenage years, and I’m probably younger than you think I am.

I had a Spam sandwich for breakfast this morning with a slice of pepper-jack cheese, just in case I wasn’t getting enough sodium. And Earl Grey tea, because I’m only half hillbilly.

Oooo, how did I forget this?

I bought the movie Evolution with David Duchovney, Julianne Moore and Orlando Jones, for my husband. What can I say? It was in the $5 bin at Walmart…

I LOVE this movie. LOVE it, and all for two lines:

Julianne to David: “I would’ve rocked your world.”

David replies (with absolutely no change in facial expression): “You already have.”

My sons love it for this line, which is more or less (less) quoted correctly:

David: “That giant sphincter just ate my friend!”

Yep. Butt humor at its finest.

Lorelei-
I used to drink coffee by the gallon. Back in college, especially when getting through the 20-odd research papers I had to do. ( History major here!)
But after that, it just tasted like crap. So if I absolutely HAVE to have a warm caffinated beverage- bring on Earl Grey!

Rosemary!

I not only own multiple Vin Diesel movies ... I have a nearly life sized cut out of Vin that my sister-in-law pinched from a Chronicles of Riddick display because she knew how much I loved/lusted for him. To my shame, I have even seen The Pacifier twice.

There, I said it. Twice!

Oooh. I’d forgotten about Jeff Goldblum’s “Independence Day” nerdy hotness.

I will watch “A League of Their Own” and “Miss Congeniality” every time they’re on TV, start to finish.

Independence Day is one of the greatest movies of the 1990s. Nora’s right—“welcome to Earth”? BRILLIANT.

You know what else was great? Passions. I loved that show.

Oh man, I forgot about Passions. It got away from me at some point, but Tabitha and Timmy were hilarious.

No surprises here, but I love old cheesy pirate movies.  Technicolor or B&W, if they have Errol Flynn, or Burt Lancaster, or Yul Brynner, or Frederic March (and especially if they have Basil Rathbone or Claude Rains as the Ebil Villain), I am right there in front of the tube with my single malt and the DVR remote.

Thank goodness for Turner Classic Movies!

MamaNice: “The Young Riders” grabbed hold of me and didn’t let go. Nothing else explains how, ten years after the show was canceled, I finished my master’s thesis on legends of the old west. I wanted to be Lou.

snarkhunter: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves inspired me to write What a Scoundrel Wants. Me + Christian Slater = debut book material, apparently. It’s just pathetic. I get weepy with the opening piano notes from the Bryan Adams song.

Other confessions: “So You Think You Can Dance,” the music of Journey, and corned beef hash—that dog food lookin’ shit in a can. Love it.

Damn right there is! Plus Will Smith. Hot. And Goldblum—also hot. Nerd hot.

Hmmm…. I’ll arm wrestle ya, Nora, over who gets Will and Jeff.

“Nuttin’ but LOVE for ya!”

pennifer, I hate to drag out this dusty old trope, but. But.

I’d bet you dollars to doughnuts that if this were a site about Mystery/Crime/SF what have you, run by two smart and snarky men, it would not even be an issue.

We are women, therefore we are supposed to play nice. We are supposed to encourage, embrace the (socially accepted definition of) sisterhood, be kind, be humble, and generally pooh sunshine and rainbows.  At least in public.

Behind the back bitching and snarking is quite acceptable.

I’d agree, there are plenty of folks who are intimidated by a strong, intelligent women voicing a strong, informed opinion (*cough*Hillary Clinton*cough).  Unfortunately, those intimidated folks do not usually engage in a debate or discussion, but rather sit back, don their Terrible Hat of Judgment, and shout, “You bitches have gone too far!”

The problem is, in my experience anyway, that you can never please the judgers unless you censor yourself blind and kowtow to them and their opinions.  And that just ain’t right.

Okay, in consideration for the categries I didn’t mention in my first post…

Food: I gobble Macadamia nuts like they were baby carrots. I also love me some BBQ sauce on my Tuna Fish. Gross? Maybe. Delicious? Absolutely! When I was younger, I used to eat creamy russian dressing sandwiches. As in, two slices of white bread with only russian dressing in between. I’d practically give up my soul for a box of Crispy Creme Doughnuts.

Movies: I liked League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and I will still stop and watch it. I also loved “Hoodwinked” and the original “Dungeons and Dragons” cartoon… heck, I have the episodes on DVD! I also have a DVD of “Dungeons and Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God. Go Falazhure! (I am also so incredibly geeky/nerdy that I actually *know* the name of the Dragon God of Death… How geeky/nerdy is that?”

Music: I own the Backstreet Boys “Millenium” CD. And I listen to it. My favorite songs at the moment are “Barbie Girl” by Aqua and “Mad World” as sung by Gary John Jules.

Oh, and whoever mentioned Bimbos of the Death Sun? I’m a proud member of the f/sf fen, and I love that book.

Now I have to track down a copy of Carrie Lofty’s What a Scoundrel Wants. Any book inspired by my beloved RH:PoT needs to be read by me.

Any bad disaster movie, especially those airing on cable tv? I am there. Love bad disaster movies. Love good ones. Love mediocre ones. If something is going to blow up, and a dog is going to heroically and improbably survive, I’m there.

ME TOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!  I lurves me some disaster movies!  Hence the big *HEART* for Godzilla movies.  And Towering Inferno and the original Poseidon Adventure.  (The remake sucked zookeeper-filled elephant ass.)  And I can’t wait to see Cloverfield on Friday.

Trixie Belden is so not a guilty pleasure!  Trixie has an older man!  And he tries to control her and keep her out of trouble but it never works because Trixie can smell trouble and will never be held back!  And there are horses!  Horses!

The Carpenters make me cry!  I might even be eating Pringles while the Carpenters make me cry.

And while you’re bookstore clerk may not have anything worthwhile to say about romance your friendly neighborhood librarian is probably ready and willing to discuss the historical significance of Jude Deveraux’s Velvet series and point you in the direction of the new book shelf!  At least I would if you came into my library!

Why is there a smilely in the middle of my acronym? God, I HATE those out-of-control smileys (smilies)?

Independence Day is one of the greatest movies of the 1990s. Nora’s right—“welcome to Earth”? BRILLIANT

OMG- I love that movie!!

“Hello boys- I’m BACKKKKKKK!!”

So darn cool!

(and Bill Paxton in that movie- Yummy!)

(And I think that phrase [sucked zookeeper-filled elephant ass] will now become a staple of my vocabulary.)

Hmm…

I have every Vin Diesel movie ever made. I also have the X-Box game Escape from Butcher Bay, for which he did the voice work. I also have the Riddick cartoon DVD, for which he did the voice work.

I love ID4, MiB, and Evolution. If it has lasers, I’ll watch it. I’ve seen Barbarella more than once.

But I’m not even remotely ashamed of the above. My secret guilty pleasure?

Well…

*whispers* I have a Neil Diamond song on my ITunes “Most Played” list.

You know, I could enter a whole ‘nuther realm of bad taste just by going through my DVD collection, but I’ll sum it up in one go.

I own the Boxed Edition of the original Transformers cartoons, Generation One, seasons 1-4.  Only since this box set isn’t available in English, my set is in Chinese.  You have to guess on the menus to get what you want.  Do I care?  Not a lick.  Optimus Prime was my first crush, and I still want to marry him and have his robot babies.

... and I have chrome Autobot symbols on my car…

Soap Operas…I am so thankful to soapnet!  Now I can watch GH, DOOL & OLTL!

movies I love - most any older Steve Martin film, absolute favorite is
THE JERK…
“Ohhhh, I’m picking out a thermos for you, Not an ordinary thermos for you, But the extra-best thermos, you can buy….”

Nope, the librarians pretty much mock me, too.  Maybe I just haven’t found the right one yet. I do highly recommend the romance buyer/ bookseller at the bookstore in Grand Central Station, but I’m not able to take an hour train ride to buy all my lovely books.

And you want to talk about disgusting sandwiches?  I eat gravy sandwiches every time I go home and have my mom’s porkchops.  Yes, that’s creamy yummy gravy and bread.  Period.  My mom can’t even be in the same room with me as I eat them.

Oh, and I love ABBA.  To give you some perspective, I was born after all of their tours and recordings were over AND the first revival musical (Abbacadabra) had hit the airwaves.

Ah, I may have forgotten to mention—that’s COLD gravy.

Whitney, My Love by Judith McNaught

Luuuurve it!

Love every trashy perfect scene in which she conquers London with her oh-so-unique-and-rebellious-high-spirits-and-beauty,
and I adore all the angst and ridiculousness of the whole I-paid-your-father-for-you-plz-fall-in-lurve-with-me-now-
OMG-you-slept-with-the-stableboy-GAH!-I-practically-
raped-you-oh-the-misunderstandings!-
whose-your-babydaddy-murder-attempt plot!

In fact I love her entire oeuvre… Total comfort trashy novels that I can always curl up with and read.

