An introduction...

Hello and welcome to Honky's Movie Reviews and House of Waffles (OK, movie reviews for now, but just as soon as I can figure out how to post waffles - then look out!).

Honky's my nickname, my real handle is John, and I work in the film business, specifically the NYC animation scene. I moved from Park Slope to Queens, NY a few years back, bought myself a DVD recorder, subscribed to all the premium channels and started beefing up my movie collection. However, due to time constraints and other excuses, I fell really behind on actually WATCHING the movies. I was like a panicked squirrel in late autumn, storing nuts for winter, but forgetting to actually, you know, EAT once in a while.

I turned the big Four-OH! last year, and to celebrate my birthday (I assume), one of the channels ran a marathon of the "Planet of the Apes" movies. The old ones, not the Tim Burton remake. Though I had seen bits of them as a kid, I never watched them all through, in the proper order. The films made a bit more sense this way... This led to my first-ever New Year's Resolution, to make 2009 my year to catch up on watching movies that I haven't gotten around to.

I used to love movies - at least, I think I did before I got so busy... So I hope to re-ignite a love and respect for movies by making them part of my daily routine, without feeling like it's a chore. Working from a list of over 400 unwatched movies in my collection, I hope to watch 1 per day, mostly in the prime viewing hours between midnight and 2 am. I may not make it to 365 movies in a year, due to vacations, business trips and family emergencies, but I will try my best.

Since I also watch TV for work (and fun), I'll have to get creative in managing my time - if I'm short on time, I can pick a shorter movie on weeknights, and watch longer epics on the weekends. Books and videogames will have to take a back-seat for a while - since I still need to juggle two jobs, quality time with the wife, and some close approximation of a social life. Plus there's this thing called "sleep" that people keep recommending to me, I'll have to look into that one of these days. Maybe on the weekends my wife will join me for an extra film here and there...

I dedicate my efforts, and this blog, to the memory of my maternal grandfather, Edward Swist. Though we only shared a decade on Earth, he managed to turn me on to crossword puzzles, and he snuck me out to see my first PG-rated movie, "King Kong" in 1976. My mother threw a fit, since she only allowed me to see Disney films and other G-rated movies approved by the Catholic Church. Family legend says that Gramps turned down an offer to work in the film business, (something with Kodak?), and if he had, I probably wouldn't exist. Yet here I am, in NYC and living the dream because of a road not taken years ago.

Dim the lights and roll the movies...