The Magic Number

Happy Birthday to Blog! Happy Birthday to Blog! This is in the public domain now, so fuck off with royalties!

I know that doesn’t rhyme, but I don’t care. Three years ago today, I officially posted my first entry to this lovely little blog, and in the time since, it has brought me a great deal of happiness and sanity, as I’ve gotten to share my love of film with all of you. Hundreds of reviews and comments later, we’re still going, and I have no plans to stop now, even with the theatres shuttered all around me and in large parts of the nation.

To commemorate this special occasion, I have two announcements. First, in an effort to engage even further, the blog is expanding to a new site. I have now – after nearly a year of encouragement by my friends at Behind the Rabbit Productions and the “No Rest for the Weekend” podcast – set up an account on Medium. Everything I publish here (except for this post, because I’ve already done an independent post on the other page) will be imported to that site as well. Hopefully this will grow the conversation, and maybe even someday result in the ability to monetize this as a sort of paid side hustle. I apologize in advance if that gets you inundated with ads. I know they suck. Part of the reason I finally bought my domain here was to get rid of the ones WordPress loaded in without my consent.

Second, we now have a Twitter account! For the past three years I’ve been sharing reviews and other posts on my personal Facebook and Twitter pages, and for the former, I will continue to do so. But I feel the time has come to finally get a branded Twitter page, so that my followers on that site don’t get bombarded by the blog’s content (though obviously I’ll share anyway) and that followers on here don’t feel the need to peer into my personal life. Also, I’m technically still in Twitter jail for calling the President a cunt on Election Day, even though Twitter today finally took the step to ban his account permanently. My limbo is more a tech/algorithm issue than a decision made by an actual person, but until it gets sorted, I can’t share or post anything to my personal account, even links to this content. So, two birds one stone.

As the world starts to return to normal, I’ve got some big ideas for other ways to grow this site. I want to start doing videos, and I have some new recording equipment, but I’m not all the way there yet. Also, I don’t know what I’ll do. Maybe expanded reviews, maybe “Back Row Thoughts”-style commentaries. Maybe I’ll do like CinemaSins or Nostalgia Critic and just create a character to spout things in a humorous way. I haven’t decided yet, and I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions. Also, the new Twitter account will be used for polls once theatres reopen. When I first started the blog one of my intents was to sort of “take one for the team” if there’s a movie you want me to review before you fork over the dough to see it yourself. So once the theatres get back to normal, I’ll be posting weekly polls for you, my beloved readers, to choose which films I prioritize for viewing and critique. Stay tuned for that, and get vaccinated ASAGDMFP!

But more than anything, after three years, I just want to say that I can’t thank all of you enough. This was a passing fancy, a gamble of a hobby to share a passion in an online sphere that is not always kind. And sure enough, I’ve gotten some fairly hostile responses over the years, though I mostly laugh those off. But the overwhelmingly positive response I’ve gotten from all of you has kept me going, especially during some really dark times over the last several months. You helped me turn a passion into a true labor of love, and for that you’ll always have my gratitude.

There’s still work to be done. The pandemic has pushed the awards schedule back by two months, and when it gets going, this is going to be the hardest Oscar Blitz I’ve ever done, and I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to complete it this go-round, but I’ll do my best. I still have eight reviews to put out from films I was able to finish in calendar year 2020, as well as my annual recap, before we get into “official” 2021 films that won’t be considered part of the 2020 canon. It’s been crazy, but it’s been fun, and at times, it’s been crucial. Thank you for three wonderful years so far, and here’s to many more!

-Bill