Yes, I'm still here! Thoughts as Mendelson's Memos approaches Year Two

Apologies for the complete lack of posts this week. Work has been insanely busy, and may remain pretty heavy for the next couple months. Still, I fully intend to keep this site up and running. Some thoughts while I bide my time...

First of all, I'm working on a major project at the moment. I am currently posting pretty much every single review that I have written as a film critic. With the possible exception of five really awful pieces of writing I tossed out back in 1996 ,this site will soon contain copies of every film review I have ever written (I'm still debating on the 1996 stuff... they are really poorly written). And since I have the option of backdating this stuff, it will be dated when the review was actually written (think of it as time travel via blogging). So if you want to find my original theatrical review of King Kong, go into the archives and pull up 12/12/05, which is the day I first wrote the review. Said reviews will be relatively untouched, save for any obvious spelling or grammar errors that I would have corrected had I noticed at the time.

Second of all, I'm giving some serious thought about what direction I want to take this site (and, by proxy, the other places where I'm syndicated). With my one-year anniversary approaching (March 4th, 2008 was my first post, although the site didn't really get started until April 30th), the time comes for reevaluation and recomittal. In year two, the main difference will be a simple one: I will quit posting purely for the sake of posting. With a certain amount of success (syndication at Film Threat and Huffington Post) comes the added pressure to create content, under the assumption that more success is just one or two needless entries away. Obviously family and work comes first, but it had gotten to the point where I was unwilling to use my free time to actually see movies, so that I could instead use that time to write about movies. In 2009, I will write only when I want to and only about what I want to.

I'm going over my old posts and my old reviews to see what does and does not hold up. Here are some thoughts -

My reviews from the 2005-2007 era are arguably smarter, wittier, and more passionate than the giant glut of late 2008 output. Up until the recent Oscar rush, I was doing them far less frequently, and I had the time to fine tune each one (again, the potential to reach a wide audience created pressure to put out more film reviews for my secondary outlets). So while I still enjoy reviews and plan to continue them, I'm not going to make an effort to review a movie or two every week, nor will I use quickly written reviews as filler material in between essays.

My political stuff does not hold up in the least, not because it is bad, but because it is so time-sensitive. So while I'm not completely swearing off politics (sorry, Kyle), I will only be discussing the issues of the day if I really have something to say (besides, Salon's Glenn Greenwald pretty much speaks for me 85% of the time). For a solid political blog run by a friend of mine, check out The Political Doctor.

I love doing box office analysis and I'm allegedly pretty good at it, but it does present a problem in terms of time spent and total content. If I were to resume doing what I did in the summer, with a Thursday box office bingo, a Saturday rundown of the Friday numbers, and then notes on the weekend finals on Tuesday, then there would be little time for anything else. So while I will soon start doing in-depth box office again (I enjoy rereading that stuff more than anything else), it will be at my convenience.

While trailer reviews are fun to write and they make my hit count sky-rocket, they are a pain to produce (all the YouTube embedding and what not). So, they will still exist, but they will not be a regular feature.

I will make a point to refrain from writing a whole post basically giving a thumbs up or thumbs down to someone else's reporting or essay. I may have a super brief post alerting readers to a given article (and why it is or isn't sound), but I'd prefer to concentrate on my own scholarship rather than pick apart the scholarship of others. Although I will continue to call 'bullshit' on any articles that A) give Frank Miller full credit for revitalizing Batman, B) repeat false statements about film and box office history (ie - 'Waterworld was a flop'), and C) label any horror film that contains graphic violence as 'torture porn'.

Finally, I am putting out an open call to anyone who wants to contribute to this site. Most of the people who comment here have sites of their own, but for anyone who does not and/or wants to do any kind of joint venture on a given topic, I'm all ears. All publication decisions will be at my discretion. Also, anyone who wants to ask a question to be answered on this site is more than welcome.

Ok, that's it for now. I'm hoping the current workload will slow down a little after the holiday, but until then keep refreshing and tell your friends (and Laura, keep proofreading, I really do appreciate it). The goal in 2009 will be quality over quantity. Mendelson's Memos will still remain a film blog that strives to be genuine literature.

Scott Mendelson