I’ll be at Salt Lake Comic Con this Thursday, Friday and Saturday. They’ve only got me on minimal panel duty: Thursday @ 2pm: Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: Are Dystopian Stories Dangerous? (with James Dashner, Cameron Dayton, Mikki Kells, L.E. Modesitt, Aneeka Richins — I’m moderating, too) Saturday @ 7pm: Horror: The Art of Scaring People in Comics, Films, and Books (with Jason A. Anderson, Michaelbrent Collings, Cori…
Movies Seen Recently: The Dirty Dozen, Amadeus: The Director’s Cut, Man in the Moon
The Dirty Dozen (1967) – They’re rough! They’re tough! (Except Donald Sutherland.) They’re filthy! This movie set the standard of the “unorthodox fighting force” war movies for decades to come. I watched it with my thirteen-year-old daughter, who stayed through the entire running time and when it was done, said, “That was a very good…
What’s in a name? Puh-lenty.
Will I ever get bored of zeroing in on the “unique” names of Utah and the environs? There’s no sign of it as of yet. Here are the highlights of another hefty list of local families: Aleesa (female) Alexus (female) Amee (female) Angye (female) Annistin (female) Bowie (male) Braden (male) Brayden (male) Brenden (male) Carin (female)…
Movies Seen Recently: Strange Invaders, The 5th Wave, The Creation of the Humanoids
Strange Invaders (1983) – I don’t normally post any sort of review of movies that I don’t manage to finish, but in the case of Strange Invaders I’ll make an exception. the premise of the movie — aliens take over a small town in the 1950s and keep in unchanged for decades — could be…
More local names!
In my professional duties, I have opportunity to run across long lists of names of local individuals and their families. Now, you all know my predilection for documenting the, um, “creative” names (or the standard names (mis)spelled “creatively”) in this corner of the world, and brother, this list was a doozy. It also gave genders, which…
Utah names!
My son Jason’s high school graduation place today, and you know what that means — I get to look through the graduation program for “creative” names! Note that it’s the adult education class, so there are quite a few ESL students; I have to be careful not to include any legitimate names from non-Anglo-Saxon cultures….
Sal Velluto Fundraiser Artwork
Last yesterday was the fundraiser to help local comic mainstay Sal Velluto with his bills from cancer treatment. I was honored to be included in the artists (I asked to be one of them) sketching for Sal. I’m actually surprised there was enough interest to keep me mostly busy. I did three commissions: two of…
My story in REDNECK ELDRITCH: “Ostler Wallow”
I am very proud (I think not inordinately) of my story, “Ostler Wallow,” which appears in REDNECK ELDRITCH published earlier this spring. I’m so proud, in fact, that I’m reproducing here the “sneak peek” posted this morning on the Cold Fusion Media website: ********** I aint had the dream abowt the corners for long years….
Woodcuts and such.
“Nathan,” you ask, “why are you so silent? What are you working on that keeps you away from your own blog?” That’s a fair question. I wish I had more to tell you, or more that was in a stage at which it could be told about: I’m under contract to edit a couple of…
Movies Seen Recently: Feast, The Martian, Captain America: Civil War
Feast (2005) – If you’re looking for a movie which concurrently honors and subverts horror movie tropes, forget the criminally overrated Scream. Feast does it much better. In classic fashion, a mismatched assortment of stock characters (no character names, only labels and life expectancies) are trapped in a middle-of-nowhere bar by a trio of fast, vicious…