5 Year Project
Will I still want to be doing this when I turn 50?
When I was younger, my first love was creative writing. Even before music and talk radio, I always envisioned myself as someone who would write screenplays, film reviews and even a memoir someday down the road. I certainly wrote my fair share of silly stories and parody songs. Somewhere along the way, I became pretty devoted to recording music and podcasts because I love the process of audio editing every bit as much as writing.
It’s been a few years since I wrote for Magill’s Annual Cinema and I did have an essay published by Lee Gambin in the book, “This Is A Very Special Episode Volume 2.” The one thing I know for sure: there are so many great writers out there that I almost felt as if I had very little to contribute in this form. In fact, I probably will not measure up to the likes of many others who do have a Patreon or a Substack but I figured it’s now or never. I am going to try to do something to stand out a little bit especially given my background in psychology and mental health advocacy.
It won’t apply to every title that I write about but I’m sure my love of studying human behavior and self-reflection will play a key factor in my writing. I’d say out of all the pop culture writing that I’ve responded to the most, it is Roger Ebert’s review of Synecdoche New York as well as Lester Bangs’ analysis of Astral Weeks. Again, I’m not setting out to achieve what my heroes have but I would like to actively write on a weekly basis in the same way I try to put out a podcast on a monthly basis. Here’s the plan to ensure that I remain an active film writer for the next five (?) years.
For the next five years, I will be writing one movie + one song review a week. I have a list of 260 favorite songs + 260 favorite films. A random number generator every Sunday to decide which film to view and which song to listen to and I will write a little bit of each. I will include a link to where you can stream the movie and listen to the song as well if you want to make it more interactive. Rarely but sometimes I will podcast about it with a guest for 30 minutes or so but for the most part, I want to exercise my writing muscles again so this will commence the week of January 23rd.
In addition, I will do my best to write reviews for physical media and new releases that I catch up with over the next five years. Then when I turn 50, we’ll see if I want to / can keep doing this. Until then, consider me a writer / film critic / pop culture enthusiast as I have been since the year 1990. Hope you will join me on this endeavor and provide any comments, concerns, recipes along the way. This will be free for a little bit but eventually I’ll offer a paid subscription if you choose to support my work here or over at Patreon. Also, if you’re on Letterboxd, you can follow the list of film titles here as well. Thank you so much for your support. Here’s to 5 Years!