I “embraced” my bad taste, then got a divorce…

Alessia - I can see the misogyny.(Stranger in a Strange Land pops into mind first) I also see an author who gave us Friday and Captain Hildy.  And for the rest of it?  I just don’t care.

Independance Day?  I’m totally in the Bill Paxton camp.  President jet fighter, yes please!

I don’t think liking something you know is bad is an example of bad taste. If anything it’s good taste since you acknowledge it as a guilty pleasure. I think it’s a different thing, though, to like something bad without seeing the flaws.

For example, I love the Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, a piece that is roundly condemned by classical music listeners as bombastic and cheesy. I love it anyway. I found myself in a bizarre argument recently, though, with some who loved it unironically. I ended up arguing against it, pointing out all of its flaws, and condemning the other person for liking it, even though I love it, too. Essentially, it’s fine to love trash if you know it’s trash. But if you don’t know it, then you can be accused of having bad taste, and in that case coming across a critical review of it can seem like a classist condemnation of taste, like the reviewer is patronizing the enjoyer-of-bad-art as not knowing any better.

That being said, I think it’s bull. If something has flaws, we should be able to point them out without worrying about offending authors and readers. I mean, that’s half the fun.

(I own the “Power Rangers Rock Adventure” album. And I love it.)

Oh, god, no one else has even mentioned my secret shame. I love the sappy, syrupy stories. I have a little corner of Ellswyth Thane on my bookshelves. Give me the lone survivor of a dynasty of men who loved their house and land more than they loved their wives meeting up with the woman who loves the house as much they do and I go all woozy and melt.  Oh no - now I want to reread it! again!

I love all the ‘admissions’ and will admit to some guilty pleasures later on, but before that I wanted to share an observation about the issue of ‘hate my reading taste, hate me’. 

I’m a fan of Lois McMaster Bujold and on her mailing list.  It’s really been interesting to see how many of her fans - many male, but not exclusively - would happily trash romance at any opportunity until Bujold came out with more ‘romancy’ books and also started talking about all the romances she’s been inspired by or is reading currently.

The ‘nobody would read that romance trash’ talk has abated.  Go figure. grin

I still laugh imagining all these ‘we read SF and are therefore superior to romance readers’ folks getting that foul taste in their mouth… ‘oh my God, she wrote a romance and I read it and I liked it… ick’ he he

It seems to be in human nature to want to be able to feel superior to somebody else.

My guilty admission.  I do feel superior to the readers of CE.  I know it’s not politically correct, I know I shouldn’t, but I do. There, I admitted it.  I wonder whether I feel better now?  Confession being good for the soul and all.

My former guilty pleasure (can’t read them any more due to the writing style making me dizzy) was Rosemary Rogers.  Reading about Steve and Ginny made me literally feel dirty, but I just couldn’t stop myself.

Thank the spirits, I’m over that… he he.

Current guilty pleasures are Silhouette Desires. Some of them are actually quite good, some not so… :)

I own a copy of Urban “I’m sorry all the way back to the first time I hit you” Cowboy…and I recommend it to friends.

And for all the Bill Paxton fans, you simply must see Broken Lizard’s Club Dredd. It’s by the same group that made Super Troopers and Beerfest. My favorite Bill line, “Do you think Eddie Money has to put up with this shit!?”

lot75: yeah, I have a lot of bad taste and could go on, but I’m late for work

I feel like I am at confession. Father forgive me for I have sinned..

I love Barry Manilow! Especially his Christmas album. Hell I’ll pull it out in summer just to hear him sing Baby It’s Cold Outside.

Man I know I’ll catch hell for this but I love me some Sherrilyn “swan hat” Kenyon novels. The Darkhunters are the best thing evha! I also love Dara Joy & all books that contain a sheik. Sad, I KNOW!

The movie Rhinestone, Sylvester Stallone + Dolly Parton + Country Music in NYC = Sheer friggin’ genius!

Please also add me to the Transformer fan list - I had to wait for the movie to come to home video because I knew I would embarass myself if I saw it in public. I was right because my inner geek had an orgasm while watching it.

I also love disaster movies too and I watched 10.5 on the Sci fi channel yesterday. I also love their crappy dinosaur movies too! Pterodactyl? Oh yeah count me in for some B movie fun.

Spam = yummy when fried crispy, and thank to my southern granny I love fried potato sandwiches & butter sandwiches too.

I understand if no one ever wants to speak to me again.

Well, I guess I truly have bad taste, Ivy, because I didn’t know I was supposed to be ashamed of liking/adoring/overdosing on half the things listed by the bitchery as shameful.

Then again, I’ve always known that I have bad taste, so there goes that one.

Perhaps I can be shamed by saying that I don’t understand chocolate cravings?

Perfect day (n) puuurfect duh-hey: Ruffles potato chips, because Ruffles have ridges; sour cream, onion soup mix, Penfold’s cab sauv (bin 407 if you’re at all interested) and Lifetime Television For Women.  Not the half-way respectable stuff either.  That movie where the chick finds out her husband has another wife and after battling anorexia, multiple assaults by her dentist while she was sedated, finding out that the loser who stole her husband is in fact her long-lost twin, kills him, the long-lost twin, reunites with her son who was kidnapped when he was five, goes to jail, writes a bestseller, gets out of jail, falls in love with the supportive neighbor who’s been there all along and lives happily ever after.

I won’t answer the phone if Lifetime does a marathon of these things.

And thanks to all of you who mentioned Kraft Mac & Cheese.  First thing I thought when I read those entries was, “wouldn’t mac & cheese be De-Vine instead of Ruffles despite their ridges?  Especially if I added a little more Velveeta.

Oh heck.

I lubs me some oddball stuff (often cheesy) sometimes.

Sometimes, if a reviewer of a movie states, “It sucks”, it might just be for me. I end up loving it and its a keeper. Same way if a movie gets great reviews. I watch it and say “Dang, this is dog doo doo.”

But I do try to sample everything, just so I don’t get stagnant. Hey, as with what this post is about, you find a gem amongst the thorns. If your mind had been closed entirely to such things, well you’d have lost a good read.

Being willing to set aside preconceived notions is the greatest of intellectual talents, in my humble opinon.

Mmmm….Velveeeeeeta…

My mom makes this dish called ‘Sin Potatoes’—potatoes, bacon, and Velveeta , all wrapped up in a lovely casserole.  I can feel my arteries hardening as I eat it and still can’t get enough.

Journey. Lovin’ Touchin’ and Squeezin’ comes on the radio and I turn it up so loud ears bleed in neighboring cars (or maybe that’s because I’m singing along at the top of my voice)

Air Supply.

The Rose, the Conway Twitty version (hangs head in shame).

Buffy. Gimme some Angel and Spike baby.

Karen Robards historical romance. I think it was Loving Julia. The BJ scene in the carriage, OMG I can still fantasize about that one!

And I agree with whoever said Rosemary Rogers. I always feel dirty but couldn’t ever put them down. And if a man ever really treated me that way he’d be on the way to a plastic surgeon.

Wait, wait, wait, Robinjn. No way is my girl Buffy considered bad taste, poor quality, or something to feel guilty about. “Buffy” was, is, and always will be brilliant television.

Aaargh, natto.  My boyfriend eats natto.  I don’t understand how the hell he does it.

I’ve been fighting with myself lately over the fact that I, a perfectly rational, feminist, successful twentysomething, like Disney princesses.  I went to see two movies two weekends in a row—one was Enchanted, the other was Michael Clayton.  I loved Enchanted, even though I can point to exactly where the plot falls apart a little or erupt with an “Oh come ON” in the middle of a scene, and I sat through Michael Clayton going “god, what’s even happening in this movie, how could anyone find this interesting, kill me now.”  I still can’t shake the feeling that I am somehow stupider than the rest of the world because I eat up fairy tales and deep intellectual legal or political dramas can bite my shiny metal ass.

Still.  Disney princesses.  Love ‘em.  Good god.

Buffy is brilliant! Please.

Ditto Transformers! Go Bumblebee!

Oh, I LOVE disaster flicks, too!!

I am home here.

Two words ... Diana. Palmer.

But only when I’m PMSing ...

[sob] This is like Post Secret, without the stamp! Thanks, Bitches.

— Bonz

Wait, wait, wait, Robinjn. No way is my girl Buffy considered bad taste, poor quality, or something to feel guilty about. “Buffy” was, is, and always will be brilliant television.

Okay, maybe it’s because all my friends look at me like I have 3 heads when I try to enlighten them on the Genius of Whedon.

Firefly I absolutely refuse to apologize for. Mal, Mal, Mal baby.

I love the old Harlequins, where the guy is a surgeon/lawyer/rich guy and the girl is a young poor girl with a huge family to support and he falls madly in love with her. Formulaic, yep. Love them. And they’re usually short so they’re like an hour of escapism and then you’re back to reality if you have to be.

Actors - The Rock. Mmmmmmn. He is smokin’ hot.

Food - Sardines. In oil. I can eat a whole can, straight. Yum! And those tiny powdered donuts that come in a box. The more chemical-weird smelling, the better.

