Movies, Personally

Hobbies are a lot like the people in your life. Some you see a lot more than others, maybe at a specific time each year, or maybe just very sporadically. Some show up and consume your time relentlessly for a while, then fade away, remembered but not pursued. Then there are a few that are like family. The one's you miss when they're gone.

I remember it was barely two or three years ago when I was at the height of my movie consumption. Yeeep, (stretch) life was sweet. I had a full time job, which though I complained about it endlessly at the time, was something of a perfect fit for me. I had access to nearly every movie I wanted, at any moment, and a TV about eight feet from my face at all times. I caught up with a lot of stuff there.

Even before that, I was immersed in movies. Yes, I was a clerk. That was really where it started. I remember very vividly taking home the two-tape, rubber-banded VHS of Magnolia from Blockbuster one night, sitting down by myself to watch it in my Dad's basement, and somehow realizing that night that there was a lot of stuff out there that I had never even thought about. I suppose that kind of experience happens to a lot of people around that age. Anyway, that Blockbuster is an Auto Zone now. And I stuck around in the rental business for about three years.

I think I may have been in one of the last generations of Video Store kids. When my friends and I were growing up, Blockbuster was a regular part of our entertainment diet. VHS's probably still sold at rental prices then, before the DVD collector's market changed all the rules. We did laps around the new release wall like we were racehorses. Kids in a candy store? Screw candy. Just give us a Sega game for the week and a couple movies, and we were set. So naturally, I grew up and got a job there (my first right out of high school.) And there I stayed for some time. It's sad and strange to see the brick and mortar "Movie Store" slowly going extinct. There was a personal and physical side to it that was charming. It required an action.

Which is all to say that it's here to stay in me. Whether or not this blog gets thinner from time to time, I will continue to write it, always, and to see movies and think about them the way I always have. I make no apologies for my hobbies and I will feel no shame or regret for them. I will relinquish them, temporarily and happily, only when my time can be spent more importantly elsewhere. It isn't lame. The only thing which a person can take an interest in which is truly lame is nothing at all.

These days, I see a universe of excruciatingly awesome DVD releases pass before my eyes. One thought is comforting, at least: that in this day in age, nothing is likely to fade away. The movies will always be there, if not on the big screen then on DVD, if not on DVD then in some digital form. So when my time and my gaze are focused elsewhere, everything will hopefully just be waiting for me later. Thus, my wish lists grow ever more extensive.

Movies are something I love. That's just the way it is. They're wonderful. I hope you feel the same way.