These Are A Few of My Favourite Things...

I'm sitting here at work, listening to Aerosmith's 'Girls of Summer' and I realised that no matter how open I am to different genres of music, I find myself enjoying rock and alternative music the most... oh and punk! There are still many who raise their eyebrows in surprise when I make known my preference. Apparently I don't seem the type :p Whatever...

I was quite a tom-boy when I was growing up. I climbed trees, dug for earthworms, roughhoused with the boys and had Saber Rider and Transformers for toys. All the Barbie and Candy dolls I received for birthdays and Christmas went to my little sister. It was so much more fun to build space stations and construct headquarters for the Autobots, and after probably a month, I figured it would be even cooler to open up Optimus Prime to see what made the lights flash and his body parts move. That was of course the end of my toy's life. Never really could put the pieces back together again :p

My facination with the world of robots was apparent in the Cartoons I watched too. Ahh... those cartoons... Let's see, my all time favourite featured 5 mechanical lions, each lying 'dormant' in 5 different parts of the world until danger reared its ugly head and they were summoned to protect mankind from the evil forces that threatened to take over the world (as always). Voltron: The Defenders of the Universe! Nothing could tear me away from the TV when it was on. Coming in a close second would be Transformers. Autobots vs Decepticons. I had the videos (which I watched repeatedly) as well as the action figures, and spent many an evening orchestrating 'wars' in the garden. (Barbie inadvertently got involved somehow). And then there were the rest; Thunder Cats, Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, He-Man & She-Ra, M.A.S.K, Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, Ghostbusters, The Ninja Turtles, Spider Man, Mighty Mouse, Danger Mouse etc... Of course I made time for The Smurfs, Jem, Strawberry Shortcake, Glo-Friends... But they weren't as exciting.

But no matter how tempted I am these days to take a trip back down memorylane and revisit my childhood cartoons, I stubbornly dig my heels in and avoid it. There are lots of very fond memories but those shows are meant to be watched when you're 8 and then left when you grow up. I made the mistake of watching He-Man 3 years ago and I thought, "Oh my God, how lame and predictable!!! Did I really enjoy watching this??" So now I stick to the likes of 24, 6 feet Under and Sex and the City (Hey I'm a girl). That goes the same for TV shows like MacGyver (I was in LOVE with Richard Dean Anderson - thought he was so cool. I mean he he could make ANYTHING out of ANYTHING), Airwolf (was in love with Jan-Michael Vincent too. And that helicopter!! My favourite scene would be the opening credits when that Bell 222 would rise up from the crater where the hidden headquarters lay), V (thought it was awesome that they could take their eyeballs out whenever they wanted), Knight Rider (Michael with his super remote-controlled, talking car Kitt) and of coure The A-Team!! But I know that the magic these shows had for me wouldn't shine as brightly now as they used to.

I could probably go on and on about the stuff I used to do when I was a kid, but I'll stop here. Maybe I'll share a little more next time when the mood strikes me. Would love to hear what you guys out there in digital-land used to watch as kids! Would be nice to know if anyone else thought MacGyver was THE MAN. hahahaha...

Note: Found this fantastic site that features clips of cartoons and TV series from the 70s to the 90s. I had a blast checking out all the stuff I grew up watching. :)