Guilty Pleasures Blogfest

The mighty Alex J Cavanaugh is hosting the Guilty Pleasure blogfest. Where I reveal, for the first time anywhere, my favorite genres of Movies, Music, and Books… then reveal one genre that I enjoy as a guilty pleasure. Cool beans. Let’s get started.

Movies: Hmmm, if I’m going to the theater, then I want my money to be right there on the screen. Production values, fx, those are important to me if I’m paying to see it on a 100 ft screen (or whatever), so I tend to prefer…

Science Fiction!

I know - everyone’s shocked, right? You were thinking I was going to say historical romance – but then I threw a curve ball.

Music: Well, I once fancied myself as a musician. That was a long time ago. Although I dabbled in as many styles as I could in hopes of improving my skills, I tended to want to play heavy metal. As a guitar player, I preferred some of the more intricate guitar work and the aggressive mood that the genre was known for. But as a listener, and a b-list singer, I tended to enjoy the more melodic types of music that was more standard, radio rock. So my enjoyment was neatly divided into the creative parts (heavy) and the consumer (lighter).

Pantera, especially their older stuff, really blending the aggressive, rage fueled power of metal, but produced music that was also filled with hooks and singable parts.

Whatever, I have a post going up later this week where I discuss how little I listen to music nowadays anyway. And I really don’t. But when I reminisce, it’s a great feeling to whip out some ol’ heavy stuff and dream about restarting a band. So, my answer:

Heavy Metal

Books: Oh boy. It’s funny how this has changed over the years. I used to read Star Trek novels and non-fiction, nothing else. I read pop-science books almost exclusively for years. Over time, I started reading science fiction, but of the sub-genre of hard sci fi, and no, it’s not porn, but one where the scientific rigor of the stories were paramount. I tended to engage with the books only as far as I could get on board with the scientific concepts being presented.

Time marched on, and I branched out, reading the genre more or less as a whole, later still, I spread out to read fantasy novels, then thrillers, some literary fiction. As I grew more interested in writing, much like I did music, I wanted to read as widely as I could, find out what captured my imagination and pick up clues as to what makes something good. I still haven’t quite figured that one out, but I’ll let you know as soon as I figure that one out. My chosen genre?

Science Fiction

As if there was ever any doubt. Weirdly enough, the type of Sci Fi I enjoy reading is much different that than the type I enjoy seeing in movies. The type I want to read tends to be more philosophical, heady, while the kind that I watch tends to blow stuff up.

MY GUILTY PLEASURE: now that’s interesting. What is it, out of the three things I talked about above? Well, I suppose in the eyes of many, my three choices would be considered guilty pleasures in-and-of themselves. So what does a person, whose every love is probably a guilty pleasure, think of as their guilty pleasure?

Well, I do, sometimes, enjoy, solely for the pleasure it gives my ears, to listen to Irish Folk songs. I won't say that it's embarrassing or anything, but if I'm at the redlight and the windows are down, I will cut the volume down on my stereo.