Things I have done - meme swunked from hither and yon (Hi, Hither! Hi, Yon!)

Snuck out of the house (Well, I was a kid once, long ago!)
Played spin the bottle
Toilet-papered someone's house/property
Tutored someone.
Called the cops (and regretted it - they sided with the offender - taught me a lesson about trusting authorities ever again)
Eaten Filet Mignon.
Had a crush on a teacher.
Played poker with money.
Liked someone but never told them.
Sat on your glasses and broke them.
Went camping in your backyard.
Got an autograph.
Had a crush on your brother's friend.
Walked in the rain with no umbrella. (once you have seen Singin' in the Rain, it's practically compulsory.
Told a joke that nobody thought was funny. Hasn't everyone?
Been in a talent show.
Starting laughing for no reason at a bad time.
Worn something your mom didn't approve of.
Been to a nude beach.
Cursed in a church.
Hacked into someone’s computer/aim.
Been called a slut for kissing someone.
Burnt yourself with a curling iron/straightener.
Blackmailed someone.
Wanted to be a police officer.
Dumped someone.
Been hit on by someone too old.
Bought lottery tickets.
Made out in a car.
Looked through your brothers/sister's stuff. (again, I was a kid once!)
Said something bad about someone who was near you and was heard. Only fifteen skazillion times.
Cried during a movie.
Wanted something you couldn't have. (The call it the story of my life...)
Seen someone shoplift.
Yelled at your pet.
Bought a thong when the cashier was a guy.
Gotten seasick. (only once, 25 years ago, in a seastorm in the English Channel - but it was enough)
Played a prank on someone that had them really scared.
Been embarrassed by your family. Certain members more than others
Felt bad about eating meat.
Saved a life. (I think)
Protested something.
Ate just because you were bored.
Looked at something everyone thought was ugly and said aww!
Tried to teach your dog sick em.
Screamed in a library.
Made out with a stranger.
Wished a part of you was different.
Asked a guy to dance.
Been asked out by a really hot guy/girl.
Laughed so hard you cried. Lotsa times
Went up to a complete stranger and started talking
Been sunburned. (Try living in Italy and never suffering from it!)
Kicked a guy in the nuts for being a perv.
Woke someone up by screaming in their ear.
Threw up in school. (When I was six. But I was so sick I still remember it.)
Received an anonymous love letter.
Had to wear something you hated.
Had to pretend to like a present you hated.
Been to a luau.
Had a really bad haircut. (Beatle haircut!)
Saw your ex and wanted to kick his butt.
Cursed in front of your parents.
Been on a commercial on TV.
Watched a movie that made you miss your ex.
Been out of your country.
Been honked at by some guy when you were walking down the sidewalk.
Won at pool.
Fought with your best friend. (But we made up before the day was over.)
Went to a party where you were the only sober one. I never get drunk. I also once was in a room where I was the only one out of about eight or ten people not smoking a joint.
Went on a diet.
Been lost out to sea.
Been told an extremely stupid line.
Played truth-or-dare .
Been dared to make out w/ someone of the same sex
Cut class.
Cheated on your boy/girl friend.
Been pulled over by a cop.
Tanned topless.
Been attacked by seagulls.
Been searched at an airport.
Been de-pantsed.
Stolen from a teacher.
Gotten lost at the beach/boardwalk.
Thrown a shoe at someone.
Broke someone's heart.
Sung in the shower and anywhere else I may happen to be.
Bought something way too expensive - who hasn't?
Done something really stupid that you still laugh about. - (More like cringe at the thought)
Been walked in on when you were dressing.
Ran out of a movie theater cause you were too scared of the movie. Live theatre, actually. It was this terrible play about family violence.
Been kicked out of a mall.
Been mean to someone then instantly wanted to take it back.
Got gum stuck in your hair.
Spilled your drink on someone on purpose.
Wanted plastic surgery.
Stood someone up.
Done something stupid when you were drunk.
Slammed into someone while you were checking someone out with your head turned.
Fell off your roof.
Pretended you were scared so you could cuddle up to someone. (No, but a girl once did it with me)
Been in a car crash.
Threatened someone with a water gun.
Lied to someone and looked them straight in the eye. (Survival need)

Great. I complete a long meme and then I find I've been tagged. Thanks, Rfachir

(That's OK, actually. Just indulging a grumble. I really quite like memes.)

