ModernPost’s Identity Crisis

No, this is not some crossover event here at ModernPost. Rather, it’s something have been discussing internally, but so far a consensus is still out of reach. So we thought we’d get all democratic about this open it to our readers: Do you think ModernPost needs a new look? Something that has more character and color, or do you think black and white should continue to dominate? Please take a look at the various sample headers below and let us know what you think, using the poll at the end of this post. Feel free to make appropriate comments or offer helpful criticism.

As ModernPost continues to mature, many things will naturally change, and you can be sure we’ll include you in the decision-making process where possible (especially when we can’t make up our minds).

Original

Blocks

Violet

Wallpaper

Water

Wood

“Shut it down; shut it down forever!” The birth of ModernPost

That’s one of my favorite moments in Dark City (back when Alex Proyas was on top of his game). It’s a very simple line of dialogue when viewed out of context, but it marks a major point in the movie when the Strangers think they have found the answer to continuing their posterity, and thus they shut down the massive clock-like machine that they use in their search for life. (I wish writing were as easy as “tuning,” but it isn’t. If you have no idea what I’m mumbling about, you better go watch Dark City. I’m not kidding; go now.)

I wrote my first introductory post here on February 20, 2008, and now after slightly more than a year, the time for change has come; and by change I mean I’m shutting it down.

Why? I realized over the course of the past year that, much as I like “talking movies,” there were times when the proverbial writer’s block had a serious hold on me. I’m not sure if it was depression, anxiety, or spontaneous changes in my frontal lobe, but I’m certain it had to more do with the fact that sometimes I want to talk about things not necessarily movie-related. Yes I know, blogging gurus say we need to have a niche, but what happens when we have something to say that’s out of our niche? We say nothing. It’s a self-perpetuating habit, and I’m already repressed enough in real life. After a while, I suspect I built up for myself a hurdle of mental clutter which slowly led me wonder why I was blogging if movies and home entertainment news were all I could talk about. Someone as uninteresting as that shouldn’t be blogging.

I saw the cure lay in expanding the topics that can be broached on my blog, and I’ve been worked to create a new group blog with writers covering a range of subjects other than movies: music, fashion, design, and technology, and maybe food and travel later (if I can find someone whom I don’t have to pay to eat and travel and write about it). I’m still covering movies of course, and also offering entries on life in general, so you’ll have to put up with my ravings until I can find other willing writers for these topics.

Without further ado, I would like to Moving Pictures officially defunct; and in its place I present to you ModernPost. All previously published posts have been migrated successfully (including comments), so don’t worry if you need to look back in time at some of the silly things I might have said; it’s all there. The list of writers and their profiles will be up shortly, and their entries on the topics mentioned earlier will probably start appearing in a couple weeks’ time. Stay tuned (no pun intended).