Best. CUBlog. Posts. EVER. Pt.1
Apparently we’re not quite willing to leave well enough alone even though it’s to your benefit, dearest readers! While developing the special full-color insert that will appear in the next issue of C-U Confidential digest, celebrating the 5th anniversary of this very forum, we hit upon the idea of presenting favorite links to our past. We’ve chosen five to fete in the insert, which will debut as a stand-alone freebie exclusively at the Art Theater in downtown Champaign on Friday, April 8, during the next New Art Film Festival. We’ve also selected other items that we’d love to share with you on C-U Blogfidential, starting right now!
For the next six weeks, we will post weekly groupings of five key posts from our first five years and tell you a little bit about why we chose the ones we did. Feel free to click away and read what has gone before; leave Comments below about those stories or your own favorite CUBlog entries. Enjoy!
~ Jason Pankoke
Select C-U Blogfidential Stories, 2006-2011
Part 1 of 6
“Snickers spot pockets $5,000,” 1/22/10 – We’re always happy to see the C-U movie brethren succeed and tickled pink when they do so outside of comfort zones. A small group produced and entered mock Snickers candy bar commercials for a challenge offered by crowd source Web site PopTent.net; they obviously scored big. We shout out to Joe Taylor, Bill Kephart, and crew for digging in!
“Sked for IMC Film Fest available,” 2/6/09 – With the second NAFF on the horizon, we remember how this indie/anarchist film event hosted by the Independent Media Center in Urbana stoked our fire, especially since we had a hand in putting on the show. We shout out to IMCFF originators Nicole Pion and Katy Vizdal, whose passion, instincts, and warmth made collaboration a joy.
“Hef gives money to USC, not UIUC,” 11/20/07 – During a roughly two-year period, many developments simply got our goat for some reason or another; this insubstantial complaint at least gave us a good excuse to rail against our friendly neighborhood U. for not making a substantial attempt to offer film production studies. We shout out to Hugh Hefner for putting his money where his mouth is for art’s sake.
“‘Scary’ reprint is Sven-tastic!” 5/27/07 – More than most, this entry provides a little perspective as to your humble editor’s genre specific sensibilities prior to launching MICRO-FILM and then CUBlog, through which he broadened his tastes a hundredfold. We shout out to inspiration Dennis Druktenis who has been self-publishing Scary Monsters magazine for nearly 20 years in northern Illinois!
“Where art thou, NORMAL LIFE?” 8/11/06 – At times, we still wonder if our name encourages filmmakers and potential readers who reside in nearby cities to gloss over CUBlog, errantly believing it’s not also for their enjoyment and use. We shout out to all the creative media artists beyond Champaign-Urbana giving us continuous reasons to prove otherwise editorially, such as with this early attempt at inclusiveness.
:: Part 2 ::