Movies - Highlander. Aaaaaah. Oh, to be Heather with my beloved Christopher slightly-crosseyed but oh-so-hot-in-a-kilt Lambert. Most romantic movie ever, even though yeah, it hasn’t stood the test of time all that well (hello 80s!)

Oh where to begin…

First I must say it warms the cockles of my spinster heart to know others out there share so many of my guilty pleasures.

Disaster Flicks.  I want to marry them and have disaster babies.  If shit blows up I’m so there.

The horrible movies the SciFi Channel forces upon us. They’re like dork crack for me.  I also was a huge fan of Scarecrow and Mrs. King.  Yeah, I know.  But Bruce Boxlietner with feathered hair and a Corvette, come on…

I LOVE Ramen noodles.  I think it’s the salt.  If I could have a salt lick in my back yard, I’d be happy.  I also adore PopTarts.  They have absolutely no redeeming food value, but I can eat a box of brown sugar cinnamon ‘Tarts with out batting an eye.

I <3 ABBA.  I have the Monkees on my ipod.  Any and all music of the 1980’s makes me inordinately happy.  I also think that Lyle Lovett is incredibly sexy.  Julie Roberts was an idiot to divorce him.

My guilty reading pleaseure is Betty Neels.  I own all of her Alpha Male, young heorine mysogonistic books and LOVE THEM.

Wow.  That was so freeing.  Thank you SBs, thank you!

I also love n*sync.  And the TV show Moonlight.  And Kraft mac n cheese.  And Dara Joy.  (Although I hated Ritual Proof, which was supposed to be the “good” one.)  And I complain about how bad they are, but I still pick up LKH when I see one at the library.

Overboard is one of my favorite movies.  It’s terrible, but so good.  Watched it just last weekend.

I Tivo Flash Gordon and The Girls Next Door.  Did anyone else notice that both Moonlight and Flash Gordon got rid of the inconvenient Other Man last Friday?  Interesting.  And the Girls?  I want to dislike them.  How can a twenty-something woman agree to “date” an 80+ yo man?  And be one of three live-in girlfriends?  And they’re kind of dingy.  But they seem so nice!  Bridget is my favorite.

Christmas just isn’t Christmas if I don’t catch A Very Brady Christmas sometime in December.

I listen to the Pussycat Dolls.  Did you know that Nicole was on a reality show years ago that put together another girl group called Eden’s Crush?  I so loved that show.  And I still have their CD.

And I love the song “Foolin’ Around” by Patsy Cline. So politically incorrect.  So catchy.

I read every Jayne Ann Krentz book I can lay hands on.  They’re all the same book, over and over again.  But I still love them.

How weird is it that copping to the JAK thing was harder than all the rest of those confessions combined?  I didn’t want to admit that an author I read (that no one else had mentioned yet) is bad.

reached38- not yet, thanks

I consider myself the most fortunate of women to have found a man who reads…

...crappy science fiction.

BALES and BALES and BALES of it.  The cheesier the picture on the cover, the more avidly he consumes it.  (Women in bronze bras are good, but women WITH ANIMAL HEADS in bronze bras are even better.)

I am secure in the knowledge that he will never mock my literary taste; nor am I in any position to mock his.

Hey, *I* read those books with the women in bronze bras on the cover. They are fine, fine, books, I tell you.

Gads, this is like confession time and I’m not even Catholic.

Music: Bee Gees

Movies: Lethal Weapon series, Die Hard series and probably any movie ever made by Bruckheimer.

TV: I am an Alias fanactic, fell in love with Michael Vartan on the spot.

Books:  (this one is for Beth) Gaylen Foley.

Food: I draw the line at Spam, but I love the other mystery meat: hot dogs.

SB Sarah- come on down. I have the first 2 seasons on DVD. popcorn available upon request….

Thought of a few more now-
Errol Flynn- O.M.G.

Davy Jones- Brittish accents just *do it* to me. My first “crush”.

Def Leppard- love that band.( also see above )

Nancy Drew books- have them all, passed them down to my 2 girls, and I still read them from time to time.

I think people just take this shit way too personal, that’s all.  Or, maybe they’ve always been on the right side (if there is a right side) of pop culture and hate to think people would dislike something they like. 

On the other hand, I’m getting a kick out of this thread so I hope it never ends!

I like a lot of things that have been mentioned here.  Transformers, certainly.  Since way back in the 80s, although I prefer Ironhide to Bumblebee.  And yes, I own the movie.  The cartoon movie.  Voiced by Judd Nelson.  That’s right, I said Judd Nelson.

Love Judd.

Grease 2.  That’s right.  2, not 1.  Michelle Pfeiffer?  Even SHE hates that movie.  Crazy bitca.  That movie is the shit!  :)  She don’t know good.

And any romance book that starts from a premise of a failed relationship.  Did they used to be married?  Sign me up.  old lovers?  Yep.  Boyfriend/Girlfriend on the playground?  I’m there.  I LOVE that. 

Michael Shanks.  From Stargate?  If he’s in it, I’m there.  Anywhere.  Megasnake? Most terrible-ist movie evah.  Uh huh, I saw it.  (And wouldn’t that just be an awesome title for a romance book, Nora?  Come on.  Don’t let me down!)

And, finally, I loved both the ST:Enterprise theme song AND the show. 

God, I really DO suck.  Nevermind…..

ok. i love transformers. seriously. i can still sing “you’ve got the touch” from the animated movie.

i still haven’t brought myself to watch the new movie. i was horrified when i saw a preview and realized they changed bumblebee from a bug to a friggin’ mustang. any other autobot they wanted to change would have been fine, but my childhood love for bumblebee is still alive and kickin’ and THAT’S JUST WRONG!!!
(my friends have started referring to this as my “transformers rant”)
they’ve ruined my childhood!
*sigh*

My biggest guilty pleasure? Sci-fi/horror flicks from the 70’s. Man, I just love, love, LOOOOOOOVE anything about the 70’s (including ABBA :)). Logan’s Run, Scanners, Shivers, Dawn of the Dead, Star Wars, Alien, etc. Not that all of them are bad per se but there’s something about the 70’s cheese that just oozes so wonderfully, even in the best of them.

And regarding the taboo against negative criticism by women: it’s not just that the people who run this site are women, although that’s surely a big part of it. This genre is almost entirely by/for women, and women tend to self-regulate other womens’ “unfeminine” behavior (how often do *men* stand around making catty remarks about a woman’s clothes?) Many of us love kick-ass heroine’s - including the ones who runt his site! - as a rebellion against this false ideal of femininity. There’s a fascinating post on Alas, a Blog on this topic(http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2007/05/23/q-since-when-is-being-criticized-like-having-your-limbs-blown-off-by-a-landmine-a-since-that-criticism-came-from-someone-with-less-privilege-than-you/)

One other thing… Quite honestly, I *do* wonder how the hell anyone can read Cassie Edwards’ books. Not to say that I think they shouldn’t be published, but, you know, there’s bad and then there’s *bad*, and CE’s books are a whole other level of bad. And I firmly uphold the right to poke fun at things I find hilariously awful.

Disney princesses!  (insert squee that only dogs can hear)  I love Disney princesses. But if I see Princess Aurora in that pink dress one more time, I will hurt someone.  Her dress was BLUE, dammit!

I live for Disney Channel original movies, too.  Halloweentown, High School Musical, loved ‘em.  But my heart belongs to the Twitches and Wendy Woo Homecoming Warrior.  I might as well be twelve again when they come on.

OK, here’s what I’m willing to confess in public:

I like the Carpenters and Captain and Tennille.

I like Edith Hull’s “The Sheik”—the original bodice-ripper! And the movie with Rudolph Valentino is just so hot!

My favorite breakfast is grits, corned beef hash, and eggs over easy, sopped up with toasted Wonderbread.

And I will watch “Pretty Woman” every time it comes on TV, ‘cause I’m a sucker for Cinderella romance ...

(and my word for the day is: section41)

Fine.  Just fine.

Jem, who is truly outrageous.

Thunder Cats.

See what you people have done?

For me, my music guilty pleasure is Kelly Clarkson. Girl has pipes.

And I also like books by Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick/Jayne Castle. They do get repetitive after awhile, but I like them because she never uses the Big Misunderstanding as a long drawn out plot device. If there is a Misunderstanding it’s solved fairly quickly in a few pages.

Susan Elizabeth Philips novels.  I hate football, why do I luvs me football romance?

Judge Judy.

Hogan’s Heroes (yes, yes, I know).

Strawberry milk.

Surf movies…think Blue Crush (yes, I own it).

I am so relieved not to be the first to admit to the BeeGees. Yep, even the disco stuff. I loves me some bi-shonen falsetto harmony.

Transformers. Oh yes. As far as the animated series, Beastwars rules. And I let out just a tiny little squee when the shiny red Optimus diesel came on screen in the feature film. Which the whole family went to see at the special late-night sneak preview. Daughter-in-law and I were singing along to Linkin Park at the end.

