The Hot Button's 13th Birthday
Thrteen years ago today, I went daily.
Roughcut.com was still a one page daily. “Blogs” did not yet exist. Army Archerd was the only writer committed to daily output about film in print.
So much has changed… including me putting the daily column – which went from 200 words to 500 to 1000 to 2000 a day in that first year – in mothballs.
It would have been smart to launch the new version of MCN today. Who can remember all these anniversaries? But what is striking, for me, is going from that one-page site, thirteen years ago, to a new site with 10s of thousands of archived pages and links to and rss feeds from literally hundreds of other sites… a remarkable community… of which I am proud to be a part.
I wish I could say that entertainment coverage has gotten better. In some ways, it has. But mostly, it’s changed. Amazingly, the sycophantic nature of The Trades (and often, The LA Times) has become a leading ambition for new sites, more so than reaching for more. Ironically, The LA Times and The Hollywood Reporter are doing better work lately, while the ambitions of much of The New get lower and lower.
Things will shake out eventually, but as we all know, journalists who care are fighting an uphill battle against the dominance of publicity, whether about movies or the business of movies. The “other side” isn’t evil or even wrong. They are just doing their jobs. And “we” need to remember, every day, what our job is… or is meant to be. In the end, they are only movies. But how great would it be for everyone on every side of it to wake up each morning, look in the mirror, and know we have done our best. That’s my little prayer.
Thanks for putting up with me all these years.
I wasn’t there for the birth, but I have been a regular visitor ever since so congratulations on living this long!
Hey, Dave, I’ve probably been a reader since your first year (my website will also be 13 next October, by the way) and it’s been a pleasure. What you’ve conquered along these years is truly remarkable — and you deserve it, my friend.
And, of course, keep up the good work. š
Pablo Villa
i remember looking forward to seeing that little pic of you DP in the big yellow ‘H’ of ‘the hot button’ graphic, looking like you were up to mischief, and reading what you had to say. all these years later i still look forward to it, even if your funny little mischief head no longer greets me. congrats on all the incarnations and keep on truckin’
I remember first reading you back in 1997/98. Roger Ebert had said you were an online voice worth checking out.
Congtats DP š
I was there from the start- was a ROTD in the wake of Titanic… some of my favorite DP memories: the Lakers column / inviting DP to our wedding, his lovely response back / the HB-Voices of Hollywood t-shirt I still wear occasionally / the sweater on At The Movies…
(OK, gotta go
I’ve been a reader since the Roughcut days. Shit, I even submitted an entry into that collaborative screenplay contest thing back there in…hell was it…1996 or so? Anyway, I’ve been a damn near daily reader (very infrequent commenter) ever since. As someone who has absolutely zero skin in the game (not even remotely connected to the industry) I still find all of it great reading – box office discussion, reviews, decline of journalistic ethics, Finke fiascos, and everything in between.
Great work, Dave. Keep writing and I’ll keep reading.
A great spooky milestone for you DP. Thanks for opening the asylum gates and letting the monkeys throw poo all around your nice clean office too. Who knows what trouble they’d get up to if they couldn’t play bad in here.
congrats DP.
As another old-timer (Remember MS-Not NBC?), I’m also thrilled that you’ve survived and prospered for so long.
Roger Ebert listed ‘Rough Cut’ as the 3rd (?) best movie site online back in late 1997, and I’ve been a reader every since. Mazel tov and thanks for the good times.
DP was one of the first major LA film authorities to take me seriously, and I’ve always appreciated that.
Cheers. Literally raising a cup as soon as I type this.
happy anniversary. love the blog. still, in my estimation, the most interesting conversations regarding both the art and business of film.
thanks for letting us argue in your backyard.
KNIBB HIGH FOOTBALL RULES!
HAPPY 13th BIRTHDAY DAY HOT BUTTON WHICH BEGOT THE HOT BLOG WHICH BEGOT MOVIE CITY NEWS V.1 WHICH BEGOT MOVIE CITY NEWS V.2!
Thanks for giving me a place to hang and talk film. Living in a cinematically devoid area makes it tough to find “real life” conversations and friends to talk film with is rough and I enjoy almost everyone here. Plus I respect your posts and for giving us a space to riff.
He probably doesn’t hear it from me enough but I’m appreciative of the shot David gave me once upon a time. And I imagine these anniversary posts will keep on truckin’ another 13 years. Happy Birthday.
I will thank the gorgeous Karyn Bryant for reading this today. For it was her that coaxed the 16-year-old me to visit Roughcut.com after endlessly plugging the website on the TNT show.
Someone takes Luke seriously?
And who is this “dpoland” person anyway?
“13 years ago i went daily.”
It happens to all of us as we get older.
Ba-DUM-Bum!
Congrats! I started reading you since Roughcut.com. Good to see that you’re able to do your own thing and become successful at it.
congratulations Dave, started reading you in 2002 after i saw you on Bill o’ Reilly discussing 8 mile.
some love you some hate you but no one is ignoring you so that proves you made it big.
Cheers. I started reading your column through TNT as well.
(Thanks worrywort for mentioning Karyn Bryant’s name. I was trying to remember it.)
13 years later still the first place I visit in the morning. Happy birthday.
In 1997, when I got a job that came with my very own cubicle for the first time, I recall discovering roughcut.com and proceeding to read every single Hot Button in the archive.
For better or for worse, most of what I know about The Industry I learned from Dave Poland and Spy magazine. I don’t know what that says about me, but draw your own conclusions.
Cheers, Dave!
Oh wait, maybe it was every single Big Picture. Or both. Damn, 13 years is a long time.
I think I’ve been reading you longer than I’ve been buying stuff from Amazon. Spooky.
Congratulations!
Been reading since the second year and hope you go on for as long as you want. When technology advances to the point that text is shot directly to a chip in our cerebral cortex, this will probably be the only site I sign up for.
And I just want to give a shout out to everyone else who comments, even the ones that drive me fucking batshit, thanks. I can’t think of a coworker, immediate friend or family member who can match even the least of you when it comes to film knowledge, and being able to interact with you helps keep me sane.
So David, thanks for the work, and thanks for the space.
Mazel Tov David! Thanks for 13 years of insightful and entertaining work. It was great to finally meet you last week (I hope I didn’t ruin George’s breakfast by recognizing you before him).
Rough Cut was one of the pre-loaded bookmarks in the retail version of Netscape Communicator, 3.5 I think it was, I bought many eons ago. That tells you how long ago this all started, that there was such a thing as Netscape, and that to obtain it, you had to buy it from a store. Can you imagine buying a web browser on CD from a store now???
Here’s to another 13 years, so in 2023 when we’re looking back at the thirteenth anniversary of your thirteenth anniversary we’ll be marveling, “Do you remember when we used to read The Hot Blog online? Who uses a PC now???”
Huzzah!