Nostalgia Nugget: Looking at 2014

Feeling nostalgic or just a bit confused? Maybe both.

Are you ready for a nostalgic look back at 2014? Is that even possible? Of course not, but I felt like doing a recap of the year and Nostalgia Nugget seemed like a great place to put it. So lets begin with my big goal. I wanted to hit 100 posts for the year. It seemed possible especially considering I nearly hit it last year. Well, I did it. Not bad for a guy with a day job and who spends way too much time watching movies. 2015 is going to be a bit lighter, I’m going to start working on my fiction writing this year, and that means the movie blog will be closer to 2012 numbers.

I tried to provide a nice spread of mini reviews and full-length reviews this year. Each month featured at least one of each, and in most cases you got two minis and one full-length review. The big exception was October. I went all mini-reviews for the horror flicks. But that balanced out with November where I packed in four MST3K reviews (full length) and a top ten list.

Hey, the MCP kinda looks like the Kool-Aid
Man from this angle!

It was a bit tricky determining when I wanted to write a full-length review versus a mini. In some cases it was just a whim, like when I wrote about Tron, which was not planned as a review at all. My review of Zeffirelli’s Hamlet also came out of nowhere, but after viewing it, I felt the need to defend the film a bit (since I see reviewers coming down kinda hard on it).

Most of the time, I had a readymade source for full-length reviews. I ran two series in 2014 and I covered them both pretty well.

I don't think the Connery fans are going
to like my review.

First up was my continued exploration of the James Bond series. I revisited a couple reviews giving them better content and more images: Goldeneye and Casino Royale. But I also offered reviews of three of my favorite James Bond films: Thunderball, The Spy WhoLoved Me and On Her Majesty’s SecretService. In 2015 I may be able to finish off the Bond reviews, but we’ll see. We’re heading into some really poor ones. Not sure if could handle a back-to-back viewing of Diamonds are Forever and Octopussy, but we’ll see.

Previously I explored the work of Japanese animator Satoshi Kon, and had a lot of fun delving into his films and television series. In 2014 I attempted something similar for Mamoru Oshii. I covered his work on UruseiYatsura, Patlabor OAVs, Ghost in the Shell: Innocence and Avalon. I had already tackled his films Ghost in the Shell and Jin-Roh back in 2013. But I wasn’t able to review a few other items he’s worked on such as Sky Crawlers, Assault Girls and the Patlabor movies. Being a fan of Oshii, I’ll make sure to give them a go, if and when I can get my hands on them.

Eagerly awaiting my review of Spirited Away.

In 2015 I’m going to switch gears and go with Hayao Miyazaki. This will be a real treat, because I haven’t revisited some of his films in a number of years, and I’ll be able to go into more detail on some of my favorites that I keep mentioning (Spirited Away I’m looking at you).

When it came to Mystery Science Theater 3000 I had two goals. To provide at least one review a month and to tackle at least one per season. I almost made it, but was unable to update a Season Ten episode (I covered nearly all the season ten episodes back in 2010). But I did tackle each and every single Gamera episode the crew watched. That was quite a bit of fun to write about, even if some of the episodes meandered more than I remembered. It was certainly less of a chore than my insane attempt to watch and review all three Coleman Francis films back in 2013. For 2015, I’m thinking of tackling the three Russian fantasy films for November.

I had some fun with top ten lists in 2014. The James Bond Pre-CreditSequences was a spontaneous one and was a lot of fun to put together. I also enjoyed putting together a list of TheStrangest Movies Watched on Mystery Science Theater 3000. The toughest one was probably my top ten Favorite Anime. I'm still not sure I'm happy with all my picks. Maybe I'll revisit that one next year.

Not nearly enough Jerry Goldsmith related blogs
on this site. I will rectify that.

A couple lists focused on film music (from the 1980s and electronic specifically). But I also wrote a bit on the subject of film music in my Movie Music Musings. I shared the amazing work of Charles Gerhardt and his work on classic film scores. After writing that blog post, I picked up his album covering the work of Franz Waxman, and it was excellent. If you are interested in classic film music, seek out Gerhardt’s rerecordings. They are a perfect place to start. I delved into the complete Matrix Soundtrack Trilogy. I also focused on specific scores to specific films including: 2001: A Space Odyessey, TotalRecall and On Her Majesty’s SecretService. I also kept sharing my favorite tracks with the Score Samples and Anime Jukebox posts.

Blogging on the brain? I've
been there.

Not too many Nostalgia Nuggets this year. But I did share my experiences with James Bond and Planet of the Apes. I also participated in a fun October Blog-a-thon that featured cosmic horror. These posts tend to be spontaneous so I can’t predict when they’ll pop up.

So all in all it was a fun year of watching and writing about movies. I hope you enjoyed taking the ride with me. As usual, feel free to send me suggestions on topics, movies or anything else you want me to write about or explore. 2015 may be a lighter year for this blog, but that won’t stop me from having some fun with it.

Finally, thanks to everyone for reading and commenting. Even if we don’t always agree on some of the posts, I appreciate the fact that you are reading my random musings about the film, animation and music.

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.