So many memes, so little time…

Figures. Once you admit you don’t know what one little word means, you start seeing it everywhere. E-mails. Blog posts. Blog comments. Billboards. And you wonder: How did I go so long without knowing this word existed? Was I the only one? Just what natural body part does Heidi Montag have to improve the next time she goes under the knife?

See, these wondering feelings, they pass quickly when you have the attention span of a McDonald’s chicken nugget (the all-white meat kind, not whatever they used before).

So it looks like “meme” and I are going to become, if not “BFF,” at least “F,” since Blake at Bitchin’ Film Reviews tagged me for the Seven Movie Question Meme. Here’s my two cents:

1. What was your first moviegoing experience?

Not to ape Blake’s answer, but I too swear the first movie I recall seeing in the theater was “The Little Mermaid.” Back then I was too entranced with Ursula’s evil genius to notice the priest, uh … saluting the captain under his robe during the Ariel/Eric wedding.

2. How many DVDs do you own?

I’m up to about 200 thanks to my compulsive need to buy used on Amazon or plunder the $5 bins at Walmart. It’s the lowest of the low, you’d think, but I’ve found real treasures in there, like “Happiness.” (Added bonus: Thinking about the horrified reactions of the idiots who bought that movie because it was $5 and didn’t know what it was about is my sunshine on cloudy days.) 

3. What’s your guilty pleasure movie?

Drat. I can’t weasel my way out of this one, can I? This is so shameful I’m almost tempted to lie because you’ll think less of me. A 28-year-old woman should not cop to what I’m about to cop to … which is that I love “Spiceworld.” And I can quote it almost line for line. And I own both the VHS tape and the DVD. And I miiiiiiight own the complete set of Spice Girls dolls.

Oh, the horror.

4. You’ve compiled a list of your top 100 movies. Which movies didn’t make the cut?

Aside from one or two, there isn’t much of Stephen Spielberg’s work represented there. You won’t find any entry in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, either, because while I appreciated the visuals/CGI/costuming etc. I didn’t love the films. (They were long. They were so long. I think I’m still watching them.) “Gone with the Wind” has been given a pass as well. (See explanation for “Lord of the Rings.”) And while I really, really want to like David Lynch, his movies do nothing for me.

5. Which movie(s) do you compulsively watch over and over again?

That answer changes; you can tell what mood I’m in by what movie I’m watching. When the relationship realm isn’t going so hot, I’m all about horror — doesn’t matter if it’s campy or serious. When I’m sad, only Jason Segel (hello, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”) or Ace Ventura can cure me. Sometimes I’ll get stuck on one director or one actor and watch everything I can get my hands on. Right now I’m still riding out my Humphrey Bogart obsession. Woof. They don’t make leading fellows like him anymore.

6. What are some classics you’re embarrassed to admit you haven’t seen?

I’ve seen almost nothing Alfred Hitchcock has done (unless you count “Disturbia,” which I don’t because I don’t want Hitchcock fans to kill me in my sleep); I know little of Audrey Hepburn’s canon; and in general my knowledge of early films — most in the 1930s-50s — is appallingly scant. But I’m working on it. Girl Scout’s honor!

7. What movie posters do you have hanging on your wall?

I’m sad to report that the answer is none, none movie posters. But I have the DVD cover of “Pulp Fiction” as the wallpaper on my cellphone. Surely that counts for something?

To turn the tables, I hereby tag:

• Allison at My Film Habit
• Jonathan at The Film Brief
• Franz at Franz Patrick’s Film Archive

The blog-a-thon blitz continues

Righteous dude Mike, owner of the cleverly named You Talking to Me?, has hatched an excellent idea for a blog-a-thon called “27 Movies That Made Going to the Movies Suck!” I can’t say much more — I suspect I’d suffer a “mysterious disappearance” if I did — except that a lot of my favorite bloggers are participating and I’ll even get to have my say-so.

Hungering for more? Here’s the word straight from the host’s mouth:

“It’s a list of great movies that made going to the movies suck. So I’ve created a list of very influential and (for the most part) … good films that have spawned countless, lazy, stupid, weak imitators all trying to capture or cash-in on the same magic but failing miserably, making movie going, as a whole, suck for (like that period in the late ’90s after ‘American Pie’ and ‘There’s Something About Mary’ led to stuff like ‘Whipped,’ ‘Tomcats,’ etc.).”

Visit Mike’s blog daily over the next few weeks to see the latest entry and keep any eye out for mine…