Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Before There Were Websites... (Pt 1)

...there were scrapbooks!

My parents are moving, abandoning my childhood home, and I spent my holiday going through old boxes in storage. It's hard to part with any of these secret keys to unlock my childhood. There's heaps and heaps of homemade comic books featuring my own superhero creations which I shan't share (because they were never optioned for movies... not because they are totally embarrassing. Uh, yeah. Not because of that). Plus lots and lots of drawings of various X-Men, Madonna, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker.

Many photo scrapbooks were uncovered including "MOVIES OF THE EIGHTIES"

front cover: Raging Bull (I hadn't seen it. I just knew it was
"important" somehow), E.T. and Aliens

Turns out The Film Experience was no fluke. I was always writing about movies... but when I was in junior high and high school, the writing was in list-making form and smelled like rubber cement instead of Apple computer.

inside covers: Silkwood , Crimes of Passion, Terms of Endearment

The front and back covers are completely mainstream / boy friendly, and yet the inside jackets are so actressexual. It's as if my love for actresses was still reasonably contained, with Meryl Streep and Kathleen Turner whispering to me in pupa stage.

I was absolutely obsessed with the unseen-by-me Crimes of Passion (MPAA ratings scandal!) though I'm not sure I ever asked myself why... Kathleen Turner was enough cover for and emblem of any prurient reason.

back cover: the infamous gold bikini, Return of the Jedi

Somewhere -- I cannot find it! -- there is a half-formed MOVIES OF THE NINETIES scrapbook which I began in college... but abandoned once the glorious internet took over my life and made scrapbooks actual items of nostalgia rather than just containers for the same.

Part 2 coming soon. some random funny clippings from the book.

*

24 comments:

NATHANIEL R said...

I just realized I accidentally deleted a real comment I mistook for spam (My apologies) the spambots have been out in force

Rae Kasey said...

I did this EXACT same thing. The Piano is the first film I remember obsessing over - at the ripe old age of 7 - and I've been compiling film facts in one way or another ever since.

Andrew K. said...

Aaaah. This is nice. Didn't all children go through this? I didn't even relegate myself to scrapbooks my school books were [and still are] filled with incoherent ranting. Your scrap books look very much neater, though.

Wayne B said...

Same as Andrew, it was always notebooks filled with chicken-scratch writings about movies for me.

Olli Sulopuisto said...

Wow.

That's… sincere. And great. And somehow innocent, maybe?

NicksFlickPicks said...

I. Looooooooooooove. These.

countrycat said...

I think this should a 10 part series. Just wonderful. I never had a movie scrapbook but I remember being fascinated over a picture I saw promoting Nicholson's "The Postman Always Rings Twice". An ambiguous title, the sexuality of the image, something about it made me obsess over it. I've since seen the original but something has always held me back from watching the remake. I guess I don't want to lose the mystery.

FrenchGirl said...

LOL

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION said...

BEST ACTRESS
- Anna Fuckermother, FUCKINGWOOD
- Laureen Dragson, THE BANANA CONNECTION
- Sandra Hotpants, THE GIRL WITH WET TANGA
- Rezenssura Irving, HER PUSSY SMELLS LIKE DEAD FISH
- Cate Bopoero, STRAWBERRIE CONDONS, DUREX PRESSERVATIVES

I've heard Bopoero is a lock.

BEST ACTOR
- Justin Long, AS LONG AS MY PENIS
- William Cipote, STRAWBERRIE CONDONS, DUREX PRESSERVATIVES
- Frankie Thin, THE MILKMAN WANTS YOU TO DRINK HIS MILK
- Andy McFlurry, GAYED OR BISEXED
- Charlie Chousweth, YOUR COCK BELONGS TO HER

Justin Long won the golden globe, but Frankie Thin is a darkhorse.

NicksFlickPicks said...

(Okay, based on that, does everyone see why we need national health care, with a public opinion? There are people in dire need!)

par3182 said...

please publish the lists

Derreck said...

I want to make an actual comment, but i'm too busy gushing at how cute the whole thing is.

Karen said...

Nathaniel, that's great! Reminds of how I used to decorate my school notebooks and binders with movie related pictures that I cut out from magazines. Blogging makes things so much easier plus you get instant comments. Thanks for sharing!

Alexa said...

Ahh, childhood in the 80s! I too was rubber-cementing my movie dreams back then...I recall a sad Michael J. fox collage that I would carry with me in the Back to the Future days.

Christine said...

Aww. I love the little Mylar sleeves to protect the cutouts. Also, I think you stole my scrapbook from the mid 80s, except I may, in addition, have included a David Bowie/Breakfast Club quote along the lines of: "And these children that you spit on as they try to change their worlds" as the opening page.

Sylvia said...

I love this photographs, Nat!

steve said...

makes me wish i had saved the Michelle Pfeiffer collage that adorned a wall of my freshman dorm room circa 1989 :D

Jim T said...

That was very nice Nathaniel! Please show the Xmen drawings! Say you have Emma Frost!

Julienne said...

I love this!! I'm glad I kept my scrapbooks too =)

Glenn said...

I had something similar where I pasted film reviews and stories that I liked. Aw. I wonder where that went.

Kat said...

That's really lovely! I hope the 90's scrapbook turns up too.

Unknown said...

I was always too embarrassed to comment it with any of my friends, but my scrapbooks had to do with classic films stars of the 30's and 40's, all I was interested about was Rita, Marilyn, Lana, Joan... I guess I was a geriatric actressesxual.

Anonymous said...

The best film of the 80s and my favourite film of all time...STAND BY ME (1986). R.I.P. RIVER PHOENIX!

Unknown said...

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