Like an epic romance, sometimes the things you end up loving dearly are the same things you hated with a passion when you were first acquainted. Here is a list of things (my Darcies, if you will) that I hated for a while (maybe hate is a strong word, but you get the idea) but now I love:
What: Lady Gaga
Why I Hated It: She first came onto the scene with her single Just Dance. It was a really great song that I loved right away. But then I started reading about her in interviews and stuff and she just came across so conceited. She was always going on about how her songs were art and how she was an artist, blah blah blah. And I wanted to scratch her eyes out because doesn’t she know she’s just a another pop star and shut up already? I mean, I loved each song she put out, but I just couldn’t stand her.
Turning Point: Then she did an interview with a German television show wearing a coat made of several Kermit the frogs. And now I get it. It’s an act. No one can possibly wear that coat and take themselves too seriously. It’s just not possible. I bet she goes home and laughs her ass off at the ridiculousness of it all. At least I like to think she does and that’s what makes me love her now.
What: Beer
Why I Hated It: I never had a single drink of alcohol in high school. No, not even for my prom or graduation. Sure, I had sips of my Mom’s frilly drinks at family gatherings from time to time, but a sip of my uncle’s beer when I was a kid was enough to keep me away from it for years.
Turning Point: Then I got to college. In the beginning of my freshman year, I was still holding onto my sweet, non-alcoholic demeanor. Friends would ask me if I wanted to go out with them, and I would decline, instead staying in. Then I talked to my Mom on the phone and she said, “You don’t want to decline so much that you never get invited anymore.” It was true. So I said yes to the next invite I got (probably that night) and we went to the Thursday hot spot called Cheers (the trashiest of establishments, where nobody knew your name) and they had cans of Coors Light for $1 and it’s been magic ever since.
What: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Why I Hated It: Everyone in the world told me I would love this show. I fought watching it for so long because Sarah Michelle Gellar fighting vampires? Really? But I finally gave in and borrowed the first and second season from my cousin Michelle. I watched the first season and it was just okay. But just. The characters were cute, but nothing great, the special effects were kind of atrocious (praying mantis teacher, anyone?) and the Master storyline wasn’t all that great to keep me interested. But everyone kept telling me how great it was so I kept going. That is until I got to Inca Mummy Girl. That was the last straw. It was such an atrocious episode that I stopped watching for a year.
Turning Point: I finally gave in and started watching again because I felt bad that I had borrowed Michelle’s DVDs for so long, and would hate to give them back unwatched. So I figured I’d power through the rest and never speak of them again. The next episode was Reptile Boy. The name alone sent chills of awfulness down my spine. But hey, it was kinda good. Then there was the Halloween episode, which hey, was kinda good too. Then there was Lie To Me, which was pretty damn amazing. But the major turning point was when Angel turned evil and all the plot lines seemed to come together and make sense. That was when it changed from a fun show into an amazing show.
What: Reading
Why I Hated It: I hated reading when I was younger. Absolutely loathed it, in fact. My parents tried to get me to read all the time, but nothing would stick. I couldn’t even get through Jurassic Park, which was based on my favorite movie of all time. Okay, maybe it’s the other way around, but back then movies totally trumped books. I hardly ever read any of our required reading assignments for school. I had really great English teachers too, and they tried their darndest to make things interesting, but I just could never get into a single one. No, not even Catcher in the Rye or The Great Gatsby.
Turning Point: Then came November of 2001. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone came out in theaters, and it was a really good movie. I had obviously heard about the books before then, but never gave them much thought. They were just silly children’s books after all! But after seeing the movie, and knowing that there were three other books with the continuing adventures of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, I just had to get them and devour them. I loved every second of the books. It was the first time I truly ever read for fun. I carried them wherever I went, and would even squeeze in a few pages between classes. Once I finished Goblet of Fire, I needed more books to read, and to this day I never go anywhere without a good book.
There we have it. What are some things you hated at first before falling madly in love with?
I just discovered eggs. For decades I convinced myself I hated them, then just before Christmas I went out for breakfast, told myself to stop being such a prissy twat and just ate the damned things. Haven’t looked back since. Omnomnomnomnom.
