{"id":623,"date":"2009-03-01T23:52:47","date_gmt":"2009-03-02T05:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/?p=623"},"modified":"2014-09-06T14:57:45","modified_gmt":"2014-09-06T20:57:45","slug":"in-my-backyard-year-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/?p=623","title":{"rendered":"In My Backyard: Year 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sitting here in the Secret MICRO-FILM Headquarters<\/strong>, weathering the remainder of a pervasive cold as March makes its frosty debut, I feel like time has stood still. It is quiet … too<\/em> quiet … as I consider what I want to tell you about the immediate future of C-U Blogfidential<\/strong>, the only Web site dedicated to filmmaking and movie viewing in downstate Illinois. And, maybe, that’s the problem.<\/p>\n

Year 3 of CUBlog<\/strong> was solid but unremarkable. We kept the gears a<\/em>-turnin’ and the creative juices a<\/em>-flowin’ to produce the quality material you would expect from us, but we gained very little ground when it came to additions and improvements. It’s an unfortunate result since MICRO-FILM<\/strong> activity\u00a0stalled about one full year ago, when we blamed MF<\/strong> tongue-in-cheek-like for hampering our efforts at this site<\/a>. Theoretically, more time should<\/em> have meant more goals met.<\/p>\n

By the same token, with MICRO-FILM<\/strong> returning for a limited time starting this fall for its 10th anniversary<\/strong>, the work pipeline will once again become clogged. This may commence as early as the spring once C-U Confidential<\/strong> no. 3 and Roger Ebert’s Film Festival<\/strong> have come and gone, so I want to appeal to all the friends and readers of CUBlog<\/strong> to consider lending a hand whenever possible <\/a>to smooth out the hiccups we’ll otherwise be forced to navigate.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Several movements simply did not take place during Year 3, including the drafting of Archive Materials<\/strong>, introduction of Design Upgrades <\/strong>apart from the new logo banner, and the publishing of Promotional DVDs<\/strong>. On the plus side, we finally broke through one particular plateau with the posting of Anthony Zoubek<\/strong>‘s take on last year’s “Ebertfest<\/strong>,” making it the first original CUBlog<\/strong> content not written by your humble editor. We certainly need to find other valuable wordsmiths like Mr. Zoubek to help expand the breadth of what we do; contact us immediately if you’re game<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Mixed bag” is the best terminology to describe our other doings throughout Year 3. We published C-U Confidential<\/strong> no.2 last April on schedule, but it did not receive the push that it deserved. We started issuing our e-newsletter, The CineMicroGraph<\/strong> (formerly the C-U Confidential Telegraph<\/strong>), on a monthly basis in the fall but have not been able to increase the number of subscribers. We also attempted one “promo\/zine,” also called The CineMicroGraph<\/strong>,\u00a0that garnered no response from the public even though we’re going to give it a second go come March 10<\/strong>.\u00a0We happily sponsored the first IMC Film Festival<\/strong> last month, and would like to involve our support and presence in more events as\u00a0time goes on.<\/p>\n

The list of projected improvements and additions is bound to look rather similar to what I posited 12 months ago:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n