The End of an Era

Back before a little birdemic known as Twitter captured our short attention spans, many of the bloggers, podcasters and readers I now converse with more than my lifelong imaginary friends met at a busy little hangout known as Pop Syndicate. An entertainment site with a specialty for cult cinema, Pop Syndicate hosted some of the best podcasts and movie discussion on the Internet.

Founded by the almighty Bionicaster Stefan Halley, Pop Syndicate was, in many ways, that awesomely oversocial friend who seems to know everyone and insists you do too. I discovered it when I was living in Moscow as a lonely non-Russian speaking ESL teacher craving some movie talk and magically rewarded with multiple forums. Through those boards, I found dozens of fantastic podcasts, some fine film and tv blogs, and most importantly, a family of real-life and long distance like-minded individuals who share not just a love of cinema, but also a genuine and unique friendship.

I decided to write for Pop Syndicate a few months after I started the Deadly Doll's House, the goal being to make it something of a weekend getaway for different kinds of posts. It was an incredibly rewarding challenge that let me experiment with my style, learn a little more about Internet posting, and get more eyes reading my work. Similarly, when Erica and I started the GleeKast, we were deeply honored when Stefan offered us a message board and invitation to the podcasting family.

Things change. The Sci-Fi Channel went SyFy. The NY Public Library raised the overdue DVD charge to $3 a day. Starbucks ended the "The Way I See It" anecdotes on their cups that gave my life so much excitement and vital wisdom. Thus is the way of an everchanging world.

As many of you already know (especially if you listened to Outside the Cinema's live show last week, which I recommend), Pop Syndicate is now under new management and as a result, the direction of the site has changed considerably. It happens. I was hesitantly planning to continue contributing to Pop Syndicate and was eager to revive the sadly erased forums, but the site is now moving away from the things that made it so dear to me. No more podcasts, no more message boards. It's simply something else.

So in short, I will no longer be writing posts for the new Pop Syndicate, especially as I simply don't have much of a reason to frequent the site now that the things and people I loved about it are gone. I don't mean to sound overly critical, as my experience (compared to many of my PS peers) was not necessarily negative. I wrote a post last week, which was published without any issue. In terms of their new written content, I've been enjoying the work so far and think there are some great voices at the relaunched site. I'm not urging a boycott or discouraging any visits to the new site.

Unfortunately, it stinks rather unpleasantly that as of now, all past posts--by myself and all the other contributors--no longer exist. This means that any links to these blogs and reviews are dead (someone tell Google, which still lists them ahead of my own blog when you search Emily Intravia). Thankfully, all my original content still exits inside Mr. Mac, and to try to clean up some of my past posts, I will now be re-adding them right here on a weekly or so basis. Apologies in advance if you think I'm just going all lazy clip show on you as readers. I'm simply proud of some of the work that was lost and don't really just want to keep it packed in virtual storage.

As far as the forums go, a bigger better solution is slowly brewing inside the dangerous minds of fellow podcasters, one that I'm genuinely excited about. In the meantime, there are a few alternatives listed on my side bar and active Facebook pages for some of the podcasts, including Outside the Cinema and the Gentlemen's Guide to Midnite Cinema . 


Ultimately, new stuff is coming and life is good. Updates will be forthcoming. Until then, let's do as Marge S and just forget our troubles with a big bowl of strawberry ice cream.