Dardo Department

by Ryland Walker Knight

Say, who knew? Well, one friend did. She sent along word that MONDO DIGITAL, at some point in the recent past, tagged VINYL IS HEAVY for a Premio Dardo Award. Now, Glenn Kenny already nodded at us a lil while ago, and we are very wary of these "meme" things, but we also adore attention like anybody else, so, heck, why not bask in it some, right? Which is a way to say thanks. Apparently there are some "rules" we are supposed to follow, like "tagging" other people/bloggers, but since most of my blogging buddies (like GK) have already been tagged, I'm just going to direct you to the "We Tight, Presumptuous" blogroll to the right and say that we are (hell, I am) honored to be friends, or at the very least friend-ly, with all those listed there. If I were to single out one of those, though, I'd point to my good friend Brian Darr of Hell on Frisco Bay as I've known him the longest (of the boys; I've known Megan since high school and Mia since I was her boss six or so years ago), and he's helped direct my cinephilia more than he probably knows. When Brian "accidently" deleted his blog one day, I was floored and worried and immediately wrote him something like eight e-mails trying to make sure he would continue his new media text-based documentary of a certain film-going history that this blogging world and his efforts therein make available. I went so far as to say: "If you're done with your blog, which I hope you are not, do you wanna install a column on VINYL?" Lucky for all of us it only took a couple weeks to get everything straightened out and we have, in the time since, gotten that much more great stuff from him. Including, on a selfish level, his participation in not just one but two episodes of VINYL IS PODCAST (which we hope will resume soon enough): No. 2, on the rep calendar, and No. 9, on the avant-garde. So, thanks, buddy! I miss seeing movies with you!

— I also leave this open for my fellow VINYL contributors, and friends, to point to some of their favorite blogs in the comments, which I can then port up above into the body this post if such friends and colleagues so desire.