JOURNAL: I Love Movies.
I LOVE MOVIES. I love watching them. I loved making them. From being enthralled in a darkened cinema - whisked away to fictional fantasy lands of imagination and secret-wants ... to toiling behind the scenes, sacrificing blood, sweat, health and relationships (not necessarily in that order) to taste a bit of that feeling I'd had while watching films in a darkened cinema.
For many years, I could not fathom how to enjoy a feature film without being seated in a darkened cinema, widescreen stretch across my vision, holding my attention and holding in pee for 90 minutes to three hours!
Cinemas of the past in Singapore remain still vivid in my memories. From Prince (in Shaw) and Majestic Cinema projecting film festival gems, to Lido (at a time when they had a "haunted" toilet inside of the cinema), to Cathay (with the "kaching puteh" man at the side, where "cashew nuts" were a "special treat" for me), to even (the earlier) Picturehouse when they showed foreign and "art films". Sure, not all are torn down, but inevitably my memories serve before they became "multiplexes"... except for the taste of buttered popcorn still lingering from the Lido days too.
For pete's sake, this blog you are reading now - dubbed "POPCORNX" - is named after my sheer taste joy of popcorn, always buttered and salted, and sometimes half-half with sweet! All washed down with a tall soda!
Ironically after my Stroke in 2010 (due to high-blood, high-cholestral and diabetes), all these enjoyment in my mouth, disappeared from my film watches.
Even when I bought VHS, they were meant as "movie memorabilia" (now) than they were meant to be watched. Then I embraced the advent of "VCD", where I discovered I could (A) Watch films that I might have missed in the cinemas, or past their screening dates, and (B) Own movies that might never appear on local cinema screens. And as important; (C) I could have access and own select films I had watched in local film festivals, that are not screening on local screens win Singapore. And in many ways (D) own a movie which I had a wonderful watch-experience with. Which also meant I do not own a while lot of films in the first place LOL
I am a "cheapskate". Always have been, even until now. Not willing to pay more than I have to, if I already own a cheaper version of it. Same story with cassette tapes conversion to music CD. Ironically I have not downloaded any songs from the www in the "modern age" AKA "now".
VHS was easily forgotten, and I held unto my VCD collection, until accessibility became an issue, and as importantly "watchability". Technology had made my loves obsolete. And very quickly I converted to LDs (which certainly did not last long at bloody all), and subsequently DVDs. I still hold unto them, and have not converted to Blu-Rays at all, and more likely never will. Therein lies the condundrum.
If I had my way, I would never sell my DVD movies. My personal wish since recognising I loved movies, was to have a library of my favourite movies, like I would own a film store (similarly a "comicbook shop" and a "toy shop" :p).
Sure, you can argue that's my "hoarder mentality giving excuses", and I can accept that too. But the reality is, that was a wish I had hoped to hold unto until one day it could come to physical fruition.
But perhaps that day might never come to pass, and the dream remains a wishful regret, as I embark on relinquishing some films from my hoard.
It's time to trim the fat off the house, and one of the more controllable items are my DVD-movies. Very soon I will amass and unleash my VCD collection, and LDs too, as all they are able to provide me with now, is "hoarder-joy" but not much in way of actually enjoying it's contents.
I remembered thralling thru DVD stores, making mental notes of what movies and animation to look out for when they go on sale (Told you I was a "Cheapskate"), until the existence of DVD stores dwindled on our sunny island country. One of my personal "hoarder principles" is not purchase them online, except for a very select few (in my earlier days) and that I have to be able to see them and hold them in person.
Besides disappearing stores, my financial capability changed drastically too, and giving up buying any DVDs was not as hard as not being able to find physical stores in the first place.
Accessibility to movies in this day and age has become as easy as a click or two, and given the pandemic, sitting in a darkened cinema, has become a rarity. Even as the world has since "opened up", I still struggle (mentally) with watching the big screen after surviving Stroke, even though my affected eye-sight has since recovered to a decent degree since 2010. I remembered my last film was "John Wick 2" (with my buddy Ian) in 2017, and I have not physically sat in a cinema since then.
Even before Stroke, watching movies by my lonesome was enjoyable as I could indulge, you know? Very rarely am I able to converse with friends about the films we watched after watching it, ironically as I worked behind-the-scenes making films, even that is even rarer. But the allure wore off, even as I attempted to share "online" via my blogs, I was quite literally "talking to myself" ~ LOL
The alternative is to sit in a darkened living room at home, watching DVD films off the plasma screen, innit? Even then, my DVD-player has kicked the bucket (for may years now), and resorting to watch films on my laptop now, feels utterly disconnecting - to my passion for films - even thought I might be momentarily distracted by what's happening on screen, for 90 minutes, or 4 hours of the SnyderCut Justice League.
I hold unto the DVDs in hand, and try to remember the feeling I watched them in cinemas, and that alone breaks my heart. But "some" I still keep as they are dear to me, while I relinquish "others" on my newly registered eBay (some from my own collection too), while I will unleash my movies, Movie-Packs, trading cards sets, Movie+Trading Cards, and subsequently VCDs and VHS, all forhoarders Consummate Connoisseurs of the Media Arts like myself...!
