The New Normal

Hey folks. Remember that time about eight months ago when I said how much I love changing blog themes? Well, here I go again….

I used to feature all my writing only in this here spot, but that will no longer be the case. In the last few months, I’ve turned into a film critic/columnist at www.TheFilmStage.com and will soon bring my “I’ll Never Get Tired Of…” column style over there.

On top of that, I’m excited to announce that I will also be starting and’ for lack of a better term, be the editor-in-vhief at a new writing-based web magazine called The Inclusive, which will be found at www.TheInclusive.net. As of now we are collecting a number of great writers for our staff and will always be on the lookout for guest contributors. The site’s nomenclature is also its mission statement: it’s a site for us, all of us, to write for. I’m terribly excited for it to begin. High, high hopes for that one.

So what, then, comes of this space?

The Inclusive will get at least two columns from me (if not more) so this space will be a catch-all for anything I write. Sometimes it will feature a link to let you know of a new review posted on The Film Stage or a new humor column on The Inclusive, but it can also be a place for writing that doesn’t fit in either box. If I rant about Charlie Sheen, for example, it might not be able to fit in The Inclusive’s box schedule, so it’ll go here. Or I have a funny li’l three paragrpah story, this will be its home.

Exciting things are happening, folks. Keep up with all my doings here, at ooooolllll’ Mike-Anton.com.

Or keep gawking at photos of Brooke Baldwin. Whatever floats your boat.

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men….

There are few things worse than failure, but here we are.  I said I’d do 25 movies in 25 straight days, but the weather, professional commitments and personal issues will prevent me from doing any this coming week.  So there goes the whole “in consecutive days” thing.  I will fill up all of January with reviews, however, as some sort of way to make face.  I doubt anyone will be too offended by this, except, of course, myself.

To 2011 we go.

Announcing 25 Moves in 25 Days

Ho ho ho.  To show just how serious I am about this whole “only TV and Movies thing” (outside of memoir-esque essays and podcasts, natch), I’m going to dedicate the next five weeks of programming to a new movie essay every day.  Just so we’re all on the same page, there won’t be any “new” movies; everything will be available on DVD or Blu-Ray and, if you’re lucky!, streaming somewhere on the internets.  Monday through Thursday will be pretty basic, well-known fare.  Friday will delve a bit deeper into my film school vault to hopefully expose you guys to some stuff you’ve never seen before.  Don’t worry, it’ll be more Seven Samurai than Kanal (which is really fucking excellent).

So come on by Monday for the first film in the series.  Should be good.

(Don’t take that as a guarantee)

The banners for the project have been lovingly donated by my pal Matt Lubchansky. Read his great web comic The Adam! and follow him on twitter.

Programming Changes

I come to you folks at a crossroads.  No, no, that sounds dire.  Rather, we’ve come to an end of the preliminary round of “I’ll Never Get Tired Of….”  It’s been four months and seventy-five posts since this introductory post, which seems like an ideal time to re-evaluate this space.  The original theory was that I would write every day in an effort to share with you–my dear, loving audience–some of the long-lasting loves of my life.  That has taken the form of movies, trailers, albums, viral videos, how truly shitty Ke$ha is (parts 1 and 2), and the bizarre things one finds at their Grandma’s house.  And it’s been all well and good, I guess.  But the time has come to…focus.

Slow and Steady Winning The Race

The US losing the World Cup bid in 2022 to Qatar sucks.  It really does.  I have actively followed the bidding process for the better part of a year, checked in on regular updates, and even watched the full final US presentation yesterday just to make sure that I knew they were going to win.  How could they not?  They boasted well over 18 host cities, all with relatively new-ish football stadiums that averaged 67,000 seat capacity, all currently built and ready to hold the event tomorrow if need be (let alone in 12 years).  We have tons of hotel and pleasure accommodations at each site that also doubles as tourist attractions during off days as well as a well-tested infrastructure that worked so well that during our hosting of the 1994 World Cup that it is still the most profitable and most heavily-attended event they have ever put on.

