Musings from the basement...

Being focused on a new book is a wonderful challenge, when I can actually FOCUS on it

September 22, 2017 1 Comment

For those of you who don’t know, I’m under contract for my next book. Have been working on it since July-ish (though actually much longer). I’m wrapping up the first draft of chapter eight today, and if all goes well, I’ll have rough skeletons of the next two done by the end of the weekend. I am, so far, remaining on schedule – and I’d better be, since I’m under contract. It feels good. I just wish that feeling wasn’t so fleeting. Between my freelance work and social media work and podcasts and Youtube videos and managing a garden too big for my own good and everything else, it’s difficult to be as focused as I should be on this next book. And I DO…
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Books & Authors, Random Musings, Writing

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Alien Covenant commits the worst possible sin: It’s boring

August 15, 2017 15 Comments

WARNING: The following contains minor, unspecific spoilers. About the worst crime an Alien film can commit is to be boring. So lock ‘em up and throw away the key, boys. This one is caught, tried and convicted. Covenant is an attempt to right the franchise after the mixed reception received by Prometheus, returning it to its roots and making it squarely about the xenomorph and bloody scares. The problem with this approach is that Prometheus’s issue was never that it strayed too far from the Alien mythos or that it didn’t adhere to the Alien formula, it’s that so much of it was poorly written and that the characters were dumber than a pail of shit left out in the sun after a Kid Rock…
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Films

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Busting 5 More Persistent Beer Myths

June 22, 2017 3 Comments

yesterday, I pulled out my trusty bow and quiver and, after accidentally killing my pet cat and a small family of nearby chipmunks*, took aim at some pernicious beer myths. It’s time to take aim at a few more, because there is no better feeling than lording some pointless piece of knowledge over someone in an effort to make yourself feel a little better about your small, sad little life. This selection is perhaps a touch more subjective than the last, but I have the benefit of being right, so I’m not too worried about any subjectivity here. Here are 5 beer myths you should totally stop believing: Contract Brewing is Bad Photo courtesy of CraftCan on Photobucket CraftCans Contract brewing is something of a dirty…
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Craft Beer

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The Nerd Out With Me podcast is now a thing, and I have no idea why

June 22, 2017 2 Comments

I’ve been doing Youtube videos for a little over a year now, and by “doing” I mean sitting in my attic drinking beer with a friend and letting him turn them into fun video nonsense about board games, toys, movies, and whatever else suits our fancy. They’ve been fun and, for me, low impact — which is exactly what I wanted when I signed up for it, because the last thing I needed was another project. So I don’t know what the hell was going through my head when I suggested we do a podcast. What a terrible idea. See, I record and produce them. I’ve done it before, years ago when I did the Year of Hitchcock podcast with Jim McDevitt, my friend and…
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Geek Stuff, Videos, Works by Eric

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Lorde’s sophomore effort is a surprising triumph and an instant favorite

June 21, 2017 0 Comments

The new Lorde record is a surprising dose of satisfaction cloaked in misleading party garb. I was among those totally sucked into the Lorde orbit when she first hit the scene a few years back. “Royals” was catchy, sure, but the full record was miles better than one catchy single, packed with minimalist music, subversive lyrics of the kind only a teen could write – and while that sounds like a subtle insult, it’s not – and anti-pop pop. I loved it. But man, I had misgivings about the new record. The first single, “Green Light,” lived and died on a big dance thump and a heard-it-done-it fast piano riff. Wasn’t helped by a video of Lorde dancing on a fancy car in a short…
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Music

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