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A Brooding, Darker Hero: A Review of Indiana Jones and the Philosopher’s Stone
Leading up to the final Indiana Jones movie, The Dial of Destiny, I knew I would be in an Indiana Jones mood. As a result, I reached back to the 1990s and the novels written by a trio of writers: Rob MacGregor, Martin Caidin, and Max McCoy. I had read the first novel, The Peril at Delphi, back when it was released in 1991. But that Indy was younger and, for whatever reason, I kept buying the books but not reading them. After a cursory bit of research in 2023, I discovered that McCoy was hired to write stories more like the Indy we meet in the original trilogy and…
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Growing Up and Older With Indiana Jones: A Dial of Destiny Review
Indiana Jones and the Dial of destiny is a chance to reconnect with an old friend for one last adventure before we have to say good-bye. In that framework, the new film works quite well.
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A Rom-Com That’s Dialed Up to Eleven: Charm City Rocks by Matthew Norman
How long has it been since you read a book in four days? For me, it’s been forever. But I’ve also not read a book quite like Charm City Rocks by Matthew Norman. I follow the Writer Unboxed website and a recent Q&A landed this book on my radar. Being a huge fan of KISS, I instantly assumed the reference was a shout out to KISS’s “Detroit Rock City.” Whether or not that was how the author came up with the title of his novel, I don’t know, but that’s what got me in the door. Oh, and the cool premise. A single dad, Billy, is watching a rock and…
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The Real Batman Day: June 23 1989
[In light of Michael Keaton’s return as Batman in 2023’s The Flash, I thought I would re-post this piece from 2019 about the the original Batman movie from 1989, now thirty-four summers ago. The original post is here if you want to compare. Ever since 1989, the date of June 23 has been fixed in my mind. It will always be the true Batman Day for me and likely millions more.] Where were you 30 years ago today? Probably standing in line to see Batman. The Date It all began with a symbol and a date. A simple poster considering what it wrought. For months, all you needed to know…
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The Rock Band With Horns Remembers How to Rock: Chicago 19 at 35
Chicago 19 arrived in record stores thirty-five years ago today and it marked a change for the band. After a three-album run, producer David Foster and the band parted ways. But Foster had made his mark and helped revitalize Chicago for a brand-new decade and audience and, in doing so, put the spotlight on Peter Cetera, who, after singing the band’s biggest hits in the early 80s, departed for a solo career. Back in 1986, Cetera and his former band each had new albums, but with Foster behind the boards for Chicago 18 and Cetera sticking close to the sound of Chicago 16 and Chicago 17, Solitude/Solitaire and Chicago 18…
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How Do You Keep Track of What You Read (and Watch)?
On New Year’s Day 2023, I decided to try something new. I have long kept scattered notes about the things I consume. This includes books, movies, TV shows, music, and various other things. But these lists and such remain, well, scattered. Over the past couple of years, the writer Ryan Holiday landed on my radar. He is the bookstore owner who writes about the Stoics and their philosophy and how it is still relevant in the 21st Century. In my reading about how Holiday researches and studies his subjects, I learned he keeps an extensive notecard system. His research assistant, Billy Oppenheimer, also keeps an extensive set of notecards. He…
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FDR, Ted Lasso, and The Value of Kindness
Television this week boiled down to two things: the three-part, six-hour FDR documentary on The History Channel and the series finale of Apple TV’s Ted Lasso. In reflecting on both shows, I realized both programs demonstrated how one man can show those around him the value of kindness. FDR Based on the works of Doris Kearns Goodwin, “FDR” highlighted the life, career, and presidency of our 32nd president. Privileged from birth, FDR’s life was turned upside down when he contracted polio at age thirty-nine. His incapacitation meant he had to rely on others for nearly everything. It was in the long, slow process of learning to live with polio and…
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What Are You Going To Do With the 99 Days of Summer 2023?
Veteran writer Dean Wesley Smith dubs the summer months the Time of the Great Forgetting. It’s that point in the year when the good intentions of New Year’s Resolutions made in the depths of winter fall by the wayside in bright light of hot summer days when the pull to do just about anything other than writing draws writers away from their keyboards. It’s only in later summer and early fall when writers remember their annual goals and either charge full-stream ahead and barrel to the end of the year, desperately hoping to achieve their milestones, or just give up and do something else. He speaks the truth. But I’ve…
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It’s an Easy Choice: Don’t Wait a Year to Read Falling by T.J. Newman
Look at that cover. How cool is that? For me, it stopped me in my tracks last year when I saw it for the first time. Isn’t that what a cover’s supposed to do? Well, mission accomplished. I promptly put that book on my To Be Read list. And a year later, finally got to it. When I finished the debut novel by former flight attendant T. J. Newman, I chastised myself. Why did it take so long to pick up the book because it was a good one. The premise is a great example of an elevator pitch: on a transcontinental flight from LA to New York, veteran pilot…
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Season 2 of Perry Mason Continues to Reimagine the Characters
The second season of Perry Mason played more or less like how the original series television show used to: introduce some characters you don’t know, witness a crime (but conceal the culprit), and bring in our main characters. There will be a courtroom scene and there will be a confession of the real culprit on the stand in front of… Okay, so the analogy only goes so far, and that’s why I am really enjoying HBO’s revamping of Perry Mason. I say revamping because it many ways, it’s not an update, but a throwback. The TV show was broadcast in the late 1950s and early 1960s and the stories were…