Various and Sundry

Is a Pirate’s Life for You? Ask the Expert!

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

I’m going through my final round of Netflix DVDs and this weekend’s entry was the 2012 mini-series of Treasure Island with Eddie Izzard as Long John Silver. The short version? Izzard delivers a great Silver, but the mini-series takes some odd diversions from the source material that are far from satisfying. My wife actually suggested, knowing my penchant for ranking, that I rank all the different version of Treasure Island, which is very tempting –perhaps…

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Reviews Various and Sundry

One Last Ride into the Sunset: Red Envelope Reviews

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Not quite three months ago, I, along with a couple million other people, got the sad news that Netflix was finally shuttering its films-by-mail service aka, the DVD rental business with “no late fees” that started it all. Now, there’s also over 200 million other Netflix subscribers who likely didn’t realize you could still get DVDs and Blu-Rays by mail. That doesn’t change the fact that this Postal method was and is a great way…

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Various and Sundry

Bond, Historical Bond (A Retrospective)

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Having done villains last week, let’s take a look at heroes. Okay, James Bond is something of an anti-hero as established from the get-go in that “you’ve had your six” moment in Dr. No. But still, he is working for Queen and Country as well as saving the world (sometimes as a sad clown). This is a fun overview of how James Bond has changed with the times that Fandom released just before No Time…

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Writing

Sometimes, You Just Need a Good Villain…

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Going from studio villains from earlier this week to the villains writers concoct for studios, I stumbled across this article by Tom Smyth for Vox about villians in Disney films… or the recent lack thereof. I have to admit, villains are very much on my mind of late as I try and and finish writing season 3 of my space opera, Rogue Tyger. The season includes the introduction of a “big bad” villain only hinted…

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Rants Various and Sundry

The Promise of Star Trek: Prodigy Cut Short

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

I debated whether or not to mention what has been widely reported in both trade publications and fan sites, but so many visitors come to my blog for the Star Trek content. So here’s the deal: Star Trek: Prodigy has been removed from the Paramount+ less than a week since the decision was announced. Why, it’s almost like they forgot their declared goal of not quite a year ago: Sigh. Yeah, it won’t be the…

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Various and Sundry

Heraldry, Design, and Ranking State Flags

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

A bit overdue for Father’s Day, but definitely thinking of my dad, for whom heraldry was a passion, here’s CGP Grey ranking all the state flags with the requisite amount of snark because so many of them are just so bad as flags. My dad also loved flags and would have approved of many of the guidelines Grey (and others) mention for good, clean, flag design. Not sure if he’d agree with all the rankings…

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Various and Sundry

Enjoying your Road Trip on a Deeper Level

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

School’s out for so many people and summer road trips are going to be on many minds in the weeks ahead, so since while working on a post featuring a CGP Grey video next week, I thought I’d drop this here. As with many of his videos, I knew some of this information, but Grey gives you so much more detail, like the odd exceptions. It’s something to think about as you’re driving on the…

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Various and Sundry

Babylon 5: Billy Pilgrim Edition

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Okay, so we’ve had several sci-fi stories where the main character slips between timelines and times in their lives (looking epecially at you, Picard in “All Good Things…”), but they specifically mention Sheridan being “unstuck in time” which is absolutely a Slaughterhouse Five reference. Also, for folks who have checked out the Babylon 5 Viewing Guide, this is almost certainly a film to check out after checking out the series. If you don’t believe me,…

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Producing Writing

What do Hollywood Business Models have to do with the Writers’ Strike?

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Yes, I am continuing to follow news about the Writers’ Strike and, yes, given my previous posts of Adam Conover videos, there was really doubt I’d post a video with Adam Conover talking about the Writers’ Strike? (I mean, he was one of the WGA folks in the negotiating room): One of the arguments you hear early in the video goes something like this: That got me thinking about how the studios are defining “profitable,”…

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