It has. 

As this, often the most family-charged event of the holidays approaches, a lot of us are eager with anticipation, but more are experiencing anxiety spikes. Whatever your family's dysfunction - and everyone's has at least one, so no one is excluded here, either - T-Day is going to put a high-powered microscope on it and serve it up with a side of mashed potatoes. 

I was reminded of this last night while re-watching Jodie Foster's Home for the Holidays , starring Ann Bancroft, Holly Hunter, and Robert Downey Jr. Never has there been a better representation of Thanksgiving: a cornucopia of joy, neuroses, laughter, tears, jokes, arguments, blessings, bad behaviors, and turkey. 

It's a good primer for the season, especially if your gullet can't handle the tequila like it used to.

Leave your favorite Holiday Therapy Flick in the comments. Another favorite of mine is The Ref -  you better believe it's in the Netflix queue.

"Well, that was absurd, let's eat dead bird!" 

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The highlights:

October 09: Reunited with the old band for Rob's wedding

September: Went camping, saw a moose.

August: Made some lemonade.

July: Discovered the joy and horror of the Happy Lamp

Got a live music fix

June: Had my first bacon-flavored cocktail  

Returned to good old Jockey Cap

May:  Hung out with Abe

Watched The Love blossom

April: Entered the age of Airbrushed Obama

Busted in pride over PodCamp

March: Met Marilyn Monroe

Survived Montana, Hot-tubbed with Jill Adler

February: Hosted the 12th annual Oscar Party

January: Spoke at a media conference, lost my neck

December:  played with a 16mm movie projector

November: Ran the Chatham Turkey Trot

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I'm not much of a material girl - I'll take a trip over a tiny box any day, and  while I can appreciate and savor a five-course meal, I also understand the subtle merits of the White Hut cheeseburger. 

That said, I am a girl, and things catch my eye now and again. Here are a few items off the Mad Money Wish List this month: 

Pandora wood beads; Plasticland patent purse; flor rake; Hot Chilly's Pepper base layer; iRobot Roomba; Veho neg scanner; VooDoo Rossi SC74 skis

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1. House of 1,000 Corpses

2. The Wicker Man

3. Wicked Little Things

4. The Cottage

5. Brainscan

6. The Blob

7. Haunting in Connecticut

8. The Burning

9. Feed

10. Snuff: The Documentary

11. The Nun

12. The Abandoned

13. Murder Party

14. An American Haunting

15. Devil's Rejects

16. Resurrection Mary

17. Severed Ties

18. Return to the House on Haunted Hill

19. Halloween 

20. Documentary: The Villain

21. Primal Secrets

22. The Omen (Remake)

23. Clown at Midnight

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Not much. Sara and Rob 's wedding at the Dennis Inn (<-amazing folks and food, hi Brad!) was one of the best I've ever been to, and celebrated some of the finest things about fall.

Things like bright colors and soft light...

Sweet treats... (a red-velvet cupcake tower as a wedding cake)

seasonal touches reminiscent of home...

bits of whimsy...

 ...and most importantly, a reminder: some of us have new bags of tricks these days. But we can always find each other at the old haunts. 

Singer Bad Dancer 1997 - 2001

(Pete - drummer turned Boston-based AV professional; Jon, bassist turned certified arborist, Rob, software engineer, rockstar, and new husband, and me. I hang out here.)

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What is a good playlist if not seasonal? I give you my Rocktober Playlist - feel free to add to it in the comments. Let's make an uber list! 

Stop Dead, Duran Duran  

Superstitious,  Stevie Wonder    

Abracadabra, Steve Miller Band 

Frankenstein, Aimee Mann

The Ghost Of Tom Joad, Bruce Springsteen 

Dig Your Grave, Modest Mouse

The Ghost of You, My Chemical Romance 

Harvest Home, Big Country 

Haunt You Every Day, Weezer 

Hoodoo Voodoo, Billy Bragg & Wilco  

Monster Man, Soul Coughing El Oso 

I Want Candy (Kevin Shields Remix),  Bow Wow Wow

Purple People Eater, Judy Garland 25th Anniversary 

Real Live Bleeding Fingers And Broken Guitar Strings,  Lucinda Williams 

Season Of The Witch, Donovan 

Slippin' Into Darkness, War

Treat Street, George Winston 

I See Monsters,  Ryan Adams

Spiderwebs, No Doubt 

Werewolves of London,  Warren Zevon  

X-Files Theme, The Dust Brothers 

Halloween, Siouxsie & The Banshees 

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My favorite month is whizzing past me at break-neck speed. I've barely had time to stop and document the moments - but here are a few.