Jeff Foxworthy. Redneck humor. I listen to that stuff and laugh so hard I can scarcely breathe.

Oh, MXC, Ninja Warrior, the Japanese version of Iron Chef…. I love them all

I also have a weakness for (some of the) bad reality TV shows… like the Hills, Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders: Making the Team…

sad, but true…

My guilty pleasure is “Goonies”—I have probably seen it 200 times and I still love it.  When it’s on tv, I stop and watch it even though I own the dang thing.  What can I say—I love the relationship between Chunk and Sloth.

Mama nice: Holy Crap! Young Riders! I wrote Ike McSwain fanfic!
Barry Manilow- I heart the song Mandy!

Anything Riddick!

Moonlight- what’s a bitch to do when Wheadon goes out of the vampire business? Love the the glossy rich vampy coating and the gooey angsty center!

Anything with William Fictner in it!
Same with Mila Jojovitch. and When they were in the same movie together? JOYGASAM!!!!

My last meal on earth?
tinned smoked oysters eaten with a toothpick only washed down by a diet coke.

ID4 rocks and no one can tell me that it doesn’t.

“Once again, the L.A.P.D. is asking Los Angelenos not to fire their guns at the visitor spacecraft. You may inadvertently trigger an interstellar war. “

I *love* Rick Astley. I love the cheesy video for ‘Never Gonna Give You Up.’ I love the old episodes of American Gladiators and am thrilled that it is back on the air.

The only condiments I like on sandwiches are butter and ketchup, but never together.

I can sit and watch old school Britcoms all.day.long.

I used to love Passions. I still read the summaries in Soap Digest, just to see if Ethan and Theresa are together yet.

Things I Love:

Favorite Movie - Dirty Dancing (First saw it when it came out in the theatre and to this day still know most of the moves to the final dance.)

Not a favorite food But I will willingly eat Vegemite/Marmite and Mushy Peas (I’m American of some Irish heritage so this is considered somewhat sacreligious in my family.

I hate chick flicks and refuse to watch them but I love horror movie and almost every single movie ever made from a video game or comic book.

I love Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in Middle English.

I Love all of the Bond movies and must see them when ever they come on TV.

My Guiltiest pleasure is the movie the 13th Warrior with Antonio Banderas.

I also go see animated movie in the middle of the afternoon because the kids’ reactions actually enhance my movie going experience.

I think thet going to the movie by yourself is perfectly fine and do it as often as I can.

I have never liked “The Outsiders” - the book or the movie - nor any of S.E. Hinton’s other books. I have no clue why anyone likes JR Ward’s books. I can’t get past page 5 without wanting to throw them at the wall.

It’s so nice to see others sharing my guilty pleasures like cream horns, Evolution, and Trixie Belden and Vin Diesel. (pennifer: Twice? Pshaw! I own the DVD of “The Pacifier”.)

I also adore Styx, CHiPs, and ... *embracing the shame* ... Leif Garrett. (layf, dammit, not leef!)  Julie Garwood is my crack.  I watch “Chicken Little” at least once a week, but my all-time favorite movie is “Adventures in Babysitting.”

And I mix tuna into my Kraft mac-n-cheese.

She explained that I was articulate, well educated and outgoing and while many people were comfortable with that, many others were threatened. While I enjoyed arguing and disagreeing with people, many people found that to be aggressive behaviour, which made them defensive and on edge . . . But I have to wonder if this attitude is intimidating to some? This willingness to front up and have a “vigorous, informed argument”? Could this part of what has provoked the response?

B I N G O

I think this is a daily issue faced by almost any female extrovert with an IQ larger than her shoe size. Add in being nearly six-feet tall and it’s all kinds of fun. *roll eyes*

I refuse to admit to reading bad books (I have no “so bad it’s good” books; and IMO Sharyn Mccrumb novels are great, including Bimbos of the Death Sun; BOTDS’s problem is that it sometimes get misshelved in Science Fiction rather than Mystery, and the title is utterly misleading).

I certainly have a few other areas of my life in which I stray from the path of highbrow excellence, LOL! I love Hostess berry fruit pies. I only eat one once every few years, but I’m soooooooooo happy when I do. And I too will watch pretty much anything with Vin Diesel in it. Repeatedly. And Gerard Butler. My love for Dracula 2000 knows no bounds, and man does that movie suck. And then there’s my addiction to America’s Next Top Model and Project Runway and The F Word (is it wrong that I find Gordon Ramsay hot?).

Well said, Candy.

Young Riders!  I loved that show!  I had no idea it’s on dvd, I must go find it.

I can reread Kathleen E. Woodiwiss novels and never grow tired of them.  He kidnapped you thinking you were someone else and now you love him?  Awesome.  He married you pretending to be someone else and you can’t figure that out and love them both?  I can’t resist.  He raped you and now you love him?  Even that, for Kathleen, I can endure. 

I watch Judge Judy and I like it. 

That’s probably enough confessing for now.

I forgot one.

The complete body of work from Seann William Scott.

Sigh. It’s embarrassing how much I think he’s adorable and hilarious. Never before has an actor who regularly plays an idiot engendered so much fondness in me.

Jem, who is truly outrageous.

Oh.
My.
God.
I had the Jem doll (the one where you flipped that switch in her back and her earrings lit up) and sobbed like the little girl I was when my dog walked out of the back yard with Jem-legs dangling from her muzzle.  Do you know, I have actually looked at the listings on eBay (repeatedly) thinking about buying a replacement?

Wow. Comments explosion. Ok my bad taste examples, which I actually have no problem embracing, although I used to.

Danielle Steel. She was my first foray into romance. I had a snooty college prof proclaim that if you read Danielle Steel you had low-brow taste (his words: “My mother reads Danielle Steel, but I love her anyway”) and I thought he was an idiotic toad after that.

I have an extensive collection of Star Wars EU novels and probably less than half can be classified as “good” but I love them all.

I love bad disaster movies. If there’s an Uber Tornado/Hurricane/Earthquake that destroys LA and if it was made for TV then I probably will watch it. Atomic Train with Rob Lowe? So awesome.

I like Celine Dion. There. I said it.

Romantic comedies, all kinds. I’m one of the few people who likes Someone Like You and I saw Kate and Leopold in the theater (this may have more to do with my Hugh Jackman love).

Lisa in TX- there is nothing wrong with loving TSaMK or having a crush on Bruce Boxleitner. Ok, there might be something wrong with it, but I don’t care. 

I watched The Adventures of Lois and Clark religiously, so I could drool all over Dean Cain.

Moira- are you saying this show was bad? Take that back! I love this show and, yes, Dean Cain was totally my first celebrity crush.

Snarkhunter- I own Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves on dvd (and vhs) and have seen it more than is probably healthy. Coincidentally I am now in love with the BBC’s Robin Hood series. That show is bad (the costumes alone make me laugh), but I love it.

Kimberly Ann- You are the only person I know, besides someone on my lj flist, who has seen and loves Copacabana the movie.

I put ketchup on mac&cheese (homemade and Kraft, it doesn’t matter), eggs, and grits (hell, that I like grits might be seen by some as bad taste, but for me it’s just being Southern).

And is it gross that I like to dip plain potato chips in plain chocolate ice cream? It’s like the poor man’s fries and Frosty combo.

I could go on all day about my bad taste but I’ll stop.

OMG robinb!  I think I’ve watched Grease 2 about 400 times.  It is very bad, yet I love it so.

“We’re gonna score tonight!
We’re gonna score tonight!
We’re gonna rock, we’re gonna roll
We’re gonna bop, we’re gonna bowl!”

And Girl For All Seasons, Do It For Our Country, Reproduction, and my personal favorite - Cool Rider.

My god.  I should probably be ashamed, yet somehow I am not.

Hee! verification is probably78

Whoever confessed to JAK love a few messages back, no fears. I <3 her in all her incarnations. I think it’s because they’re mainly the same book over and over with a few minor tweaks. Sometimes, it’s nice to read something comfortable and familiar. The literary equivalent of mashed potatoes, I suppose. :-)

I love edutainment, particularly ghost hunting shows. I really love it if someone gets possessed. God, it’s great when they foam at the mouth!

Food-wise…. I have a soy allergy, so many, many foods are off limits to me, but I do have a perserverating fondness for brussel sprouts. Spam be damned, you should see the looks you get when you admit that.

Music—I’m into classical, 80’s and 90’s pop and alt, and just about anything else that makes me happy.

Transformers RULE. So does Voltron. Maybe Voltron rules even better than Transformers. And who doesn’t remember She-Ra and Jem with fondness? If you want cartoon kitsch, it gets no better than Jem. I can still remember one of the songs they sang on the show once. Not the title song, either. ;-)

I don’t like B movies very much, but I am desperate to see the one coming up that spoofs “300” (which was almost a spoof all on its own).

