Everybody’s Talkin’ 10 – 24 (Chatter from Other Bloggers)

Know what gang, for a week or so, I’ve been thinking that I chose poorly six years ago.

You see, back in the late summer of 2007, when Lindsay suggested I try to find a better platform for writing than the humdrum Livejournal I was keeping at the time, I figured that “a better platform” would come from one focused topic. In that moment, I knew that there were two things that I would be best-suited to write about (film or music).

I went with film, because that’s the one I feel more equipped to discussed, but what if I’d chosen to be a music writer?

The reason I say “I chose poorly”, is that I’m obviously doing all of this around a day job (since lord knows bloggin’ don’t pay). The hitch with writing about film while holding an office gig, is that there’s a great deal of film-related things that happen during the day. Screenings, interviews, press conferences, and what have you. While writing for six years has given me enough contacts that I could get in on such things, my office hours aren’t nearly flexible enough to do so.

Had I chose to write about music though, we’d be having a different story.

Music is more of a night animal. Sure, there would still be things like interviews and press conferences that I might miss. But the crux of the art – the live performance – happens at night. I could be seeing concerts-a-plenty on someone else’s dime by now! I’m not saying that AEG would stake me a free ticket to watch Kanye West, but it would be great to see acts like Dawes, Japandroids, or Neko Case once in a while and not have to pay out of pocket.

Too late to turn back now, right?

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For your film-related listening and reading fulfilment, I give you…

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For a week or two now, I’ve been drawing up a plan for Matineecast #100 (which will drop the first week of December). More than once, I’ve got the impression that I was getting ahead of myself, and that nobody in their right mind would think that far ahead. This week, I was proven wrong when another podcast invited me to be on their Christmas show. Guess what I’m saying is that it’s nice to know I’m not alone. I realize I don’t link to said podcast nearly enough around these parts, so give a listen to Zack and Courtney on Film Jive as they discuss Denis Villeneuve’s PRISONERS.

This week Stevee Taylor – the spritely New Zealander that constantly reminds us what a joy it is to watch film – celebrated her fourth blog-a-versary. Means she’s been at it for more than a third of her life. Go wish her well.

Matthew Brown has written a seriously badass column for Twitch Film this week, where he discusses the remake of CARRIE, how Chloe Moretz is more intertwined with its effect than one might think, and how the whole thing is actually an interesting comment on being a teenage girl in America in 2013. Give his post a read – I, meanwhile, will get him scratching his head when I list his name on Twitter under “Everybody’s Talkin”

One of the things I love about leaving comments and getting comments as a blogger, is the way it can introduce you to new people. This week, for instance, a comment I left on Elina’s review of UPSTREAM COLOR brought Tom Little to The Matinee. Tom’s got some serious writing chops as it turns out, and was good enough to see THE FIFTH ESTATE so that the rest of us don’t have to.

Last week when I asked on Facebook “What’s everyone seeing this weekend?”, Matthew Price responded with one word: “EEGA!” At the time, I had no idea what Price was trying to tell me – part of me thought he might be having the Facebook equivalent of a stroke. Turns out, he was trying to point me towards an awesome selection from Toronto After Dark. Netflix will have to be my buddy for all things EEGA, and if Bob Turnbull is to be believed, I’m in for good times.

One 2013 film that I feel is getting short-shafted is Ryan Coogler’s FRUITVALE STATION. Besides an overall underexposure, I’ve read a lot of criticism of it being trite. As you may or may not remember, I disagree, and this week I was happy to read that birthday girl Sam McCosh disagreed as well!

Another blogger I discovered this week – this time thanks to Kate Bradford – is Katy Rochelle. Katy runs a site named The Drama Llama, which is energetic, bright, and intelligent. For some reason, I’ve been thinking a lot about THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT in recent weeks, and it would seem that Katy has as well. She went back and revisited the 1999 phenomenon, and used it as a way to learn how not to get lost in the woods.

Finally, for the Tweet of The Week, I turn to the afore-mentioned Kate Bradford. There’s a high that every internet writer gets, whether they choose to admit it or not, and Kate nails it in four words:

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Traffic….. sweet, sweet traffic *drools* #BloggerTurnOns

— Kate Bradford (@katehasablog) October 24, 2013

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Enjoy!