Two weeks ago, I logged onto Noiseless Chatter, the writing blog of Philip J. Reed. I’ve mentioned his hysterical ALF review series here a few times, but he covers a lot of different movies, TV shows and other larger topics, and I’m just a fan of his writing in general. I was briefly perplexed to find the latest article with the subject line “Thank you all,” but it didn’t take long into reading for my heart to sink like a stone. The post was effectively his digital suicide note. Frantically searching his name on Twitter, I discovered it was true. Philip had passed away.

There’s part of me that still has trouble believing it. I didn’t know Philip personally. I’d only been following his blog for the past four or so years, and left a couple comments here and there. But his voice always felt personal and comforting, an ease of writing that really came across as conversational. This was certainly strong when utilized for humorous fashion, ie: the ALF reviews, which I’ve literally laughed out loud at re-reading multiple times over, but he also was powerful when it came to honestly emotional pieces. I’m actually helping to create a full mirror archive of the blog (in his final post, Philip mentioned he’d paid the site hosting through the end of the year, and to take whatever you’d like from it), and in going through the years, I’m running across posts I’d never seen before, with Philip talking in naked detail about his past personal struggles and trauma he’s had to deal with. It feels especially raw to read posthumously, but even those posts have a certain beauty to them. The emotions so real, and his talks of depression and social alienation are pretty relatable elements of the human condition. I came for a man screaming curse words about an 80s puppet show, but I stayed for the power and genuine-natured writing. I can only hope that he’s in a place where he’s finally free of his demons, and that he knew, in some small way, how much his writing meant to so many people. I really hope he did.

All of this got me thinking about my rinky-dink blog here. I certainly don’t consider myself a writer like Philip, but I do like what I do and am really touched that I have any sort of loyal readership who’s interested in hearing me bitch about a thirty-plus-year-old TV show. But looking at the range of topics Philip covered made me think about possibly doing the same. A couple years after I originally left the blog, I briefly (very briefly) returned with a new one (Rewatch, Review, Recycle), meant to replace Me Blog Write Good, starting up a Futurama retrospective, as well as intending to review other movies, TV shows, and so forth. I got through two episodes of Futurama, and a review of Sausage Party, before dropping the blog completely, and eventually returning to Me Blog Write Good a few months later. But I’ve been thinking about other things I could write more about. In our media landscape where everything is just “content” and there’s so much to watch and play, it feels like it’s harder for things to stick with you, since you just consume one movie or video game and feel like you need to move on to the next one. Writing about The Simpsons definitely has made me think about the show more, so I feel like it would do the same for other stuff too.

Here’s a few sample ideas:

– I have no desire to revive the Futurama review series, but with the show being resurrected once again on Hulu, I thought I could pick out like a dozen episodes over the course of its entire run to talk about in the lead-up to the new series, and then review the new episodes as well (coming out I assume in the back half of 2023).
– Clerks III is upon us, and as a semi-recovering Kevin Smith fan, I’m being unconsciously driven back like a moth to the flame. I haven’t watched any Smith movie since having my brain blended in a lemon juicer during Tusk, but I wanted to re-watch the seven View-Askewniverse movies before seeing Clerks III, which could be interesting to write about.
– I’m a big fan of the Ace Attorney video game series, and have intended on revisiting those games, so I could go through the games in order by a case-by-case basis.
– Then, of course, any movie, TV show, or video game that I feel particularly struck by, and want to get my thoughts out about.

I just wanted to gauge interest if you guys wanted to read any of this stuff. Rather than start a sister blog up again, I figured I would just merge this with Me Blog Write Good as an all-purpose blog. I could also easily just abandon this idea since I’m kind of a fickle bitch (I’ve done it in the past!), so we’ll just see what happens. No matter what, I’ll be back to jump into the breach that is The Simpsons season 34 next month, but don’t be surprised if something new pops up before then. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it.

Anyway, I feel bad for co-opting a post about a man’s death with my own bullshit, but honest and truly, thank you, Philip. It was always a pleasure pouring through your latest posts, and I’m sure a lot of people can say the same thing. Take care. And you’re the one who’s out of this world (sweet baby).