S.O.S.

We finally got to see mamma mia, the movie that everyone with an ABBA guilty pleasure seems to be raving out. The plan was to watch it with the whole family and we couldnt be more excited that we're bringing my mom along for the ride. My mom is the ultimate ABBA fangirl. She worships at the vocal stylings and bellbottoms of bjorn, benny and agentha and anti-frid...I can still remember all the embarassing parties that we we were forced to perform at when we were kids using the worn out minus-one tape that my mom would always bring with her (minus one machine included)--I had "thank you for the music" as part of my solo act, my sister had it worse, she was assigned the unfortunate melodies of "chiquitita".

Circa 1980, we had that whole family movie weekly thing in full force, i can still vividly evoke thoughts of the old quad moviehouse, wherein the the theater price comes in 2 flavors-orchestra and balcony(it was actually 3, if you count Standing Room Only) or depending if u want to have a stiff neck either by staring at the screen upwards or downwards. Also there was something fascinating with old school extra laden transfat popcorn, the smell of which can be experienced all the way from the parking lot.

My dad used to have this peculiar habit of wanting to go in the theater 30 minutes after the movie starts...we then proceed to sit thru it, wait for the credits to roll, stay patiently inside the theater while the projectionist plays some music(it was usually something by kenny rogers or even worse-bread)while he waits for the first part of the reel to come in, watch the previews and then leave at the part of the flick that we initially gazed our eyes upon. As kids, it was an almost futile act of comprehension and problem solving.

After the movie, my mom was still hyped up and was singing and dancing to "waterloo" all the way to the parking lot while we all keep our distance fearing that people might think we're with that crazy woman. She told us that we should revive the weekly movie tradition again and that she misses us terribly. the ultimate abba fangirl then asked me to sing my opus with her--i thought about it, then i sang the first few lines..she then said "ok, stop it..you are trying to embarass me"