Pleading guilty

Several weeks of mediocrity later, and part of my brain can't comprehend why I'm still watching American Idol. Last night featured the music of Bon Jovi, one of my favorite bands (go ahead and laugh, Mike), and I realized with amusement that it was the coming together of 2 guilty pleasures of mine. You'd think an intellectual snob like me would not deign to watch reality TV, or listen to 80s rock (cheesy lyrics and all). But to me, AI makes for entertaining television (not to mention easy money, since my parents and I bet on who gets kicked out each week), and in my opinion, Bon Jovi is the last of the great stadium rock bands (stadium rock being defined as the type of songs that get the whole crowd singing-- nay, screaming-- along, complete with energetic head-banging and fist-pumping). Is it so bad that I indulge in such mindless, even crass forms of entertainment? Well, even the most high-brow, erudite nerds need some triviality in their lives (Maddy has her lust-laden romance novels, I have Blake Lewis beatboxing You Give Love a Bad Name).

AI and Bon Jovi aside, I have recently discovered a new guilty pleasure: the TV series Heroes. I am totally, totally hooked. Hanks and I started watching just last weekend (thanks to Yang and Fara for the discs they burned for me! =D), and we're already up to episode 15. The thing about Heroes is, each episode ends in a maddeningly suspenseful cliffhanger, so you're compelled to continue watching (as you can imagine, this is not helping our already whacked sleeping habits). When you think about it, the show's premise is nothing new. It's X-men meets Lost (or so they say, since I've never seen Lost). But something about the characters and their individual-yet-interconnected story lines is so riveting, I can't get enough. I don't know how I'm going to stand it when the first season ends... and it will probably end on a monster cliffhanger too. Then, more than ever, I'll wish I had Hiro Nakamura's power to "bend time and space", so I can fast forward to Season 2.

So yes, I read Shakespeare for fun and I watch "nosebleed" movies. But I'm also hopelessly addicted to a TV show with the ludicrous tagline "save the cheerleader, save the world", I know the lyrics to Livin' on a Prayer by heart ("Tommy's got his six-string in hock..."), and if I could, I would text a million times to vote for Melinda Doolittle to help her become this season's American Idol. It seems laughable, but hey, I need SOME frivolous fun in my life. So sue me. :p