NY Times doc features my 1981 D&D gang
This The New York Times documentary about D&D and the "Satanic Panic" features two tiny clips from a Super 8 movie I filmed of my old D&D group back in 1981. You'll see us at minute 00:20 and at minute 08:25. Yes, we were (as their expert says over a clip of my old gang rolling dice and goofing off) “the kind of kids and young people who didn’t go to dances or date on the weekends." But we rocked it. Also featuring npted writers Junot Díaz and Cory Doctorow, talking about how D&D was instrumental to their careers, former D&D editor Tim Kask, and private investigator William Dear, who investigated the famous disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III, supposedly caused by D&D.
Making beasts “walk like you, talk like you, ooh-bi-doo."
I talk to Jon Favreau about his new remake of The Jungle Book and how he got his beasts to “walk like you, talk like you, ooh-bi-doo.” More on that over at the Boston Globe.
You can't escape escape rooms
What is an escape room? I found out reporting on this story for the Boston Globe.
A review of Tolkien's “The Story of Kullervo”
My review of “The Story of Kullervo," an unfinsihed story by J.R.R. Tolkien based on six chapters, or “runos,” from “The Kalevala,” an epic poem compiled from Finnish oral folklore. Drafted sometime from 1912 to 1916, when Tolkien was in his 20s, his version represents the then-poet and philologist’s baby steps toward prose storytelling. Read the rest over at the Boston Globe.
What makes superheroes so super?
So why have superhero yarns become among the most reliable of money-makers? The way I see it, the superhero genre speaks to many of our culture’s pent-up voices and internal desires. Over at WBUR's TheARTERY, I talk about why.
Headline: Nerd appears at TedX
Excited to appear at TEDxPiscataquaRiver in Portsmouth NH on May 6 alongside illustrious fellow speakers Steve Almond, Maxine Bédat, Zand Martin, Tina Nadeau, Jeff Sharlet, Skylar Bayer, Jennifer Dunn, Robert Eckstein, Muskan Kumari, amd Sam Rosen. My talk will be (something like) “How Dungeons & Dragons Makes You a Better Person.”
Batman vs. Superman Smackdown!
In this 3-parter in The Boston Globe, I give you (almost) everything you wanted to know about Batman and Superman, in advance the new “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" movie, including: 1) a look at the new movie in the context of previous Batman and Superman films (and if Affleck is up to the task of being the Caped Crusader); 2) an overview of “Batman and Superman at the movies” and 3) a Batman/Superman fact sheet.
Why I'm against online comment forums
Why am I against online comment forums? Increasingly, I see ad hominem attacks, “you’re a loser” name-calling, and Donald Trump-style playground insults --- all of which have come to pass for grown-up debate in America. Read the rest over on WBUR's Cognoscenti.
Product placement in the National Parks
It’s been said by more than Ken Burns that the national parks are America’s best idea. In “National Parks Adventure,” opening at the Museum of Science’s Mugar Omni Theater on Friday, narrator Robert Redford makes the same claim. But after this hokey and commercialized IMAX road trip, you’ll be thinking the best idea might have been to stay at home. Read the rest of my Boston Globe review.
Geek out in the Galapagos
Sometimes, we watch a documentary to be sucker-punched by its investigative uppercut. Other times, it’s to be awed by nerdy info and eye-candy. The IMAX science museum/aquarium movie “Galapagos 3D: Nature’s Wonderland" may not be subtle or particularly brilliant. But this science-y doc sates that second desire just fine. Read the rest of my review of “Galapagos 3D: Nature’s Wonderland" for the Boston Globe.
What is it like to run the Iditarod?
What it's like to run the Iditarod? In my story “1 woman, 16 dogs, and 1,000 miles of snow” for the Boston Globe, I interview Debbie Clarke Moderow about her dogsledding quest to finish the 1,000 mile race --- and write a book about it, called “Fast Into the Night: A Woman, Her Dogs, and Their Journey North on the Iditarod Trail."
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and the state of the mash-up movie
How to make a mash-up: Into a cauldron, toss some historical or fictional character, dusty novel, or ancient fairy tale. The more staid or stale or out of fashion, the better. Then, stir in creatures or villains from some different genre: zombies, witches, dinosaurs, even Nazis. Pour this mixture into a script, and bake for about 120 minutes at 75 million dollars, give or take a few million. Serve with a reliable dressing — blood and gore, perhaps — that most focus groups will find to their tastes. Prepared correctly, your Hollywood masterpiece will serve the masses.
On Friday, the mash-up rises again with “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.” The movie version of Seth Grahame-Smith’s 2009 novel of the same name retells Jane Austen’s 1813 tale of manners, morality, social standing, and romance, but sets it in a reimagined Regency Era beset by the undead.
Will this new concoction, equal parts Austen and zombie pandemic, deliver a much-needed shot in the arm or another box office blow to the genre? Read the rest of my story over at the Boston Globe
My first foray into online teaching
Let's get virtual... virtual ...
In which I try out a virtual reality exercise bike, become a pegasus, lasso some bandits, and come in second as a dog driving a Formula One racing car. Plus, I burn some calories. My story for the Boston Globe.
Star Wars -- Shakespeare Mashup: A Review of Ian Doescher’s ‘William Shakespeare’s Tragedy of the Sith’s Revenge’
In “The Empire Strikes Back,” Yoda admonishes his apprentice, Luke Skywalker, saying, “Wars not make one great.” Later, in “Return of the Jedi,” he quips, “When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not.”
In case you didn’t catch on, Yoda inverts his syntax. In other words, Yoda practically speaks Shakespearean.
And in Ian Doescher’s best-selling “Star Wars” / Shakespeare mash-ups, so does every character in George Lucas’s science-fictional universe of Wookiees, droids and the Force.
My Failure Is Complete: I Fell for Star Wars Hype. Now, Can We Just Watch the Damned Movie?
The hype-train has hit hyperdrive. The entertainment-industrial complex has devoured us all like that sarlacc from “Return of the Jedi” lurking in the Great Pit of Carkoon. This “Star Wars” fan is worn out: The nonstop marketing machine has turned fandom into a grind. Dear Lucasfilm and shareholders of the Walt Disney Co.: I just want to watch your damned movie. I wrote this rant for Salon.com. Enjoy!‘Star Wars,’ And The Force It Awakened In Me
“Star Wars” and its sequels were touchstones, mind-bending fantasy movie experiences into which I poured my longings for escape, creativity and adventure. Read the rest of the essay here.
Apparently this is what I look like when I'm talking about Star Wars
I was on WGBH's Greater Boston to talk about The Force Awakens. Apparently this is what I look like when I'm talking about Star Wars. Watch the full video here.