Blog Entry #1

I guess you could say that this blog is some kind of New Year's Resolution. More than that though, it is an attempt to create something useful from my intense love of film. This was the suggestion of my wonderful wife, Nora.
Nora and I are currently houseparents at Cal Farley's Boys Ranch, 35 miles outside Amarillo, Texas. When we're not occupied with the needs of an ever-increasing number of teenage boys, much of the time we're watching movies. Our work schedule has us working six days and then we are off for three days. On our three days off, we usually make it to the movie theater at least once, and we also watch several DVD's or blu rays. When the boys are in school, I also try to take advantage of that time and watch movies whenever I can.
My love of film began, oddly enough, when I was living at the Children's Home of Lubbock, where my parents worked as houseparents from the time I was 15 until I was almost 17. My mom would take my brother and I to Hastings Video where I would rent 8 VHS movies at a time for $1 each (8 movies was the limit that could be rented at once).
Like any kid born in the 1980's, I already loved the work of Spielberg, Lucas, and Zemeckis (even though I probably couldn't have told you who these guys were at the time). It was when I was at the Children's Home that I fell in love with the films of Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, David Lynch, The Coen Brothers, Quentin Tarantino, and others.
One Saturday, my mom went to a garage sale and brought me back a copy of Roger Ebert's 1995 film guide. I used this as a map to what movies I watched and slowly developed my taste in film. My family got the internet around the same time and I started using Ebert's website and The Internet Movie Database to widen my film knowledge even more.
My friend, Brett also had an interest in movies, so the two of us made it a point to go see everything of note that played in theaters in Lubbock, as well as watch the classics (both new and recent) on home video. It was invaluable for me to have someone to watch movies with and discuss them while I was just starting to learn and explore film.
I guess that about covers the origins of my love of film. For some people, movies are just escapism and mindless entertainment. Why else would Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich have careers? For me, movies are much more than that. Movies can take you places that you could never go, see things you could never see, and experience things that you never otherwise would. Quite simply, if you let them, movies can effect the way you think about the world and change the way you live in it.
I hope that at least a few people end up reading this thing and that I actually keep up with. Any questions or comments are very welcome. I look forward to this experience.