Actually, the site was originally Ken’s World of Awful Movies, so technically I guess this represents Jabootu 2.0. The site was renamed Jabootu’s Bad Movie Dimension when we decided to obtain a dedicated URL. (It’s amazing how quickly terms become obsolete and forgotten. “Dedicated URL.” Haven’t heard that one in a while.)
I’ve always been pleased by the fact that the whole Jabootu thing was genuinely organic. It was the readers and message boarders who adopted and promoted Jabootu as the site mascot after what was really a throw-away joke in my old Magnificent Obsession review.
Once the work of other people started appearing here, the Ken’s World moniker began to embarrass me a bit. The site had really become more of a community, with my contributions only a part of the total thing. And again, the fact that Jabootu struck such a nerve without my even intending it made the new website theme a natural. Ken’s World was mine, but Jabootu is all of ours.
With the site approaching its tenth anniversary (!) on June 8th, 2007, a decade since the posting of our Ken’s World review for The Giant Claw, Techmaster Paul Smith and I sporadically talked about another site revamp. Of course, I am completely computer illiterate, and thus the question was really if Paul could find the time to completely redo things.
One aspect I really wanted to pursue was the ability to access the site sans the Front Page program that I had been using at home. Don’t get me wrong, Front Page has been great. It’s easy enough to use that it allows even a dolt like me to post my material myself, rather than requiring Paul do it. Still, what was a great leap forward in the past becomes confining as the March of Progress continues, and so it was here.
Paul and I talked—i.e., he talked, I listened and occasionally nodding my head to simulate understanding—about something more blogger-ish. That would allow me to jump into content from work, and do spot corrections and polishes and such during my breaks. Sadly, I am terminally lazy (and useless, from a technical standpoint), and Paul is terminally busy with actual work and stuff. So chances are nothing really would have happened, at least in the foreseeable future.
Into that breach stepped Chris Magyar, familiar to thousands of dreamy-eyed woman (and an equal amount of envious men) as The Cute One. More to the point, Jabootuites know him as the author of the hilarious reviews for Die! Die! Die! and Stacy’s Knights posted at our site.
Chris was experimenting with Word Press, the blogging format, or software, or whatever the hell it is. (Really, my stupidity about this stuff is not an act). Astoundingly, he basically just wrote me one day and said, “Hey, how’d you like a site redesign?” Then, in an amazingly short amount of time—on my end, if not, presumably, on his—he sent us over to Jabootu.net and said, “How about something like this?” And thus did a wonderland appear before my eyes.
During the move, not everything translated over perfectly from the old site, formatting-wise. (Although it went smoother than could be reasonable expected, and Chris did almost all the work, so I’m in no position to carp.) However, I really like the cleaner, more Spartan look to the new digs. I find it quite beautiful, and I hope you agree. Some of Chris’ design work, like the variety of optional avatars—Green Slime, Bela, Steven Seagal, etc.—available to the reader, I think I are incredibly cool.
One big change is that the reader can now append (and respond to) comments for each review, nugget and/or video cheese entry. Moreover, I will continue/resume blogging at this site, so it will now be one big package.
While the new site has its own message board, we will continue to keep up the old message board at Jabootu.com, at least for the foreseeable future. (Although the old site will, presumably, someday be allowed to disappear into the ether).
Basically, people seem to like the ‘titles’ they’ve earned with their post totals. Until we figure out a way to translate those over, the old board will remain active. Again, though, feel free to post comments to the articles themselves. As always, any and all thoughts, criticisms and viewpoints are welcome, as long as they remain within the bounds of civility.
It will probably be a while before we get over all the content, and I’m sure there will be glitches here and there. I thank you in advance for your patience. Again, though, Chris has done an amazing job. He keeps saying he enjoys the work, and I can only take him at his word. Certainly if he derives pleasure from idiot-proofing websites, then I’ve no doubt he’s found creating a site for me to be a uniquely joyous experience.
Meanwhile, this bold step into the Future—or at least the Present—seems a good time to tip the hat to the large number of people without who this site would not be what it is today.
To put in the simplest possible terms, Paul Smith is the father of this website. If it weren’t for him, none of this would exist. He knew I had been noodling around with the idea of starting such a site. (I had even written the Giant Claw review on spec, as it were, just to see how I liked it. For those keeping track, Change of Habit was the first review written specifically for the Ken’s World site.) However, he must have also known that, left to my own devices, I’d have never gotten going with it. Much like Chris a month or two ago, he presented me with a hunk of webspace one day and said, “Here you go, here’s your site.”
Aside from that, Paul then had to keep the site going. Commercially available software for morons like myself was much less in evidence back in the day, and Paul had to do a lot of programming from scratch whenever a problem popped up. Moreover, as indicated above, I lacked the ability (or, at that point, a computer) with which to myself post material.
