An Open Letter From the Oscar Buzz

Scene from Gigi

While I hope that it hasn't been too apparent to my audience here, I want to make something clear. Those who have noticed my lack of productivity will not be wrong. Following an eventful Spring that saw me graduate from college, I thought that I would have more free time to regularly update my website with information that would be relevant. On one hand, this remains true. I'm still producing work on a weekly basis. However, in a time where dozens of trailers seem to be dropping for potential Oscar movies, I am sometimes a day late or even worse. But why is that? Well, I have some unfortunate news for those who have come to expect me to meet my deadlines. I'm having time scheduling issues that will impact the immediate future. 

To calm the nerves of those who think that this is the end of the Oscar Buzz, I am thankfully not going anywhere. In fact, this is one of my favorite places to be. I love talking about all things movies and plan to keep it going so long as there are Best Picture winners to cover and A24 films to explore. I love expanding The Oscar Buzz into its current form, but it's come at a cost. Columns such as Birthday Take and Theory Thursday have disappeared due to scheduling conflicts. While I'm not dropping anything necessarily, I am going to admit that the next month or so of my output will be rocky, and maybe even have some late deadlines.

This is because of private matters. My family is currently in the midst of a major transition in their life. Due to unexpected circumstances, they are moving and require my assistance in getting everything in and out of storage. While this doesn't consume my life 24/7, I recognize that this eats up time for my lengthier projects, including Composing Greatness, Legitimate Theater, and A24 A-to-Z. While I promise to try and write these columns with some frequency, my family takes certain precedence over my writing, and that means that deadlines will be missed and, in some cases, may even be delayed.

So, what specifically am I talking about? The most noteworthy delay will be the one that has been noticed in recent weeks. Composing Greatness will be on hiatus until potentially the end of August, or maybe early September. I will continue the James Horner series, which I have enjoyed dearly, and cover A Beautiful Mind. It's sad that I had to stop before what I think is one of his most interesting scores, but I don't have the 90 minutes necessary to produce a quality version of the column, let alone to cover the remaining entries. While I don't expect Legitimate Theater to disappear, I warn you that if it's not around during the third week of August, it's likely due to my scheduling conflicts. Meanwhile, A24 A-to-Z will suffer a similar fate. I'm thankfully in a stretch of films that I have seen, so additional research isn't going to be near as time-consuming. 

I still hope to post reviews and trailer discussion as they become available. However, my timeliness may be difficult to maintain. This is a conflict that is also impacting my other blog, Optigrab, whose columns are even further behind due to their time-consuming nature. Even then, I intend to work ahead where I can to make sure things get to where they need to go. I love writing and this centers me. It helps me to find an audience that cares about film discussion and will hopefully understand my predicament.

In short, The Oscar Buzz is in an odd state right now, and I apologize for having one of the rockiest years of my life. I try to stay on top of things. I honestly do. However, I notice that family comes first, and reviewing the trailer for the new Sam Mendes film is something that won't impact my next week of life. I have to pick my battles. Things should hopefully calm down by the Fall season when I do my seventh-anniversary piece as well as additional Oscar season coverage. I will also fit in Nothing But the Best entries for The Shape of Water and Green Book at some point. I hope that it will be back to normal. For now, I apologize for any inconvenience this has for you. I will still be around. Ideally, my absence won't be too noticeable. But I can't guarantee things. I just needed to come forward after Composing Greatness missed two different deadlines. Things aren't ending, but they will be temporarily shuffled for the time being. I'm sorry, and I hope you understand. 

If you are at all interested, I am also a fiction writer. I recently published my first novel in paperback called "Apples & Chainsaws." It's currently available on Amazon for $14, as well as in individual sections for cheaper if that suits your budget. Part One and Part Two are available for $7 each individually, and Part Three is currently $4. There are also plans to release an e-book formatted version sometime in August, with Part One scheduled to drop next week. I hope that you enjoy it.