Toronto Star Internet columnist Peter Howell is coming a bit late to the blog game, but late is way better than never:
- I was skeptical about Weblogs - "blogs" for short - when I first heard about them, and why I've never really followed them that closely. Blogs looked like just another way of making a Web site, and a very wordy one at that. For the uninitiated - and that would be most of us - blogs are an interactive form of online journal. The blogger gathers his or her thoughts on one issue or many, and provides links to items of interest on the Net. A blog is a sort of digital soapbox, for want of a better description. It is online democracy in motion.
Still, I never thought blogging would amount to anything. Until I saw Variety.com start covering the phenomenon, which the magazine has been doing since last fall. If Hollywood's must-read trade daily is now watching blogs, it must mean the form has finally climbed up from the underground.
"The reaction to the blogs has been very positive," says Variety.com editor Travis Smith. "We've started some interesting discussions among our readers and uncovered some great stories."
....There is no Variety coverage of movie blogs, which are in abundance. This set me off on a search to see what's blogging down at the virtual bijou. Here are just a few of the more interesting ones:
Blogcritics.org (http://www.blogcritics.org): Not tired yet of debating about Mel Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ? Want to know someone's picks for the Top 20 Best Films Ever Made? This here is your site, which includes critical mutterings on all manner of pop-cult things. The Top 20 film list is pretty good [way to go John Lars!], although would you include Terence Malick's The Thin Red Line and Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket amongst the best 20 films ever? Start arguing here.
He lists several others, and not always flatteringly:
- Drew's Blog-o-rama (tinyurl.com/yuvos): Billed as "the useless offspring of Drew's Script-o-rama," which is a long-running site to obtain movie scripts. Not exactly useless - Drew has a fun sense of humour - but not a must-read, either. He teases us with an item about revealing what Bill Murray whispered into Scarlett Johansson's ear at the end of Lost In Translation, but then doesn't deliver. But this blog is nicely presented and easy to scroll through.
Article comments
1 - Al Barger
Peter Howell is obviously a scholar and a gentleman with fine, discerning taste in blog reading.
2 - jadester
seconded. heh
3 - Eric Olsen
I will sing his praises even if no one asks.