By: Steve Pulaski
It’s been a hot minute since I’ve posted a comprehensive “life update” blog. Blame the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, for one, which saw me revive my college radio show Sleepless with Steve into a weekly podcast because how else was I supposed to stay occupied and keep in touch with people close to me? Blame the compounding fact that outside of trying to stay posted on movie reviews and cherish the moments I did manage to have with friends, not a great deal happened in my life last year. Hell, blame my own after-work-fatigue where all I wanted to do was come home to my cats, have a cocktail, and relax.
That’s about to change and change dramatically. Welcome to the OFFICIAL Steve Pulaski website. A long time in the making and the product of dozens of hours of labor — mostly on the end of my tireless friend/webmaster Andrew Bohall — it’s a dream come true for me.
I am fully aware that I relied on a combination of ProBoards and BlogSpot as sanctuaries for my content for far too long. I began writing film reviews at the tender and woefully inexperienced age of 13, and up until recently, I didn’t have the know-all nor financial means to set up a website. I remember attempting to make the leap in 2014, but upon seeing the labor required to make the site I’ve had brewing in my mind for years, I quickly backed out of my impulsive effort.
Those days are over. As grateful as I am for the wealth of free resources provided by those aforementioned outlets, the wheels fell off on both of them a while ago. I needed something more official and more comprehensive. I have far too many projects and creative ventures for one royalty free site to adequately contain and organize.
With Andrew’s help, I sat down, sketched out a very rough outline of the website I wanted. I borrowed elements from a variety of preexisting websites belonging to film critics and essayists. I kept a detailed account of everything I desired and needed to work out. I combed (and am still combing) through the files on my litany of flash-drives to make this a massive resource. I even took some sound advice from a few friends and my loyal webmaster in the process.
I’m proud of this here website, even if it is day zero. Launching on June 25th — my 25th birthday — it will now be the primary home for my film reviews, long-form essays, my radio work, music, Sleepless with Steve videos, updates on my Free Blockbuster Project, and more. Any/everything is accessible with a simple keyword-search. It’s a resource housing my content along with being an extension of my ever-growing resume.
As of today, this website is very much still a work in progress. I have a backlog of 3,000+ reviews that I’d love to see on here, but realize that’s rather infeasible. This is why the ProBoards archive of my film reviews will remain live going forward, albeit no longer updated. I’ll do my best to continue publishing my backlog, but it will take an exorbitant amount of time to complete. Thankfully, both Andrew and I built this site with intent for it to last many years. Hopefully decades.
In the coming weeks, when visitors (optimistically) begin migrating over, we will make adjustments and corrections as they come to our attention. A long-term goal of mine is to effectively host this site personally in my apartment, but that is an undertaken for another year. Until then, this is the place to find me, along with Influx Magazine, for my latest reviews, musings, and what-have-you.
I dearly appreciate and, more importantly, welcome any and all feedback as it pertains to the site. I hope you see this website as I do: a place for thoughtful opinions on a barrage of different platforms, all neatly organized and accessible in one centralized place. As stated, it’s been a long time coming. And it’s finally a reality.
Steve Pulaski has been reviewing movies since 2009 for a barrage of different outlets. He graduated North Central College in 2018 and currently works as an on-air radio personality. He also hosts a weekly movie podcast called "Sleepless with Steve," dedicated to film and the film industry, on his YouTube channel. In addition to writing, he's a die-hard Chicago Bears fan and has two cats, appropriately named Siskel and Ebert!