The Official Handbook of the Nick Nunziata Universe

CHUD and The AV Club are the only two essential film sites on the web for me. Recently I've been reading more AV Club, but that's because I've only a passing interest in film news and am much more interested in film reviews and discussions. That's why this year was kind of a relative disappointment as far as CHUD content. Devin even admitted that he sort of dropped the ball as far as film reviews this year. That combined with the regrettable loss of Mr. Beaks has made this a sad CHUDyear. But the lists towards the end of the year have been a good antidote to that.

But this site has personality, talented writers, a good sense of humor, and a healthy appreciation of genre films. I have to believe that, once the redesign is all worked out, CHUD will be unstoppable.

It's the sites like CHUD, that actually have a soul, a personality, a style, and a unique brand, that will survive in the long term. The peak may never be as high, but the longevity most certainly will be.

I dig the idea of CA being back and I'll probably check that out daily, but CHUD remains the only film site that's worth my time on the net. I follow several other film sites on Twitter, and everytime I chance to click on one of their story links I am typically met with some form or manner of retarded.

In a bigger sense, I think 2008 was a giant pile of shit. It has, without question, been the shittiest year of my life and it hasn't been much better for the folks I know. Our whole damn world isn't doing so hot either. I believe in the peaks and troughs though, so I have high hopes for the new year. I hope this time next year finds us all in a more satisfied and hopeful place.

Yeah, I hate to sound like a broken record but 2008 really sucked from a number of perspectives. At this point I don't think you're going to find anybody who'll disagree.

But I think it's important that we really cling to the sites that we find to be worthwhile if there is going to be a crash. Now more than ever I'm digging CHUD stories to do my part to make sure you guys aren't too badly affected by something to come.

Basically, fly the flag and fly it proudly. More important now than ever.

Nick Nunziata, Hopefully CHUD.COM will continue to thrive, even in case of a possible internet meltdown. CHUD is definitely my favorite site for news, the boards, and all the people that work there as well. Happy Holidays, and Merry Christmas to all, for a prosperous 2009 and beyond.

Movie news isn't what attracts me to Chud, I can get that just about anywhere. Like Renn said above, I come here (multiple times a day) for Chud's soul. It's the analysis, commentary and just plain awesome features (i.e. the lists, Chudsploitation, etc.) that keep me hooked here. But even if news and reviews was all Chud ever gave us I'd still keep you guys at the top of my list simply because I've been visiting the site for so long, and because so many of its writers have had such a profound impact on the way I watch and digest movies. Nick, I can even say you've helped somewhat reshape my sense of humor over the last several years (which isn't surprising considering I've been reading stuff you've written ever since your IGN days).

Basically what I am saying is that "recession" or not, I'll be here supporting Chud and its writers for as long as you guys are putting stuff out.

Agreed. Chud.com is far and away my favorite website. Smart but not snobby. Funny but not retarded.

Well said. Great work as always, Nick.

Was there reason to think otherwise?

Good news? Inside reference? Both? Neither?

I like this new blog... It has a cool everyman quality. I look forward to reading it daily.

New contract? New finance?

It's good news nevertheless.

Perhaps I won't be rebuying on Monday, if there's a game of this going.

The new format works, and works well.

Chud is top of the league for me too, I found it because someone told me to check out the hilariousness of the podcast but I keep coming back for the writing. Not that there aren't other good writers, just that there isn't another concentration of them.

I feel your shoulder pain too dude, I'm only 34 but I feel like I need about 6 million dollars spent on me to get shit in order again.

I heard that.

I'll be 37 on April 29th, and I have never met my father. I don't even have a picture of him. When I was born he was 27, my mother was only 19, and he already had two daughters by another woman. When I was 2, he moved to Minnesota. He wanted to take me and my mom with him, but she didn't want to leave. There isn't a single day I don't think about him, and what he might be doing.

I'm 31, and haven't seen my father since I was 4. So in a way, I don't know him one bit, although we played a bit of phone tag when I was a kid.

I've been struggling with whether or not I even want to track him down. I've gone as far as to get an address and phone number, but I can't bring myself to actually make the trip to see him, or even pick up the phone. No idea what to say to him, none of that. I'm not sure if we're beyond some sort of reconciliation, or if I just want to punch him in the face multiple times. But if he dies tomorrow, what regrets will I have then having never really known the man? Rhetorical question, but anyway...

There's not a single day that goes by that I don't take a moment to be immensely grateful for my parents and my relationship with them. Perhaps it's because we're closer in age than most Parents/Children (I'm about to be 21, my Mom's 39, and Dad's 42), but we're are close in a way that I don't see with most other people my age and their parents. The idea of not having either of them scares me more than anything else I could possibly imagine. I get near panic attacks just thinking about them being gone. I have no doubt that I'll be a very crippled person when they are.

