Words on Flicks for Your Ears

The Words on Flicks Show
With Your Host, Janine Coveney

A new podcast on movies from a fan perspective ...

Greetings everyone. After posting 80 blogs on various movie topics to this platform, Words on Flicks is expanding to the podcast universe. Beginning October 18, 2018, I am launching a weekly 60-minute BlogTalk Radio show to talk about my favorite hobby, watching movies. You can check it out every Thursday evening at 9 pm ET/6 pm PT.

Why a podcast? Because online radio/video talk has expanded and exploded in the last few years and it's a great platform for discussion of various topics. I myself was invited to guest on a couple of podcasts in the past year, and Ed Waterford, one of the hosts and EWaterRadio founder, generously offered me a timeslot of my own. In that moment, I thought, Why not? Everyone likes movies. They may not get a chance to go to the theater that often, or they may not like a particular genre, but most people have seen a film that has impacted or influenced them in some way, and it's fun to talk about that.

Background: I am an entertainment journalist. I have been a writer, editor and content creator and my beat has been 90 percent about music and the terrestrial radio business. I enjoyed several years as a Billboard Magazine scribe covering R&B and then as managing editor for their now-defunct radio-oriented spinoff magazine Billboard Airplay Monitor. I covered music -- hip-hop, R&B and jazz -- for more than a decade at various other magazine and broadcast companies. I branched into travel writing as well after going abroad to cover jazz events. I never felt the need to become an "air personality." But I think doing the podcast will be fun.

Because while writing and editing was what paid the bills, in my off hours I do a lot of fiction reading and writing, spinning my own stories into (as yet unpublished) novels. I've also done a lot of movie watching. A fascination for good storytelling, particularly visual storytelling, has fueled my love of cinema from a very early age. Growing up in New York City, I caught my mother's enthusiasm for watching TV Channel 9's "Million Dollar Movie" series, which was usually classic musicals, dramas, or gangster flicks of the 1930s through the 1950s. I was still in elementary school. And by the way, I had no idea it used the Gone With The Wind Theme until I first saw GWTW as a young adult:



As I got older, getting home from high school, there was ABC's "The 4:30 Movie"; Mom would make snacks and make me promise to do my homework afterward, but for an hour and a half or two hours, including those pesky TV commercials, we were glued to the screen, oohing and ahhing over a leading lady's costume, some fancy dance footwork, or a gruesome shootout. My mother taught me to recognize her favorite screen idols, and I was able to follow actors from film to film. Just hearing the theme music to this afternoon movie gem puts a smile on my face:



Living in NYC, it was also easy to see independent and foreign films because it was a major market. I remember ditching school to go the 68th Street Playhouse to see the original "Birdcage" -- La Cage aux Folles -- in French, as well as numerous other subtitled flicks when I was still a teen. I also got into the habit of seeing major studio films during the first weekend of release. When I first moved to Los Angeles in the 1990s, I wanted to write for television. So I studied scriptwriting and story structure. I even studied acting for a little while. These experiences actually changed and improved how I look at a film.

Movies are sheer escapism. But they are also a chronicle of our history and culture and an ongoing commentary on human nature. When we watch, we bring our own knowledge and life experiences to the viewing, and in the process we open ourselves up to learn and see more through the main characters. When I watch, I try to take in everything that's presented on screen -- not only the actors' performances, and the mechanics of their dialog, but the subtext of that dialog, what the costumes and the set decoration say about their status, their relationships, their education, and their values. Older movies are a virtual symposium on the values, customs, clothing, and culture of past generations, which is fascinating to me. Historical dramas -- though often fictionalized and Hollywood-ized -- can still offer us a valuable perspective on real events and personalities. Situations that were life-threatening, reputation-altering, and life-changing in the past don't hold the same meaning today, though we now face new threats and challenges due to progressive values and advanced technology.

This is also an interesting moment in cinema history, as the studios and the film and television academies try to acknowledge the stories and talents of people of color, with more diversity initiatives and a broader array of films being made than in past decades.

In my head I have a memory file where I tend to make little mental links between films with similar themes, music, characters, and situations. It's just how my mind works. So I get to write my unfettered and amateur opinions here. I get to share a bunch of words on flicks.

So hopefully you'll want to tune into blogtalkradio.com/ewaterradio as I chat about various themes and topics in movies past and present.

In addition to this blog, I've launched a new Words On Flicks FaceBook page, and you can send me your ideas at janinec@wordsonflicks.com.

Thanks for indulging me and coming along for the journey.