THE FINAL ADVOCATE: HELLO, I MUST BE GOING

Good show. Cheers, etc.

A wonderful piece.

Is it weird I started to cry? Why did I start crying? It's a nice story, a wonderful story, but I really think I might be premenstrual or something.

Perfect.

Goodbye, good luck, and go kick ass at your new job.

Getting a little ferklempt over here. Great piece. Can't wait to see what you go on to do.

Goodbye Devin, and good fortune.

I remember lurking on the site way back when and watching you move from "that guy Devin" to the headliner.

Wonderful farewell and I look forward to stalking you on twitter.

It'll be a shame to see you go. Even when I didn't agree with you I always respected and appreciated what you had to say.

Good luck on your future ventures and I hope it turns out for the best.

Btw...what is your facebook address so we can follow you there?

Edit: My bad, I just saw the link for facebook.

All I can do is raise a glass in your direction and say "Great job, then, now, and forever."

We'll miss you on the front page, Devin. Don't be too much of a stranger on the boards now! If Smilin Jack can still come school us, you can too!

...and now it feels really very final and real.

Devin - I aint got the words.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

Again, I'm raising (probably many) a glass to you this weekend in toast to the last decade.

Not weird at all. I got a bit teary eyed. I hate endings.

So long and thanks for all the great writing, Devin.

I'm eager to see what's next. Thanks for all the great content.

Goodbye(s) is always an interesting animal no matter what medium. You've always been fair, comrade. Your writing second-to-none. Wherever you go... Go with your heart.

Good luck Devin, kick some ass

Great piece, Dev. I'm proud to have been able to work with you and I'm tremendously excited to see where you end up.

A magnificent end to your Advocate, Devin, and a great final good bye. Good luck with your new job.

Devin,

I will write more in the morning once I have my head clear (it's 2am here), but for now I just want to say that your presence on CHUD will be sincerely missed. !t's hard to find the words to say goodbye, so for now I will instead wish you good luck

PS most excellent ADVOCATE

PPS Are you going to TIME or NEWSWEEK? That is my official guess

Beautifully written.

Can't wait to see what you're doing next. I'll follow along to the next project (my totally uneducated guess? tv show) and continue following CHUD. Thanks for all the great reviews and commentery here at CHUD.

There has barely been a day in the last seven or eight years I haven't read something you wrote Devin. In some weird way I've let you into my life (barely). It's going to be really weird not seeing your name under articles on the front page. I wish you the best of luck in your creative endeavors but you don't need it. You are an incredibly intelligent and insightful human being.

You're also kind of an asshole but a lovable asshole. We'll miss you.

That felt like a perfect series finale to me. Fantastic piece, Devin. Long may you run.

Gonna miss ya.

Good luck with your new project.

CHUD is the first thing I check everyday and every time I turn on a computer. It will continue to be even though Devin is gone. It won't be the same, but it will still be my favorite source for the stuff I care about. Devin was here since I was a young man in High School and thanks to his articles and reviews, I have been able to view and appreciate movies on a whole different level. Thank YOU, Devin.

Well said man. Cheers, and best of luck.

Devin...?


Loved hearing about your history with CHUD. Really gonna miss reading your stuff here, but there's no question I'll be following whatever you do next.

Best of luck to you!

That was really nicely written Devin.

I want to reiterate what major bummer this is though. Discovering Chud, and Devin's writing helped save my sanity back in the second semester of my sophomore year of college in a small snowlocked town in northwest PA when I was suffering from an illness that kept me mostly confined to bed rest when I wasn't attending classes, ensuring that I had almost no social contact for the better part of three months. It was heartening to find someone writing about movies in a way that I could relate to, and a community of likeminded individuals to discuss them with. It helped rekindle my passion for movies (which was understandably difficult to maintain in a town that showed the same two movies for months, requiring an hour-plus drive through snowstorms to see anything recent).

In away, Devin and Chud were a small cog in the complex mental machine that led to me realizing I needed to change up my life situation, a decision that eventually led me to attend USC.

