Author Archive: Eric San Juan
Eric San Juan
November 23, 2015
A few weeks back, I ranted a bit about Twitter hashtags being mined for shitty “news” by shitty websites. It’s more than a pet peeve. Pet peeves are minor annoyances. This isn’t a minor annoyance. This is a form of Internet cancer. Today, thanks to the wonders of Farking, I came across a great blog post by someone whose Tweet became the “THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!!” social media story of the day, a minor nothing that was turned into yet another misleading and false tale of Internet anger thanks to shitty news on shitty websites. You might remember a story from earlier in the year about a lipstick color that had people up in arms. This blogger saw a lipstick called “Underage Red,” Tweeted about…
Read more
Eric San Juan
November 18, 2015
Rather than providing the rich, more deliberately paced, character moment-filled version of the movie that Peter Jackson’s extended cuts usually provide, The Battle of the Five Armies is even more jam-packed with mindless battles and stupid sights gags. And let me tell you, that kind of sucks. I’ve perhaps been more forgiving of the Hobbit movies than they deserve. I don’t pretend they are great cinema, and readily acknowledge they are deeply flawed to the point of often being downright awful. Still, I love aspects of PJ’s cinematic Middle Earth enough so that I let their flaws slide and instead focus on the parts that I like, considering them a lesser but still accepted part of my beloved Lord of the Rings movie family. Much…
Read more
Eric San Juan
November 14, 2015
I used to work a really boring job juggling numbers. This has nothing to do with that. A few years ago, during a strangely relaxed period of my life, I sat down at night and thought peaceful thoughts while strumming blurry, hazy guitar drones. I recorded them. They turned into another m2 album, which for inexplicable reasons I sat on for several years. Well, now it’s here. Cue up. Listen. Relax. m2 Comfortable Clarity (2015) 1) To The Coast (7:56) 2) Picked My Fingers Clean Off (4:21) 3) Comfortable Clarity (11:51) 4) The Pickings (3:25) 5) This Florida Bullshit (4:58) 6) Hungover (3:53) 7) This is a Social Song (7:07) NOTES – Recorded in pieces two years ago or more. Sat in a vault…
Read more
Eric San Juan
November 10, 2015
I’ve touched on authors having meltdowns when criticized a few times before (like this guy or this woman’s now deleted Amazon war), but this one takes the cake. A year or so ago, British author self-published a novel inspired by the woman he was stalking. Seriously. He blogged extensively about stalking her, law enforcement got involved, and he eventually wrote a fairy tale in which she was the main character. Given that he blogs extensively about mental illness, I have to guess that he’s a wee bit unstable. Anyway, he posted an excerpt of this work to Wattpad, where an 18-year-old Scottish girl gave it a harsh review. Among other things, she said: This is painful. Everything is written through telling and purple prose which…
Read more
Eric San Juan
November 10, 2015
The following is taken from Celebrating Mad Men, available in paperback and for Kindle. MAD MEN AS A PERIOD PIECE “I’m interested in how people respond to change. Are they excited by the change, or are they terrified that they’ll lose everything that they know? Do people recognize that change is going on? That’s what the show’s about.” – Matthew Weiner . One of the great joys of Mad Men comes from being immersed in a time and place that is not our own. We delight not only in the look and feel of the show, but also in the way in which it’s instructive when it comes to how people lived and behaved just a few short decades ago. It not only allows us a glimpse into that world, it also puts…
Read more
