Q: A Quick Trip through my favorites (MOTW, mytharc epi, season, episode)

So, I found this great blog post ("30 Days in a Day or a Love Song to the X-Files") and thought that I would do the same here on this blog. It's a great way to get a lot of information out and quickly.

Day 1: Favorite Season
Season 6...I like to ship all the things and this season, while it ends in a whimper, starts out with a bang by taking place right after the movie. Seriously, with shippy deliciousness like "Arcadia", "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas", "The Rain King" and "Dreamland I and II", just great episodes like "The Unnatural" and "Monday", and trippy, gross episodes like "Field Trip", how could I not be in love with this season?
Day 2: Least Favorite Season
The first three seasons of this show are quite different than the next three (of course, there's another shift after Season 6, but we don't need to talk about that now)...the episodes are just so darned dark and scary and happy endingless, but the one that the biggest downer is Season 2. Sure it's got great storylines, but by the end I just needed a good laugh.
Day 3: First Episode You Ever Saw
You probably remember me saying that I don't really remember the first episode I ever saw, but I do remember the first episode that gave me the willies...the one with the killer lightening bugs, "Darkness Falls".
Day 4: Favorite Female Character
Sooo...if I can't choose Scully as my favorite because that would be a given, I suppose, I don't know who else I'd choose. Sure, there's Monica Reyes, but isn't she also a given? Are there really a lot of secondary characters that are female? Monica, Marita, Susanne Modeski all appear in more than one episode, but do they work?
Day 5 Favorite Male Character
ADA Skinner, I spent most of the series wondering if he was a good guy or a bad guy, questioning most of his actions and motives...in the end he proved himself and it's nice watching the episodes again with all of this in mind.
Day 6: Favorite Villain
I love to hate this sexy, double-crossing SOB. I think he proves that it's better to choose a side, even if that side loses than to me all for ones self.
Day 7: Favorite Episode
If I have to pick just one...um...
Day 8: Favorite Monster of the Week
Donnie Pfaster...sure he doesn't have any extra abilities, but that just makes him scarier and creepier and...well, I'm getting chills just thinking about him.
Day 9: Favorite Mulder Moment
Any of those scenes in "Monday"...I sometimes watch this episode just so I can watch his facial expressions.
"My damn waterbed sprung a leak...Yes, I do know that...it must have been a gift."
"I endorsed my damn paycheck stub."
Day 10: Favorite Scully Moment
I prefer kick butt Scully over crying/moping/irrational Scully. I especially like her at the end of "Never Again"..."Not everything's about you, Mulder."
Day 11: Favorite Skinner Moment
When he gives Scully the coordinates in "Triangle" and she kisses him "the elevator doors open*
Day 12: Favorite Doggett Moment
The end of "Release". He'd been so full of rage for most of that episode, questioning and confused at the end we can see his pain and it, well, I teared up a little.
Day 13: Favorite Monica Moment
When she's helping Scully deliver the baby...she just so sweet and awesome. Frankly, I have loved Annabeth Gish my whole life...ever since 'Mystic Pizza'.
Day 14: Favorite Lone Gunmen Moment
Any in "Three of a Kind"...I especially like that Byers gets a bit of romance.
Day 15: Happiest Scene
The end of Season 8.
Day 16: Funniest Scene
"It wasn't even real cream cheese it was light cream cheese."
or
"Talkin' bout Shaft can you dig it..."
"I. DID. NOT."
*Gets me every time.*
Day 17: Most Dramatic Scene
The ending of "Milagro"
Day 18: Most Heartbreaking Scene
Mulder crying at Scully's bedside *tears*
Day 19: Favorite Mulder/Scully Moment
"I'd kiss you if you weren't so ugly."
Day 20: Favorite Mulder/Scully Phone Conversation
It's a toss up between all of those convos in "War of the Corprophages" and the three-way in the bubble bath tubs in "Hollywood AD".
Day 21: An Episode You Hate that Everyone Else Loves
I do not get the love for "Jose Chung's From Outer Space". I've watched that episode more than once, during the day...at night...I've read the script and still...I don't think it's funny.
Day 22: An Episode You Hated at First, but Now Love
I am sorry to say that I was one of those people that didn't watch an episode that didn't include Mulder and I was that person for a long time, then I bought the show on DVD and watched them and well, um, they are good...different than Mulder and Scully, but good. I am sad I didn't give them a chance. I especially like "4-D". WOW!
Day 23: Favorite Mytharc or Recurring Storyline
"Wet-Wired"/"Talitha Cumi"/"Herrenvolk"
Day 24: Favorite Title for an Episode
"2Shy"...I can't be the only one who thinks of that song...and then there's the fact that the killer is preying on the vulnerability of lonely women.
Day 25: Favorite Kiss
That forehead kiss in the hospital...so touching.
Day 26: Favorite Season Finale
Season 5...boy did that one have me going!
Day 27: Favorite Scene, EVER
"We just curled up like little baby cats, ain't that right honey bunch."
"Sure is poopy pants."
Day 28: Favorite FTF Moment
"I had you big time."
Day 29: Favorite IWTB Moment
The first time we see Mulder and Scully and they're in bed. He appears beside her all scruffy and it surprised the whole theatre. Seriously, people clapped and cheered. My friend and I had gone to watch it opening night and I had to by the DVD just to know what I missed after that happened the cheering was so loud. It was an awesome experience.
Day 30: Favorite Quote
"Whatever happened to playing a hunch, Scully? The element of surprise, random acts of unpredictability? If we fail to anticipate the unforseen or expect the unexpected in a universe of infinite possibilities, we may find ourselves at the mercy of anyone or anything that cannot be programmed, categorized or easily referenced."

