And So It Begins

And so it begins. I have attempted in the past to write blogs showcasing my unique wit and comical style telling tales of my life (http://senators9.livejournal.com/) but that hasn't been updated in practically 3 years. I think about writing something new, but never do.

I’m beginning a new one where I discuss music, movies and books. I've thought about this new one ever since I started reading my friend Matt Kwinter's blog (http://www.kwintersworld.blogspot.com/).

I came up with an idea back in 2003 about creating a magazine that reviewed albums – but not just new ones, but any ones. I got the idea from my brother Chris who would send out a Top 20 Of All-Time list each year.

I started a basic outline of what the magazine would have in it and I compiled a few lists of albums to be reviewed (there would be some kind of theme each issue). I wrote reviews for the first twenty albums which would be in the first issue, the theme was, fittingly: debut albums.

While it’s still a dream, I haven’t put much thought into it over the past few years. I am nearing the end of a long overdue inventory of my cd collection right now. For the past few years I had done an inventory twice a year, once in July and once in December. The last one I did was in October of 2007, right before I moved back to Rochester from Indianapolis. On October 17, 2007 I had 1,955 cds. You probably can’t even fathom the size of that collection, unless you’ve seen them or helped me move them. I don’t like moving them, and when I move somewhere I usually quickly find a place for them and that’s where they stay. In Webster the cd shelves lined the dining room (the dining room where I ate dinner precisely once in two years). In Indianapolis, they lined the living room in my townhouse. When I moved back to Rochester, they sat in the drawers I packed them in for almost a year. I would go through them and take cds out from time to time that I needed something from, but the majority of them sat. Then in January I began the mass exodus of them to Chili. I have logged everything A-S so far. T-Z (plus various) sit waiting to be completed.

As it was once described by a Pete Margeson, my cd collection is all-together the best and worst collection ever. I think it’s a great collection.

The second topic will be movies. One of my favourite jobs I ever had was working at a movie theatre. Like my cd collection, my dvd collection is something that easily inspires awe. When I bought my new computer in 2007, and after I installed the dvd burner, my dvd collection went into overdrive (with the help of blockbuster online). There are many many movies that I have that I haven’t seen yet, but I intend to sooner or later. I don’t get to watch them as much as I’d like to, but every now and then I get a Saturday or Sunday morning to myself where I sit down in my man-cave and put one on.

I would say my tastes in movies have changed significantly in the past few years. While I still laugh uncontrollably during South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and there was that time a few weeks ago where I ended up staying up past 1am watching Dumb & Dumber, but comedies today really don’t aim too high. I do not like 98% of the animated movies out there. Cartoons with famous actors voices annoy me. Whenever I see a commercial showing some famous actor bouncing around a microphone reading lines from a script to show they are really “getting into the part” it drives me nuts.

Matthew McConaughey and Nicolas Cage really annoy me these days. I enjoyed the McConnaughey movies A Time To Kill and Frailty, and even thought How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days was good, but The Wedding Planner and We Are Marshall were just bad. And I wouldn’t even waste my time on Fool’s Gold. Now, Nicolas Cage has been making movies for a long time, almost 30 years now. And he’s had some good ones (The Rock, Con Air, Face/Off) and was doubly good in Adaptation, but Snake Eyes, Next, Knowing and of course the National Treasure movies have made the last few years of Nicolas Cage rather redundant. 95% of Drew Barrymore’s movies don’t interest me, but I did enjoy Never Been Kissed, Riding In Cars With Boys & The Wedding Singer. And while I’m not a fan, and she does truly annoy me, Julia Roberts makes good movies that I do like.

Overall, I like movies that make you think and ponder ideas. Stories that leave questions unanswered or make you ask yourself what you’d do in that situation. But I don’t want to be thought of as a complete movie-snob – the first two movies I ever got in the mail from Blockbuster were Dead Man On Campus and Mel Brooks’ History Of The World, Part 1.

I really don’t read books too often. And when I do, they’re usually non-fiction or books you’d find in the humour section of your local Barnes & Noble. I started reading The DaVinci Code in 2007, and while I found it interesting, it has sat for a long time with my bookmark somewhere around page 78.

So, that’s my intro. And I’ll try to write something more concise, yet to the point for the first official review.