Cheers,
Andy TOYSREVIL
For many years, I could not fathom how to enjoy a feature film without being seated in a darkened cinema, widescreen stretch across my vision, holding my attention and holding in pee for 90 minutes to three hours!
Cinemas of the past in Singapore remain still vivid in my memories. From Prince (in Shaw) and Majestic Cinema projecting film festival gems, to Lido (at a time when they had a "haunted" toilet inside of the cinema), to Cathay (with the "kaching puteh" man at the side, where "cashew nuts" were a "special treat" for me), to even (the earlier) Picturehouse when they showed foreign and "art films". Sure, not all are torn down, but inevitably my memories serve before they became "multiplexes"... except for the taste of buttered popcorn still lingering from the Lido days too.
For pete's sake, this blog you are reading now - dubbed "POPCORNX" - is named after my sheer taste joy of popcorn, always buttered and salted, and sometimes half-half with sweet! All washed down with a tall soda!
Ironically after my Stroke in 2010 (due to high-blood, high-cholestral and diabetes), all these enjoyment in my mouth, disappeared from my film watches.
Even when I bought VHS, they were meant as "movie memorabilia" (now) than they were meant to be watched. Then I embraced the advent of "VCD", where I discovered I could (A) Watch films that I might have missed in the cinemas, or past their screening dates, and (B) Own movies that might never appear on local cinema screens. And as important; (C) I could have access and own select films I had watched in local film festivals, that are not screening on local screens win Singapore. And in many ways (D) own a movie which I had a wonderful watch-experience with. Which also meant I do not own a while lot of films in the first place LOL
I am a "cheapskate". Always have been, even until now. Not willing to pay more than I have to, if I already own a cheaper version of it. Same story with cassette tapes conversion to music CD. Ironically I have not downloaded any songs from the www in the "modern age" AKA "now".
VHS was easily forgotten, and I held unto my VCD collection, until accessibility became an issue, and as importantly "watchability". Technology had made my loves obsolete. And very quickly I converted to LDs (which certainly did not last long at bloody all), and subsequently DVDs. I still hold unto them, and have not converted to Blu-Rays at all, and more likely never will. Therein lies the condundrum.
If I had my way, I would never sell my DVD movies. My personal wish since recognising I loved movies, was to have a library of my favourite movies, like I would own a film store (similarly a "comicbook shop" and a "toy shop" :p).
Sure, you can argue that's my "hoarder mentality giving excuses", and I can accept that too. But the reality is, that was a wish I had hoped to hold unto until one day it could come to physical fruition.
But perhaps that day might never come to pass, and the dream remains a wishful regret, as I embark on relinquishing some films from my hoard.
It's time to trim the fat off the house, and one of the more controllable items are my DVD-movies. Very soon I will amass and unleash my VCD collection, and LDs too, as all they are able to provide me with now, is "hoarder-joy" but not much in way of actually enjoying it's contents.
I remembered thralling thru DVD stores, making mental notes of what movies and animation to look out for when they go on sale (Told you I was a "Cheapskate"), until the existence of DVD stores dwindled on our sunny island country. One of my personal "hoarder principles" is not purchase them online, except for a very select few (in my earlier days) and that I have to be able to see them and hold them in person.
Besides disappearing stores, my financial capability changed drastically too, and giving up buying any DVDs was not as hard as not being able to find physical stores in the first place.
Accessibility to movies in this day and age has become as easy as a click or two, and given the pandemic, sitting in a darkened cinema, has become a rarity. Even as the world has since "opened up", I still struggle (mentally) with watching the big screen after surviving Stroke, even though my affected eye-sight has since recovered to a decent degree since 2010. I remembered my last film was "John Wick 2" (with my buddy Ian) in 2017, and I have not physically sat in a cinema since then.
Even before Stroke, watching movies by my lonesome was enjoyable as I could indulge, you know? Very rarely am I able to converse with friends about the films we watched after watching it, ironically as I worked behind-the-scenes making films, even that is even rarer. But the allure wore off, even as I attempted to share "online" via my blogs, I was quite literally "talking to myself" ~ LOL
The alternative is to sit in a darkened living room at home, watching DVD films off the plasma screen, innit? Even then, my DVD-player has kicked the bucket (for may years now), and resorting to watch films on my laptop now, feels utterly disconnecting - to my passion for films - even thought I might be momentarily distracted by what's happening on screen, for 90 minutes, or 4 hours of the SnyderCut Justice League.
I hold unto the DVDs in hand, and try to remember the feeling I watched them in cinemas, and that alone breaks my heart. But "some" I still keep as they are dear to me, while I relinquish "others" on my newly registered eBay (some from my own collection too), while I will unleash my movies, Movie-Packs, trading cards sets, Movie+Trading Cards, and subsequently VCDs and VHS, all for
Cheers,
Andy TOYSREVIL
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