Me, on movies and on the web!

I know, I know. I'm way behind on Awards Season. But in the meantime here are some links to my other writing about movies -- an increasingly widespread phenomenon!

(Clicking on shameless links is kind of like reading about Oscar gossip, right? Right.)

Here goes...

I'm now taking increased responsibility for the pop culture / travel segment of the World Hum blog. Check out my efforts so far:

• The Critics: 'Australia'
• The Golden Globes: Is It the Year of the Funny Travel Movie?
• Movie Tourism: 'An Obsessively Ridiculous, Embarrassing, Empty, and Needy Exercise'?
• Bollywood Comes to Miami
• 9 Travel Movies to Watch For in 2009
• Colombia on Film (Again)
• 'Gilligan's Island': Castaways Hitting the Big Screen?
  

Meanwhile, over at Not Coming to a Theater Near You, my year-end essay focused on (what else?!) chick flicks and the Big Apple:

• Definitely, Maybe: The Smart New York Rom-Com Hangs Tough in 2008

Stay tuned for more exciting news on my end (and yes, some more actual blog posts, too!) in the next couple of weeks!

Chick Flick Tourism: Coon Dog Cemetery

I made my first-ever pilgrimage to a chick flicks landmark this week - since I guess a failed hunt for the bench Woody Allen and Diane Keaton sit on in "Manhattan" doesn't count. About a half-hour outside Muscle Shoals, in north western Alabama's Freedom Hills, lie the remains of maybe a couple hundred faithful "coon dogs" - the Coon Dog Cemetery is the only site of its kind in the world, and a crucial scene in Reese Witherspoon's "Sweet Home Alabama" (covered recently in Dames from Dixie) was filmed there.

It was a slightly rugged drive through the middle of nowhere: plenty of blind corners, hairpin turns, tumbledown shacks and big empty blue skies with the occasional hawk (or similar bird of prey) circling in the sun. I amused myself as I crawled along over the pitted road picturing a whole film crew trying to haul themselves up into the hills...

Here are some pics: