Book Reviews and Human Interest Stories from the American South
Author's Note: I've tried to write various permutations of this essay going as far back as March or April of this year. To heck with it, let's just go with the classical book review. A Rorschach test is a psychoanalytical tool that is most often used to explore a subject's way of thinking or emotional … Continue reading Comic Book Review: Rorschach by Tom King and Jorge Fornés
Author's Note: This is hopefully the first of several book review essays that I intend to publish this month. We'll see if I keep to that. Joe Abercrombie is, without a doubt, one of the most interesting voices working in the fantasy genre today. He doesn't have the name value of Brandon Sanderson, or George … Continue reading Book Review: The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie
God, I love superhero comics. I know that's probably pretty self-evident from some of the articles I've written in the past, but it's true! I love superhero comics. But I think it's funny. In this era where the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the dominant pop culture force on the planet, the source material for these … Continue reading A Tale of Three Supermen
Wow, it's been ages since I wrote anything on my blog. The reason is actually pretty simple: I got a job. I've been working as a teacher for the last year. Indeed, my life has changed such that "northwest generalist" doesn't effectively describe where I am or what I want to write about anymore. So … Continue reading Don’t Worry! I’m Still Alive and Writing
I've tried to write this review several times over the year or so since I've started this blog. At first, I wanted to delay the writing it of because if I started by writing a review of my favorite book, then where would I go from there? I figured that I would hold off on … Continue reading Quarantined Review – The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
A Note From your Author: Hello! Sorry it's been forever since I wrote anything. Between grad school and the ever present job hunt, I've been busy. I've tried a few times, but nothing ever stuck. Until. Well...this. I have no idea how to begin writing this review. I'll start by saying that I very rarely … Continue reading Quarantined Review – Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness
Museums are often celebrated for creating a sense of time and place but it's rare that we use them to recreate a moment of time with more specificity. Last year, I wrote about the Discovery of Tut, an entire exhibit built around the moment that Howard Carter muttered the words "I see wonderful things." This … Continue reading Paris 1900: City of Entertainment – A Review
Well, it's that time of year again. Between May 24th and June 9th, the city of Portland, Oregon celebrated the annual Portland Rose Festival. Many folks observed the celebration by watching the famously floral Rose Parade, the second largest in the country. Others indulged in concerts, and other events through the two weeks. Come June … Continue reading So, Portland, Why Roses?
Author's Note: I didn't mean for both of my first two comic book pieces to cover the work of Tom King, but here we are I suppose... Event comics are tricky things. In one regard, they're the primordial soup of the modern superhero film. For instance, while most of Avengers: Endgame was an original story, … Continue reading Heroes in Crisis – The Act of Talking
Boy, I sure am writing a lot about superhero movies aren't I.... Harley Granville-Barker once succinctly summarized Romeo and Juliet as "a tragedy of youth, as youth sees it." It's important to remember that even in its time, Shakespeare's version of Romeo and Juliet was not an original work. It was an adaptation of a … Continue reading Shazam, Verisimilitude and Perspective