O: On the interwebs (blogs to follow)

Below is a list of the places I go when I need an X-Files fix...some of these I've know about for years, some I just found in the last few months as I've been rewatching the series.

Inside the X
Reopening the X-Files
The X-Files Episode Guide
Musings of an X-Phile
The AV Club
My Truth...An X-Files Blog
The X-Files Lexicon
X-Files Universe

There are other blogs I'll look at every now and again (I've even been known to go crazy on IMDB and join a group or two), but these are the definitive ones I always go to for all the information I need.

N: The 90s

I love the 90s. I miss the 90s. I feel lucky because I got to be in and graduate from high school and college in the 90s. I like reading about the 90s being compared to the Roaring 20s. They do have a lot in common including feminism, a heady time for music and literature and they were both decades that were wonderful followed by decades that were really quite the opposite of that. I could go into more detail, but I'd rather spend the rest of this post talking about my favorite pop culture references from each year of the decade. Feel free to add yours in the comments.


1990
Favorite Song: "Ice, Ice Baby"...Vanilla Ice
Favorite Movie: "Pretty Woman" (sadly, I didn't watch "Dances with Wolves" until college)
Favorite TV Show: "Beverly Hills: 90210"

1991
Favorite Song: "Black or White"...Michael Jackson
Favorite Movie: "Backdraft" (please don't think my mother allowed me to watch this...)
Favorite TV Show: "Step by Step"

1992
Favorite Song: "The End of the Road"...Boyz II Men
Favorite Movie: "A Few Good Men"
Favorite TV Show: "X-Men" cartoon

1993
Favorite Song: "I Will Always Love You"
Favorite Movie: "Sleepless in Seattle"
Favorite TV Show: "The X-Files" (seriously.)

1994
Favorite Song: "Linger"...The Cranberries
Favorite Movie: "Four Weddings and a Funeral"
Favorite TV Show: "Friends"

1995
Favorite Song: "You Ought to Know"...Alanis Morrissette
Favorite Movie: "Home for the Holidays"
Favorite TV Show: "Sliders"

1996
Favorite Song: "Don't Go Away"...Oasis
Favorite Movie: The English Patient
Favorite TV Show: "Early Edition"

1997
Favorite Song: "If God Will Send His Angels"...U2
Favorite Movie: "Titanic"
Favorite TV Show: "Ally McBeal"

1998
Favorite Song: "Torn"...Natalie Imbruglia
Favorite Movie: "Armageddon"
Favorite TV Show: "Charmed"...although, I like "Felicity" way, way, way more now.

1999
Favorite Song: "Road Trippin'"...Red Hot Chili Peppers
Favorite Movie: "The Matrix"
Favorite TV Show: "Law and Order: SVU"

Boy, it was fun putting together this list...sweet, sweet, nostalgia.

