Going Down the Van Movie-going Memories~

After a trip to China, the holidays and other stuff… I rushed~ Really REALLY rushed to catch~

1. Jan 8th ’05 – Closer – Because as I said before, Portman fan through and through.
2. Jan 21st – Bad Education – Group watch.
3. Jan 23rd – The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou – Group watches became quite common this year, and would ultimately render my ability to go to the theater alone null.
4. Jan 28th – The Sea Inside – Cried a bit on this one. Went to Tinseltown with E and JK. We probably sneaked snacks and pop into the theater.
5. Jan 29th – Hide and Seek – Group watch.
6. Feb 4th – Million Dollar Baby – SP suggested watching this. I asked if it was the boxing movie, he said it wasn’t about boxing or a baby with a million dollars. Also cried a bit on this one.
7. Feb 5th – Boogeyman – My bday was spent watching a bad film with good company, as PK tried to get me drunk, but getting herself and JK drunk instead. Success.
8. Feb 18th – Constantine – Blank on this one. Is there a correlation on memories and how good or bad movies are? Probably a group watch.
9. Feb 18th – Nobody Knows – This was my first introduction to Koreeda. You know how that and my relation to Japanese entertainment went.
10. Feb 27th – Hitch – Oh this one. This one is not famous, but it could be muddled. Timing seems all off, but it seems like I remember it. It was JK, E, R and me at Futureshop, when suddenly two of them disappear. Me and the other were looking for them to no avail. I know how it all turned out.
11. Mar 11th – Robots – I think this one was an after school watch with NW.
12. Mar 18th – Steamboy – Group watch. I usually never had the chance to watch Japanese animation on the big screen. You take it when you can. It was a dubbed show, though. Ugh.
13. Mar 26th – Miss Congeniality 2 – Oh, yeah. Total guilty one. Alone.
14. Mar 27th – Upside of Anger – Remember how I was a big ERW fan? Lone watch.
15. Apr 1st – Sin City – Big BIG group watch. Regular gang, plus V, JC and AdK. Maybe even DD01s gang, M, S and Ten. School was so busy. And then I went to Hawaii… didn’t return until~
16. May 6th – The Interpreter – Another Kidman movie! Maybe with JK? Maybe lonesome watch.
17. May 6th – Kingdom of Heaven – Later that day, it was me and JK trying to get S to the cinema. But S had to wake Ten up for early dawn work of her final project, so we took it upon ourselves to wake her up. Helped her through the early morning, and ended up having breakfast together.
18. May 19th – Star Wars Ep 3 – I blame Portman for this one. I’m serious.
19. Jun 3rd – Cinderella Man – Group watch.
20. Jun 10th – Howl’s Moving Castle – You take it when you can. This is the only time I’ve seen Miyazaki on the big screen, and by that time I had really only seen Spirited Away.
21. Jun 17th – Batman Begins – Total group watch.
22. Jun 24th – Land of the Dead – Another group watch.
23. Jun 25th – Bewitched – Lone watch for Kidman.
24. Jun 30th – War of the Worlds – Group watch that included AdK, CA and DC too.
25. Jul 8th – Dark Water – Another group watch.
26. Jul 15th – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Seriously. There has to be a relation between the quality of film and memory. I’m blank on this one. It’s possible I saw it alone as much as it was with a group.
27. Jul 21st – Wedding Crashers – Small group watch. R may have been there, K and even CA. Possibly midway through a school day.
28. *Sep 24th – Corpse Bride – Apparently, life was so busy there was no time to watch movies for a whole month. A lot of people graduated and my family came to visit for a couple of weeks. In any case, this one was very special to me. It was a bday and there was a not fancy dinner. But still was special.
29. Oct 8th – Proof – This one was a break from school work with NW, food and then headed back to work.
30. Oct 9th – Serenity – NW made me go and said “it’s Joss Whedon.” Then later lend me Firefly. It was over.
31. Oct 10th – Oliver Twist – Amazing what busy school can do. The movie is all muddled, but it was a Tinseltown watch with IJ. We had already moved apart, and I was living with AK by then.
32. Oct 20th – Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit – Group watch. NW and DC were there.
33. Oct 29th – Mirrormask – It was me and NW again taking a break from school work.
34. Nov 18th – Harry Potter 4 – My 1st midnight show EVER. Bought ticket early, went with SJ and ran into the X3 shooting inside the church. Saw wizards and witches, and I felt like a fan.
35. Dec 3rd – Rent – Tinseltown with IJ once again. We all missed each other but had little time. Moving away from downtown did that.
36. Dec 9th – Narnia 1 – Late after school with JK and AdK as we used to go for ramen so often. Got tickets early on my way to school, but never managed to find parking on time, so we were pretty late and theater was packed. Drunk drag queen was shouting why everyone was staring at him.
37. Dec 10th – Harry Potter 4 – Yes, I did. With NW. There was nothing new to watch to make us forget about school, so we got in the show.
38. Dec 17th – The Family Stone – Relaxing lone watch about family BECAUSE. Got back home and pretty sure there had been another fire scare, so ended up having dinner out with AK and SJ.
39. Dec 23rd – Brokeback Mountain – this was a sole JK movie. Saw gay men with cowboy hats. Ended up watching this back with a whole different audience, making me realize how different societies can be. First Xmas away from home approaching.
40. Dec 28th – Munich – Pretty sure this was a small group watch with JK and B. It was my last night in Van, headed off to Richmond, had late LATE night snacks and then headed for the airport.

