Cloverfield seems to have done quite well at the box office over the weekend, doing $46 million in the US, which is comparable to Peter Jackson's King Kong opening, reports the LA Times . I find it interesting in these sort of articles how the explanations for the success of films like this, are pretty meagre. Cloverfield only cost $25 million to make, so its already broken even in that respect, although apparently the marketing campaign cost more then production. The reasoning given by the Times for its success... it was pet project of the a studio exec, and the good 'buzz' generated on the Internet was reinforced by good reviews. Two important questions are not really answered. What made it a good movie? What made people think it would be a good movie before they saw it? Apparently its a good movie because people went to see it, and people went to see it because its a good move. And people say Hollywood isn't insightful! The other reasons given for it's succes...

I might be more frequent with my blogs if I had a clear idea of why I want to blog. And I I do have an idea of why I want to blog, so perhaps if I lay it out it will become clearer. For a while now I have been thinking about how bloggers are gaining more cultural significance. Blogging represents several broader trends in our culture, reflecting our increased capacity to communicate and stay connected with people, the culture of celebrity which has morphed into the cult of personality, and the need for a means to guide us through the overwhelming quantity of cultural information out there. In that sense, I want to blog so that I can experience first-hand these cultural shifts. Hopefully even gain some insights into them. I know all the online blogging lit recommends picking a topic you like to write about, and focusing your blog if you want it to be successful (and by that, I mean actually read by people). While I see the logic in that, unfortunately I like everything . There are very ...