Nostalgia Nugget: Looking at 2013

Can you be nostalgic about the past year? Well even if you can’t I had to put this blog somewhere.

With these VR glasses you'll be able to replay
your favorite moments from 2013.

Well 2013 marks the fourth year for this particular blog. I set a few goals for myself and I met most of them. There were a few unexpected surprises as well, so that kept things exciting. I have to say that writing this blog continues to be a great experience and one that I look forward too.

It is great to see my readership expand a bit. I see new followers and see comments from new readers, as well as the folks who followed me over from my older blog. I’ve also expanded my blog reading and have been inspired by these other writers and the movie and anime related topics they are exploring. It is always good to connect with folks, even if we don’t always agree about the specifics, we can enjoy good commentary.

One of the new features of this blog are the Score Sample and Anime Jukebox posts. My love of film and anime music has been something I usually end up mentioning in my movie reviews, and You Tube allows me to share some of my favorites with everyone. It gives me the opportunity to write a bit about the film, composer or anime series the music comes from. These short posts make great supplements to my Movie Music Musings. I finished up my exploration of my Favorite Composers this year with posts on Michael Giacchino and Jerry Goldsmith. Expect more music related posts next year, including an examination of some of my favorite film scores in the similar style that I tackled Star Trek: The Motion Picture earlier this year.

Another new feature on this blog is the Top Ten list. You call all blame John Kenneth Muir for that. He started a fun reader top ten feature on his blog. I figured since I was spending time writing up these top ten lists, I might as well post the movie related ones here too. I also posted a couple of top ten lists that were exclusive to my blog. I’ll continue this feature and will be participating in Mr. Muirs future polls as well.

The movie "Avalon" is in my future, but will I
be able to make heads or tails of it.

2013 also saw me embracing my fandom for anime, focusing mostly on nostalgic favorites like Gunsmith Cats, Akira, Ninja Scroll and Boogiepop Phantom. Because of all these anime posts, I created a new section for them, the Anime Archive. I included links to my anime related reviews that I wrote for DVD Verdict, for those looking for reviews of anime that were actually shown in this millennium. I wrapped up my coverage of the work of Satoshi Kon with Paprika as well as his short film Good Morning. The next director I’ll be diving into in 2014 is Mamoru Oshii, of Ghost in the Shell fame. I’ll be looking at a selection of his work include some of his live action films (as long as they stay available for streaming on Netflix and Hulu).

I’m going to continue my coverage of the James Bond series, starting in early summer. I wrapped up work by Dalton, Brosnan and Craig this year, but I’ll revisit some of my older reviews and polish them up a bit. We still have quite a few Connery and Moore films to review as well as the odd man out: Mr. Lazenby.

I think I'll have to tackle a few more Gamera episodes
this year.

You’ll also get another set of Mystery Science Theater 3000 reviews. I tried to write a review a month last year, corresponding my monthly coverage with the season – January was season 1, February was Season 2 and so on. November will be turkey month again, so you can expect a whole set of new and revised MST3K goodness. I’ll also continue my tradition of reviewing horror films in October.

In between I’m pondering tackling a series of films, not sure which series or topic I’ll pick yet. I’ve got a few likely candidates including classic gangster/crime flicks, Star Trek films, virtual reality flicks of the 1990s or even 1980s fantasy films. We’ll see where I end up, and if you have any suggestions feel free to send them my way.

My goal for 2013 was to write at least 8 blog posts a month, and I succeeded. Some of them were revisits of older entries (usually with better editing and more images), but they still count as part of the overall goal. I’m shooting to meet that same goal again (maybe hit 100 posts for the year). So if you have anything you’d like me to write about or if you are curious about a topic I already covered, feel free to contact me. I’m certainly looking forward to 2014 and all the blog writing and reading in my future.