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A New Yorker takes in the flicks
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Welcome to bagel and a movie
I had the normal upbringing with regard to movies, which is to say I went occasionally but nobody, including me, made too big a deal out of them. That changed in my mid-twenties, when I lived, for a brief and unhappy year, in Chicago. I knew few people, didn’t have a lot of work, was lonely, and needed to entertain myself. I discovered that I loved going to movies alone. That they left me in a contemplative, introspective state of mind that I really enjoyed.
When I moved to New York and began freelancing, I found that going to movies helped me write. I’d review my notes on a story, go to a movie, come back, sit down and the story—which had nothing at all to do with the movie—would just pour out. Maybe I was letting my subconscious work while the rest of my brain enjoyed itself. Maybe it was that contemplative state of mind I was talking about. Who knows? The only thing I really knew for sure was that it worked.
When I was writing my first book, I often saw a movie every morning as a prelude to the afternoon’s work. That meant I saw A LOT of movies, some great, some awful. You can’t be too picky when you’re seeing movies at that pace. My favorite movie experience during that time was when I went to see “Lord of the Rings.”
I had not read the books. It was long. I hadn’t read any reviews—I almost never read reviews (too many spoilers, and the critics’ views have a way of worming their way into your brain). I wasn’t totally thrilled about it, but I had few other choices. It was lunchtime, and on the way I stopped, on impulse, at Murray’s and got a sesame bagel with whitefish salad. And I picked up my customary enormous diet coke on the way in.
Well. The movie was beautiful—it was shot in New Zealand—and enormously entertaining. It had Ian Mackellan in it (a big plus), and the bagel with whitefish salad and (it almost goes without saying) the diet coke were sublime. And it was a LONG movie. So I really got to relish the experience. It was, in short…perfection. And that, my friends, is how this blog--which is, in essence, a movie lover's diary--got its name.
When I moved to New York and began freelancing, I found that going to movies helped me write. I’d review my notes on a story, go to a movie, come back, sit down and the story—which had nothing at all to do with the movie—would just pour out. Maybe I was letting my subconscious work while the rest of my brain enjoyed itself. Maybe it was that contemplative state of mind I was talking about. Who knows? The only thing I really knew for sure was that it worked.
When I was writing my first book, I often saw a movie every morning as a prelude to the afternoon’s work. That meant I saw A LOT of movies, some great, some awful. You can’t be too picky when you’re seeing movies at that pace. My favorite movie experience during that time was when I went to see “Lord of the Rings.”
I had not read the books. It was long. I hadn’t read any reviews—I almost never read reviews (too many spoilers, and the critics’ views have a way of worming their way into your brain). I wasn’t totally thrilled about it, but I had few other choices. It was lunchtime, and on the way I stopped, on impulse, at Murray’s and got a sesame bagel with whitefish salad. And I picked up my customary enormous diet coke on the way in.
Well. The movie was beautiful—it was shot in New Zealand—and enormously entertaining. It had Ian Mackellan in it (a big plus), and the bagel with whitefish salad and (it almost goes without saying) the diet coke were sublime. And it was a LONG movie. So I really got to relish the experience. It was, in short…perfection. And that, my friends, is how this blog--which is, in essence, a movie lover's diary--got its name.
Blog Archive
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2009
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January
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- HBO On Demand: Juno
- It just keeps getting better: Friday the 13th out ...
- Holly Marshall: Where is she now?
- Trivia for Land of the Lost Fans...
- New in Town
- Tragic News: There's going to be a Mall Cop sequel
- Oh Joy: Land of the Lost is Coming Soon!
- More on Wendy and Lucy
- Kelly Reichardt---okay, she's great
- Best actress in a leading role: Oh please don’t le...
- SAG Awards
- Riddle me this: Who deserves best supporting actor?
- More movies you hated---and others loved
- Coming soon: The Reader
- Confession: I’m not sure I really care about the O...
- Trouble the Water nominated for best documentary f...
- The Visitor? Never heard of it!
- Benjamin Button: Curiously Bad
- And the nominees are....
- Oscar nominations tomorrow! Stay tuned!
- Dan Zanes in Revolutionary Road
- A note on Leo in Revolutionary Road
- Revolutionary Road’s Greek Chorus: Michael Shannon
- Wendy and Lucy
- Enterpise, do you read me?
- Mickey Rourke Rumor
- Movies about Suburbia
- A Year of Movies....
- Wendy and Lucy
- Read it and weep: Mall Cop #1 at the box office la...
- Mall Cop: Fuggedaboutit
- Notorious
- Marisa Tomei on her role in The Wrestler
- Revolutionary Road
- When you hate movies other people love
- Coming soon: Revolutionary Road
- Go Clint!
- The Wrestler
- What's your favorite horror movie?
- I love The Shining, yadda yadda
- Redrum, etc. etc.
- Coming soon: Interview with Mia Inderbitzin of Slu...
- DVD: Lost in Translation
- Redrum and other movie-isms
- Gran Torino
- Bond, James Bond
- Coming soon to Bagel and a Movie...
- Milk
- Doubt
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January
(49)
My Blog List
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MineMineMine!12 years ago
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Goodbye, Gretchen13 years ago
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A Bee Story13 years ago
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1 comment:
I was on the nominating committee for TV shows this year (it's a completely random appointment; I'm nothing special in SAG, believe me!). This is either funny or mock-tragic, depending on your point of view, since - I don't even have a TV! If you're on the movie committee, they send you DVDs of literally dozens of the year's big movies. For TV, they send you a lot of - sample programs. Grrrrr. And since I didn't vote, they'll probably conclude I don't take these things seriously and I'll miss out on my 1:1,000,000,000 chance of ever being appointed to the movie committee....
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