Hit Me With Your Best Shot: The Sound of Music

Like so many, my early movie taste was hugely influenced by my parents, particularly my mom. She instilled in me a deep, livelong love and devotion for The Sound of Music. I try to watch it at least once a year, but the three-hour runtime makes it hard, so this exercise was much appreciated.

Many movie musicals fail because they can't escape a stagebound feeling. The Sound of Music mostly escapes this by shooting on location all across Salzburg, but even the indoor sets feel massive.  The von Trapp mansion feels appropriately enormous, never moreso than in my best shot:

RuPaul's Drag Race: Born Naked

It's that time of year again; time for a new season of RuPaul's Drag Race! Being the seventh season, the new queens all think they know what they're getting themselves into. But do they really? Ru says to expect the unexpected, and I pray she means it. 

Top Three: Oscars 2015

Another film year has come to a close with Birdman, one of last year's most divisive films, taking the top prize. Whether you agreed with that pick or not, last night's ceremony had plenty of unforgettable moments. Here's my top three:

3.) Speeches with a message
I probably could have just stuffed my top three with different speeches from the night and left it with that. Whether discussing suicide (Graham Moore, Adapted Screenplay and Dana Perry, Documentary Short), equal rights (Common and John Legend, Original Song), or the search for cures of various diseases(Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne, Actress and Actor), everyone was pushing an important message. Best of all was Patricia Arquette, so frazzled for most of the awards circuit, putting down her notebook paper to demand equal pay for women. I don't think I could put it better than Meryl Streep and JLo did:

A New Start

I'm here with a fresh start on a newly titled blog. I started a blog last year and then abruptly stopped updating it after deciding to start my personal blogging experience with a huge project that was a bit too much to chew for a new writer. I'm back and ready to roll.

Some background information on myself: My name is Andy, and I'm a 24-year-old living in Columbus, Ohio, originally from southwest Michigan. I have a love of movies, television, and pop culture that I inherited from my parents, although my tastes diverged from their's years ago. I have an obsession with musicals, which I blame largely on my childhood coinciding with the Disney Renaissance.

Being gay has a huge impact on the way I view pop culture. I have been fully out and proud since 2010 (I got off to a late start). I love drag queens and if I had the resources to do drag, I would in a heartbeat.

As for the title of this blog, it's pulled from a quote from Sunset Blvd. I've recently been trying to plug some of the massive holes in my film-watching history, and that quote struck me as funny. I have a very simple sense of humor at times, to be honest.

Here's the link to my ICheckMovies page. I have no idea if anyone else uses this site, but I personally love keeping track of these sorts of things. Feel free to look at it or not.

That's all for now. I'm sure any readers who happen to stumble on this will eventually get an idea of who I am through my posts.