My goal in starting this blog was not so much to foist my opinions on the already overcrowded world of the blogosphere, but more to try to join in a conversation about movies that I love, and provide a chance for me to learn more about film in general. I find that I learn what I really think when I try to express it in writing. I don’t always feel that I’m successful in expressing my thoughts, but at least the attempt has been satisfying. The blog has evolved already a bit in the last year to be more focused on specific films and less on the sort of generic musings that I attempted in last summer, but I’ll probably return to some of those types of posts as time and inspiration strike.

The community aspect of blogging has been greatly aided by my participation in some blogathons, which has introduced me to a number of other great blogs, as well as bringing a lot of new readers here. I was a real skeptic about Twitter for a very long time, but I’ve come to appreciate it for what it is able to provide in terms of interaction as well. If you want to connect there, I’m @magadizer. I also recently created a Facebook page for the blog, so if you follow my blog, I’d be grateful if you would like the page there and share as well.

I’ve been fortunate to have a few mentions and links to this blog from some other sites, and I’d like to do a round-up of those, and recommend that my readers go and check out the other fine things that are going on at those sites.

1. Jeffrey Overstreet, of Looking Closer, author of Through a Screen Darkly and a quartet of fantasy novels, has opened his site on a number of occasions to contributions from the “Looking Closer Specialists,” a group of supporters of his blog, of which I am a proud member. He has hosted my review of Kent Jones’s Hitchcock/Truffaut, and most recently included a couple of my thoughts in his The Jungle Book review. His insights are always thought provoking, and his encouragement to me in the beginning of this blog has been very gratifying. I have benefited immensely from his recommendations on films to explore.
2. Akirakurosawa.info was kind enough to point to my post on Kurosawa and Nakadai, along with a couple other Kurosawa blog posts back in January.
3. The invaluable Wellesnet, run by Ray Kelly et. al. runs a message board, where they have shared my Welles related posts on Macbeth and Mr. Arkadin. Wellesnet is simply the best place for news analysis, and archival materials related to Orson Welles on the internet. It is an invaluable resource linked to a very knowledgeable community.
4. Michael Barrier, author of Hollywood Cartoons, a biography of Walt Disney, and a recent book on the Golden Age of Dell comic books, has generously linked to my post on Bugs Bunny cartoons, with a few kind words about the entry. He is the most thorough and authoritative researcher and author on the history of classic theatrical cartoons, so I greatly appreciate his time in reading and sharing my blog. You can get lost for days in reading all of his essays and transcripts posted on his site. If you have any love for those old cartoons, you owe it to yourself to start poking around there, and to pick up his books.

I’ve also been listening to several film-related podcasts recently, and I’d like to mention two of my favorites, and again thank them for a couple of recent mentions in their episodes! I recommend that you listen to them through your favorite audio source.

1. Criterion Close-up: Hosted by Aaron West and Mark Hurne. They mostly focus on discussing releases from the Criterion Collection, but also discuss other films of interest. I was the lucky winner of a Twitter contest on a recent episode, where I was awarded a Bluray disc of Don Hertzfeldt’s cartoons. I won it by sharing my son’s cartoon that he made on his Nintendo DS! Anyways, Aaron and Mark are great podcasters, with an encyclopedic knowledge of cinema, and a generous and gentle banter that makes them a pleasure to listen to.
2. Flixwise: Hosted by the genial Lady P., the goal of this podcast is to host discussions of all the 250 films on the Sight and Sound poll list. She is joined each episode by a very great group of guests, and has frequently included distinguished authors and film historians such as Joseph McBride and Patrick McGilligan. On the recent episode reviewing the Kiarostami film Close-up, they also discussed a topic of “the films that made them,” a topic that came about from a discussion I had with Lady P. on Twitter, where I told her that Close-up was the film that inspired me to begin this blog! Thanks again for the shout-out.

All of these sites and podcasts are highly recommended, and I am very grateful for all the interactions I have been able to have with their authors and hosts.

Thank you all!