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Michael Tully

Tell us about your blog.

At Boredom at Its Boredest, I write about whatever is currently striking my fancy. While this predominantly relates to cinema, which pretty much consumes my life, I also spread my tiny wings to talk about music, literature, sports, and other matters of a more shamefully personal nature (though I have recently curbed this habit as my life is going incredibly well these days—knock on a thick block of wood).

How would you describe your readers? Do you have much contact with the people who read you?

I would describe my readers as bored nerds. Just kidding. I always pretended that I was writing for an invisible audience (for the first few years, I didn’t have a counter set up to let me know how many people were, in fact, reading my words). David Redmon (Intimidad, Invisible Girlfriend) is the first stranger I ever met who introduced himself and told me that he read my site. That was a very bizarre sensation, and though it still happens occasionally, it never fails to surprise and amuse me. I now have a better handle on the amount of readers that I have and the type of people that they are. In case you haven’t figured it out, they are the same couple hundred people who read all the other indie film blogs (i.e., bored nerds).

Tell us how – and why – you started your blog?

I was lucky enough to be selected by the indieWIRE powers-that-be to maintain my own blog back in 2004, which I pseudo-sarcastically titled Boredom at Its Boredest. At the time, I thought blogs were self-absorbed and lame (based primarily on the word “blog” alone—this is in keeping with my current aversion to “Twitter”). I honestly don’t know if I would have started my own had they not asked me to participate. But at that time, I didn’t have an even somewhat legitimate outlet for my writing and figured it might be a good opportunity to act as if I had my very own daily newspaper column. No part of me was conceiving of an actual readership. As for the site’s content and tone, I always wanted my voice to be as positive and enthusiastic as possible. Which is probably why everyone thinks I like everything. But that approach ultimately paid off, as it directly led to my hiring as the head writer/editor at Hammer to Nail, which now receives just about all of my bloggerly attention.

Describe your blog day – do you work at home? Go to a café? Sit in an office?

I work from my bathroom. The proximity to the bathtub and toilet just makes me feel more at ease when creating new posts; plus, I drink a lot of coffee when I write, which saves time since I pee so much from when I clock in to when I clock out. In all seriousness, I actually do work from home. For the very first time in my life, however, my workspace is in a room that doesn’t have my bed in it (I simply cannot stress how luxurious and victorious this makes me feel). I’ve never been one of those types who can write in a public/café environment. I get too distracted by my surroundings: the music, the people, the smells, the everything. When it comes to blogging, I prefer isolation.

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Boredom at Its Boredest

How do you find things to blog about and how do you decide that an entry is worth being in your blog?

I find things to blog about by living and watching, watching and living, reading and listening, listening and watching, reading and reading, thinking and breathing. If I find myself sitting down to write a new post, then it’s worthy of being mentioned in my blog. But it really does come down to being genuinely excited about something (whatever that something may happen to be).

What is your favorite blog entry?

I’d have to say my very favorite post is my ludicrously nerdy recap of my jaunt to the 2006 Cucalorus Film Festival in Wilmington, North Carolina, which spawned one of my personally greatest fusions of life and cinema when Todd Rohal (The Guatemalan Handshake) and I embarked on our own personal crusade to track down as many actual Blue Velvet locations as possible.

What was your most popular/controversial blog entry?

This one has no competition. My open letter to Sam Mendes when I learned that he was directing Revolutionary Road (for what it’s worth, I was right). Just read some of the comments for yourself:

Is blogging the new path to fame and fortune?

Blogging has enabled me to leave behind the stale, corporate fluorescence of a cubicle environment and instead pay the bills by writing enthusiastically about cinema from the comfort of my own abode. Fame and fortune? Not too sure. Sanity and a nearly religious sense of appreciation for my current groove? FUNK YUP.

What separates journalism from blogging?

I would say the lack of an editorial hierarchy/presence is the main distinction between journalism and blogging.

Who are the bloggers that you read religiously?

Would I shock you if I said David Hudson? Let it be known that I read a lot of fuggin’ blogs, but I will simply list five that immediately spring to mind: Outlaw Vern, Alison Willmore, Karina Longworth, David Lowery, and Sujewa Ekanayake.

How has your life changed because of your blog? Has it gone in any new directions because of your newfound prominence?

“Prominence?” That’s funny. Not to knock my first two films, but I have a nagging suspicion that more than one of our festival acceptances were based on the assumption that I would be photo-blogging and posting reports that would provide free publicity for that/those festival/s (though the fact that I only attended festivals that paid my way and put me up contradicts this assumption). While I don’t really care if that’s true or not, I do credit my indieWIRE blog, more than anything else, for introducing me to the world and leading to my current dreamier-than-dreamy job.