This required me to copy everything, including still captures (the Snappy was another thing that seems a miracle at the time, but a cumbersome horror to use today), to a floppy and then pass it on to him. As he was then working insane, 100+ hour weeks, this resulted in long gaps between reviews. This situation was exacerbated by my inability, still prevalent today, to marshal enough energy to write another piece if I had something waiting in pipe. Sure enough, for instance, I’ve basically gotten no writing done during my just completed 6 month hiatus, even though that obviously would have been a good idea.
Anyway, Paul, I hope you have some measure of pride over what you helped create here.
As noted, I determined to abandon the Ken’s World name after we started posting material by other people. The first two to do so were Jason MacIsaac and Douglas Milroy. They proved that not only could others work in the Jabootu format (which was a bit more unique back then), but could do it better than I did.
Their reviews, including those for Exorcist II, Boxing Helena, The Beast, Can’t Stop the Music and Highlander II, among others, remain among the most popular ever posted here. Moreover, a number of their insights and inventions (the Nut ‘o Fun, the Designated Hero) have permanently entered and altered the Jabootu lexicon. In sum, they have had more influence on the Jabootu style of reviewing save anyone but myself. Thanks for all the fish, boys.
Those guys paved the road, but several other folks have written for us over the years, and all of them have provided outstanding work. Aside from the aforementioned Chris Magyar, Liz Kingsley (of my personal favorite review site, And You Call Yourself a Scientist!) kindly offered her takes on some American TV episodes set in her native Australia.
Terrific reviews have also been provided by Lianna Skywalker (who also goaded to me to finally look at and review Battlefield Earth my own self), Eva ‘Pip’ Vandergeld and Jessica Ritchey. A fact which suggests there’s no gender distinction when it comes to ripping horrible movies. Patrick Coyle also co-wrote with Eva. It is with no sense of false modesty that I find myself facing the possibility that I am the least accomplished reviewer and writer ever to post to this site.
Thanks to Mark Hurst, aka Apostic, who did us the signal honor of putting his terrific review site B-Notes under the Jabootu umbrella. I hope you and Jo are well, buddy.
Aside from that, there are many very funny pieces included in the Reader Review pieces, in B-Fest diaries (those by my friend Andrew Muchoney stand with anything on this site), and so on. Thanks to *everyone* who’s so contributed.
A huge, utterly inadequate thank you must be given to our volunteer proofreaders. Kimberly Swygert (recently wed, congratulations) was our first, I think. She continues to provide the public with valuable articles on educational and testing issues over at the Education Wonk blog.
Meanwhile, two incredibly generous, intelligent and diligent men have continued to plod through the muck of my writing, Carl Fink and Bill Leary. I can’t say enough how much worse my prose would be without those two. It’s still pretty bad, but you guys have no idea the headaches these two have saved you over the years. Let’s give them a hand.
Brandi Weed went to an enormous amount of hassle to port the old Ken World Articles over to the Jabootu.com site. Like Chris, and Paul, she never asked for anything in return, not even a word of thanks. I’m glad to give it, though. Thank you, Brandi.
[I’m not sure why I should be proud that the site has drawn the attention of so many incredibly intelligent women, as opposed to just people, over the years, but I am. Thank you, ladies.]I’d also like to say hey to all the people I’ve had the incredible privilege to meet, in the flesh, because of this site. Many run their own sites, and have allowed me to become their colleague. Others are contributors to this site, many ‘just’ readers (I cringe to call them fans). In every single case, the people I’ve met have proven to be the smartest, kindest and just nicest people one could hope for.
I should list them all, but they know who they are; I fear I will inevitably forget some, and that would be unforgivable. Being a bit of a hermit, I can say I’ve gained more friends through this site than I have in my ‘real’ life, and that’s the greatest personal blessing to come from all this.
Despite it seeming like such a cliché, I am at last compelled to thank you, Gentle Reader. Some of you, many more than my efforts deserve, have actually contributed money over the years to help defray the costs of keeping this thing going. Thanks to each of you, I can only hope you feel the money well spent. Also heartily appreciated, though, are those not only chose to actually waste valuable hours (and I’m sure, in some cases, days or potentially even weeks) of their lives with us, but have gone further and dropped me notes and posted to the board over these many years. You’ve all come together to make this the home of a small, but I can’t help feeling very select, community.
I’m proud to know that I’m somehow bamboozled zillions (well, dozens) of people, who all are readily smarter than I, to visit with us and contribute their thoughts and insights. I’m especially proud of the fact that we have attracted a group with fervently held yet widely varied beliefs, who have proved eager to engage in discussion and debate with those of other views, and without ever resorting to the sort of malice, mean-spiritedness and outright thuggery found on many other websites. I can honestly say I can’t think of any message board that has consistently been more intelligent, fair minded and civil than this one, and that’s a powerful combination.
I should say more, and certainly should thank more people. However, a truly rare thing has happened.
I am out of words.
Ken Begg 01/01/07
