A Non-Film Story With a Strange Segue

It starts with a dog.  Well, not just a dog, my dog, The Illustrious Dr. Jones ESQ., Victorian adventurer, bon vivant and gentleman scholar ... Jones for short.  When he was adopted at the age of two from a rescue agency eight years ago (the then) we promised to treat him better than the family that gave him up.  This meant three walks a day, seven days a week, of varying lengths (he doesn't like when it is raining).  Sure its a chore, but it's healthy, relaxing and when you can see how happy a dog is on his stroll it's gratifying.  They wear their emotions on their tails you know.

Well from 2010 to 2012 I went through some course changes in the direction my life was taking.  I suffered the stresses of not one, but two job restructurings and my personal status reverted back to being single.  Through all that I came out with Jones at my side and I have kept the promise that I made eight years ago to treat him as best I could.  It has come with some compromises, like moving to afford a backyard, and we can honestly say that my work/life schedule is very structured, whimsical flights of fancy are not even on the page anymore.  One of these days I might have the time to go on a date again.  Now don't get me wrong, I have great friends who help out immensely whenever they can, especially when I travel for work and the occassional out of town fun trip, but bottom line is that Jones is my responsibility, and for the happiness that dog gives me I wouldn't give that up in a New York minute.

So during these walks, and my commute to work, I have time to fill my brain with audio content and I've dove into the varieties of podcasts that are available out there (for free).  I listen to comedy (The Bugle), geekery (Radio Free Skaro, Loudest Geeks in The Room, Rooster Teeth), informative ones (Hardcore History, Stuff You Should Know), but the bulk are about video games, an interest I haven't gotten rid of in my waning years, and one of my favourite ones is the Giant Bombcast.  I like the humour, the opinonated, but non-malicious, comments from the group, and the banter among the podcasters.  I enjoyed the two hours of commentary from these guys and really appreciated the way they handled post E3 2013 coverage that was different from the knife-sharpening, torch lighting, bandwagon riding venom coming from most of the rest of the internet.

And here's the segue

Last week Ryan Davis (no relation), co-founder of Giant Bomb and pilot of the Giant Bombcast passed away unexpectedly at the age of 34.  He was on his honeymoon.  I never met the man and I only know of him from his website, occassional interview and his podcast, but for some reason his death shook me a bit.  He, through his podcast, was/is part of my regular Wednesday schedule of bussing and dogwalking and I find it weird that as of today I will not be hearing his opening greeting and off track digressions.  It's like finding out a player on your favourite sports team is gone, it doesn't affect you in real life, I still get up walk the dog, go to work and so on, but it's still something you will miss.  He will be missed, by this old f@rt in suburbia, who has to go home from work to feed and walk his dog.  Thanks for the two+ years of entertaining me on Wednesdays Mr. Ryan Davis.

Implosions!

Supposedly Lucas and Speilberg came out this previous week saying that the film industry was on the verge of imploding, something about if enough mega-blockbusters don't profit in a year the industry could suffer on some catostrophic level.  They also discussed how much harder it is for even them, the fathers of the modern blockbuster, to get their films in theatres (Spielberg said Lincoln, regardless of its pedigree, was this close to being on HBO).
Now, I'm no number cruncher, but I do have enough outside-looking-in-via-the-internet knowledge to know that the film industry has become, more and more, a big business being run by big business people who think in big business terms.  Like any business it's about what can turn a profit and at this point in time it's the safety of the remake, reboot and the sequel that appeals to the bankrollers.  Heck, my whole blog (and my pipedream for a subsequent podcast) was inspired by the amount of remakes coming out over the past few years.
One thing I will not discuss, mainly doe to my ignorance, is the growth of crowdfunding and the like to put the production in the hands of the people.  It's too young to determine success/failure, or abuse of the fandom out there.  But hey if you want to send cash in an envelope for me to jumpstart my podcast my addres is .....
As usual I seem to have gone off on a tangent.
Look, I'm not arguing againt the comments of the producer and director of the Greatest Movie Ever Made Ever! (Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981), but I do think that there are good movies out there that aren't blockbusters and will not be regulated to being seen between Game of Thrones and the repeat of the episode of Game of Thrones.  You may have to wade through a sea of cookie cutter safe bets, but they will be there and you will get to see them in their natural habitat, a real movie theatre.
You'll have to vote with your wallet and with your feet.  They do track how many seats get filled in a theatre on top of overall box office.  For example, a couple of friends and I saw "This Is The End"(article on that later this week), certainly not a cookie cutter mega-blockbuster reboot, yesterday at 11 am, and the theatre was nicely filled to the point where we didn't have great seats.  If your nearest theatre isn't offering anything beyond only the biggest movies, go to the next one, but go now and don't say "I'll wait until its on demand".  If you wait the abacus readers will label a good film a failure and you will get stuck with sure things.  Look I hate a crowded, phone lit theatre full of idjits who wont stop talking/texting, but I still go, I just got smart enough to find matinees to coincide with a breakfast and a movie outing, and I am still contributing box office receipts to a movie that deserves it.
And I'm lazy, so if I'm finding a way to support the movies, anyone can. 
I'm not sure if this post made any sense, but I'm rusty, it been over a year you know.