Our critics speak!

I wasn't expecting a huge cascade of accolades when I signed on to start this new blog. After all, for a newspaper to launch a blog in an era when it's become something of a sport to dismiss newspapers as creaky, irrelevant and in financial free-fall, is almost like turning around, pushing your tush up in the air and saying, "Go ahead -- kick me!" The early reviews are in and, as they say in show biz, they are mixed. But I figured if I'm going to shoot off my mouth, I oughta be able to take a few punches in return.

Mediabistro was especially nice, wishing us luck and calling The Big Picture "one of our favorite columns at the paper." They also asked me a bunch of questions, including whether I planned to shower and dress before working, which I guess comes with the territory. The New York Observer has a piece up today that's very even-handed, offering both plaudits and brickbats, but always quoting me accurately. I suspect they were hoping to stir up a fight between me and Deadline Hollywood Daily's own Nikki Finke, but alas, neither of us took the bait. Nikki even said I was "one of the nicest people I've ever met," though being Nikki, she felt compelled to add, "That's my problem with it. He's way too nice," believing I'll need more of an edge to compete online.

The worst notices came from Movie City News' David Poland, who seems to spend most of his waking hours ridiculing the LA Times (and myself) as old-media dinosaurs. So it was hardly a surprise that he didn't have anything positive to say, dismissing my column as being "lunchified, arrogant and meaningless to anyone who isn't one of his potential victims/subjects." Apparently he is outraged that an entertainment reporter would regularly have lunch with agents, managers, producers and studio executives as a way of digging up good stories. (I guess David's own "Lunch With David," where he has lunch with actors and filmmakers somehow doesn't count.) He says they rarely have anything to say that is anything but "self-serving." David, here's a tip: Those self-serving insiders are a lot smarter than you think. Spend a little more time with them. Who knows -- maybe some of their brain power might rub off on you!

Comments

[Paul William Tenny]

I really don't know why anyone cares. It's not like there aren't hundreds if not thousands of new blogs launched every day. Blog networks, professional media outlets, regular people on free hosted services; everybody has something to say. I'd rather see more papers transform into blog networks the way Wired has over the past year, as the LA Times seems to be embracing, because that's more about focusing the talent you've already got into a format that people can better digest.

Anyway, my advice would be to keep doing what you were doing before. You know how to write, don't think that a blog is going to change that. It's still a blank page that needs filling and readers that need something to read. I'll put you in the feed reader for a while and see what you produce.

Best of luck.

[TNTN]

I'm trying to work with you here, D - visiting every day but you are going to have to post more and stick with your strengths. Leave the gossip, endless "please refresh" posts and self-serving "toldjahs" to DHD. She, even more than the studio execs she constantly criticizes, feeds on the creative community. With turmoil in the movie community her page views and notoriety plummet. Also, please, please learn that in most cases me is the correct choice rather than myself.

Stick with it.

[David Poland]

"Patrick is a smart guy. He is, most often, a good guy."

"I really, really hope that he rises to this occasion and becomes not only a good blogger, but a special blogger."

"I don’t think Patrick is going to go all Crazy Nikki on us and start attacking everyone he can in a desperate attempt to get attention. But if he is honest and direct, he can offer a really clear view from where he sits… a view no one else on the web has really offered."

"Patrick has the chance to be something greater. Patrick has the chance… not to take down the agencies and studios… but to offer us their voices with some clarity and then to offer us perspective on those voices coming out of his experience."

You know... you make it hard for a guy saying a lot of nice words about you and the potential of this blog to feel good about it. Your "didn't have anything positive to say" is a show of how thin skinned you are and how you seem to focus only on the criticisms I have of you.

And "Lunch With David" never claims to be anything more than a feature-like discussion with talent. I've never suggested that the videos are meant to be investagative journalism... just an opportunity to spend a little more time in a little more depth than pretty much anywhere else... and it's probably not a coincidence that LAT has copied the format in shorter strokes.

I do wish you the best, Patrick. And I do hope your blog is the best of the all or certainly on the top of the heap. After years of you attacking the whole idea of blogging, you surely have some adjusting to do. But it may well bring out the best in you. And like so many other talented people at LAT, I suspect that this would be a great thing indeed.

[TNTN]

Great to see that you are posting more often. Love that DP had a comment to make about your post - that's what keeps the blogosphere humming.

Also, after wagiging my finger in your face about using "myself" instead of "me", I lost the whole meaning of one of my sentences by writing "with" when I meant "without" but what's the blogosphere for if not do-overs?