Since this blog is a place where I will be writing about films (among other things), I thought an introduction is in order. Herewith, a brief snapshot of my history of film writing.
I was part of a team that programmed and ran the Drive-In Double Feature Film Festival in June of 1994. This event was co-sponsored by the Austin Film Society with Katie Kokinos representing the Society. Our guest of honor on opening night was Forest J. Ackerman, editor of the long running magazine FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND. The films were all screened at the now gone Dobie Theater, with the closing night consisting of a recreation of the drive-in experience on the top level of the Dobie parking garage. We erected a screen and showed two schlock classic films, both of which were filmed in North Texas. The films were THE KILLER SHREWS and THE GIANT GILA MONSTER. As part of the festival, all the members of the production crew wrote program notes for each double feature.
Having written film notes for the Drive-In Double Feature Film Festival, in 1996 I wrote a letter to Paul Beutel at Austin’s Paramount Theatre asking about the possibility of contracting me to write film program notes for the annual Summer Classic Film Festival. Paul said yes, and my life changed forever as I wrote the notes for fifteen years.
In September 1998, I contributed a feature story to TEXAS HIGHWAYS magazine about historic Texas movie theaters. I spent several days driving across Texas, visiting theaters that were still in operation as first run movie houses. I met a lot of interesting people and saw many beautiful theaters.
My Paramount film notes caught the eye of a freelance reporter at the AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN. The young man wrote a feature article about my work which appeared in the August 24, 2009, edition of the paper.
On June 6, 2010, I had the honor of introducing and conducting a Q&A with Adam West on stage at the Paramount Theatre prior to a screening of the 1966 BATMAN movie.
And when Waco’s Hippodrome Theater was renovated into a food and film venue, I was contracted to provide the notes for and introduce and do a talk back afterwards of a screening of THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS.
I am, as it should come as no surprise, an avid film collector with a collection of several hundred films on DVD and Blu-Ray. I have many titles from the first-rate Criterion Collection as well as genre collections including film noir, science fiction, fantasy, horror, westerns and war films. I focus on many directors in my collection such as Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Sergio Leone, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Clint Eastwood.
So, that’s briefly where I’ve been regarding films. Where I hope to go with this blog is to post at least one film review a day. We’ll see if I can pull that off. I am now fully retired so I have plenty of free time to watch and write.
I hope you’ll come along with me on this journey through cinema. Oh, and I’ll be writing about many other areas of interest. I want this to be an eclectic blog addressing a multidue of topics of interest.
Thanks for reading. And stay tuned. There’s more, much more to come.
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