Holidailies update

I know, I can’t stop talking about Holidailies. Sometimes I’m amazed that the collaborative project is in its seventh year. I’m amazed that so many people want to sign up for the portal. I love that we keep coming up with new features … right now we’re working on a list of optional daily writing prompts, so if you’re stuck on a topic to write about on a certain day, you can always use the prompt topic. In addition, we were inspired by NaBloPoMo to create a Holidailies at Home randomizer for handy browsing. (The NaBloPoMo organizer was also kind enough to link to us, which I appreciate because we’ve picked up some new writers this year. Thank you, M. Kennedy!)
As of this moment, we have 139 people signed up for the portal and another 50 for Holidailies at Home, and registration is still open. We’ve got a full panel of readers ready to pick the Best of Holidailies entries; in fact, I’ve got a waiting list of readers. Wow. We filled all our sponsorship slots. Everything is set for Friday morning, when the posting begins. I can’t wait.
Side note: I said last time that Celluloid Eyes was going to participate in Holidailies last year. Then I went back and looked at last year’s Holidailies posts, and realized that it just doesn’t work well for Celluloid Eyes. I tend to focus on film-related writing here, and there’s so much personal stuff I prefer to write during the holiday season. So Celluloid Eyes is no longer on the Holidailies portal list. However, if you peek at the portal list, you might observe that I’m still planning to participate. And who knows, I might post here more often anyway. I’ve still got a few reviews to catch up on, and some other movie stuff to rant about.
Holidailies begins on Friday — if you’re looking for stuff to read in the next month, check it out. Repeatedly.

Holidailies rides again

Celluloid Eyes has become more of a film blog than a personal site in recent years, but there are still people who remember this as the go-to site for Holidailies, the annual collaborative writing project. So I wanted to let you know that Holidailies is happening again for 2006. We haven’t updated the website yet for 2006 (although there’s a recent announcement posted to show that we’re working on it) but my fellow Holidailies partner and I are hard at work refurbishing the site. Well, he’s hard at work; I’ve got all the light chores.
If you haven’t heard of Holidailies, it’s a project that I started back in 2000. Every year, a bunch of people decide to update their personal online websites (blogs, journals, whatever) daily in the month of December. It’s grown from a handful of people on a webring to a full-fledged portal with all kinds of extra features. Last year, we had 250 registered participants: half posted to the portal every day, the other half “played along at home.”
Tying it in to the current theme of this blog: there’s no reason why film blogs can’t participate, updating every day with a movie review, short essay, anecdote, or commentary of some sort. I don’t know yet if I’ll participate myself with Celluloid Eyes or with another blog, or just stick with administering the site this year. But it’s loads of fun. I’ll post more info here as we update the Holidailies site and iron out the details.

Labor Day reading material

I’ve been neglecting this poor Web site to write and publish interesting things elsewhere. And I’m not the only one writing some good stuff about film right now. Here are some articles written by me or by other fascinating people, for your holiday weekend perusal … or for Tuesday morning when you can’t get going on actual work and need something to help wake up your brain.
I don’t follow celebrity news much myself, except as is unavoidable in the pursuit of film-related news. Cinematical asked me to take over the site’s weekly gossip column, and I decided to look on the assignment as a writing challenge. The first column appeared Friday — go read it, it won’t bite you. I’ve had several compliments on the writing style, which is non-snarky. I’m not very good with the snark — for some reason, it’s one of the few writing styles I can’t seem to master — so I went with a more down-home approach. It still feels weird that I’m writing a gossip column, though.
I can think of one item that I’d love to hear some gossip about: the inside story behind the very limited release of Idiocracy, Mike Judge’s latest film. I have been writing about this movie everywhere, it seems. Earlier this week, I discussed the mystery of the non-publicized release on Slackerwood. On Friday, the Beau and I caught the movie at Alamo on South Lamar, and I wrote a review for Cinematical. I took some photos at the movie Friday night and posted them, along with some observations about the screening, to Slackerwood.

Continue reading Labor Day reading material

Happy Mardi Gras! Now go buy this book.

Tomorrow is Mardi Gras day, aka Fat Tuesday. Part of me is a little sad I’m not in New Orleans this week, but the other, larger part of me reminds myself gently that I haven’t liked Mardi Gras festivities since I was in high school, if then. I can remember one year in grad school that a trio of us drove to New Orleans for the weekend before Mardi Gras and had a fine time, but I feel that was an exception that might not ever occur again. I’m happy Mardi Gras is going strong in the New Orleans area this year, but still not motivated to join the crowds in person.
This is the first year I can remember that I won’t have had a single slice of king cake. For the past few years, someone always brought a few to the office and I ate a token piece, even though I can’t stand the goopy white frosting that seems to be standard on king cakes these days. Before that, I would supply a king cake for my friends and coworkers, which my mom would send from Metairie. I didn’t ask for them to send a cake this year, nor have I tried to buy one in Austin, because I wouldn’t eat more than a slice and since I work alone, there’s no one on whom I can foist off the rest. (The Beau doesn’t much like king cake either, and he’s out of town at the moment.) It’s weird to not like something very much and still miss it.

Continue reading Happy Mardi Gras! Now go buy this book.