We’re just about a week into 2020, so people are doubtless hitting the gym, watching what they eat, reading more, or other laudable goals. I haven’t set any official resolutions this year, though I am trying to figure out some goals for the year (have a massive and varied to-do list/bucket list/bunch of other lists via Workflowy). Being a project manager, I’m trying to figure out what’s realistic and what’s a stretch. If you’re looking…
This is the 32nd and final entry in a surprisingly long series of posts about Star Trek’s future and its fandom called Crisis of Infinite Star Treks. It was… fun. Way back in November 2015, I started musing about the state of Star Trek… and I kept on blogging about Trek so much that in 2016, that I retconned those early posts into what has become Crisis of Infinite Star Treks. There have been long posts…
(Well, at least for this particular 9-part saga). It’s not a far, far away premise that more than a few offices are down a worker or three starting their holiday vacation early to catch a matinee of Episode IX… or sleeping in since they caught a midnight showing. Roughly 42 years ago, the original Star Wars was probably the first film I saw in the theater. My dad talked to a co-worker about why it…
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) does a wonderful remembrance of the film artists we lost in the past year. I’ve mentioned it before, but it always makes me wistful and reminds me to rewatch a movie or three. I thought this year’s was especially good, perhaps because of the many quotes from the people they used. Check it out when you’re ready to be verklempt.
Moving on from trying to make hobbies conspicuously unproductive, there’s the notion on not waiting on one’s creative aspirations and making things. I wrote a longer post a couple years ago about this need to do and complete creative works, in part referencing the column above. Time is finite for us mere mortals, so you need to figure out where to feed your creative side while life happens. Maybe it’s on the job, maybe it’s…
I began this year advocating creating art as a hobby and I tried to practice what I preached shortly thereafter. Most people who know me generally observe I’m pretty darn busy which is one of the reasons that I feel the need to carve out time that is entirely not productive. It’s hard in today’s “make every job a gig and make every gig a hustle” economy — and heaven help you if you want…
I finished up my rewatch of seasons 1-3 of The Expanse this past weekend and it was just as good the second time. If you don’t know this hard sci-fi series, the original trailer isn’t a bad way to gauge whether you’re interested or not: There is a running theory that SyFy will cancel any series you love, like Lucy pulling away the football from Charlie Brown. SyFy did not disappoint, even as The Expanse…
I’ve linked to Mark Evanier’s series on rejection before. It’s very useful for writers — and many entries perfectly connect to film and TV actors and voiceover artists. This latest installment may resonate particularly with voiceover artists. In the realm of voiceovers (and frankly, in plenty of realms), people like to work with who they know. And it’s not only who you know, it’s safe bets. How does this relate to Gary Owens (aka the…
Earlier this week, an under two-minute short film hit YouTube that takes the humble snowball fight and amps it up to 11. It should not surprise anyone that this is directed by an action film veteran, David Leitch, whose name may be familiar to those who’ve seen John Wick (he was the uncredited co-director). He’s gone on to direct additional action movies and he brings substantial experience as a stunt performer and coordinator to those…
This past weekend, I was talking about the National Theater Institute of which I am quite a happy alumnus. They practice a maxim of “Risk. Fail. Risk again” which is kind of like the positive spin of the War Boys’ outlook in Mad Max: Fury Road. Same flamethrower guitars (metaphorically), less desolation. But that’s all artsy stuff, what about science? This is where David Noonan writing in Scientific American comes in. Apparently, some folks did…