These are the sort of things I both wait for and despise. The inevitable linked meme with a set of questions to answer so everyone can know more about you. Ugh. This one is slightly different though, in that it’s completely ego-boosting as the majority of it is about the blog. Finally, I can talk freely about all those posts that I loved, but no one else gave a shit about. My dream has come true! Thanks to Rodney over at the always entertaining Fernby Films for linking me. He’s a good guy and runs a fun blog that, like mine, is best viewed at 1920×1280. (Editor’s Note: Shit, I finally got a chance to use that joke, and it looks like Rodney has removed the relevant disclaimer from his site. Woe is me. A better editor would have removed this joke entirely, but no one ever said I was an editor capable of killing his babies.)

OK, sorry for the sidetrack, here’s the info you’re craving.

The Rules:

1: Tell everyone something about yourself that nobody else knows.

2: Link to a post I think fits the following categories: The Most Beautiful Piece, Most Helpful Piece, Most Popular Piece, Most Controversial Piece, Most Surprisingly Successful Piece, Most Underrated Piece, Most Pride-worthy Piece.

3: Pass this on to 7 fellow bloggers.

OK, here goes.

1. Hmm, that’s tough to think of something that anyone would care about. Well, I’m an absolute fiend for good ethnic cuisine (which means non-Traditional American food). Mexican was my first love, but I have since become thoroughly obsessed with Indian and Thai cuisines. Their wondrous exotic foods fulfill me on every level, engaging each sense individually and simultaneously.

2.

My Most Beautiful Piece

This is a tough one because I don’t know that any of my writing is especially beautiful. In this case, I’ll interpret beautiful as well-written and give the nod to my review of the classic Japanese film, Onibaba. It’s a wonderful film that I completely spoil in the review, so don’t read it unless you’ve seen the movie. I generally try to stay away from blatant spoilers, but it was impossible to talk about the greatness of Onibaba without them. Seriously, if you have any interest in classic Japanese cinema, just watch it.

Most Helpful Piece

Again, I don’t know that any of my posts are especially helpful. As I mainly stick to reviews, there aren’t any easy picks of posts like “How to set up a kick-ass home theater!”. So I’ll just have to play fast and loose with the term, and go with a post that was helpful to me in realizing that I needed to implement a dual star rating system for B-Movies. The review in question is one of my favorite pieces I’ve done for the site, and it was the first to have a regular rating and a B-Movie rating. The title in question is the illustrious Troll 2. I did that one back in October 2010, but it wasn’t until the start of 2012 that I implemented the change for all B-pictures. The idea took a while to sprout and grow on me, but now that it’s in full swing I think it’s one of the most helpful things my B-movie reviews offer. Now quickly and easily you can see that the movie is both shit and awesome, or that it’s shit and boring, etc. Should’ve done it a long time ago. Anyway, thanks Troll 2, you’ve brought so much joy into my life.

Most Popular Piece

The most popular post is by far the easiest for me to figure out. It’s my review of Do the Right Thing. Not because of its wonderful, witty writing, or its clever deconstruction of the film’s controversial ending, no, it’s because apparently a shitload of people need the find the Do the Right Thing poster on a daily basis. If we discount this from the official record, than my lone book review of The Siege at Trencher’s Farm takes the cake. It was the top performing post every day for weeks after I posted it, because again, apparently a whole lot of people either need a review of said book (presumably because it’s an assigned text and they’re cheating), or they need to know if it was a true story (Thanks, Google.)

If we discount both of these and focus on genuine interest in the post (judged by number of comments and page views), then it has to be RoboCop. An outstanding film, with a review that tries hard to do it justice but I’m still unsure that it does. That’s one movie I really wish Uncle Jasper had reviewed instead of me.

Most Controversial Piece

I don’t think I resonate with enough people to actually cause controversy, but my negative review of Hanna seemed to rub many people the wrong way. Sorry, it’s just a shit movie. It’s not my fault.

Most Surprisingly Successful Piece

Hercules in New York. I should have seen it coming, it’s Arnold, but still I was blind-sided by just how popular this post was immediately after posting it.

Most Underrated Piece

Again, so many of my posts could qualify for this! I initially wanted to go Laserblast, because it’s one of my favorite posts I’ve ever done and I don’t think it ever got its due, but then I remembered Bewitched. I’m not talking about the film version of the popular 60s TV series, I’m talking about the 80s Shaw Brothers Black Magic film. It’s not an easy film to find and it’s an absolute shame, because Bewitched is hands-down one of the best Hong Kong films I’ve ever seen. It’s so intense, over-the-top and amazing that it really needs to be seen by more horror aficionados. Fuck Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, Kuei Chi-Hung’s Bewitched has the best wizard battle you will ever see in a movie. In case you can’t find it, you can always read my fun review of it!

Most Pride-Worthy Piece

1500 words on Mac and Me. I am so proud of that review, I truly am. I don’t think anyone else likes it quite like I do, but damn I’m proud of that one. One of the greatest, horrible movies out there.

3. And now the links!

Dangerous Meredith – Author of amazing deconstructions of martial arts cinema, Meredith is a unique blogger and worthy of more readers.

J.P. at J.P.’s Movie Thoughts – The first guy to start reading and post a comment to my blog, J.P. continues to publish good content on cinema from all genres. He’s a fan of Asian cinema like me, so the lean is towards that, but he’s been known to run through random Burt Reynolds movies too.

Joel at Forgotten Flix – Another early reader, Joel has created not only a great website for thirty-somethings to remember the films of their youth, but an excellent podcast devoted to the same. Give it a listen!

Ryan at The Matinee – Probably needs no introduction as he’s been voted the best blog by the LAMBs a couple years running, I believe. In any case, he runs a good ship and you should give him a shot if you haven’t already.

Anna at Defiant Success – Her reckless love of nearly every movie she posts about is as funny as it is sincere. She reminds me of my younger days when I was ripping through all the classics and enjoying the hell out of them, and for that she gets a nod here.

CS at Big Thoughts from a Small Mind – Great site based out of Toronto so there’s always lots of great reviews of stuff from Film Festivals ages before the normal people get a crack at them. Great writing and a genuinely nice guy, you should definitely check out the site.

And finally my last nod goes to the site Paragraph Film Reviews. He’s true to the name of the site, as each review is a concise paragraph, but full of strong opinions and thoughts. He covers a broad range of film as well, including a great feature on movies that he walks out on.