Catch up with the idea behind this series here.
2010 was my first full calendar year of blogging, and I sure have enjoyed every post of it. However, there were those that I enjoyed a little bit more than the rest. Here were my highlights of 2010 (in no particular order):
Milestones
1,000+ comments and 20,000+ views
I find plenty of satisfaction in just the craft of writing; I don’t really need quantifiable markers of success to bring me happiness. But I will admit, it sure is nice to look at my dashboard in the morning and see an extra digit in the comments/views. These were both reached in July, and I’m happy to say that since then, this blog has logged a cumulative total of 1,740 comments and 34,500 views to date. So thanks for visiting and commenting … don’t be afraid to do it some more!
I’ve been logging a factoid every day since day (1). When I started to blog, I was in a pretty major “(500) Days of Summer” phase, so I decided then that I would have to watch the movie on my (500)th day of blogging. So, needless to say, I was very happy to have my celebration (500) days in the making.
Hard to believe I’ve been blogging so long that I’ve logged 1,000 posts. Factoids help, but I had 489 “serious” posts too. That’s a whole lot of keyboarding.
Honors
… and twice, nonetheless! Thanks to all the voters of the LAMB who think I could cut it as a casting director in Hollywood! It sure made me beam to win – and then to pick the subsequent movie to be recast.
Events
I got a little excited for the releases of “Inception” and “The Social Network” – so much so that I spent the entire week before revisiting and reviewing all the directors, Nolan and Fincher, respectively, and their past works. The result was a renewed appreciation for their movies and an enhanced perspective when seeing their latest movies. It worked so well that now I just have to plan ahead my weeks for 2011.
The event that scared most of you all away because it looked like chapters of a book, largely because they were, was one of the most personally rewarding experiences for me this year. Looking back on a year’s worth of blogging by reading “Julie & Julia,” the book that inspired the movie that inspired this blog, led to some pretty interesting insights. If you have some time on your hands this holiday season, why not go revisit the series?
The project that brought a little corner of the movie blogosphere together may rank among my proudest achievements this year. I loved seeing the community come together to answer a few simple questions about what got us started blogging and what keeps us going. Everyone gave such interesting and unique answers, and I was always fascinated by what I posted each day for a month. It’s still worth a read – go seek out your favorite blogger in the project’s annals!
New Features
When it comes to stirring up good discussion, it’s hard to beat something that goes totally against popular opinion. Writing a review that goes along with every point that all the critics make does little to engage readers. The “Save Yourself” pieces I wrote this year got some of the best discussion on this site. People either rallied behind my hatred, saying they felt oppressed in feeling the same way, or went crazy in defense of the movie they loved. I didn’t care who thought what; I was just happy to have them comment!
I sometimes doubted my own cinematic expertise, being so poorly versed in classic cinema. So, with the establishment of the “Classics Corner” series, I renewed my commitment to being a better cinephile by requiring myself to watch at least one classic movie a month. So far, I’ve seen some very interesting ones, and they’ve illuminated fascinating things about what I watch now.
I took a big step this year and created a Facebook fan page for my blog! I’ve been experimenting with various ways to make it work, although I will admit that all these attempts have been pretty half-hearted. The building blocks are there from 2010, but in 2011, I intend to build mountains.
Marshall and the Movies 
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