Well, folks, you may have noticed that no column went up last week. My excuse for that is that I started a new job recently and have been juggling my writing between home and the office, and somewhere in the course of emailing the document back and forth, it got deleted (not even in my sent mail for some reason). And in the ensuing days, I just haven't had time to completely re-write it.
In fact, I haven't had time for much of anything. I've always tried to be honest when something in my day-to-day life intrudes on moviegasm, so I'm just going to go ahead and say that between the new gig and some outside projects, I just don't have the time to put the thought and care into my columns that I hope you've become accustomed to (if not the proofreading).
So I'm taking a hiatus from moviegasm for a while. Hopefully, I'll come back to it when things settle down again, but in the meantime, I leave you in the capable hands of Damien Belliveau.
Writing this column for the last year and a half has been one of the most creatively satisfying things I've ever done. I think I must drive my friends nuts when we watch movies because, try as I might, I can't help but say things like, 'You know, Clint Eastwood had this script for years before he felt he was ready to make it,' or, 'You know, I met Saul Rubinek once. He directed a movie called Jerry and Tom that had Sam Rockwell in it, but it was supposed to be Matt Damon , only the producers didn't think he had that star quality,'(Yes, I caught the last twenty minutes of Unforgiven on TCM last night).
But here at moviegasm, I could let all those ideas and little tidbits of information flow freely in the form of a thousand parentheticals (which really started to get out of control sometimes) and asides. And just like a good movie, those ideas aren't worth much without someone on the other end of the screen reading them and, in the best cases, responding.
So I just want to give a huge 'thank you' to all the readers and commenters (whether you agreed or disagreed with my humble opinions- I'm looking at you Mayor Vaughn), who, at the very least, serve to remind me that I'm not the only total movie geek in the world.
I'll leave you with one final thought, from Jeff Wells' oft-quoted Hollywood Elsewhere column that I read last week and I think best describes my feelings on the importance of movies: "Movies are not supposed to be pills that you take to feel better. They're not traveling carnivals with elephants and jugglers. They're supposed to be aesthetic journeys and emotional hikes that get us in touch with things that too many of us tend to push away (or anesthetize ourselves from) in our day to day. They're supposed to be compressions and condensations that create indelible moments, insights and excavations into our collective soul.
"We're only here for 80 or 90 years, we need to figure some stuff out before we pass on, and good movies are part of the learning-and-realizing process."
Amen.
Sutter Kane
Comments (2)
NOOOOOOO!!!!!
we're gonna miss you Sutter Kane. You've been the best writer on this whole damn sight in my opinion, and i bet im not alone in thinking that. Hope you see you back at the gasm!
1 of 2 | Posted by travi360 | Posted on March 3, 2008 10:21 PM
Hope to see you back here, SC. I've really enjoyed your moviegasms. Good luck with the day job.
2 of 2 | Posted by JasonR | Posted on March 4, 2008 8:03 AM