Accidental Byline?

EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. - For the longest time, I've been intending to get published somehow in the newspaper for which I work. I've been pitching ideas, feeling a sense of triumph maybe two or three times, feeling utterly rejected many others.

But the last thing I expected was that my first-ever byline in the print version of the domestic paper would totally blindside me.

Last night, while hanging out with co-workers at a bar right across from our new office at 1211 Avenue of the Americas, I found out from someone that she saw my byline in the Money & Investing section of the Wednesday, July 8 edition of The Wall Street Journal. My eyes widened immediately; I had no idea. Naturally, I ask, "for what?"

Turns out that a routine minor story about CD yields that I plug in the numbers for every Tuesday---a little thing that usually gets no byline---got a byline this week. There was absolutely no reason for it, as far as I could see. Was it accidental? (Maybe that's just how much my superiors like me...)

In any case...it totally wasn't planned---I was recently working on another story that I was hoping would be my first in the print edtion---but hell, I'll take it!

Funny how things work out like that!

Here's the link to the story; if you hit the subscriber wall for it, just try searching, say, "kenji fujishima yield wsj" on Google.

Movies 2009: My Barebones Midyear Round-up

EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. - On Twitter, quite a few of the cinephiles I follow have been tweeting their mid-year roundups of the best movies they've seen thus far. Being that I'm generally a trend-follower on the microblogging site rather than a trend-starter, I've decided to follow suit...though not on Twitter. I'm using this poorly maintained blog to post my midyear cinematic reckoning.

Here are my 10 favorites so far, in rough order of preference. There were plenty more I could have chosen---in my opinion, this half-year has been fairly rich in intriguing cinematic offerings, at least depending on where you looked---but for now, this will do. (I won't annotate this; I'll leave that for my year-end wrap-up. Seems more "final" to do it then than now. But feel free to comment and engage me on my picks!)

1. Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas)
2. The Limits of Control (Jim Jarmusch)
3. Birdsong (Albert Serra)
4. 24 City (Jia Zhangke)
5. Up (Pete Docter)
6. Moon (Duncan Jones)
7. Goodbye Solo (Ramin Bahrani)
8. Two Lovers (James Gray)
9. Serbis (Brillante Mendoza)
10. Coraline (Henry Selick)

To future delights and revelations at the movies in the next six months!