Howdy!
Glad you chose to sneak a peak at my consistency experiment,
This is where I connect personal, daily life experiences with film talk. I'm trying to do all this in a brainstorm kind of way, in an attempt to become more consistent in my writing.
I see you made it to part 8 of this series. Congratz, if you managed to read them all. Especially if you watched all the movie clips I selected. And – in case you're just joining in - welcome!
When you are interested in checking out earlier write ups of this series, here's links to part 1,2,3,4,5, 6 and 7 where I talk about Stanley Kubrick, in particular the classic The Shining, movies on food and some intense food scenes in films, the power of editing, wintery movies and more.
The former town hall of Gouda. Picture taken by me, with my iPhone 6s.
It's the 3rd of December, 2017. A little warmer than yesterday, a couple of degrees above freezing point. I just came home from my daily walk. Talking about consistency, I really need my daily walks! The fresh air was enjoyable. Even the drizzle, that fell down on my time-for-some-scissors haircut, felt good. I was feeling good. I decided to walk into the city were I grew up in, Gouda (famous for its cheese). Every now and then, I like to play tourist in my own country. I try to look at familiar things and places with a fresh eye, as if I were a tourist visiting a new place. Most shops were closed, as is often the case on Sundays. But I didn't mind. I'm not a shopaholic anyway. I just needed some exercise and movement for my creative gears to get going.
Hard Work Pays Off
Today I woke up with the discovery that yesterday's post, where I wrote about wintery movie(s) scenes, made over 80 dollars. After months of earning almost nothing as a blogger, I feel like consistency finally starts to pay off, both literally and figuratively.
[Feel free to skip this part if you're just reading this for the movie talk. You can continue at 'AND NOW BACK TO THE FILM TALK']
I hereby want to take the chance to thank @hendrikdegrote , as well as all those who find my work worth reading, sharing and / or watching. Special thanks go out to @eeks, @macchiata , @whatamidoing and @mitchiesfoodrace People who believe in me and what I'm doing on here.
I know I'm not at the academy awards ceremony, but I just wanted to let you all know that I really appreciate this. These days cryptos and steemit are my full time job. I can't do it without your support.
I also wanna say thank you to @guyfawkes4-20 and @carlgnash for their recent heads up about my content. It's these kind words that make a person feel like he's actually contributing. A feeling I didn't have in quite a while.
Last but not least, I wanna thank the kind peepz that I've recently met over on discord at the TheLionsLegion - as well as the PAL channel. In no particular order: @seveaux , @carlschrijft , @jackjohanneshemp , @fausto , @paps , @feelx , @juliakponsford , @saipandamashii , @kristyyd , @staceyjean , @goliath , @crimsonclad , @discordiant , @rougebot and so on. Sorry, if I forgot any of you. Feel free to let me know in the comments ;)
And now back to the film talk:
on my way back, from the city centre of Gouda, to my parents' house, I brainstormed on possible movie blog topics for today. What came to mind was:
rain themed, hair themed and then: childhood movies
Now I can explain the first two, but I can't explain the latter. Why was I thinking of childhood movies? No idea. But, the thing is, it stuck with me. So that will be the main topic of today's write up.
You might have seen and enjoyed these movies too. There's a huge chance that your favorites are totally different. If you grew up in the 80s or even the 70s, you will probably enjoy these titles out of pure nostalgia. If you're a 90s kid or from the 60s or before, I actually got no clue. You might have seen these movies with your kids?
Anyhow, without further ado, here's a list of my childhood favs and the reason behind it:
THE NEVERENDING STORY (Wolfgang Petersen, 1982)
My parents fed me and my siblings a lot of apple juice when we were young. My mom thought that apple- and orange juice (the supermarkt version, that came in a 1 liter carton) was healthy, as it was made of fruit. Decades later, we learnt that it was actually very bad for your teeth, due to the combination of sweet and sour and all the added sugar and all. Anyway, me and my sisters were also raised with little candy and as little soda as possible. Believe me, if I say we made up for that lack later - and outside of the house - were possible.
So, you might ask yourself how is this connected to The Neverending Story? This starts to feel like a neverending story in itself.
I remember there being a coupon thing connected to orange and apple juice. If you drank plenty of liters of this particular brand, you would get enough coupons to get some VHS tapes of kids movies for 'free'. The handful of movies that we received, were The Neverending Story, The Neverending Story 2, Free Willy and Free Willy 2.
Now Free Willy - and I'm not talking about the porn version (sorry, couldn't help it) - never became one of my favorite movies, but The Neverending Story definitely did. An adventure story in the fantasy genre, with a boy my age as its protagonist, a beautiful girl as the princess, a flying dragon and all kind of strange and sometimes scary creatures, what's not to like about that?
Plus, I almost forgot to mention, that I had read the book “Die Unendliche Geschichte” and I loved it. No, I didn't read it in German, but in Dutch. Nevertheless, the book was written by a German guy, same goes for the movie. As a kid, I devoured that book. I had known it before I heard of the movie. One of the things that intrigued me was its title. How could a story, let alone a book, be neverending?
Then there was the color of the book, or the print. There was a part that was printed in red fonts and a part that was printed in green. I believe the colors separated the two worlds of the story; that of the main story, of a boy who discovers this particular book: 'The Neverending Story' and starts reading it, as well as the world that the book itself describes.
And, if you've seen the movie or read the book, you will know that the story shifts between both worlds. They slowly start to merge, they are interconnected. A big part of the book, as well as that of the movie, actually takes place in the fantasy world – or is it actually a fantasy world? – that the book describes. Are you still following me?
Anyhow, you must understand how big an impression this book and the movie made on me, when I was a little boy. Even though re-watching it these days doesn't come close to what I experienced back then, I can still appreciate it immensely.
Here's the trailer for you to enjoy:
and the theme song with plenty of clips from the film:
If you have been following me for a while now, you might be aware that I'm a big fan of the 80s - especially its music and movies. It might not come as a surprise to you then that I also own plenty of 80s music on vinyl. Here's a picture of a record with one of the best collections of hits ever. You might notice that the above song is on there too:
Okay, I'm finishing today's writing with a link to the kind of music that I often listen to when browsing the internet or blogging. It's a genre I discovered a couple of years ago, possibly after having seen the movie Drive (2011). It's called New Retro Wave. If you are a lover/ kid of the 80s and into electronic/ synthesizer music, you might enjoy it too:
P.S. As the title suggests, this is part 1 of my childhood movies series, as I definitely have more than one favorite. It just ended up as a way longer story than expected. It might be never ending too.