The Third Annual Report of Plutonium Shores

I'm normally not one to mark birthdays and anniversaries, or swoon over post-counts and hit-numbers, but this blog has reached the third year of activity today and I'm in a contemplative mood. No one is more surprised about this than me - there was never any plan, long term or otherwise when I set it up on that Saturday afternoon, Valentine's Day 2009, most likely it was something to kill a few minutes while some music was downloading in the background. But after I put out my first experimental post (a rough n' ready piece on Stephen King's Dark Tower saga), I liked the look of it and more followed...

The first header, a shot of Catherine Deneuve wearing a nightdress and a switchblade, from Repulsion. Featuring the mission statement - "Some words about films, music, books and other good stuff..." Honestly, that was the plan

Originally, the blog was intended as a sort of blogger's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, an ever shifting patchwork of personal interests and obsessions - Cinema, music, art, literature, astronomy, the music of Throbbing Gristle, the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, and the lives of counter culture figures like Aleister Crowley and Charles Manson. Pretty soon though, it was apparent that the focus had narrowed and I was concentrating all my writing on films. Occasionally, anomalies slipped through like a post about a John Cage album, which I later removed because it looked so weird sitting there sandwiched between a bunch of exploitation films - somehow I had moved into the ghetto of Cult Cinema writing, and now that my blog was made I had to sleep in it...

The second and third header - both landscape shots, the second a Caspar David Friedrich. Both short lived. "Some words about films, music, books and other good stuff..." but where was the music, and other good stuff ?

I often say that blogging is hard work, and for me it really is. When I put a post together, it's never an easy process, the thing gets bashed out and kicked around, chopped and changed endlessly before it goes out. I'm not a professional writer by any means, and it shows, but I think anyone who can stitch a few words together can communicate an idea or an opinion. No one should have to have a qualification to write. Having said that, I always cringe when I chance upon a vintage post of mine and I'm a little bit like Woody Allen in the sense that I never go back and watch my old movies. But I do remain proud of some things - the trainspotter's guide to the Apocalyspse Now Workprint, and a Watchdog style bit of detective work on some missing subtitles on DVD editions of Tarkovsky's Mirror. I think the 39 strong Video Nasties review series I ran was pretty good too. If I had to name two major influences on my writing, it would the brilliant UK film fanzine Shock Xpress, and Nathaniel Thompson, whose film reviews over at Mondo Digital are the best on the Internet.

The fourth header, featuring a shot of the demon mask from Onibaba. Finally a revised mission statement, "Going steady, deeper into Movies", shamelessly stolen from Pauline Kael

Aside from the creative kick I get from blogging, the long terms friends I made through these pages is the most satisfying thing about doing this blog - Aylmer, Jeremy, Jesper, Jon, Martin, Phil, the hardcore faithful who have kept up with me over the years. Thanks guys to each of you. (Your commentary always means a lot to me, but where are the girls?). Special mention also for the ever faithful Japanese porn site that's been spamming me with their links since I began. I promise one of the days I will post a link to their website where you can check out their bukkake and enema vids if you're that way inclined. When I started the blog I was so clueless - the blog was running well into a year before I discovered the Followers gadget. Also the name I chose for the blog has been a bit of a curse for me. The name was decided in the space of a minute during the blog set up (really it's one of those things you should sleep on), and came from a misquoted line in Edgar Allen Poe's poem The Raven, "Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore" - I was sure no one would have made the same mistake (the damn thing is tricky to spell as well!) but now it seems there's a bunch of Plutonium Shores out there - so if you landed on this page expecting to see something about an investment advisory company from Milwaukee, you best go back to Google. We only deal in films here, mister...