State of the Union

I just wanted to give you all an update on what's going on behind the scenes with this blog. 

For those of you who just want the executive summary:

There are going to be some changes, moving forward, and though I'm not yet sure how they will shake out, a few things are certain. I'm planning on cutting back on content and either eliminating or altering the regular weekly features in order to make them more easily manageable for me. Posts will likely no longer happen every day or for every movie I watch, and the format of those posts might be different than what we're used to. I will try to keep things going as best as I can, but we might be looking at more of a "when I can and want to" posting schedule.

If you want to hear a bit more about WHY these changes are happening, more (personal) details are under the cut.

May Mayhem

Hey folks!

I don't have a new review for you today (though I suppose I COULD if I forced the issue), but I DID want to let you all know that May was the highest-traffic month in the history of this or any other blog I've written (at least as far as I'm aware). Thank you all so much for reading!

Now, the numbers themselves—which I'm not going to share, though I'm sure you could find them if you're so inclined— are certainly modest and wouldn't be worth a ton of excitement if this were a real website and not just the blog of an avid film and TV fan. But as the site IS a small, personal, thing, it pleases me to no end that you all check in here and listen to my opinions about movies and TV shows and other such ephemera.

As I hope you can tell, there's very little I enjoy more than watching movies and TV series that are new to me. And to be able to bring you all along on that journey is a great pleasure. If I've ever gotten any of you to consider a movie or show that you'd otherwise likely never have watched, then I've achieved my ambition.

So thanks again for reading, and I hope to have a few more posts for you this week. I am once again adjusting to a change of location and settling into a viewing schedule that fits the new mold, so things may be a bit scattershot. I'll still try to get something up here most days if I can. Hope to see you around!

Viewing Habits

Last night, for no apparent reason, I was moved to compile some numbers about my Netflix viewing over the last year. Don't ask why, this is just the sort of thing I sometimes feel compelled to do. While I was doing this, I realized that my neurotic Netflix methodology might make an interesting blog post (if by "interesting" I mean "of no interest at all to anyone other than me"). But seriously, I have some very bizarre viewing habits, and I thought it might be fun for me to share them with the ten or so people who regularly read this blog.

First, a few numbers:

In the last calendar year, I've rented 90 discs worth of films and 48 discs worth of TV series. These numbers are a little bit low for me, but not too bad when you factor in how uncertain living circumstances led me to stop renting discs for over five months during that span.

In addition, I've streamed 66 films from Netflix's Watch Instantly service over the last year. I've also streamed something in the neighborhood of 405 episodes of TV, which (assuming an average of 4 episodes per disc) comes down to about another 101 "discs" worth of content. All combined, this comes to roughly 305 "discs" watched over the last 365 days. Not too shabby for a down year!

After the jump, things will get REALLY nerdy, as I'm going to share with you my insane Queue management and organization habits. This should help explain the seemingly-random pattern of movies I watch and review here on the blog.

Apologies

Hi folks,

Between Mother's Day last Sunday, Blogger's problems this past week, and my own personal issues, I was unable to post about last weekend's Doctor Who and Saturday Night Live (this despite a combined 8 pages of notes on the two). I apologize for falling down on the job. I will try to post an abbreviated reviewcap for last week's Doctor Who prior to tonight's episode (in US time, obviously. I know it has already aired in the UK!) and will hopefully get another one ready for this week's Neil Gaiman-penned episode over the next few days. I fear, however, that last week's SNL—and, potentially, this week's—will have to fall by the wayside.

Further, my regular movie-watching schedule has been disrupted and won't likely revert to my usual movie-or-disc-of-tv-series-per-day average anytime soon. This means that the volume of FIs and SitSes and reviews is likely to remain low for the near future. Again, I apologize, but instability reigns right now and, as stupid as it may sound, I need a predictable, low-stress routine to write even these piddling little reviews and pieces.

I wish I had better news to tell you, but the truth is the truth. It's not the first time I've settled into a nice pattern for a month or so only to have it disrupted by my stupid issues. I'm sad to say that it probably won't be the last, either. Sorry once more, and thanks for bearing with me.

Criterion Collection Contest Calamity!

Like any respectable cinephile, I'm a huge fan of the Criterion Collection. Those folks DOMINATE the classic/arthouse DVD market with their artfully-designed, beautifully-restored, feature-rich releases. Their catalog is second to none, featuring many of the best films ever made alongside a selection of interesting, important, or just plain quirky movies spanning the history of cinema.

So, when Criterion announced a contest based on the popular Twitter hashtag #lessambitiousmovies, you know I had to jump in with both feet.

Some Public Relations BEFORE "Public Relations"

I've decided that I'm going to try blogging about Mad Men each week this season.

This is going to be a bit of a new thing for me. I'm not accustomed to writing about weekly serialized TV shows, although my appreciation for that medium has grown steadily in the last two and a half years. So let me begin with a preamble about why it's taken me this long to catch on.

You see, TV was once almost entirely out of my life. After college, most of my viewing time was dedicated to the movies I'd get from Netflix, watching and returning them as quickly as possible. When it came to TV, I'd mainly watch sketch comedy or inappropriate cartoons like South Park, and would occasionally catch a bit of some long-running episodic drama like ER or Law and Order. The weekly Gilmore Girls viewing I shared with my sister was the extent of my experience with a more serialized show.