Building upon the increased production of 2024 at Filmtracks, the site's coverage in 2025 has been even more robust. It's currently on pace to surpass last year and compete with the busiest years at the site: 2009 and 2010. The reviewing of all-new 2025 scores is ahead of the normal pace, and the number of first-time reviews of older scores is much greater than anticipated. Matching last year so far is the quantity of re-writes of existing reviews to account for new albums, though these updates are not debuting at a particularly fast rate due to the abundance of all-new reviews.
The coverage goals for 2025 are 45 reviews of all-new scores, 30 new reviews of older scores, and 35 revisions to existing reviews to account for new albums. These numbers were a moderate increase from the prior year's goals due to my enhanced writing methods and the relative ease of the planned reviews of the older scores scheduled for coverage. Through the end of June this year, 99 all-new reviews and 19 re-writes were completed, with 73 of the new reviews representing older scores in an effort to fill in the discographies of the most popular composers.
Clearly, the 99 all-new reviews is a surprising development, not only with the 26 dedicated to 2024 and 2025 scores but in the 73 of older scores already completed during the year. Those numbers for the vintage scores are especially well beyond the anticipated targets and reflect my optimum output from the aforementioned 2009-2010 period. To accommodate that amount of writing, the pace of publishing for these reviews has been increased to the maximum possible without sacrificing views as regular readers cycle through the site every few days.
That pace of debut for older reviews poses a logistical problem, and readers will note that reviews of older Jerry Goldsmith scores written in September 2024 have been published as recently as July 2025. As of this update, there are 88 all-new reviews of older scores waiting to debut, along with 9 re-writes. Together, they amount to about 8 months of On Cue entries in waiting. Any faster rate of publishing for these reviews will sacrifice views on each one, so readers will simply have to wait to access this writing until next year in some cases.
The survey of new reviews for older scores shifted in late 2024 to emphasize the most popular composers, in many cases completing the discographies for those artists during the years of their careers most relevant to this site's concentration. Fully published are the reviews of John Williams and James Horner scores, and almost completely revealed are those written for Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer. The massive survey of Jerry Goldsmith's works will continue to mingle with reviews of other composers for the remainder of this year. I've concluded surveys of 19 to 25 reviews for each of three additional composers coming next, with a fourth in progress.
After filling out the discographies for most of the top ten composers at the site, I'll be turning to the project of updating and revamping the composer tribute pages and then return to reviewing singular, popular scores of the bronze and digital eras for which the readers show interest. The site is badly in need of a redesign, especially in its desktop mode, and that work might happen while the huge backlog of coverage is revealed. That project in particular may not happen if my eyesight continues to decline at the rate it's suffered during 2024 and 2025.
My eyesight issues are the biggest challenge with the site overall, and long-time readers know that I have dealt with endless eye surgeries dating back to 1997 and have already lost quite a bit of vision. The increasing problems with that sight in 2024 and 2025 have been alarming, a worsening and stubbornly prevalent vitreous opacity in one eye and epiretinal membrane in the other distorting my vision and making it difficult to read and write. I've developed newly efficient ways to research and write my reviews to avoid eye strain, splitting up that process with breaks to allow my eyes to heal from strain.
One of the reasons for the sudden influx of writing at the site has been the worry that I may have to take an extended break from all reading and writing while I learn new assistive technologies. That concern obviously applies to any potential redesign of the site as well. By maximizing my productivity while my eyesight is still marginally effective, I can complete reviewing projects long on my to-do list before tackling major adjustments in how I work. So far, I have been experimenting with options related to resolutions and scaling of workstation monitors, but that may not be enough.
Sadly, most of my eye strain and related fatigue and nausea has been due to my employer, which has been very slow to accommodate the vision issues. Although I performed extremely well for them for five years remotely, the City of Seattle insists that its return to office policy is paramount. Not only is the equipment in the office comparatively poor (not to mention the inherent difference in how some software renders fonts and scaling differently on MacOS at home and Windows at the office), but the act of commuting by ferries and busses for three hours per day alone causes eye problems. Periods of slower activity at Filmtracks in 2025 have come during times of prolonged pain caused by that job's in-office days.
I am hoping to resolve these issues with requested disability accommodations at my employer in the coming weeks, and such solutions could positively affect other areas of life, including Filmtracks. Aside from my digital work, I still continue to restore a Seattle area forest as time permits, and it's an increasingly troubling endeavor given the effects of climate change and a neighboring illegal deforestation that my community group continues to fight. That battle has been ongoing now for six years, and the clear-cutters continue to refuse responsibility for their environmental impacts.
My heartfelt thanks to the readership for supporting me and the site. Please enjoy all the new coverage of great modern composers to debut over the remainder of the year.
Christian
