My Guilty Pleasures
Stalingrad Cowgirls
It took me a long time to figure out my answer to this. For years, whenever any one would ask me, I never knew what to say. I hate country music. I find Rascal Flatts lame. I find Old Dominion repulsive. Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood is like nails on a chalkboard.
Despite this, I fell in love with a pop rock “country” group from Finland. The Stalingrad Cowgirls were a trio of girls from northern Lapland. Their name is a play on a country band from Russia, the Leningrad Cowboys. When they were high schoolers, they released their debut album Somewhere High. A few years later in college they released their 2nd and last album Kiss Your Heart Goodbye.
That’s it. The three girls agreed that if it ever became a challenge to make music together, they would give it up, and they did. They released two kick ass albums and ended on a good note. That’s much better then continually producing sequels until the feeling is drained out and dead. Strangely I feel proud for what they accomplished, almost like a parent (weird, I know), seeing their daughters succeed.
“We decided not to ruin the band just because we don’t have enough time to dedicate to it. We realized it was time for some tough decisions. Originally we had planned to do this only as long as it was fun and came naturally. Now we’re going to bury Stalingrad Cowgirls with honor and smiling through the tears” - Enni Kivelä
Eurotrip
My other two guilty pleasures are raunchy teen flicks from the 2000s and 2010s. There have been times in my I’ve been so depressed I’ve had thoughts of suicide. (Don’t worry, I’m in a much better place now). In those darkest moments, there wasn’t much that could cheer me up, but Eurotrip was one of them.
I had just graduated from college, one of the greatest experiences of my life. I had no job, moved back home with my parents, and didn’t live near any of my friends from school. It was like reaching the top of Mt. Everest, only to fall without a parachute to the bottom of Death Valley.
It took a few months before things got better, but in those months Eurotrip helped me feel better about my life until my life actually did become better again. I still love it to this day. Being a twin myself, the kissing scene between Travis Wester and Michelle Trachtenberg was insane (in a good way).
She’s Out of my League
I know it’s cheesy, it’s not very funny, but I sympathize. The first time I saw it was right after a break up, if you could even call it that. It was the first relationship I had ever been in, I was in a situationship (Gen Z’s term, not mine), for over a year. It was a total fluke, it had a lot of problems, and when it ended things sucked. I was trying to enter the dating market and felt hopeless.
I didn’t like how I looked, I wasn’t confident enough, I didn’t even like my name. She’s Out of my League made me feel a lot better about myself, at least for an hour and a half, which I think accomplished it’s mission.