Huh. Most things I hated I still hate. Though for alcohol I went through the beer stage when I was a poor student cause it was cheap, then I moved onto wine and then for some reason a few years ago I found I developed a hatred of wine, I almost gag when I have to drink it to be polite, so I’ve moved back to beer (and hard stuff of course). No idea what’s up with that. And no, it’s not quality, I’ve had great wine and I still hate it.
Maybe asparagus. Wouldn’t touch it as a kid, now I love it. (That’s lame, one vegetable is the best I can do?)
Summer squash/zucchini – Used to hate them as a kid, but in retrospect I think it was because in our house they tended to get used when they had grown too big. Add in the traditional Southern approach to cooking vegetables – i.e., boil all the color and flavor out of them – and they were really unappetizing. Now I love them, but I also know how to pick them out and cook them up right.
Coors Light, though? Bleagh. Since pretty much any alcoholic beverage comes with a guarantee of a headache (alcohol does weird things to my sinuses), I’m very selective about what passes my lips these days.
Foods didn’t even come to mind when I was writing this but as a kid I used to be so grossed out by creamed corn, or as I used to call it “slimy corn”. But now I absolutely love it.
And yeah, Coors Light is so nasty.
I’m not sure I’ve ever had Coors light. I mostly drink Alexander Keiths now and I’m not sure you guys even get that down there. I usually get the India Pale Ale but I should try the Premium White. It’s apparently citrusy (is that a word?). It’s made in Nova Scotia. They also have dark ale and red amber ale. Dark ale. *gag*
I had some really nice microbrew a few weeks ago. I can’t remember the name but it had the word lime in it.
I followed a similar trajectory with Lady Gaga. I outright dismissed her from the start though, because I’m forever skeptical of new “pop” stars (except Kelly Clarkson – shut up). But, I read more and more things about her, and discovered that she plays the piano, and writes her own music, and sings pretty well…
Then, Poker Face came out, and my life was complete.
I’m with you on Lady G – it was hearing “Bad Romance” that was my turn-around point. Now I’m quite fond of her.
As for food – asparagus. Hated it as a kid (probably because it was sometimes served from a can) but now I can’t get enough. I think the turning point was hollandaise sauce.
Josherico’s reaction to Gaga turned me off, and what I’ve seen since then hasn’t swayed me.
I also wasn’t a big beer drinker until I moved in with someone who was. I’m pretty sure that I drank more that year than my entire life up to that point combined. My consumption has dropped off since we moved out, but I still keep a couple six packs in the fridge for when I have people over or when I want to enjoy one for myself.
I hadn’t heard of Gaga until Poker Face came out and I immediately loved it. I certainly listed to Enrico’s and then Josh’s criticisms of her, but avoided any press about her and just listened to the songs. Then I caught an interview and thought pretty much the same as Craig: it is all part of the brand/show. I’m ok with that. She has talent to back up some of her claims, and for me, I just want to listen to some fun music.
I can’t think of anything that I really hated as a kid that I like now. I wasn’t big on vegetables as a kid, but love them now, but never hated any of them that I now like. I don’t like beer and don’t drink any alcohol (Mel, I have a similar reaction which my ENT theorizes is related to my significant grass allergy). I’m totally an inexpensive date, but I ain’t cheap!
I’m with Craiggers, and JP and DancerinDC about Lady GaGa. I too wasn’t even remotely interested, until I heard Pokerface on the radio, sang along, liked it, and didn’t find out it was her until the song had ended.
Tam: LaBatts Blue. Nuff Said.
Now, onto Craiggers question about what I hated but now like.
1) Pink Floyd. A friend of mine was always telling me how awesome they were, and it turned me off. Until I watched the Wall once in college…while drunk. That changed everything.
2) The Simpsons. I thought them juvenile and stupif, when they first got big, cause it was all about what a bad ass Bart was. But I’ve come to see how subversive and entertaining they truly are.
