Guilty Pleasures
1. "We Belong Together" by Mariah Carey. I love this song and I don't care who knows it. Ooh, especially the freakout part where she starts screaming, and you wonder whether or not she's going to have to go on another "exhaustion"-induced "hiatus." I've never liked Mariah at all, but this is just great.
2. Hot Pockets. I actually don't buy these independently, but when I'm at home I eat them compulsively. Along with String Cheese and Banquet Chicken Pot Pies. Those are all listworthy as well.
3. Dick. That Kirsen Dunst movie. I love it. Actually, I think I may go out and buy it. Is this even a guilty pleasure? I actually think it's a great movie. Hmm, maybe I should put another Kirsten Dunst movie on for good measure. Bring It On. Yes, that is sufficiently awful. Even sadder is the fact that I've sat through this movie in Spanish. Actually I've also seen Dick in Spanish. Weird. Oh, and I also watched the direct-to-video sequel to Bring It On (Bring it On Again) with Bighead. Give me a break. It was on basic cable, it was raining out, and we were bored.
4. Newsweeklies. I know it's so tragically uncool to like Newsweek and Time. So so middlebrow. New Yorker this, The Nation that. Please. Who has time anymore. I mean it's a magazine. They're all middlebrow. Just ask Dwight MacDonald. I'm really just a news junkie. I could easily Sunday morning talk shows on this list too, like This Week (my favorite) and Meet the Press on this list too. Actually, I like This Week but never watch it. It's on too damn early. So I have to settle for Little Russ because he comes on an hour and a half after George [Insert Greek Name Ending in Opoulos Here]. I actually don't really like Meet the Press, but I settle because there's no way in hell I'm getting up at 9 on a Sunday.
5. Blogging. Obviously.
6. I don't really have any guilty pleasure books like The Da Vinci Code. I figure if I'm gonna put in the time to actually read a book I might as well read a really good one. So I haven't really read any bad books that I really enjoy. I'll just say "How to Eat Fried Worms" because I noticed last night that they made a movie about it, and I remember really liking that book in 4th grade. I was shocked to remember this title because it had been completely stowed away in the nether regions of my brain.
7. Norman Rockwell. Completely written off for so long. There's nothing wrong with blatant Americana, though. Also, that painting of the little black girl being escorted into an integrated school is heartbreaking. "The Problem We All Live With." Go ahead, click. It won't make you less intelligent, I promise. Now then. Isn't that a great painting? You think the photographs are more powerful? If so, you're only half right. Without him, there very well may not have been an Andy Warhol. I can't really think of other guilty pleasure visual artists. If I liked Rubens, I'd put him up here, but I can't stand him. I just like the way he paints the grease on fatty flesh. Chagall? Nah. Beautiful use of color.
I think that's about it. I tried to include as many genres/media/whatever as possible. I hit a brick wall.