Cinematical, the site I co-founded and used to edit, made it on to Vanity Fair’s Blogopticon thingy, which is basically a ripoff of NY Mag’s Approval Matrix, but just for blogs. It is surely an honor just to be, uh, blogopted? But If I were still at the helm, I’d probably be miffed that Cinematical got a such a milquetoast slot––just barely more news than opinion, just barely more scurrilous than earnest. There was a kind of shaggy illegitimacy to that site three years ago that has long since been smoothed out by its adoptive corporate parents. Which is probably why it now gets picked for things like this.
At the time, I desperately struggled, both longing for such legitimacy, and really believing it was better to be sloppy and lacking in access but totally honest about my own biases and perspective. I’ve ended up sticking with the latter, for better or for worse. It’s better for me on a day-to-day basis, if maybe worse in the careerist long run. But I can’t help but feel this strange pang when I see something like this. The baby that I nursed grew up into something that I don’t always recognize.
UPDATE: Only worth noting because the mouse-overs link the two sites: Slashfilm was started by someone who was fired from Cinematical for plagiarism. Also: you no longer have to pay to access Variety, although it is true that when Cinematical started, we got a lot of easy traffic from regurgitating stories from behind the pay wall.
