Category: Career
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Heroism in ‘Under the Silver Lake’: “This MEANS Something” vs. “THIS Means Something?!”
An attempt to explain part of why this movie works is nearly impossible and easy. It either makes sense or it doesn’t.
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The Best On-Screen Writing Scene? Check out “Wu-Tang: An American Saga”
One of the hobbies of any writer is trying to figure out “how you do it.” There are tons of conventions, TedTalks, tutorials, classes and books whose subtext or selling point is that they will show you just how to actually do the writing. This is, of course, a fallacy since the way to write…
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Serial Story and Exploration in “Batman Beyond”
I somehow coerced my son into not only viewing but enjoying “Batman Beyond.” And guess what? It’s great. It’s actually better than I remember it being. I think I always enjoyed it, but it was never quiiiiiiiite the primo stuff that I thought “Animated Series” was. Now, watching it today, I think I had it…
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Filmed a Book Commercial
Top reporter WPBM’s Kelsey Winthrop covers a bank robbery in the Sherman Oaks area, where the security guards were distracted by thrilling writing.
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Why Do I Read TheRinger.com?
For some reason, I keep doing it to myself. I keep reading TheRinger. Maybe they have good art, or alluring titles (in fact, they do). But time and again, their content is a let down. Case in point: the recent “Weezer Must Be Stopped” article. I considered doing a point-by-point take down of this thing,…
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A-Hole Cartoons
I recently came across an irritating cartoon. This one. It irritated me for a number of reasons, mostly for the fact that it assumes people with a liberal arts degree look down on those who go to trade schools (or anyone, for that matter). It actually proves its own ignorance in a couple of ways.…
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The Hives and Twitter Power
My Facebook and Twitter feeds are basically “Please Love Me” outlets. I’m totally unique that way. You probably post stuff out of the goodness of your heart, and you don’t want those luscious internet kisses in the forms of “likes” and stars and re-tweets and shout outs. Good for you. Bad for me. But also…
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I Like Movies About Rock Bands/Rock Music
Here are some movies about bands, rock music and the like which I enjoy. Some have authoritatively been called “Great” others have not. I make no apologies for it. It’s just a list, in no particular order.
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No More Pop Culture Big Bang
This one’s a mess. I’ve been listening to Nirvana. Again. As I’ve written before, I seem to fall into a rut with this band around this time of year, every year, for the last couple years. Near the anniversary of Cobain’s suicide. It’s a contemplative time that ultimately succeeds in ruining me for my mother’s…
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Thin Lizzy Album Covers
We’ve all heard the hits, especially “The Boys are Back In Town” and “Jailbreak.” And we’ve all pictured the images created by the lyrics, particularly of jails being broken out of and boys coming back to towns. Music-loving revisionists like to claim Thin Lizzy is an underrated band musically, but just as underrated is their…
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I Don’t Love “Dr. Strangelove:” Is THAT My Problem? Or Is That MY Problem?
Recently, a number of things have lined me up with the work of Stanley Kubrick. A viewing of “Room 237” led to a viewing and discussion of “The Shining,” which lead me to seek out more discussion on that movie, which brought me to a number of podcasts, and as you might suspect, there is a lot of type-…
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Weird Brushes With Internet Fame
A few weeks back I had my day made when the Rollin’ Clones (the UK’s preeminent Rolling Stones cover band) started following me on Twitter. I was only upset to see that they weren’t playing in the States any time soon. I suppose I could travel… But that was just for starters. Long time people…
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“F.I.G.H.T. Car” Staged Reading
Something I wrote got read and recorded and now you can hear the recording. I’ll explain: I’m in a writers group called Deadline Junkies. We meet once a week where we (usually) hear about 30 pages of a script from 3 different writers. I say “hear” because each writer prints his or her pages, then…
Phillip Mottaz 