Obsessions
 

Had any? Have any?

I don't mean fads or enthusiastic interests; I mean genuine fixations. Compulsions. These things occupied your consciousness, obliterated all other considerations, mentally consumed you.

I personally have an obsessive personality by nature (I don't mean a psychosis; I just have a tendency to fixate, both physically and mentally). But on rare occasions, things got out of hand.

A few, off the top of my head:

- In junior high, the Beatles (I'm not sure why; I'm a fan, but far from worship them), more specifically John Lennon. I think it was mostly a shallow aesthetic thing. Odd melancholy post-mortem crush. A friend and I actually held seances to conjure up his spirit. A shameful blight on my past.

- Louis the vampire in "Interview With the Vampire." Not Brad Pitt, mind you, but his character. Strange erotic pity thing. I went through a period where I rode my bike up to the video store and rented it 12 times in a row, before it was available for purchase.

- John Malkovich. All things John Malkovich. Small remnant of this remains.

- Douglas Coupland, specifically Microserfs. Read it repeatedly for months.

- Doritos. Really. Comprised my entire food intake for weeks at a time. Ended up extremely ill.

Go on, indulge me.

Woody Allen - I own 27 of his films and anxiously await the release of his new films.
Sonic Youth - but aren't most of us on here?
Pooh - I was obsessed with the hundred acre woods when I was younger and it still lingers.

Sometimes I get obsessed with people. Just regular people. After a week or so it subsides but when I do it its all I can think about.

For a time in the late 80s and early 90s, my fandom activities surrounding the Legendary Pink Dots definitely qualified as obsessive.
Same with Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle and all things Genesis P-Orridge at that same time.

HP Lovecraft for sure.

JennTheBenn better make one specific contribution to this thread.

The Legendary Pink Dots obsession is justified in my opinion.

I suppose I am slightly obsessed with Stephen King.

And I can understand the Pooh obsession; I was fixated on The Neverending Story when I was younger, and used to literally cry in mourning that I could not have my own Falcor.

The LPD thing went way beyond healthy.
I used to entertain the notion that Edward Ka-Spel was possibly some kind of conduit for voices or entities from other dimensions, in addition to having a vivid imagination and an unnatural gift for words. I don't think that anymore, though I do still think he is one of the greatest lyricists the world has ever seen, and definitely a bona fide genius.

Obsessions of the past:
Kurt Cobain and Nirvana
Zoodles and cheese


Current Obsessions:
Roasted almonds
Flavored Water
Scott Sturgeon (Stza) from Leftover Crack (I dreamed about him last night haha), Leftover Crack, Choking Victim
Tea

wow, really?

i mean, i like to have a pretty obsession-free life. i wake up every morning
to the buzz of my snoopy alarm clock, throw off my snoopy blanket, take
a shower and put on some clothes, usually a snoopy shirt. then i check
out the comics page in the newspaper. then i go to work. the sheriff's
deputy who works the front door calls me "snoopy" for some reason.

i come home, i unwind by playing snoopy vs the red baron on ps2 and
putting in a peanuts dvd. i fire up the computer, with my snoopy desktop
pic...check snoopy out on ebay and amazon and flickr and youtube...then
if i feel like cracking open a book, i'll pick one of the complete peanuts
collections to chill out with. then when it's time to sleep i get into some
snoopy christmas pajamas and out like a light.

although i think i'm getting better. my current desktop pic is a live shot
of kim gordon onstage from last year. she's holding her ol' reliable bass.
you know...the one with the snoopy sticker on it.

i have sooo many shirts and figurines and books and stuffed snoopys it
borders on frightening. i have the peanuts and snoopy monopoly games.
posters. greetings cards. i have snoopy panties. snoopy handbags.
complete collection of the mcdonalds camp snoopy glasses from the 70s.
in fact i once spent over 200 dollars at the camp snoopy in pennsylvania.

okay, okay...i would also sell my own blood and hair to get THIS:

http://cgi.ebay.com/iPOD-NANO-2GB-SNOOPY-BOX-Japan-only-available-1000ltd_W0QQitemZ180083151469QQihZ008QQcategoryZ11 8265QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I used to be obsessed with snow skiing and surfing.

Now I think about my girlfriend ALL the time ! I really do, she's wonderful !

I used to be obsessed with all things Marijuana. Smoking it, growing it, smuggling it, photo'ing and writing about it. Now I just rest on my laurels.

I'm still incredibly obsessed with my music and obtaining selective bootlegs and legit releases. After slacking thru the nineties regarding SY, I bought 80% of their catalog last summer !! Their my absolute favorite contemporary band !

I gotta agree with Tim, I went through a period where I was obsessed with Woody Allen. I also had a huge obsession with Buckethead for a while, which lead into a huge obsession with all things Bill Laswell. Now almost all of it is boring to me. Not the Woody Allen mind you, you never go wrong with that.

I think ive shyed away from obsession. But i was mad on Radiohead when i was about 14. I even bought 2 cds with rare songs and acoustic performances on at £15 a pop. and this is in about 1999, our house had no computer.
I was big on SY for a while. And Ikara Colt. And Idlewild. And tottenham Hotspur FC. But i think my biggest obsessions have been things i myself have been doing, which is probably best.

