July 15, 2004

•                

  
  

  I have just written a “review” of the DVD “Winged Migration” accessible from the “review” link on the upper left hand corner of the Xanga blog screen. This is the “second” review I have written since subscribing to this service. When I set up the Original AllThingsMike website, my “tagline” for the site, was “poetry, movie reviews, and stuff.” I filled the site with poetry, added quite a bit of “stuff” and attempted to write a review a week for films I see at the local multiplex. The “early reviews” are available on the ElectricMovies website here.  I sort of stopped writing them because, frankly, I see LOTS of movies, film study being one of my “interests”, and I found that writing movie reviews was a bit of a chore. Besides writing whether or not I liked the film, (Thumbs UP, or DOWN?) (I call my Movie Ratings X to 10 on the MIKEOMETER) I wanted to give small film history lessons in print (A throwback to my minoring in Film History in college so long ago, I suppose.)  I kept an ElectricMovies Blog Diary for about three years. But with the “review” section of the Xanga blog (which I notice a lot of Xanga folks don’t use) I expect I will add a review or two if I feel the film is extra special. “Winged Migration” certainly fits this category and I give it a 9 or 10 on the Mikometer. Click on the “reviews” section to read my review, and there is also a review of Robert Altman’s excellent “The Company” a film about the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago with Neve Campbell, who produced the film.

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  This is one of the “movie poster” composites on the ElectricMovies website. I started ElectricMovies as the third “website” in the “AllThingsMike Universe back in 2001. By 2001 I already had AllThingsMike, ElectricPoetry, which was designed for competition in “The Site Fights” (where I added lots of email addreses to my email client, but an endeavor where most of the time spent online wasn’t “creating” or “reading” others, it was “voting” for the folks you “vote exchanged” with so that you could “make it to the top”. I almost got to the top of my “team” when I realized this was a rather stupid endeavor. In order to “win” I would have to accumulate hundreds of “voters” who of course voted for me only if I voted for them. Nobody had any time to do ANYTHING other than VOTE. Anyway, enough rambling. “ElectricMovies” was to encompass my love for the medium, but as I said earlier, I couldn’t write reviews. I wanted to be more in-depth and besides, my friends said the reviews I did write were way too long. I admit it, I talk, and type a lot. I enjoy communication, but I just see too many movies. Heck, with the “Xanga Community” who knows, maybe one or two of my “internet endeavors and art projects” will strike a chord with “my readers” which was the intent of building this AllThingsMike Universe in the first place, and cause me to begin writing movie reviews in earnest, if only I thought people were reading them. Lord knows I regale everybody at work with my “weekend movie pick” review, including the Mikometer Rating, which is at least as old as Roger Ebert’s televised movie review show.

  
  

  

  
  

  The crowning achievements of the long forgotten (ahem) ElectricMovies site was the “Film of the Year” websites, of which TWO exist. The first was “Moulin Rouge” which I actually thought would win Best Picture in 2001, and Scorsese’s “Gangs Of New York” in 2002.  If you wander over to the links to these rather ambitious undertakings, which took a lot of time to create, BTW. (I put the complete “Moulin Rouge” website together over one weekend prior to the Oscar announcements. Same with “Gangs”. I didn’t put a website together for “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” but I guess it doesn’t matter cause it “won”.  I did put a picture from the movie on ElectricMovies. Well, I just put the soundtrack of “Moulin Rouge” on my puter, and I’m beginning to cry. So I shall leave you with these words from the AllThingsMike ElectricMovies endeavor. “To view a work of cinematic art is to reach out and touch the face of humanity.  Hopefully I can be of help in guiding you to that art, wherever it exists in the cinema.” I always feel bad that I don’t update the ElectricMovies site more often, but with the Review feature in these Xanga blogs, I think I shall perhaps be reviewing more of the films I watch. 
  

  
  

   

  • 8:41 pm
  • 4 Comments