The Spoils:

The Likely Duo: 

The Food. Stuffed pork loin with spinach, cheddar cheese, apples, and garlic; homemade apple sauce; apple stuffing. Nom.

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A group of alumna from a Catholic boarding school start dropping dead across the globe under strange circumstances. The daughter of one of the deceased, Eve, travels with friends to the school in Barcelona to find out the whole story, and meet some of her mother's surviving classmates. Those not-yet-knocked-off and the young travelers end up at the boarding school, where the spirit of Sister Ursula is none too pleased.

Wackiness ensues.

Overall, The Nun (2005, dir. Luis De La Madrid) falls smack in the middle of the horror spectrum, from blood-curdling to belly-laugh. What I find most interesting about The Nun, however, is how it takes a perfectly creepy premise and stretches it to its outer limits, thus damaging what started as a perfectly solid horror flick with religious undertones. Catholic school flashbacks - check. Protagonists with warped senses of spirituality - check. Sabre-toothed, undead nun in full European habit, circa 1960 - check. 

All of the elements of fear are nicely set in place. Throw in a few good-looking teenaged actors with relatively good chops and you've got a winner; just put the camera on autopilot, Mr. Director (who is also probably Mr. Writer and Mr. Producer). We don't need any more crazy in this movie, we're all stocked up.

But nay... directors can never keep their hands off of things, can they? Enter the twist ... way too late in the film, and poorly explained. It's almost like the twist is an after-thought; push it a little further, and there might have been something to salvage. But leave the plot alone as is, and The Nun would have sailed through Catholic-school-hell with ease.

Here are some of the highlights: The Nun takes a valiant stab at that tried-and-true horror staple of fear through the addition of complicated religious beliefs. As we all know, The Exorcist is and will likely remain the Godfather of this genre. The Omen isn't too shabby either. Moreover, what The Nun has that other films is an intriguing vehicle for the villain - literally. Undead Nun Ursula can only travel through water, as she was drowned, so she appears through drains, stagnant pools, what-have-you. This makes for some sick visual effects, and a particularly pasty, water-logged looking Ursula.

In addition, the cinematography in general is great in this film, from grainy hand-held shots to panoramas of Spain, to night-vision shadow-chasing in the abandoned boarding school. The live-action underwater shots are also downright pretty.

There are some loose ends left untied and a few too many subplots for the sake of subplots - but overall, The Nun is a good rental, saved by its visual effects and less-than-stale storyline. I also appreciate that Sister Ursula doesn't take the easy road and kill people by, you know, drowning them. I hate it when the undead nuns go for the obvious stuff.

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I wonder if she knows I once went trick-or-treating as 'mouse,' or that her father looked exactly like Pete Wentz when he was nine.

Click here to see more of the Geeks of Halloween Past:

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Fresh produce at Rosedale Farms and Vineyard, where I visited today for a magazine article I'm working on.

This is the latest offering at one of my favorite watering holes - a Shipyard Pumpkin Ale with cinnamon and sugar on the rim. Nom.

One of my favorite exhibits at the Big E - the 4H farm-contest entries. This pumpkin-as-turkey was particularly cool. 

...And Horrorfest continues too, my daily consumption of horror movies. Here's the rundown so far:

1. House of 1,000 Corpses

2. The Wicker Man

3. Wicked Little Things

4. The Cottage

5. Brainscan

6. The Blob

7. Haunting in Connecticut

8. The Burning

9. Feed

10. Snuff: The Documentary

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If nothing else, The Burning (1981) proves my theory that you can't lose with horror movies; if they're good, they're scary, and if they're bad, they're funny as hell.