Amazing how the first year was so easy breezy that I got time to watch 66 movies at the theater and plus home watches~ and 2005 was so busy and angsty that I only got 39.

After returning back home, I spent some time fixing my messed up papers, gigs and headed north once again for the last time. This is a thought that still pains me, but such has been destiny for better or worse.

1. May 7th ’06 – Mission Impossible 3 – Group watch with the guys, JK, R and K.
2. May 9th – Art School Confidential – Group watch.
3. May 20th – DaVinci Code – Early movie ticket buy, time waste at Denny’s, and line-up time-wasting with people handing out flyers against the movie.
4. May 28th – X-Men 3 – Group watch. Memories are a blur. See, there has to be a connection.
5. Jun 3rd – Down in the Valley – by this time, I was doing all most my movie-watching with K. This one in Fifth Avenue would be the first one. Also, remember? ERW. Possibly random place for dinner.
6. Jun 10th – Wah-Wah – rare lone watch at Fifth Avenue. I loved getting charged as a student or child. xD
7. Jun 16th – Nacho Libre – Group watch, but blurry. Maybe it was with K only.
8. Jun 24th – Click – Another group watch? Or was it K? Late nights on Burrard.
9. Jun 30th – Superman Returns – Group watch. Even B was there.
10. Jul 1st – Devil Wears Prada – As it became usual… Ticket-buy, Denny’s and movie with K.
11. Jul 7th – The Omen – Another one was K, though can’t remember if JK was there.
12. Jul 8th – The King – This one seems like a small group watch. Def. K was there.
13. Jul 11th – The Lake House – this one is a blur too. Seems like a lone watch, but IJ could’ve been involved.
14. Jul 16th – Pirates of the Caribbean 2 – Group watch, but can’t remember who where there.
15. Jul 21st – Lady in the Water – group watch, and we shamefully literally rushed to the theater. Show was at 10.30 (according to ticket) so we dashed through downtown and Skytrain.
16. Jul 23rd – Strangers with Candy – This one was def. with K.
17. Jul 29th – Unidentified Movie – The ticket is faded, but it says | G Sat. 5:05PM Theatre 9 | on Tinseltown. — Which according to difficult IMDb search mumbo jumbo could be Woody Allen’s Scoop. It can totally be, but the rest might be blurry.
18. Aug 7th – Little Miss Sunshine – This was a one-time outing with S(?) — don’t even remember the last name — that’s how random that was.
19. Aug 26 – Half Nelson – Another outing at Fifth Avenue with K. Another random dinner.
20. *Sept. 8th – The Hamster Cage – Oh this one is a special one too [1]. Never to be seen or repeated ever again with K at Fifth Avenue. And a meeting of Larry Kent to boot. It would’ve made my life if Carly had been there too.
21. Sept 15th – Last Kiss – Another bad movie it seems because I can’t remember anything. Maybe it was a group watch or maybe it was just K watching.
22. Sept 22nd – The Science of Sleep – A total group watch coz everyone loves Gondry. B, JK and R were there for sure. And the last time I ever saw a movie in Van… makes sense it was at Fifth Avenue.

I’m sure I’m missing a whole bunch because I’m pretty certain I’ve seen A Prairie Home Companion (Oh! Hey! Another Lohan movie) at Fifth Avenue as well, but I didn’t see the ticket. In any case, that’s a blurry memory too. Maybe I have two stashes of tickets buried there somewhere. That doesn’t make much sense either.

Well, this has been an interesting memory experiment. A lot of work, but that will serve as record of my memories that one day will fade.

This will also let me get rid of all these papers. I will only keep a handful of tickets, the most dear to me. And let my mind move on as best as it possibly can.