This trip won't just be some whirlwind tour of the States with our destination being a new home in the Pacific Northwest. A whole lot more went into this. Lara and I did attempt a Buddhist approach to our worldly possessions; we parted with a lot. Enough that I feel I should have shaved my head in the process and found some prayer beads. We slowly parted with items via craigslist, clearing off the major furniture close to a month before we packed up shop. One sold here; another there but we managed to ditch close to everything we could either part with or easily replace once we moved into the condo.
Now, there were some things I *refused* to part with. But hell, I'm allowed a small luxury or two. As most of you know, I'm a die-hard cinephile. My DVD and fledgling Blu-Ray collection is one of intrigue, passion, debt and many conversations starting with "Why the hell do you own this movie?" While I could have removed the box art from certain DVD cases and lessened our load by roughly two bins or so, I didn't. If I did, I'd have to find empty cases to refill the DVDs and provide protection once we set up the new living room.
And then, there are special edition box sets and cases which cannot be found anywhere unless you purchase the DVDs over again. I rarely buy, let alone own pirated DVDs because of the lack of special features and the cover art and special boxes the legitimate versions come in. Thats just how I am programmed. Shoot me.
Since my DVD collection started in college, I had always purchased DVDs outright, and had DVD folders which were alphabetized to make it easier to keep track of the collection. This will be a thing of the past once we arrive in Seattle and visit the IKEA a few towns over. It has been my dream to have a living room big enough, or at least a few bookshelves big enough to hold my collection, in their cases, in alphabetical order. I'll even keep a section separate for documentaries and television. This isn't a contest in my eyes; my DVD collection is something I am proud of. It gives people a chance to see my tastes, to potentially see what kind of man I am by what I choose to own and watch. People will see I'm a serious filmmaker by noticing I own Visions of Light, Easy Rider and Raging Bulls, Seven Samurai: The Criterion Collection and Touch of Evil. They'll also discover my light-hearted approach to cinema with Galaxy Quest and Last Action Hero.
My DVD collection is well-rounded, just like me. And I'm not just talking about my midsection. A film and novel collection are great icebreakers for new people we'll be meeting; we'll get laughs, we'll get cringes but at least its something to talk about while the fire roars from its hearth.
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