Total number of films I own on DVD/video - Some 50 or so.

The last film I bought: Lantana, because someone on my f-list had recommended it and it was for sale cheap. Haven't seen it yet.

The last film I watched On DVD: The Horse Soldiers. One of the greatest war movies ever done, except for a fairly irrelevant subplot about the commanding officer's prejudice against doctors. But the sequence of war scenes is awesome, and the climax of the movies - when a battalion of children, led by an old man, advances to fight - is one of the most shattering things I have ever seen in film. When we see it happen, we have already seen an adult troop of the same army falling into a trap and being wiped out on screen; and as we watch the children march on, we tremble. All the horror and pity and courage of war is there; and yet John Ford brilliantly manages to make us feel it without any slaughter of innocents. A masterpiece.

In the cinema: Lord of the Rings II. I found it beautiful but hyperkinetic and lacking in the odd but undoubted realism of Tolkien's book. Tolkien had really fought in war and had studied history, and knew what worked and what did not. For instance, the scene in which the cavalry of Rohan charges downhill against a solid shieldwall only looks good if you know nothing whatever about how war was actually fought: if you do, it looks like certain disaster for the horsemen. Massed ranks of pikemen on foot, behind locked shields, have the advantage over any cavalry, as the English learned at Bannockburn. The most successful army in history, the Roman legions, consisted entirely of lightly armoured foot-pikemen bearing large shields, with practically no cavalry. IN general, the LOTR movies only made me appreciate more how superb Tolkien really is.

Five films that I watch a lot or that mean a lot to me:

Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) by Luchino Visconti. Most of you will never, I am sorry to say, be able to understand why I regard this as the greatest movie I ever saw; for the English version deserves the public flogging of all responsible. In Italian, it is a total masterpiece, a tragic epic of the Italian nation as well as the story of a man's greatness and decline; and indubitably the finest adaptation of a great work of literature ever done.

Snow-White and the Seven Dwarves. Except for the utterly infuriating protagonist, who makes me feel that the real hero of the movie is the poisoned apple, this remains matchless. Disney himself never approached it again, except possibly - in a wholly different way - in Fantasia. It is the most beautiful single movie ever made, and I cannot believe that anyone will ever again produce anything so full of utter gorgeousness. No, not even Hayao Miyazaki.

Casablanca What can anyone say? Every time I watch this, it looks better. Every time, I learn something new. Perfect casting (can you believe that they originally wanted Ronald Reagan for Rick?), an avalanche of the best one-liners in cinema, a dense and astonishingly tight story (it is hard to believe that this movie was scripted on the hop, as it was being filmed), photography that re-defines the word "ravishing", and, finally, a powerful moral content, makes this probably the best movie Hollywood will ever make.

Easter Parade The privilege of watching Fred Astaire and Judy Garland together. 'Nuff said.

Singin' in the rain Shouldn't have included another musical, but really, how can anyone not adore this? Only Debbie Reynolds can ever have had something to complain about it: this was her debut movie, and a movie actress who can never again match the brilliance of her debut is in trouble.

Special mention to Charlotte Rampling for being the most astonishing mixture of overwhelming beauty and shattering acting brilliance in movies. (And untrained at that, since she started her career as a model.) And to most anything featuring Katharine Hepburn. Spencer Tracy was a lucky man and I hope he appreciated it.


Finally, tag five people to do this meme: (If some of you have already done it, consider yourselves off the hook)
Avus
Private Maladict
Patchworkmind
Thepreciouss
Tashmania

Chapter 3 – in which Giles meets an old friend, and Buffy reaches a conclusion

“What happens to the world, if all the heroes lose?”
(Jack Kirby – Captain America 211)



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