Popular Tripe, Sloppy Methods, and Questionable Conclusions

I have long been held in the throes of a catastrophic delusion: I think I am a mult-tasker. I’m not. I’m diagnosed ADD and have the same attention span/interests as my cat. However, whenever I buckle down to take on a task — folding laundry, reading articles, writing this so-called “thesis” — I always think I’ll just pop in a movie for a little background noise.

This never works.

However, through extensive research, I have come up with the absolute best movie to not be busy to. Are you ready? Ghostbusters.

  

Yes. Ivan Reitman’s 1984’s classic, Ghostbusters is hands down the best film to have playing whilst wallowing in unproductivity.  It meets all my requirements for an accomplishment-free time filler. It’s played on TNT/TBS/FX/Fox Movie Network ad nauseum, so I’m able to convince myself I won’t really watch it. Just like I don’t really watch it every Saturday when it comes on (hint: I’m lying. I will always stop whatever I’m doing to watch Ghostbusters).  

Second, it’s the sort of movie that, in theory, will not offer anything substantial enough to tug at my attentions. It’s fluffy; it’s harmless; it’s a loosely bound collection of jokes based on Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis’ ability to play nerdy, Rick Moranis’ ability to play awkward, Annie Pott’s ability to talk nasally, and Bill Murray’s ability to be Bill Murray. That’s absolutely true. Guess what I love? ALL OF THOSE THINGS. I can’t look away from Bill Murray being Bill Murray ever. Ever. And I don’t want to be the sort of person who could. As an added bonus, Akroyd, Ramis, and Murray play disillusioned academics alienated and rejected by the very institution which they’ve built their life around. It’s the scariest part of the movie.

The final straw on the camel of diligence’s back is this: five years later, they made another one. Ghostbuster’s II is exactly like Ghostbusters.  Yes, they relied on the trusty crutch of a baby to highten the drama, but ultimately it’s more of the same. More of the beautiful same.  It’s an affinity Ghostbusters shares with my second choice for background/foreground noise, Alien and Aliens. Also, they share Sigourney Weaver. And in their second installments each introduces and subsequently endangers a child. And they both showcase dripping goo. Turns out they may have more in common than I first thought. 

Most importantly, I walk away from my hours languishing on my couch, balancing my over-heating laptop on my knee, as please as if I’d been productive. Thanks to Mr. Reitman, I never feel badly about not accomplishing much. Because, I mean, I just finished Ghostbusters. What do I have to be unhappy about?

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Playlist: La Crème

I’ve had it in my mind to compile an iTunes playlist with my essentials: the songs that I don’t just enjoy or appreciate, but that have played a salient role in my personal, aesthetic, or emotional development. I don’t know that it will ever be something that I finish, but it’s been a worthwhile exercise so far. Thiese aren’t really the tracks I put out too early in a mix tape relationship: those are a different beast altogether. These are the songs that I turn to when I don’t have to be cool. Or can’t be cool. So either way that’s a good chunk of time.  Here’s the dame so far, in all her no particular order twenty track glory:

1. Cosmic Dancer - T.Rex
2. Needle in the Hay - Elliot Smith
3. Chelsea Hotel #2 - Leonard Cohen
4. I Don’t Blame You - Cat Power
5. The Guns of Brixton - The Clash
6. Helplessly Hoping - CSN&Y
7. Some Things Last a Long Time - Daniel Johnston
8. Wolf Like Me - TV on the Radio
9. I’ve Been Thinking - Handsome Boy Modeling School
10. Flesh - David Gray
11. If She Wants Me - Belle & Sebastian
12. Buckets of Rain - Bob Dylan
13. Lover, You Should’ve Come Over - Jeff Buckley
14. Holland, 1945 - Neutral Milk Hotel
15. Where Is My Mind? - The Pixies
16. The Needle and the Damage Done - Neil Young
17. Somedays - Regina Spektor
18. Natural Disaster (Live) - Loudon Wainwright III
19. Track 4 [Untitled] - Sigor Ros
20. Street Hassel - Lou Reed

 

 

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