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The Cinetrix (aka Amy Monaghan)

Tell us about your blog.

Pullquote is the haunt of my pseudonymous online alter ego the cinetrix, who is prone to prolixity and dudgeon – not necessarily in that order. Basically, the blog serves as the rubber room where I can rant, rave, and opine about any aspect of film culture that catches my eye, steals my soul, or gets my dander up. In 2007, the Time Out Film Guide described Pullquote as "New Yorker sass and attitude from the cinetrix," and way back in 2004 the Toronto Star characterized my blog as "a bit too New York." Which is hilarious because I don't live in New York and haven't even lived in the Northeast for four years now, but apparently the cinetrix lives there. "New York" must be the polite way of saying "mouthy."

How would you describe your readers? Do you have much contact with the people who read you?

I confess that the people who read my blog are a source of endless fascination to me. To a person, they are smart and passionate about film. Better still, many have become e-mail, IM, and real-life pals. According to my referral logs, there aren't that many readers overall, and a disproportionate number seem to live in Brooklyn and also write about film, which makes me feel like the VU of film bloggers some days. Then there are the mysterious lurkers who keep coming back, like that person in Finland, and someone at the Pentagon, and one reader from South Weymouth, Massachusetts, which is where I was born. Who are you people? Speak up!

Tell us how – and why – you started your blog?

I've been the cinetrix ever since I got an AOL account in that name millennia ago, but Pullquote launched in September 2003. My friend Laura of About Last Night had introduced me to the incredibly smart blogs of Maud Newton, Old Hag, Uncle Grambo, and TMFTML that summer, and I was hooked. Back then, there weren't many people who were writing intelligently about movies the way my favorite bloggers wrote about books, so I saw an opening. Also, I had been mulling over finishing the cinema studies degree I'd abandoned years before, and I wanted to be sure I could sustain my passion for film before accruing additional educational debt.

Describe your blog day – do you work at home? Go to a café? Sit in an office?

My "blog day" has evolved over time. When Pullquote began, I was working as a freelance copyeditor, so I did a fair amount of writing on the Man's dime. Now I blog whenever, wherever. During the school year, I tend to write at home or at the office. (My boss knows about my blog, but the majority of my colleagues and students do not.) Over the summer and whenever I'm traveling, it's mostly a question of finding wifi. So I've been known to blog from cafes, hotels, friends' apartments, the Bolt Bus, the Soho Apple Store, you name it.

How do you find things to blog about and how do you decide that an entry is worth being in your blog?

I love this question because it presumes there's at least a modicum of quality control in play. Would that it were so. I write about the movies that I see, of course, but not all of them. I particularly like to champion films I catch at festivals that might otherwise be overlooked. Over the years I've moved away from full-fledged reviews, mostly because it's so much easier to find a glut of reviews online now, but also because I live in the sticks and therefore see most movies ages after every other film blogger out there has passed judgment. (Unless, of course, a film pisses me off, and then it's rant city, regardless.) Nowadays, I tend instead to post more impressionistic takes on some aspect of a film-the way music is used, a certain performance. Or revelations that come to me in the classroom. Otherwise, I rely on Bloglines, e-mail lists, and chance.