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Sunday, July 24, 2011

Homage to the Homage-O-Meter

I have a new crack pot idea. I recently bought and have been watching the British TV show Spaced (Simon Pegg - go watch it now) with the Homage-O-Meter. The Homage-O-Meter tells you whenever a pop culture reference is made and what the reference is. A few days ago I thought it might be fun to watch all the movies they mention. Today I thought it might be fun to not only watch all the films, but blog about them too. So I decided to try something out. I kept track of all the films they referenced in season 2 episode 1. It totaled to 14 films. 14 films in a 30 minute show! And that's just the movies - the Homage-O-Meter references artists, music, TV... It pops up quite a bit as I'm sure you can imagine.

Anyway, if we assume the average number of films per episode is 14 and multiply that by 14 episodes, that's 196 films to watch. I would have to watch just over one movie every 2 days if I wanted to finish in a year and that's going to be hard with school. Plus I'd have to learn how to write about film, which I totally don't, and to write about film I'd have to learn about film. I took one film class in college called American Cultures in Film and it was just what it sounds like. All we did was watch movies featuring different ethnicities (Tortilla soup, Fried Green Tomatoes, The Chosen, A Bronx Tale...). It was a lot of fun and I got introduced to several fantastic movies, but I learned nothing about film.

Not only that, but there are some movies that I REALLY don't want to watch. Well, only two that I can think of right now: Titanic and The Phantom Menace. Even thought Titanic came out two years before Phantom Menace, I saw Phantom Menace first (I'm taking care not to call it Star Wars). I can't remember why, but the school took us to see Phantom Menace in the theater (it was probably a reward for good grades or something) and in all honesty I can't remember what I thought about it. Now, however... I have very strong thoughts on the subject. As for Titanic, I saw that I think when I was in high school. My mom didn't let me see it when it came out because it was PG-13 and I was 10. All my friends were talking about how great it was and buying the soundtrack and I was so sad that I couldn't see it. As time went on I just lost interest and really didn't care one way or the other. Finally, when I was maybe 17 and our cousin was living with us, she let me borrow her VHS copy because she wanted me to know what I was missing out on. I hated it. I can't remember why or even much of the movie, but I remember rolling my eyes a lot and laughing at moments meant to be tender. My love of Kate Winslet and mild liking of Leonardo DiCaprio did nothing to quell the corn that was that movie.

So there you have it. Even with all those barriers the crack pot idea is still an idea. It'll be on a different blog if I ever do start it. I guess we'll just see if this comes to fruition.

1 comment:

  1. I definitely think you should do it, but don't give yourself a time limit. Just do it at your own pace. It'll make it more enjoyable, and alot easier to develop your thoughts and put them to keyboard. Oh and if you want to learn more about film, I still have my old textbooks. Let me know if you want to borrow them.

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