a plug

so one night not long ago, v and i are watching a certain episode of jeopardy (again, it's like millionaire; tivo a week's worth, you can speed through to the parts that matter in no time), and final jeopardy comes up: "best picture winners." i groan, v rubs his hands together and, after the inevitable 30-second midas ad, the answer is revealed:

2 movies whose 1-word titles are cities;
they won the Oscar for Best Picture, 59 years apart

before i even start to turn over the possibilities, v unhesitatingly blurts out, "what are casablanca and chicago?". i turn and look at him with my mouth open, he smiles and says, "1943 and 2002--easy." [easy? hell, even with 30 seconds, none of the contestants got it]

and i sigh, chalk up one more for v in the movie department.

see, v is a film buff of the first water--even at his relatively young age, he has more knowledge of and/or passion for movies in his left pinkie than do most of the industry types i've met in the almost-20 years i've lived in this city.

i could go on and on about v and his love for cinema--like how, for instance, he'll happily curl up with me and watch any goddam movie i want, no matter how old it is, how many times he's seen it or even whether he likes it or not--doesn't matter to him because (a) if it's important to me it's important to him; and (b) he'll learn something from it either way.

or i could talk about how he spends hours searching obscure movie-spoiler sites before he ever sees a movie for the first time so he's not distracted by plot elements while he watches, deconstructs it and puts it back together in his mind.

i could go on about lots of things, but the reason i'm writing about v tonight (because i haven't gotten anywhere near this personal on this blog before) is because he's decided to start blogging about his passion--about movies past and movies to come--and i wanna give him a plug.

his blog is new (and who knows if it'll last because, as i've found out, this shit is hard) but what's there is worth reading and i urge you to check him out--and, if you're lucky, he'll continue to write and thus enrich your cinematic perspective as he has mine.