I know CHUD is always going to be around and Devin will keep writing, but Devin leaving is kind of the end of a chapter.

Maybe I'm getting a little mushy and flowery, but what the hell, I'm kind of tired and strung out after a three-hour cinematography night class, so I'm going to say it as I see it in the moment.

Best wishes for the future Devin, I look forward to see what you get up to.

Classy exit.

An excellent farewell. Thanks for all the great reads, Devin.

Dunno, maybe I'm a sentimental sod but I chocked up a bit too. When you're talking about a decade passing I think it's fair to call this the end of an era, and I've been following along for most of that time. More than me just being a fan, Devin has significantly influenced my watching, critical thinking, and writing. Plus it was a really well written goodbye that put all the above into perspective. Considering all that I don't think it's weird or inappropriate to be at least a little moved by it.

Oh god why would he do that?

Great last Advocate!

I wrote Nick an overly-sappy letter to this effect a long time ago, but CHUD has directly, measurably, and repeatedly impacted my life* and a notable part of that influence is due to Devin's writing and contribution. My degree, my thesis film, the set visit I'm going on in a few short hours... none of these things wouldn't have been possible or have turned out the same without Dev's impact on my film-watching and filmmaking headspace.

I think he's been a great influence.

My only regret Devin, is that I never got to meet you while we were both a part of CHUD. I look forward to your future good doings.

*colon

Peace.

I will sorely miss these Advocates, but I am extremely excited to see what comes next.

Thanks

What an incredibly poignant last week or so since the news was announced of Devin's departure as a contributor to the best movie site on the web. I know I'm practically a pee-on in regards to my relatively brief presence on the boards and such, yet I too feel the extent of the immense void that will be felt by Mr. Faraci's absence.

As many others have mentioned, this is the first site I visit every time I take a moment to peruse the internet. And continue to check throughout each passing day.

The sense of community is unparalleled. The love displayed for the film medium is intoxicating. I absolutely adore this meeting ground for fans and advocates of the greatest art form known to mankind to gather and shoot the shit.

Is it too much to ask that those of us who reside in the city of Los Angeles organize some form of celebration for Devin's contributions to CHUD? A relaxed gathering... a pint or ten at a bar. A double feature at the New Beverly. Any other idea that one of you could conjure up. All the better if the man of the hour would consider partaking in the festivities.

It was worth a shot.

Either way, I wish you the best sir.
Thanks for everything. Long may you run, indeed!!!

-Marco

It was a pleasure reading your stuff all these years Devin. Best of luck out there wherever you go.

Man, CC's dvd site was my gateway to discovering Chud...feels like a long time ago.

Good luck man. Despite what the trolls say you've always been one of the good ones. And for those of us around long enough to remember what you're actually talking about this piece has a lot of extra meaning.

Great piece. I'm sorry to see you go, Devin. As someone who read you and AICN for several years, it's been an incredible honor and a blast to be shoved into your world and be your colleague.

I haven't forgotten that two weeks after I started on AOL, you wrote me on MySpace, introduced yourself, and gave me a pep talk. To me, this was a sign I'd made it. I had such a trial by fire, with not a lot of encouragement or help, and you were one of the only nice voices out there.

People found that incredible -- it's weird, when I meet readers and fellow writers, the first thing they ask me isn't something like "Hey, what was Josh Brolin like?" or "How much do you get paid?", they ask me "What do you think of Devin Faraci?" And I always said the same thing -- "He was one of the first web guys to introduce themselves. He's a nice guy. He really is. Not a lot of people were nice to me, but he was."

Your advice was the one piece of advice I held onto -- if you're not pissing someone off, you're not doing your job. :P Being a young punk, I took that to some extremes -- we all do, I suppose -- but that advice made me braver than anything else that first year.

I remember this quirky shoutout fondly too. I think we only talked once or twice that year, but it meant a lot. Having someone I respected and read acknowledge me at all made me feel like I'd made it. AND you got me into that RocknRolla roundtable just so Gerard Butler and I could make eyes at each other.

