An appropriately gray Thursday

The gray skies over New York City today, combined with a far worse than usual bout of seasonal allergies left me feeling sluggish to say the least, and finding both the strength and motivation to get any work done was next to impossible. Then word came out about critic, blogger, and personal friend Glenn Kenny getting axed from Premiere, and all hopes of accomplishing anything ceased. I guess in the current climate it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, but honestly I didn't see this one coming, and I suspect Glenn didn't either. I'll be curious to hear parent company Hachette Filipacchi's rationale for terminating Glenn, and I sincerely hope this means the end of Premiere in the US, for to continue the site without him would be both insulting and pointless. I'm no stranger to the brash tactics of multi-national corporations and their policies of downsizing, and I can sympathize with what Glenn must be feeling today. With his years of experience (not to mention his remarkable breadth of knowledge), it hopefully won't be long before he finds himself in a new position. I can't help but wonder if Armond White is basking in a self-satisfied smugness, especially after his mean-spirited (and insane) rant from a couple of weeks ago where he gleefully spoke of Premiere's demise. I'm gonna go wander the streets. With any luck it'll start pouring.

Comments

[colinr]

A real shame, I've really enjoyed reading his blog and coming hard on the heels of Tim Lucas quitting blogging (for a while anyway) I'm not going to have much to read in the future - I'm looking to you for content now Filmbrain!

On the other hand I might have more time now to actually watch films!

Either way commiserations to Mr Kenny, hopefully there will be people clamouring to make use of his talents.

[Steve]

Just curious, and you can tell me to f off if you consider it prying, but how do you make a living? I am sitting here sweating it out after a miserable 8-hrs of day-job wondering how I can pursue any dreams this late in life when there is no way I can stop day-jobbing because of home, medical, debt and bills...and I'm wondering how anyone that is a film blogger/film critic can make a decent enough wage to live in Teh Big City, let alone wander the streets on a Thursday afternoon.

Say the right thing and maybe I'll change my life for the better!

[Filmbrain]

Steve --

Well, I'm certainly not making any money blogging, nor have I ever tried to. (I'm convinced blog ads can bring in enough for a cup of coffee, if that.) Right now I'm concentrating all my efforts on Benten Films, which explains why I don't have time to post here as often. For years I whored myself out as a contractor, writing propaganda for various Wall St. firms. It was awful, soul-stealing work, but it paid the bills.

As for making it in teh big city, well...that might have to come to an end soon, unless of course people start buying Benten DVDs by the millions (or even the hundreds of thousands), which seems unlikely.

[Whitney]

But don't you think that Kenny's new blog will be completely awesome? It's a small bright spot, but at least there's that.