3) Broccoli. HATED it as a kid, but when the doctor told me it might help with my diabetes, I’ve started eating it. Still don’t love it, but I can get it down just fine.
HUGS…
Oh, and Arrested Development is another show I didn’t like right away. I didn’t hate it, just thought it was unfunny and refused to watch until a friend got me the DVDs and I was able to catch up. Now I love it.
First time I saw the 3rd Harry Potter movie (Prisoner) I did not like it. I think that it was just so different from the first 2 movies that it threw me for a loop. But when we got it on DVD and I watched it again it started to grow on me. Now it is by far my favorite of all the Harry Potter movies.
Coffee! I use to always see my family drink it after dinner or hear everyone say how they needed coffee in the morning. I hated the taste and thought it was insane that anyone needed it to get through the day….Now I understand and need at least 2 cups to get me going!
Oh nice call, James! Coffee, yes, I hated it! But then I showed up for work one day with a hangover and I chocked a cup down and it helped and the rest, as they say, is history. But only at work, I don’t drink coffee anywhere else.
HUGS…
I now love (cooked) broccoli. I use it in one of my staple meals.
I also have learned to enjoy coffee, but I still prefer to get my caffeine from diet soda.
Oh James triggered me too. I never drank coffee until about a year ago. Hated it. Then I started drinking it at work and now I have a little mini-coffee maker on my desk. But I drink my two cups every morning and that’s it. I never make it or drink it at home. I don’t miss it so I don’t think I’m hooked on the caffeine. Mind you, I like it luke warm and weak (yuck – I know) so I don’t think I get much caffeine in each cup.
Damn Polt, you and I really are twins. LOL
Butt secks.
Kidding. (sort of)
Things I initially hated that you all seemed to hate as well at first before falling in love with, but that I still hate:
coffee
asparagus
Coors Light
I learned to love beer my Junior year in college when I studied in England. After being put off by the piss water that most American college kids drank, I had the pleasure of drinking REAL beer in Europe. Talk about your epiphanies.
I always loved reading. As a kid, when the book club orders would come in at school, the teacher would give the other students their books, then give me the box the order came in so I could carry all the books I ordered home.
Most of mine were food based things from when I was a kid. Tomatoes, shrimp, clams. Now I love em’.
However beer, I’ve been imbibing since I was knee high to a grasshopper. As a kid my grandfather used to let me take a sip now and then. As a teen I was sort of drunk a lot of the time but could still perform well in school. Go figure.
As far as reading, I love to read. Mostly like sci-fi and geeky stuff.
Tam: re: our twinness: was there ever any doubt? I knew for sure after the clerk in HMV!
HUGS…
So, we have Polt-Tam and Enrico-Josh. What other twins separated at birth do we have.
I hate GaGa and have never had beer. And I love reading and BTVS!!!
I used to hate Ke$ha (“Tik Tok”) and now I love her (turning point = the rest of her CD)
“…my Junior year in college when I studied in England. After being put off by the piss water that most American college kids drank, I had the pleasure of drinking REAL beer in Europe.”
Well look at me i’m David…La-Dee-Dah…pip-pip cheerio and all that rubish… Aren’t I fancy?!!!
Ryan: I think John-Michelle M. often twin out. Jichelle? Michohn?
Adam: I remember being so disappointed in the Azkaban movie when it came out. They cut so much! But now I totally agree it’s the best one. Goblet of Fire on the other hand is my current least favorite.
LOL @ “pip-pip cheerio”
I mean…
Craig: Was Goblet of Fire the one were the central conflict was who was going to take who to the dance? I hated that one.
Yeah, that’s the one. Also, Dumbledore was really awful to Harry after his named was pulled out of the goblet. That never would have happened in the books.
And everyones hair was horrendous.
I used to not like Taylor Swift, but then I heard “Love Story” a thousand times on the radio and realized I was being a snobby prick. I got her CD and fell in love with it!
