Meeting an Old Friend for the First Time

One of the reasons I look forward to weekends is because of the "Friday Screen Test" that occurs over at DVD Panache. It's a weekly feature in which Panache's host Adam Ross focuses attention on one of the many cinephiles ponitificating out there in the blogosphere. Since I love reading about people who love movies I headed over there today, as I usually do, to see which devoted admirer of all things filmic was going to be profiled this time. You can imagine my surprise when, lo and behold, I discovered that I was the subject of this week's screen test!

Well, after I got over the initial shock, I debated whether to find out what it had to say about me or move on to a more comfortable subject on another blog. Eventually I decided to bravely "take the plunge" and delve into the innerworkings of my own cinematic psyche. I can't tell you what a fascinating read it was. I learned things about myself that even I didn't know (the fact that my name sounds like a Sherlock Holmes villian, for instance, was something that never occurred to me but as a HUGE Holmes afficianado, I am immensely pleased by this revelation). Suffice it to say, this has been an incredibly illuminating experience, one that I will not soon forget. As John Cusack asks in Being John Malkovich: "What happens when a man goes through his own portal?" He meets himself is what happens..... Well, that or he ends up in a restaurant populated with people who look and sound exactly like him speaking nothing but his last name.

So, Adam, you've managed to confront me with my own self. I got to meet ME again and it was a wonderfully stimulating encounter. Granted, I wasn't necessarily thrilled by everything that I saw and heard, but I learned to overlook these flaws and just accept me as I am. In doing so, I discovered that, when all is said and done, I happen to like me and I owe you an immeasurable debt for that. Thank you. Now, if you don't mind I'm taking myself out for coffee and a movie. I really hope that I continue to get along with myself, because I'd hate to get on my own nerves after "hitting it off" with me so successfully. First things first, though... I have to agree on the movie.