I try not to look back at too much I’ve written on this site, but because it’s our tenth anniversary I agreed it would be fun to reflect on our less than spectacular moments. If anything writing this post was a learning experience. What was it that Batman’s dad said? Something about how we fall so we can learn to pick ourselves up? Yeah, that’s the stuff. Here are all the times I fell.
P.S. I’m not going to provide links to my posts like Colin did because I’m lazy and tired.
That Time When I Quit the Blog (Twice)
Colin stole my thunder in his post writing about the time I quit the blog. Actually, I quit twice but only once did I make a big stink about it. He said he felt partially responsible for not posting enough. My response is it’s not a big deal, it was just a blog. The fact that I got so upset about a bunch of teenagers not posting on a blogspot page in the first place is ridiculous. Like, who cares?
“John, how can you say ‘Who cares?’ about a site you’ve been doing for ten years?” I love having a place to write about pop culture but at the end of the day, it is just another blog. Who reads it? My friends. It was dumb to get mad at them. People were gonna write when they were ready to write. Literally, nobody else cared about us missing days or not posting enough. It’s not like anyone was missing out on great content either. Who gives two shits about my thoughts on The Cleveland Show? Which means a lot of my early posts had…
So Much Complaining
Looking back at the first couple of years I was surprised how often I would spend entire posts ranting about upcoming movies or TV shows. Here are topics that I bitched about; The Cleveland Show, Jimmy Kimmel, Star Magazine, bad horror movies, the delay of The Wolf Man remake, and the release of The Disaster Movie—though that last one did have one of my favorite titles: “Anything is stupid if you think about it.” I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a strong opinion but the tone of these posts was so… bitchy.
It reminds me that I used to be a far more argumentative and hot-headed person. I still get passionate from time to time but I like to think I’ve mellowed out in the past decade. What made these posts worse is they came off as ignorant and short-sighted–except for my take on The Disaster Movie trailer, that never should have existed.
I remember a top ten list I did in October 2008 where I wrote about the worst horror movies ever made. Aside from the fact that it wasn’t a well-researched list, I wrote with so much piss and vinegar in my voice (literally). Whereas modern-day John keeps the tone light, young John comes out guns a blazing. The post embarrassed me so much that I went back and had to edit what I wrote a handful of years later. One of the dumber statements I made in that post was saying the director of Blair Witch Project 2 had only done documentaries so he had no idea how to tell a story. As if documentarians don’t tell stories.
What’s more embarrassing is that the Blair Witch Project 2 is the only bad movie from a director who has otherwise had an amazing career. That director is, of course, Joe Berlinger, who along with Bruce Sinofsky, directed some of my favorite documentaries of all time including; Brother’s Keeper, Some Kind of Monster, and the Paradise Lost trilogy about the West Memphis Three. I had no clue who or what I was talking about. It certainly didn’t help that…
I was a sloppy writer
I am and always have been a sloppy writer. I think I have good ideas and a voice, but when it comes to spelling and grammar, I’m a Stormtrooper aiming at the broadside of a barn. A big part of it was I wrote lots of content really fast. I mean, when you’re writing that much and writing that fast you’re going to end up writing a lot of shit. Did anyone care about my couple of paragraphs about the Valentine’s Day Massacre or my take on St. Patrick’s Day? Talk about filler. Combine that with poor spelling and formatting and it was like reading a YouTube comment section every day on the front of our site.
I still struggle with proofreading. What can I say, I have a short attention span. Though I do owe a lot to this blog in helping me become a better writer. I’m no Bill Shakespeare but I’ve had moments. Sure, there are things I wish I could change. One of which being…
I was way too excited for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
This is a minor one but I find it hilarious in retrospect. I was so excited for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull that I wrote multiple posts about how I couldn’t wait to see it. The most memorable of the bunch is a list of the “Top 10 Reasons You Should See Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”. Keep in mind it wasn’t out yet. I was championing this movie before I even knew about stuff like nuking the fridge or Shia LaBeouf swinging around vines with monkeys.
The list itself isn’t anything special, though it does have that “me against you” tone that so many of my early posts had. This lead to my number one reason to see the film which I find funny today “If You Don’t, You’re Basically Saying You Hate America.” Ouch. There I was challenging the patriotism of our readers. That feels like a Sean inspired prompt. I’m watching you, buddy. Of course, I kid, it’s all in good fun.
And having this blog or pop culture review site is fun. We’ve had our struggles but it’s been worth it. Hopefully, I won’t have too many regrets about anything I write from here on out (this post included). Thanks for strolling down memory lane with your ‘ol pal Johnny O and remember to rent Kingdom of the Cyrstal Skull at your local iTunes.