Every Spring, I get social media posts –usually very vague ones– from friends closely involved with “Pilot Season,” that period every year where writers, actors, and others hope to get staffed on potential TV shows that will go from potential to actual (i.e., they get “picked up” and move into production for additional episodes). The Hollywood Reporter polled a bunch of casting executives about their thoughts on this season. I guess I missed it because,…
Last week’s Twitter kerfuffle led Vox to dust off its primer on password managers which, if you’ve been thinking about starting to use, you might want to check out.
Look, I don’t make the rules, I just know it’s Unicorn Wednesday. You may be indifferent to Wednesdays, but who doesn’t like unicorns? They’re the national animal of Scotland for crying out loud! And for that matter, who doesn’t like magic? Misty Lee has you covered:
While I’m sure its author would not purport to be the last authority on the subject nor her article a substitute for medical advice, I thought Lori Gottlieb’s piece in The Atlantic to be a good reflection on the grieving process.
My recent project, Jabberwocky Audio Theater, is not a recent development. I’ve been working on it in one form or another since 2007. When you work on something that long that means there’s definitely breaks when you’re not working on it… and within those breaks and at those moments of starting or stopping, your doubts about continuing happily pay a visit. In one of the blogs I perpetually read, Mark Evanier has a response to…
Rockets and starships and especially naval ships getting spacefaring analogues occupy my thoughts from time to time. Okay, a lot of the time. I know I’m not alone in this gentle obsession, so it was nice to come across this lengthy article by Jeff “Hageshii01” Venancio all about military ship types in actual naval history and how they’ve been applied in science fiction settings. This is probably a good time to mention that, if you…
I still remember researching electric cars being developed during the beginnings of the auto industry and being surprised when my dad mentioned that there were still electric vehicles on the road when he grew up in the 40s and 50s. Old models of delivery vehicles were still being used by thrifty businesses — and, in fact, the Walker Vehicle Company made such vehicles up until 1942 in Chicago. The reason the vehicles were still on…
Devices and contraptions that make sound effects are among my favorite things, ranking well above cream-colored ponies, bright copper kettles, and possibly even whiskers on kittens. So I was delighted to see this little video about how sound effects have been made over the years (though I think they skip over the valuable contributions voice-over artists have been able to do with their own voices: think Mel Blanc’s sad Maxwell sputtering on the Jack Benny…
I’ve always loved character actors and spotting them in myriad movies and TV shows is a habit I’ve inherited from my dad. I also like “creature features.” So really, when someone put together a video honoring the very talented Doug Jones, I had to share it:
Hey, it’s been awhile since I’ve done a “Motivation Monday,” so it seemed like Big Bill’s birthday was as good a day as any to get back to it. I’d caught Elizabeth Gilbert’s 2009 TED talk on writing and motivation (the video is 20 minutes, and this link also has a transcript), so when I saw an Amazon article ad for her “10 Tips for Writers,” (as compiled by Cynthia Shannon), I figured it was…