Various and Sundry

Coppola Channels Daffy Duck, Finds MCU “Despicable”

By Bjorn Munson | October 21, 2019October 21, 2019 by Bjorn Munson

Francis Ford Coppola has joined his colleague Martin Scorsese in dismissing superhero films in general and Marvel in particular, calling them “despicable.” Rosy Cordero covers it in Entertainment Weekly and David Crow has a nice contextual take over at Den of Geek. Sigh. Much like Bugs Bunny, superhero films might not be considered “high art,” but they’re not going away anytime soon. Besides which, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar already covered this: he’s not wrong, but he’s not…

Various and Sundry

“Comic Book Movies” and “High Art”

By Bjorn Munson | October 17, 2019October 21, 2019 by Bjorn Munson

Just last month I was musing about how, even in the face of “nerddom’s” ascension in all aspects of pop culture, people still feel the need to belittle or otherwise distance themselves and their work from science fiction as if the genre itself was wildly radioactive. Now, in the face of a more meditative and gritty look at the origins of Joker –with more than a few homages to Martin Scorsese’s films– Scorsese himself felt…

Various and Sundry

Analog Impressionist meets Digital Impressionist

By Bjorn Munson | October 14, 2019October 14, 2019 by Bjorn Munson

Here’s a video that was posted on October 4th and has been making the rounds. I’ve seen Jim Meskimen before (he’s phenomenal) and I’ve seen “deep fakes” before, but this is quite the combo. We live in interesting (and potentially scary) time.

Various and Sundry

Space is big. Really, really big.

By Bjorn Munson | October 11, 2019October 11, 2019 by Bjorn Munson

I saw Ad Astra this past weekend, which is doing its part to make sci-fi hard like vibranium not squishy like flubber Scientist James O’Donoghue decided to make an animation to demonstrate how “warp speeds” worked in Star Trek, its various incarnations known for loving science… while certainly not being beholden to rigidly adhering to known norms because writers. In any case, even though vast distances can be crossed in three days or three weeks…

Various and Sundry

How About Those Vikings?

By Bjorn Munson | October 9, 2019September 17, 2019 by Bjorn Munson

I stumbled across this longer article from BBC Scotland going into the impact of the Vikings last year, well after Leif Erikson Day and thought, “Why not use it for later?” And so I scheduled it for far in the future, much as my Norwegian ancestors put up blog posts and salt cod for later use.

Various and Sundry

Rejecting the Poverty Mentality

By Bjorn Munson | October 7, 2019October 1, 2019 by Bjorn Munson

While I don’t currently work in the non-profit realm, I spent many years working at theaters that were, almost invariably, non-profits. The anthropology of theaters is worth another post (or really, a book), but suffice it to say that pretty much all the theaters I’ve ever worked at started based on the zeal and passion of a handful of people. They were artistic start-ups, if you will. Time and again, I saw theaters that hit…

Various and Sundry Writing

Building a Creative Business by Nuts and Bolts

By Bjorn Munson | October 2, 2019October 2, 2019 by Bjorn Munson

Trying to make a living –or just some nontrivial income– from your creative endeavors seems like a monumental task. At least it feels so for me. Luckily, for me, I enjoy some of the minutiae of process and procedures and figuring out devilish details I can repeat so all that small stuff is not stuff I sweat over. Then I constantly get reminded about how much I don’t know. Also I don’t have enough time.…

Various and Sundry Writing

Who Doesn’t Like Conlangs?

By Bjorn Munson | September 17, 2019September 17, 2019 by Bjorn Munson

This past week at work, talk drifted to Tolkien and constructed languages, or conlangs, because that’s how we roll. Now, I’m not about to present any paper to the Language Creation Society. It takes a lot of time to create a full, working language. For Rogue Tyger, I have actual world languages stand in for the various human and alien languages, otherwise I’d be up to half a dozen conlangs by now. Nevertheless, I find…

Various and Sundry

Worldcons and World Conquest (by way of Pop Culture)

By Bjorn Munson | August 27, 2019August 25, 2019 by Bjorn Munson

I’ve never been to a Worldcon, but I’m thinking I ought to for when it’s in my backyard. George R. R. Martin, however, has been to just about every Worldcon he could for several decades running. This year’s WorldCon is in Dublin, so the Irish Times caught up with him and he mused on WorldCons and fandom and all sorts of things. If you want more of Martin musing on his career and art, you…

Various and Sundry

More About Work as Religion

By Bjorn Munson | August 16, 2019August 15, 2019 by Bjorn Munson

Continuing this week’s series of video posts, I came across this video from The Atlantic that touches back to an earlier article I linked to about work becoming people’s faith. I’ve long been interested in work-life balance and finding joy or at least satisfaction in work, perhaps because, as mentioned in the video below, conventional wisdom is no longer satisfied with jobs or, to a certain extent, no longer even satisfied with careers. No, it…

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Category: Various and Sundry

Coppola Channels Daffy Duck, Finds MCU “Despicable”

“Comic Book Movies” and “High Art”

Analog Impressionist meets Digital Impressionist

Space is big. Really, really big.

How About Those Vikings?

Rejecting the Poverty Mentality

Building a Creative Business by Nuts and Bolts

Who Doesn’t Like Conlangs?

Worldcons and World Conquest (by way of Pop Culture)

More About Work as Religion