The Burning was released in the wake of the success of the original Friday the 13th, and takes on the similar challenges of making rural locations, bodies of water, and canoes seem terrifying day and night. Granted, it's much less successful in this endeavor, but as I said half-way through the film - "Yes, this is awful. But you can't say this isn't entertainment."

Here's the set-up: Teenaged campers at Camp Blackfoot, newly sexually aware, are being stalked and killed by a murderous burn victim. As it seems, the antagonist, whose name is Cropsy and this will go down in the annals of history as the worst name ever given to an undead pyscho killer since Jason, was once the caretaker of the camp, and was burned alive by former campers in an ill-fated prank.

Another comedic high-point: The flick features a young, curly-haired Jason Alexander as the likeable camp jokester. If you're judging by overall quality-of-film standards, he's easily the best part of the movie, upstaged only by its unabashed badness overall. It's also Harvey Weinstein's (Pulp Fiction, Scream) producing debut, and he wrote the screenplay. Throw in the bit part Holly Hunter plays - blink, you miss it - and The Burning earns a little bit of film-history cache, but in the end, it's best enjoyed ironically.

Characters who seem to be almost laughing as they're brutally murdered. The faulty logistics of six campers killed at once, while Cropsy balances in a canoe. The severed arm that comes off in a counselor's hand as she reaches for a camper she thinks is sleeping. The way the camera casually pans down as a girl washes her hair in the shower, or is being killed with garden shears after a skinny dip, or is brushing her hair in the nude. All of these hilarious moments prove that when it comes to The Burning, the word unapologetic never applied so well.

Bad movies have earned their place as an important part of the horror tradition unlike they have in any other genre - except maybe sci-fi. The unfortunately named villain, the b-acting, the kneesocks ... these alone make The Burning a classic. The best approach to this one: Instead of suspending your disbelief, amplify it.

Further reading

Stars Who Struck it Big in Horror

Fangoria Review: Reexamining The Burning

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Me: Saw VI is coming out soon.

ArcherVision: Yeah, I saw that on Facebook.

Me: When the Saw movies come out, you know what else is right around the corner!

ArcherVision: What. October?

...I was getting at my birthday, but happy to give partial credit, yes, a new Saw movie in the theaters means it's nearly my favorite month, October (or Rocktober as some of my fellow bloggers renamed it last year). As you can see from the color changes (people reading this via the Facebook feed, go here), I'm already gearing up for my annual October blogfest, featuring rants and raves about my favorite fall destinations, horror movies, creepy books, seasonal soundtracks, and a slew of other topics.

The early start is for a couple of reasons - first, the leaves have started to change ahead of schedule in my neck of the woods, making for a very tenth-month feel. Second, I promised to dutifully post 31 posts in 31 days last year, and I fell short. I figured I'd give myself a little more time to drown the interwebs in my Bubbling Fountain of Useless Information.

That said, the all-things horror relationship between me and my remote has begun. I'm trying to fill in the blanks in my horror lexicon, watching those I missed or that frequently pop up on classics lists. I started with House of 1,000 Corpses, and moved on to the 1973 version of The Wicker Man. Yesterday, I had a double-header: Wicked Little Things followed by The Cottage, a British indie flick that is a little bit Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and a little bit Shaun of the Dead, although not as good as either of those. Worth the rental.

Check out the Amazon box in the sidebar for other things I'm reading, watching, and listening to, and I'll also be posting some of my reviews specific to the genre on Helium this month. Let the depravity begin!

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Man, I'm beat.

I hit two TweetUps in four days recently, making a great number of new connections, and visiting with old friends, too. Two great spots hosted each event - Amherst Brewing Company in downtown Amherst, Mass. and Mission Bar in the Berkshires.

Downtown Amherst, view from the brewery

Tweeps and the beer list - an apt contrast

Serious conversation.

Mission Bar, a very cool place with awesome food

Berkshire Tweeps

The best cheeseburger I've ever had, at Mission Bar and Tapas - just mouth-watering and awesome.

