The Lake Update for January

Hello everyone!  With the year ending, I figured I’d get The Lake Update for January moved up quicker.  In this update I’ll be discussing year-end things including contests, the last reviews of 2012, and what will be in store for January.  It’s an action-packed month so let’s take a look!

I have a handful of reviews that I’ve put off writing due to my 25 Days of Christmas, but I will be racing feverishly to get them out before the end of the year, or at least the beginning of the New Year.  They include reviews of The Sting, Another Thin Man, and White Zombie. In the interest of getting as much completed before the New Year I’ll be holding off on Journeys in the Disney Vault, Biopic Theater, and Golden Age on the Printed Page.  Thankfully, I was able to get those out on time during 25 Days of Christmas so I’m hoping nobody will be too bummed that I’m taking a brief hiatus from them.  Thankfully, they’re all returning in 2013 with a vengeance.  I’m also hoping to make my Mint in the Box review more frequent since I received a ton of box sets.  Future segments include a look at the Busby Berkley box set, the Myrna Loy and William Powell set, and more.  The TCM Top Twelve and Month in Film will run on-time this month.

In terms of Year End features I’ll be posting articles discussing the Top 10 Most Read Articles on this site this year, I’ll be discussing actors/directors who kept popping up in reviews, as well as discussing the best and worst classic films I saw this year.  I’m not sure if I’ll be resurrecting my Road to the Oscars series this year.  I started that series when I was reviewing both current and classic films.  With the lean towards classic, does anyone want my thoughts on the Oscar nominated films?  If you do, drop me a comment or leave me a Twitter message @Journeys_Film.

As for the long-term prospects for the site a few things will be revamped.  The fantastic Nick Powell of the Cinematic Katzenjammer (a site I will be working with regularly) has created a brand spanking new logo for us that I will be using.  It’s the same logo that I got on a T-shirt courtesy of the fantastic people at TShirtPrinting.org.   I still need to post a picture of it by the way, it’s pretty awesome to have my logo and a photo of Veronica Lake, on a t-shirt.  The next thing to ask is what would be everyone’s interest in a t-shirt or some type of merchandise with the Journeys in Classic Film logo on it?  I know that merch isn’t a big thing on blogs, but I’m gauging all interest so if you’d purchase a t-shirt let me know!  Again, thanks to Emily at TShirtPrinting.org for generously creating a shirt for me.  Along with the new logo comes a new ratings system!  I’ve been hoping to revamp the rating scale for a while, and it’s finally finished.  I’ll be retiring the A-F rating scale on January 1st, and introducing the Ronnie Rating.  I’m really happy to have a unique rating system, and I hope you all like it too.  January 13th kicks off the first Leading Lady Tournament.  It’ll work the same ways as the Leading Man Tournament although we’ll be upping the nominees to seven actresses across eight decades.  I’ll be posting up ads in the next day or two that you can slap onto your own sites or onto Facebook.  If you take an ad let me know and I’ll be sure to send you a thank-you!

With that I’m continuously looking for ways to improve the site.  Eventually, I’d like this to be a key site for classic film reviews, so don’t be afraid to comment on what’s working and what isn’t.  I do thank the kind anonymous people who commented on my site during the Lamb’s Blog Blustering as it really showed me what was working.  If you’re afraid to be brutal you can always leave comments anonymously.  If you have a particular feature idea or movie you want reviewed you can drop me a comment, contact me @Journeys_Film on Twitter, or on Facebook.

I’ve also promised people a contest, and I’m delivering!  Hopefully you guys haven’t gotten sick of books as prizes because that’s what’s going to be given out!  I have 1 copy each of The James Bond Omnibus Volume 4, Dana Andrews: Hollywood Enigma, and Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes.  The links will take you to my reviews of them.  In order to enter just comment here or on Twitter with the title of the book you want.  If a book goes unclaimed, I’ll simply hold it over till the next contest.  Let’s have the contest run starting today and through to January 12th.

I hope everyone’s New Year is safe and amazing, and here’s to another year of fun at Journeys in Classic Film!