Flashback Friday: Wanna take her to the movies...

Are you one of those people who can watch a movie hundreds of times and never get sick of it? I'm not. A movie has to be really, really good for me to even watch it a second time. Now SuperHusband, on the other hand, is exactly the opposite. If American History X, the Deer Hunter, Braveheart, Taxi Driver or Buffalo 66 is on...even if it's on TNT with a shitload of commercials...he's watching it. (And that list is by no means inclusive...I could name about 20 more off the top of my head).

I wasn't always against re-watching movies. Growing up, I could watch the same one every day. This is totally my grandparents' - with whom I lived - fault because I didn't wear them down enough to get cable until I was in 8th or 9th grade.

Of course, I loved all the cheesy movies most girls growing up in the 80s did - any John Hughes movie, Footloose, Dirty Dancing, etc. etc. etc. But the five that my VCR wore out were by no means smash hits. They were, however, pretty awesome.

I had a thing for horror movies and April Fools Day is one of the best. Not only is the "twist" pretty great, the so-bad-they're-good special effects, that were the hallmark of 80s horror, are pretty stellar as well. And by stellar I mean obvious and cheesy. Bonus: The actress who played the main character, Buffy, was also in Valley Girl and guest starred on TJ Hooker. It doesn't get much more 80s than that, folks.

G-I-R-L-S! Oh. My. God. I freaking loved Girls Just Want to have Fun. I actually owned this one and probably watched it at least twice a week for a year or two. Of course, I also dreamt of being a Solid Gold dancer...or a Dance Party USA regular...or a contestant on Dance Fever (even though hosts Deney Terrio and Adrien Zmed were both kinda skeevy). If you've seen this, you must check out the YouTube video for Dancing in Heaven. Hearing it will totally make you smile (and remember how badly you wanted to be on DTV).

I have three words for you - Wendy O. Williams. Ok, two words and an initial. Long before I even knew who the Plasmatics were, I knew "Charlie" from Reform School Girls. Nevermind that she was, like, late 30s playing a teenager - she was a scary, bullying badass and I thought she was great. Of course, being a movie about a bunch of chicks locked up, there was the requisite nudity and girl-on-girl action, so this one was probably more popular with teenage boys than girls. I'm sure SuperHusband - at 12 - could've told you exactly when in the movie the first set of boobies appeared.

Night of the Comet was every teenage girl's dream. No, not the part where the earth passes through a comet and almost all life is extinguished. I'm talking about when the sisters go on a shopping spree in the deserted mall. Of course, they only get to do that because almost everyone else is dead. Still...all the Camp Beverly Hills clothing and Swatch accessories you could grab...what 80s teenager would've minded fighting a few Zombies for that motherload? Not this one.


As far as 80s horror movies go, Sleepaway Camp is the pièce de résistance. Remember how I said April Fools Day had a great twist (If you don't your short-term memory is even worse than mine)? Well SC has the best. Ever. Plus Angela's aunt is super-fucking-creepy. Add that in with the whole "summer camp factor" which has always fascinated me, and you have what is possibly the most entertaining movie no one has ever seen. I am the embarrassed proud owner of the entire SC series on DVD, but the first is by far the best.


Here's where we turn to the audience participation portion of today's post. Which not-so-popular movies did/do you love enough to watch again and again?


Today's title selection: She Wants More - Slaughter

Flashback Friday: Did you see your inspiration in my latest collection...

When I was a kid, I collected a lot of crap. I'm not going to tell you about all of it right now (I have to have something to write about later), but I will say that around 1983ish - for at least 2 months or so - I was quite the novelty eraser collector.

I can still totally remember coming upon a new one at Coach House Gifts or whatever other random store I was at. I always had a limited amount of money, so I'd spend ages deciding which to buy. I'd feel them. I'd smell them. I'd decide on one, only to put it back when I came across a better one. If I only spent half as long buying clothes, I'd have a lot fewer items in my closet that still have tags on them.

I thought about the erasers today when I saw a picture of an ice cream cone. It reminded me of these:


Which led me to:
Iron Lace's Photostream, where you can view tons of erasers from the 80s.
Joe Woodworker's collection of more than 2,600 erasers from around the world.
Neptune Beach's blog about her erasers.

Yeah...I had a little time on my hands.

In comparison to these folks, my little collection was pretty pathetic. I even *gasp!* actually used them to erase things! But I had a few that are pictured on those pages and it was pretty fun to reminisce about them (remember cigarette erasers??). Check it out if you're bored.

And, yeah. I realize it's not Friday.

Today's title selection: Harajuku Girl - Gwen Stefani