23 & Me

As January rounds the corner to its final weeks, I feel the need to provide an update on where things are going. While this is a period usually filled with pageantry and anticipation, I have been taking it easy and haven’t been nearly as prolific as I should. I think it’s because I wanted to take this the calm before the storm to really understand what I want this website to be in 2023. The effort to remain a busybody hasn’t been nearly as front and center as I’d like, but I think it’s allowed me to understand what things should be helping to shape my journey for the 12 months ahead.

I would like to think that it’s this intricate and organized outline of content that runs five articles a week, finding my passion for media drawing in a variety of amazing topics. While I intend those to frequent these pages, the reality is that I can’t promise anything. Like last year, there’s a great chance that I will be coming in fits and starts, producing an amazing run for a few weeks before going dormant. This isn’t from a lack of desire, but sometimes my life is a bit overwhelming. As it stands, I am shaping up to enter my final semester of university as well as beginning to write the first draft of Novel3. The time consuming nature doesn’t escape me, but what I can do is try to find some small moderation to keep the rush alive.

So, what can you expect from me at least in the near future? I believe that I have set up my basic outline of goals for the year already. I am planning to work through several recurring columns that I, unfortunately, neglected for most of 2022 and desire to get back into. If nothing else, they will work as nice escapism from the droll nature of life. The most noteworthy is A24 A-to-Z, which I intend to run twice monthly for as long as reasonably possible. If I start to catch up with modern releases, there is a chance that I will pull back. Similarly, I am a fan of Make It New, which has helped me discover some amazing music. I hope to run it on the weeks that that correlate to A24 A-to-Z, though it will be secondary in terms of priority. 

The third column that greatly interests me is Short Stop. I will confess that when crafting last year’s series on William Faulkner that I had some major road bumps that kept it from having a gradual release. With that said, it was a byproduct of doing a 42 story anthology over 52 weeks. That is why I’m planning to do a much shorter work in order to provide breathing room between entries. I am going to be tackling the 13 story anthology “Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You” by Alice Munro, which I hope makes me a fan of this author I know relatively little about. When completed, I will be shifting my attention to Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Interpreter of Maladies,” which should be expected around June or July. 

Other things that I hope to bring back are occasional Broadway essays on Sundays, including an overdue review of when I saw To Kill a Mockingbird with Richard Thomas. If there’s other significant news around theater, I will share my opinions on them when appropriate. I’m also hoping to return to if not a weekly then bi-weekly release of Best Movie I Saw This Week, which I feel has been one of my most significant chances to explore film in satisfying ways. Other things that I’d love to consider are more emphasis on Playing Favorites and Monday Melodies, but there are no current set plans for that.

I would love to suggest that there are also going to be more personal essays (including my monthly How I Live Now series), but those will come as the inspiration strikes. For now, I am hoping to keep this website a creative outlet for whatever ideas capture my interest. If it goes in an experimental direction, I hope that it at least produces something fulfilling. A lot of my favorite work over the past year came from these articles that aren’t tied to any greater thread of this website. Sometimes I just need to write essays and they end up becoming the ones I am proudest of, realizing that I have an outlet for every crazy idea I have.

With all of this said, I do apologize if the past month has been a bit underwhelming in terms of output. Along with my inability to forge a Top 25 Movies of 2022 series, I regret not having the energy to make a similar series to the Top 25 Discoveries that I did last year. There is always a lot that makes me feel excited by the history of film and my only regret is that I didn’t have time management to get it done in a time frame that felt relevant. I would do it now, but I think we’re shifting from the wrap-up era of January to the anticipatory vision of what this year can be. In all honesty, that’s where my head is at at least. I have a lot planned that could amount to something greater. There’s no use being too nostalgic for long.

More than anything, I felt the need to stop by for a few minutes and provide an update. I don’t believe this month hasn’t been without a few substantial articles, but I also believe that I started things on a bit too much of a mystery. I think it’s important to let you know that while it may not be a return to being prolific, I’m at least hoping to put more attention back onto columns that I neglected for several months and beef up their output. It may not make the website into something greater, but these are the things that initially interested me about The Memory Tourist. Maybe they will provide insight into something new. Maybe I will be going into an exciting new direction as this year progresses. Whatever happens, do know that I am excited to hopefully make this another fulfilling year with even more highlights to look back on. I can’t tell you what that would be, but I promise it’s probably going to be one of a kind.