To encourage a bit more variety in my blogging posts and to help distance this site from the one of old, I’m installing this monthly post where I summarize the previous month’s activity in a wraparound that will hopefully give people the chance to go back and find stuff they might have missed, as well as keep them apprised of any changes or news that happened that month.

I’ve missed the colors of April. And the sense of hope it provides! Aside from signaling the end of winter, April means it’s time for playoff basketball. Notable narratives (apologies to all who aren’t sports fans): Portland and Indiana get swept 4-0 respectively by Golden State and the defending world champs in the Cleveland Cavaliers. Meanwhile, the Chicago Bulls get one-upped by an inspired Celtics squad in an emotional first-round series that followed on the heels of tragedy. Of tertiary importance: the Los Angeles Clippers are, in all likelihood, not going to look the same next year after a Game 7 defeat at the hands of the surging Utah Jazz.

That is mostly the playoff picture as it appears right now. For the next two ‘Month in Review’ posts you can expect a few more updates as the season winds down and more teams drop off. If you find that you are really not a sports fan, don’t panic! There’s movie stuff on the way as well.

And speaking of, here’s what’s been going on on Thomas J in the interim:

New Posts

Reviews: Kong: Skull Island; Train to Busan; King Jack; Your Name.; The Fate of the Furious; Under the Shadow; Free Fire; Going in Style

Blindspot Selection: Metropolis (1927)

Movie News

For my friends who are still in Knoxville: if you do not know already, the Trainspotting sequel has been playing at the Regal Downtown West 8 theater near the Mall, probably for the last couple of weeks actually. I urge anyone who was a fan of the original to go see it — and let me know how it is. Because  it could be another 20 years before New Jersey gets it.

Blogging News

In the last month or so it feels like my weekly blog consumption has taken a hit. It could be the evildoing of a screwy WP Reader, out to get me with its silly little algorithms that seem to streamline, rather than diversify, my reading habits — or it could simply be that a lot of blogs that I have enjoyed over the last few years have started to quieten down, a byproduct of the cyclical nature of the blogging thing. Or, I’m just really really out of it. Which is also entirely possible. It might even be the most possiblest.

Have you come across any cool blogs lately? Please, feel free to share!

As for the Decades Blogathon this year, keep your eyes peeled. An official announcement is still yet to be made, so this year the event will probably be kicking off later than usual. Which is pretty ideal really because I’m still back-logged with reviews over here (i.e. the rebooted Ghost in the Shell and this cool documentary For the Love of Spock have both been collecting dust to the point where I’m not sure I’ll even get around to reviewing them now). Buuuuut . . . never say never, I guess.