Liz's Big List o' Awesome TV Show & Movies

I was an extra in this movie when I was three -- I have the screen cap to prove it.

(in Utah in the eighties, it was seriously easy to just be in random movies -- see "Troll 2.")

This is your classic eighties tits-n-ass slasher movie. How my mother ever got conned in to letting me be in it? No idea, but it's kind of a neat icebreaker when talking to other horror movie buffs since it has the distinction of breaking a taboo and making Father Christmas kill people in (then) new and interesting ways.

I am no longer a follower of the Flaming Lips, but I was also in this movie for two seconds and (like #1) have the screen cap to prove this it.

C'mon, people, classic!!! My dad and I used to watch this together. In fact, I faked sick many many times just to be home so we could do so.

Creepy as it may be - also another one I faked sick (two days in a row since it was a "movie of the day" two-parter played back in the day when local cable only got that ONE Dfw station) in order to stay home and watch with my dad.

ALSO -- I grew up with a weird fascination toward serial killers and this guy is all kinds of interesting AND since I was born in Utah, he has actually touched the lives of a couple of people I know.

Age: 8

This movie has many distinctions: first declaration of "favorite movie" that I can recall, first celebrity crush (Michael Keaton), first insane number of multiple viewings while said movie was still in the theatre (I think I saw it maybe a dozen times... many times it seems like I ended up seeing it instead of getting my allowance for that time frame).

Thanks to the mind's strange ability to act computerlike and recall things for you even though you don't even really know you know them anymore (like hearing a song on the radio that you haven't heard in YEARS and still being able to sing along without even realizing you are doing so), you can still pop this movie in and I will recite [probably] the whole thing for you.

Age:7 or 8

I have no idea how I even discovered this movie, but it ruled my world for years. It was my first declaration of "Favorite Movie" ("Batman" was favorite "new release" this was "favorite that had already come out" - it was a VHS discovery) as well as my first introduction to the amazing man-beauty of Kyle Maclachlan.

And (Sorry, Mom) "Star Wars" be damned, it was my first introduction to the truly mind-blowing power of science fiction.

Favorite episode: "Catch a Falling Star"

Age:9-10.

Greatness level: Obsession.

How I even started watching this show when I really should have been watching "Ninja Turtles" or "Power Rangers" or whatever was age appropriate at the time, I have no idea. But at this time: this was the greatest show I had ever seen EVER.

I've watched it many times since then and I honestly think something is lost in the translation now that I'm an adult. It seems like it made a whole lot more sense to me THEN.

It also had two added advantages: Kyle Maclachlan is one of the most beautiful creatures I have ever laid eyes on and it gave my mother and I something to discuss even when things were tense between us.

Age: 11. First introduction to the concept of "rock opera." Mind. Blown.

Seen around the same time as "Tommy," a little bit after.

Second introduction to "rock opera" and, in my opinion, THE perfect teen angst movie. I dare you not to have felt helpless, hopeless and alone like Jim at some point when you were young.

I dare you to be a misfit thirteen year old, hear the statement "don't dream it, be it" crooned at you from your TV screen, and not have it make an impact.

Requiring no further embellishment from me, I will simply say this movie means friendship and acceptance to me and has at several times in my life when I really needed it.

Age: 12-21.

Greatness level: UBER ULTRA OBSESSION (two seasons of Twin Peaks versus NINE of this)

Filled the void in my life left by the lack of "Twin Peaks" though I didn't really know what it was like to love a show until the invention of the X-files.

It satisfied two things for me: my weirdness quotient and well, it was kind of like girl-porn. It portrayed this magical unicorn of a male/female relationship between Mulder and Scully: one built first and foremost on respect and mutual admiration (a thing not exhibited to me at all as a kid and a thing observable only in a fluctuating manner as an adult in my own relationships). I can always tell how well my personal relationships are doing based on how much X-files I need to watch.

Like the X-files only "blacker than the blackest black times infinity."

I was only 15 and pretty much already determined the world would end soon so this show gave me NIGHTMARES.

Actually got a chance to ask Lance Henriksen how he got this role out of his system once it was over. He went to Hawaii... and got tattoos. He showed me one - it was a tribal sea turtle on his arm.

EPIC.

First movie I went to great lengths to see which involved deceiving my parents (since I wasn't allowed to see rated R movies.)

Smuggled it over to my friend Tara's house and we watched it there. I think we were probably hs freshman.

Its brilliance stands alone and requires no further exposition on my part.

Favorite Movie: Age 11 (seen and captured on crappy VHS w/ Starz: Free Preview!)

Why? Because I was a closet romantic far before I ever admitted to boys no longer having "cooties" in my estimation.

