ESR AT WORD

I just came back from the 2007 edition of Word on the Street, which is a large-scale festival of books, magazines, and all things in between, held at the Queens Park Circle here in Toronto. My friend and peer, Greg Woods, is there manning his The Eclectic Screening Room (ESR) table. This year he is unloading a lot of his back catalogue in order to make room for the newest editions of the ESR magazine and some of its offshoot publications.

ESR is one of the finest magazines of its type. It focuses on B and Z movies, which is a form of film close to my heart. I find that it is actually possible for me to read the mag, cover to cover. There is such a variety of films discussed in each issue that every article, to me, is interesting reading. I have heard of a lot of films of this ilk, but Greg puts me to shame. This allows him to write from a assured basis; there is no bull, and I am always learning and absorbing ESR content from issue to issue. You will not find any fluff in those pages. What makes this remarkable is that Greg operates this all in the so-called 'small press' domain. The Eclectic Screening Room magazine should be, sorry Greg and all you inspired small press people, a legitimate publication with decent distribution. (I do realize that the magazine publishing business, here in Canada at least, is a brutal affair. A lot of mags drop like flies; they live very short lives some of them. Government support is needed to keep the periodical business alive in Canada.)

Greg Woods is a hero of mine because he just doesn't talk about it, he actually does something about it. And the bonus is, the "it" is outstanding.

The ESR website can be found at... http://screening-room.ca/