MADness—the Blog

‘Tis the season for Top 10 lists.  Okay, that was really a week or two ago, but these aren’t lists of movies, anyway.  They’re lists of what you might find (or not) at the MAD About Movies site.  (Partly this is for you, and partly for me.  I’m new to this and no doubt will need a few reminders.)

The Top 10 “Yes” List
(i.e., what to expect)

1. Discussion about movies — you already knew that one
2. Discussion about good movies — “good” is a judgment call, of course, but my point is that there’s plenty of good stuff and no need to spend a whole lot of time on dreck
3. Informative themes — I’d like to think you’ll have a chance to learn a few things; I expect to, too
4. Fun themes — I’ll do what I can and you can be the judge
5. Contests — on occasion, there will be movie-themed puzzles and an opportunity to win prizes
6. Puzzles — on occasion, there will be other puzzles;  I expect this to be a sidelight to the main focus here, but I’m sure it will be of interest to some of you
7. 40 to 50 weeks a year of Movie Minute posts – yes, that is fewer than the number of weeks in a year, which means that some weeks I’ll be busy, or some weeks I’ll be away, or some weeks the dog ate my homework; this may seem rather un-American of me (“the nerve–he took a vacation!”), but I look at #7 as my “sanity clause“
8. My opinions – for better or worse, that’s what you can expect
9. Your opinions — whatever you may think of #8, you’re invited to share yours
10. My opinion to change about some of the items on these lists — my ideas have already changed a lot in the last week or two, and I’m just getting started; I expect the site will evolve, but it’s too early to say how

The Top 10 “No” List
(i.e., what not to expect)

1. Discussion about things that are not movies (e.g., TV) – just to state the obvious:  the Movie Minutes section will be about movies; the blog will be mostly about movies but has room for anything else
2. Discussion about bad movies — though some movies are bad in ways that may be hard to resist
3. Boring stuff — you can be the judge
4. Movie reviews — there are great places for movie reviews (see the sidebar), but I don’t expect this will be one of them;  for one thing, I don’t see every new movie when it opens (I’m still catching up on late-’09 films), so reviews would not be especially timely, and I’d rather not be tied to the studio release schedules anyway (a very good thing certain times of the year); liberated from the tyranny of the new, that should give us more time to focus on #2 on the list above
5. Any of the following phrases — “the must-see movie of the summer”; “the genius of Michael Bay”; “I’m surprised I didn’t like it–Larry King said it was ‘worth seeing over and over again’”
6. Celebrity gossip — zero interest in that
7. Weekly box office results — marginally more than zero interest in that, but not a lot
8. Advice on web design — I’m a newbie who just learned a few weeks ago how to spell CSS; I’m just glad to get the site up on time, and right now I’m hoping not to break anything
9. My top 10 films of 2009 — I have trouble making a list like this (it’ll change one day to the next), plus I still have a few things to see
10. [This spot reserved for future use]