Syracuse, NY — I was sitting in the very posh Collaborative Media Room in Newhouse 3. My group was cutting their film for our video project due next week. The afternoon sun streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Thanksgiving break was on the horizon. I could already smell the sweet potato marshmallow.
As I sat back and watched, I checked out my favorite newspaper of record, the New York Times. A recent article by A.O. Scott caught my attention. It was called “Screen Memories.”
Scott, chief film critic at the Times, masterfully weaved together a story about some of the most influential films in the last decade. Here’s an excerpt,
But alongside the official pantheon occasionally incarnated in lists offered up by institutions like the American Film Institute and The New York Times, every film lover carries around a more subjective canon, an ever-shifting, impressionistic personal cinematheque. That horror movie that gave you nightmares as a child. The love story you saw on your first date with the love of your life. The dramas that ended or started friendships, soothed you in your lonely moments or made the loneliness more acute. The westerns that taught you something about courage or treachery, the comedies that schooled you in sex, the epics and biopics that overshadowed what you learned in history class.
Almost all of my favorite films growing up coincidently had Rick Moranis in them. “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,” “Little Shop of Horrors,” “Ghostbusters,” “Brewster’s Millions,” Spaceballs ” and “Little Giants” were always playing in our VCR. My grandpa, Don Antonio, never made me the electro-magnetic shrink ray–or Doc Brown’s flying DeLorean–I asked for over and over again. In Spanish, he told me that I had to use my imagination. My cousins and I would adventure deep into my backyard and hide in the tall grass. After hours on the ground, mom would call us in. I would usually have poison ivy and they’d have ticks in the hair and arm pits. Whenever I see those movies, I’m taken back to those moments.
Here is the artwork that accompanied Scott’s story. I thought it was pretty cool looking.
- east coast paper boy
Tags: a.o. scott, CMR, collaborative media room, electro-magnetic shrink ray, film, grad school, honey, i shrunk the kids, journalism school, movies, new york, new york times, newhouse, ny, ny times, rick moranis, s.i. newhouse school of public communications, Screen Memories, sweet potato marshmallow, syracuse
I always wanted to slide down a huge blade of grass. And honey bees. What a ride that would be – who else knows where the prettiest flowers in the yard are?
Believe it or not, I spent many hours with the animals on our “farm,” and the conversations are the base for many I have today. Creativity, I believe comes from experiences developed by curiosity and motivation. I love that your grandpa pushed you to imagine.
–VC