As a Luddite, I had always considered blogging to be as much an anathema as owning a mobile phone or an MP3 player. But when the credit crunch caused the cancellation of my Oxford Times film columns and a weekly web slot was suggested as the only way I could continue a quarter-century association with the Oxford newspaper family, then bidding adieu to Ned Ludd was but the work of a moment.

Few readers will recall that I used to cover every film that opened in Oxford and the surrounding area. However, since incurring a debilitating back injury some seven years ago, I have been unable to travel to London press shows and the Oxford Times's coverage of mainstream cinema has largely been provided by critics from the Press Association.

Fortunately, the majority of smaller distributors are less squeamish about video piracy and have been prepared to send me discs of their forthcoming arthouse features. In launching Parky at the Pictures, might I thank them for their support and generosity in keeping me gainfully employed since March 2002, and the same goes for the companies whose screeners kept the DVD column afloat.

In many ways, Oxford Times regulars have had a narrow escape over the last few years, as not only have they been able to read Damon Smith's eminently sensible reviews of the latest blockbusters, but they have also been spared my growing disillusion with Hollywood.

I shall continue having the odd dismayed dig at movies created by corporate creatives and focus groups in the `Rent or Buy' section of Parky at the Pictures. But the blog will primarily be preoccupied with the oldies, indies and foreign-language features that constitute real cinema.

As such films will no longer be covered on a regular basis in the print edition of the Oxford Times, this will be the only place to come for informed and impartial opinion on releases that require you to do more than check in your brain and surrender to audiovisual bombardment.

Sometimes films will not be showing in Oxford when I review them. However, the beauty of a blog is that critiques will remain online to be perused if and when a picture does eventually get here. Furthermore, in assessing as many of the week's `smaller' releases as possible, I can provide a useful service for those prepared to travel for their cinema. The Oxford Times covers plays, concerts and exhibitions outside the county, so why not films?.

I trust you will forgive the impersonal tone of this introduction to Parky at the Pictures. As one who regards any review containing the word `I' with great suspicion, let me assure you that it will be strictly third-person anonymity from hereon in.

All that remains to be said is thank you for reading and I look forward to your company for a long time to come.

David Parkinson