A: At the very beginning, a very good place to start

I can't exactly remember the first time I ever watched "The X-Files". I know I watched it on Fridays when I was in high school (when my mother would let me) and there are some episodes (mostly from that first season) that I remember quite well. I remember watching it on Sundays when I was in college, my roommate and I wrapped in blankets in the dark on either end of our garage-sale couch. You have to remember those first few seasons were creepier and scarier than subsequent seasons.

I am writing this while watching the finale of the 6th season...a finale I remember quite well, a finale that didn't tie in with the wonderfully, lighthearted episodes that makes this season my favorite season. This finale devastated me. Frankly, I think it did many people as it added another layer to the alien myth, put Mulder is some strange, unexplained danger and gave me at least 3 more reasons to really want to punch Diana Fowley in the gut.

With a new series in the works and my head full of this show and the memories it evokes I look forward to spending the next month talking about my love/obsession with Agents Mulder and Scully, AD Skinner and the various monsters, myths, aliens and conspiracies that really are much of the background noise of my favorite decade.

Click here if you need any help with abbreviations.

Note: I'm only talking about things that interest me or that I remember being integral to the show and its characters. If there's something you think I should comment on or talk about feel free to comment below.

26 Books that Changed My Life: #17 The Hottest State

Q: Question Your Youthful Arrogance
I thought I would spend the month of April delving into the literature that has made me the person I am today.

1] In this list you will find some of my favorite books, but you will also find books that I appreciate and books that I would recommend although they may not be my favorite.In high school  These are books that changed my way of thinking or my way of looking the world. These are books that helped solidify the core of who I am.

2] These books are in order of the theme that I came away with not alphabetical by title or author.

About this book:
"Hawke does a fine job of showing what it's like to be young and full of confusion." ~The New York Times Book Review

When William meets Sarah at a bar appropriately called the Bitter End, he is a few months short of his twenty-first birthday and about to act in his first movie. He is so used to getting what he wants that he has never been able to care too deeply for anyone. But all of that is about to change. And it is Sarah--bold and shy, seductive and skittish--who will become William's undoing and his salvation.

William's affair with Sarah will take him from a tenement on the Lower East Side to a hotel room in Paris, from a flip proposal of marriage to the extremities of outraged need and the wisdom that comes only to true survivors. Anyone who reads The Hottest State will encounter a writer who can charm, dazzle, and break the heart in a single paragraph.

"Beguiling...full of the freshness of love and the agony of loss...Hawke is a good writer who has produced a worthy first love. It pleased and moved me.: ~Mary Loudon, The London Times

Publication Date:  first published 1966

Why this book:

In college my friends and I used to have Christmas parties, the girls would bake, the guys would buy the tree and the meat (turkey and ham) and my roommates and I would clean and decorate and sign Christmas cards. We'd eat delicious foods: cream cheese mashed potatoes, cranberry orange salad and almond green beans just to same some of the highlights and we'd drink delicious punches and we'd play games, my favorite being truth or dare jenga (I'll explain the rules sometime). We'd also have a gift exchange.

Our party in 1996 was a bit different. It was at my apartment (I'd just moved out solo) and many of my friends were bringing boyfriends and girlfriends or had paired up and become boyfriends and girlfriends themselves. The new additions to our group became part of the exchange. I was leary, I was apprehensive. I hate change and new and...er...change.  The Hottest State was the only thing I'd put on my list because a girl in one of my classes said a] I would love it and b] it would inspire me as a writer. I asked for this book, I received a bird Christmas ornament from one of my dear friend's girlfriends--a girl I didn't particularly like and a girl that I hardly knew. I tried to act like it was cool. But, she caught on and told me to look under the ornament...there is was the book of my dreams. And, at that one moment, that now totally ex-girlfriend of a dear friend, definitely gained cool points.

Ethan Hawke is great at articulating (in his movies and in his writings) stories about real people. And, William is the anti-hero that I would never want to date. I love that in the end he is still pretty flawed and he still doesn't have all the answers. In the end he is still not a good guy, but he does have the spark, and that's all you can ask from a 21 year-old that spark of maturity, of growth. The 20 year-old in me saw his potential, the 36 year-old in me understands what that potential is all about, the 36 year-old in me understands that until that youthful arrogance subsides we aren't really adult.