What's new on Dead End Follies in 2021...
* Follow me on: Facebook - Twitter - Instagram *
Happy New Year!
The world might still be in the toilet, but Dead End Follies is still going strong. When I started the site in 2019, I wasn’t sure if the world needed a platform dedicated to what it means to be a living, thinking being in our ever-accelerating cultural landscape. I didn’t know what it was, to be honest. But together, we built this space for people who are tired to overanalyze Star Wars and/or the artistic validity of superhero movies along with everybody else.
Here, we’re going past that. We use mainstream culture as a launching pad to explore weird, niche subcultures that may or may not freak you out. In that regard, I have a couple announcements to make for 2021. Some concern new formats and exciting ideas, other are more of a technical nature. I’m always looking for ways to make it more convenient for you to read the site and not get lost in the tidal wave of information you’re subjected to every day.
Without further ado…
The year-end lists become the Larry Prater Awards: Every year since the beginning of the site, I’ve published lists of my favorite reads of the previous twelve months. These lists are going to transform in 2021. There is going to be one winner for read of the year and one winner for viewing of the year. They will be called respectively: Larry Prater Award for Best Read and Larry Prater Award for Best Viewing. Each category will have four finalists and one winner.
Who is Larry Prater exactly? Fair question. Larry was one of the very first readers of this site who contacted me in 2011 to give me positive feedback. We immediately became online friends. Larry loved books and basketball like me, so we were naturals. He passed away on October 19 2020 after a long and difficult battle with cancer and I believe he deserves to be remembered as the patron of culture he was. Here’s him alongside Joe Lansdale.
I have a dedicated Twitter account now. So if you follow me on Twitter: NO MORE RANTS ABOUT SPORTS. That is reserved to my personal account. What you will find over there are links to the pieces (duh!), bite-sized epiphanies that are too short for this site (exclusive content!), links to my favorite content creators, debate with my favorite content creators, etc. By the way, I’ve just discovered this guy Big Joel yesterday. He’s not big at all, but he’s very good.
If you want to subscribe, use the Twitter button on the top right or do it here.
I’m also preparing a monthly newsletter. The format is simple: 5 most popular articles of the month PLUS one exclusive piece (exclusive content!). I’m totally going to publish the exclusive piece on Dead End Follies at a later date, but you get the gist. You’re getting it weeks before the others. There’s a good reason why I’m doing this: many of you are… well, 55 and older. Therefore, I’m looking for a way for my content to be DELIVERED to you, so that you don’t have to come every day.
The articles are definitely getting traction, but the site could use more continuity and coherence for you guys. That’ll also be a good gauging tool for me to understand who’s really into the site and who just has casual interest, so that I can tailor my content accordingly. If you’re worried about me selling out your info, I wouldn’t. If I wanted to make money with this site, don’t you think I wouldn’t have installed ads all over this bad boy by now? You have worse to worry about.
The newsletter is now ready yet, but I will announce it on the site and on social media when it is ready and how you can subscribe. It should be a very basic mailchimp thing.
Long-ass reads. Remember the Understanding series I’ve ran a couple years ago, covering a wide array of topics? Well, I’m bringing that back. It will be longer, better researched and it’ll have a different title. I’ve gained a lot of experience in non-fiction writing in the day job and I want you to reap the benefits of it. I don’t know how many I’ll be able to bang out this year, but my objective is anywhere from three to five, ranging from 3,000 to 5,000 words.
I’m already working on the first iteration, which is on the weird cultural history of the word emo. Not the musical style, the word.
You can submit your novel/book/record for review again… soon! After banishing review request eighteen months ago, I’ve decided to bring them back for two reasons.
1) It doesn’t fucking work. All it did was to scare away the interesting ones. The weirdo, tone-deaf requests from desperate people who have not done their homework with the site, I still get them all.
2) I’m starting to repeat myself. Every years when I do the year-end stuff, there are names I repeat every years. and I don’t like that. It’s boring and repetitive for me, so it’s boring and repetitive to you. Don't worry, I will not lower my quality standards and review novels with covers designed with MS Paint. This is still very much a meritocracy. But I’m looking to challenge myself here. I’ve deleted all the old Review Policies. Expect one to pop up in a couple weeks and then you can fire away!
That’s it folks. I haven’t been THIS enthusiastic about Dead End Follies in a couple years. Maybe not ever. So see you on the internet! Back to your regular programming on Friday morning!