What more could they need?  (Well, outside of heavy bribes, a fondness for “most populated cities” which are roughly the size of Dover, NH, stadiums built like boats that are mainly accessible by boats, swealtering heat, heavy bribes…)  And while I would have loved to attend a World Cup by taking the same trip needed to see a Giants preseason game, it’s not to be.  Congrats, Qatar.  Let’s all move on, right?  Oh, wait, so now US Soccer as a whole will falter?  There is a prevailing idea that without hosting another World Cup, less than 30 years after hosting our first ever, all of our progress up until now is all for naught.  And that, of course, is total bullshit.

CNN…at least for half a day

A week or two ago, I was listening to the On The DL Podcast, a show that talks about sports, the media’s involvement in sports, and the media in general, and the show’s host, Dan Levy, was discussing a recent trip to jury duty.  The poor bastard forgot his headphones, so he was forced to watch an ungodly amount of CNN as he sat and waited to say he was a racist and wanted no part of that case (isn’t that what we’re all conditioned to regardless of what the case is about?).  When he went on his show the next day, Dan implored that someone should take 24 hours and watch just how truly awful CNN is.  Well, I’m not that man.  I’m going to be the guy who puts in 12 hours.

Political Rallies

Hello folks. The blog is on a temporary hold as I make my way down to our nation’s capital for the Stewart/Colbert “Rally for Sanity/March To Keep Fear Alive.”  What does this mean for you, outside of being suuuuper jeal (am i rite)?

Well, this weekend you’ll have no mix to play, pa-rum-pa-pum-pum and there won’t be a post other than this one today. But, I’m down my li’l Kodiak mini-hd recorder and will take diligent notes on the rally with the aim of bringing you a bastardized internet-infused Gonzo journalism take on the event with funny videos in toe.

So have a great weekend and come back Monday for a whole lotta stuff from the Rally (I hope). Like always, if you enjoy the blog, please tell your friends (or like-minded enemies) about its existence.  The more people involved, the more comments, the more we can all discuss various stuff. And isn’t that the goal?  Well, outside of trying to leverage this towards a paying writing gig….

See you cats (metaphorically) on Monday.

Labor Day Weekend

I got out of work at 3 and immediately went to Chipotle to get myself in the festive “No Work At All” mood for the upcoming weekend.  That means no working here, either.  There will be a new post on Tuesday (aka NHL 11 and MacGruber Come Out Day!!) all about the New York Times Magazine piece that came out a few weeks ago on 20 year olds.  I’ll link to it in the post, but if you haven’t read it yet, here it is.  A little head start for ya if needed/desired. It’s a great piece.

So for today, I’ll leave you with an appropriate Aesop Rock song.  Have a good one, folks…and try and keep away from that hurricane.

New Blog Themes!

So I have this idea.

It has been many months of inactivity in this space and I think I’ve come up with something good enough to follow through with.  God knows it has to be better than the last nine months of complete inactivity, right?  …Right?

For a long time now, the phrase “everything is disposable” has rung out, and, for a long time, I’ve been trying to fight it, holding on to precious memories and important cultural events that shook my world.  Then I got older, time suddenly moves faster, and things started to slip by.  The internet has only propelled this jog towards meaninglessness into a stomach-knoting sprint on a Japanese bullet train.  With so many internet memes, YouTube videos, resources like Facebook and Twitter, and a general “On Demand” attitude in this generation, everything just goes.  And if you don’t keep up, you’re left out.

As I look around the internet, it’s all about what’s new, what’s next.  We revel in the present (“This new Arcade Fire album is awesome!”) and then immediately move on to the next topic (“This new Matthew Dear album is SO MUCH BETTER than that shitty Arcade Fire sell-out record for dipshits!!”).  It’s a bit troubling, to say the least.  So, I’m going to try and do my part to reverse the trend.

Escalation

Even though we’re constantly hating how much the terrorists hate us, American culture doesn’t seem so bad. We have Blu-Ray players, Gatorade, and Sham-wows, which is great and all, but looming over us like a giant, over-exposed celebrity is the culture that looms over us like a giant, over-exposed celebrity. Sure, if you make five $100 million dollar-plus grossing films in a row, people should want to see you. That seems to make sense. The problem is everybody else.

Just when you thought the cheapest labor was outsourced, in comes The New Fame.