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Thanks to those of you who contribute your 2c in the last post. We haz opinions! LET US SHOW YOU THEM. I never begrudge a civil disagreement because it gives us something to talk about other than how we have to wait an entire summer for the next "Rock of Love" installment. Disagreement? C'est la vie. It's more fun to party. Which brings me to the topic of smooth.

I have wasted over an hour of my time watching the "Yacht Rock" episodes on Youtube. The series is the fictitious backstory based upon the music of Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Hall & Oates, the Doobie Brothers, and other artists whose smooth music defined a genre. It's lampooned hysterically in this series; Chris busted in the house one evening with his giant iMac and was all "WATCHTHISOMG."

It's a good series if you like music + comedy, though please note, parts are so NSFW. If you can't start from the beginning at least start with this episode. It grows on you. I swear. Before I understood the aesthetic I was all what the ...? Episode #9 is about the interesting production-marriage of Ted Templeman and The Halen and it's my absolute favorite. Turn up the smooth!

Firstly I want to thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart who have commented, emailed, messaged, even called to say an encouraging word and offer a shoulder of support. I am truly humbled that you took the time out of your day to do so.

Now! On to happier, more pleasurably angsty things, specifically today's Friday Flashback. We were asked: "What was the first movie you ever saw? What was your first notable movie memory? And what effect did it have on you?"

Sweet jeebus, there are so many. I remember when I saw "E.T." in the theater and thought that E.T. was gross and ew but yet, aw, how sad that he wound up in a ravine bleating "Elliooot." I remember that the idyllic situation of the subdivision was very appealing. I remember first seeing "Labyrinth" and thinking that David Bowie was a strange, but fascinating man.

Then there is "Rocky Horror Picture Show," which my cantankerous, beer-loving, fallen Catholic uncle picked up at the video store for the kids while the family was vacationing on a house boat in the Ozarks. I was all "Mom, what's a transvestite?" To this day no one can crack me up like that particular cranky ol' uncle.

There's also "Poltergeist," which so impacted my life that to this day I am still weirded out by closets, mirrors, charismatics, and Quaker hats. One evening we grandkids were all spending the night at our grandparents on Thanksgiving night and my aunt thought it would be a nice little scary move, "like Casper." Sweet Christmas. I was never more terrified in my life as I was when I saw that film. After "Poltergeist 3" came out I removed all the mirrors from my bedroom. I'm not kidding. They stayed out of my room until I left home. Come to think of it, why the cost of the film's rental doesn't come with a therapist is beyond me. Steven Spielberg turned all of the fun, neat things about childhood: toys, clowns, trees, innocence, into instruments of terror.

My family seems so irresponsible, don't they?

I think perhaps one of my favorite films of all-time, a film that contributed so much to my warped humor, my fascination with my own neighbors and urban legends, spying on - and a general appreciation for my street is, "The 'Burbs." I saw this film in the theater with my mom and aunt when I was in elementary school. I've never laughed so hard in my life. It saddens me that it's so under-appreciated. I can identify with every character, even the Klopecs's outcast aesthetic. One of my favorite characters is played by the brilliant Bruce Dern. "I spent 18 months n the bush, sonny. I can snap your neck like a twig!" I found a compilation of his different moments from the film here:

Another scene from the movie here:

What movie impacted you the most? Share it in the comments. It's an interesting topic; I'm always curious to hear what people say.

The other divine Flashback Friday participants:
Oh the Joys
Mrs. Flinger
Sweetney
IzzyMom

(We're also still working on piecing the site back together. I'm still manually inputting hundreds of archives - though we may have some hope left for the server; Ill update if we do.)

If my children's voices were respective to the size of their mouths, they'd share a physical trait with Mick Jagger. I can't fault them, they come by it honest. Their poor mother isn't much different. When I was in Jersey Chris sent me this Centro video of the kids in Sam's. Sam's is the first place Chris heads in my absence and the first place he'd head in the event of any natural disaster. I think Sam's hid a man-beacon in their store somewhere because whenever Chris drives and we pass the building on the highway I have to tug at the wheel to prevent him from careening off the road towards it. I came home from Jersey and we had like six pounds of pretzels, a pound of paper towels; the kids were building a fort with mass amounts of toilet paper, and we had new DVDs.

I got this video while I was checking out my hotel room. It was like I was right there shopping for mass quantities with them. Sniffle.