An Introduction

Let’s make this a little less short, and a little more complex.

Hi. My name is Andy Crump. I started this blog back in 2009 to capture my thoughts and feelings on movies, and also to play-act the role of “film critic,” the vocation I sincerely wished I’d landed in back when it actually meant something*. If you’re so inclined, you can search through the archives for my oldest pieces to compare and contrast; I’ve thought of doing this myself, but I’d rather not make myself cringe**.

Over the decade and change since opening doors on A Constant Visual Feast, I’ve had a few epiphanies, lucky breaks, and major life events that have led me to where I am today: Marc Ciafardini, proprietor of GoSeeTalk and all-around awesome dude, invited me to write for him back in 2011, which didn’t pay but did get me on press lists; Marc put me in touch with folks at Screen Rant, where I covered entertainment news; I put myself in touch with folks at Paste Magazine in 2013, where I started writing about American Horror Story, horror movies, Her, and The Wolf of Wall Street right away; I learned the delicate art of pitching, and began reaching out to editors at outlets ranging from The Hollywood Reporter to Thrillist to Vulture to Polygon to The Week over the course of years; a friend of mine got me a freelancing gig with Northshore Magazine, my first print experience; I added beer and music to my repertoire of subjects; and most recently, and most importantly, my wife gave birth to our daughter, I quit my day job, and I began staying at home with her while picking up more freelance gigs. 

A Constant Visual Feast has, for the last half decade or so, served mostly as a portfolio of all my work, which is to say that it functions as a time capsule: You can trace the arc of where I’ve come from to where I’m currently standing, if you are so inclined, and you can also just catch my work as I post it here. I guess, if I’m being honest, I’m not exactly a “film critic,” though most of my work is about film, and more of a freelance culture writer, but the former rolls off the tongue much more easily than the latter, and besides that I think there are plenty of ways that the movies intersect with music, and beer, and even parenting, which is yet another thing I write about.

Anyways. Welcome. Please enjoy my work. 

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*It still means something, because, I mean, I’m doing it. But it’s really hard to make a living as a critic, because as much as the Internet makes it “easier” to write about film online, it makes it very difficult to “make money” off of it.
**I dunno, maybe I wouldn’t cringe. Maybe I’d just see the roots of my success in amateur-level writing.