Well folks, we've entered our Ghost era of the Curb.
This is the same old site you've known with the same interviews and reviews and the same passionate support for Australian cinema, just a little different.
I won't bore you with the details of the dilemmas of using Wordpress and the increasing costs of hosting a website which uses that as a platform, but the short version is that when a recent renewal fee for $880 dropped in my inbox, I decided to make the shift to something new. Something that would connect us to our readers and listeners in a better way than Wordpress could provide.
That something new is Ghost.
If you're not familiar with Ghost, think of it like a version of Substack or Behiiv or the many different newsletter platforms out there. The difference with Ghost is that it allowed different authors and essentially functions as a website with added inbuilt features that allow subscriptions to take place. While we've got a Patreon in place, the ease of hitting 'publish' here and it appearing in your inbox immediately takes a huge amount of stress out of my mind of needing to post everything everywhere all at once.
A huge thank you to Jannis from Magic Pages for getting the transition to Ghost sorted and dealing with my questions and queries.
So, what of those subscriptions then?
We've got four tiers with monthly and annual fees available.
First up is the Welcome to Woop Woop tier. This is the free tier which gives you regular newsletter updates.
Secondly is the Red Dog tier. At just $2 a month or $20 a year, this tier will drop regular newsletters into your inbox, access to monthly competitions, the ability to comment on posts, and access to our Discord.
Talk to Me tier is our third tier which includes the above items, access to extended interviews and early discussions, access to the archive of reviews and interviews, and participating in a bi-monthly Q&A catch up. This one is $8 a month or $80 a year.
Finally, for $16 a month or $160 a year, there's the Sweet Country tier which contains all of the above, a copy of Lonely Spirits and the King: An Australian Film Book, and the ability to request a film to be reviewed.
We'd love for you to sign up and support the Curb. For a limited time, we've got a 20% off annual subscriptions for each tier until 28 November 2025.
For the Red Dog tier, use code: subspecialrd
For the Talk to Me tier, use code: subspecialttm
For the Sweet Country tier, use code: subspecialsc
It's hard to not use flowery language when encouraging folks to subscribe to your media website, especially given almost everyone understands the need to support independent media right now, but the reality is, it's really bloody important to support independent media right now.
the Curb has always been and will always be an independent website. Given the growing collapse of Australian media and places for Aussie film critics to cover films, I have hope that with your support we can provide a place for those critics to review films and interview creatives.
If all of these words isn't enough to encourage you, then maybe listen to me ramble on for ten minutes or so about all of this, while also mentioning something about a donkey running around with a goat in its mouth:
So, help keep the Curb independent by hitting the subscription button on the bottom right of the screen or at the bottom of this very post.
Thank you everyone for your support over the years and into the future. It really does mean a lot to us.
Andrew F Peirce