What have you been missing?

I just heard Rob Halford on NPR’s “Fresh Air”, and it occurs to me that even though the band has been around for 30 years, I have never heard a Judas Priest song, or known a single person who owns any of their albums.

:o Sorry about the mistake.

I read Catch-22 for the first time when I was in 8th grade, and I read it through the first time. But I had already seen the movie, which IMHO was as accurate to the book as a 90-minute movie reasonably could be. So I already knew the major characters themes and plot points. I think the last time I re-read it was in college, and I didn’t make it all the way through.
As for the attraction, I thought that the nonsequitors and the convoluted logic were hilarious. I enjoyed trying to keep track of all the characters and plot points, and in the middle of it all is a fairly normal guy trying to make it through an insane world. Doesn’t everyone feel like that?

I’ve never seen Kurasawa’s Ran, even though I once lied and told someone that I had, just to make myself look much more pompo- - uh, intellectual.

I just had Southern Comfort for the first time. It’s really damned good. Who knew?

In the back of a Volkswagon?

THANK you. I was dying for someone to say it.

I’ve never seen Schindler’s List (and I’m a Jew!), Caddyshack, or most famous horror movies or chick flicks. I actually keep a list of famous and important movies I fully intend to see one day, probably when I join Netflix in August.

I’ve never gone to an NFL game or a pro OR college baseball, basketball, or hockey game. I wouldn’t mind going to a live hockey game once just for the atmosphere, but generally I like watching sports on television just fine, and in small doses at that.

I’ve never seen most reality shows or angsty prime-time soaps with impossibly good-looking casts. No desire to, really. But on a related note, I had never seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer until a couple months ago, but I have to admit, now I’m almost done with season 2 and I’m really loving it.

Any time - happy to please.

I haven’t seen ET. I haven’t seen any of the Batman movies. And I’ve never seen an episode of Baywatch.

I just saw an ad for the new Land of the Dead movie, and realized that I’ve never seen a zombie movie (unless you count 28 Days Later, but technically those bad guys got infected and scary while they were still alive).

Also, regarding the sports stuff, I’ve never been to an NBA or NFL game. I’ve never been to any basketball game, actually; I’ve been to one football game, when I was in high school (Army/Navy). I love baseball and hockey games, but – diametrically opposed to Big Bad Voodoo Lou – I much prefer being at actual games to watching them on TV.

I’ve never seen an episode of Fear Factor, either – not sure how that didn’t make the original list! I’ll admit that I’ve seen American Idol, but only the audition episodes: every season, when the auditions are done I stop watching.

Enjoy Mung. I finished this book earlier this year, and I place it amongst my favorite books. I hope you enjoy it at least half as much as I did. With having said that, it’s a pretty epic comedy so I suggest you pace yourself, otherwise the humor may become stale for you.

I finished it on my first try. Took me a few months, but then I was pretty busy at the time.

I hadn’t seen the original Roller Ball until recently. Much better than the crap remake–which completely missed the point of the original while being boring in spite of good action sequences–but still nothing that special. The director said that he intended the violence to be non-titillating since part of his reason for making it was to protest against the commercialization of violent sports. He succeeded a little too well. I thought it was horribly tedious. I can see what he was trying to do, but man, pacing. Made Kubrick look like a queen on speed in comparison.

Speaking of Kubrick, I finally saw Dr. Strangelove a couple of weeks ago. In its time, it would have been provocative and satirically funny, but I grew up in a time when the exaggerated thinking shown in the film was almost normal. I didn’t really find it funny, I found it disturbing. I think it should be disturbing that parodies of military thinking in the 60s became almost indistinguishable from reality. It was a bit surreal, but I didn’t really interpret it as a comedy.

Eraserhead is another film that I didn’t see for a long time and I didn’t think was really worth the wait, or the viewing. I actually like some Lynch films. This wasn’t one of the ones I liked. It took me three sessions to make it through the thing, and it wasn’t because I was disturbed by it, it was because it was boring. He did great things with the atmosphere and sets and the oppressive noise, but atmosphere alone can’t carry a whole movie.

You lucky bastards. You lucky, lucky, jammy BASTARDS!

I have never seen Battleship Potemkin, nor any of Brando’s early (supposedly great) films such as The Wild Ones, On The Waterfront, or A Streetcar Named Desire. Never seen a James Dean flick. Never read any of the great French authors, nor Russians either (except a few of Solzhenitsyn’s). I will get to them though, maybe when I retire.

I finished Catch-22 in less than a day first time through, and am now rereading it for maybe the 20th time. Not only is it my favourite book of all time, but nothing else even comes close.

Dude, On The Waterfront is a fantastic movie. Street Car Named Desire is good too, and actually is good to read.

I know, thus my stated desire to “get to them, maybe when I retire”.

I stare at Catch-22 every time I go to the bookstore, but each time I tell myself I’ll pick it up next time. For some reason I’m convinced I’ll find it boring.
Haven’t read Gone with the Wine either. Nor have I seen any of the Godfather movies. Or Citizen Kane, or Casablanca, or Fatal Attraction. Or Edward Scissorhands. (My friend forbids me from calling myself a Johhny Depp fan until I’ve seen it. I suppose she has a point.)