What’s 11 days between friends? Who’s to say that all new year challenges/resolutions/goals/what-have-you need to start on January 1? Sure, that’s the easy way out, but just think how much more fun it could be to hold off on all those resolutions until, say, oh, I don’t know … the end of the second week of the month? Follow?
Fine. So I’m just here trying to rationalize the fact that I have spent 11 days of 2008 ready to sit down and focus on writing again, ready to stare at that blankish white screen and resume my fanatical commentaries, and yet, it’s not until another sleepless night at 4:20 AM that I’m really able to let my fingers commence their verbal marathons. I’ve neglected “Out of Focus” for way too long, and I’ve written about neglecting “Out of Focus” far too often. Resolution #1, therefore, is that no longer (after this post) will I publicly commiserate as to the fact that I haven’t had time to publicly pontificate.
Of course, for those of you with the patience and kindness to continue to follow this space, you will know that I have made previous claims to returning my focus and attention to regular writing, for better or worse, and here yet again, I will cry wolf one more time, but as was the case when I started this blog nearly four (holy crap, really?!) years ago, I’m not necessarily sure what that attention will be, nor how successful I will be at retaining it. When I started this blog, I was bored out of my mind in a job I hated. Now, I’m in the exact opposite situation — far from bored in a job I (most of the time) really like. And yet, said job makes it difficult to sometimes write about certain films, especially ones that instigate my own personal bubbling bile that lead to my own personal favorite rants.
And yet (again) … I still have a lot to say, a lot I want to say, a lot someone may or may not care about, and a lot of discussions in which I want to participate. So my goal for 2008 is simply one of consistency and balance. Can I achieve a goal when to most I’ve already failed at it? Of course. As one of my many muses describes in her great piece on The Huffington Post, she’s taking things now “one day at a time,” and if today doesn’t go well, there’s always tomorrow. It’s odd how I’ve always managed to use that very same philosophy in certain areas but completely disregard it when flogging myself for not following through in others.
So that brings us to Resolution #2 (also not exactly new): to return this space to one mostly devoid of posts like this. I never intended to keep an online journal, nor do I want to now. This is a space to look at film and television and theater; a site that may occasionally discuss music or books or sports or politics; a corner of the web that may infrequently discuss this or that going on in my life, but not when all the content is as infrequent as it has been.
And there is so much about which to write far more interesting than my ability to procrastinate, most notably, the thing so many have already written about. Like Filmbrain and many others, I am thoroughly obsessed with Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood, not only hands-down by leaps-and-bounds by far the best film of 2007, but I would argue the best film of the current decade. As has been my tradition for the past two years, my top film of one year is the first film I watch in the New Year, so after seeing Blood on Dec. 26 at the AMC Lincoln Square, I knew I would need to head back to the Upper West Side some time on Jan. 1. And I did. I’ve seen in twice — I’m dying to see it again.
And The Wire, arguably the best television series of the decade, has resumed for its final season, to kick off a year when an unfortunate, but worthwhile, strike may see us starved for anything good come summer and after. And after moving from a Time Warner neighborhood to a Cablevision one, I’ve become so frustrated with the latters crappy DiVo that I have finally upgraded to the real thing, the non-generic TiVo service, with multiple machines on my multiple screens. And the FCC has actually taken-on the cable company monopolies in a good way. And no longer am I watching everything in sepia-tones on my 14-year-old piece of shit TV. And my Niners totally blew again, arguably worse than before. And I’m hoping for an Obama-Richardson administration that will feature Secretary of State Joe Biden. And I went on a theater binge in November and December that was a bit ridiculous. And I’m waist-deep now in work, screening submissions and trying to devise a theater and screening plan for Tribeca that hopefully everyone will enjoy (we have some new things in store that are quite exciting, in fact). And is anyone else as happy as I that at least one good thing has come out of the writers’ strike so far? That the Hollywood Foreign Press has had to give up their little party that always showcases their absurd organization as being far more important than it is? And … and … and ….
You get the idea. So, I won’t tell you to buckle up; and aside from the plan to post my best (and worst) of 2007 comments in the next week or two, I’m just going to go with the flow, and hopefully, just like the sun and the moon and the tides, the flow will be regular and the ebb will be temporary.
Happy New Year all. Here we go … I think.
Out of Focus 