Day 19 –

Today is a free writing day. Write at least four-hundred words, and once you start typing, don’t stop. No self-editing, no trash-talking, and no second guessing: just go. Bonus points if you tackle an idea you’ve been playing with but think is too silly to post about.

Wow, I get bonus points for something.  Where do I sign up?   What will these bonus points get me?  Are they like WordPress credits I can trade in for a new color or widget on my blog?

What idea  have I been toying with that I haven’t had the courage to write about because I think it might be construed as silly?   See, there are a couple points to writing, probably more than that, but a writer can take you places you may or may not want to be: inside their mind (most of my posts are probably this); someplace you have never been (I may have a couple of those); someplace completely imagined (haven’t done this yet); inside the mind of their character and along for the ride (nope, didn’t do this yet either), or any combination of these, and probably more things I can’t think of right now.

So, to pick something I’ve been toying with but afraid it might be silly is risky and maybe telling readers more than I want them to know, but why not?  Let me think on this for a moment.

Okay, I thought about this Monday, I think, while at work in the AC.  I watched a lot of WatchMojo on YouTube one night last week when it was too hot to think, write, or quilt with the AC out.  I can’t remember one whole set of top 10 lists I watched, mostly about movies, but I agreed with some didn’t concur with others, and didn’t really care about many.

But, Monday, I thought, I could write a top ten lists of my favorite movies (look, ma, no “u”).  Of course, I remembered, I don’t really have a list of my all time top 10 favorite movies.  When someone asks me what’s my favorite movie of all time, I don’t know how to answer, because there are so many.  Same goes for books, even though I really don’t consider myself that well-read.

So, I’m going to compile a different list.  It might be 10, it might not, we’ll see.  This is a random list of perhaps quirky movies I just like, for whatever the reason, in no particular order, seriously, not a top 10 list!

• Now, Voyager – 1942, take Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, and Claude Rains – and what have you got.  I don’t know, but I love this movie.  It’s got 8 stars on IMDB and 91% on Rotton Tomatoes Tomatometer.  That’s pretty amazing.   I never knew what Bette Davis eyes meant until I saw this movie for the first time. First of all, any movie made before 1980 peaks my interest.  I love old movies, especially those made in the 40’s and 50’s, don’t know why, just do.  I’m not into sappy love stories, which is probably why I like this movie.  Bette Davis is strong, proud, and smart.
• Field of Dreams – Okay, I’m a baseball nut.  That’s the one and only sport I cant get a grip on or go to bat for.  Get it? 1989 – Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, Ray Liotta, Timothy Busfield, Gaby Hoffman, and OMG Burt Lancaster.  Burt’s last motion picture film, and absolutely amazing performance.  I never saw  him in a romantic way, but his role made me think of him as one sweet man.  My now 17 year old daughter confessed she had never seen the whole movie, just bits and pieces, and I wanted to watch it right then and there with her.  I had this on VHS, and it’s on TV all the time, so I watch it a couple times a year, at least.  It’s not Iowa, it’s heaven.
• The Holiday – Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jack Black (has my birthday, but he’s younger than me), Jude Law (looking actually pretty awesome to me even though he doesn’t seem to be at his best), and Eli Wallach (yes, I know who he is!).  It’s a kind of a Christmas movie, and really kind of stupid and senseless, but there is something about it that sucks me in every time I see that it’s on TV.
• Gone with the Wind – I know, I know, when I graduated in 1979, and this movie was 40 years old already, it was still considered to be the best movie of all time.  Don’t know what movie holds that title today.  I have also read this book several times (due for another read, actually), and the movie does detour from the book quite a bit, but it still holds a magic.  Perhaps, it is because I had read the book and it was on TV for the first time prime time in November 1976 when I was 15 years old.  I can remember laying on my belly on the living room floor in front of the TV and telling everyone, including my Mom and Dad, “The TV is mine, I’m watching this!” I watched both nights.  One nostalgic thing I remember, and I don’t know when I had this conversation with my Grandmother, but she went to see it at the Mount Olive Drive-In in 1940  (which was gone even before I was in high school), and she told me “That was a long movie!”   I still have the 50th anniversary VHS pack, though I don’t think I have ever watched it because it was already on DVD by then.  Maybe it’s the historical aspect, maybe it’s the South, maybe it’s Clark Cable and Vivian Leigh, it’s just amazing. Classic movie, that’s all I got to say about that.

I can’t go on right now.  I have to go see if one of these movies is on TV right now, or Netflix.  I may be up late already.  I’ll let you know some of my other favorite quirky movies at a later date.   But, I wonder, what are some of your picks?

Oh, BTW, I should have posted this on the Daily Prompt a few days ago, about what celebrity I’d want to be – I’d pick Roger Ebert.  I am one tough movie critic, though, so I don’t know if it would work out.  Seriously, Hollywood might go out of business if I was a movie critic, except, occasionally, I do like something quirky.