ARIK DEVENS

2019

This year I became a father. Nothing else could even come close in terms of meaning and impact on my life. It changed absolutely everything, from my priorities to my schedule. As I write this, my son is exactly three months old. The time since he was born has passed in an absolute flash.

Many parents I know warned me that the time speeds by almost impossibly fast. They were mostly correct. In the immortal words of one of my all-time favorite bands, Modest Mouse, “the years go fast and the days go so slow.” Each individual day with my family has felt like a lifetime, and yet somehow we’re already three months in. It’s insane.

The effect on my movie watching has not been consistent. At first the very ideas of sleep and space and time were mere memories to me. The thought that I would ever have the time or the presence of mind to watch and think about one of these films seemed laughable. As time went on though, things stretched out again. Routines were formed. For a little while I actually had more movie watching time than ever before. I took full advantage of that.

Now we’re back to a time where I don’t get much space to watch these films. I spend most of my nights in my child’s room, reading a book or idling on the internet, while he sleeps. I suppose I should watch movies on my iPad, but it just doesn’t feel right for this project. Maybe I’ll get over that, or maybe things will change again to where I have the time to watch.

Either way, I’m so excited for what the future holds, and I know that no matter what, I will continue on this marvelous journey. I hope you’ll all continue with me. - Dec 30th, 2019