Tweeps to Follow:

@shawnfumo

@_daves

@christinepilch

@mmpartee

@lesleylambert

@lisawray

@a_teen

@jasonturcotte

@berksbess

@needlemine

@locavoreway

@prostylus

@paweissenstein

@shikariwolf

@nicole_planB

@berkshire_ideas

@gregdonahue

@jeannetteseward

@tgalanis

@redheadeddivak

@derekallard

@dpakman

@paulcj2

#berkshiretweetup

@gregdonahue

@ruralintel 

@rneilthompson

@nicole_planb  

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If you're any kind of banshee person in the morning like me, you'd be lucky to even recognize the sound as some sort of moving object. But I was lucky that morning, my friends, and for some reason I stopped in my tracks a few feet before I reached the road, to see a massive, full-grown, gray ghost of a moose come striding toward me at what we New Englanders call 'a pretty good clip.'

My first instinct was to scream across the road to my family at their campsite so they could see this spectacle, too.  But moose are big, people. They're big, and they don't look like they take a lot of grief. So yelling MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE! across the road didn't seem like the best choice.

I clamped my hands over my mouth - because I don't have a lot of self control - and watched as the moose trotted by, and then as my brother, sister-in-law, neice, and ArcherVision all turned around to see it running by at just the right moment. In the relative distance, I heard my brother half-screaming, half-whispering Moooooooooooooose! as he held up my neice so she could see.

As the moose passed, I ran across the street to share the moment with the fam, and we were all equally dumb-struck. Even Oscar the Dog got in on the action, marking his territory and ruffing - as soon as the moose was well out of sight, of course. He ain't no dope.

Alas, these little life moments are rarely accompanied by a camera, so I don't have a photo of this amazing creature. I did look up 'moose meanings' though, because I like to surmise what's going to happen in my life next, based on random events. This site had a particularly cool description that I latched on to...'you will be full of contradictions...Awkward yet graceful.'

Lack of moose pictures notwithstanding, there were some other photo-worthy moments this weekend. Enjoy.

The maiden voyage of our new Eddie Bauer tent and sleeping bags, complete with zip-up carrying cases. Both are awesome!

SiL and the Bean pontooning on the Otis Reservoir. They look like they're in a parade!

JaxBro by the fire

Oscar the Dog was a good boy

We made bacon on the fire in this grill basket that Max and Cindy gave us

This was another fortuitous meeting on the same dirt road as the moose sighting. Dick, a Camp Host for the Mass. Dept. of Conservation and Recreation, is charged with assisting visitors to the Tolland State Forest. He takes the job a step further by giving free tours in his pontoon boat of the Otis Reservoir - our trip was two hours long and included a cruise through a cloud of dragon flies like I've never seen before. Dozens of bright red flashes sailing over the water and on the horizon ... quite a sight.

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Can it be true? Did I actually enjoy the VMAs the other night sans a sense of irony?

Indeed, it seems musicians are making a comeback to the Mtv airwaves. Kanye the Douche notwithstanding, that was one of the best award/performance shows I've seen in a while. Lady Gaga is freakish and amazing - she's this decade's Madonna, Grace Jones, Debbie Harry, and Cher all rolled into one tiny package. They say Pink was singing live as she flung herself around on the trapeze, but frankly, this is one performance during which a little lip-synching wouldn't bother me. 

And shudder as I do to refer to Green Day as the grand-daddies of the show, their longevity is as impressive as their punk-rock spirit to flood the stage with unruly ticket-holders during their number. They've been with me since high school and they just keep getting better. For someone who graduated in the nineties, this is saying a lot - if you're in your thirties you know we Gen Xers once had to accept 'thong, th-thong' as a popular lyric. 

It was a dark time. 

Still, most of the highlights of the show were from new performers including Gaga and Muse, and the new royalty - Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Beyonce, and Acrobatic-Pink.  Dare I say, Music Television made me feel young again.

The low-lights

The MJ dancer who nearly fell over during the Smooth Criminal lean. Bummer, dude. 

Madonna's preachy, loosely-tied-together speech. The best thing about her appearance was her hair. 

Tracy Morgan - Eminem sketch comedy. I like M, but it's not a good thing when the rapper from Detroit is funnier than the comedian.

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Enshrinement Weekend at the Basketball Hall of Fame begins tomorrow in my city, the birthplace of Basketball.

