Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, Ubiquity, and Goldfish Crackers
Comics without covers As I kid, I read a bunch of comic books. Actually, scratch that. I had a collection of a few dozen comic books, but I just read them over and over again. None of them had covers. And it’s not because I was a destructive child.
Our robotic future
With the rise of drones, we’re becoming a lot more conscious of how little robots are interacting with us in everyday life. Recently Mary and I watched an interesting and funny film about that very topic set in the near future called Robot and Frank. Frank is dealing with some kind of Alzheimer’s or dementia and his son, who lives five hours away, thinks a robot will be make his own life a little easier by taking care of Frank for him. It’s touching, and funny, and also has some jewel heist scenes, which you know always make a movie better. Read more…
Media Carnivores: Summer Blockbusters
The second episode of Media Carnivores is about the Hollywood summer blockbuster season that we are just kicking off with Spiderman and Godzilla. I love movies–small indie films and big loud boisterous blockbusters. But there has been a growing trend for the last ten years where all the big movies of the summer are either adaptations, remakes, or sequels. Brent and I talk about the trend of Hollywood going for the safe properties, and whether there are “concept” action movies that are going unmade. We cover a lot of ground, but the episode comes in nine minutes shorter than the last one. Read more…
Announcing the Media Carnivores Podcast
So here’s a really fun new project! Seattle author Brent Hartinger and I are starting a podcast called “Media Carnivores.” The first episode is online or you can subscribe directly from iTunes. There’s a Twitter feed for the episodes too. So what are “media carnivores?” Brent and I coined this term, so we get to decide! Media carnivores devour media–books, movies, television, plays. Everything. This podcast is our chance to talk about it. Not just about the shows we’re watching. But about what it all means. About where media is heading, as best as we can guess it. Sometimes that means talking about our Read more…
How to Enjoy Shakespeare
Today is William Shakespeare’s 450th birthday. Unfortunately, far too many people have a poor introduction to Shakespeare, and give up on him too quickly. I wrote a guide on Medium to enjoying Shakespeare (hint, don’t pick up a play and start trying to read it). It starts with a story about a college professor on Jeopardy. Enjoy.
The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis
Normally I post book reviews on Goodreads, but I wanted to make an exception for this one, since it fits with the posts about games this year. The Queen’s Gambit [that’s an affiliate link, btw], by Walter Tevis, was just a joy of a book. A young orphan named Elizabeth Harmon is discovered to be a chess prodigy at age eight, and the book follows her story as she developers her talent. You don’t have to know chess to enjoy the book, although I was glad to discover it while in the midst of several games. If you’re familiar with the Read more…
Where will House of Cards Season 3 leave us?
[Warning, this blog post is full of spoilers for House of Cards, not to mention The Player, All About Eve, Breaking Bad, and The Great Gatsby. Proceed with caution] House of Cards is great television. Season 1 is better than Season 2, I thought, but both seasons are very good. The drama is excellent, even if the show’s reading of politics is a little absurd. But that’s like complaining that Lost didn’t show what it was really like to crash on a tropical island. If you’ve watched the show (and again, this is your last chance to avoid spoilers) Read more…
To Title or Not to Title
It’s hard to title a book or a movie. I’ve written hundreds of thousands of words, but it’s usually those first couple of words that are the hardest. Truth be told, I’m still not 100% happy with The Lead Cloak‘s title. It has just the slightest tinge of fantasy, when it’s really a pretty straight sci-fi adventure. One of the most common things people try with titles is to adapt a famous quote or line from the Bible or Shakespeare. Sometimes this can be devastatingly effective. Other times, pointless or pretentious. After seeing numerous titles adapted from Hamlet’s famous soliloquy, Read more…
Movies About Writing
I enjoyed this article by Michael McGrath on The Millions about how movies so poorly depict writers. Mostly by ignoring the writing and focusing on the rest: The darker elements of creation are excellent fodder for thrillers and effective platforms for comedies. These films take the work itself less seriously (often a lack of literary merit is part of the joke) and instead focus on the pitfalls of the creative life. They ignore the words for the work and all that can inspire and disrupt it: psycho fans, ex-wives, portals to the Underworld. This is partly true, but honestly, I Read more…
I saw some movies in the last couple of weeks …
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is a really good action movie. Enjoyed it a lot. It's also better than Sherlock Holmes 2: Game of Shadows. SH2 had all the weaknesses of the first Sherlock Holmes, but fewer of the strengths. Young Adult features a very unlikeable character, but it's still a pretty funny movie. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was slow and deliberate. A little too slow and deliberate. (I read the book previously and enjoyed it.) The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (David Fincher version). I've now seen two movie versions and read the book. I've liked it in all versions. The American Read more…
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