I told Heidi that I was going to post my guilty pleasures and that I had four. Her response was "FOUR?!?! Try forty!" OK, yeah, I'm a living, breathing collection of guilty pleasures. I'm going to leave out the obvious ones (Madonna) and the ones that are guilty only because I'm a guy (Barbra Streisand) and concentrate on a few others.

MUSIC:
1) Dolly Parton – I love Dolly. Yeah, she's a caricature of herself (big boobs, big hair, cheap makeup, glittery clothes) but if you can look past the image, she's truly one of the greatest country songwriters of the last 50 years, and almost without a doubt the most influential female country songwriter. She's done it all—traditional country, country-pop, 80s cheese, bluegrass (a bluegrass cover of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" even!), disco and even a duet with Boy George! Even when the stuff she does doesn't quite work (see 1987's Rainbow) it's almost always guaranteed to be fun. OK, the biggest exception to this would be her latest CD For God And Country which I sampled off of Rhapsody and found it to be a take-off on Lawrence Welk's Capitol 4th! And the greatest thing about Dolly is she's not just confined to music. 9 to 5 is one of my all time favorite movies and it's due in no small portion to Dolly's presence.
2) Clay Aiken – I really don't get into "American Idol" at all, in fact, I've never watched an episode, but I must have seen Clay on Live With Regis & Kelly one morning when I was on my rounds at the hospital. I found myself pleasantly surprised by the song and so I checked out the rest of the CD on Rhapsody. While Heidi's not as impressed as I was, it's really good pop music. He kind of reminds me of a latter-day Rick Astley (another guilty pleasure.) But I found myself thinking to myself "what's a 31 year old man doing listening to Clay Aiken? Ostensibly, I should hate this!!" Alas, I don't. I'm almost ready to go buy the CD.

MOVIES:
1) Xanadu – Starring the one and only Olivia Newton-John!! ONJ was my first true celebrity crush, and this was one of the first movies I have recollection of going to at the theater. It is cheesy, it is kitschy, there is no way in hell it would ever be made today, but, God love the 80s, it got made then. I knew Heidi was a keeper when she sat through a showing of that movie with me. Xanadu is out on DVD now, in all it's cheesy glory. During a replay after getting the DVD for Christmas, Heidi turns to me and says "I must have really been head over heels for you to sit through this!"

TV:
1) "The Golden Girls" – As our friend Mary says, "Back in high school, most people were out getting laid on Saturday night while I was at home watching 'The Golden Girls.'" Well Mary, that makes two of us. This is the one show that, no matter how many times I've seen the episode, will make me sit and giggle like a little kid. What a great ensemble cast—and to think that Betty White was originally going to play the part of sexpot Blanche (although it would have made her turn as a potty-mouthed widow in Lake Placid a little easier to take.) Back in the days when we had cable, GG would be on Lifetime at least 4 times a day, so I was in heaven. Heidi and I can hardly wait for it to be released on DVD (no release date yet!)

Well that's it for now. Gotta get ready for work.