Seven stylish facts.

Oo-errr. My mate J Luis Rivera (who blogs here at W-Cinema) tagged me in this seven stylish facts thingummajig.
No pressure then and no worries, despite the fact that I am rarely stylish and can't always count all the way up to seven. It doesn't matter. It's just nice to be picked by J Luis, despite the fact that I now share the same problem he had when it comes to thinking of who to tag for the next lot. Because that's the rule - you get tagged and you write your piece and then tag seven more.
I guess I'll keep things movie-related, with perhaps one or two diversions to keep a bit of variety here.
Here goes nothing.

1) Most of my friends, both on the worldwide web and in the web of the wide world, know that I'm a horror fan and I think I should take this opportunity to thank the babysitters that my parents hired when I was a young scamp. One in particular, whose name I can't recall, used to enjoy getting to raid the vinyl collection and making mix tapes of Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Nilsson, etc and would, to get some peace and quiet for this, allow me to sit up and watch the Hammer horrors that would be gracing the TV schedules late at night. The bright red blood, the buxom bar wenches, the noble Sir Peter Cushing - all of these things seared themselves into my mind and took root to stay always within my inagination. To this day, The Creeping Flesh remains one of my very favourite horrors thanks to my childhood memory of it.

2) From Hammer horrors to scary TV films (Don't Go To Sleep was terrifying to me back then and remains one I am anxious to rewatch) to sharing the enjoyment of a modern classic that my mother loved (Halloween), I was soon in the habit of trying to stay up late whenever I could to watch whatever would scare the pants off me. A Nightmare On Elm St. did just that, as did the original Dawn Of The Dead, which saw me being caught in the morning for having left my lamp on all night. This did not go down well with my mother but once the fear had dissipated and we were in the cold light of day my biggest worry was not being allowed to view these terrors ever again. Have you ever seen John Carpenter's The Thing? Scary, gory stuff eh. My first time watching it, however, was on a 6-inch black and white screen on the kitchen TV/radio gadget. While eating a chicken curry. Despite the lack of colour and lack of decent screen size I STILL almost threw up.

3) As you get older you get more and more friends and contacts, you start stretching fingertips around the world in many different ways. Which is why I was able to get a VHS copy of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre back in 1992. I finally saw this classic horror and was suitable blown away by it. But, more importantly, it led me to have conversations with people that went like this:
"Ohhhh, if you're a horror fan I have The Texas Chain Saw Massacre if you ever want to see it."
"That would be awesome. You want to borrow Reservoir Dogs? It's still not getting released here yet."
Etc, etc. Happy days were here to stay.

4) This new-found access to movies fed directly into my, already large, appetite for consuming everything film-related that I could. Back in those days when I would get my yearly copy of Halliwell's guide or Leonard Maltin's and go through them with a highlighter. Hell, I even started writing attempts at full movie reviews when I was much younger using just pen and paper (remember them, kids?) but it was never any good because of the space required just to keep things alphabetised in different ring binders.

5) Bit of a spanner to throw in the works but the last few years, especially, have seen me being a lot more upfront and honest about having bi-polar disorder (except I had it back in the day when we just called it manic depression) and it's a horrible thing when you're battling against it. It never really goes away and makes you feel that things are about to go horribly wrong even when everything is great. Do movies help this? Sometimes, yeah. Nothing like a great comedy to chase the blues away or some superb action to get the blood pumping and provide some distraction from the mundanity around us now and again. But, for me, it's the reviewing and discussion afterwards that helps even more. A schedule is always good for those who suffer from depression, keeping busy and keeping in a routine can prove to be enormously useful. Which is an additional reason for me to write my reviews and post them online for chat and generally sharing happy joy joy, because it makes me feel good.

6) I write something for this book and it contains many other essays written by some of the coolest people I've ever had the good fortune to know, all thanks to the internet and me looking for somewhere to bitch about Darkness Falls.

7) I was going to always keep things calm and simply a hobby when it came to the movie viewing and review writing but my fine fiance convinced me to accept the offer made to me by Robin from Flickfeast and that has led to some amazing movie-related experiences in the past year since I've been trying to act a bit mature and professional (oh yeah . . . . I said it . . . .  so nyah nyah nyahhhhh). I've been to my first horror movie fest, I obtained a press pass for EIFF 2010 and was able to get a chat with the friendly Paul Andrew Williams and I've been able to get a first look at some great movies. Oh, there are some not-so-great movies now and again but that's always the way.

I hope that was okay, sorry if it disappointed you J Luis (you managed to write more and keep it much more movie-centric). I'll just end now by trying to tag some other folks, maybe not seven though.

My tea and cake buddy Alice -  http://aliceincakeland.blogspot.com/
Mad Anna banana -  http://bitchsnatch.blogspot.com/
Emma Hutchings asking you to Suspend Your Disbelief -  http://syd-film-blog.blogspot.com/

and I think that's me.
Cheers.