Changes Coming to the Blog

My wife is pregnant, and her due date is August 10^th, which means that any day now, I will become a father. I couldn’t be happier or more excited about this new phase in my life, and yet, it does mean that changes to the blog will be necessary. Currently, I try to see as many movies as possible in theaters on opening weekend. This will certainly change. I still plan to see as many as I can in the theaters – but it will undeniably decrease quite a bit. The current plan is that once in a while, I’ll sneak out for a late show after mother and baby have gone to sleep (and in turn, I will gladly stay at home on other nights so my wife can go out for a few hours and do whatever she wants). And once in a while, perhaps we’ll drop the baby off with a grandparent (Hi Mom!) and go see a movie together. Of course, this is a plan, and children have a way of spoiling those, so who the hell knows what will happen.

I can assure you, I am not giving up my blog. The Greatest Movies I Have Never Seen Before series should continue – I have weeks worth of reviews banked already – but in terms of reviews of new movies, many will have to wait for a DVD release. I will still do a top ten list at the end of 2011, but it will undoubtedly be revised in April/May when all the year movies have come to DVD. Also, instead of taking a week off and seeing 30+ plus movies at the annual Toronto Film Festival, I’m only going for a day or two, and will see around 6 or 7. I thank my wife for giving me that much.

I consider all of this to be a fairly small sacrifice for the sake of my child – who we are told is a girl, and who we are planning to name Natalie (not after Portman, but it certainly didn’t hurt that we are both Portman fans). But I wanted to share with my readers – few as they may be – that changes to the blog are coming, so you don’t wonder why I have stopped reviewing as many new movies. No, I have not become cynical, or think, as some do, that the medium is dying. I just won’t have the same time I once did. So, if you see reviews of The Help and 30 Minutes or Less next week, you’ll know that the baby hasn’t been born yet. But if you don’t, you’ll also know the reason.