"That was then, this is now."

So here I go again. This will be my fifth attempt to create and sustain a blog. My previous blogs ranged from my personal musings to an examination and evaluation of the current pop/geek culture. This time I'm going to narrow my focus to a discussion about film.

Now, I know what you're saying. There are like a bajillion movie blogs out there and why would you want to add to the over-saturation of text on the subject. Well about a kazillion of those movie blogs often concern themselves with current movie news and reviews, leaving the remaining zillion or so to discuss other topics regarding cinema. That's the niche (or perhaps I should say crevasse) that his blog will reside in.

This blog will primarily focus on films released thirty years ago. That means that starting now, the main discussion will be about the movies from the year 1981. Why did I choose so narrow a focus for my blog? I'll list my three reasons for doing so.

• I've had this idea percolating in my head since before the summer of 2011 started. I was remembering back to the days when I slowly started becoming a film buff: my early pre-teen years. I was ten going on eleven in 1981 and for me that was a great year for films. Looking back at that time and having a yearning desire to recapture that experience is a prime motivator for starting this blog.

• My second reason comes from a discussion I had on a forum thread on another movie site. The forum thread centered on the debate on whether or not the 1980's were in fact the last great decade in film. I proposed that it was while others questioned (quite well) my assertion. So by creating this blog, I believe I can reaffirm my opinion into a more insoluble fact.

• Finally, while I dawdled getting this blog started, writer Damon Lindeloff, basically wrote an essay which mirrored exactly what I intended to write about as my first movie post. He wrote a nicely affectionate article about "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and its influence on him as a film lover. After that revelation, I decided to jump start this blog to avoid that kind of comeuppance again.

So this blog will feature a series of impressions for films made thirty years ago. I say impressions because I'd like to forgo the traditional review format. I would like my posts to reflect why I personally liked a certain film rather than an analysis of its merits and its flaws. I probably won't succeed very well in my attempts, but that will be the goal I'll set my sights on.

So sit back and relax as we set the way-back machine to the early '80's. Then prepare yourselves as we slowly journey forward through a time where $5 movie tickets were the norm, PG-13 was only a germ of an idea, and independently owned neighborhood theaters actually existed in every neighborhood. 

Roll 'em.