And So it Begins… On its 5th Blogiversary

I’ve been hand writing movie reviews since Jan. 1, 2000. I have hundreds of notebooks filled with reviews, lists, director profiles – anything to keep my movie-freaked mind entertained while I was a teenager. When I got to college, more and more people began asking me what I thought of this movie, or that actor, and so on. So, five years ago today I decided to jump on the blog bandwagon and start And So it Begins.

Now, I wanted to do something cool for the five year benchmark, so for the remainder of this week, I’m going to be posting (what I think are) a series of bitchin’ Top 10 Lists that define who I am as a cinephile. The first one will be up later today. But for now, a story.

Movies have always been there for me. No matter what heavy shit life decided to throw, I’ve always found solace in the art of film. Writing is the same way. In high school, I discovered that writing was something I could escape into. So, in the beginning, this blog was merely a way to mesh two of my favorite things together.

For the first three and a half years, hardly anyone read this blog. I got a comment here or there, page hits broke a dozen (maybe), but it didn’t matter. I was writing about movies because it’s what I love to do. Once I became part of the LAMB community and started hitting Twitter aggressively, readership skyrocketed.

Which leads me to my main point. I started this blog because I find calm in writing, especially when I’m writing about films. The films motivate me, but you, the readers, encourage me. The support you’ve shown me, this blog, and, my short flick, Earrings, is something I continually hold in my heart and will never lose sight of. So thank you. Really, truly, thank you.

Last year on this date, I listed the movie blogs I read, and the reasons why I thought other people should read them too. But, quite frankly, there are just too many to list here now. But I do want to draw particular attention to one site, more as a plea than a recommendation.

Southern Vision. Tyler Atkinson’s ingenious Southern Vision has and will always remain one of the best film blogs I have ever read. Once I joined Twitter, Tyler and I became fast friends, finding a common ground in our love of indie/foreign/obscure/art house films, and a penchant for writing sardonic, honest posts.

Lately, Southern Vision has gone more or less dormant. And I get it, I really do. Blogging (and blogging well) isn’t easy. It’s a big goddamn commitment, and sometimes some of us need to take a step back and chill out. In the year and a half I’ve been following Southern Vision, Tyler has cranked out marvelous post after marvelous post, and the dude deserves a break. I just hope it isn’t a permanent one. Take as much time as you need, my friend, but I want to know what you think of The Master. I want to know if you’re as taken with Amour as you are with Haneke’s other films. I want to know if you think Cloud Atlas is a modern masterpiece, or wannabe pulp garbage.

I miss your film voice, and I want it back, if for no other reason than because I selfishly get a great deal of inspiration from it.

To Tyler and Diana and Sati and Stevee and Sam and Dave and Dan and Nikhat and Stephanie and Shantanu and Anna and Ruth and Stephen and Josh and Sam and Joe and Ethan and Matt and Gregory and Alex and Eric and Chris and Robert and all of you. Thank you.

(And, of course, to my mom and dad and Miguel and Evan and Taylor and my lovely Julie, thank you.)

Keep writing.

-Alex