On my way to work, I saw the massive banners being splayed out across Symphony Hall, and the neon sign outside of the Basketball Hall of Fame was blinking more fervently than usual.  The local paper has a stunning shot of City Hall steps festooned with mums and Spalding basketballs.

What's more, the city is particularly a-buzz because Michael Jordan is an inductee this year. But I had the opportunity to chat with another '09 honoree for an article recently - Vivian Stringer, coach of the Rutgers Women's Basketball Team.

By many, she's best known as the coach who took on Don Imus following his unfortunate on-air remarks about her team in 2007. But after speaking with her, I realized that there are so many more notable things to share about Coach Stringer than that one moment in time. 

For instance, she sued her school system in the 1960s to win a spot on the then-segregated cheerleading team (and won). She brought her first team at Cheyney State to the finals in 1982, but the win was overshadowed by her daughter's sudden illness and subsequent life-long health problems. She led the University of Iowa's women's team to the Final Four in 1992, and shortly after lost her husband to a heart attack - and all of this was before she ever dreamed of signing on to coach at Rutgers, and beginning the most visible period of her career.

In short, to say Coach Stringer has had a life polarized by triumph and tragedy would be an understatement. This could be why her autobiography is called Standing Tall, and why she seems to so easily articulate some of the more complicated emotions we, as humans, face. 

"I believe that the moment when we're standing in the crossfire is when we really see what we can do," she told me during our interview - just one of the many honest, straight-shooting notions she left me with. In fact, she said things like this so effortlessly, I found myself digging deeper, not just for the story, but maybe to glean a little wisdom for my own. 

At the close of the conversation, it was almost as if she knew this. 

"Only pay attention to the dreams in your heart," she said, as we wrapped. "It's what we all seek - to know who we are."

Congratulations, Coach.

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Thankfully, the latter is not the case at the gorgeous house I visited this weekend, a veritable gem of real estate and eye candy for anyone dazzled by house-style. Like me.

Invited for a dinner party to talk travel, writing, new technology, and a few tales from high school, I instantly found myself apologizing to the host for walking around her pad with my iPhone in hand.

"I'm sorry," I said - meaning it. "I'm totally walking around taking pictures of your house."

I was forgiven, and even given the tour with notes on what was old, what was new, what was a found treasure, and what came with the house upon sale. I was surprised, for instance, that these amazing tiles were original:

and this awesome glass divider:

But plenty of the pizzazz is thanks to the owner's great eye. She's got a knack for pulling an entire room together:

...and little touches.

Ah, house envy. You're a cruel mistress.

(thanks Max and Cindy!)

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Deputy Chief Christopher O'Brien; 413.637.2347; LFD100yrs@yahoo.com

Lenox Fire Co. Centennial to be Heralded with Firefighter’s Ball Sept. 12

Celebratory Parade in downtown Lenox to Follow on Sept. 27

LENOX, Mass. – A celebration 100 years in the making is now being planned by the Lenox Fire Department and its supporters, and the community is invited to participate in what, for most, will be once-in-a-lifetime festivities.

The Lenox Fire Department Centennial Ball will be held at the Eastover Resort and Conference Center, Saturday, Sept. 12. An invitation-only dinner will be held that evening from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., and general-admission dancing, open to the public will be held from 9:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. at the Tally-Ho. Live music will be provided by BootLeg. Tickets are $10; uniformed firefighters from the department will be granted free admission.

The Lee Fire Department has offered its services to the Town of Lenox on Sept. 12, to allowany and all Lenox firefighters to attend the ball.

A second event, the Firefighters’ Parade will take place during Apple Squeeze weekend on Sunday, Sept. 27. The parade will begin at the Church on the Hill on Main Street, Lenox at 1:00 p.m., following a route from Main Street to Walker Street, where it will pass in front of a viewing stand at the Central Fire Station. The parade will then continue on to Kemble St. and end at Shakespeare & Company where apparatus from Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut will be on display for the public.

About Lenox Fire Department

Established in 1909 following a fire on Easter Sunday that destroyed a large part of downtown Lenox, the LFD has a long-standing tradition of providing all-encompassing service to the Town of Lenox and its residents. Donations of historical memorabilia, photos, and ephemera, as well as monetary contributions, are always greatly appreciated. For more information, visit www.lenoxfire.com.

