I grew up in Waukegan, Illinois–learned to ride my bike on it’s sidewalks, developed my first friendships and crushes on it’s playgrounds, began to love nature in it’s parks and preserves. I also learned to love reading in it’s downtown library, a sprawling and boxy 1960’s artifact filled to the brim with dusty old books and strange statues. It was here, around the age of 12, that Ray Bradbury stole my heart. I picked up one of his collections of short stories of the shelf–maybe it was October Country?–opened it and was hooked. His poetic prose and vibrant imagery were like a drug to my young mind, and I devoured most of his writings in the space of a couple months, immediately aping his style in my messy notebooks, desperately trying to write a story as exciting and melodic and moody as one of his.
Streaming Culture—The “Air-Conditioned Nightmare” Realized
I’m thinking about canceling my Netflix subscription. Why? Why not a little history first?
Years ago people would dress up to go to a stage play. Attending the theater was a special occasion, a way to relax after a hard week, or even month of labor. With the advent of cinema nothing much changed. Most people treated movies like they treated theater—as a special night of entertainment. Going to the movies was still at most a once a week event, and people still dressed up.
Preaching To Myself: 10 Things People Who Didn’t Vote For Obama Can Do in the Next Four Years
I was really down in the dumps the day after the election. Then I decided to sit down and come up with a list of things I could do rather than just mope about. This list is as much for me as it is for anyone else who wasn’t thrilled with the outcome of the election. I’m no great political thinker, but in light of recent events I’m starting to realize how important it is for even the least politically minded to step up and take action. Here are ten things people who didn’t vote for Obama can do in the next four years:
The Rise of Mighty Kaiju or “I Have a Sickness, and the Only Cure is More Giant Monster Films”
Back in the day some guy named Cooper had this crazy idea for a film involving a giant ape. He got a guy named O’Brien to help make it happen, with some stop-motion animation that blew audiences out of their seats. Cooper made a few more films in the same vein, then the big monster genre kind of disappeared.