I'm anxious to see what you do next. I know it will be fantastic. You've worked hard and you've been a consistent and endlessly surprising voice.
Whether anyone agreed or disagreed, you made people talk and think, which is something sorely lacking in the wider world. Few take a stand. You always did.

You've inspired a lot of people, including me. You've made a lot of people live in fear of your approval, including me. We all tremble in your shadow. It's that imposing.


Happy trails. I wish we could have drank together more than once -- but then again, I don't think I could handle being THAT sick again.

Take it easy, boss. And thanks for all the effort, above all else.

Better than the end of LOST. Good luck, Dev. Looking forward to seeing what happens next.

What a perfect final piece Devin bravo.

Beautifully written -- brought a smile to my face and reminded me (again) why I stick around.

And, a wonderful, positive arc to a life brought to you by Nick and the letter CHUD

Best of luck wherever you're going.

Great advocate. Good luck Devin.

Goodbye Devin, you have always been my favourite movie critic and writer for all these years.

And though I will miss your editorials and reporting here at CHUD, I find comfort in the fact that we'll still be able to read your thoughts on movies at your upcoming destination.

Great work as always.

The man leaves the week after I show up. I hope I don't smell.

Good luck, Dev. You wrote the first CHUD piece I ever read. You're an emperor among kings, sir. Look forward to seeing you rock whatever boat is crazy enough to give you passage next.

"Will you succeed? Yes, you will indeed. (98 3/4% guaranteed.)"

Damn, I had no idea. This totally blindsided me.

I'm... kind of at a loss really. I'm still fairly new(ish) here, and I don't post anywhere near as often as I'd like to. But I gotta say Devin, you're various writings have impacted me tremendously over the last 5/6-ish years, and very much for the better. You're one of two web-writers who over the past half-decade have completely and single-handedly rekindled and revitalized my waning love and passion for two very, very different mediums. You've both introduced me to many excellent films I never knew existed, as well as reminded me of many more excellent films that I had completely forgotten the existence of and might never have rediscovered and revisited otherwise.

I can't say that I've agreed with every single solitary opinion you've ever expressed, but I've very much agreed with, or at least related to, a vast overall majority of them as well as the overall general spirit of them. I've also been challenged and had my outlook on many things both altered and reaffirmed, and many were the times that something you'd written made me realize exactly WHY it was that I felt the way I felt about something, or had given me new angles to look at how my own views and tastes and opinions had come to be shaped as they had over the two and a half plus decades that have been my life thus far.

What I ultimately find I share most with you and what I've ultimately found that I relate to most about you and your writings is a resolute insistence on remaining as staunchly, brutally, and uncompromisingly honest and unrestrained about most all things at just about all times with just about everyone, even if it means being uncomfortably blunt. I too share this trait and have since a very early age, and I've found over the years that I've read your various writings that its the foremost trait that has kept me constantly relating and identifying so much with not only what you've had to say but also HOW you often chose to say it.

It probably makes you, me, and those like us out to be the assholes and the bad guys in numerous situations... but there are so very many other instances and situations in life that so very desperately require that someone out there be the guy charged with just calling the spade a fucking spade in the most direct, unfiltered manner possible because everyone else is so busy tap dancing awkwardly around a given issue in the interest of politeness and being inoffensive, that they fail to really get at the heart of the matter. And many were the times in my opinion that you've said things about movies, the internet, fandom, etc. that absolutely NEEDED to be said by somebody and in precisely that cuttingly severe a manner of saying it.

I'll miss your writing here most definitely, but the impact that they've had on me (and others) will always remain no matter what. Whatever you might wind up doing in the future, wherever your writing might appear next in whatever fashion it does, I'll most likely be there to read it still, and needless to say I won't be alone in that. I'll still always love CHUD and visit it just as often, but as others have already said many times over, it just won't be the same.

Best of luck to you sir.

Good luck, Devin.

I am definitely going to miss your "Advocate" series. I'm glad you ended it on such a high note, though!

Well written advocate, as always, Devin. Hate to see you go, but will definitely be there to see what future brings to you.

Good luck!

I've enjoyed reading your work. Good luck with your next gig.