HOW IT GOT STARTED
Several years ago, while completing my undergraduate degree, I began writing book reviews under the username YouDidntHearItFromMe. Publishers and authors sent me ARCs (Advanced Reading Copies) through various sites and my email. I soon tied my reviews to a blog on Tumblr called Mediatron, which had originally started as a high school project, where I reviewed these ARCs as well as various movies, websites, musicians, and other types of media which piqued my interest.
After graduating, the website fell by the wayside for a bit but the Mediatron/YouDidntHearItFromMe project lived on through various platforms such as Goodreads, NetGalley, LibraryThing, Edelweiss, and so on. I was still reviewing, I just wasn't keeping up with the site as well as I should have been.
Recently, I decided to reignite the website and move it from Tumblr to Wix. I am now out of graduate school and working as a bookseller for Half Price Books in Kentucky. Over the next few months, I will be getting this site up and running and bringing the older reviews here. I will be doing my best to keep up with the blogging ideas I had there, like Movie/Music Mondays, Wittle Wednesdays for children's books reviews and You Didn't Hear It From Me negative reviews.
As with my old blog, I feel it is best to commemorate the ribbon cutting ceremony of this new and improved Mediatron by sharing the post which started it all:
YE OLDE INTERDUKTREE POST
In ancient Rome, rulers used a method termed “Bread and Circuses” to maintain their control of plebeians. This method entailed appeasing citizens via “bread” (keeping them full) and “circuses” (keeping them entertained). This method was not restrained to Rome – in fact, it’s still in practice in many different forms and in many places. So, why am I giving you a history lesson? The “circuses” were used during this time as a form of distraction. Meaningless and often violent activities took place and viewers learned nothing new from the experience. But entertainment is a very important part of life, and can sometimes encourage personal growth.
Various forms of art and entertainment enable us to:
- Relieve tension from everyday stresses.
- Experience tales of adventure, horror, comedy, etc. that we might otherwise be ignorant of (we can read about the dangers of a totalitarian society without having to actually be involved in one, for example).
- Keep in touch and up to date.
- Foster our emotional development. Books, film, music, etc. can teach us how to live and interact with other people and even relate fictional events to reality and translate how to deal with problems.
- Media inspires us and sparks the imagination. New genres are created every day by augmenting the elements that already exist and molding them into something that helps you express what matters to you.
So, I’ve decided to create a blog about everything good in life that entertains me, from film to writing to music to art…and once a week, I’m going to post something I’ve made, just to get the week going. Overall, “Bread and Circuses” doesn’t seem like such a terrible way to live. You’re nourishing your body and your mind, and leaving meaningless chatter to the politicians.