my love affair with film started early, when i visited my grandparents' house as a wee little mongoose; their exquisitely huge collection of movies on videotape (back in the days when beta was still a contender) was nothing short of nirvana. of course, all of them were illegal dupes, and the image quality was necessarily fuzzy, but for a few years i was young enough to be blissfully ignorant of what the words 'FBI Warning...' entailed. classics like ice pirates, top gun, the apple dumpling gang, iron eagle, the blues brothers, and every episode of tranzor z ever filmed were my standard fare, with occasional excursions into the world of drama. but hey... i was six. what did i care about rainman? i was no roger ebert, admittedly. eventually my movie consumption dropped to near-nil, more by chance than decision, and i sucked up television when i wanted a moving-picture fix. over the last couple years, however, i've been drifting back into the orbit of my local theater. it's all on the up-and-up this time, and my personal video collection is courtesy columbia house and blockbuster's sale rack. gattaca braveheart dead poets society sabrina sense and sensibility lethal weapon raiders of the lost ark emma clueless hackers cool as ice       [ more to come as i get time. go back home. ]