Saturday, July 22, 2006
Movies
It's Saturday---the day of sloth. And, I'm being one.
My parents are both "technologically inclined." My dad's had his Sony CD player since 1982 (yeah, the first year they came out) and we got a VCR shortly thereafter. I think that VCR cost somewhere in the range of about $1,000 and we were one of the first people in our small mountain town who owned one. I think the reason we were spoiled with this luxury early in our lives is not because my mom is a gear-head (yes, she still is), but because she felt sorry for us. We lived six miles out of town in the highest incorporated city in the world. We had NO television reception and the weather was awful during the wintertime: cold and snowy, making it hard to do anything outdoors for any extended length of time. So, we got gadgets like an Atari and a ColecoVision and this contraption called a VCR to help the time pass more quickly.
I've always liked movies. As a child we collected the Disney classics and every Friday night we'd head to the local video store to rent them. I now have the luxury of digital cable to fulfill most of my TV watching needs. On a day such as this, where it's after 5 and I'm still in my PJ's I become amazed at the movies constantly being rerun on cable and my willingness to watch them over and over again, regardless of how many times I've seen them before. There are a handful of movies I've probably seen two dozen times and yet whenever they're on I'm right there watching them. There are a handful of movies where I almost feel as though I'm friends with the characters, where they almost become a part of my life when I see them on the screen. I know from studying mass communication that this is known as a psychosomatic relationship and for some people they can be extremely harmful. Yes, folks, this is how stalkers are created.
As I sit here watching You've Got Mail for the umpteenth time I find myself dreaming of the day where I'll live on the "liberal West Side" picking up MY Caramel Macchiato on the way to my super-cool job during a lovely fall day in the Big Apple and I have to wonder if there will ever be a point where I tire of the classics such as: Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, Dirty Dancing or Footloose? I can hardly imagine such a day will come and, in the meantime, I know I'll always have company on lonely, lazy Saturday afternoons.
My parents are both "technologically inclined." My dad's had his Sony CD player since 1982 (yeah, the first year they came out) and we got a VCR shortly thereafter. I think that VCR cost somewhere in the range of about $1,000 and we were one of the first people in our small mountain town who owned one. I think the reason we were spoiled with this luxury early in our lives is not because my mom is a gear-head (yes, she still is), but because she felt sorry for us. We lived six miles out of town in the highest incorporated city in the world. We had NO television reception and the weather was awful during the wintertime: cold and snowy, making it hard to do anything outdoors for any extended length of time. So, we got gadgets like an Atari and a ColecoVision and this contraption called a VCR to help the time pass more quickly.
I've always liked movies. As a child we collected the Disney classics and every Friday night we'd head to the local video store to rent them. I now have the luxury of digital cable to fulfill most of my TV watching needs. On a day such as this, where it's after 5 and I'm still in my PJ's I become amazed at the movies constantly being rerun on cable and my willingness to watch them over and over again, regardless of how many times I've seen them before. There are a handful of movies I've probably seen two dozen times and yet whenever they're on I'm right there watching them. There are a handful of movies where I almost feel as though I'm friends with the characters, where they almost become a part of my life when I see them on the screen. I know from studying mass communication that this is known as a psychosomatic relationship and for some people they can be extremely harmful. Yes, folks, this is how stalkers are created.
As I sit here watching You've Got Mail for the umpteenth time I find myself dreaming of the day where I'll live on the "liberal West Side" picking up MY Caramel Macchiato on the way to my super-cool job during a lovely fall day in the Big Apple and I have to wonder if there will ever be a point where I tire of the classics such as: Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, Dirty Dancing or Footloose? I can hardly imagine such a day will come and, in the meantime, I know I'll always have company on lonely, lazy Saturday afternoons.
# posted by Molly @ 5:12 PM 
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