A Year With Cinema: Tracking My Favorite Time Vampire

A little over a year ago, I decided that the best way to wean myself off of buying movies was to list them. It was a perfect way to feed that need to habitually collect without doling out cash for things that would otherwise sit on a shelf and gather dust.

Physical media is archaic, I know, but when you grow up dreaming about a Rex Harrison-sized library, you can’t help it. 

Rex Harrison-Sized Library

It’s even more glorious than this picture lets on

I started a list on April 29, 2017. The rules were simple. I’d add every movie I actively watched 30 minutes or more of into the list, note the year it came out, and go on my way. Unlike my personal writing, I was actually regimented and consistent with updating this movie list, too.

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Summer Updates

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I’ve had “I Love It” by Icona Pop stuck in my head for most of this week, which is a clear indicator that it’s summer. Why? Because it just sounds like summer. It sounds like the perfect party song, that recognizable tune you hear blasting at graduation parties when the smell of the backyard barbecue permeates the air. It breathes life, and summer events are the very essence of life. Coincidentally, “I Love It” is also a song that has been deeply embedded into the far reaches of my psyche because I dared to see that Kevin Costner 3 Days to Kill movie once.  In the film, the tune is used as a cell phone ringtone, so it plays often.

Editor’s Note: The above comments are in no way intended as an endorsement of 3 Days to Kill. The opinion of this writer is that said movie is “fun/bad,” the kind of movie you watch with a few buddies after a couple of beers. It won’t knock your socks off, but it might unintentionally make you laugh. 

Now that I’ve related my penchant for Icona Pop, it’s time for the latest updates.

  • I was interview in The Review Review.
  • I reviewed Keanu a moon or two ago on Drunk Monkeys.
  • A fiction piece of mine, “Following Orders,” was also featured on Drunk Monkeys.
  • Issue 24 of Literary Orphans, Audrey, also hit the interwebz. It’s in reference to the man-eating plant from Little Shop of Horrors, and you can read why this was chosen as our orphan in the Letter From The Editor.
  • A NONFICTION piece of mine will be featured on The Weeklings come July 7th! Woohoo!

Spring Updates!

DMAWith the impending nuptials coming up (in just over a week) and everything else I’m doing at the Literary Orphans fun factory, I haven’t had time to sit down and write for the personal site. That said, I do have a few fantastic updates to share, the biggest one being the Drunk Monkeys Anthology! My essay on Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is included in the anthology, which is available on Amazon in PRINT and EBOOK.

It’s truly a phenomenal honor to appear alongside such a wonderful line-up. Much respect and appreciation is owed to Matthew Guerruckey and the entire Drunk Monkeys staff. They’re wonderful, warm and friendly people, and I’m happy to call them both colleagues and friends. Whether we’re talking shop or racking our brains over comic books, it’s always a great time.

 

OTHER UPDATES

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

DMStarWars

“If the real world is a crisis of confidence and limitless possibility, Star Wars is the cure. It always has been. Since 1977, this film has been rousing the human soul from its slumber and demanding that it snuff out the silent acquiescence of fear. Because fear is the mind-killer. Because fear is the manifestation of evil.”

My Star Wars write-up is LIVE over at Drunk Monkeys today. This was one of my favorite film essays to write, and it was also one that took me forever. I wrote several different drafts before deleting them all and trying again, eventually consolidating all of my thoughts into this hopelessly optimistic reading of one of the greatest films ever made. Please read it. Please share it. Please enjoy.

 

UPDATE: The discussion around Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is now LIVE as well. In it, a few of us have an in-depth conversation about the film, its lasting impact, and key memories we took away. Check it out HERE.