This movie was big and bright and beautiful (and foreign!!! ooooohhhh accents...) And it featured something hugely appealing: a clumsy, ugly girl turning in to a beautiful, graceful girl and getting the boy.

What's this? A tiny twinge of hope?

Ah... love + death = whole new levels of romantic tragedy. *high school girl swoon*

Celebrity Crush: The Freshman Edition -

Yep, I had it hard for Bill Pullman.

Another concession toward my secret romantic nature and the idea that maybe the person you want will end up wanting you back (whether that actually works out or not, in this case.)

First date w/ ex husband - part 1 of 2.

First date w/ ex husband - part 2 of 2 (we saw them @ the Abilene mall back to back.)

My mother raised me on musicals, but I have taken this for my own and it occupies a spot in my holy trinity of musicals. The idea? That you can choose nobility and make yourself something better than you really are.

Second entry on the musical "holy trinity." Age: 15. I was in a production of JCS at the local community theatre and it was the most religious experience I've ever had. The idea that Jesus could have been a real person with real thoughts and feelings was a revelation.

Third entry on the musical "holy trinity." See 'Fast Sofa' entry for my preoccupation with the idea of inevitability. The watcher observes: these characters could have stopped at any time and steered away from their terminal course. From the characters' prospective, was that even a choice or were they hurtling toward something completely out of their control?

First date with Doug - how do you delineate? - current spouse, husband #2... the non-ex husband. :-)

The "journey tale" is as old as story telling itself, but this one is special to me. One of my favorite ideas when reading books or watching movies is inevitability. Characters drawn toward an end that they could have changed at any point... or could they?

(contains Crispin Glover... love him long time.)

The character of Jules is so profoundly changed at the end that it's easy to wonder how there was really anything else for him besides what ultimately happens.

How much are we really affected by circumstance and the choices we make? It's not a particularly productive way to live - I know - but "what if?" is a concept never far from my mind.

I am basically married right now because of a flat tire. For someone who deals constantly in "what if," it's incredibly easy to ask: what if my tire didn't go flat that day? what if that nail hadn't ended up in my path? Why that trip, that road, that day? etc.

An extremely deep premise couched in a "thriller."

The older I get the more I wonder if things really were the way I remember them: the idea that maybe the things I recall are skewed because the are viewed through the lens of youth literally changed the way I think in regard to the past.

Another interesting journey movie. One stop the main character makes along the way deals with an idea that I've thought about many times since seeing the movie: would you willingly indenture yourself in exchange for the legality of your drug of choice?

...And it contains Gary Oldman - you cannot go wrong with Gary Oldman.

Revelation: sports can be fun and interesting!

Well, sort of. I have read extensively on the subject of derby and still don't really, truly understand it. BUT it's fierce, confident women doing something if dangerous still ultimately graceful and getting to take out their aggression by indirectly beating on each other.

I was instantly in love.

... and experienced my first broken bone (tailbone - yay!!) at the age of 30: try to learn how to skate (a thing I attempted for months.)

Ultimately, my disgust at myself for not being able to do something that children can do (and my crippling fear of pain and repeated failure - let's not forget that) made me give up. It's also hard for me to watch derby now because, well, it makes me jealous.

Checked it out after I saw that the makers/actors of the movie were going to be at Texas Frightmare (a horrorcon I go to every year for my birthday.)

I really really liked it AND it had the distinction of being a horror movie that didn't descend in to torture-porn the way so many do these days: it has a plot AND a morale.

I also appeals hugely to me because I was one of "those" kids in school.

Go on. Tell me you haven't thought about it.

Practically out of the gate there's a scene with a baby (umm that's all I will say) and I knew this movie was going to be different.

It appeals hugely to my pessimistic nature and the fact that the majority of people these days seem to just be pigs consuming the media slop they are fed.

Again, tell me you haven't thought about it, tell me you've never been that guy who said "if they take my stapler one more time, I'm going to burn this place down."

The movie takes a turn and actually gets very sad though.

Reminds me a great deal of one of my favorite songs "Wallflower" by Caroline's Spine:

"'cause i shot the bad guy dead - But he got me in the head. Oh with the girl of my dreams She's mentioning to me how much I've bled..."

This is purely an honorable mention.

I HATED THIS MOVIE. I hated the plot, I hated the characters, EVERYTHING.

(I will put this movie next to "The Notebook" and "Like Water for Chocolate" because it makes the female lead choose between what's safe and what's exciting.)

BUT hate - like love - is a strong emotion and has its place.

It triggered a strong pessimistic reaction in me, but it did make me think and it also reiterated the conclusion I had already come to: the butterflies fade, the heart stops racing and - in the end - you have to be satisfied with the choice you made.

The exciting guy/gal may not be the one who brings you Pepto & holds your hair when you puke.