Tag Archive: Writing

The craziest DVD reviews I ever wrote pt. 1

So I spent a few years reviewing DVDs (in addition to a stint as Editor-in-Chief at dvdinmypants.com). Finally stepped down to pursue other things — insert a plug for A Year of Hitchcock here — but before I left I turned in some good reviews, some bad reviews, and some insane reviews. This blog post is about the insane reviews. Warning: Copious amounts of adult language follows. Keep in mind, most of the time I wrote serious reviews. I wanted to do a good job and be a Film Critic. (Note the important capital letters.) Hell, I co-wrote an entire 450-page book of serious film commentary and criticism! But as the site’s name will tell you, dvdinmypants.com was not a serious place. It encouraged wild…
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Grappling with the business of writing

Writing isn’t just writing, it’s reading and knowing how to sell yourself and how to query or submit to a publisher and a million other things that aren’t the actual process of writing. Oh, first and foremost you’ve got to be able to string words together in an interesting way — it’s the most important thing, no question about that — but when you’re all done making with the wording what do you do with it? It’s easy to stagger around blindly at that stage. All this mess about query letters and proposals and cover letters markets — writers want to WRITE, they don’t want to bother with that stuff! But you HAVE to if you ever want it to be more than a hobby….
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It’s Super Plugtastic Link Day!

Some semi-random link stuff for Monday. Joe Valdez over at This Distracted Globe quoted me in his write-up of Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes. Thanks, Joe. The quote comes from my review of the Criterion Collection DVD release, which you can read here. Purchase the (awesome) DVD here. Over on the Bibliophile Stalker blog, there is a review/overview of the issue of Weird Tales in which my “commendable piece,” Whispers of the Old Hag, appeared. Thanks, Charles. The issue also has a listing at Locus Online. Speaking of listings, Pictureshowman.com has listed A Year of Hitchcock with upcoming books on the History of Motion Pictures. Looks like we’re in some fine company. While we’re on A Year of Hitchcock, I found a good source for tracking…
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My eye is bleeding

(Instead of reading this, you might want to look at pictures or listen to “music” instead.) My left eye is bleeding. Same spot, always. I’ve been dealing with this on and off for months. I think it’s eye strain. I spend too much time in front of a computer monitor. Thing is, how do I not spend time in front of a monitor? My job involves sitting in front of a monitor. Writing involves sitting in front of a monitor. These days, even creating music involves sitting in front of a monitor. Heck, a lot of my goofing off time involves sitting in front of a monitor! Maybe I need glasses. I was supposed to have them in high school, but decided not to get…
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The Laptopless Life

Sometimes I am a forgetful fool. Yesterday I was at my buddy Jim’s, where we began recording what will be a weekly podcast series covering ground similar to our book, A Year of Hitchcock (Scarecrow Press, 2009). It was a fun project to dive into. While I’ve done radio before (doing the “color commentary” for a local station’s Election Day coverage, that sort of thing), I had never done podcasting. They’re similar, but not quite the same. Anyway, I the laptop and some recording equipment up to his place, we yammered for a while about Alfred Hitchcock’s movies, had lunch with the wildly talented Chris Knight (who we tried to convince to be a guest on a future show), then I went home. AND LEFT…
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