In Which I Confess to Cinema Ignorance

Goodfellas

I’ve got a bit of a confession to make. As much as I know and love movies, there is a tremendous gap in my experience when it comes to classic films. I can’t really pinpoint why, but for some reason or another, I haven’t seen a few movies that many consider to be among the all time greats.

Naturally, this results in a lot of balking and the “What?! You’ve never seen (movie that everyone claims is mind-blowing) before?! And you call yourself a movie buff?!” line of questioning that just makes me want to hammer punch people in the throat before they can finish the sentence. I think some day, some poor soul’s utterance of these words will finally make me snap, and then things will get very real. Continue reading →

Some End of Year Updates

Yikes. Sometimes time pulls away from you. That’s normal, I guess. You get busy, bogged down, tied up in things, and a few days slip by before you can even realize it. But sometimes, it’s a few months.

I feel like I hopped in a DeLorean or fast-forwarded through the last 90 days or so of 2011. Things have been bananas, and not in the fruity, delicious way. As a result, I accidentally abandoned my Harry Potter blog, but that shall return soon. I promise I have a few good reasons. Continue reading →

Prior Incantato: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Part 5

This entry is part 5 of 6 in the series Prior Incantato: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Prior Incantato: In Harry Potter, a spell that can reveal the last spell performed by a particular wand. In other words — magic revisited.

HP Mirror

After a long Labor Day weekend, Prior Incantato is back, with the piece of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone that I’ve been waiting to cover ever since I first got the idea for this thing. We’re going to talk about mirrors, desires, phantoms and Flamels. At the end of Part 4, Harry vanquished a troll and got his Quidditch on. What’s next? Continue reading →

Prior Incantato: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Part 4

This entry is part 4 of 6 in the series Prior Incantato: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Prior Incantato: In Harry Potter, a spell that can reveal the last spell performed by a particular wand. In other words — magic revisited.

Harry Potter

And we’re back! This week we tackle the next three chapters of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which gives us our awesome first game of Quidditch, trolls, tricks and leviosas. At the end of Part 3, Harry had just been sorted into Gryffindor, where he found out that Snape hated him and all was not quite what it seemed at Hogwarts. What mysteries will he stumble upon next? Continue reading →

Prior Incantato: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Part 3

This entry is part 3 of 6 in the series Prior Incantato: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Prior Incantato: In Harry Potter, a spell that can reveal the last spell performed by a particular wand. In other words — magic revisited.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Welcome, Muggles, to Part 3 of Prior Incantato, where we’re digging into the world of Harry Potter on a chapter by chapter basis with constant vigilance. At the end of Part 2, Harry received his ticket to the Hogwarts Express, and now eagerly awaits the escape from his evil captors, the Dursleys. Continue reading →

Prior Incantato: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Part 2

This entry is part 2 of 6 in the series Prior Incantato: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Prior Incantato: In Harry Potter, a spell that can reveal the last spell performed by a particular wand. In other words — magic revisited.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Welcome to Part 2 of my re-read of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. We last left Harry at the worst vacation ever, warming himself near a fire fueled by a bag of potato chips as he awaits his birthday. When the clock strikes midnight, someone knocks on the door. Continue reading →

Prior Incantato: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Part 1

This entry is part 1 of 6 in the series Prior Incantato: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Prior Incantato: In Harry Potter, a spell that can reveal the last spell performed by a particular wand. In other words — magic revisited.

I don’t want to introduce this thing too heavily, but if you’d like to know more about why I’m doing this blog series, see these two Harry Potter related posts. The story of the Boy Who Lived is, I feel, one of the greatest modern pieces of writing about death, redemption and sacrificial love – and I don’t know if anything will challenge that title for a long time to come.

I wanted to take some time to dig through the halls of Hogwarts again, to see Harry Potter grow up, to analyze the way J.K. Rowling develops characters and sows the seeds of mystery. Hopefully, I can become a better writer as a result, and we can grow to appreciate Harry’s tale a bit more together. After all, even though the Boy Who Lived is gone, the ones we love never truly leave us. Continue reading →

On Humor and Finding Community

Community

One of my recent obsessions the last couple of months has been the show Community, Dan Harmon’s meta-comedy that pokes fun at sitcoms and practically every other genre that has graced our TV sets.

I recently borrowed Season 1 of the show on DVD, and somehow I fell down the rabbit hole of listening to the commentary tracks for every single episode, something I’ve never really done before with a series like this. Or any series, for that matter. Continue reading →

The Dungeon Writer

When I was younger, we didn’t have a whole lot of limits on what we could and couldn’t consume in terms of media. I think I started watching rated R movies when I was around 6 or 7 years old. Of course, I started with the greats: Predator, Rambo III, Commando and the like. I guess my dad was really into burly dudes shooting machine guns, so I was into it, too.

However, through all of the blood and gore, there was one thing that my mom was always adamant that we couldn’t watch: anything with magic. Continue reading →

Fear and Fowls

Dead Space 2

What follows is a post I wrote about a month ago, but never published, ironically, out of fear of looking like a dork. Thought I’d finish it and put it out there.

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A few weeks back, I watched my brother play the game Dead Space 2 and squealed in dread for the majority of the experience. I’ve always maintained that scary anything isn’t my cup of tea, and it really shows when I’m met with jaw-busting and bladder-loosening terror.

The whole ordeal got me thinking about fear in general. I was shocked to realize just how much it rules my life in other, less funny ways. Continue reading →

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