The things we take for granted...

So... This is my first ever blog and to be honest I don't really know why I am doing it. I think it has something to do with being somewhat inspired by watching the Meryl Streep/Amy Adams film 'Julie & Julia'. Which in short is about a woman who cooks every recipe from the 'Mastering the art of French cooking' cookbook and blogs about it. 


But what really set the events in motion.. Last night I randomly, out of the blue became deaf in my left ear. It was not pleasant. I hardly slept, thinking the worst as usual. At several points throughout the night I thought 'what if I loose my hearing, permanently?' Then that got me thinking, what if I can never hear music again, or watch a film and hear what is going on. This saddened me. I thought about all the unfortunate people out there that have never had the experience of hearing music and hearing the sounds of the greatest films. Just 2 of the millions of things that we fortunate people take for granted. 


Now, don't get me wrong, I love music.. I absolutely love music.. but.. my passion is for film/film making. It is something that you can escape into. To me a great film is a something that can make you laugh, cry, get angry, and sympathize with the characters. There is just something about seeing something on a screen that takes you away from everything around you. You disregard your own life, your own problems. For 2 hours, you are watching lives/events unfold before your eyes and they grab you, pull you in and don't let go until the credits roll. At the end of a great film you just sit there for a few moments, while your body and mind recover from all the emotions that just got swept through you. 


So, the concoction of these 3 things got me thinking. I'm going to use something that I take for granted and something that I have so much passion for and let people/anyone/no one (If nobody reads it) know about my personal challenge. 


Over the next 365 days, I am going to watch IMDb's list of the 250 greatest movies ever made. Admittedly, I have watched 111 of those 250 at some point during my life. For some of them it has been anything up to 16 years. Others just a few months. 


I will not be doing this list in any particular order, because it will take me longer to find the more obscure pictures, say foreign or from the 1920's + 30's So I will be starting with the films that I already have. A lot of which, I have not yet seen.


Tomorrow, I will list IMDb's Top 250 movies of all time and decide what I will watch. So officially this challenge will begin 'Wednesday 12th October 2011. I have until 12/10/12 to watch 250 movies. 


Wish me luck


..L..