About me

I was born and raised in Los Angeles, which, in my adult life, makes me kind of a lonely person in a city that’s primarily made up of transplants and travelers.

The purpose of this blog is to be a collection of my thoughts and musings about media, including film and book reviews and general commentary on the industry, with a healthy delve into philosophy from time to time. Although I intend to talk about a broad range of genres, my own interests lean towards the mystery-science set, so that will probably pop up a lot. I try to update this blog on weekends. If you’d ever like to request a review, grab me for a guest blog or have a job for me, hit me up at Colin (dot) Newton (at) live (dot) com.

Why all this? Having left the academic system (for the moment–the better devil to know for the millennial seems to be graduate school), I don’t have a steady outlet for all my bright ideas. What’s that? Why not talk to my peers and colleagues? Friends even? What are you, nuts? This is why God made the Internet: So that every chump with an opinion and a phone connection could have a soapbox too.

Credentials: While I was in high school, I attended a program that taught screenwriting to high school students; while I was in community college, I interned at a local newspaper; while I was at university, I interned at one of the big three networks. I graduated from a local state university with a degree in journalism. My major was broadcast journalism and my minor was religious studies, but I started as a film major, which probably says something.

Despite any high-minded ideas I may have about the purpose of a college education, journalism school is basically trade school, and I have turned my training into a journalistic profession of sorts. I am currently a freelance writer for a couple of local newspapers and blogs, but I think the most telling thing about me professionally is that, when I’m on a job, I never introduce myself as a reporter for an outlet; I introduce myself as a writer for that outlet. All of my jobs have involved the English language somehow. In addition to my freelance work, I have been: a script reader, the author of a couple of for-hire screenplays, an English tutor at the university level… I have also played around in the world of prose fiction, but I haven’t done that professionally.

If something changes, I’ll let you know.