Monday, March 1, 2010

I'm having a bit of a flashback right now. As I sit here in the basement I can hear this movie playing on the IFC channel upstairs.

I'm listening to the classic lines of Monty Python and the Holy Grail just the way I heard them when I was first introduced to the movie.

Back in the 80's, before VCRs caught on, the only way to enjoy a show over and over was to hold the tape recorder up to the tv or radio and sit silently while your foot cramped up and you prayed you didn't have to go to the bathroom or that your cursing wouldn't be caught on tape when the phone rang.

At least that's how I did it.

My slightly more technologically advanced sister somehow knew how to hook up her tape player to stuff and so avoided the stifling your sneezes part.

She had a drawer full of tapes made this way. Musicals, shows, specials, all sorts of stuff. Most I thought were boring, but there were a few great ones. The music to Phantom of the Opera and the entire Monty Python/Holy Grail were my favorites. Though some parts don't translate well when not seen, (the banging coconuts as hoofbeats) I still thought it was hilarious and loved it even more when I finally saw the film.
From the thick "Knights who say NI" to the silly taunting frenchman to the "I'm not dead", every classic part makes me laugh every time I see it. Maybe if I close my eyes I can be 12 again picturing what I think the scenes must look like. The Black Knight one was almost exactly how I imagined it.

My morbid interests seem to have overflowed to my kids.

This was a conversation I had with Daniel today.

Dan-- "Mommy, I saw the invisible things in my room today."

Me-- "Really? What types of things do you see?"

"Invisible skeletons, invisible people, invisible white stuff..."

"White stuff?"

"Yeah, like invisible white things com' n at me. Like I can see them right now. They're all over the house."

*thinking the house needs dusting* "If they're invisible, how can you see them?"

"Well, I just do."

"Then they can't be that invisible if you can see them and describe them."

"Oh, but I can see them, they are all over the place and no one knows they're there except me."

Convenient. Maybe I should lay off the Michael Jackson "Thriller" video watching for a while. The kids love it and claim they are not scared by it but I remember just hearing the song and getting wigged out.

Vincent Price was creepy man.

4 comments:

  1. Too bad we can't take him to Grandpa's house. Then we'd all believe him!

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  2. What can you expect when you know what his mother finds entertaining?

    Mom

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  3. He saw a man while he was here. Next thing you know the alarm is going off on the stove, when it hasn't worked in years.

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