Russ Burlingame Talks At You

  Hey, folks! Been a few days, and I apologize for that. The end of the month is always pretty brutal for my day job. Since the last time we "talked," the $5,000 stretch goal that I laid out is pretty far in the rear-view mirror. We're currently up over $6,000, which means we are 200% funded in the first 25% of the campaign. Wow! Again, I can't possibly thank all of you enough for your support. This means that a lot of the little things that I had planned to do out of pocket, will now be covered by the campaign, making the book less of an insane passion project. It's still an insane passion project; just  less  of one. The $5k Gold Exchange stretch goal reached, I can share that I'm currently tweaking and cleaning up the old Gold Exchange collection I had assembled in 2011 for a release in ebook form. Everyone who buys a copy of  Best Movie Ever  will get a Gold Exchange ebook. I am still not sure about the plausibility of doing a paperback run for it, but if ...

Wow! The campaign is still going strong in a way that I couldn't possibly have expected. I know I sound like a broken (purple vinyl) record at this point, but thank all of you so much for your support. It really means a lot to me. So, I'm going to figure out some fun stretch goals in the coming days and weeks, but the first one is something I wanted to bring up since we are already closing in on the amount I had in mind for it: If the campaign reaches $5,000, I'll provide everyone who bought the book with a PDF copy of a collected edition of my "Gold Exchange" columns, which ran on ComicRelated and Blog@Newsarama from about 2006 until 2011. The Gold Exchange was a monthly interview column in which I and the creators of the comic provided a running "commentary track" on  Booster Gold .  What does that have to do with  Josie and the Pussycats ? Well, not a ton, but there are two things. The first is that I wrote it, and you're theoretically supporting ...

  Another, briefer update! We are fully funded! That's a great way for me to end the week, and I promise that some of the cool new perks I had teased will be coming your way over the weekend. I also spoke with the probable editor for the book today, and have to get her a chunk of the book so she can give me a price. It feels like a lot of good things came together today! Going to spend some time with my kids, and have a gin and tonic.

  First of all, thank all of you who have donated to the campaign or pre-ordered copies. It means so much to see that there are people out there who are as excited to read this passion project, as I am to complete it. If you don't know me, you probably don't know that I'm the kind of person who spent the last week telling my wife, "This thing is going to raise about $150, and then I'll have to print copies out of pocket so fulfill my commitments to those five people." I could not have dared expect that I would cross the 90%-funded threshold in less than 72 hours.  I'm floored by the passion and generosity of everyone involved. I'm also acutely aware that the cool perks that I had included in the initial roll-out of the crowdfunding campaign have basically sold completely out! I didn't expect to burn through all of the premium merch so soon, and I'm working on seeing what else I have to offer. In the next couple of days, I'll have additional...

My name is Russ Burlingame, and I'm an entertainment journalist. I currently work for a major geek-news site and have worked in and around that space consistently since 1999. For the last six months, I've been conducting dozens of interviews with cast, crew, and fans of the 2001 movie  Josie and the Pussycats. The film, which was a box office bomb when it was released, has become a cult classic in the intervening years, and to celebrate its 20th anniversary in April, I wanted to write an (unofficial) oral history -- one which incorporates some of the well-worn stories of the film's production as well as new information, some folks who I don't believe have ever been interviewed about their ties to the film, and more. Josie and the Pussycats  isn't the kind of film that generally gets a book written about it, but like the wonderful (but unrelated)  Josie and the Podcats  podcast from 2020, the aim here is to inform the reader while celebrating this movie and the p...