I am a lover of reruns. For awhile, I religiously watched the back-to-back episodes of “Golden Girls” on Lifetime at 7 and 7:30. I could watch the episodes again and again, even if I’d seen them two or three times. There’s something comforting to me about knowing how it ends. I do this with other television shows (“Sex & the City”), books (insert romance novel title here) and movies. Lots of movies. I have watched Bridget Jones’s Diary approximately 500 times. I can finish watching it and instantly restart it in an almost unbreakable addictive cycle. I can almost do a complete voiceover of Clue. And I could step in for John Bender at any given moment in The Breakfast Club.
Then there are those movies that I watch every time I catch them on TV, no matter how many times I’ve seen them. Anything directed by John Hughes. Dirty Dancing. When Harry Met Sally. In these cases, it’s because I love the movie. But there are other times when some subtle message in those frames-between-frames tells me I must finish the movie. In his book Seinlanguage, Jerry Seinfeld says this is a basic difference between the sexes. Women want to nurture a show, help it grow. Men are like, “No, no, he’s stupid, she’s stupid, keep going, what else you got?” But me? I need to see it through to fruition. Like Titanic. It’s three hours, but when HBO was running it incessantly last month, I watched it to the end every time I caught it. I often have this problem with Jurassic Park. For awhile, The Fugitive. So, what’s your favorite re-runner? And your nomination for best hidden message to NOT LOOK AWAY from the screen?
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Play It Again, Sam
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3 cat calls:
When I lived in Chicago, I ate dinner with the Golden Girls every single night. It was fantastic. Also, of course, any movie by John Hughes. You've Got Mail I could watch a million times, Dirty Dancing as well. While You Were Sleeping. There are sooo many. It really is like comfort food.
J.Lo gives me a hard time about the music I play in my car, too. I put in a CD and listen to it over and over and over again for like, a month, until I can't stand it anymore--or until he changes it. He, on the other hand, has his ipod filled with over 900 songs, and brings it home on the weekends to switch it up. I don't get it.
Mmm. I'm with you on You've Got Mail. And I think I've already divulged on someone else's blog that I became woefully addicted to Something's Gotta Give. I love the familiarity of it all.
I remember when John Mayer's Heavier Things album came out, I couldn't stop listening to it. Kim would get in my car and be like, "Dude, you've got to play something else."
But you know what's weird, is that for the last week, I keep obsessively listening to that CD at work. It makes me feel like sitting on a bus stop and crying for no reason...
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