My time here is coming to an end.  I’m dying, you see.  But mostly I mean that my tenure-ship as guest editor is at an end.  Between moments of wiping my tear-filled eyes, I can think of no better way to conclude things than with this lovely video for former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins’ “The Country.”  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

… and regardless of how you feel about the Oscars or their politics, if you love movies it’s hard not to feel a reaction to this beautiful high-concept promo for TCM’s 31 Days of Oscar.

This is from 2008; if you can’t get enough there’s also a 2009 update of the same premise.

This film makes me cry.  In part, it makes me cry because I certainly never made anything this beautiful as a student project.

Hello, dear friends and presumably-mostly-strangers!  When my friend Liz asked me if I’d like to be a guest contributor, I thought about it for a moment in my usual languid fashion.  And an electrical impulse sparked through my brain, shouting “It’s 2012!  Why haven’t you just said ‘yes!’ and got to work yet?  Pick up the phone!”

And so I knew what the first video would have to be.  A good video tells a story and takes us on a ride through a human emotion or two.  “Pick up the phone!” by those weird little gentlemen over at Waverly Films certainly does that.  You will go on a ride.  You will feel some emotions.  You will learn everything, nothing, or both!

I’ll be back next week, after I make this my new ringtone.