I’m pretty low-class (and yes, I think ‘class’ and ‘good taste’ are directly correlated, and I’m sure it’s a question of someone of the ‘upper class’ feeling a bit insecure and getting more secure by putting down the lower class person’s ‘taste’ in things) so I like a lot of schlock. :-)

Overboard!!!! Yes!  OMG, adore that movie.  Love Kurt Russell as the sweaty carpenter.  Love Goldie.

But I’ll trump that:  Willow.  Oh god, Val Kilmer as Madmartigan, usually without a shirt.  Val Kilmer in a cage!  “You dwell in darkness without me and it WENT AWAY?!”  Val Kilmer in drag:  “Tempting, but no.”  Little people!  Tobogganing down a snowy mountain!  Val Kilmer in a giant snowball!  LOVE that movie.  Need to find it on DVD.

Ooh, and how about Knight’s Tale?!  Paul Bettany as Chaucer—does NOT get any better than that.  Except perhaps Willow.

I cannot believe that I forgot to include that I actively sought out and purchase a Tiffany and two NKOTB cds a few years back so I could rock out to them.

And I still kinda love Milli Vanilli. Even though they weren’t, you know, real…

Loralie,

You are totally out of your mind.  Wanna make out?

But I’ll trump that:  Willow.  Oh god, Val Kilmer as Madmartigan, usually without a shirt.  Val Kilmer in a cage!  “You dwell in darkness without me and it WENT AWAY?!” Val Kilmer in drag:  “Tempting, but no.” Little people!  Tobogganing down a snowy mountain!  Val Kilmer in a giant snowball!  LOVE that movie.

Would you people STOP making me squee?  I’m at work, already!

Oh, I love Willow!

And Marmite!

I love cartoons, both old and new: Thundercats, Transformers, X-Men, the old G.I.Joe ones, but also Spongebob and the Fairly Oddparents (I can also sing the theme songs…)

kpsr @ 8:03: Bumblebee’s not a Mustang. He’s a Camaro - late 70’s version at the beginning, 2008 version later on. I was too old for the cartoon, but my baby brothers were huge fans, and we all liked the new movie. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised since they kept a lot of the elements of the cartoon and the animated movie. And the same guy does the voice of Optimus Prime!

Speaking of ruined childhoods, what Hollywood did to Scooby-Doo, Starsky and Hutch, and The Dukes of Hazzard should be illegal and punishable by death. *sigh*

I like Celine Dion. There. I said it.

Liz, you come sit next to me. I love me some Celine. Have you seen the You Tube video that’s wandering around about her? She really *IS* fucking awesome!

I like my grilled cheese dipped in ketchup.

I also really, really love any kind of Teen Angst TV show or movie. I quite simply adore and have deeply inappropriate lusty thoughts about Zack Morris from Saved by the Bell. And the angst! Would he and Kelly get together? What? Jessie is on uppers?? Would Lisa get into Fashion Design School?? The Drama!

Ooh, and how about Knight’s Tale?! Paul Bettany as Chaucer—does
NOT get any better than that.

I love that movie so much. Paul Bettany’s naked ass makes every movie great.

And I cannot believe I forgot to mention that I own High School Musical on dvd and that I have listened to the soundtrack on repeat for about a week. And that I’m not Disney’s target audience.

Oh and the books! Got all excited about someone even knowing who the Young Riders were I compleatly forgot:

Dara Joy: Traed has been my imaginary boyfriend for about a decade.
Elzabeth Lowell’s: Enchanted That whole series in fact-she never did do Eric’s story did she? The original covers? Hawtness! Fictner level hawtness!

Ok, since everyone else is doing it

....

Frisco Jones…Anyone??  Loved him and Felicia on General Hospital.  I used to race home from school to watch that story line.

I think John Cusack is the Hottest guy EVAH.  ‘Say Anything’ is my favorite movie.  Love me some John Cusack.  I think he is getting even better looking as he grows older.

Another guy I had it bad for in the 80’s was Marc Singer…Come on, you remember him….‘Beast Master’ ring any bells.  Man he was hot in that movie, you could’ve bounced a quarter off his stomach…mmmmm.  I watched that TV Mini Series ‘V’ just because he was in it.  What can I say, I loved that one too. 

I eat Cream of Mushroom soup with iceberg lettuce (where I got this from, I have no idea) and Doritos with whipped cream cheese. 

My favorite book is ‘Dream Fever’ by Katherine Sutcliffe, and I have to agree with Kimberly Anne about the Disney Princesses, especially Sleeping Beauty.  I was the only one out of my 3 other sisters that insisted her dress should have stayed BLUE!!

~~ Willow.  Oh god, Val Kilmer as Madmartigan ... Val Kilmer in a cage!  ... Val Kilmer in drag:  “Tempting, but no.” ... ~~

Sarah, I totally want to tongue kiss you after that. 

I have a strong and abiding love for Val Kilmer based on that movie alone.  When Val would make a stinker of a movie, he’d be forgiven.  He gave us WILLOW, after all.

When I was young I watched that movie almost weekly, along with another horrid, tragicaly bad movie called BEASTMASTER, with Marc Singer.

Man, I forgot the movies I like which are described as terrible, horrible, ripe, and in even less flattering terms:

Mystery Men, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Popeye (the musical), Hudson Hawk. Oh, and the childhood-raping Scooby Doo movie.

Sigh.

Liz C., you are clearly my long-lost twin.  Celine Dion, Star Wars EU (I used to have all of them before the NJO books came out, and I did some weeding of the really shitty ones (read: most of Kevin J. “it’s like flipping burgers” Anderson’s contribs) to make room), romantic comedies, Someone Like You (I will growl at anyone who mocks me for loving that)...

I forgot to mention my deepest, darkest, most shameful love. Syndicated action-adventure shows. And not the Xena-quality ones. I mean the really, really bad ones. The Lost World? Adored it. Have seen every episode. The Adventures of Sinbad? Used to tape it.

I also used to watch every episode of first (American) version of Power Rangers. And,  yes, I have seen the movie.

God, I love this thread. It makes me feel normal.

Oh and I forgot to mention that I WENT to the Monkees comeback concert in teh later 80’s AND bought the record!!!

*races out of lurkdom to bare her dark little soul*

Okay, here goes.  I like the Mortal Kombat movie.  Like, enough to have seen it at least 100 times.  Something within me finds it wildly romantic, despite the fact that it mainly involves badly developed characters kicking the everloving bejeezus out of one another against the backdrop of cheezy scenery.  Well, and Christopher Lambert shooting lightning out of his eyes. 

I also enjoy Easy Cheese on Ritz, clunky and slightly misogynistic sci-fi romance (hello, Warrior’s Woman!), and any makeover show that involves extensive plastic surgery and ends with someone’s transformation into the Ultimate Hooker Version of herself.

Oh, and I kinda liked Britney’s “Gimmie More.”

God I feel healed.  Especially knowing that I’m not the only person who still wants to kick Flora’s ass for making Sleeping Beauty’s dress that putrid shade of pink.

All I can come up with at the moment is Justin Timberlake.  Based on every other kind of music I love, I should hate the scrawny little guy - but I just can’t. 

So ok I’ll admit it: *I* was the one who bought Cry Me a River and Bringing Sexy Back from iTunes, not my daughter as my husband probably assumes.  And that time he was on SNL and did the Gibb impression and the music video spoof?  Hilarious!

Oh, and The Real World...I used to lap those up like a cat facing a bowl of cream.

~~ Another guy I had it bad for in the 80’s was Marc Singer…Come on, you remember him….’Beast Master’ ring any bells. ~~

Hee!  PattiR, I just posted about this before I saw your comment. 

I think I’m going to have to find this movie on DVD.  It’ll go nicely with my DVDs of the first 3 seasons of Magnum, P.I.

(I think all of this confessing to all of this cheese has gone to my head.  I feel a trifle woozy. *s*)

Carrie Underwood.

Doesn’t look that good next to Alice In Chains and Motörhead on the playlist. Neither do Rocío Dúrcal, Juan Gabriel or Amanda Miguel but these are residuals from my childhood and Carrie is not…

1. I bought an Olivia Newton John CD just to own her rendition of the title song of “Xanadu,” one of the worst movies ever.

2. I love opera for low class reasons: because it is cheesy as all hell, and people are ripping their guts out emotionally—and sometimes physically. Just saw “MacBeth” and everybody dies. Yay!

3. I have read thousands of really awful, offensive romances starring men I wouldn’t want to know in real life, and loved them anyway. I can’t get rid of my Lucy Walker collection even though I thought the men were utter jerks back when I read them. (Okay, maybe it’s time.)

4. Cheap, thin, grocery store cinnamon buns in a tray. Not one natural ingredient in them. Not even real sugar, just loads of nasty high fructose crap. Love ‘em. Absolutely love ‘em.

5. Movies in which things get “blowed up real good” (that’s from SCTV, John Candy on the front porch). I watched “Dirty Harry” and all the sequels for the body count. They’re exactly like renaissance revenge tragedies. Henchmen dead everywhere, with their only epitaph an ironic or scornful joke. Like “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.” (That’s from a Lethal Weapon movie when a guy gets whacked by a surfboard, I think. Loved it.)

