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Short films are short because they skimp on components that are required in feature-length films, or they cut them out completely. Character Development: This is the most common omission. We often know just enough about the character to be able to tell the story. In a bad short film, we know even less about the […]
How Deranged People Make Them: Crack eggs into a mixing bowl. Add milk (!) in case you might change your mind and want to drink them instead. Whisk furiously until uniform. Pour onto a hot griddle. Cook until rubbery. Break into chunks and serve with something else that tastes better. This might be a reasonable […]
N.K. Jemisin is a three-time winner of the Hugo award for best novel. I very much enjoyed The Broken Earth series. I assumed I would like The City We Became, more or less. The blurb hadn’t particularly interested me, but when I saw that it was nominated for this year’s Hugo, I figured I should […]
You have probably heard the assertion that there are really only a few stories, and every story is just a variation on one of them. They will usually list several of them, starting with, “boy meets girl.” One story pattern that is never mentioned is, “protagonist stubbornly sticks to some principle through to the end.” […]
You could say this is the point of reading a story or watching a film. It is not necessarily the climax or resolution of the story, though often it is. It is the emotional feeling that the reader experiences in return for investing in the story. Audiences don’t necessarily understand this. When you ask them […]
I finally bought a new laptop computer. When I say “finally”, I mean that this is the first full-size laptop I have bought for myself personally since 1999. This is the fifth laptop I have owned in thirty years. I suppose that’s because I am more of a desktop kind of guy, and lately I […]
I watched the first episode of Shadow and Bone last night. I had to force myself to watch the whole thing, and I have no intention of watching any more. The show made what is becoming a classic mistake of trying to introduce too much too fast. It reminded me of Suicide Squad, which tried […]
I really need to stop watching movies I missed in my youth. They are mostly disappointing. Case in point, The Lost Boys. I was expecting something deep and profound. Instead, it was an R-rated kid movie with Corey Feldman and Corey Haim. On the whole, the direction was nearly adequate. Corey Feldman’s rendition was awful. […]
I don’t remember now why I decided to read Eragon, by Christopher Paolini. I guess it was because I regarded this as an essential basic for dragon literature. I made it about a quarter of the way through before deciding it wasn’t worth the effort. I’m not sure I can articulate exactly what’s wrong with […]
I had my bike out for my second ride of the year, shaking out some upgrades, which are all working pretty well. I just rode to and through the city park, 5 miles total. After my first ride of the year, I forgot to set the rear wheel strap when I mounted my bike on […]
