A Long Way Down

Yesterday afternoon I was cleaning up my bookshelves, and I took a moment and looked at my shelf of Nick Hornby books, as one does: his novels (except the latest, Funny Girl, which I’ve not picked up), his screenplay for An Education, his book on music, even some of the Polysymphonic Spree books. As IContinue reading “A Long Way Down”

2018: The Year in Review

Most every year I do this — go back through my blog archives and post a link to the first post I made each month. The results are random, to say the least; there’s no consistency. But about six of these are worthwhile. Which six? That’s for you to find out. 🙂 January: Winter Misanthropy:Continue reading “2018: The Year in Review”

A Christmastime Visit to the Cemetery

Earlier last week I took a short trip to Baltimore’s Loudon Park Cemetery, where my great-grandparents, three of my great-grandfather’s siblings, and his mother are buried. The Baltimore area received about three and a half inches of rain over the weekend (from mid-day Friday to Sunday evening), and, since the cemetery floods, I wanted toContinue reading “A Christmastime Visit to the Cemetery”

They Shall Not Grow Old

In 2014, the British Imperial War Museums approached Peter Jackson, the award-winning director of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, with a request. They had 100 hours of digitized film footage and 600 hours of audio recordings from World War I of Tommies in the trenches, behind the lines, and in battle.Continue reading “They Shall Not Grow Old”

Christmas in the Shire

Last night, for no particular reason, I watched the first of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit film, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.  (Thoughts on the trilogy as a whole here.)  Watching it brought to mind a satirical video I’d seen years ago of the Rankin-Bass Hobbit Christmas special that should have been.  Was it still online?  AContinue reading “Christmas in the Shire”

The Downton Abbey Movie Teaser Trailer

The teaser trailer for next autumn’s Downton Abbey movie dropped yesterday.  Let’s take a look, shall we? There is not much there.  Lovely shots of Totleigh Towers… err, I mean, Downton Abbey there.  Lots of shadow, lots of light.  Shots that could have been stock footage from the original television series.  Some crane pans (orContinue reading “The Downton Abbey Movie Teaser Trailer”

The World Famous Time Traveler

Going through some files recently, I came across something that I wrote, showed a few people for feedback, and then filed away. Several years back, BOOM! Studios, a comic book publisher, began publishing original Peanuts comic book stories. While Charles Schulz’s comic strip has been left alone (except for coloring the dailies), there have beenContinue reading “The World Famous Time Traveler”

The New World of WordPress 5.0

On Thursday, the new version of WordPress — version 5.0 — dropped. I’ve been using WordPress since 2004 and version 1.2.  5.0 is the biggest change in years.  I’ve been through the introduction of themes, sidebar widgets, post formats (an idea to compete with Tumblr that never amounted to anything).  5.0’s change is an entirelyContinue reading “The New World of WordPress 5.0”