It's Been a While

Hey there...remember me?

From September 2009 through March 2010, I posted hundreds of updates, solidifying a significant web space for Cinema Squared, jump-starting a wonderful series of discussions on all things film, and gaining some faithful followers in the process. Plus, it very simply gave me space to rant about the movies, a chance to share my voice with the world.

Once March hit, the posts became fewer and further between. In March, I averaged a posting rate of about once every 10 days. From April to May it was about once every two weeks.

Now it has been precisely 111 days since my last post.

There are several reasons for the lapse. One is the rhythm of life, which never fails to dictate one's schedule. Another is the presence of a day job, as I unfortunately don't get paid for writing, editing, and moderating this blog. And in my particular case, said day job has been pretty heinous for the past few months, so much so that it sucked all the energy out of me. Reason #3 would have to be the movies themselves, albeit with an asterisk. There certainly hasn't been a large amount of exciting films thus far in 2010. There has, however, been an expansive (and expanding) amount of awful ones, and an even larger number of disappointing and/or mediocre ones. So my energy level has been depleted, and the movies -- for the most part -- haven't been exciting enough to raise that energy level. But you know what...that's no excuse. Movies are movies, and though the modern cinema may giveth and taketh away, it is still my passion to watch, analyze, critique, and discuss film.

I want to get back there. I think I'm ready to start.

Before I do, though, I should mention one other major reason for my absence...

My blog has been invaded by space aliens.***

Rogue invaders have taken to posting random gobbledygook comments on various posts -- sometimes several at a time -- and the Powers-That-Be have done nothing to assist me in the matter. It started back in March, and was the initial reason my posting frequency began to drop off (you may remember the Technical Difficulties post, which vaguely referenced this issue...and has now itself been plagued with nonsense commenters). I persistently attempted to resolve the issues with the Higher Ups, but was turned away time and again. I then decided to put the issue behind me and continue with the work, at which point the aforementioned distractions began looming. Thus, it became that much easier to let the dust pile up on Cinema Squared.

But after all this time has passed, it just seems like enough is enough. Time to push past all the reasons to ignore what I love. Time to forge ahead with the work. Time to reignite this fire.

In the coming weeks, you can expect to see more frequent updates to Cinema Squared. There are so many things to discuss: Blockbuster's monopoly on the first month of the home video window, Netflix's potential big-deal instant streaming purchase, the 2010 wave of wonderful foreign and independent films, the 2010 wave of awful mainstream studio fare, and, of course, the movies themselves.

I've yet to discuss the overwhelmingly powerful beauty of Mother and Child.

I haven't had a chance to giddily discuss the towering genius of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

And then, there's Inception...one of the greatest films ever made. Period.

Oh yeah, and isn't Oscar season just about to slap us all across the face again?

It's all coming at you soon...as long as I can push forward and stay excited.

I will.


*** = By the way, I know there are no aliens taking over the blog...just random bored morons who have nothing better to do than screw with people's work.