Sitting on the couch in the living room right now, watching the snow outside, which has been stuck on “whiteout” for the past half hour or so.  I’m listening to Johnny Cash entertain a bunch of convicts at Folsom Prison in 1968.  The boy’s taking his nap, the dogs are sacked out and content.  There’s an enormous book about World War II next to me waiting for me to get back to it.  All in all, not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

The Cash is playing through my Apple TV.  When you’re listening to music, it plays a screen saver.  I got tired of looking at the nature pictures it plays and just for the hell of it told it to start showing me movie posters as a screensaver.  I’ve been sorta idly watching them as they’ve scrolled across my screen.  And then it hit me: I really miss watching movies.  There were several years in my life, most of the time I was living in Chicago, in fact, where I was seeing 40-45 movies a year.

I have not seen a single movie nominated for an Academy Award this year.  Not one.  And of the nine Best Picture nominees, I only have a haziest idea of the plot of five.  I’ve never even heard of Philomena, Dallas Buyers’ Club or Nebraska.  And there are lots of movies that I’m seeing posters for that at least pass the initial “that looks interesting” test.

(Sidenote: poster for 3 Days to Kill just spun past.  When did Kevin Costner turn into Tom Selleck?)

I don’t remember the last time I saw a movie in a theater that didn’t have at least one Avenger in it, and that kind of makes me sad.  And, to make it worse, it’s not like I don’t have all kinds of access to movies– I can stream damn near anything I want a few months after it hits theaters, and you best believe my iTunes wish list, which I’m using as a “Watch this!” queue, is chock full of stuff– I’m just not doing it.  This could turn into a typical new-parent “get a babysitter/pay the babysitter/pay for the movie/pay for dinner/night costs $150” rant, but it’s not that.  I have time to watch movies if I want.  I just don’t.  My priorities have shifted.  And it’s a weird feeling, knowing that I want to do something, and I have the opportunity to do something, and that I’m just not going to.  For no clear reason.

Anyway, that’s all.  I could go get my DVD of The Maltese Falcon out of the rack in my office and watch it now, like I’ve kinda wanted to since rereading the book a month ago.  What’ll probably happen is that I’ll clean up the living room or read something and keep on listening to Johnny Cash.  I dunno why.