When I was a senior in high school, Alien was released. I loved it immediately. The story, the isolation, the darkness, the damp eeriness, the Goldsmith score, the characters, the dialogue - all of it. I immersed myself in it. I saw it more times than I can count, bought and wore out the score, bought the making of book, the story-in-pictures book, one-sheet, etc, etc. It was also the very first VHS of a film I ever bought. I could transcribe the film from memory.

Watching it on tape, at home, late at night for the first time was a huge deal. I remember that excitement of having one of my favorite films on VHS as though it were yesterday. To this day, Alien is one of my top ten films of all time. It always will be. The soundtrack has been part of my world since 1979. These days it's joined by the entire audio track ripped to MP3, along with the DVD. Alien has been a huge part of my world since it's birth.

Tonight, when I got home from work, there was no baseball on TV (Yankees play tomorrow), so I decided to pour a glass of red and see what was on cable. On AMC I saw that Alien was about to start. I'm not one to watch commercial TV versions of movies I have on DVD, but I decided to give it a look, at least for a few minutes. Long enough to see the opening titles and dig on the score for a few minutes.

How did they present the movie?..... Alien - The 30th Anniversary, tonight, on AMC.

I have to tell you guys, that stung a little. It was a sobering reminder of the passage of time. One that I could do without at the start of the weekend.

30 fucking years, man. Damn.

*edit*

I just checked the release date. It was the summer before my senior year.