End of 2022 Favorites round-up

As this year winds to a close, it’s a good time for me to look back, like many do, and reflect on some of my favorite things in the past 365 days. I’m going to break it down into groups, so don’t worry. This will all be over quickly. Music For favorite music of 2022, […]

Complicity in Copaganda

When I was a kid, a lot of my favorite mystery procedurals featured privite detectives–Magnum, Simon & Simon, Jessica Fletcher, Jim Rockford. There were some good police cops/investigators on TV who worked within the system like Kojak, Columbo, Starsky & Hutch, and Quincy M.D., but for the most part, it was outsiders who solved crimes […]

Dispatches from Quarantine: Revisiting 3 Foundational Jazz Albums

Being stuck inside for all these weeks gives me lots of time to think about things. Like the music I grew up with. I know a lot of my generation grew up listening to their parent’s classic rock collection, thus getting introduced to the Stones, the Beatles, Hendrix and such at an early age. My […]

Dispatches from Quarantine: Things I Miss, Diner Edition

It’s kind of amazing the things I took for granted even six weeks ago. Like the company of people and public spaces without the fear that a plague was lying in wait the minute you let down your guard. With the exception of one attempt to go to the park to work in a notebook (thwarted […]

Disptaches from Quarantine: Roll for Initiative

Long-time readers might recognize that I am, for better or worse, a social monkey. Something of an extrovert, you might say. Even when things have been their most dire, I’ve managed to find ways to go out and be around people. But with CORVID-19 lurking beneath the lilypads like an angry, territorial hippo, that’s not […]

The King’s Avatar

There was an episode of Community forever ago where the dean wailed that “TV is crazy good right now!” That was years ago, and if anything, television has gotten even better. Between the streaming service wars, tons of original content, and social media buzzing about the big show du jour, it’s kind of impossible to […]

Fringe Candy Tangential: The Devil’s Candy

This is not about candy. Certainly not about Hi-Chew despite my feelings on the matter. Nor is it, exactly, a movie review. Here’s the thing. I love horror movies. (No! Really? Tell me something I don’t know!) But so many movies come out every year that it’s impossible for me to watch all of them. And […]

Role-Playing & the Perfection of Imperfection

I’ve been playing role-playing games since I was twelve, and running them for almost as long. There’s something amazing about sharing a story that you tell with your friends. I love the fact that D&D is seeing a resurgence, and that more people are returning to the hobby or picking it up for the first […]

Disney’s (Almost) Forgotten Live-Action Movies: 5 Favorites

When people of a certain age (cough)young(cough) think about Disney films, they think of the animation. And that’s fair. It was what built the famous House of Mouse, after all. And while they never completely stopped making live-action films, their output did have a few fallow periods. But in the years before Lucas and Spielberg […]