Ready Player One

Ready Player One

Join Daddy Warpig and Dorrinal for the latest episode of Geek Gab! This time, our intrepid hosts review Stephen Spielberg's self-referential adaptation of Ernest Cline's ode to nerd culture, Ready Player One. Have a listen: And if you need something to wash away the stale taste of on-the-nose pop culture…
April 10, 201810 Comments
Sparing the Poet

Sparing the Poet

It's my pleasure to present the readers of this blog with the foreword to my upcoming short story anthology. Spend some time on authors’ blogs or online writing groups, and you’ll meet people who claim to be aspiring writers. I use “claim” because there’s no such animal. Our actions define…
April 9, 201813 Comments
We Have to Go Back

We Have to Go Back

All the way back. Not to the 1950s. The rot had already spread far and deep by then. Express a desire to turn the clock back to a better time, and nine out of ten Americans will instantly assume you mean the 50s. That's because there are no real traditionalists…
April 6, 201818 Comments
Indiana Joan

Indiana Joan

In what can only be considered an advance warning to nerd culture paypigs, former A+ list director turned shady uncle Steven Spielberg has a special announcement for fans of the last Lucasfilm franchise Disney hasn't destroyed yet. Steven Spielberg is behind the idea that when Harrison Ford hangs up his…
April 5, 201820 Comments
The Name of the Wind

The Name of the Wind

The other day I came across this incomplete but astute review of The Name of the Wind at RMWC Reviews. Having read and finished the book, I can vouch for his appraisal. Here are some representative excerpts. 2007 saw the publication of The Name of the Wind, the first book of…
April 4, 201812 Comments
Why Liberalism Failed

Why Liberalism Failed

According to Notre Dame Professor Patrick J. Deneen's book, reviewed by The American Conservative, Liberalism failed because it succeeded. Notre Dame professor Patrick Deneen has written a book vitally important for understanding the present crisis in Western politics. If this work had appeared two or three years ago, it still…
April 3, 20189 Comments
Facebook Makes a FUS

Facebook Makes a FUS

My alma mater the Franciscan University of Steubenville submitted a series of Facebook ads on Holy Thursday for their online theology courses. Not all of the ads passed FB's rigorous screening process. Here's the one they rejected: Facebook's stated reason for rejecting the ad? FUS issued a statement on their…
April 2, 20181 Comment
Putting the PITA in Your Pocket

Putting the PITA in Your Pocket

Hugo winner David Gerrold may have presided over the ceremony that forever beclowned the same award, but unlike the CHORFs, we're not binary thinkers compelled to insulate our amygdalae in the genetic fallacy. But truth is truth, and even Caiaphas prophesied unknowing. This 1999 magazine clipping, for example, chronicles Gerrold…
March 29, 201811 Comments
Selling Our Past Back to Us

Selling Our Past Back to Us

Author JD Cowan issues a Jeremiad against the Morlocks who destroy culture while pretending to create it, occasioned by his viewing of a Netflix nostalgia cash-grab. The program was called Everything Sucks! and is supposed to be a Wonder Years or Freaks and Geeks of the 1990s. For those that…
March 28, 20189 Comments