8 result(s) tagged “Self-Involvement Blog-a-thon”

The Self-Involvement Blog-a-thon ended yesterday, and while participation was ... selective, I couldn’t be happier with the submissions. My own writing aside, the blog-a-thon generated 14 15 new essays (as of July 15) and gave new life to a handful of others. More importantly, the work was often searching, naked, funny, touching, real, and resonant.

Tardy submissions are welcome, although reader interest in any blog-a-thon seems to peak near the beginning and die quickly once it’s over. (Self-Involvement Central reads by day: 123, 81, 68, 53, 56.) Late contributions can be made in comments, through the Culture Snob e-mail form, or in an e-mail message to snob@culturesnob.com.

One of the unfortunate side effects of running this blog-a-thon (while having a full-time job, a marriage, and an infant child, at least) was that the curator so far has only skimmed the offerings. I plan to rectify that this week, and I hope to offer some awards by week’s end. No prizes, outside of the satisfaction of a job well done and perhaps some graphic based on the crappy blog-a-thon logo.

In a prefatory note to his contribution, Michael Peterson noted:

“Have you noticed, in your Internet travels, that when it comes to blogging, the film critics seem to have a greater sense of community than many of the other groups?”

So thanks first to the blog-a-thon’s contributors, who proved that they aren’t self-involved at all. Thanks also to the many people who linked to the blog-a-thon and sent readers who would have otherwise remained blissfully unaware of the self-involvement of others.

And with that, I am submitting my retirement papers for blog-a-thon hosting.

But as training camp approaches next summer, if I find myself with an unsoothable itch, I reserve the right to rescind my retirement and demand a trade.

These are things that just ain’t happening for the Self-Involvement Blog-a-thon, for reasons of time, energy, and tone. Feel free to steal an idea — the blog-a-thon runs until Sunday, and we’re not much for deadlines. Or beg me to complete one in particular.

My Movie Body. In which I reconstruct myself (Frankenstein’s monster style) using the parts of movie characters/actors. But probably with Ewan McGregor’s penis, because I get at least one upgrade, don’t I? Inspired by a certain resemblance to Aidan Quinn.

Dearest Emily,

Right now, your primary activities are eating, reaching, sleeping, pooping, laughing, peeing, bouncing, crying, sitting up, and spitting up, but before I know it you’ll be running around and saying all the nasty words you’ve learned from your parents.

And before we get too wrapped up in soccer practice and homework, I want to ask a favor: Each year on my birthday, I want my present from you to be sitting with me and your mother and watching a movie, and talking about it afterward.

I’ve chosen a movie for each year through 2029 — when you’ll be 21 and I’ll be 58. I plan to be around, but if I’m not, please watch these with your mother on April 29. She’ll be able explain a lot.

A documentary short by Jeff Ignatius. Starring Emily. And the voice of Pamela.

When I said “self-involvement,” I meant it.

To mark the fifth birthday of Culture Snob (and the second day of the Self-Involvement Blog-a-thon), some raw data and some calculations:

In five years, Culture Snob has produced 514 entries, 36 polls, and 17 commentary tracks — nine full-movie commentaries and eight of the five-minute variety. I have written roughly 450,000 words for the site — an average of about 250 a day, or enough to fill 1,800 double-spaced typed pages over the site’s life.

For many years, I’ve said honestly that I have no idea what trigger pushed me from being an ardent consumer of movies to a film lover. Alternatively (and ultimately less truthfully), I’ve said that there was no specific movie/incident, instead placing the transformation some time in the early 1990s. Occasionally, I’ve credited seeing Fearless in fall 1993, and the connection between Peter Weir’s movie and my father’s death.

The vagueness of my answers has long bothered me, but I didn’t do much about it. Watching the new Criterion release of Before the Rain was epiphanic, though: I recognized that the movie was a critical event for me.

So I decided to piece together my movie history in a way less random than previous efforts; I wanted to construct something coherent and meaningful.

It was a summer in the early 1980s. We were on a family vacation. Perhaps to Disney World. It seemed that at every stop on our journey, Under the Rainbow was in a constant loop on HBO on our hotel television. We must have seen parts of it a dozen times. Memory is a fickle thing, but I remember that the PG-rated farce had one bare breast that pops out when the little people are running through a communal dressing room, or somesuch.

I mention this because I can, as we have arrived at the Self-Involvement Blog-a-thon, running Wednesday, July 9, through Sunday, July 13. This is the official Culture Snob birthday party, with this little site celebrating its fifth birthday on July 10. So give me a present: Write something for my blog-a-thon!

I’ll collect submissions in this entry over the course of the blog-a-thon. Links to submissions are best made in the comments, as work and Emily responsibilities will likely prevent prompt posting. (Self-involvement alert: baby pictures!) You can also send links through the Culture Snob e-mail form, or to snob@culturesnob.com.

When I first announced this Self-Involvement Blog-a-thon, I inexactly framed my goals:

“The Self-Involvement Blog-a-thon is about the intersection of movies and life [...] .”“Of course, we bring baggage whenever we talk or write about movies, but this is meant to be more personal [...] .”

(Self-involvement alert: the quoting of oneself!)

One commenter on another site correctly noted:

“Isn’t that terribly redundant, though? What else is the blogosphere all about except intensely personal reactions — to the cinema and everything else?”

She prompted me to clarify my intent:

“Most film writing is movies filtered through the self; I want the self filtered through movies.”

So there it is. As with my previous blog-a-thons, my goal is to write something new for each day, just in case nobody else participates.

Continue reading to see the submissions. (Last update: 12:05 p.m. CDT, July 15.)

(Self-Involvement Central is here.)

To mark the fifth birthday of Culture Snob — born July 10, 2003 — I’ll be hosting the Self-Involvement Blog-a-thon from Wednesday, July 9, to Sunday, July 13. (Previously, I initiated the Misunderstood Blog-a-thon and latched on to Only the Cinema’s Short-Film Week Blog-a-thon.)

Put simply, the Self-Involvement Blog-a-thon is about the intersection of movies and life. My hope is that it will serve as a celebration of the power of the moving picture removed from the critical, cultural, and financial contexts in which it is typically considered.

Of course, we bring baggage whenever we talk or write about movies, but this is meant to be more personal — intensely idiosyncratic reactions and analyses, difficult times when movies became more than movies, brushes with movie stars, crushes on movie stars, memories from youthful encounters with film, embarrassing revelations, cinematic epiphanies, meticulous drawings of Darth Vader from your eight-year-old self, ... .

The only rule is that contributions have two central elements: movies and you.

Submissions (or promises of submissions) can be made in comments, through the Culture Snob e-mail form, or at snob@culturesnob.com. New work is encouraged, but moldy links are welcome, too.

And remember: For once, it is all about you.