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  • Waiting on Wormsign

    Waiting on Wormsign

    I can’t wait for October to get here. Finally. Dune. Dune. The great I hope Dune. The Denis Villeneuve Dune. Villeneuve calls to mind Sicario. Arrival. Not that, other something he did that, well, in the words of Peter Gabriel, “I don’t remember, I don’t recall.” I don’t because that other something drove me back…


  • First Rate Contact

    First Rate Contact

    Experts say impatience is bad. That if I don’t stop focusing on the moving goalpost that is the release date for Dune, I’ll develop the “The Kane Madness.” Maybe they are right. Maybe I should focus on something else. Something different. By Denis Villeneuve. You know. The director of… Arrival. As first contact movies go,…


  • Truth, Be Told

    Truth, Be Told

    When I write, I don’t factor in for narrator skew. I generally don’t like stories that hinge upon an unreliable narrator. Yes, okay, ‘The Usual Suspects’ is one of my favourite movies and ‘Fallen‘ is also superb. “I love a good misdirection. Bruce Willis as the child psychologist in Sixth Sense. The Mariachi owls in…


  • The Great Divide

    The Great Divide

    All writers, by the way they use the language, reveal something of their spirits, their habits, their capacities, and their biases. This is inevitable, as well as enjoyable. All writing is communication; creative writing is communication through revelation, it is the Self escaping into the open. No writer long remains incognito” The Elements of Style,…


  • People tested, Papillon approved

    People tested, Papillon approved

    I read. A lot. One plus to 2020? I read more this year. Gamed regularly. Binge watched even more. And that’s our topic for this month. Our first and probably only Papillon Overlord ‘Best in Class/What to Watch’ Award show. All People tested, Papillon approved. Darkhorse Derby Winner: Prospect Critic Nick Allen said it best.…


  • Remake, Reboot, or Rest in Peace? They Live

    Remake, Reboot, or Rest in Peace? They Live

    It’s no secret that I appreciate American composer, writer, director, and producer John Carpenter. I may have previously mentioned ‘Darkstar‘. Or ‘The Thing‘. Even ‘Ghosts of Mars’. I haven’t but should have mentioned ‘Escape from New York’, ‘Starman’, ‘Big Trouble in Little China’, or ‘Escape from L.A.’. I definitely will not mention ‘Halloween III Season…


  • Home is Where the… Where?

    Home is Where the… Where?

    “Home is home, and everything else is not-home.” – Verlyn Klinkenborg, SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE For most of us, home and hometown are synonymous. That wasn’t the case for me, at least not until recently. I’ve spent most of my holidays away from Huntsville, away from family. Away from Home. According to the Pew Research Center, 37%…


  • Home (Bound) for the Holidays

    Home (Bound) for the Holidays

    There are a lot of things that we didn’t do this year so that we could do them next year. The only problem with that? Some of the people we would have done them with didn’t make it to next year. When Am I Ever Gonna Wake Up? I Wish You Were Here With Me…


  • My Favourite Martians

    My Favourite Martians

    November 28 is Red Planet Day. We’re not sure who noticed our carmine neighbor first. Galileo Galilei sighted it with a telescope in 16-something-or-other. One thing we can be certain about? Ares Mars Barsoom has held our attention ever since. Mars tugs at the human imagination like no other planet. With a force mightier than…


  • Puzzling Past Polls, Pandemic

    Puzzling Past Polls, Pandemic

    The United States Presidential Election of 2020 is over. Mostly. It is both 1856 and 1918 all over again. I work with some wicked smart people. We are watching our nation, our states, our friends, descend deeper and deeper into intolerance. Anger. Violence. And while we work together, closer than ever, our opinions are just…


  • Shizuka ni gamba!

    Shizuka ni gamba!

    1987 It is 1987, six years after the animated cult classic Heavy Metal exited theatres. The up-and-comers of anime contribute to an anthology, Robot Carnival. In 2019 it is all but forgotten. Heavy Metal isn’t forgotten in 2019. That’s the year NETFLIX reanimates it as ❤️☠️? Love Death & Robots. And while there isn’t any…


  • Buck Up, Little Camper

    Buck Up, Little Camper

    At the start of the movie Jumanji: The Next Level, Danny DeVito opines “Getting old sucks. Don’t ever let anyone tell you any different.” By the end of the movie, his character Grandpa Eddie has a new perspective: Eddie : “Getting old is a gift. I forget that sometimes, but it is.” It is a…


  • Epicycling Forward

    Epicycling Forward

    Returning to my writing roots.


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