Writing

“Art is the means by which we become what we want to be.”

I’ve been musing about a longer post about AI, because my thoughts about the current large language models (LLMs) and the like have evolved over the past year as we’ve looked into more and more use cases at the dayjob. However, if you detected skepticism in my previous posts about AI and my many links to articles and videos, that doubt has not dissipated. Besides the consistently cited environmental impacts, something that at best must…

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Various and Sundry

One Person After Another Weighs in on the Best Films of 2025

The Golden Globes have come and gone, and the Oscar nominations have been announced (as well as the Actor née SAG Awards). If you suddenly feel the urge to catch up on what are deemed the “best films” from 2025, you’re not alone. I am here to help that endeavor. Now, if you’re the type of person who’s all about group consensus, you might want to go no further than Metacritic’s round-up of the top…

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Various and Sundry Writing

Contemplating the Tail End

It’s the end of the year, so it’s a good time to be contemplative. And you know those novels or TV shows, usually fantasy, where some character opines that they have “fewer winters ahead than behind?” It’s in that contemplative mood that I looked through my stack o’ possible blog posts and found an article called “The Tail End” by Tim Urban. You probably know Tim Urban from his gloriously funny and insightful piece on…

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Acting Producing Writing

You, yes You, Should Be Making Art

It’s definitely time people start thinking about making New Year’s resolutions or otherwise mapping out things they want to get done for the year ahead. And I’m suggesting that, whatever those plans are, it should include some art. This should not come as a surprise. I have advocated this whole wacky “making art thing” on this blog multiple times as my seven or nine regular readers may remember. Whether it’s a post I did about…

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Producing Writing

What if the Film’s Gone Wrong?

No, not if the play’s gone wrong. That’s its own thing. And I don’t mean the Shaun of the Dead has gone wrong. That’s as brilliant as Shaun’s plan to get to the Winchester is daft. I just needed a good image of befuddlement. But we have all watched films where we’re befuddled about how unremarkable it is, haven’t we? Well, longtime writer Mark Evanier has a theory on why some films are like that.…

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Various and Sundry

‘Tis the Season for Cyber Security

If you’re in a workplace like mine, you probably get a lot of seasonal online safety tips… but what if you aren’t? So in the spirit of remembering some handy tips as all the holiday deals start dominating our inboxes and site next week, check out some of CISA’s guides for shopping safely: Note I saw both of these pages were labeled “ARCHIVED CONTENT” which CISA cautions may mean “outdated information,” but a) it’s from…

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Various and Sundry

Location, Location, Spooky Location

Okay, so last week, I shared an article about some creepy places to visit and, to my mind, film six to seven scenes of your indie horror opus. But what if you just want to engage in some movie tourism, spooky style? This compilation article (list-icle?) from Jonathan Carey, et al, from Atlas Obscura gives you a bunch of places to visit in person where you may have previously visited on screen, whether it’s getting…

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Acting Various and Sundry

The Hosts with the Most… Horror

It could be that growing up with both Count Gore De Vol and Count Floyd, I have a soft spot for “horror hosts,” those usually hyper-local curators of horror films good, bad, and ugly. Tea Krulos has a nice longer piece for Atlas Obscura that delves into not only the horror hosts, but the mission they serve in preserving frightening film history. Enjoy! And remember: there’s just a few more shocking days until Halloween!

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Various and Sundry

The Demon Dogs of Maine

I enjoy trying regional specialties, hence my trying to recreate the Italian Beef when watching the recent season finale of The Bear. Maine has some obvious ones, and, no, I’m not referring to the McLobster (“with flecks of real lobster” was an actual selling point back in the day), though a real lobster roll is good. No, another item you will find in that flattened bun is a Maine-only hot dog known as the red…

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