These cupcakes look so good!
Wow, it's really been one year now... We've had both ups and downs, though mainly ups since the beginning of the year, and I know this sounds like a bad Oscars speech - but it's been an amazing journey.At first this blog had a very complicated name, a German mirror blog and was about all kinds of films. Later on, it still had the complicated name, but no German mirror blog anymore - and it was about Bollywood films only. I had noticed that no one ever commented on my posts on cinema beyond Bollywood, so I thought that it was impossible to maintain followers while writing about no specific part of the extremely broad cinematic landscape. Luckily, I found out there was a thing called the "Large Association of Movie Bloggers", which I became a member of, causing me to broaden my horizon concerning film blogging.
Slowly this blog evolved and became better with the time. It's not perfect yet, not at all, and of course I'd like to have some more followers and commenters, but I'm happy about the things I've achieved until now, and even though it can be hard at times, I love this, I love all of you who are reading this, and I want to maintain this blog until I'm a quirky old granny trying to make my grandchildren love films just as much as I do. Maybe I'll have seen the famous 1001(+) movies by then. Who knows.
Well, for now on, I just hope next year's going to be just as great as this one - or maybe even better!
And just like those fortunate ones who have won the famous golden fella, I'd like to thank a bunch of people who have supported and inspired me - without them, who knows if I'd given up on blogging very soon.
Mansi from Eat Pray Love Movies, who was the first one to comment on this blog. Thank you so much for that, Mansi! Her blog is about both Bollywood and Hollywood films and she always writes short but spot on reviews and articles.
Leslya from Eternity of a Dream, who became the 31st member of Lime Reviews just yesterday. Well, that was a coincidence of course, but still - thank you! I've only become a member of her blog yesterday, too, so I can't say much about it yet. It looks very promising though.
Jack L. from Jack L. Film Reviews, who was the first follower and commenter here that knew nothing about Hindi film, and had never seen one. Jack has an extraordinary taste of films, and we don't always agree on films, but he has been one of the greatest supporters to me, and his blog is very informative and well-written. I hope he achieves his goal of becoming a director one day, I will definitely watch all of his films.
Bollywooddeewana from Bollywooddeewana, one of my first followers and supporters. His blog is mostly about Hindi oldies and classics, which is very inspiring for someone like me who wants to but doesn't watch many films from before 1990.
Stevee from Cinematic Paradox, a wonderful blogger my age who just celebrated her blogs second birthday yesterday. She's so fortunate to have a father owning a DVD rental store, so she can watch all the latest releases and work at a place full of the thing we all love... films! I wish I had a chance to do the same. Or even just have a part-time job... Her blog is one of my favorites, and I look up to the things she's already achieved (like winning a LAMMY).
Courtney from Big Thoughts From a Small Mind. He was the first one to feature a post from here in a link-up-post (or whatever these posts are called). His posts are always interesting to read, and he also proves that a great blog doesn't need a great design (with all respect).
Dolce and Namak from Dolce and Namak Talk Indian Movies, a split-personality blogger who writes the funniest long reviews on indie and mainstream Indian cinema. She makes me want to watch some more regional Indian films... some time.
Bonjour Tristesse from Bonjour Tristesse, an extremely cool and huge blog that features films from all over the world (something I'd like to be able saying about Lime Reviews one day). It's amazing that she (or he... wait a minute - are you a male or a female...?) still finds the time to read my entries and comment on them - awesome!
Beth from Beth Loves Bollywood, one of the biggest Bollywood blogs around here (counting from the visitors). She doesn't blog that often anymore, but I always find it a pleasure to read her humorous reviews.
Filmi Girl from Filmi Girl!, my #1 source for Bollywood gossip. I also like that she's not ashamed of loving Tashan, while everyone else is trashing it (I mean, all the critics). Her blog is, just as Beths, very popular, and funny to read, too.
Cherokee from Feminising Film. Her blog was founded just recently, some months ago, and focuses on female presence in film. To be more precise: female power! She also often leaves nice comments here.
Ness from Shahrukh Is Love, who claims she's never ever written a review on a Shahrukh film. She's very skilled at trashing a film and wanting you to never ever watch it (I threw my Khatta Meetha DVD into the garbage after reading her review), but she's also a fan of the films she describes as "crackatastic" - and a huge fan of Bollywoods teddy-bear, Govinda.
Chris from Movies and Songs 365, a Dane just like me (yeah, almost... I'm almost a Dane...), whose blog is about... well, movies and songs. We've been e-mail pen-pals for some months now, and I must say that Chris is a very intelligent and sympathetic person. Hilsen!
Maria Sofia from FilmFlare, famous for her fantastic layout. She also comments a lot here, and writes some cool reviews and other stuff. And she inspired me to join Goodreads (don't think she knows this, hehe).
The 3 Bollywood Queens from Bollywood Queens - lovely people, lovely blog.
Filmi Geek from Filmi Geek, who writes the most informative, analyzing reviews on Hindi films.
Wilde.Dash from Love and Squalor, a blog with a lovely, psychedelic layout and wonderful posts on films I haven't seen because of the same reasons she didn't want to see them at first, but still did.
Louella from Masala w Bigosie - she's not very active anymore, as she says she suffers from a chronic writer's block, but I always like reading her reviews on Tamil and Telugu films. Makes me feel like I've watched more of them than the three I've actually seen.
The person behind The Bolly 'Hood, a small blog with small articles on Bollywood that are truly worth a read.
Larry from The Movie Snob, another huge blog with a simple design ;). He writes nice reviews on both cult-classics and newer cinema, and I love his weekly thoughts feature (I believe it's weekly...?).
The person behind Totally Filmi! - I love this blog, but I feel I'm repeating myself now. Check it out, however.
Last but not least Ryan from A Life in Equinox. Huge blog. And really, really good.
Phew, this is a loooong list, and yet I feel I haven't thanked everyone - so thank you, EVERYONE! Followers, commenters, anonymous readers - thank you!
Please don't feel hurt or something if I follow you, or you're on my surfboard and I haven't mentioned you - I follow a lot of blogs and it would be impossible to mention each one of them.
I'm also planning on creating a top 100 movies list until december... and well, I don't know if I should keep the weekly post on new releases. I mean, it's not very original... but we'll see.
Now, just tell me what you think. Do you have any ideas, things you love or hate - spit it out.
(Of course, you can also just wish us a happy anniversary...).
...No, really. THANK YOU!!!