divine angst

From the guys at BTQ:

1. What blog, other than your own, do you read the most?

Um, I don’t think I spend any particular amount of time on any particular blog. I aggregate everything, so I read when there’s a new post. If a particular post looks like it’s going to generate a good comments convo, I’ll return often, but only till it passes. Basically, blog reading is like a buffet for me—I don’t spend too much time at the mac and cheese or the salad bar, and I make sure I stop by each station at least once so I don’t miss anything.

2. Are you a gadget person? Do you have the latest thingamajigs and whoozits and geegaws? What sort of gadgets do you own?

Oh, good God, yes. I am SUCH a gadget person. That being said, I don’t necessarily have the NEWEST gadgets at any given time. In fact, I almost always buy my gadgets right before they’re about to be obsolete—or at least upgraded. Like, I bought my Palm Pilot right before the nifty color-screen Palm Tungsten came out. I missed the boat there! I bought my iPod right before they all got a size bump. Damn! I even bought my computer—a G3 Powerbook (Pismo)—right before Apple came out with the cool Titanium Powerbooks. I’m always slightly behind the curve. Of course, I usually get a kick-ass deal on all this stuff, so I can’t complain.

However, my cellphone is about four years old and is a hand-me-down from my brother. Cellphones are one place I just can’t see the value added. I don’t need a camera or even a color screen. All I need is a decent interface for entering numbers and sending the occasional text message—and a clear, strong, signal.

3. If I gave you $1000 on the condition that you couldn’t spend it on something responsible (e.g., bills), or save it, what would you do with the money? (Can you tell that a Democrat is asking that question?)

You just CANNOT ask this question of a soon-to-be law student with some bills to pay. You can’t! If I had to do something fun with it, I guess I’d take a vacation. Probably go out to Tahoe and ski for a few days.

4. What are your five favorite sitcoms of all time, other than “Seinfeld” and “The Simpsons”?

These are sitcoms I liked when they were on. Some I still like, some I don’t:

The Dukes of Hazzard, M*A*S*H, Golden Girls, Friends, and Scrubs

So, I do NOT apologize for enjoying Golden Girls. I DO apologize for enjoying The Dukes of Hazzard, because when I catch on CMT nowadays, I see how truly awful it was. And I do NOT apologize for enjoying Friends. Even in the bad seasons when Ross was the MOST annoying person ever and you just couldn’t understand why Rachel would even CONSIDER getting back together with him. M*A*S*H and Scrubs are just good, always and forever.

5. Organize a film festival based on a theme. Choose a theme and a handful of movies with that theme, and tell us what you’ve chosen.

Theme: Movies about women that make me cry

Terms of Endearment: Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger and Jack Nicholson and OH MY GOD the most tearjerking movie EVER. The perfect movie for two good girlfriends to sit and watch with a bottle of wine.

Steel Magnolias: Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine again, Olympia Dukakis, Dolly Parton, Darryl Hannah, and Julia Roberts. Same as above. Always reminds me of college.

Beaches: Such a quintessential girl movie, with lots of crying and sadness and it’s not a GREAT movie, but if I want to go on a nice little crying jag, this one will do it.

Little Women: No, I don’t think Winona Ryder was a very good choice for this film, but they managed to pull it off. This movie came out back when Clare Danes wasn’t a husband-stealing starlet, so I still had respect for her, and Kirsten Dunst was still an annoying brat a la Interview With the Vampire. Christian Bale is in it, for God’s sake. And Gabriel Byrne. So, some serious yum AND a good crying scene.

The Virgin Suicides: Kirsten Dunst is the only known actress in this film (well, unless you count Kathleen Turner, but eek, no thanks). And it’s really a movie about the boys who watch the Lisbon sisters from afar, but it still counts and gets to play in my film festival.

Now, you may look at the slate of films for my festival and say they are pedestrian or lowbrow or even cheesy. But it’s MY film festival, and I want dozens of women weeping in their seats. So there.