Cultural Confessions and Secret Vices

Scott Pack's blog recently featured a posting called Cultural Confessions in which he owned up to not owning a Beatles record, never reading Jane Austen and not having seen a Monty Python film. Bloggers were invited to add their own, so here are mine:

I have never sat through a Shakespeare play without feeling bored
I think it's the language. It may be modern English, but it's very alien and I find it an effort to concentrate for so long. I suppose that I should read about the background to the play before I go, then it would make more sense. But I'm too lazy

I don't like Florence
I've no idea why, but it did nothing for me. Sometimes an overload of culture can be oppressive, particularly when you're jostling with crowds of tourists. On the other, Venice lived up to all of the superlatives

I have never seen The Godfather
And if you sat me down in front of it now, my heart would sink

I don't read poetry
With a few exceptions - George Herbert, R.S.Thomas, Matthew Arnold, Walt Whitman and Pablo Neruda amongst others, but usually if I want poetry, I listen to classical music

I don't like the 'old masters'
However shallow some modern art is, I would rather be in a gallery of contemporary art than looking at Titian or Rubens

And now for some secret vices - the hidden pleasures that we'd rather not own up to...

I would rather listen to ELO's Out of the Blue than The Clash's London Calling
This is the worst sort of popular cultural heresy, but I never really liked Punk or New Wave. It may have been a breath of fresh air after all those Rick Wakeman albums, but I was too young to see the need for it

I love listening to Roger Whitaker singing The Last Farewell
No explanation needed - it's a great song

I like Star Trek
But I don't live with my mother and I'm not a virgin

I like watching Big Brovaz videos
Don't ask me why. It's probably a cry for help

I love the Pre-Raphaelites
They might be the Classic FM of the art world, but I'm a sucker for their sentimental, melodramatic paintings

That was easy. The next challenge is to answer Goncalo Veiga's questions, which have been floating around the blogosphere and can also be found on Mark Farley's Bookseller to the Stars