Another Award?

Taste of Cinema is rapidly becoming one of my favorite blogs, and David, who runs the place, dropped my name for the 7 x 7 Link Award. Like any good web-based award, there are rules to follow, so here they are:

RULE 1: Tell everyone something that no one else knows about you.

RULE 2: Link to one of the posts that I personally think best fits the following categories: Most Beautiful Piece, Most Helpful Piece, Most Popular Piece, Most Controversial Piece, Most Surprisingly Successful Piece, Most Underrated Piece, and Most Pride-Worthy Piece.

RULE 3: Pass this award on to seven other bloggers.

So...

Part 1: Something no one else knows about me: There was a time in my life when I seriously (really!) considered going into full-time linguistic research. I took a class in historical linguistics, and my instructor, a guy named Cecil Brown, allowed us each the opportunity to explore one language family. I got one of the last choices in the class, and I selected Austro-Micronesian languages. By the time I finished my research, he told me that, based on what I'd done, I was one of the top 50 living experts on that particular language family. But then he retired, and his replacement wasn't nearly so supportive, so I moved on into theoretical linguistics.

Part 2: This will not be easy, as I have more than 500 posts to sift through. I'll do my best.

Most Beautiful Piece: This is probably the most difficult for me to pick. I'm not a particularly beautiful writer. If I have to pick one, I'll pick the reviews I wrote on my birthday in 2010 for three of my favorite films ever. I don't do any of them justice, but I can't think of another place where my love of film in general is more evident.

Most Helpful Piece: I don't know really how helpful these are, seeing that my blog isn't used in the creation of the various editions of The List, but every year, I suggest 10 films that should be included. Here's the latest of those.

Most Popular Piece: I have no idea why, but my review of Candyman has gotten more hits than any other. Go figure.

Most Controversial Piece: I'd have thought this would be Hugo since I'm evidently the only person in the world who didn't join in the Scorsese bukkake on this one, but it turns out that I caught more hell for my review of Chicago than any two other posts combined.

Most Surprisingly Successful Piece: Just as I can't explain the popularity of my Candyman review, I have no idea why the fifth most popular entry point to my site is a review of two old films about mental illness. However, it seems that there are a few fans out there of Shock Corridor and The Snake Pit.

Most Underrated Piece: When I write a review of an obscure film, it doesn't surprise me when I don't get a lot of comments. When I write a review of the one Bollywood movie that everyone's heard of and get no comments, I'm a little hurt. And yet, to date, no one has anything to say about what I said about Monsoon Wedding.

Most Pride-Worthy Piece: As a critic, I stand on the shoulders of giants. A lot of what I have to say about a film is informed by critics who have come before me. However, I do have an insight every now and then. As far as I know, I'm the first person to connect Hitchcock's The Birds to the start of the zombie movie phenomenon. It's there--really--and it's an observation that's entirely from my own brain, even if someone else said it first.

Part 3: So, who should do this next?
Squish Lessard at The Film Vituperatum
Nick Jobe at Random Ramblings of a Demented Doorknob
Jason Soto at Invasion of the B Movies
Nolahn at The Bargain Bin Review
Klaus Ming at Movie Reviews in About 100 Words or Less
Dan Heaton at Public Transportation Snob
Kevin at BigHominid's Hairy Chasms