Thursday, December 24, 2015

Searching for Vintage Whisky?

2015 -- my eleventh year of blogging -- is nearly finished. I've had some requests (from family members, but still) to link to my "best posts." I'll give it a shot come January, but it could be tricky.

It's all a blur, for one thing.
I've no idea what makes for a satisfying post for readers -- if I were to let stats determine content, I'd devote the entire blog to crokinole. The posts that satisfy me the most are usually a little long for the current attention span. Brief is better -- I'm certainly on-board with that sentiment. But I also figure this is a platform that allows for rambling where others do not, so . . . I ramble.

These are my "read this/skip the rest" selections for this year, ordered by date posted:

  1. The Contagion Spreads: Afterlife With Archie -- here -- still the best comic book running, IMO.
  2. Harrison Ford Shines Light On Leonard Nimoy -- here. With the new Star Trek trailer out, I'm missing Nimoy more than ever.
  3. A Walk Among The Tombstones -- here. Liam Neeson action flicks vary in quality. I watched this again the other night, and remain impressed.
  4. From The Forest To The Sea: Emily Carr In British Columbia -- here.
  5. Joining The Frygian Evangelists -- here. Is Northrop Frye experiencing an academic resurgence? I certainly hope so.
  6. Sex, With E.L. Doctorow -- here. My insight into the late author and his work is debatable, but I'm justifiably proud of my alternate lyric to "If I Only Had A Brain."
  7. Two posts on my experience of university in the mid- to late-80s, dovetailing with some thoughts on what higher learning appears to have become -- here and here.
And finally, special mention for the series of posts I most enjoyed writing (drum-roll, please):



I Will Make You Reapers Of Men: Jacobean Slapstick in Helfer & Baker's The Shadow -- a three-parter that begins here.

Am I off-base with any of these? Is there subject matter you wish I'd take a stab at? Got something else on your mind? Wonder what I thought of Star Wars: The Force Awakens? (I enjoyed it well enough, but strongly recommend against sitting in the third row from the IMAX screen) Hit the "comments" button below, and let fly.

Thanks for reading -- and please have yourself a merry little Christmas.

2 comments:

Joel Swagman said...

>>>Is there subject matter you wish I'd take a stab at?

Ordinarily I'd never presume to tell another blogger what to blog about. (Usually you have to pay a writer in order to be able to dictate their subject matter)...but if you're soliciting requests...then, actually, yes, I'd love to see The Force Awakens get the full review treatment.

You did a series a while back on your 15 most influential movies from your past, but did you ever do the same thing with books? Possibly I missed it, but that's something else I'd be well up for seeing.

And I'd also be up for seeing your top ten blog post list come January. I know it's probably the kind of thing that can seem self-indulgent (and maybe it is) but it's interesting for the reader as well to see what a blogger thinks are his best material.

dpreimer said...

Good suggestions, Joel -- thank you. If you can sit tight for another week or two, I'll get around to more considered thoughts re:The Force Awakens, after I've seen it a second time and this business of spoilers isn't such a hot potato.

As for books -- wow. That's a super-tough call, but I'll definitely give it consideration. Happy New Year, man.