fear of fuzzy feet

i have a confession to make.  it's hard for me to admit this, but i know i'm in a safe space here.

i have never seen "star wars."

i'm hoping that this admission does not scare off the 3's of readers i'm anticipating having.

here's the thing about me... i am a pop culture junkie.  when i was in high school, that 6 degrees of kevin bacon thing was... developed? discovered? at any rate, it was a thing. a friend of mine and i, discontent with just linking people to kevin bacon, would challenge our friends and family to name any two actors and see if we could link them (it was a simpler time, facebook did not exist).

today, i am often the person who is there to fill in the actor that you can't remember but he was in that movie, you know that movie, with the people who lived in the place?  and he had that accent?  remember?  i do - it was peter o'toole.

(continued after the jump...)

part of being a pop culture junkie is that you have sort of either have to watch a wide variety of media or you at least have to be aware of it.  i don't always succeed at this - i went and saw "iron man 3" over the weekend and while i gathered something "happened in new york," i'm not really sure what it was because i actually never got around to seeing "the avengers" (due to a perfect storm of no time, super hero fatigue and a deep aversion to scarlett johansson). i'm just now getting caught up on the "mad men" phenomena and it took me almost a year to read "the fault in our stars" (that had more to do with steeling myself to read it then anything else though).

then there are things that fall into a category i like to call "not for annalisas." these would be media that i just know aren't for me - your torture porn films, most science fiction (ehem, "star wars") and almost anything that takes place in the middle ages.  here's my damage with the middle ages - people slogging through the mud to stone houses (where, as my brother likes to point out, there are no windows or air conditioning) and they are not even wearing cute clothes.  there's nothing for me to hold onto there (we'll get to how "game of thrones" figures into this in a later post).

however, there's this sort of grey area on the continuum between "not for annalisas" and "made for annalisas" (we'll get to those later on too) that's this squishy middle.  it's the "i don't think this is for annalisas but i'm notionally open to it" middle.  into this middle, for many years, has fallen "the lord of the rings."

now i did not see "the lord of the rings" movies when they came out because 1. they are really long and 2. they have people with fuzzy feet.  fuzzy feet for me falls into the same category as slogging through the mud (WHICH THEY ALSO DO IN THIS MOVIE). but as i have gotten older, i've worked very hard not to reject things out of hand but actually give them a chance.

so when my brother suggested that it was finally time for me to try "the lord of the rings" last night, i went with an open mind.  i really did.

and here's the thing... through the years, when that film has come up in conversation, i've always said that i never doubted it was a well-made, beautifully shot, well-acted, masterpiece of film-making that everyone seems to think it is.  i just knew it was not for me. but it's such a capital T thing that i felt like i did need to experience it myself.  and i have to say, i didn't hate it.  i didn't even particularly dislike it.  it just isn't for me.  i will also say, if it had 150% more hugo weaving, i would have been in for the extended version.

tomorrow, we're going to watch the abridged 2nd movie (with my brother fast forwarding) and then the 3rd.  i am eager to see how it all turns out (well, i know how it all turns out but i think it'll be fun to see).

i really have never thought (at least since my livejournal days) that my thoughts and feelings on things needed to be committed to long-form.  but after a great deal of encouragement from some very sweet and supporting friends, i have capitulated into starting this blog.  because i'm not sure that blogging is for annalisas, but i'm notionally open to giving it a chance.

so long as you don't make me watch "star wars."