I started this blog back on May 10, 2004 with the following entry:
As things begin, so must this blog. Here we go.
History will remind us how special this week was:
1) Valencia crowned Liga Champions after an astonishing collapse by Real. Nothing fake about the win there -- pure hardwork.
2) Arsenal remained unbeaten after 37 games. Thanks to Reyes -- the Spanish connection.
3) Werder Bremen won the Bundesliga in the best possible manner, a 3-1 win away to defending champs, Bayern Munich. The result left no doubt about the best team in Germany.
4) Milan & Roma take dives. But will it be enough for Perugia?
5) 5 in a row. Zoom Zoom.
6) 3-2 overtime win for the red hot Flames. Sharks or no sharks.
7) Stand off. Enough said!!!
More than 10 years have gone by since this blog was started. Initially, the purpose of this blog was to share notes about recent films I was viewing with a few friends who were doing the same. Therefore, this was purely a web film log, fitting in perfectly with the definition of a blog (web log). However as things turned out, my film friends stopped maintaining their blogs and decreased their film viewing around 2005-06 but I increased my film viewing substantially going from seeing 100-150 films a year to a record high of 445 films in 2008.
As I stopped discussing films with one group of friends, along the way, I made many other cinephile friends through the internet. Thankfully, I have been lucky to have met some of them in person. But there are many other film lovers that I have interacted with over the years without even knowing their name or where they live. Of course, not knowing someone's name or what they look like has not gotten in the way of meaningful discussion because cinema has been a common bond for us, therefore no other formal introduction was required.
Since I started this blog, I must have seen anywhere from 3000-4000 films. 2000-2500 of those films have some notes/reviews or are simply logged somewhere on this blog. I have also been fortunate to have traveled to many international film festivals and helped program films for multiple film festivals as well, tales of those adventures are also etched on "Scribbles and Ramblings". It has been an absolutely incredible cinematic journey, one that I hope to be able to continue for many more years to come.
A huge thanks to all the people that have taken the time to read this blog and share their thoughts over the last 10 years. Special mention goes out to Sam Juliano, Norman Crane and Nitesh Rohit for being such regular readers. Plus, I will be always grateful to Michael Guillen for his wonderful website and friendship. I can't forget some wonderful cinephiles with whom I mainly talk via twitter even though I discovered them through their websites: JAFB, Zach, Filipe and Omar. And finally...Acquarello is no longer online but Strictly Film School was the first film website I discovered back in 1996. Acquarello's website was a huge help when I was hunting for foreign films on VHS tapes. Yes, VHS tapes. I have gotten many useful nuggets of advice from Acquarello over the years that I will always cherish.
As things begin, so must this blog. Here we go.
History will remind us how special this week was:
1) Valencia crowned Liga Champions after an astonishing collapse by Real. Nothing fake about the win there -- pure hardwork.
2) Arsenal remained unbeaten after 37 games. Thanks to Reyes -- the Spanish connection.
3) Werder Bremen won the Bundesliga in the best possible manner, a 3-1 win away to defending champs, Bayern Munich. The result left no doubt about the best team in Germany.
4) Milan & Roma take dives. But will it be enough for Perugia?
5) 5 in a row. Zoom Zoom.
6) 3-2 overtime win for the red hot Flames. Sharks or no sharks.
7) Stand off. Enough said!!!
More than 10 years have gone by since this blog was started. Initially, the purpose of this blog was to share notes about recent films I was viewing with a few friends who were doing the same. Therefore, this was purely a web film log, fitting in perfectly with the definition of a blog (web log). However as things turned out, my film friends stopped maintaining their blogs and decreased their film viewing around 2005-06 but I increased my film viewing substantially going from seeing 100-150 films a year to a record high of 445 films in 2008.
As I stopped discussing films with one group of friends, along the way, I made many other cinephile friends through the internet. Thankfully, I have been lucky to have met some of them in person. But there are many other film lovers that I have interacted with over the years without even knowing their name or where they live. Of course, not knowing someone's name or what they look like has not gotten in the way of meaningful discussion because cinema has been a common bond for us, therefore no other formal introduction was required.
Since I started this blog, I must have seen anywhere from 3000-4000 films. 2000-2500 of those films have some notes/reviews or are simply logged somewhere on this blog. I have also been fortunate to have traveled to many international film festivals and helped program films for multiple film festivals as well, tales of those adventures are also etched on "Scribbles and Ramblings". It has been an absolutely incredible cinematic journey, one that I hope to be able to continue for many more years to come.
A huge thanks to all the people that have taken the time to read this blog and share their thoughts over the last 10 years. Special mention goes out to Sam Juliano, Norman Crane and Nitesh Rohit for being such regular readers. Plus, I will be always grateful to Michael Guillen for his wonderful website and friendship. I can't forget some wonderful cinephiles with whom I mainly talk via twitter even though I discovered them through their websites: JAFB, Zach, Filipe and Omar. And finally...Acquarello is no longer online but Strictly Film School was the first film website I discovered back in 1996. Acquarello's website was a huge help when I was hunting for foreign films on VHS tapes. Yes, VHS tapes. I have gotten many useful nuggets of advice from Acquarello over the years that I will always cherish.
2 comments:
Congratulations on your own La Decima! We're regular readers because there's always something new and interesting to read, whether it's spotlights, individual reviews, festival notes or something related to books or soccer. Strictly Film School was the first film website I discovered, too. I remember being amazed that I could browse by imagery, themes, and reading all of Acquarello's beautiful, long sentences. I wish I remembered how I stumbled upon Scribbles and Ramblings. It couldn't have been long after. Blogging was new, I was new at blogging and it was thrilling to come across another blog about movies. Now even blogging seems kind of quaint, but I think ten years have taught that a love for film rolls with the punches and the new technologies, and it's a pleasure to read your thoughts whether it's on Blogger or Twitter.
Thanks Norman for your wonderful comment and excellent insights over the years, including many via your writing. I never thought about calling it a La Decima :) I like that.
I do wonder how many others first came across Acquarello's website first. Back then, HTML was still in the early days and that website was already well ahead of many other sites. Heck, most professional soccer teams never had an official webpage then. Therefore, it is quite remarkable how much information Strictly Film School offered. It was a first web film school for most of us.
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