WriterJax and The Jump feature a pro bono PR project once a month.

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I can't get these two savory items out of my head since Friday night, when I attended a beer-tasting at my friend Joe's pad. A consummate foodie, he whipped up these amazing steak sandwiches complete with fried onions, au jus, and mashed potatoes - it was everything I could do not to make those annoying yummy noises that Teen always picks on me for making (nommmnommmm).

Of course, there were plenty of good brews on hand too, along with some cool new peeps to be had (I was the newbie at Friday's event; the rest of the crowd? Friday Beer Tasting veterans). We started with lighter ales and moved our way up to darker beers; this was my favorite, Pretty Things , brewed in Holyoke, Mass. 

We also sampled a vintage Belgian that came in a corked bottle, and is best served in wine glasses. This was a neat little treat too - it tasted distinctly Belgian, like an aged Stella Artois. 

...On Saturday, we-the-weekend-crew made the usual level of merriment at the GoNomad Cafe, then I met up with Teen for movies and grinders - we settled on Role Models , and if you're thinking this is one of those sophomoric comedies with lots of jokes about boobies, you'd be right. But it's also fricken' hysterical. Plus, Paul Rudd is in it; plus, Stifler is in it.

My favorite lines:

Gayle Sweeny: Well, well, well. If it isn't Mr. Bullsh*t and Dr. I'm-full-of-sh*t?
Wheeler: In what way are we full of sh*t?
Danny: Which one of us has the Ph.D? 

Finally, on to Sunday. Cook-out. Cool juke box. Tuscan Lemonade. Bunnies. 

..and - Commence Monday.

Cheers, mah babehs.

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As I just Tweeted - receiving many replies in agreement - The overuse of the letter X is particularly irritating. You canNOT ex-cape your office for a few minutes to run to Starbucks and order an ex-pecially good ex-presso. 

Granted, we've been given a bit of a reprieve here in the states regarding the non-word 'nucular' since W left office. But others remain, and eradicating this trend is a battle I've been fighting with all my nerdy strength since high school. I know it's geeky, but language is kind of a big deal. It's what makes us a higher life form, whatever that means, and allows humans to communicate complex thoughts and feelings. 

Not to mention if you consistently mispronounce words or misuse them in the wrong context, you sound like a boob. Especially in business meetings. 

For example:

- if you think prostrate is a part of the body;

- if you think  prolific is synonymous with terrific;

- if you think there is an 'L' in the word Amphitheatre;

- ... or a 'T' at the end of giraffe;

- ... or that the correct way to introduce a new employee to the workplace is to orientate them;

- if you PAYtronize people and PAHtronize restaurants;

- if you put documents in vanilla envelopes;

- if you long for a sense of normalacy;

- if you've ever even thought about using the term 'irregardless'

- if, to you, brevity means funny and levity means brief;

 ... you need to go here.

In fact, bookmark it. I'll wait. 

On a personal note, if you pronounce my first name with three syllables, you are also wrong. 

The Nerd Has Spoken. Correctly.

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Here's what I came up with. 

Kong!

Ladies in Waiting at the Big E

Big Rhythm Wine

Big Sandy

Drive-by Bison

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A traveler's cafe, we get our fair share of regulars from the local area, but also plenty of curious poppers-in from all over the world (many come first to visit the massive Yankee Candle flagship store and find us along the way).

Just this weekend, a perfectly nuclear family of four - Mom, Dad, a teenaged girl and a tween boy - stopped in for lunch and took up residence at a corner table.

As I poured their drinks, I overheard them plotting a route through the state and into Connecticut, with plans of reaching Virginia by day's end. As it turned out, the family was from California, and were driving home cross-country in a rented RV as their summer vacation.

"It's so cool to be in so many states in one day!" exclaimed Dad, as he paid for the sandwiches.

"Yeah, it's kind of the reverse for us New Englanders when we go to California," I joked. "We can't believe we're still in the same state after a couple of days."

He chuckled, and later as I bussed their table, he asked if I knew of any interesting sites or facts about the region he and his brood were about to drive through. I told him he'd be driving through Springfield, Mass., the home of the Epcot-esque Basketball Hall of Fame, viewable right from the highway.

