I Just Can't Walk Away

A couple of weeks ago work got in a bunch of previously viewed DVDs. Normally I tend to veer away from them because I'm a snob but when it's 4am and you've got another four hours to kill, you go through the used DVD bin, k?

Found a couple that I bought. Watched the one someone else wanted so I could lend it to them. Wind Chill. I'd never heard of it before. I figured how bad could a movie I'd never heard of be if it had Emily Blunt and George Clooney as a producer? The answer is... complicated for such a simple premise.

( This is why you don't ride with strangers. )

It doesn't help that with the radio going kooky I kept waiting for the Winchester boys to appear and fix things.

How did I never hear this before? I mean, yeah, sure, I didn't/don't really follow his solo career but still. You'd think somehow I'd have come across this before. (The song, not necessarily the video.)


Totally unrelated, but someone who shall remain nameless sent me on a bit of a "...dude, remember this song?" thing yesterday. (Happy friggin' Thanksgiving to you, too, dahling.) These little jaunts to the past are never complete until you hit upon Waking Up Beside You. And then I remember the incredible timing of getting a break-up album to come along at the exact same time I was having my heart shattered by someone who had their heart shattered by someone else. He's quoting these lyrics to me mere days after breaking my heart and the kicker is that we both know that for him, the pain is for someone else.
The secondary kicker is that I didn't tell him to fuck off and die. (I'd have been 16 at the time. Telling people to fuck off and die is pretty much the standard response, yes?)

Which isn't to say that Waking Up reminds me of him. That was saved for someone else. But I tend to forget how really good at finding all the sadder songs we used to be, and hell, still are when left unchecked. Except she went country and that's just plain cheating.

So, yeah. I spent my Thanksgiving watching a ghost story movie, looking at random graves via the Nameless One, watching Xena videos set to an assortment of songs (she was on an Ares bender again), and oh yeah, some Stabbing Westward. Good, good times, yes?

Dude, why do you let me look around amazon when I have time to kill? Seriously, why don't you think of my poor, starving bank account at times like this? To celebrate finishing my taxes [woo!] I just spent... entirely too much money on DVDs. And because I feel compelled to test your cool-factor, we'll see how many of them would have tempted you as well. I suspect some of you will be completely unmoved by some of these, while others would have been right there with me shrieking, "Ohmygod! When did they put this out on DVD and why don't I have fifty copies of it as backup yet?!?" Because we're just that dorky cool.

What began this horrible mess was me deciding I'd pick up a DVD copy of The Baby-Sitters Club before it goes the way of the Dodo. I should say that I remember getting my little BSC books monthly, and their newsletter was all atwitter about the movie, and I slapped that reminder memo up on the fridge and then the cork board so fast my mother thought I was, I dunno, possessed or something. I even went to see the damn thing in the theatre with a whole bunch of shrieky younger girls, knowing full well I was too old for this shit, but not caring, because I had been part of the cult back when it mostly first began, and damn it, movie! And quite frankly, my heart broke when I saw how they'd managed to take a simple little series and dumb it down even more. How was this even possible? These aren't complex stories! And yet, even when using a plot device used entirely too often in the series itself, they still fucked it all up. Which I'll get into later. Anyway... because of this, Amazon told me various things, all whispering in my ear, knowing full well I would crumble.

So. We've got the BSC movie, which jumped in price from yesterday to today, bastards. Then I saw... The Worst Witch and I think I literally squealed with joy over that. I know I've gone on and on about that, so I'll spare you. But Worst Witch is Halloween to me, and even though I've watched my old, worn copy of a copy [who knew it would be my mother who would teach me to dub movies?] to the point where the already poor sound quality finally gave up the ghost, and found out that Ari and Ryan will NEVER make it to heaven for they didn't love the movie... I had to have it. I could save their souls, maybe, with a DVD. Cuz, hello? Cheesetastic, funtastic, Halloween love.

And then they told me the second best thing ever [WW being the first, duh, keep up!]: Teen Witch! Oh, oh, oh! *hops up and down* GIMME! There are not enough words to describe my undying love for this movie. I don't know how I first saw it, but it was one of the first movies I found myself able to sit through repeated viewings. If I would catch it on TV, I would flop on the couch in the living room [totally different from the TV room, as this couch would start to swallow you whole after awhile. Not pretty. Uh, I digress...] and watch with delight. Show of hands, anyone with me? Teen Witch! :D

At this point, I knew I was doomed. So I snagged Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, which I've never seen, but as a Shannen/80's fan, I figure it's time to bite that bullet. Then, I realized the BSC and Girls were part of a 4-for-3 thing. So I snagged The Virgin Suicides [never seen, doesn't really go with the rest of my cheese, does it?] and See Jane Date which I love for entirely different reasons.

But while searching for more of the 4-for-3-bees, I found various other movies. All I Wanna Do, not available at this time. But had it been, would have added it to my cart, price be damned. While in my Dawson's Creek phase, I wandered around watching various movies staring various actors from the show. Monica Keena was my draw, although I think Gabby Hoffman sealed the deal on me having the movie ordered at the Pick-A-Flick Mumsy worked at. Yes, children, I used my powers for EVIL. If you were local when she was employed, and you enjoyed such things, you're welcome. It was me, k? Anyway, whatever you call the movie, as it's got seventy billion names, I laughed til I cried. Occasionally it'll show up on TV and I must watch. Must find a copy for me, too. Mums sat the boy down, with whomever he was dating at the time, and showed them various clips. If I hadn't been trying not to die from embarrassed laughter, I would have died from actual laughter at this.

Then we've got The Neverending Story, and I expect a few of you to have that damn song stuck in your head just from reading that. It can't just be me... can it? Anyway, the first one wasn't part of the deal, so it's wish-listed. I can't really say anything more about it, because obviously you know and love it, or you don't, and there's just nothing I can do for you. I will admit that when it would air on TV, I would hide during parts of it, because sitting way back in the living room [not the couch], when the storms were rolling in, watching the Nothing do horrible things? Not a warm and fuzzy time. On the other hand, singing obnoxiously while our third grade SAIL teacher had us watch it and knowing most of the dialog while half the class was totally ignorant? Win!
   The Neverending Story 2 was part of the sale, but I refuse to buy it before I buy the first, short of an unbelievable sale... simply because it's inferior to the first. I love me some Jonathan Brandis [and I cry to this day when I remember he's gone, and yes, I mean cry as in a brief sniffle] and there's always the fact that the second movie was made that much better by the third movie being so bad that I actually walked away.

By now Amazon realized they could screw me to the wall, so they casually mentioned The Secret World of Alex Mack was on DVD. To the wish list it went, and when I did that, Clarissa Explains It All appeared in it's place. One of the few shows my grandfather and I watched together. I don't know why, other than I think he thought Clarissa was spunky and it gave us something to bond over. Come Friday, it's probably going to be mine. The only thing keeping me from buying it with my DVD binge? I'm fairly certain that while I shall still love it, the love won't be the same. Some things just are always the same [Neverending Story remains the same, go figure] and some things morph, and you love them for their now obvious faults [Worst Witch], and some things you realize only appealed to you because obviously someone slipped some crack into your juice box [Thundercats].

Then there's Big Girls Don't Cry...They Get Even, which drove me insane the first time I watched it because I couldn't figure out what it was, and I missed the end, and it took me the better part of forever to find again, cuz the 80's/early 90's? A bitch to figure these things out when forces conspired against you. Just sayin'. And Return To Oz which I first saw in the middle of the night for some reason.

I now return you to 2008. If you need me, I'll be geeking out in the corner.