6. I have a very nice poster of Christopher Reeve in his Superman costume here in my office. I love sappy, establishment-style comics. Want to make something of it?

7. Bill Clinton. Yeah, I know he’s like the Plantagenet king who enthralls you and uses you and walks away from you and stomps on your trust and ruins you, and still, you see him in a golden glow. For some reason, this unfaithful husband, egotist, and chickenshit politician (“Don’t ask, don’t tell” showed his true lack of cojones) still gets a bye from me and I don’t really know why. But I do know that I feel very, very guilty.

Anyone else remember the movie Girls Just Wanna Have Fun?  With Helen Hunt and Sarah Jessica Parker?  I LOVED that movie as a kid.  My parents finally refused to rent it for me any more, they got so sick of it.  I now own it on DVD.  I still regret not buying the soundtrack when I saw it in a store about 15 years ago.

The horrible movies the SciFi Channel forces upon us. They’re like dork crack for me.

Sweet baby Jesus on a unicorn, the titles alone are enough to make me laugh with joy: Boa vs. Python. Snakehead Terror. Mansquito. It’s like watching the first draft of a MST3K episode, in the best possible way.

As for my true confessions: ABBA. Seals & Croft. Christopher Cross. Starsky & Hutch. Harlequin-style fanfics (look, I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense to have Rodney and John in Regency times, but Rodney mentions the ton! I have to love it!).

YAY!!!  I knew there was another out there on the Grease 2 love train! :)

I love so much of what has been mentioned that I can’t believe ALL of my tastes are bad!

Frisco Jones…Anyone?? Loved him and Felicia on General Hospital. I used
to race home from school to watch that story line.

Oh my god, I was so excited when I watched GH the other day and Felicia’s explanation for why she disappeared for so long is because she was off helping Frisco. I may have shrieked in glee.

Snarkhunter- we really might be long-lost twins, you’re better than my real twin because she just doesn’t get the Star Wars EU thing. And I love The Lost World. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen every episode at least twice. Lord Roxton was so hot.

Kendra- I love the Mortal Kombat movie (it is far superior to the second movie), I love the book, and I loved the short-lived tv series.

Oooh, oh, oh!!  I second Thunder Cats - my first serious crush as a blossoming young woman was Liono (sp?)...he still gives me a tingle in my naughty bits and he’s ANIMATED!!  Which leads me to the admission that I have a thing for superhawt animated male heroes - Space Ghost, Vampire Hunter D, etc.

I love any super-Kung Fu action movie, no matter how bad.  Jean Claude Van Damme’s “Bloodsport”—oh, HELL, yes! 

And, finally, any romance novel in which the hero engages in hair-pulling of the sexual kind…particularly if the heroine possesses a very long braid with which to facilitate such aggressive, dominant sexual tactics.  I consider myself an “nth-wave feminist” (my fist of fury hath flattened many a foe) and would cheerfully kick in the nuts any man who tried this with me; however, in the confines of fiction, I LOVE IT!  Likewhoodamnona platterwithhotfudgeontop!!

I clearly have to rent Grease 2.

And I love The Lost World. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen every episode at least twice. Lord Roxton was so hot.

OMG. I love you. And he and Marguerite? *happy sigh*

It embarrasses me to admit that I love those old musicals.  They are so sexist but I just can’t help but watch them.  My husband just shakes his head and asks, “How many men has Tammy gone through now?”

I loved Perry Mason and Matlock.  I wanted to be Perry Mason when I grew up.  (My mom thought I was odd because I didn’t want to be a princess or ballerina, I wanted to be an attorney)

I can’t stand ANTM but I can’t help but get sucked in each time they have a marathon.

I love Rake books.  I can’t help but love the bad boy (and not the I’m-really-just-misunderstood bad boy).  Even though Suzanne Enoch is fluffy I can’t help but love her older books… I so wanted to have Saint even if the heroine was a twit.

I still read and like (even though they piss me off) LKH books.

Even though it’s already to 13 I can’t help but read the Stephanie Plum books.  They piss me off because Stephanie won’t grow up and every time Morelli opens his mouth I want to smack him and tell him to stop talking down to his girlfriend like she’s two and he’s her mommy!!!  But… I still read them.

I feel more healed each time I hit the refresh button…

I love Jem.  I still have my Kimber doll, AND her purple 80s-keyboard-that-is-sort-of-a-guitar.  I can quote most of the dialogue from both Grease 2 (I have always preferred it to the first one, NO IDEA WHY) and Xanadu, I have actually considered replacing my She-Ra Crystal Palace by buying it on ebay, and I bought the movie Space Camp and pretended it was for my kids.

Oh!  And!  AND!  Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!  I knew I was not alone!  The dance-off at the end?  MAGIC.  And speaking of dancing, Center Stage, anyone?  Ballet dancers should not act.  Ever.  And yet they do, and I love them.

Shaunee
(Missed your comment on my last refresh, before I posted.)
Only if you promise to keep me well supplied in poorly made dolls which are a shadow of their wonderfuly cheesy animated self.

Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover books.  Especially the ones with the most bizarre sexual politics from the 1970s.  In one the homophobic heroine goes off to have sex with a random man she’s just met to prove she’s not a lesbian.  Or the entire book which is about a man trying to have sex with his wife who because she was a sacred virgin has electric genitals.  So on crack, and I adore them.

The movie Starship Troopers.  A horrible mockery of a really complex political/philosophical book turned into a bunch of bad actors wandering around shooting CGI bugs.  I love it for the fact that the film’s director took a book with a very specific political message and made a movie with the exact opposite point of view, in part because he didn’t read the book “because it was depressing.”

And what’s more, he made it badly, so it looses the political message he intended to send as well!

Um, the 3 most played songs on my iPod are the Spice Girls.  I try to convince myself that they’re there strictly for my gym playlist, but I, um, don’t go to the gym that often. 

I have a weakness for Regency novels with the Duke of wherever seducing Lady whoever.  Especially when there’s a kidnapping involved.

I love alpha heroes, even though I know that if I was ever treated like that by a man, I’d slap them silly.  On the same note, I love stories with heroines who have some dark secret in their past, only to find the whole thing was a misunderstanding and that they were set up by some man.

I love romances because there’s always a happy ending, and I need that on those days when my brain is fried from work.  I love that I don’t need to put a lot of thought into reading them.

And I refuse to apologise for having taste that some describe as questionable.  I’ve read a lot of “literature” and a lot of it isn’t to my taste.  As an example, I adore Austen, but I loathe Dickens with a passion.  So what?  I read for my own entertainment and I don’t have the time to read something that I don’t enjoy.  Did enough of that in school and university, thanks.

So, I like some things that are considered rubbish.  It’s not really that important in the grand scheme of things, so why do people make such a song and dance about it?  If I’m getting enjoyment out of it, who cares anyway?

My word - room51.  Unfortunately, there’s not room for 51 here…

I am relatively easy to please, seriously.  As far as reading material goes, I have this mazing soft spot for Lackey’s Valdemar series. I love me some Heralds.  I also dig Hamilton’s Merry Gentry stuff. Faerie smut ftw.

As for music, dear gods, where do I start? *laugh* Ok, even to this day, Def Leppard’s music makes me happy. I luv them.

On tv, I don’t watch much generally, but I try not to ever miss an episode of Ghosthunters. /grin And I’m collecting all the seasons of Stargate SG:1, as well.

As for food? I’m going to make myself some corned beef hash soon as I finish this post. /laugh

kept71-Indeed, since that’s when I was born

**ducks back into the confessional booth**

Until recently I didn’t know that Xanadu was a “bad” movie. It was one of my favorite’s while I was growing up. I can still sing the whole soundtrack.

I totally squeed when I found Labyrinth on DVD. God, I still think David Bowie is hot!

I love this thread - for once I know that I am not alone.

Ok Father how many Hail Marys?

my word deal29 - yup I have to deal with turning 29 this year.

Closet Rosemary Rogers fan here. Any man tried that crap with me in real life I’d set him on fire, but for the fake pirate/sheik/revolutionary/abolitionist and the barely-legal he’s currently terrorizing/seducing I’ll make an exception.

Okay, to start..the reason I love this site - because of how you both deliver a review…the more it drips the more curious I am and I have been known to go out a buy the book just to see if it is that bad.  Some I agree with and they get thrown at the wall and others, well, I like them.

I love to listen to Donny Osmond sing the 70’s.

I like mac-n-cheese with ketchup.

When I started reading romance oh so many eons ago, I was horrified over the covers so I had some of those little book covers made so I could hide what I was reading.  I will have you know I am PROUD of what I read now and no longer cover those nasty smutty covers! =] (Okay, I still have to hide some of Julia Quinns covers - I am a work in progress.)

I think I’m like you, Candy.  I don’t really care what others think.  Being somewhat new to reading the romance genre (as in just this past summer) I find that I quite often like a book, sometimes even love and adore it because of the way it makes me feel and hope and makes me dream, only to find out later on the internet that it’s not cool to like that book or writer.

