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The CinePad itself Where am I? The door's open and the dog won't bite...
 

You've just crashed at Jeeem's CinePad, that's where.  Sit back, relax, take your shoes off. Cyberspace is kind of like LA (where I lived for seven years): "There's no there there."  So, I wanted my CinePad to feel like an actual place where you can hang out, wander around, think and daydream.   Hence, the house metaphor (and, yes, those pictures really are of the place I live -- in Seattle, WA).

The CinePad is still in its early formative stages, but I hope it will be someplace that offers something you don't find that much of on the web -- engaging, thought-provoking, serious (but often funny) criticism and commentary about the movies and the culture in which they're made and viewed.  This isn't a place for "consumer reporting" (there's plenty of that out there), or a fanzine (though I am passionate about the movies and moviemakers I love and loathe), or a faceless database of information (though I expect to provide a lot of easy-to-find factual info).   I hope it offers more of a philosophy of movies than another re-hash of trivia, inst-opinions, and factoids.  Frankly, I'd rather write about (and read about) the history of plumbing in the cinema, or how certain movies' style betrays their ostensible "content."


Read more about Jeeem's CinePad in

wired.com
"A Crash Pad for Cinema Lovers"

Seattle Weekly
"Best of Seattle 1998"


New York Times

"Braindump on the Blue Badge:
A Guide to MicroSpeak"
(about the Microsoft Lexicon)


What I hope you'll come away with are some ideas about how to really look at movies, what's important to me (and, I hope, you) about movies, how they affect us, why certain aesthetic values matter -- stuff like that. 

I've been writing about movies for more than half my life now, since 1977, and I plan to post a lot of things I've written over the years -- plus new stuff.   I come from a background in print journalism, so it's particularly exhilarating for me -- at long last -- to be able to write, edit, photograph, design, and publish all by myself!  I'm an auteur at last!  This site is also, in part, a reaction to the dumbing-down (and eventual elimination) of Cinemania, the CD-ROM/website I've edited since late 1994.  Cinemania, although successful, fell victim to "new business strategies" that I think are short-sighted (no surprises there) -- and to corporate bureaucracy.  I hung on until the bitter end as Cinemania slowly slipped into a coma and died.  Jeeem's CinePad was built as a way of finding something constructive and creative to do with my energies (and frustrations) during Cinemania's slow and (for me) painful death.

So, welcome.  C'mon in.  Make yourself at home.  Look around.  And be sure to come back.  There's a lot of remodeling to be done...

Jim Emerson
cinepad@cinepad.com


Some semi-legal fine-print-type stuff:

Everything on this site is by me, unless otherwise noted:
© 1977-1998 by Jim Emerson.  All Rights Reserved -- and all that.  

Jeeem's CinePad is a non-profit, educational website designed to encourage people to become more informed and perceptive movie viewers, and to develop critical skills for discussing and understanding film and popular culture.

Non-original photographs are used for informational/educational/illustrative purposes only, to accompany reviews or articles about the films, people, or places (or animals, vegetables, or minerals) depicted.

When books (or even, in some cases, films) are mentioned, you can buy them directly from Seattle's local worldwide bookstore, Amazon.com, simply by clicking on the title or cover image.


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Jeeem's CinePad -- Utterly, relentlessly, preposterously, deliberately non-profit since April, 1998
All
CinePad contents © 1977-1998 by Jim Emerson.  All Rights Reserved.  Unless otherwise noted, that is.
Post your ideas or comments on
Jeeem's fridge (a BBS).  Or send e-mail to cinepad@cinepad.com.