In response to my last post about my crazy obsession with all things movie, my friend Josh sent me an email, the begining of which I will repeat here:
“I think of you less as the face of consumerism, and more as a super evolved pop culture terminator, stomping on the bones of lesser pop culture enthusiasts, your pop culture terminator brain processing movie and CD know how at a rate and speed mere mortals would gasp at if they could only understand what it all meant.
“Seriously, I have no idea where you find the time to watch all that.”
In other news, I am horribly embarassed to find out that the word “segway” is really spelled “segue”. Shit.
C'est Non Un Blog 
I own very few movies. I watch a lot of movies and if I really, really like one I might buy it. But, I can’t see myself owning so many movies that I’d probably own watch once or twice. Do you watch all of them? More than once?
What started way back when as just collecting my favorite movies to watch over and over again soon changed in college when film became a focus and (semi) major and more than anything else, a hobby. A lot of my friends had access to good libraries or video stores. I never had that. So as the prices of DVDs dropped I started buying more and more. It’s strange, the more you watch the more you realize that you haven’t seen.
I’m especially into obscure and cult cinema, indie films from all over the globe and lost classics from our own studio systems. Most of these films aren’t really available in commercial channels. You can get them dirt cheap though. So I buy instead of rent. Most I get so cheap that if I only watch them two or three times I still got my money’s worth out of them.
My goal right now is just to watch the movies I have, but to answer your question, yes I do plan on watching them all multiple times. Obviously I can’t do that soon. But hopefully over time. I now get bored watching teh same movie over and over again within a short amount of time. I’d rather see something new. But if you wait a while and THEN watch the movie again, it almost seems new again. It’s a great film to rediscover a film you love.
I know my habits are a little crazy, but I do love it. It’s a hobby, and people usually sink unusually large amounts of money into their hobbies. I mean, think of the person that has walls and walls of books in their house. You think they’ve read all those books more than once? Probably not. But they are always there if you want to, or just having them illicits a pleasant memory. And in the least I have an amazing collection to share with my friends. I’ve got whatever you need to sponser any sort of movie night.
I’m not knocking your hobby – I was just curious. I’m the book person who owns a billion books, has them stacked everywhere and you’re right – most I’ve read only once. But, to me they’re kinda like trophies and I think a book collection (and probably a movie collection too) can say a lot about a person.
I watch a lot of movies, but I rent them all from Netflix and Blockbuster. I spend a ton in rental fees, so you’ve probably got me there too. I just wouldn’t know where to put them all if I bought them. I’ve never been much of a collector. I’m more of a throw-it-away-if-you-haven’t-used-it-in-six-months kinda person. 😉 Which often gets me into trouble.
My problem is I am a collector. Pack rat if you prefer that term. And because my DVD collection is growing so fast I have no where to put new arrivals. So my room is a bit of a mess now.
It just drove me crazy spending close to 5 dollars for one rental at Blockbuster for a film I’d probably want to see more than once. Why not just own it? I mean, a good portion of my collection I got for 5 bucks a movie!