I love movies. On the eve of my 65th birthday I want to remember how experiencing these stories with family and friends and lovers have carried me along in this life and how I endeavor as a writer and photographer to articulate the stories of others around me because stories are the containers of our souls, and for me, movies have been the most powerful form that I continually experience as often as I can. 

2003-12-20 LOTR gathering
2003-12-20 Late Night LOTR gathering

We don’t generally gather around the camp fire anymore, but we do gather around large screens and smaller ones to experience stories told that fortifies or challenges the looping narrative in our heads that we call culture and consciousness. There was a time that I felt like I went to the movies, mostly sci-fi movies, to get away from the challenges that I was facing every day as a beginning classroom teacher. There have been times when I’ve gone to remind myself what it means to feel love and hope and excitement when I’ve had no regular human contact. When I’ve wanted to bring someone into my world it’s often been through the shared experience of cinema and TV. 

When I moved to Long Beach (CA) in the mid-90s there were no video rental stores in the area and up until then I generally rented movies at least a couple times a month if not more frequently. So, living in Long Beach I started to buy my DVDs when shopping at Costco or Fry’s or wherever they were available. In the last seven years, with the increase of online viewing options, the purchasing has slowed down, but at the moment I have over 900 titles in my physical collection. As good as online availability has become, movies and shows moving from service to service or disappearing is too transient for me. I’m coming to terms with my own transient status, but I’m of that generation that still insists on owning a disc copy of the thing. I guess it’s more real to me if I can hold the disc in my hand while I play the copy that I’ve burned onto my computer. That too is another quirk in my own narrative.

2023-06-30 The Movie-TV Show Collection with the theater seats and 72 TV
2023-06-30 The Movie-TV Show Collection with the theater seats and 72 TV

We live in amazing times. Go see a movie with a friend. The following video is a behind the scenes featurette of my current favorite flick, Asteroid City. Enjoy.

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