The State of the Lake 2014

It’s another year of blogging under my belt and wow, three years goes by quickly. I thought I’d dedicate the final post of 2014 to what I’m thankful for as another year of fun with classic film gets underway:

The big to-do of 2014 was my coverage of the TCM Classic Film Festival. I hate to use the cliche, but this was the culmination of my career. I had always dreamed of attending the festival but never thought I’d actually get there, let alone doing it as a member of the credentialed media. I was on the red carpet, shook hands with Kim Novak, and met our fearless TCM hosts, Bob Osborne and Ben Mankiewicz. I also got on TCM’s radar as they’ve consistently kept me in their thoughts throughout the year, sending me little tokens and even a lovely Christmas card with hopes of seeing me at the festival next year (all signs point to yes!). Being a part of the TCM crew, even socially, has led to a huge uptick in the viewing stats this year. Where last year I was proud to see 200-300 hits a day JCF has topped out at 400-500 hits a day! This shocks me all the more because my blogging output the last four months has been weak and uninspired – from my point of view at least – because of my studying for my Master’s Exam, which, I’m pleased to announce, I obtained! Yep, starting this January I will be a real adult with no school commitments so there’s no excuse for my writing to suffer.

Outside of the TCM Film Festival I became the associate editor at ClassicFlix where several amazing writers and I get to talk classic film and I get a ton of free movies! I try not to shill for them here but if you’re looking for a great selection of classic films for rental a la Netflix give them a look! I also got the privilege of helping independent tributes to classic films, interviewing Erin Hunter and James Gavigan of the YouTube series A Quick Fortune. That interview actually nabbed me my highest views on our Facebook page, and for some mysterious reason the Facebook page has seen a nonstop surge of “likes,” to the point that I’m assuming some of them are fake (if you recently liked the page, let me know you’re not fake). Either way, the Facebook now boasts over 500 likes! WordAds, powered by you lovely readers who put up with my ads, also gave me $200 this month, all of which is used to offset site costs throughout the year.

So with my newfound freedom where is the blog headed in 2015? Well you might have noticed the slight revamp to the site colors and the awesome new banner that I can now market freely (designed by the awesome Drew Morton). I contemplated going independent and launching a WordPress.org site to seek better advertising but I think I’m going to hold off on that for now. You will see some more contests – again, powered by your ad money – to thank you for being awesome readers. I hope to relaunch Biopic Theater sometime in January so if you have any requests send them in. You might have noticed the two remake reviews I did for Christmas Eve/Day and if you like the concept of me reviewing modern-day remakes of classic films please let me know. If I get enough feedback I’m considering making that a regular feature. Book reviews and movie reviews should come fast and furiously, although I’m still debating whether I’ll stay at my Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Saturday (Saturday being Biopic Theater) schedule or a daily one.

Stay tuned for the rest of my Year in Review as I count down the 20 Best and Worst Classic Films I watched this year, as well as the Top 20 Most Read Articles. I’ll also be putting in the TCM Top 10 for January during this year. I hope you have an awesome New Year’s and hope you’ll be prepping for another year with Journeys in Classic Film!