Visual Medium? Oh, why don�t you just say �film:� 1.19.06

To tell you the truth, I just don�t miss it all that much. I�m talking about bars�the drinking, the smoking, the topical chitty-chatting. I mean, since getting all domesticated over the last year, I�d really rather lounge, coated in cat hair, on the futon eating homemade burritos with S. in my p.j�s and hop into bed by midnight. (No, of COURSE that�s not how we spend our time.) But with him away, and my friends in bars, there hasn�t been much choice.

I do, however, enjoy some of the annoying randomness. Like, last night, R. was being friendly to some girl sitting next to us at the bar. She drops the fact that she�s studying literature. �What�s your era?� I ask her. �Well,� she says, �I have a minor in visual medium and what I�m really into are the horror films of the late 80�s and early 90�s" Wha? Horror films of the late 80�s and early 90�s? What is that? Scream? I Know What You Did Last Summer? The BLAIR WITCH PROJECT? Is this really suitable academic fodder? Moreover, is this actually a genre? I mean I always just grouped those films loosely under the heading �Crap.�

But sure. Kids. What will they think of next? I think good horror dried up in 1984, after Nightmare on Elm Street came out. My mother probably thought I was just as barmy when I declared The Last House on the Left [late 70�s slasher-horror flick extraordinaire] to be the epitome of good horror. But, c�mon. That�s a really good movie. Particularly when you factor in kitsch value. And don't get me started on Argento's Susperia , or how psyched I am on the soon-to-be-released remake of When a Stranger Calls . Although I'm sure it will disappoint.

So clearly I love being frightened half to death. I am aware it is very poor form to compare your boyfriend to your brother, but I have to say that S. does the quick and dirty scare tactics equal to none, except my brother circa. 1984 as he tortured me by scraping a treebranch across my window a' la Freddy.

Getting back to my point though, you know what's really scary? The thought of bars ad infanitum in my mid-30's. Bars are the playgrounds of youth, and I am getting far too cynical to hack the scene much longer. Thank goodness.