That's a powerful story, and the lesson to take from it is pretty much the whole ballgame. Hope the anniversary isn't too tough for you and your family Nick.

Very moving. Thanks for sharing it.

Those things you speak of hit home Nick, as do these replies from Bark and Nexus. Paying attention to and appreciating the small things about the ones we're closest to and therefore risk taking the most for granted. "No one was a burden to him, always worth making them laugh or cooking them a meal or accommodating them simply because me or my mother felt they were worth having over." I've aimed to be like that myself, to one day find a way past the grumpier side of my own nature, like you talk about having yourself, and open my arms more to people. To love and be loved like your dad was seems to me the greatest way to exist.

It's hard to write about this kind of stuff without it sounding trite somehow (like the post I'm writing right now will probably come off), all carpe diem and don't take the ones you love for granted and all that. Those kinds of messages come regularly enough from various quarters, from films, songs, news stories, real people like you, and they hit with varying degrees of impact. This is a fine piece of writing Nick, very moving, real, sobering and mostly inspiring.

By dumb luck (my own and his) my old man is still around and as of this moment is in hospital for an operation on a broken shoulder after an accident he suffered last night. It's nowhere hear as bad as any number of other things he could be in there for but anyone who pays attention knows that there's a percentage of people who go in for routine stuff who never come out again. He's a magic grandfather to my brother's kids and has been nothing short of a superhero to me.

For some time I've been meaning to sit down with him and a video camera and just film the conversation, get stories on tape, get his voice and the way his face moves and the way he thinks. Before my last grandparent died two years ago (I never knew either grandfather and my other nana died twenty years ago) I sat with her in her room in the rest home and did the same thing. I got her stories of growing up a Dutch colonist in the Indonesian jungle and living three years in a Japanese POW camp and later having to raise four young children alone after my Opa had died. This tiny woman who had seen so much sufferning but only had it in her enormous heart to love and give. There's nothing I possess or have ever possessed that mean more to me than those recordings.

Your piece today is a powerful reinforcement of the fallibility of our own memories, of the way things that mean so much to us can often leave less of an imprint than they deserve to. Your father passed on but you still have people you love and who loved him, your mother, his family and his friends. Get hold of a video camera and make some time to take some film of them, talking about him first of all maybe, but also their own stories, both for your future self and for your own grandchildren. Your love for him can help you build a legacy for him, a record of the beautiful things about the people he loved.

I'm 21, and it's been six years.

Good piece, Nick.

I want to be optimistic about next season, I really do. But right now, I'm looking forward to going to Gwinnett Braves games more than the majors.

More importantly...

Is this an announcement?

Same question.

Cool.

Even more importantly: Do you agree Steve's terrible?

Isabella's a lovely name. It'd get my vote. Nickname potential only sweetens the deal.

one time I was cooking sausages and had forgotten to poke them with a fork, one of them popped and split with enough force than it leaped out of the pan and rolled across the carpet which was in need of a vacuum. I saw the thing lying there and thought to myself, Steve?

It wasn't though, this guy had a plastic tube sticking out of his trachea.

Liar

The images this conjures...

Isabella's nice. I've always been partial to Danielle and shortening it to Danny. For some reason.

Depends on the surname. If it was Fuckinkiddinme then Izzy is the most beautiful nickname ever.

Is the Izzy question related to your Kaballah research? Screenplay maybe?

Amy Irving's character in Crossing Delancey went by Izzy. That's good enough for me.

I had myself a good, long LOL at this.

Isabella is quite versatile. You can show her The Fountain and she'll start going by Izzy, and then you can show her Twilight and she'll start never speaking to you again.

Haven't ya heard? Tuesday is the useless day that'll get the axe. Regarding the cops... I'm always pissed when I see the two police units 69ing each other in the Denny's parking lot, presumably talking about the minority they just used as a urinal. Chatting and donuting when they should be drug dealer beating.

I'm jealous of your swag and trip.

I'm jealous of live mail order starfish, outside of anthrax bacteria it's my most anticipated living delivery.

I'm jealous that the week you're in LA, I'll be on the other side of the planet, because you were a pretty cool guy to get a drink with. Oh well.

I've now got a hankerin for that yummy souther chicken right now, but goddamned if i don't always get it Sunday afternoon.

fuck da police.

yes, souther.

So that's like, Mexican?

Couldn't you guys buy some Chick-Fil-A on Saturday, then warm it up on Sunday?

Are you one of those dolts who just reads headlines?
If the change happens, that doesn't necessarily mean an end to Saturday mail delivery. Previous post office studies have looked at the possibility of skipping some other day when mail flow is light, such as Tuesday.

That's only the second sentence in!

Upset? You and I both know mistakes like that make my day!