Whatever.  Sometimes it feels like my old days of playing in TV show fandom and all the drama and kerfluffles fandom has.  I just like what I like and leave the politics to someone else.  I’ve got books to read…Virginia Henley books, Karen Moning books, Sarah McCarty, Cait London, Katie MacAlister, Lora Leigh, Nora Roberts, Linda Howard, Julie Garwood, Elizabeth Hoyt, Deborah MacGillivray, Monica McCarty, Robin Carr, Hannah Howell, Janet Chapman, Julia Latham, and soon I’m going to get around to J.R. Ward and Diana Gabaldon. 

From what I’ve found out, that’s a list of writers that isn’t usually lumped together, but I don’t care.  I just don’t have time for fandom politics.  I love my books regardless of what someone else may think, and guilt is a useless emotion.

And for all the Bill Paxton fans, you simply must see Broken Lizard’s Club Dredd. It’s by the same group that made Super Troopers and Beerfest. My favorite Bill line, “Do you think Eddie Money has to put up with this shit!?”

Briony, my family LOVES that movie and the other Broken Lizard movies - have you seen the ones where they’re cops?  Our favorite line is a little earlier in that scene: “I hate that mother-mother fucker!  The son of a-son of a bitch!”  Could be we love it ‘cause of the cussing, but also?  So undeniably clever!

Center Stage is the best movie in the history of the world. Period. The end.

“I’m the best god damn dancer in the American Ballet Company. Who the hell are you? Nobody.”

I do expect some of the reaction to harsh reviews comes from people simply not liking to hear someone trash their favorite things, but I have seen a number of reviewers who do go the extra mile to condemn people who enjoy the media they’re trashing.  I remember reading a DVD guide review of “Fight Club” wherein the reviewer trashed the movie and then continued with a series of insulting comments about anyone who might like the movie and said it could only appeal to serial killers.  And I was left thinking “Dude, if you genuinely believe all us who liked FC are serial killers, do you think it’s a tremendously good idea to piss us off?  And if you don’t genuinely believe it, then you’re just being shitty for the sake of it: ‘This was crap, and if you like it, you’re crap, too!’”

So, having been exposed to a couple of bad reviews like that, people probably start seeing insults-to-the-fans when they don’t actually exist.

Marguerite and Roxton make me squee like a little girl. Half the reason I loved that show so much was because of them. And the dinosaurs.

And speaking of dancing, Center Stage, anyone? Ballet dancers should not act. Ever. And yet they do, and I love them.

God yes. I love that movie. Peter Gallagher and his eyebrows as a demanding ballet instructor? Awesome.

Cops.  The tv show.  Late at night, watching by myself, with chips and salsa.

The first Hanson album.  I will still listen to “Mmmmmm Bop” 5 times in a row.

I think Breakfast at Tiffany’s sucks, and have NEVER SEEN that Jimmy Stewart Christmas movie that everyone else loves.

If anyone’s still reading, I’ll go.

Now, I don’t want to just admit this crap and wonder if anyone ever noticed. The cathartic effect just won’t be the same.

Here we go, anyway.

Barry Manilow, love the man. I got to sing in the “One Voice” choir, and what a kick in the pants. Got the t-shirt, the whole shebang.

And I do love opera. Yes, for the music. If Puccini were alive today, his stuff would sell as erotica. Anyone who can sing their guts out while dying of consumption (sounds so much nicer than TB) has earned eternal hero status in my book.

And even if you don’t enjoy opera, just look at the plots. Man, oh man, romance novels in music. Ricard Strauss wrote an orgasm into Der Rosenkavelier. Get me a score, I can show you where.

Anne McCaffrey, adore her books. I wish I’d been born on Pern. (My luck, I’d get to do something like gather herbs all my life.

My biggest admission: Bad books and bad movies suck me right in and won’t let me go. Lifetime movie network was created just to prevent me from getting anything done. Not that all their stuff is bad, but give me Meredith Baxter Bernie as an abused wife, or as a mom with an missing kid, or as a cancer survivor, and I’m all over it.

Same with books, bad plots suck me in. The more unbelievable, the more I can’t put it down because then I might not know how everything comes together.

And to top the list of movies no one else mentioned:

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
Them
... the one where Mel Gibson ends up in the cellar with his kid and there are aliens… can’t remember which one that is.

Foods:
Mac and Cheese: get your own box.
Fritos and Ragu
Almost any chip or vegie with Caesar dressing.
Never did like Spam, but I sure love me some Cheese Whiz. Who needs crackers with it?

Love you all, and boy do I feel better!
Bailey
Verification word: Turn11… maybe they’re telling me I need to grow up.

Angelina: David Bowie in spandex pants, poofy sleeves, and purple eyeshadow is the hotness.  Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise.

Thirteenth Warrior. I adore watching the big Nordic men whack at things. Oh my.

Yes, Grease 2. Sing the songs to my daughters. They are going to be so messed up.

Lastly, Pitch Black and the Chronicles of Riddick. Is there a yummier man with glowing eyes than Vin Diesel?

Trixie Belden is so not a guilty pleasure!  Trixie has an older man!  And he tries to control her and keep her out of trouble but it never works because Trixie can smell trouble and will never be held back!  And there are horses!  Horses! I wanted to be a Bob White, and I had a crush on Jim. Yes… this is almost as painful as that admission I made in 5th grade about loving Shaun Cassidy…

Anyone remember the mini-series “V”? (Marc Singer)? LOVED it.

The Prez in Independence Day was played by Bill Pullman (same initials, totally different guy, but while we’re talking about Bill Paxton, I loved him in the movie *Twister*... “Cow!” “Another Cow!” “No, that’s the same cow.”)

I’ve been looking for an Air Supply Greatest Hits CD… whomever has one, where’d you get it?

Love Jeff Foxworthy’s redneck jokes; laugh myself pee-empty at Bill Engval’s “Here’s Your Sign” jokes; and yes, there are times I’m laughing so hard at Larry the Cable Guy that I can’t breathe. I don’t care who you are, sometimes he’s just plain funny.

Another guilty pleasure: WHAM! Yes, WHAM! *Careless Whisper,* *Wake me Up Before You Go-Go* (go-go where, by the way? If it’s go-go dancing, I’m too old and would hurt myself, plus, those unfortunate enough to witness my go-going would bleed from the eyes).

And I still like to lick the cake batter from the bowl, spoon and beaters.

OOOhhh, I forgot campy movies…Army of Darkness with Bruce Campbell.  Terrible, but lovely.

I continue down memory lane.

I could probably watch Daniel Day Lewis in Last of the Mohicans every day. Man oh man is his fine irish ass simply lovely in that movie.

Anyone remember Flamingo Road? Trashy TV prime time drama at its best.

And Dark Shadows with Ben Cross as Barnabas. My girlfriends and I would meet at one of our houses and watch every week. He’d hiss his hokey vampire hiss and we would just about orgasm on the spot.

Hmmm. My word is wrong43.

I have a question.  It seems alot of us LOVE those older (80s) historical novels.  The trashier the better!  My question is, why aren’t the writers of today writing like this anymore?  Okay, I will admit, I understand not writing those forced (almost raplike) love scenes.  But I’m talking about all the other good stuff in them - like the heroine being a spoiled brat and the older hero not taking any shit from her.  And the throwing her over his shoulder and carting her off. 

I know Nora doesn’t write historicals, but maybe she could shed some light on this.  Because it seems alot of us still love those so-called trashy novels.  So if someone would write a good old-fashioned bodice ripper again, I’m sure it would fly off the shelves.

Nora?  What do you think?
And everyone else?  What do you think?

Poison Ivy: You had me at “blows up real good.”

*sniffs*

I love you guys.

... the one where Mel Gibson ends up in the cellar with his kid and there are aliens… can’t remember which one that is.

I think that’s Signs.

Thanks, Lorelie!

I couldn’t for the life of me remember!

Off to make some mac-n-cheese!

Oh, god, no one else has even mentioned my secret shame. I love the sappy, syrupy stories. I have a little corner of Ellswyth Thane on my bookshelves.

Elswyth Thane wrote the first romance I ever read: Tryst. Love me that book.

my secret shame: I read the Lensman and Skylark books by E.E. “Doc” Smith. I think engineers are hawt. (I’d better, I’m married to one!)

-becca

Marguerite and Roxton make me squee like a little girl. Half the reason I loved that show so much was because of them. And the dinosaurs.

YES! God, now I really, really want to watch an episode of that. Maybe the one where they *finally* have sex.

And someone mentioned Last of the Mohicans? That is my very favorite movie. Of all time. “I WILL FIND YOU!” (Further guilty admission: I think it’s better than the book.)

More shameful things: all seasons of Stargate: SG-1. Gordon Lightfoot.

I’m also sad to admit that I don’t like the following: pizza, ketchup, fast food, colas.

