Last December I got accepted into Honours this year for Visual Communication, and I’ve decided to base my “thesis” per se on kitsch and collecting the mundane, which is the original title of my proposal. No doubt this will change with time. (I wanted to do a project purely on Batman, but that’s not exactly substantial in this context. At least this way I can chuck him in there somewhere, because he is a part of me. :P)

I am making a master list of kitsch films, books, magazines and every other periodical, TV and music, and whatever else pops up in my mind through out the year that I am investigating this topic. Feel free to leave a comment or better yet make a suggestion! I’m starting to notice that a lot of my lists are material mostly harks back between the 40s and 70s, the HEIGHT of kitsch appeal. Then again, I think, arguably, pretty much everything from any era can be considered kitsch—it’s a product of whatever era from which it derives. And it seems mostly exploitative, horror, sci-fi and smut reigns supreme in this category.

I will document my findings here and on my Flickr account, plus there’s been a group blog set up by one of my classmates, so feel free to look at that too!

Films

Anything with Marilyn Monroe
Anything with Jayne Mansfield
Anything with Elvis
Barbarella
Valley of the Dolls
Grease
The Wizard of Oz
The Producers
(and pretty much every musical starring Doris Day et al)
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Strictly Ballroom
Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet
Pulp Fiction
Inglourious Basterds (and every other Tarantino flick)
Across the Universe
Tim Burton’s Batman :D
Mars Attacks!
The Killer Condom (I saw this on SBS years back… I wish they’d put it back on!)
Monty Python
Bruce Lee Collection
The Spirit
Phantom of the Opera
Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman
Queen of Outer Space
The Giant Behemoth

I’m trying to remember the cult films I watched during film studies in second year… there was some truly kitschy stuff featured.

TV Shows

I Dream of Jeannie
Bewitched
I Love Lucy
Happy Days
The Brady Bunch
The Jetsons
The Flinstones
Scooby Doo
Batman :D
Doctor Who (old school)
Monty Python Flying Circus

Novels

Romance, glorious manhood swashbuckling, bosom heaving romance… or shall I call them that now negative connotation, the ‘bodice-ripper’? :P