Just a Reminder: Prodigy, Season 2
In case you forgot, today’s the day you can binge all 20 episodes of Star Trek: Prodigy, season 2. I, for one, am ready for the cockamamie plans.
Various and Sundry
Author: Bjorn Munson
Producing
It’s Even More Official: The Golden Age of Streaming ist Kaput
I mean, the writing has been on the blog posts for some time now. I even had one back last year where far more professional prognosticators saw what the future would hold with streaming. Well, not only are the belts tightening on prestige TV series, streaming services are making sure you, the viewer, will pay more. Sigh.
Various and Sundry
My Kind of Science Video
I’m no stranger to warning people about the 17-year cicada, including on this blog, but alas, I never have done a video as wonderfully engaging as this one. If you are in one of the areas of the United States who has had (or is having) a surplus of cicadas, here’s something to be thankful for: they’re not this big. Probably.
Producing Writing
More About Showrunner Rules and Writers’ Rooms
So I’ve been meaning to do a few more posts about screenwriting and I realized I never followed up on “The 11 Laws of Showrunning by Javier Grillo-Marxuach” which I wrote about back in April… and which shows how the year is racing away from me. You see, I meant to follow up the next week with this interview with Javier Grillo-Marxuach where he talks about the 11 Laws, his books Shoot This One and…
Acting
R.I.P., Donald Sutherland
Donald Sutherland, whose acting career spanned generations of filmgoers, has died at age 88. You can read about it in: As one might expect from working so many decades, many in the film industry are mourning and sharing their remembrances. One of the aspects that I find so interesting about the lanky actor with the piercing eyes is he did prodigious character actor work, yet didn’t submerge into the role as some character actors are…
Various and Sundry
Dulles Airport… in Burke?!?
Here’s a bit of alternate history I learned just last week: before the current site for what is now Dulles Airport, planners were looking to put a new Washington-area airport in Burke, Virginia. Granted, if the Burke residents hadn’t mounted a resistance, we likely would have gotten a new airport in the area before John Foster Dulles was deemed an appropriate man to lend his name to an international aerodrome… and certainly before Carol Burnett…
Writing
Le Guin’s Old Home to Become Writer Residency
Ursula K. Le Guin, who died in 2018, once described imagination as the “single most useful tool mankind possesses. It beats the opposable thumb. I can imagine living without my thumbs, but not without my imagination.“ It therefore feels right that her in Portland, Oregon is set to become a home for future writers, working to unleash their imagination and engage with the community in the best way. This plan was evidently set in motion…
Various and Sundry
R.I.P., NASA astronaut Bill Anders
Astronaut, ambassador, and businessman William Anders has died at the age of 90. He lived a full life that’s interesting to learn about on its own, but the reason I’m taking a moment is because he took the iconic photo “Earthrise.” That’s the photo you see above and longer-term readers of this blog may remember as the header image for the whole site from 2015 until just last year. When I transitioned to the new…
Various and Sundry
Contemplating Internet Umbrage
I’ve been thinking a lot about the Internet for the past few weeks. No, not in the “What has the Internet ever done for us?” kind of way. More in the “Do I like the current cut of the Internet’s jib?” kind of way. I mean, the whole AI obsession has not abated since I mused about it last year. So this video struck me when I came across it earlier this week. This led…