Reel Distracted: An Introduction

“All profound distraction opens certain doors.  You have to allow yourself to be distracted when you are unable to concentrate.”
- Julio Cortazar
 
“The more you let yourself be distracted from where you are going, the more you are the person that you are.  It’s not so much like getting lost as it is like getting found.”
- William Stafford

Distraction is a word that always has a negative connotation to it.   Although the word can have a positive meaning as well.  That which amuses, entertains, or diverts.   This implies a distraction removes a person either physically or mentally from something possibly stressful or hurtful.  In this sense I think that film is a distraction.  However my mother could argue against this every time she attempts to pull my father’s attention away from a movie towards a conversation with her.  I, like my father, have a tendency to be pulled in by movies, drawn to them like a moth to a flame. 
So here it is, a blog about movies, film, cinema, moving pictures or whatever you want to call it.  A close friend of mine said to me not so long ago “you should do a blog about movies”, after I regaled her with too much information about some film or another. She even helped me come up with the name.  I think, I was watching a movie at the time. 
Let me say this before moving forward.  I didn’t go to film school.  I don’t have a degree in cinema studies.  I have a loose grasp of film theory.  I am not a film historian.  I am just a guy who is very preoccupied with watching movies.  I am easily distracted by the narrative storytelling of film.  Maybe even just the moving image itself.  Most likely I will not be talking about transfers, aspect ratios, or other technical things.  Unless I buy something I need to share or there is a great print playing somewhere. 
I am interested in all types of film, though I tend to concentrate on gothic horror, gialli, spaghetti westerns, film noir, documentaries, kung-fu, pre-code, samurai, silent, exploitation, and comedy.  And the list goes on, in conclusion I am into all film.
Where does this leave me?  It leaves me with boxes upon boxes of movies, streaming services and film screenings. 
My posts will be about observations I’ve made throughout my time spent being distracted by the moving image.  I don’t know where each post will take me, I am just going with it. 
So here we go...