Tacos and Beer

The classic 1960s Star Trek TV series is one of my favorite shows of all time. In the 1970s and ’80s, Star Trek reruns were one of the best sci-fi things available. Especially to a youngster like me who lived in a rural area with no cable TV. I’m somewhat obsessive about the show. Especially now, since I have my DVDs of it ripped and readily available on my home media streaming server. Having watched every episode a few times (and favorite episodes several times), I have opinions. I decided I’d start making a few notes as I undertake my latest informal rewatch of the show. And I’m going to start a running, sorted list of Trek episodes from favorite to least favorite. I’ll bump this post back to the top of the blog as I add new episodes. “Journey to Babel”: Action, danger, interpersonal drama, silly aliens, cool aliens, Spock’s parents, a high-stakes diplomatic mission… this episode has it all. And it moves — there isn’t a wasted frame. (good) “Mirror, Mirror”: Iconic fo

Today I found out that there actually is a real Frankenstein Castle . Really! It’s in Germany. That info about the castle comes from author John Scalzi, who also recently wrote about why, after being on it for a year, Bluesky is his favorite social media platform . I haven’t been on Bluesky for a year yet, but it is easily my favorite social media platform. (I like it because: no ads, no algorithm, and it’s simpler than Mastodon.) Via Andrew … who played the greatest guitar solo ever? Was it Prince? It was probably Prince . From 2016 but new to me, writer/director Shane Black talks about some classic Shane Black scenes with Screencrush . From CBR.com, the first time Garfield hated on Mondays . There’s a comic shop called Dr. No’s , and it’s only a couple hours east of me, so I am obviously going to have to visit at some point. And finally, this is a deep cut even for Gen X-ers… Back in the 1970s there used to be a Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew TV show . It was based on the

Stacey and I traveled to Tennessee, a little ways north of Nashville, so we could see the 2017 North American total eclipse. Not to overhype the experience, but it was awesome. Life-changing, even. I’ve been fascinated by astronomy since I was a kid, and seeing the moon block out the sun for a couple of minutes is just mind-blowing for me. Also, it’s beautiful in a way that I’ve never seen captured in a photo. So I’ve been looking forward to the 2024 American eclipse pretty much since I saw the 2017 one. Stacey planned ahead and booked a couple of hotel rooms, so we could go to Texas or Arkansas depending on the weather. But as eclipse day got nearer, the forecast for both Texas and Arkansas was rainy or at least cloudy, and that sort of weather can ruin a good eclipse. So we, along with our friend Kelly , drove up to Clarksville, Tennessee the day before the eclipse. Then we woke up early on eclipse day (Monday April 8), checked the latest weather forecasts, and hit the

Stacey and I love watching Bob’s Burgers reruns after work. It’s a fun show that generally works an original song (or two or three) into each episode. We saw the episode the other night with the song “Bad Stuff Happens in the Bathroom.” Stacey instantly decreed it the best Bob’s Burgers song. I think she’s right, and that reminded me that my pal (and Hide and Creep actor) John Walker recorded a terrific cover of the song . My pal Chris Mitchell has been taking all kinds of cool photos lately, both digital and old-school analog. Now he has a portfolio website where you can see a lot of his work. My pal Benjamin Stark’s second feature film, Don’t Die , is making the festival rounds. (It was written by another pal, Jeremy Burgess.) Ben wrote about making the film over on No Film School . My internet pal Al Creed does really cool pixel art, and he has a store on Redbubble where you can get that art on shirts and stickers and stuff. Fun! I love learning about obscure vi

Director Adam Wingard works on big Hollywood movies, but he still calls Alabama home. So it wasn’t a huge surprise that he hosted a friends-and-family screening of his new blockbuster, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire , last week at a Birmingham movie theater. I was maybe a little surprised to get an invite to the screening. Adam and I were friendly when he was living in Alabama. This was a couple decades (!) ago, around the time I was working on Hide and Creep . In fact, Adam edited the trailer for Hide and Creep . Around the same time, Chuck and I helped Adam out while he was shooting some footage for the opening credits of his movie Home Sick . I think that was his first feature. It was shot on 16mm film, and I had a 16mm camera at the time, so Chuck and I were basically his camera assistants for that shoot. I’ve followed Adam’s career at the movie theater (I’ve seen at least four of his features at the cinema) but hadn’t seen him in person in years. So I was glad to get an invit