My first blog

Welcome to my first blog!

I have been a movie geek for as long as I can remember.

I grew up in the 60's in Lebanon, PA, where my ancestors laid roots in 1742.  I grew up prior to the age of Malls and Cinema Multiplexes.  The main street in Lebanon is Cumberland Street.  In the 60's we had three theaters (or commonly known as movie houses.)  The first was the State.  It had a ticket booth outside near the sidewalk.  Once you bought your ticket, you had to pass walls of lobby cards and posters (for such movies as "Deranged" and "Squirm") before you opened the doors to the theater.  A few blocks away was the Academy Theater, where we would line up for three blocks to see "Jaws" or "The Exorcist."  Farther down, near the end of the city was the Colonial..a grand old theater with a balcony, two special booths by the screen, and a big curtain that would be opened at the start of the feature presentation.  This is where I first saw "The Poseidon Adventure," "Bedknobs and Broomsticks," "Murder on the Orient Express,"  "With Six You Get Eggroll," and "The Sting."

We also had the Key Drive-In, which was about a mile from our house.  Mom and Dad would put the four of us in our pajamas, pack up snacks, and head to the drive-in in our station wagon to see the latest Disney movie.  And I'm talking about the originals...."Mary Poppins," "Blackbeard's Ghost,"  "The Ugly Dachshund," "That Darn Cat," and "The Love Bug."  Once I hit adolescence and had a drivers license, I spent many weekends at the Dawn to Dusk show, watching movies like "Death Race 2000" and "Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell."  Sadly, the Key Drive-In is now a Super Walmart, and the three theaters downtown are gone.  (The State and the Academy were converted into other things, and the glorius Colonial burnt to the ground.)

And there was the fortune of having a cousin who was the first to not only have color tv, but also cable tv.  We begged Mom and Dad to go to Aunt Mav and Uncle Sam on a Saturday so we could watch "Chiller Theater" with Dr. Shock on WPHL channel 17 out of Philadelphia.  A movie horror nerd was born!

I have always been an Oscar Maniac.  I have friends calling me to answer movie questions; I can't wait for Jeopardy to have an "Oscar" category, and my boss knows that when I ask for a day off the last Monday in February, it's my SuperBowl.

So, after that long-winded introduction, why am I doing this? For starters, I am proud that I have an English degree from Bloomsburg State College (well, now BSU), but haven't really applied it until now.  I was Executive Editor for "The CampusVoice" from 1979-80 but have not written anything since that time.  Yet, I can go on for hours discussing movies.  Now thanks to the internet, I can get this out of my system, and maybe somebody will be interested.  I've tried to attempt this before, but gave up because it is a daunting task.  Besides, everybody and his mother has a movie post somewhere out there (which should have won the Oscar for best song from "An American Tail."  Sorry, can't help myself!) 

What finally helped were two things.... The musical "Sunday in the Park With George."  George is a struggling artist who is frustrated that it's all been done before, but the ghost of his grandfather's girlfriend sings "Let it come from you, then it will be new...give us more to see..."

And also a shout-out to my friend J.W. Ocker, who has this amazing blog I found several years ago (O.T.I.S. odd things I've seen) and turned it into a book, "The New England Grimpendium."  And he has a new book on the way!  He gave me the inspiration to finally sit down and do it.

This will, obviously, be a work in progress.  I am not the most tech proficient, so it may take me awhile to figure out how to post pictures and stuff.  Heck, I don't even know if this will post!  Hopefully, this will be the start of something.  Thanks for reading, and I hope you can join me on my reel adventures!

Our next featured presentation:  CinaJim's review of "The Descendants."

Coming attractions:  (besides movie reviews)
*CinaJims pics.....where I discusss my favorite movies
*Italian splatter and Giallo films from the '80s (and why I love them)
*Why the score matters
*That's two hours of my life I'll never get back
*Oscar results (and Oscar "No they didn't!)