My father was a successful painter, but his second love was movies.

That’s the thing about this racket — you never know what odd bit of experience will come in handy.

During Christmas 1991, I got my first bass guitar — a Washburn Force ABT in candy-apple red — and started taking lessons at the local music shop. There, I made …

By Ricky Kreitman When I was in fourth grade, my teacher, Mrs. Rose, didn’t know how to operate the 16mm projector. Educational films spilled out like spaghetti, so I stepped …

By Julio C. Perez IV   I never had an inordinate fear of dark rooms as a child. Although the night has its secrets — and a child of anxious …

By David Timoner I wasn’t born with Hollywood dreams in my head. I grew up in Miami, Fla., and while I liked movies and was the editor of my school …

By Joel Watson M y first memory, whether real or partially imagined, was being carried by my parents into a 1977 screening of “Star Wars.” Though I was only three …

By Christine Yoon   Members of the Editors Guild like me — raised in New Orleans, the only child of a single Korean immigrant mother — will likely agree that …

By Doug Drake Although I grew up in the Florida Keys, I was born in San Diego at the Balboa Naval Hospital (my father was in the Navy). For a …

By Matt McFarland   When I was g rowing up in Omaha, Nebraska, during the ’70s and ’80s, movies were a refuge from the Midwestern winters and my favorite source …