State of the Blog Address

You know it's really hard to believe that I'm the author of a blog that has lasted more than a few weeks. Prior to the blog which you're currently reading, any attempt that yours truly has made at an ongoing blog has been a failure. I'm proud of the writing that I've done for this blog and I think I've really developed a clear voice on a subject that I really love...films. As I've said many times in the past and will continue to say, to the people who have taken the time to read this blog and to the few who have taken a little more time to leave a comment or two, I thank you immensely and am honored that you'd spend your precious time reading words that have come from my mind.

Over a year ago I purchased a book entitled "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" and several days later took the advice of the title and set out on a cinematic journey to see those 1001 movies. It's been a lot of fun and next Saturday will mark one year since the first post of this blog. Over the past year I've had the pleasure to sit through some of the greatest films that I've seen and in some cases, films that I'll never ever forget. Movies like "La Roue", "Angels with Dirty Faces", "My Man Godfrey", "Modern Times" and "Steamboat Bill Jr." are movies that I'll always have tons of fun revisiting and some of those films have even become permanent fixtures of my DVD shelf. Prior to September 11, 2009, when I made my first blog post, I'm a little ashamed to admit that I wasn't all that big of a fan of old black & white films, not to mention silent cinema. I consider the last year of my life time well spent in getting to know the importance and significance of those types of movies and it was almost like a schooling in the appreciation of old movies.

For one full year I flipped through the pages of the "1001" book, taking in every movie that I could find, in chronological order and one year later I put an end to my chronological process.

When I toyed with that same idea earlier this year, I put it to rest fairly quickly, partly due to a few commentors saying that they wished I'd continue moving in chrono. order. I took the suggestions of my followers and mixed it with my own feelings and came to the conclusion that jumping around the book in random order would kind of be like cheating and that was something that I did not want to do. So I continued on, in chrono. order. I didn't make it very far before I hit another rut and although I still had immense appreciation and love for older cinema, was really ready to jump around and take in some different era films. After one year of watching nearly nothing but movies pre-1940s, I was ready for a change of pace. When weighing all the advantages and disadvantages of moving in random order, the only disadvantage was that the blog would no longer be in the neat and pristine orderly fashion that I had made sure that it stayed in for the past year. I didn't figure that was a good enough reason and realized that as long as every movie was watched and written about that the end result would still be the same...1001 movies worth of film knowledge entering my head.

With nearly 100 of the "1001" movies sitting on my DVD shelf, nearly 200 of them ready to be watched instantly on Netflix (of which I have a compatible device to stream those movies to my TV) and over a dozen of the harder to find "1001" taped off of Turner Classic Movies, I was armed with plenty of flicks to keep me and the blog occupied. It just gives the entire endeavor new life, because whereas before I had only one movie staring me in the face, now I have approximately 300 choices ready for me to choose from and that just sounds like a lot of fun to me. Instead of "You're next movie IS GOING TO BE "Sergeant York", now maybe I'll choose an old favorite like "Reservoir Dogs" or "12 Angry Men", or maybe I'll watch "Man of the West", because it looked pretty good when I was taping it off of TCM. Hell, maybe I'll fire up the Blu-Ray player and choose "Brief Encounter" or "Picnic at Hanging Rock" from my Netflix instant queue. The choices are many, but the end result stays the same and I hope you all agree with and understand my decision to move around the book in random order.

In closing I guess I just want to say thanks again for reading and commenting and giving me the confidence to keep writing reviews. Here's to another year of classic films that I can't wait to tear into.

EDIT: You may notice a list of directors on the right side of your screen. I got the idea from a fellow Blogger member who is a follower of mine. By clicking on the names of a particular director on the side, it will take you to all of the reviews that I've written for that director's movies.

September 5, 2010 12:56am