Completing the Move

I'm a planner, so the sudden, emergency need to move my website from movie-reviews.colossus.net to reelviews.net came as an unwelcome surprise, but it also galvanized me. As most of you who are reading this know, ReelViews has moved, and the ease and rapidity with which the new site has come up and is working will hasten the demise of the old one.

First, thanks to everyone who e-mailed me with a suggestion for a new host. After browsing about 15 websites and calling some of the would-be providers, I selected Lunarpages (which had three separate recommendations). So far, I don't have any complaints, but I have been with them for less than a week. I just sent them my first technical question, so we'll see how quickly and efficiently the matter is resolved.

As far as I can tell, all of the major old links have been updated: Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, Metacritic (although they can't change their database - only new reviews will have the new domain), Google, Yahoo, etc. An odd thing happened with IMDb - in the process of changing their links, they "downgraded" me. I'm no longer at the top of their "external reviews" link - I have fallen somewhere down the list. I don't know why this is. I'll have to watch to see if I migrate back up.

The old site will go dark this weekend, with only a single page left to direct those who haven't checked in for a while to the new site. I'll leave it to the Powers That Be at Colossus how long to leave it up. I will give up my ftp access at the end of August. I do not know for how much longer Colossus will be in existence. It's my understanding that the Founding Fathers there are moving on to other endeavors.

My e-mail address is going to change. Now that reelviews.net is a fully functioning site rather than just a pointer, I'm going to establish some reelviews.net e-mail accounts. This will make the transition seamless when I move my physical location next year and change my ISP from Patmedia to Comcast or Verizon. Assuming the reelviews.net e-mail accounts are stable by that time, no one in cyberspace will be aware that I'm 50 miles further south.

Thanks to everyone who has been patient through this transition. Hopefully, there will be no need to do this again. (Even if I change hosts, I'll just drag reelviews.net along with me.)

A final note for the small but loyal following of the Price novels: except for the epilogue, the third volume is finished. So I'm now in a position to promise that The Price of Terror will be serialized during October. There will be a new chapter available every day during the month, with the final two (Chapter 31 and the Epilogue, which I'll probably call Chapter 32) arriving on Halloween.

The Lost Weekend

Labor Day weekend marks a notable first (at least that I'm aware of). There are four new wide releases (Crank, Crossover, Lassie, The Wicker Man), and none of them are being screened for critics. I'm especially disappointed about The Wicker Man. I'm a fan of the original and had been hoping that the remake would at least accomplish something interesting. Sadly, there must be a reason why this is being hidden from audiences until a few 10 pm promo screenings the night before it opens. I will be seeing both Crank and The Wicker Man after they are released, probably back to back on September 1. Be patient for the reviews. One will go up on September 1, but the other one may not be up until September 3. (I will be busy literally all day on September 2.) On the plus side, I will have a review up for This Film Is Not Yet Rated earlier in the week, and I'm doing something I rarely do - talking to the director - before posting the review.

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