I’m the opposite of you in regards to Gaga! I liked her CD at first but after how gimmicky she is, I just have to yawn. I feel like she can be goofy and shit and wear her dumbazz costumes and it would all be well and good if she just had some humility about her or not. Whenever you see her out, she is so stone-faced and I DO believe she takes all this shiz way too serial. Whereas peepz like Ke$ha & Katy Perry wear bizarre shit and make goofy videos but embrace their campiness and SMILE ONCE IN AWHILE OUT IN PUBLIC.
*humility about herself
I used to hate going to the gym, but now if I don’t work out for a few days I feel like crap and get cranky. I’m not sure I “love” going to the gym, but I don’t hate it anymore.
I also used to hate doing things like eating out or going to events or movies alone, but now I love it (sometimes) because I get to enjoy things on my own schedule.
I still hate beer.
Craiggers: Maggie Smith’s hair has NEVER been horrendous! Just sayin…
HUGS….
And if Tam & I are twins, we HAVE to go by the moniker Poltam, which can be pronounced POL-tam, because 1) it sounds somewhat English which should be pleasing to David and his pip-pip-cherrio-ism, and 2) the other way, Tampolt, just sounds WAY too much like a femanine hygiene product for my sensibilities.
HUGS…
The first guy I fell for. When I was 12-13 or so I thought he was just a big stupid jerk. He used to make fun of me and I greatly disliked him. Then when I was 15-16 or so I thought that he was totally dreamy. We made our peace and became very close friends, with a muddled Brokeback sub-plot. Now we are just friends, but he still has a tender place in my heart many years later. My childhood enemy became my first great love.
I don’t think I EVER liked beer. I drank it in high school when that is all there was at the parties. Now, I prefer to avoid beer. I like wine, cider, and some mixed drinks.
I never liked tomatoes. I don’t love them now, but I no longer go out of my way to avoid them like I used to. I never thought I would like hazelnut chocolate balls, they just sounded too exotic and weird. It turns out I LOVE them! The boring steak my parents cooked when I was a child turned me off steak for a long time. Now some of my favorite dishes are fancy flavorful steak dishes. That is all I can think of at the moment.
Polt: But Tampolt could become one of Josh’s Monday Muses.
Chris D.: I used to hate tomatoes, too. Now, I still don’t love them raw like my parents, but I do love making my own pasta sauce.
I was going to start with saying I agreed with Craig and John and DancerinDC about Lady Gaga, but Josh’s post on the subject is the first time he’s explained his problem with her in a way that has me thinking. What the hell, though. I love the Bad Romance video and always will
David — Butt secks. *chuckle* Gill — making fun of David. *chuckle*
Back to the topic at hand. (Actually there are an awful lot of them.)
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere at least twice, there are lots of TV shows I thought I would hate or be disdainful of (LOST, ER, Sex & the City) but got sucked into later. And Harry Potter — the books, not the movies — kind of belong in this category, too, for me. When they first came out I resisted them for years: too derivative, I thought; too over-marketed; too-over-hyped. But shortly before the first HP movie came out, a close friend bought me a copy of Sorceror’s Stone (or, as I still prefer to call it in my insufferably pedantic and pip-pip way by its original British title — and the only one that makes sense — Philosopher’s Stone) and I was very pleasantly surprised and immediately hooked. I read them all up through whichever book was out by then (the fourth? Goblet of Fire?) and have seen each movie as soon as it came out and bought each book as soon as it came out: when the 7th came out I went to Hogwart’s Square (normally called Harvard Square) and hung out with all the people in costumes (the streets were shut down to traffic) and couldn’t believe that the entire *WORLD* was doing this at the same time over a friggin’ *BOOK*. Couldn’t believe it a very good way.
I agree Azkaban is the best movie so far. The most disappointing so far is Half-Blood Prince IMHO. I actually quite like Globlet (Krum — mmmm; and Robert Pattinson before he became pasty and ick), but as the books get more adult and sophisticated, the movies inversely become more and more unsatisfying: HBP ties with Deathly Hallows for my favourite. It would be nearly-impossible to do it justice in a 2-hour movie and the one they did was … just terribly disappointing. I felt *NOTHING* in the climactic scene. Reading the book, I audibly gasped.
