Let’s talk about television. I am a child of modern television. Most of what I know about narrative I’ve learned from television or at least referenced to television for understanding. My sensibilities on family and relationships developed somewhere between 1994 and 2002. That was a very intense period for television. The X-Files was creating new ideas about science fiction and horror. [...]

Cullen Murphy has a good op-ed in the Sunday New York Times on the timeless importance of doubt. Here, I want to write something of a corollary to that piece, on the importance of self-doubt in specific. Self-doubt works on multiple levels. First, there is doubt in our own correctness. This doubt is roughly divisible into doubt in our ethics, [...]

I keep hundreds of mental file cabinets for my celebrity crushes. I forgo the alphabet or the Dewey Decimal System. Instead, I use much simpler organizational markers: place of origin, hair color, personality, age, movie roles, gender, body type, etc. It’s a system that hasn’t failed me yet, though it does cause some cabinets to be used more than others. [...]

misconception (n) – a false or mistaken view, opinion, or attitude. Tonight’s episode was all about misconception. Sometimes, especially with monsters, things aren’t always what they seem. I mean, you wouldn’t know Josh (Sam Huntington) was a werewolf or Aidan (Sam Witwer) was a vampire just by looking at them. So one might not realize someone or something is what they [...]

Another week of new releases has come along and your wallet is screaming to be emptied. Seriously! I can hear it from here. DVD/Blu-ray New Releases for February 28th, 2012 Hugo. [Academy Award Winner] Starring Chloe Moretz, Ben Kingsley, and Jude Law. Trailer Johnny English: Reborn. [Editor's Choice] Starring Rowan Atkinson, Dominic West, and Gillian Anderson. Trailer Justice League: DOOM. Featuring the [...]

I haven’t read this week’s comics, so I don’t have any ratings today. Plus, next week I’m going to update my reading list. I’ve decided some books aren’t worth the money. When I say superhero teams, you probably think of The Avengers, The Justice League or (shudder) Super Friends. But what about a more realistic team? Imagine you’re a government [...]

So, it’s 2012, and we’re still arguing about birth control. Even though 95% of American women have pre-marital sex. (With American dudes, in most cases, also indulging in some non-marital bliss.) Even though contraception goes hand-in-hand with greater educational and professional opportunities and healthier families. And let’s not forget that women make up roughly half the workforce– I only took [...]

If you ever went to an amusement park as a child you remember with joy those moments spent riding roller coasters and waiting in lines with nothing but your anxiety and a severe sunburn to comfort you. Maybe you remember laying down to sleep after a long day of amusement, feeling the rush of crazy inversions and steeply angled hills [...]

Every year the film industry is swarmed with awards shows, highlighting the talent and achievements of many. Director’s Guild, Golden Globes, SAG Awards, etc. There’s even The Razzie’s, an awards show that points out how bad many of the films were. But none of them compare to the prestige and acclaim that comes from The Academy Awards. Every year it’s [...]

Normally I have 5 videos every week, but this week, I wanted to focus on only the best, rather than giving you good stuff and filler. What if the Phantom Menace was good? I’ve had this discussion multiple times with friends. What could have made the Phantom Menace a better movie? What plot elements could be cut? What should be [...]

What’s all this nonsense about free-to-play games? We used to proudly pay to play Everquest, even before the epic elephant mount in the room took over subscription based gaming, relegating smaller subscription based games to sit in the corner with a niche cap on. Now, Everquest itself is going free to play next month, the Star Trek massively multi player [...]

Anthrax is back, and not the band. That may be a bit of an exaggeration as so far none of the literally dozens of letters mailed to lawmakers from Oregon have tested positive, but apparently there’s someone out there who really doesn’t like Citizens United. So much so, that by the time this is all over that person will likely [...]

I work at home as an editor. I’m also a stay-at-home dad. I’m also a geek. As time goes by, however, I’m having less and less time to do the geeky things that I love to do. I’m fairly certain even more of my time will be swallowed up when my second child is born next month. My time-waster of [...]

Let’s start with my admission that I will always choose Marvel over DC. Always. X-Men characters have been my favorite brand of superheroes since Fox’s engrossing cartoon introduced me to the absolute need to watch a show in linear progression. Seriously, if you missed one of those shows, you were totally lost when it came to the story line. Even [...]

For those of us who were children during September 2001, learning the bellicose realities of  the Taliban and the history of Afghanistan has often felt like running down a dark hallway towards a door that leaps further away every time you get close enough to grasp the knob. At twelve, predictably, an unauthorized biography of Posh Spice won out over Kuwait: [...]

If you glossed over the first edition launch of the PS Vita on February 15th but are still interested in the full product launch this Wednesday then read-on. Having used the Vita over the last week here is what I think you should know before you make the purchase. I’m very pleased with the build quality and design of the [...]

So last week I went on a tear about Star Trek: Voyager. I’ve been catching up on some science fiction and one of my readers pointed out to me that my last post wasn’t very bitter. Actually, they said the same thing about the post before that too. While I find these topics absurd, outlandish, or unfortunate, some argue that [...]

Love him or hate him Ronald Reagan may be the most influential politician since FDR. Reagan was a figure who drew support from members of both parties. He was a tough administrator who believed in hearing from all of his advisors before making a decision. A powerful and moving orator dubbed “The Great Communicator” by a press who showed equal [...]

The developers haven’t exactly called the PS3 version of Twisted Metal a “product relaunch”, and that’s because in many ways its familiar to the Twisted Metal that we grew up with and came to love in the late 1990′s. That in mind, this game feels great, and it feels great in a way that makes me feel like I’m visiting [...]

Note: Before I begin my review of Albert Nobbs, allow me state that I am writing from the perspective of a cisfemale in 2012. Though this usually would be considered irrelevant in the sphere of general entertainment writing, I think it is an important factor to consider in my evaluation of this film and its depiction of trans* identities in [...]