Musings Through Filtered Ears #1

A series of random thoughts from a screen junkie

1. As much as I love movies and dispensing titles from my queue week after week, sometimes it feels good to stop and recharge my batteries. My Netflix queue has been stagnant for over two weeks now (oh the horror!) and for good reason. I won't get into details but sometimes life just happens. I spend so many countless hours watching lives unfold through cinematic lenses and when my own life gets so busy and chaotic, it allows me a chance to re-connect with reality. I will never tire of watching films, but it's kind of nice to step back and feast my eyes on something else other than a flickering screen. So this is what it's like to have a life.

2. I may forever be backlogged in the queue (I always seem to have 300+ titles in there; it never goes down despite my renting 2-3 titles a week, on average), and this doesn't bother me. I like always having potential gems waiting to be discovered. But what I do hate are backlogged Entertainment Weekly magazines. They don't take long to read, sure, but they just pile up on my nightstand waiting to be read. It's the only magazine I subscribe to these days. I used to have US Weekly (before they became tabloid-crazy), Premiere (god rest its soul, the best of all cinematic mags) and Movieline (the online version just isn't the same), and I would devour all of those within days upon their arrival in the mail. Now, my month-old EW sits next to me, losing relevance each day as it passes by. Has print entertainment journalism gone by the wayside? This seems sad to me.

3. I'm currently 100 pages into Stephen King's Under the Dome. This marks a milestone for me; it's the first book I'm reading digitally. I was hesitant about the whole e-reader phenomenon. Nothing beats holding a book in your hands as you are lost inside of it. Same with the magazines - hearing those pages crinkle as you turn them adds to the pleasure of reading them. But reading Under the Dome on my wife's Nook Color as well as my iPhone's Nook app surprised me. If it's a good novel, it'll suck you right in, no matter what format you are using. And I have to say I'm terribly pleased not to be carrying that behemoth of a hardcover with me everywhere I go. Stephen King's magical wordplay exists in the very same hand-held device where I type this blog post. Amazing.

4. The EW that stares at me, eager for my attention, is the Summer Movie Preview edition. With the exception of some big sequels, I have no idea what's coming out. I hardly travel to the theater these days (two little tykes at home will do that for ya), so is it even relevant? Well, yes, I believe it is. They may be summer movies for the general movie-going public, but for me, they are potential fall rentals. I seem to be about three months behind from everyone else.

5. One more episode of Friday Night Lights. The disc sits in the DVD player, waiting to be watched. It's killing me. This show breaks my heart. I haven't shed tears for a TV show this much since Everwood. Oh, those damned Browns always got me misty-eyed.

6. Speaking of shedding tears, I cannot believe it has been a year since Lost ended its historic run. Arguably my favorite show of all time, Lost was all-consuming when it aired. Around this time last year, I was fraught with nerves. Will the ending let me down? How will it all come together? And what am I going to do when this is over?! I am happy to report that, one year later, I have indeed moved on. But on the eve of the Friday Night Lights series finale, that wistful heart-tugging has returned. That bittersweet, anxious feeling of It is time for it to end but I really don't want it to rests in the back of my head.

Sigh.

Must good things always come to an end?