So what’s going on? Oh, lots of things. Hereabouts, I talk at random about The Writing Life, What’s Worth Watching, Audio Content I Love (aka Listen Up), and good old-fashioned News of the Weird.
You can also Click Here and buy any of my stuff that’s currently available (and I offer it when I can through bookshop.org, at the same price as Amazon, that also shares its money with independent bookstores around the country. Check it out. What’s more, the ebooks and audio products I offer I sell from here, downloaded directly to you, so I don’t have to split anything with Big Daddy Bezos or anyone else. I’m greedy that way.
Regardless: welcome aboard, check back often, follow me on the socials like IG and BlueSky (at this point), and stay in touch!
Into the Deep is a completely forgettable shark-thriller on Prime … except for Richard Dreyfuss.
Into the Deep is a completely forgettable “modern-day pirates try to capture a little boat on the open sea and encounter a female defender who is more than they bargained for. With sharks.” ‘thriller.’ I’ve lost count of the number of ‘maritime women in jeopardy’...
Random Number Generator Horror Podcast Number 9: a great horror-movie podcast you probably haven’t heard of (but should)
This weekly horror podcast from two of the key creators of Welcome To Night Vale is smart, funny, and unexpected. A great surprise every episode.
The Weekly Planet: An Aussie podcast about comic book news, reviews, and rumors … and damn good fun
I confess to having a soft spot in my heart – and head – for Australians. Never been down unhah, and probably will never get there, but Ozies have been plaguing me for nigh on to fifty years now. I’ve been working with that crazy-ass musician and writer John G. Jone...
Gogglebox: UK TV at its … finest?
It’s been days since I pleaded with you to get a good VPN and peek into TV from England and Canada and Australia and everywhere else that you can’t get to if they think you're from the U.S. And now I’m going to do it again, with a review o the frankly impossible UK...
Kennie JD: One of the Best Things About YouTube
I’ve been hanging around the edges of YouTube for years and years, and for a long time, I was a snob about it – imagine me, a snob. Back in its early days, I saw YouTube was kind of the junk drawer of original content: so many people doing so much stuff, with no rhyme...
Ten Recent Posts
This Wretched Valley: survival horror with great promise … and something missing
I just finished Jenny Kiefer’s This Wretched Valley, by first-time novelist Jenny Kiefer … and I almost liked it. But there was something missing… and I wonder if anyone else felt it, too. You remember the podcast, Talking Scared, that I reviewed a while back? They...
Henry Thomas and the sequel to E.T. (no, really)
Here, come on down the rabbit hole with me. I went looking for some background on Henry Thomas for a review of The Fall of the House of Usher… and found an entirely different little gem: a very short, very special sequel to E.T.: The Extraterrestrial, posing as an...
How to Solve the Problems with the Emmies, Oscars, and All the Awards: Burn Them to the Ground
Let’s face it: all the entertainment awards shows, from the Oscars and the Emmies to the execrable Golden Globes are a terrible mess. Such a mess, in fact, the only decision might be simply to burn them all down and start over. I’m not usually an extreme kind of guy....
Maggie Moore(s) is Jon Hamm at his best …and there’s more where that came from
Jon Hamm has been doing some very cool stuff for the last couple of years --- and the smart, sweet, funny Maggie Moore(s) is a perfect example. This tight, quiet, smart little mystery/comedy/thriller has been knocking around for a few months, but it’s just been added...
Talking Scared, the best damn interview show of horror writers around.
There are plenty, plenty of horror podcasts out there, good and bad and mostly boring – especially boring for people who have been watching and reading horror for a long time. In most cases, jaded old horror fans will come to feel as if they’re waiting for the hosts...
The Great Pottery Throw Down isn’t a competition. Not really.
You know … competition is a whole different thing in Great Britain. I mean, sports, yes – your soccer, your rugby, your Olympic events – in sports, the British are so competitive they’re downright dangerous. But when it comes to … what would you call it? Recreational...
Why I Gave Up On Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon After Only 40 Minutes
I know – God, we all know -- that Rebel Moon was supposed to be big, I mean big, for Zack Snyder. His break away from superhero movies that he now professes to be tired of, his chance to show his real vision. Yeah, about that. From where I was sitting, it took less...
Nathan Fielder’s The Curse is nothing like what you’d expect. But what is it?
You know, I really hadn’t planned on talking about The Curse … not until I saw the last episode and now, I … I have to… I mean … what the hell? You know, I’ve never been a big fan of the ‘comedy of discomfort,” all the way back to Andy Kaufman and for that matter Don...
Marvel’s Echo is a ground-level, culturally complex superhero story (sort of)
Marvel's Echo, available on Disney+ and Hulu, is a major re-telling of a B-List Daredevil character, in a disorganized, risky and ultimately admirable but not completely successful attempt at telling a ‘deeper’ story despite the superhero genre. It’s far from perfect,...
Nat Cassidy’s Mary is a dark, wild wonderful ride
Nat Cassidy’s Mary is basically the story of Carrie suffering through a very bloody version of menopause – among so many other things. In the beginning, Mary herself looks like a singularly uninteresting woman: quiet, middle-aged unassuming, working in the basement of...