No one ever hands me a bowlful of money. Ever. Even if it is all ones who cares, it still never happens. And if it ever did it wouldn't be someone like Loretta Young handing it to me. No it'd be Jar-Jar Binks or the "I'll buy that for a dollar" guy from Robocop. Alas, alack.
9 comments:
>Even if it is all ones
Shows where you look.
I'm cracking wise (it's my job, it's what I do) but there's something crushingly poignant there. It's too late and I'm too tired to get into it now, but some day I'd love to read an expose of the world of film criticism - you know, the one that took such a slug to the jaw last year - and nail down precisely how much film criticism was funded with family money. I'm not saying that all professional film critics are wealthy and light their Cuban cigars with $1,000 bills but like so many entertainment-centered professions it does attract people who don't really have to work for a living and they wind up becoming the arbiters of our taste, the trend-makers (in certain spheres, thankfully not all). I think a lot of the hue and cry over film bloggers, the hoi polloi, the great unwashed, has to do with issues of class, even if subconsciously, a "Who left the door open" grumbling, a "They'll let anybody in here these days" lack of generosity that really does have to be met, challenged, answered by people for whom writing about film does the opposite of pay us a living wage but actually breaks us down by increments as much as it fulfills us in other ways, so that we're constantly in a state of exhausting flux, constantly on the cusp of shucking it all because on a certain level our love of film is fucking killing us, while on a slick film blog somewhere on the Internet someone has the temerity to post "I don't know if I can make it to the Berlinale this year..."
But as I said, I'm too tired to get into it right now.
...while on a slick film blog somewhere on the Internet someone has the temerity to post "I don't know if I can make it to the Berlinale this year..."
I love that allusion, it says it all. Money of course is always a problem for me, and my wife, because we do exactly what happens in this picture, we give it away. I learned that from my father, who also has debt in his late seventies. About five years ago my wife had managed to save around 1200 bucks, a miracle for us, and then a co-worker, not a friend and barely an acquaintance, mentioned she was going to have to leave school because being a single mother she simply couldn't afford it. The next morning my wife gave her the 1200 and never took any re-payment. I don't bring this up to make my wife and I sound angelic, just to state that there's a reason some people have money and others don't. My wife and I will never be rich, partly because we are too willing to help others out and partly because we have no killer instinct.
And that's where I'm going with this. The professionals, the ones who got their degrees and went to the paper and clawed and scratched to get that reviewing job have that killer instinct that I don't have. They also have a soullessness to them that doesn't translate for me into very reflective film criticism. Either they have no sense of film history to speak to their opinions or they spend the whole review chipping away at technicalities.
The great unwashed, we bloggers, are the ones writing out of love and a need to express ourselves. We'll never be rich in job, popularity or academic terms because we are too willing to give away our savings - our thoughts and ideas on film - and ask nothing in return.
Have you noticed at the new GreenCine Daily site, there's no more promotion of film blogs - it's all strictly serious film critic stuff. I've given the site some time to get up to speed after the departure of David Hudson, but the new guy clearly doesn't want to bother with non-affiliated film blogs. And that's all I really cared about there - they can evaluate the worthiness of Slumdog Millionaire until their lattes come home - I was more interested in seeing what was being written around the Internet by independent writers and thinkers. Well, so much for that.
No I hadn't noticed. I loved what David Hudson did but I sheepishly admit I didn't regularly visit. But hey, you're on the blogroll. That's pretty good. I've never been on it. In a year and a half of blogging I've truly settled into about 25 regular blogs I visit and of those 25 there are about 15 or so I visit at least a couple of times a week and of those 15 there are around seven that get daily visits regardless of whatever else is going. Outside of those 25 there are probably 50 or so more that I keep in mind for occasional visits which basically takes care of everyone on my blogroll. So I didn't really use Greencine to see what was up I guess, because I had/have so many blogs I'm already visiting. Nevertheless, too bad that had to happen.
So when do the festivities kick off today?
10 a.m.
As Aaron posted on the GC Daily, there's really no point in doing exactly what David Hudson has done so well when David is still doing it -- now at the IFC Daily blog. What would be the point of duplicating that exact same model? Which is extremely time-consuming by the way, rewarding as it is for the rest of us. So definitely bookmark David's blog at IFC Daily. But I do hope you give Aaron more of a chance at the GCD. I think he's explained a couple of times there why the changes but note that there are still guest posts dispatching from film festivals along with doing more podcasts than before and reviews and analysis. Again I think there's room for both kinds of blogs and hope you'll keep 'em both on your own blogrolls. But each to their own of course! Cheers.
Underdog, thanks for that update. That's good to know, and it was Arbo that noticed a difference not me. I'll let him know. I'm sure Aaron has his hands full taking over for David. I'm sure he will do an exemplary job and I want you to know I definitely appreciate the work that must go into all that linking. Thanks again.
As Aaron posted on the GC Daily, there's really no point in doing exactly what David Hudson has done so well when David is still doing it -- now at the IFC Daily blog.
I was a bit hard on Aaron but I respectfully disagree. To say that the Internet needs only one blogger to comment on what's going on in the blogosphere is like saying we needs only one film critic to cover what movies are coming out. I think blogging about movies is as creative as making them, and while I appreciate Aaron's position I think it's fundamentally wrong-headed. I'm also bored to tears by film festival reports (aren't there enough of those?) and podcasts. But to each his Dulcinea.
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