Random thoughts

This is a project I really love, and am quite happy about getting back to -- watching movies, keeping count, tracking various categories, and then talking/writing about them and talking to other people about things I've enjoyed (or not).

I've always loved movies, and was fortunate to come of movie-viewing age at a time when home video was just emerging on the scene, and even the kids in the square states had access to art films. Growing up mostly in a mitten-shaped state was a little boring at times, and the only movies I ever saw were those that made it to my single-screen downtown Main theatre. And then along came home video, and Roger Ebert with his encyclopedia full of films and instructions on how to get even the hard-to-find titles shipped to my door (Home Film Festival and Facets Multimedia... I can hardly find much mention of the former online anymore)... I thought it couldn't possibly last, it was too good to be true. Fast-forward to today, when I can browse the catalog of any one of a number of movie services (Netflix, Blockbuster, iTunes, Amazon Unbox, Hulu... take your pick) and download or stream a film instantly to my computer, even in Starbucks while I'm working on class prep. Not that I do that, but I could. Or I can still run by Blockbuster on the way home if a title isn't available for download/streaming, or tell Netflix what I like and just let movies stack up in my mailbox. The last time I did this project, I had to bump up my Netflix program to 8 at-a-time, but that's not even necessary anymore, there are so many choices for screening. Fabulousness.

The hardest thing about watching so many movies isn't what you might think -- it's picking what to see. I try to go for the first title from the list that grabs me (favoring foreign and docs). And if I hit a stinker this time around, I'll probably turn it off and blog it briefly, but not count it. No sense wasting time if I'm not enjoying something. But I don't miss series television, or channel-surfing, or news on tv (all of which I had to pretty much abandon in order to commit to 365 films). Not at all. Though, ask me again once Lost starts up again...