An Open Letter From The Oscar Buzz

Scene from Rain Man

Hello everyone and welcome to 2019! I hope that you have been enjoying yourselves as you get acquainted with the new traditions of a new year. More than any other year, I felt it was important to share with you a simple truth: The Oscar Buzz is going once again through some changes. As much as I've tried to do everything that I've enjoyed about the website, I've found it often difficult to meet my many deadlines when paired with my personal life, which was especially hectic in 2018. The good news is that I'm not going away. However, there's going to be a readjustment of sorts that will impact the output. I apologize for this change, but it's maybe necessary to maintain quality work while I move ahead in other things. What's changing? Read on to find out.

I think that one of the most notable issues lately with the website is that certain columns haven't been updating regularly. For starters, the weekly entry Theory Thursday has remained largely dormant in the latter half of the year. I'll admit that it shouldn't have been, but I've found it difficult to make one original opinion piece on a regular basis. It isn't because I'm out of ideas, but my personal schedule has been especially taxing on Thursdays and thus I don't have time to produce content that I feel is applicable to the subject. Unfortunately, this means that the column is currently being retired with a potential opportunity for resurrection if my schedule permits. It saddens me because I do believe that it's produced some of my more interesting work. I do hope that in its place I'll be more open to writing opinion pieces that are not relegated to Thursday afternoons. Again, it's difficult but I'll try to make it work. The Oscar nominations are coming up, and I'll definitely have a lot to say.

Speaking of nominations, they're coming up on January 22. There will as usual be full coverage of the nominees as well as any additional commentary that I care to add. The one thing that will be for sure is that I intend to resurrect my Composing Greatness column and cover the five nominated scores. I recently completed my Thomas Newman series (which went great), and I plan to have a new series sometime after Oscar season ends. For now, look forward to five entries with a release schedule that will be announced at a later date. Following the conclusion of the ceremony, I will also bring back Best Song to cover the Best Original Song nominees in detail. There's a lot to cover, and I intend to be more faithful in the month leading up to the ceremony.

Beyond that, Legitimate Theater will continue to be released every third Wednesday of the month under the same guidelines. However, I do intend to also release a bonus entry on Groundhog Day for the musical of the same name. I am also going to be moving around things in regards to A24 A-to-Z, which has been one of my bundles of joys over the past few years. Where I've been able to keep up somewhat with a column every 10 days, I ran into several hurdles late in the year that gave me an unfortunate backlog. Because of this, I am moving the release schedule from every 10 days to every 20. For example, The Disaster Artist will still be released under the old schedule this week, but the next film (The Ballad of Lefty Brown) will not come out for another 20 days. I hope you understand. On related note, Failed Oscar Campaigns is still being released every other week and is scheduled to be up this Saturday.

Beyond that, I hope to keep everything up and running as usual. I apologize for any of the inconveniences, but I do feel bad for not being as astute as I should be. I'm currently also working at getting a review up for The Favourite sometime today. However, if you want to see what I'm up to, please go over to Optigrab and explore my many other projects. This will include a monthly series exploring the best of the decade (2010-2019) as well as a new series coming on the music of Tom Waits. I have a lot going on, even if it isn't all present here. I hope you enjoy my work and that we can continue to do quality work this year. Thank you for your understanding, and you'll be hearing from me soon.