Blog News 7/5/11 & Blogging Around

Well, for anyone who had read my work during my days of Epinions will know that if I had stayed in that decaying shit-hole. I would've had my 11th Anniversary but that's not going to happen. It's strange that the place that I did a lot of my writing for about a decade where I had hoped to leave with a bang. Instead, I left with a sense of frustration and anger towards the people who ran the site. The few reasons I still go there are to retrieve my old movies reviews so I can post them here and re-edit them depending on the review. The other reason is to rate other people's reviews and to get paid whatever measly cash I get. Yet, that is becoming less frequent as the writing that I often read has suffered. There's very few people that actually care and put effort into their work. Others are just posting to get paid or win some lame prize.

That's something I'm not into. Right now, I feel more comfortable writing here and at The Void-Go-Round where I recently finished posting a review of the Cure's Pornography in my series of the band's career from 1979 to 1990 to explore their deluxe reissues. Most of which are out of print as physical products. After that, I hope to do bands like Suede and many other of my favorite bands as I'm starting to get back into writing music reviews again and having fun doing it. I'm doubtful I'll do new records for the time being as I'm having fun re-visiting some old albums.

It's among the many projects I'm doing as I like to have a lot of things to be in the works. My 1991-20 essay project is in rough form as it is nearing completion while I'm getting started on a separate piece called 1991 Indie about the rise of British and American alternative/indie music of that year. I plan to release those during the fall that will culminate with a list of the 25 best albums of 1991 with the last 10 being presented in essay form.

Aside from that project along with my screenplay that's in the works and the upcoming Auteurs project on Gus Van Sant that I'm going to start work on in late July/early August. My 10th-Anniversary project on Ghost World will finally come out next week. I'm nearly done with the essay along with a couple of old reviews on the film and screenplay book that I've already re-edited and finished. The only thing I need to do is finish the graphic novel and review the soundtrack. Then I can get that out of the way and go back to reviewing films and work on other projects.

I don't do all of these projects all at the same time. I do it when I'm in the moment and I feel like doing it. Yet, I pace myself and take my time. Sometimes, a review can be done in a few hours though I stop to take a few minutes in between the writing process. Sometimes, it might take me much longer though I would probably stop that day and finish it the next. It all depends on how I'm feeling and my own enthusiasm about it.

In the world of the blogosphere, there's a lot going on that I think people should check out. Edgar @ Between the Seats & Bill @ Bill's Film Emporium are continuing their exploration of the westerns with what I believe is a very underrated film in Open Range. The reviews from Edgar and Bill.

Courtney @ Big Thoughts From a Small Mind has a great piece about Supporting Characters who Become the Leads which is a great read about the dangers of supporting characters from film franchises becoming the protagonists which is one of the reasons why Cars 2 didn't work.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon had just made $400 million worldwide. I'm so ashamed that people are willing to give that fucking cunt of a filmmaker Michael Bay more money to make his shitty movies. Fuck that guy. However, some brave souls managed to write some amazing reviews of this catastrophe. Among them are Sam @ Anomalous Material, Marshall @ Marshall and the Movies, Jake @ Not Just Movies, Andy & Andy Buckle's Film Emporium, and Leysa @ Eternity of Dream.

Alex @ Film Forager has a wonderful review of what is my favorite film by Wim Wenders, so far, in Paris, Texas.

Bonjour Tristesse is getting started on his study on Hungarian Cinema as I'm anxious to read his thoughts on Bela Tarr. A filmmaker I'm interested in yet haven't seen his films.

John @ John Likes Movies reviews The Eagle reminds all of us that Channing "Mumble-Mouth" can't act worth a shit.

Finally, there's a couple of more great reviews of what is surely going to be one of the best films of 2011 in The Tree of Life from Norma @ The Flick Chick and Andy @ Andy Buckle's Film Emporium.

Now that 2011 is halfway open. It's often time for a list of the best films of 2011 so far. Well, I can't really do that as I still haven't presented a list of the best films of 2010 as there's films I need to see. When it comes to lists, I consider myself to be a perfectionist of sorts. Bottom line is this, if a film has played somewhere around the world in that year. It should be placed in that year as recent releases like Beginners and Submarine is more likely to presented in my 2010 list if they're good. So far, my # 1 and #2 favorite films of 2011 are The Tree of Life and Midnight in Paris with Hanna in third and Source Code in fourth. I'm often underwhelmed by the first half though I'm still trying to find some recent 2011 films to see that are available on DVD or online. When the fall season starts to arrive, that's when things become serious for me as I get rolling.

Well, that's it for today. Subscribe to this Youtube Channel (not mine), like me on Facebook (don't have an account), follow me on Twitter (I don't use that crap), buy the t-shirt (you don't have to). And remember... Take care. Spike your hair. Woo-woo-woo! You know it Bro!!!