Me on the Hudson

I concluded my contribution to last year's Cineaste film criticism symposium with this:

"In changing times, where critics try to maintain a livelihood, and relevance, in old media and the new bully pulpit, and question whether or not to continue at all, the most powerful person in the blogosphere isn’t a critic. It’s GreenCine editor David Hudson, for the hits he brings us when we are anointed for his daily aggregation. If he or GreenCine Daily decided to pull the plug, we would all be adrift until someone else with stature, authority—and the patience to wade through all this stuff—took over the rudder."

Hudson left GreenCine at the end of last year for a new gig at IFC. And now he's left that, to set up a new venture, with a new format, elsewhere. Every independent film blogger owes him a tremendous debt for his diligent six-year effort with the Daily, which clued me in to numerous new voices while raising my own above the happy clamor from time to time. The first time he linked to me, more than three years ago, was quite a rush, and I always got a thrill seeing my blog (or writing for Cineaste and Popdose) up on the "big board," as they call it in Glengarry Glen Ross. He's a Facebook friend now, so, in closing, I say auf Wiedersehen--and keep those updates coming.