Guilty Pleasures

Admit it. We ALL have them.  Some are treats (reeses cups OMG), some are movies, sometimes books and sometimes mindless television.

It’s a little slice of something that just takes our mind off things (usually) and lets us escape reality for an hour or two.  I’m thinking my most recent one, Doctor Who, is generally acceptable because it’s such a phenomenon.  (Yes, I admit I just found the Doctor a few months ago and my goal is to get caught up by March 30. I did a marathon of the last half of series six today with princess – who loves 11 “with the whiskers, not without.”)  And the whisper in the “Wedding of River Song” makes me rethink the whisper in Silence in the Library … I’m working on my CAL/Clara/River theory.

I also enjoy the hell out of Logo’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”  Oh my that’s a guaranteed hour of laughs and drama that no writer can script.

Probably slightly less acceptable — and showing my demographic versatility as I’m right in their prime market — Dancing With the Stars.  I caught part of an episode during Castle’s first season. (Mmmm yum. Fillion.)

And somehow I got hooked.  The mister, god love him, actually will watch both Dancing and Castle with me.  (Still working on the Doc, he’s only seen Rose and doesn’t get it yet.)

Where he draws the line, however, is my worst guilty pleasure.  Musicals.  From my dad I got sci fi and fantasy books.  My mom gave me musicals.  A dear friend of mine from high school introduced me to Les Miserables via soundtrack in the late 80s.  We used to cruise around in either my old Corolla wagon, or her Honda Prelude, listening to soundtracks.  Can you just imagine a pair of teenage girls riding around on an Air Force Base, singing “Master of the House” at the top of their lungs with the windows down and top open?

I don’t often see movies in theaters.  But since Les Mis came out on dvd/etc. yesterday, and my friend has been on my mind the past few days, I talked the mister into the “on demand” rental.

Digression warning: Poor soul made it to Valjean skipping out on parole before he couldn’t do it anymore.  That’s love there.  Even though he couldn’t do Les Mis, he’s still willing to give Phantom of the Opera a shot (because he loves Emmy Rossum from her work in Shameless as much as I love Gerard Butler in well, anything) and maybe Mamma Mia, because he likes Brosnan and Streep.  (I don’t have the heart to tell him Brosnan is tone deaf.)  End digression.

What shocked me is how, though I was in the mood for the happy memories Les Mis invokes, I was emotionally wrecked by the end.  I know the story, I’ve seen the stage production.  I sang every word of every song as the movie progressed.  Maybe it’s because I’m at a point in my life where “empty chairs and empty tables” has more meaning than just the song.  In my life there are now empty chairs and tables where there weren’t 20 years ago when I fell in love with the music.

So I’m wondering – what are your guilty pleasures?  Any good books or series you can recommend?  For books I love the Callahan Chronicles (Spider Robinson), Anne McCaffrey, “good ole J.K.”, Anne Rice & Laurel K. Hamilton, Hunger Games, and anything that’s not as horrid as twilight.