Edit: Fucking hell. Im still well big on Tottenham! Even if we are playing like a bunch of Shoolkids at the minute

Thats a big Mark E Smith thing, or so ive read

Barney. Then it was Power Rangers. Then it was wrestling/pokemon. Now it's music/video games

I've got a few obessions.

This forum comes to mind...

Finding Nobody: I'm about to pop in your Mix Tape. You do know I got yours, correct?

Oh, excellent JLH song choice, by the way...

Shoes. I have at least 65 pairs. Mostly shoes I can only wear in warm weather. I live in Wisconsin. Its February.

-Cherry Coke
-Bill Murray
-Italy
-Guitars and everything about them
-The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (since I was like 5, the first time I read it)
-Green chuck taylors
-Monty Python
-Speilberg WWII stuff. (Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, Band of Brothers)
-Bread, off all types
-Olive Oil
-Flags
-Pilot Precise V5 pens (the ONLY kind I use)

-Dr. Dre
-Sonic Youth
-Friends (I'm often overly emotional and caring about them)
-Web Scipting
-Shwarmas

Tonnes more that I'm interested in, just not obsessed.

I definately had forgotten about my Nirvana obsession from the time I was 10- 14ish. On the good side that's how I got into Sonic Youth, Mudhoney, and the Pixies.

toast & sandwiches.

Good call. He's weirdly attractive, isn't he? And crossdresses very convincingly.

I was obsessed for a while with Second Life, some virtual reality thing. I was fascinated by the ability to create virtual goods (clothes, dwellings, animations, you name it), and the shit that people who were actually talented created was nothing short of amazing.

I'm a bit obsessed with coffee. To further define obsessed, I'm not referring to things you're merely fond of - for example, I have to finish the espresso I order in the morning, even if it gets cold. It's some kind of compulsion; it's almost as though I've convinced myself that if I don't consume the entire thing, it will negate the effects of all the caffeine I've had thus far.
I had a weird thing for Tortoise for a while, but that was moreso because I found out a guy I had a thing for had a mutual interest in them, so they began to remind me of him. Now that's disgusting.

I'm fairly obsessed with Coffee too truncated. That skipped my mind with my short list.

I HAVE to have it strongly brewed, at least twice the coffee in my coffee-maker to drip thru. I mix a French Roast/Indonesian, African blend. Then I must have halfnhalf and Turbinado brown sugar.

Coffee snobbish ?...yea, kinda like the beer I like....I'm discriminating.

I love bohemian type coffee shops and usually find a nice coffee there to drink and I'll even drink a Starbucks if that's the best I can find in a locality. By far though, I'd rather get fresh whole beans and grind them momentarily before my brewing...

Kaffe.....I LOVE IT !

bravo!

I don't see anybody having sex in that picture.

do you see anybody applauding? look again. it's an applause picture a-p-p-l-a-u-s-e. hence the "bravo!" caption. the partial nakedness is only accessory, but kegmama's simple, blunt and clearly sane answer among struck me as the best of the thread.

---
edit: sorry, did i come out as cranky? apologies... i haven't had my coffee yet.

Jerk.

sorry man. i blame overwork.

Be careful when you say you're obsessed with sex. You'd have to meet certain criteria to qualify. That's really a whole separate discussion.

Soup. I have had soup for a meal more than anything else this week. I think one day I ate pretty much only soup, bread and fruit. I had a lovely carrot and corriander soup on a cafe and when I went home later that evening my housemate was preparing a leek and potato soup. Rather than be dissapointed because I had eaten soup for lunch I was, in fact, delighted. And I keep looking in the fridge and imagine what soups I could make with the vegetables therein. There is some beetroot which will undoubtedly end up as a soup this weekend and some parsnips which need to be eaten. They could go the same way as the beets I think.

oh! please do!! :D

i'm a bit obsessive about my mugs, and if there isn't any milk in the house... well that never happens actually.

In all seriousness, I would think an obsession with sex would incorporate compulsive behavior. Which could include rape, stalking, public intercourse, etc. Then there are the tangents of such obsessions, i.e. fetishes. Yet another independent discussion.


I had a similar fling with tomato soup once. I won't tell you why it stopped.

i can only imagine, those cans are quite thick after all

If you're waiting for gales of laughter, you can stop.

maybe when the pain subsides though?

Oooh, not tomato soup though. Not so keen on that. And any soups which start with the words 'cream of' Ugh. Cream of mushroom soup is the worst of the worst. I really like mushrooms as well but cream of mushroom soup actually makes me heave.

well. never thought to see ITALY in someone's list.

sonic youth... but of course. david lynch. stephen king. sadus. prong. michael jackson. cool spot. sam & max. howard phillips lovecraft (yeah me too) and silent hill too. but this stuff is mainly my past, first and foremost it's my girl now... against the grain i hear ya.

I have watched/purchased some of the worst movies ever made simply because Willem Dafoe was in them. I love him. He's hot.