'Unstrung Nerves' is now 'Octopus Goes to the Movies'

You may notice that, beginning with this email/post, Unstrung Nerves is no longer Unstrung Nerves. The new name of Eleven’s film blog is Octopus Goes to the Movies.

But why?

Firstly, I wanted a name that conveyed whimsy and had some variation on the words film, cinema, or movies, just to let readers know right off the bat what I’m about. The former name was obtuse and didn’t get across anything to anyone but me. While there’s some value in writing for yourself first, there’s also value in making sure your work gets to people, if you want your work to get to people, that is, which I do.

I would probably be foolish to blame low-subscriber woes on branding alone. But that said, the new name is something that I hope I can be proud of regardless of whether it contributes to greater success. The octopus is my favorite animal and one with which I have always felt an affinity bordering on “secretly an octopus disguised as a person”.

As far as URLs go, with all former links to my old pages now unfortunately broken, I’ve settled on a simple and evergreen URL based on my name (so future name changes needn’t break things), and in the future I should have URLs based on my old site name and new site name redirecting there. I don’t know much about this stuff, so it will take a little time.

I’d also like to commit in the new year to a more regular publishing schedule. Ideally I’ll be posting a piece of writing at least once a week, so starting tomorrow, look forward to new pieces every Friday. In addition to my own writings on Friday, on Mondays I’ll be posting a round-up of cinematic news items and whatever interesting film-related stuff I’m reading and listening to.

Enjoy, and thanks for being a subscriber.