I love admitting to my bad tastes, and I won’t give them up for anyone.

Videogames - I eat up cheesy adventures with swords, magic, and Mary Sue princesses. Games requiring hand-eye coordination or fast reflexes need not apply.

Music - I love N’ Sync and 90’s synthesized dance, but I just cannot get into jazz.  It puts me to sleep.

Books - I buy any books involving Discworld.

Movies - possibly my worst taste, I never want to watch Oscar winners, and would rather watch Will Ferrell, explosions, or poor-quality CG dragons (guys in Godzilla suits will do nicely as well) any day.

TV - I still sometimes watch cartoons, and when my friend found a set of Hercules DVDs on Ebay (yeah, the cartoon from the 60’s), she brought them over and we watched for 4 hours straight.  It was awesome.

Food - Kraft Dinner and Coke is my ultimate comfort meal.  Ramen, yup.  And when I need something quick that will fulfill my food needs for the rest of the night, McDonalds.

Have I missed any categories of bad taste?  ^_^ I didn’t think so.

“2. Atonement.  Jesus Christ.  The first half was gripping and wonderful and lovely.  The second half was as flat and soggy as a first pancake.”

Oy, Dak. I couldn’t even make it through that book. I like Ian Mcewan just fine (I thought Saturday was wonderful) but if anything is overrated, it’s Atonement. I’ve heard the movie is good, though, which is interesting because I’ve long thought that Mcewan should be writing screenplays rather than novels.

On the other hand, I love, love LOVE My Chemical Romance and I can’t tell any of my friends because they would mock me endlessly. It is a heavy burden I carry, but it’s worth it to be able to dance around my room singing along with “Black Parade”

Donna-

I too enjoy classic bodice rippers, but I think the problem is that, even if you take out the questionable consent, pretty much everything else in those books were painfully sexist. I’m no expert, but I know that’s what irks me every time I read one of them.

I agree that they would probably still sell well, but I think a lot of people would kick up a fuss.

Books - I buy any books involving Discworld.

Oh that’s not bad taste! Pratchett is one of the smartest writers out there, bar none. It’s so hard to describe his books. Brilliant, hysterically funny, yet also often far darker than they first appear. Did you hear he’s been diagnosed with early-onset alzheimers? They caught it quickly thank goodness, but my heart, it breaks.

Love this one: provided69

When? To who? Did I sleep through it?

ID - “dragging your sorry ass across the desert with your dreadlocks hanging outta my parachute!”  LOVE IT!

I own the Soundtrack to Dirty Dancing on CD - and have it in my car right now.  (“I carried a watermelon” is my favorite line form the movie.)

Snake Pliskin/Kurt Russell in Escape From New York

Adrian Paul - Highlander the Series

Scarecrow & Mrs. King - watched it originally, then sat up for reruns in syndication

Anything with Sela Ward

Posieden Adventure

I can’t read Diana Gabaldon.

I still read LKH

I’ve seen every episode of ER.

I own all the Lethal Weapon and Die Hard movies on DVD.

I still like Tom Cruise in Top Gun.

I have about six of the NOW! That’s What I Call Music! cd’s. They are the K*tel of the 21st century and I lurve them.

OOOhhh, I forgot campy movies…Army of Darkness with Bruce Campbell.
Terrible, but lovely.

Anything Bruce Campbell isn’t bad taste, that’s just good sense. Adventures of Brisco County Jr. anyone?

More shameful things: all seasons of Stargate: SG-1.

There is nothing shameful about this. I’ve seen certain seasons more than once and some episodes I’d probably have to use 2 hands to count how many times I’ve seen them.

Books - I buy any books involving Discworld.

This is considered bad taste?

Big hells yeah to Robert Heinlein, Days of Our Lives, Kraft Mac ‘n’ Cheese, Demolition Man (Three seashells? WTF!), hatin’ on Stanley Kubrick (and Robert “What’s Plot?” Altman, for that matter), Mark Singer (especially in V)...I could go on.

And my contribution to the love fest? George of the Jungle with Brendan Fraser. The abs! The loincloth! The puns! Did I mention the loincloth!

I also love Encino Man, which features Pauly Shore AND Brendan Fraser in a loincloth.

And then there’s my recently acquired Doctor Who obsession…

Put me on the Kraft Mac and Cheese Bandwagon.  That stuff is crack but I love it so.

Queen… Oh how I love Freddie.  I wanted to sing like him.  I studied opera and I still wanted to front Queen, damnit.

Flash Gordon, the really bad movie with the Queen soundtrack.  With Timothy Dalton who is so hot in his psuedo Robin Hood ensemble. 

And yeah, Highlander, the first one, I love that, too, and not just because Queen does another fantastic soundtrack. Of course, that helps. It’s the kilts. Sigh.

Welsh Superstar Tom Jones… I long for the day I actually get to see him in concert so I can be a total freak in public. 

Beevis and Butthead… I think it’s really funny. I still laugh at Bungholio jokes. 

Yeah, I’m on the LKH bandwagon as well.  I won’t buy the books new any more but still I read them.  Especially the Merry Gentry books which are so light on plot that there is more story arch on the back of a mac and cheese box. 

And I Love LOVE David Eddings who is truly somewhere around the bottom of the barrel in Fantasy Land. Wooden Characters? check. Recycled plot every book? check. Black and white good versus evil? check. Ridiculus prudish 19th century mores? check check. And yet, I re-read the Belgariad every year.  So very sad. 

And finally, my biggest confession must be that I love Renn Faires.  I don’t just go and check out the stuff like a mundane.  Oh no, I dress up.  I make a new costume every year.  Even if I’m not working there.  I love Dead Bob, I ignore the Turkey legs, I’ve sung filk without cringing, and I can’t even blame it on the Queen soundtrack.

And speaking of dancing, Center Stage, anyone? Ballet dancers should not act. Ever. And yet they do, and I love them.

God yes. I love that movie. Peter Gallagher and his eyebrows as a demanding ballet instructor? Awesome.

HAHAHAHA. Nothing is funnier than when the “rebellious” dancer drives a motorcycle onto the stage. NOTHING.

OMG HIS AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE BIOGRAPHY SAYS THERE WILL BE A SEQUEL THIS YEAR. I am kvelling.

I’ll also fess up to The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Give me some hawt Russian anyday. Oh heck. I even started watching NCIS for Ducky because of my life long, er, crush on David McCallum.

I <3 novels in which the heroine gets knocked up. And the hero if fiercely proud and kissing her big belly = oooooooo wuv, tru wuv. Barefoot and pregnant gets me every time. Totally not PC, but ah! BABIES!
Obviously my biological clock is affecting my taste.

Kimberly - LUV Disney Princesses. And the heros. i have such a crush on Prince Philip!

Diana Gabaldon’s series…I must be one of the few that have not read it…I tried to read the first book, but just could NOT do it!!!!!!!

tv: Maury…to see a woman yell ” I’m a hunnnert and ten perchent sure your the daddy” and then Maury say ” YOU are NOT the Father” just makes me pound my fist on the table laughing and yelling at the tv…but if someone walks in the room i flick the tv to oprah.

Books: dang, I’ll read anything and find something redeemable it. I guess my guilty pleasure would be the Armegeddon series by Lahaye and Jenkins. I just love seeing the world end ,then add the childlike wonder that just saying the magic words will save your ass from destruction. It’s like a fairy tale with guns!

Movies: Note the above.. World ending shows, independence day, deep impact, day after tommorow, armegeddon, etc

I dont know why I assume I’d be one of the survivors.. As a short, fat , poor white woman , I’d be toast 2 minutes after the opening credits LOL

Music: Muzak..I can sing along to muzak anywhere, I may not know the words but I’ll sing. Also I LOVE LOVE LOVE to laugh at a heavy metal rock song being turned into muzak. It’s like giving the hard rockers the ultimate downer just for my listening enjoyment in elevators.

~~ Anyone else remember the movie Girls Just Wanna Have Fun?  With Helen Hunt and Sarah Jessica Parker? ~~

Oh man, yes, do I ever remember that movie. 

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun was on heavy rotation, along with Grease, Grease 2 and Xanadu at every slumber party I ever went to.

LizC: I guess where my “terrible, but lovely” comment on Bruce Campbell is this…he lives over the hill from me in a beautiful house and when people ask who lives there I say and they grimace - so I have gotten used to people not particularly liking my choice in campy/fun movies or it’s star…shameful, isn’t it?

I still like Tom Cruise in Top Gun.

I came home from the library the other day and told my husband I had just seen Top Gun on their For Sale shelf.  On VHS.  That’s, like, the 1980s in a box right there!  Can’t even say how many times I watched that movie with my friends back in the day.  I mean the volleyball scene?  Val Kilmer in a towel?  C’mon!  How can you not love that?!

Plus: ditto on Bruce Campbell=good sense.  He’s just sooooo…::sigh::  Love him.  Love. Him.

And finally, I can’t believe no one’s mentioned Kraft mac-n-cheese with cut up hot dogs in it.