Coming Soon...Muriel 5.0

Obviously, I've hit a dry patch here as the calendar has rolled into 2011. Hopefully it's not a sign of things to come, as I'd hoped to revive my writing a little bit this year, not see it continue to wither.

Nevermind that dilemma for now - there is something on the way that's more important than my next post, and that is the 5th Annual Muriel Awards. I had the privilege of voting for these annual online film awards for the 3rd year in a row, despite the fact that I saw oh, maybe less than half the number of movies in 2010 as I typically see, thereby narrowing my personal voting pool to a significant degree. While I did see the heavy hitters and Oscar nominees, I missed most of the under-the-radar indie films and documentaries that always make voting a lot more fun.

Beginning February 16 and running right up until March 6 (the day before the Oscars), the awards in categories such as Best Body of Work and Best Cinematic Moment will be unveiled, once per day, at (I think) the official Muriel blog, Our Science is Too Tight (and hats off to award co-founder Steve Carlson for diligently tallying all of the votes over the next 10 days).

Meanwhile, I hope Craig Kennedy at Living in Cinema will again produce some brilliantly inspired Muriel posters (poignantly this year, as Muriel, award co-founder Paul Clark's guinea pig and the namesake of the ceremonies, passed away in November).

Make sure to tune in, because if nothing else I can almost guarantee that the Muriel winners will be less predictable than the Oscar winners...