Riverhed.com

In my capacity as copy editor for Blast Magazine, one of the issues I come across on a regular basis is the poorly written, spoiler-filled movie review. Now, Blast has put out some decent material, but as a start-up with pretty strong roots in university talent (read: people who are writing for the clips, not the paycheck), some of the writers are new to writing for a publication, or even sometimes writing at all.

While this creates all kinds of fun for me (like teaching new writers about why they should learn AP style, why we use just a single space after periods, etc.), it also sets me up for some unplanned exposure to information that can really make a movie (or TV show) not as enjoyable as it should be when I finally make it to the theater. Sometimes it’s a writer’s first time crafting a review, and one of the most common traps that new writers fall into, especially those without much to actually say about the film, is to just write a synopsis of the plot, which is a real downer for the people reading it who want to be surprised by all the twists and turns.

So, it raises a bit of a conundrum, especially considering I’m Blast’s only copy editor. If I have to edit a piece that will unintentionally spoil a movie, TV show, book, etc., what recourse do I have, especially in the age of digital media and a news cycle that doesn’t sleep? Waiting until after I’ve seen it doesn’t always work, as I’m usually the last person to catch a film in theater before it goes into that waiting period to appear on DVD. Personally, I just bite the bullet, edit it, and try to teach the writer to be a little less revealing next time around — with an ever-changing staff, it doesn’t always last, but that’s just the nature of the job, I suppose.

So, what do you do when you have to copy edit spoiler-filled material? Do you grit your teeth and plow through? Do you make a colleague who doesn’t care, or who you don’t care for, edit it instead? Do you wait until you’ve seen it for yourself and let the glaring typos and grammatical errors sit there for all to see until you get around to it?

One idea I’ve been kicking around lately is what I want to use this site for… not just the blog specifically, but I get unlimited data transfer and storage from Bluehost.com for a pretty low price. Aside from wanting this blog to be popular and rewarding for me, I think it would be great to foster a sort of community of friends, and friends of friends, from all parts of my life. I’d love to have my links section full of people I know, whose thoughts and ideas would be a click away. Part of it is because I’ve grown apart from a lot of my friends. To be honest, I’ve been disappointed with a lot of them and their lack of ability or interest to keep in touch and communicate. Maybe this could help old friends stay close.

Maybe this won’t go anywhere, but I’d like to invite anyone who wants to to host a blog, or website for whatever they want, here, and join in this sort of community I’m thinking about putting together. Who knows, it might take off. And if nothing else, it’ll give me more shit to read and procrastinate from getting any real work done. If you’re interested, drop me a line at drew@riverhed.com. It doesn’t matter if you barely know me; if you want to do it, let me know.

In other news, Ivona and I watched Rushmore tonight. We watched the Darjeeling Limited a couple weeks ago and Ivona decided she wanted to see more Wes Anderson films, and I was happy to oblige. So we’re working our way through them, or at least the ones I’ve seen (all but one; I think his first). I remember watching Rushmore for the first time and absolutely loving it, and the music still stands out to me as one of the great things about it. It’s encouraging to see how Anderson has maintained and developed his sense of style, even to the point that watching this again I just wasn’t as amused and entertained as I had been bef0re. It almost felt like a B-quality performance compared to his newer stuff. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great movie, but it just didn’t grip me the same way it did before. Maybe I’ve seen it too many times, or because it’s a naturally depressing kind of movie.

Anyone read any good books or seen any good movies lately? I’m craving non-academic culture to balance my 27-credit workload.