Lit City Blues

The Terminal List: I know that this show is based on a series of books by Jack Carr and I have not read any of them. (I haven't read any of the Jack Reacher books either) so given that, I feel a little reluctant to judge The Terminal List too harshly. For all I know, it could be decent to the good adaptation of the books that's pretty faithful to the source material but again, I haven't read 'em so my initial impression of the show was, "Man, this has a lot of Jack Reacher vibes to it." And I think that judgment is somewhat unfair-- for a start, the main character, Lt. Commander James Reece (Chris Pratt) of the Navy SEALs comes across as just that- a Navy Seal. There's no- and again, I hesitate to use this word because I haven't read any of the books- savant-like behavior. This isn't, 'what if Sherlock Holmes was an MP with a dark past'-- no, Lt. Commander Reece goes on a mission, it goes, very, very badly, and in the aftermath, he figures ...

Anyone who has been connected to the internet has probably seen the video. The open door, the many- headed blonde hydra of faces all clapping and chanting something-- you know the one. With the rise of TikTok for the young people, the annual fall ritual of Rush went viral again, specifically at the University of Alabama, and director Rachel Fleit set out to explore it in the documentary Bama Rush . She follows four young women- two already at the University of Alabama and heading into their sophomore year and two incoming freshmen, all of whom want to 'rush' and attempt to join a sorority.  Look, I'll just get this out of the way now: I don't get the appeal of this. I've never understood the appeal of this- even when I was in college, it just didn't appeal to me at all. It's occurred to me over the years that maybe my brain is wired correctly because I just am not really all that social of a creature and I know for sure that I'm not a 'joiner.' I...

Well, it's begun. Urbandale, thanks to a vaguely written law and in an overenthusiastic display of censorship aimed at avoiding litigation has removed up to around 400 books from its school library. What's especially troubling about this is that no one at the school apparently ran this by the school board, which is really shady- but in striking a blow for quality education in the state of Iowa, many of the titles are included on the high school AP reading list, so well done.  When I was growing up, the Scholastic Book Fair was the highlight of the school year. We were all zealots for Book It and jonesing to get that free, personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut, but today's kids are as every parent knows by now, obsessed with screens. The Medium Spawn is doing okay-- he's pretty fixated on Dog Man right now, so we've got to work on expanding his tastes a bit, but he actually likes books. The Younger Spawn is a fan of Captain Underpants and Wee, Younger, and Medium all ins...

I will be honest here: I don't know if I'll ever go back to Mistborn Era Two. That's nothing against Mistborn- the first two books were excellent, but the third one that resolved the trilogy turned out to be merely good, in my opinion. I haven't touched Elantris or any of Sanderson's other work and I'm honestly not sure I ever will because The Stormlight Archive is on an entirely different level from anything else from Sanderson I've ever encountered. Oathbringer , the third book in the series (the fourth volume, Rhythm of War is already out and I think a fifth is expected in 2024 - tentatively titled Knights of Wind and Truth ) is probably my favorite thus far. The first two volumes had this tendency to elongate in the middle (we spend far too much time with Kaladin and his various issues in the first couple of books and he spends a decent amount of time wallowing in self-pity before getting his shit together in a very satisfying way which carries throug...

Once again, TikTok annoyed me so much with clip after clip after clip of a show that I finally sat down and watched it. Before that, I had no real interest in watching Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty , because honestly, I'll watch basketball, but it's never really been my primary sport. Growing up, one couldn't escape Michael Jordan and The Bulls and I remember Magic Johnson having to retire from playing due to contracting HIV, but outside of that, the NBA didn't really have that much of a hold on me. I knew all the names (Sean Kemp, Charles Barkley, Dikembe Mutumbo, etc) I can't say that I watched that many of the games.  (I'm also convinced that the NBA used to be better back then, in the way that older, crusty types always are- but I still hold to the notion that they should bring back the Super Sonics, damn it.) The first season of  Winning Time focuses on the 1979-1980 NBA season, where new owner Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly) takes control of the...

I'm a bit past the deadline for this update because this is landing in the middle of July instead of the start, but as promised, here's the Second Quarter Update on my Goals for 2023.  I feel pretty good about 5-6 of these, so I'm feeling like 50% is a pretty decent accomplishment, but it could go as high as 7 or even 8 if I get my act together, which would be a very productive year indeed!  Anyway, here's the update: 1. Big Writing Goal for the Year: Get Book 4 into the draft format by the end of the year. I'm currently working my way through Chapter 5 and I'm sitting at 25,744 words. It's been challenging so far: I'm sticking to a single POV for the first time in a book, I'm writing well outside my usual genre preferences so far, and writing consistently and well is hard, y'all. But enough is enough-- time to light this candle and git 'er done. Update:  Okay, so the good news is that I'm sitting at 43,826 words. There's not really b...

I've been trying to keep politics off the main feed, because with two degrees in Political Science, sometimes my nerd brain runs amuck and I find myself talking about it way too much. So, most of it (if you're interested) is over on Minds , where I'm trying to become more intentional and more focused with my writing about politics. I don't know how successful it's been so far, but I'm trying. However, we've got to talk about what happened last night in Des Moines . I know, I know, right at the outset: politics, religion, and abortion are three things that always lead to sane, sensible, and civil discourse in our society. I'm also a dude talking about abortion and when dudes talk about abortion we have this unfortunate tendency to talk out of our own assholes, so I'm going to do my utmost to avoid doing that. Obviously, I've never been faced with that choice as a woman. Obviously, I have no idea how agonizing that can be for women in those situati...