Musings from the basement...

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies extended edition is even more disappointing than you imagine

November 18, 2015 1 Comment

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…
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Films

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It’s not music, it’s Memorex

November 14, 2015 0 Comments

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…
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Music, Works by Eric

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Writer smashes reviewer with a wine bottle, aka How NOT to handle getting a bad review

November 10, 2015 0 Comments

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…
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Uncategorized, Writing

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MAD MEN: Seeing the show as a Period Piece

November 10, 2015 0 Comments

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…
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Television, Works by Eric

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Breaking Bad’s 10 Greatest Moments

November 5, 2015 0 Comments

The following is taken from Breaking Down Breaking Bad, available in paperback and for Kindle. The idea of selecting the greatest moments of a show filled with memorable moments is, admittedly, like asking to be slapped around for how absent-minded you are. Such a list can only ever spark a flurry of “how could you forget Moment X?” comments from readers. Still, it’s worth revisiting these scenes not only because it’s fun to roll a mental highlight reel, but because many of them distill the essence of Breaking Bad down to a few memorable minutes. Yes, there are some that were painful to leave off the list – Gale’s murder and Hank’s shootout with the Cousins spring immediately to mind – but you have to cut things off somewhere. Taken as a whole,…
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Television, Works by Eric

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