I added that Springfield was also the birthplace of Dr. Seuss, and to look out for the big, blue banners featuring the Cat in the Hat that point the way to the National Dr. Seuss Memorial.

"Did you hear that, kids? We're going through where Dr. Seuss lived."

The kids smiled.

"I even used to live right off of Mulberry Street," I said, truthfully, in the kids' direction as the girl jotted something down in her journal, and the boy traced the route to Springfield with his finger.

Dad and Mom both beamed at me as though I were a local celebrity.

"Well, thanks! Now we leave knowing something we didn't know before," said Mom.

The adventure-seekers left me with new knowledge, too - Holiday Road still exists.

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My writer-blogger-dog-lover-buddy Joe has completed his 100 Top Television Shows list on his blog, and just embarked on what I'm sure will be an equally well-rounded and pithy list of Fifty Top Movies.

Joe started the countdown with my favorite movie, Say Anything...(1989), which I've easily seen more than 100 times. His comments made me think about what I personally love about the flick, and its protagonist in particular: the inimitable Lloyd Dobler.

 

When I was first introduced to Lloyd, I fell in love with the character because he was more real than any other eighties-movie leading man had ever been before. He was well-liked but quirky, wading in the shallow end of geekdom. He drove a blue Chevy Malibu instead of a red convertible.

He enjoyed Bavarian Dutch-style pretzels. 

Plus, like every other girl about my age, the fact that Lloyd Dobler serenaded Diane Court outside her bedroom window with a boombox did nothing to curb the infatuation, nor did the fact that he was played by John Cusack. In my highschool yearbook, I wrote 'find Lloyd Dobler and write about it' next to 'Future Plans.'

That said, boiling Say Anything down to Lloyd alone is like saying The Sound of Music is a musical about Austrian kids. 

"Lloyd lives on because he’s framed not by a typical guy-meets-girl teen movie," writes Joe, "but by something more honest, in which essentially decent people reveal shades of grey — as they do in the harsh sunlight of the world outside the movie theater."

Say Anything also avoids the run-of-the-mill teen angst by throwing a dad with a penchant for money laundering into the mix and Lloyd's best friend's (Lily Taylor) history of suicide attempts. All in all, though, I think the reason I love the flick as much as I do is because it's ridiculously well-written. Forget the strong leads, the well-developed side roles, and the realistic dialogue for a minute. In addition, Say Anything moves from scene to scene seamlessly, and not one shot goes by without a memorable line, a look, or a feeling. It's like getting a glimpse into other people's lives for one moment in time, and seeing everything that comes with that: from learning to drive a standard to breaking someone's heart.

It also has one of the best compilation soundtracks, in my opinion, of any modern film - beyond the signature track In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel, Depeche Mode's Stripped also makes an appearance, along with Fishbone's Skankin' to the Beat and Red Hot Chili Peppers' Show Me Your Soul. Like every Cameron Crowe movie, there's the obligatory Nancy Wilson track as well, but I'll forgive Cameron Crowe a lot, because he's Cameron Crowe.

As I commented on Joe's Movie List earlier, Say Anything is also damn quotable. Here are some of my favorites; feel free to add in the comments and please, give Joe's blog a look for some quality media and entertainment analysis. And stories about agility dogs.

"When I think about the future, the truth is, I am really scared."

"One question: Are you here because you need someone, or because you need me? Forget it, I don't care."

"I don't know. I think I'm happy."

"I am looking for a dare to be great situation."

"I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that."

"The world is full of guys. Be a man. Don't be a guy."

"Bitches, man."

"If you start out depressed everything's kind of a pleasant surprise."

"You must chill. You must chill."

"Hey, world. Check me out."

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Geek that I am, I looked up the director- Patrick Daughters,  who incidentally also directed Feist's 1234 and a slew of other great vids from the likes of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Snow Patrol, and Death Cab for Cutie. 

I can't wait to see if this dude branches out into feature films someday. He has plenty of time; he's only 32. 

Wait, this guy was born a year before me? Cripes. Time to get a book deal.

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