One advantage to being laid up with a bandaged finger and modern medicine coursing through my veins is that I got some time to do things I don’t normally do. Last night I stared at Dan Rather for hours, of course, as most of America was probably doing, drifting in and out of consciousness and wondering if the man ever sleeps. But I also had a chance to finally watch the Lord of the Rings Special Edition, all three and a half hours of it. Well, not quite all of it. I drifted off towards the end. But, as my wife said, once Gandalf falls down that pit it’s pretty much over anyway.
And I also got to read while I was laid up. Today I finished reading A Year at the Movies, by Tom Servo himself, Kevin Murphy. After Mystery Science Theater 3000 went off the air, he decided to write a book, and he needed a gimmick to pull in the people. So the task he set himself to was to go to the movies every single day for an entire year, and write about the experience. And go to the movies he did. He snuck into Cannes. He saw a movie in the world’s largest igloo. He saw films in a tin hut in the South Pacific. He brought a projector and screened silent movies on a beach in Mexico. And through it all he wrote. He wrote about blockbusters, classics, art films, documentaries, comedies, horror, everything that was out there. 52 chapters in all, one chapter for each week. He fell in love with the simple act of going to the cinema, and his enthusiasm for movie-going is infectious. Even when he’s complaining about the poor quality of in-flight movies you can tell he’s enjoying himself. And at the end of the book, you can’t help but wonder: what did he do on January 1st? How could he stand not seeing a movie for the first time in a year?
So, that’s three thumbs up for A Year at the Movies! (and a solitary wavering thumb for its short-on-content companion site)