On the topic of food and drink and other items, I’m proud to say that my entire adult life has been a long slow acquisition of tastes in things I thought I had hated. Proud, but also happy for myself, because life is more enjoyable with more variety, and being stuck in liking/disliking the same things for a lifetime is potentially rather boring.
* Alcohol: hated it as a child (my parents were very liberal and always let me try it, which was smart of them, actually). Never touched it in HS. Was a total, terminally-uncool nerd then (pretty much still am), so sex, drugs, alcohol, and most rock-and-roll were not part of my HS or college life. The drinking age was 18 back then (in the Jurassic) so alcohol was VERY big in college (as it still is, but even more so) but I just had zero interest.
In my Senior Year of College, my friends got fed up and insisted I start drinking beer. They started me on little shot-glass sized tastes of beer. I would choke them down. After a few weeks, I could drink a small glass without grimacing until about half-way through. A few more weeks and I could drink the whole glass without grimacing at all. After about 3 months, I found myself craving the stuff: walking past a bar I would think “a cold one would be nice right now”…
After that, I took to alcohol like a drunk fish to a tank full of alcohol. To this day, however, I still cannot stand brown liquors like whisky, rum, tequila, or Scotch. I’ve tried, and tried. But I’m never going to like them.
* Fish. I thought I hated all seafood. But when I was 40, I grudgingly tried some salmon and liked it. After some experimenting, I realized I like pretty much all fish, but I just still hate shellfish, with the exception of lobster (ok, but not worth it for me) and crab (ditto). Shrimp, clams, scallops, etc., I still cannot stand. The smell OR the taste. But I love fish. This is probably the taste-acquisition I’m happiest about.
* Many vegetables: mushrooms (the gateway for me was mushrooms and garlic fried in butter), cooked carrots (always liked raw, even as a child), raw tomato (always liked cooked, even as a child), okra, spinach (LOVE spinach now), kale, arugula (yes, just like Obama), etc.
* Coffee: I hated coffee as a child and through college all the way until 4 years after. Back in those days (the Paleolithic) coffee was “instant” or made from “crystals” or god knows what. In the early 80s, the fad of buying actual BEANS and grinding them yourself took on. My roommate in 1984 had a Mr Coffee (or some such new-fangled device) and the aroma of brewing coffee would wake me up every morning. I got hooked. Sadly, coffee does not like me, or my digestive system. My love-affair with coffee only lasted about 10 years. I had to give it up in the mid-90s.
* Music. pace Enrico, I still don’t like Country. I grew up liking classical, because that’s almost all my parents played. I still like classical, though my tastes have wandered away from the romantic music they preferred (which I now find mostly schmaltzy) to early music. I like some stuff after Mozart and Beethoven, but not as much (I can’t bear Mahler, for instance; I do love Debussy, and Saint-Saëns, and Tchaikowski and Rimsky-Korsakov, and Ravel and Mussorgsky and a little Berlioz), but mostly for me it’s Mozart, Baroque, and Renaissance.
Pop music I didn’t like until disco (which I still have a soft spot for), with rare exceptions from the 60s and 70s; then I got into Punk and New Wave and Alternative and Grunge and House and Hip Hop and all sorts of other stuff.
My biggest musical accomplishment is the acquisition of a taste for Opera. THAT was something I genuinely was 100% certain I would *ALWAYS* hate. The gateway for me was a stunning, breathtaking early-music production of Jean-Jacques Lully’s Thésée by the Boston Early Music Festival. There is a fair amount of opera I still probably wouldn’t like (because of my general preferences against Romantic-era music), but I now love Opera as a genre.
And I’m just really happy I keep learning to like new things
Chris D, as per usual, you, and your particular brand of stories, are adorably sweet.
Yes! I’m so glad you got Lady Gaga. That’s exactly what she’s doing. She’s kind of making fun of the whole pop world by participating in it overzelously. I’m sure she’s eventually gonna actually stage her death and move to Canada with videotapes of everything she did and laugh her ass off. <3
Ummm, we’re sending her to Iceland Kári. We got enough crazy people here. She hang out with Bjork.
