Happy New Year!

We're back from vacation (and boy are our arms tired!), it's Jan 2, and time for my much-anticipated New Year's blog post.

I was at a New Year's party yesterday where the host introduced me to people as a cocktail blogger, which caused me to blush, and do a little soul-searching: How come I don't blog cocktails any more? Simple - I never go out and always drink margaritas at home. But I will throw in a 2016 liquor recommendation: Dorda double chocolate liqueur. It is very chocolatey and goes great in coffee!

But I'm also a film blogger, although a fairly poor one. I know I have readers, but I suspect they are in the single digits. And I use this fact to excuse the poor writing and shallow analysis that I get away with - who's reading anyway? But, heck, is blogging even still a thing? Several of the film blogs I read have withered away, like the monkey of myth. All the kids have gone to podcasts or vlogs or Snap-o-grams or what have you. But so what? This blog is on its tenth year, and I'm not going to stop now.

Or improve either, I guess.

Even though we've lost the Mythic Monkey, and the Self-Styled Siren hasn't posted since this summer, a few bloggers I read have written books that I bought and read last year. Farran Nehme, the Siren herself, wrote Missing Reels, a story about a lost silent film, but really about being a naive, broke, film-drunk Southern girl living in New York. It is charming and funny - not at all my usual think (SF or mysteries) but I enjoyed it a lot.

Josh Fruhlinger, the Comics Curmudgeon, wrote The Enthusiast, about train enthusiasts, comics enthusiasts, movie stars, and viral marketing. It's a little like a lighter, funnier William Gibson zeitgeist story. I recommend buying both - and get them in hard-cover. The author takes more if the money home.

Speaking of blogs, Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule is doing another film quiz, so better get right one that! I might let the answers stand in for my New Year's lists.

OK, I'll mention a few films:

• Best film of 2016: Bringing Up Baby, like every year.
• Best Xmas film: The Thin Man. We'll be watching Shop on the Corner whenever the mail that we had stopped is delivered.
• Fave 2016 films we watching in 2016: Either The Nice Guys or Deadpool. Probably Deadpool. 
• Worst 2016 film that we liked anyway: Gods of Egypt.
• First movie of 2017: Dune. I was surprised by how much I liked it this time. I hadn't seen it for a long while, and I'd forgotten how well Lynch handled the interior monologues and Herbert's dialog. Still not a good movie, in itself, but worthy as an adjunct to the books.

I'll end with a hearty greeting to all (or both) of my readers (or reader). Happy New Year's, have a cocktail and many happy movies!