Now I Gotta Cut Loose

Having a child is sometimes like what I imagine it would be like if an alien landed on earth and you had to describe our strange human customs. It is part of the joy of parenthood to watch your child experience things for the first time. I’ve especially loved watching A’s reaction to some of my favourite movies and I’ve noticed, sometimes describing plotlines instead of just screening the film make them seem ridiculous. I had that experience once when living in Germany and talking to my sister-in-law in the U.S. She and my brother had just gone to see Edward Scissorhands. As soon as she said something like there’s this guy and he has scissors for fingers I didn’t hear anything else she said. I was thinking, really? This is popular? You liked it? However, now anytime I pass Edward Scissorhands on the telly I always stop and watch.


One of the movie channels has been running a promo for their 80’s movie month and they always show a clip from Footloose. A. mentioned that they were currently remaking that film and she asked me if it was any good. I had a flashback at that very moment laughing about Footloose with my friends J & T. J said any movie when someone dies in a “rock-related accident” is, I can’t remember what he said afterwards because I was laughing so hard. So I start describing the plot to A. and explaining that when I was her age it was THE most popular movie and I remember loving it. Her response was, “It sounds like crap”. So once again, maybe I should have avoided the description.

Fast forward two days later and we are in the store and guess what’s on the shelf for £3? Footloose on DVD. I pick it up and tell her that now our Saturday night entertainment is sorted and she will watch it. Begrudgingly she half-watched it as she IM’d a friend. As the music started I told her that the soundtrack was my favourite and she groaned, “Oh you sad-o”. Hahahahaha

Watching it from start to finish now, gosh that movie is awful! Not just for the ridiculous plotline and the heavy-handed rebel with a cause lead character, but how about the violence towards women! Hopefully the remake will not have an ex-boyfriend beating up his ex to have her run to her new boyfriend instead of maybe I don’t know, the police? So in this case watching it or explaining it, both bad propositions.

I’ve been totally stressed out at work lately. Maybe I need to find an abandoned mill, turn up the jams and dance my way out of it.