I also hate things that people blindly follow to an extreme extent, like Lady Gaga. I see her and my eyes melt over her blatant egoism about herself and I can’t understand why so many people think she’s the end-all-be-all of the music world. She’s making goofy pop songs about having sex…she’s not reinventing music altogether.
Tam: And yay! Bjork is a genius and soooo humble about herself! GaGogglez could learn a ting or dos from her!
But — Josh — I don’t *know* anybody who thinks GaGogglez is “reinventing music” or the “end-all-be-all of the music world”. Everybody I know who likes her music just — likes her music because it’s catchy goofy pop, and because her over-the-top outfits are … well … funny.
If I saw an interview with her where she claimed to be everything you say she thinks she is, then I’d roll my eyes 360 degrees around in my head and then I’d have to check myself into the ER to get my optic nerves untangled.
I admit that I couldn’t *stand* her when I first saw her. I thought her “look at me!!! aren’t I weird!!!!” schtick was sooooooo old and tired. I don’t deny that her schtick still very much on the edge of tolerable, but I still suspect that Craig is right and she knows what she’s doing and doesn’t take herself as seriously as you think she does. In the meantime, I can laugh at her ridiculous outfits and I can enjoy her pop for what it is: pop.
As for Bjork — she’s every bit as deserving of the spoofs that have been done about her on SNL and MadTV and elsewhere as Lady Gaga is about the spoofs she’s inspiring. “Humble about herself”? I must have missed that part
Justerz: I know a good HANDFUL of people that follow Gaga around religiously and try and convince me that she is a musical visionary beyond compare.
And have you ever seen an interview with Bjork? She IS incredibly humbled by the much-deserved praise she gets. When she is parodied it has NOTHING to do with her being a pretentious music know-it-all…the spoofs are always about her weird demeanor and bizarre sound.
I just don’t see the big deal about Gaga and think that she’s getting more attention and praise then she deserves while other musicians who are much more talented and who don’t wear st00pid outfits get shafted.
She’s fun pop music. Yes, she’s talented. But her gimmick is what gets to me as does how people fall for it hardxxxcore.
Well I’m highly skeptical of *anybody* claiming that *any* pop star is a “musical visionary”. Bllleaaahhh. And as for “fairness” with regards to who gets famous and who doesn’t, since when has the recording industry been *remotely* fair? Talent isn’t enough. Marketing and hype and how your label treats you has always been a big part of the game from day one. I gave up on worrying about why some people made it and others — more deserving — didn’t a loooong time ago.
I hate when people write off pop artists as flash-in-the-pan people who don’t deserve respect since they are on the top 40. Many pop artists are incredibly gifted.
And I know about marketing and publicity (I work in it), but I can still be frustrated by it. Music and the business around it is the one thing in life I am most passionate about so it’s hard for me to not think about it and become irritated by it.
I agree completely that many pop artists are incredibly gifted. Gifted does not necessarily mean “visionary”, however. Michael Jackson was *incredibly* gifted. And his life (from childhood on) was as tragic as he was gifted. I’m not sure if he was a visionary or not. I’m not sure I can judge such a thing.
I understand how passionate you are, and I respect that passion. It’s going to get you frustrated and hurt sometimes, because the music industry is a particularly cruel and unfair world (as is book publishing), but anything in life that’s worth doing comes with that sort of risk, doesn’t it?
Yeah.
You never saw an interview with GaGaloo saying stuff like that?!
There are a billion interviews where she says she’s not making pop music, but pop ART. Yeah, sure.
I haven’t, but if you include her nutzoid outfits, you can (sort of) count her as a “performance artist”. And most performance artists are pretentious and irritating as hell. But they can be fun, too, and like I said, Bad Romance was fun. I enjoy the song, and I adore the video. And I like some of her other songs from Fame Monster, too. TBH I don’t much like any of the stuff I’ve heard from previous albums (which isn’t much). I certainly don’t take her seriously and I would roll my eyes at anybody who did. As long as I enjoy the songs and she makes me laugh, it’s all good as far as I’m concerned