There’s nothing like a good theatre experience. And if you can’t make it out to see something live, then a film is the next best thing.
And if you can watch a movie about the theatre? Heaven!
Source: The 30 Best Movies About The Theater « Taste of Cinema
“In 1980, science fiction writer and editor Ben Bova told a group of women writers, ‘Neither as writers nor as readers have you raised the level of science fiction a notch. Women have written a lot of books about dragons and unicorns, but damned few about future worlds in which adult problems are addressed’.”
In Women Who Pretended to Be Men to Publish Scifi Books, we get a nice list of the varied and fascinating female authors who, in order to not alienate male readers, had to pretend (at least on paper) to be men.
As the soon to be father of a daughter, and as a science fiction lover, I find this despicable in a number of ways. So please, read the article. Then click over to Amazon or, better yet, hit up your local book store. Do yourself a favor and grab some books for summer reading. You can thank me later.
I love learning about writing. I love how there’s “theory” for creative processes. Makes me laugh when it all gets winnowed down to a base formula. That said, the TV Trope website is great for looking up things which have been done to death as well as learning new phrases for old ideas.
Here, a designer named James Harris uses the TV Tropes site and ideas to give us the basic building blocks with his Periodic Table of Storytelling. If you need inspiration for a new piece of fiction, all you have to do is combine elements like a chemist and add your own spin to things. It’s like alchemy when it works.
Of course, when it doesn’t, no harm no foul, right? You learned something in the process. And hopefully, you had fun doing it.
Happy Father’s Day!! As this is my last year of NOT being a father, we decided to take a little time and seek some advice from the best father I know – mine!
This short interview is a condensed form of a conversation we had (and I assume we will continue to have).
Thanks, Pop! You mean the world to me!
And hey, since the world of print is limiting, here’s a couple of bonus shots of us from when I was a wee one:
Continue reading “DAVID: Father’s Day”
This month, we take a look at Troy Heard, creative director of Table 8 Productions and The Onyx Theatre.
He’s doing amazing stuff in the world of Vegas theatre, helping to build our scene and culture. Remember, there’s more to live performance than the Strip and the Smith Center.
You know, Shakespeare didn’t always sound like Shakespeare. Sometimes he sounded like a pirate. And in fact, just for good measure, English didn’t always sound like English.
Anyway, here’s a couple of videos to get your brain working. Continue reading “Thinking in and about English on a Sunday Morning”
So… as you may (or may not, no judgement on my part) know, I like magic. Now, to be specific, I like magic with a “c” not magik, with a “k.” There’s nothing wrong with the latter, but the spiritual side, the part that says magik is a mystical, real thing just doesn’t interest my skeptical mind nearly as much as the art of prestidigitation.
I love this! Sure, most of us know we can use these books to teach bigger concepts. I’m sure the authors knew it, too. But having it all codified and with lesson plans makes it so much easier!
Stories that are great for learning to read can teach all kinds of things — from philosophy to financial literacy.
Source: Green Eggs, Ham And Metaphysics: Teaching Hard Ideas With Children’s Books | WBEZ
Confessions of a Scary Mommy: An Honest and Irreverent Look at Motherhood – The Good, The Bad, and the Scary by Jill Smokler
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
To start with, I’m not a mother. I’m not even a parent…yet. But my wife and I listened to this book in the hopes of gleaning some advance knowledge or get a humorous look at what’s to come. In this, we were kinda disappointed.
Continue reading “Review: Confessions of a Scary Mommy: An Honest and Irreverent Look at Motherhood – The Good, The Bad, and the Scary”
Atlanta Burns by Chuck Wendig
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I have a problem here. I have long been a fan of Terrible Minds, the website/blog of Chuck Wendig. His blogs and books about writing are usually spot on and I have long recommended him to my writing students. Then I read this book. Continue reading “Review: Atlanta Burns”
When I was a kid, and I’d see various professional athletes retire from the game and then show up in TV and films (often as wooden caricatures of themselves), I used to make a joke. At the time I was involved in theatre and would say “I’m gonna be an actor until I’m about 35 or so… Then I’m going to become a professional athlete.”
Funny, right? Continue reading “Wasted on the young…”
My niece Riley just made her first film. I think it’s awesome. There’s some wonderful raw talent here.
I am so looking forward to seeing whatever she does next!
So here’s the deal: I’m slacking on my book reviews. Not that I haven’t been reading (or listening) to lots of books – in fact, I’m one book ahead where I need to be to complete my 70 book Goodreads challenge.
But I’ve bean bad about doing weekly reviews of individual books so I’m giving myself a break and allowing for Short Book Reviews of an assembled grouping. Without further ado, then, here’s the latest batch of books. Continue reading “Review: Keller’s Fedora, Difficult Men, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and others”
So, a little over a year ago, my friend and colleague Bjorn forwarded a link to me about a publisher looking for some (semi) academic essays about everyone’s favorite BBC time traveler, Doctor Who. Lacking my own share of self-confidence, I hit up another friend and colleague, Dr. Michelle Hansen, to co-write a piece with me. Since we couldn’t decide on any one topic, we pitched two, figuring to double our odds of being accepted.
It worked! It worked so well in fact, they accepted both pitches and we found ourselves with not one, but two pieces in the book, New Worlds, Terrifying Monsters, Impossible Things: Exploring the Contents and Contexts of Doctor Who. The book is available as an ebook from Amazon as well as other sites. My hope is that you’ll check it out and leave a review (hopefully a good one). There’s some really great, insightful pieces inside and if you’re a Whovian or a pop culture fanatic or just a friend to either Michelle or me, this is a book for you.
