How did I get here? A Brief History of The Bark Knight
Why are we here? The eternal question…
This isn’t about why we’re on this planet or any other existential topics. It is about why you’re here on my website and why I’m bothering with this.
I’ve always had a deep passion for the screen: the big screen and the small screen. That is to say I love the art of cinema. When I was a kid, I would spend hours of my life recording VHS tapes on my mom’s television. We would number, catalog, and track everything we had so we could easily go back and watch things. This was a different time than any kids know of today. Using the tracking function to clean up the screen quality, rewinding the tapes after each use, and trying desperately to figure out how to set the timer to record something that was playing at 3 am only to find that it never started. I never did figure out that functionality. Growing up, I owned more physical movies than any of my friends or really anyone I’ve ever known since. After the age of the VHS, I moved to DVDs and built up a massive collection of those as well. I still keep many of them in storage at my house today, but the old recorded ones never did make it out of my mom’s house, lost to time or the landfill…existing only as memories.
Like most people, I don’t buy a lot physical media any longer. I do buy vinyl records, but that’s a topic for a different day. Today, I get most of my enjoyment from the surprise of what it’s like to see something for the first time. Sometimes it’s that twist ending… something that isn’t quite as common anymore. I think everyone my age remembers what it was like to watch Fight Club or The Sixth Sense for the first time and the slew of movies with twists that followed. M. Night Shyamalan made an entire career out of the twist ending. But, no, for me it’s more about the thrill of predicting where the plot is going, what characters will do, and to see actors doing what they do best. Act. A shock ending that comes out of nowhere is not necessary to get that enjoyment, but it is sometime welcome.
The reason I created this website as well as the podcast and blog that go along with it, is to give myself a place to talk about that passion. The Bark Knight is centered around the idea of open discussions around enjoying the art of make believe. Giving yourself over to someone else’s vision just for a little while.
I have ideas for areas to expand into in the future with this purpose in mind. For now, join me on this journey, and if you enjoy film as much as I do, maybe you could be my next guest host.
Thank you, and enjoy the show.
