Month: December 2018

Various and Sundry

After a 21-year Pause, More Art Enters Public Domain

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

2019 will bring many things, both planned and unplanned… but one of the planned events is one I had forgotten until people started circulating an article from the Smithsonian magazine by Glenn Fleishman: a mass of copyrights is expiring putting books, poems, music, films, and other art into the public domain. This is very exciting, and not just because Jabberwocky Audio Theater will happily adapt 1920s sci-fi and adventure material as it did from H.G.…

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Various and Sundry Writing

The Bookstore is Dead. Long Live the Bookstore!

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

One of the biggest issues plaguing independent entrepreneurial creators (authors, artists, filmmakers, etc.) would be how to find an audience — and even if that nut is well and truly cracked: how do you maintain or even grow it? That’s a topic for many another post, but amid forums and social media I follow where people discuss the topic, there’s the inevitable discussion of what Faustian bargain should be made with Amazon, the everything store…

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Raves

My 50 Favorite Films, 2018 Edition

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

It feels like it’s been too long, but really, it’s only been two years since my last 50 Favorite Films. This is my biennial tradition that, honestly, I’ve been doing offline for about 30 years, but now is available for online navel gazing. You can check out the 2012, 2014, and 2016 editions should you care to. For those who are interesting in how I sort films based on criteria of quality, watchability, and personal…

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Rants

Sorry Cinema Scrooges: Die Hard is a Christmas Movie

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

It has come to my attention that some people out there on the Interwebs still cling to the notion that Die Hard, the celebrated action film starring Bruce Willis, is not a Christmas movie. Look, Gremlins counts as a Christmas movie, Edward Scissorhands counts as a Christmas movie, and  –Lord help us all– Santa Claus Conquers the Martians counts as a Christmas movie. So yes, “the Christmas episode” of action movies does indeed count as…

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Various and Sundry

Caroling with the Bard, kinda

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Who doesn’t like caroling? And who doesn’t William Shakespeare? Well, quite a few people in both camps, actually… but let them stew in their camps like Achilles in his tent. If you, like me, think that those are two great tastes that go great together, Mya Gosling, the creator of Good Tickle Brain, gets you. More importantly, she has devised Shakespearean Christmas Carols not once, nor twice,  but thrice, and, um tetralogically? Really, it’s like all…

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Various and Sundry

Shall We Play a Game?

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

While not a secret, I don’t post too much about being a board gamer here, but one of the things I’m most looking forward to during this season of spending time with family and friends is playing a few board games — including some that have not “hit the table” in a while. I also generally get a game we can play as a family each Christmas (the previous ones, Feuerdrachen and Drachenturm, have been…

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Various and Sundry

Field of Troubled Dreams

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

If you checked out my earlier post, you know that I’m readying the 2018 edition of my favorite films. I always add a new crop of films to the sort every time, but I also find time to re-watch some of the old films… and Thanksgiving weekend proved to be a great time to do so. One of the films was the delightful modern fantasy, Field of Dreams. Sharp-eyed readers will recall that it ranked #29…

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