Take off the Fanboy Goggles: Rogue One is a Mediocre Movie

December 30, 2016

This article will discuss aspects of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story that are dependent on seeing the movie.  For maximum discourse potential, we recommend seeing the movie before reading this article. Since Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has been released my social media feeds that are even tangentially related to Star Wars have exploded in absolute praise over Rogue One being some sort of magnum opus for the…

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Rogue One is the Star Wars Movie You’re Looking For

December 22, 2016

This article will discuss aspects of Star Wars: Rogue One that are dependent on seeing the movie.  For maximum discourse potential, we recommend seeing the movie before reading this article. Excitement and apprehension built for months preceding the release of the first official Star Wars spin-off movie, Rogue One.  What could we expect from a new story taking place in between the established episodes, especially one between the first two…

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Book Review: Transmetropolitan, Vol. 4: The New Scum

December 6, 2016

“I’m the only one who’s remotely fucking interested. You’re all fucking killing me!” The fourth Transmetropolitan collection continues Spider Jerusalem’s coverage of the presidential election with the six issue story “The New Scum.” We get to see Spider go one-on-one with both The Beast and The Smiler. Spider’s hate and venom for both candidates is in full bloom during these interviews. Some of the strongest dialogue and best food for…

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Things I Like: Podcasts

November 23, 2016

I love my job, but my commute is less than ideal. It’s about an hour to and an hour from work. That’s a lot of time stuck behind the wheel of a car during the course of a week. I probably spend more time commuting each week than I spend doing anything else beyond sleeping and working. In fact, I estimate I’ve spent roughly 5% of my life commuting during the…

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Book Review: Transmetropolitan, Vol. 3: Year of the Bastard

November 22, 2016

“Just once, I’d like to get through the day without hating anyone.” The third Transmetropolitan collection kicks off Spider Jerusalem’s coverage of the presidential election with the six issue story “Year of the Bastard.” This is where the series truly takes off and becomes something special, and eerily predictive of the 2016 US presidential election campaign. That remains the tragic magic of this series: how well it can be applied…

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Book Review: Transmetropolitan, Vol. 2: Lust for Life

November 8, 2016

Warren Ellis‘s Transmetropolitan series continues to ramp up in its second volume. While the first volume was focused on a single issue (the transients’ secession from The City) this volume is mostly episodic dives into different areas of The City’s culture. This serves to flesh out the series’ setting before the bigger story lines in subsequent volumes while still being invective and funny as hell. “You learn about a culture…

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Steve Dillon, R.I.P.

October 24, 2016

One of the great comic book artists of our time, Steve Dillon, passed away on Saturday October 22, 2016.  Many of Dillon’s fellow comic book creators have reacted to his death.  While I don’t measure up to the stature of people like Warren Ellis, Ed Brubaker, and Gail Simone, I can attempt to relate how Steve Dillon’s work affected me personally.  His work drew me back to comic books and…

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Book Review: Washed by Blood: Lessons from My Time with Korn and My Journey to Christ

October 18, 2016

Brian “Head” Welch made headlines in 2005 when he walked away from the successful band Korn. He made even more headlines because of the reason for leaving the band: he found religion, became a Christian, and let Jesus Christ into his life. Quite the turnaround for a hard-living drug addicted rock star. His brief autobiography attempts to explain his life’s journey to religion and offer it as proof that anyone…

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Book Review: Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things

Furiously Happy book cover
October 13, 2016

After all, the most interesting of us have been broken and mended and broken again. Jenny Lawson struggles with depression and mental illness. That is front and center in her author bio on the back flap of Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things. It’s also the topic of most of the essays in this collection. You don’t have to share her issues to enjoy her writings, but it…

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Old Bands Never Die…

October 7, 2016

Twenty years is a long time.  Two decades in the music industry is an eternity.  Back in 1996 most people had no idea what an MP3 was; now there are likely young people who have never seen a CD, never mind a cassette.  But several major bands from that time period are set to release albums in October and November of 2016. Metallica’s album Load was released on June 4,…

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