I strongly debated about whether or not to feature this photo, because the EXIF data isn’t readily visible. All pics picked for this series are authenticated for copyright, which is less certain when camera info […]
Category: The Arts
Comic-Con Heroes: The Writer
Among the 12 profiles that are the core of my book Comic-Con Heroes: The Fans Who Make the Greatest Show on Earth, the one that follows offers the most interesting content for science fiction fans. The convention isn’t just about superheroes. Sci-fi is part of the core culture dating back to the very start during the 1970s, and it’s even stronger in the 2010s. Because what was niche more than 40 years ago is mainstream, and more, today.
This profile also introduces some valuable historical insight—if 10 years can be considered old, and measured by Internet time it most certainly is. Fans’response to a new sci-fi television show, and their torrenting it, kicked the pebbles eventually unleashing an avalanche of legitimately-available streamed TV programming. So-called video pirates of 2005 are indirectly responsible for there being Hulu, Netflix streaming, and Google’s purchase of newbie service YouTube.
Comic-Con Heroes: The Nerd Culturist
Comic-Con’s contractual commitment to San Diego expires in 2016, and the event already entertains offers to move to another city. While conducting interviews during SDDC 2013 for Comic-Con Heroes: The Fans Who Make the Greatest Show on Earth, I asked numerous attendees about relocation. Among them: Tauri Miller, whose profile appears in the ebook.
For whatever it’s worth, I favor keeping the Con in San Diego. While the convention center limits the number of participants to about 130,000 over four days, the city already is a tourist destination with all the right amenities, which include hotels and the Gaslamp Quarter. Getting in out and around (including the airport) is much easier than Los Angeles, by contrast.
Comic-Con Heroes: The Academic
My fourth installment of excerpts from ebook Comic-Con Heroes: The Fans Who Make the Greatest Show on Earth takes an interesting directional shift. So far we’ve met The Dark Knight, Medieval fighter, and twin-brother toy collectors. Would you believe there are people who study toys as a profession? Read on to see.
To recap: I attended San Diego Comic-Con 2013 with intention of profiling one-dozen among the 130,000 attendees. As SDCC 2015 approaches, I am posting 13 installments, after which the book will release into the public domain, on July 8, 2015, when my current commitment for Amazon KDP Select ends.
Flickr a Day 18: Painted
Student Satya Vrat Shukla should seriously consider just how good are his “outtakes”, which is how he describes this remarkable photograph. The colors and bokeh—painter and background—rivet my eyes.
“This is one of my really good friends, Ethi, who is an amazing painter”, Satya says. “She basically oil-painted this within a couple of minutes while I pestered her to ‘paint something good'”. Pester. I found the pic searching Flickr for the word—like yesterday’s selection, which shares something else: Camera choice. Satya shot with Canon EOS 550D and classic 50mm lens (f/1.8). Gotta love them Primes!
Comic-Con Heroes: The Fighter
One week ago, I started serializing my ebook, Comic-Con Heroes: The Fans Who Make the Greatest Show on Earth, which will go into the public domain after the last segment posts on July 8, 2015, after my current commitment for Amazon KDP Select ends. The first installment featured Ken Camarillo, as The Dark Knight. There is no shortage of people like Ken who dress up as someone else during the Con.
But the pop-culture event, and others like it, come around just once a year. Some people wear costumes, and assume other personas considerably more often—and that is the case with today’s Comic-Con Hero. She and her wonderful cohorts reach back into the past, recreating in modern times flavors of an era few people remember but should.
Our Neighborhood Library
When your tablet or ebook reader runs out of juice, hope is just down the street.
Viral Before There was Viral: 'The Blair Witch Project'
As Halloween approaches, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences takes a long look down memory lane—eh, scary forest paths—with a short documentary about “The Blair Witch Project“. Before there was Facebook and Flickr […]
Meet Andrew Bell
Meet the artist behind those lovable Android Collectibles and other cool creations from Dead Zebra. I interviewed the extremely likable Andrew Bell during Comic-Con 2012. I shot the previous video, from 2009, using a Sony […]
Tofu the Vegan Zombie
I am in one of my moods, basking in the glow of those people lucky enough to make San Diego Comic-Con 2014 pre-registration. This will be my sixth year attending as official press. From SDDC 2013, I wrote Comic-Con Heroes: The Fans Who Make the Greatest Show on Earth. Previous years, I focused on video interviews and photos. In reviewing the vids, I see that many are stuck in YouTube oblivion, and that I never blogged them. So let’s catch up with some oldies, most of which still have shelf life.
‘The Social Network’ ignores the Network
On Friday, I wrote a review of “The Social Network“. Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig did one better for The New Republic: “Sorkin vs. Zuckerberg—‘The Social Network’ is wonderful entertainment, but its message is actually kind of evil“. Lawrence is insightful as always, although he expects too much of the film’s writer and director. Nevertheless, he makes spot-on observations about what Facebook represents for future entrepreneurs like co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. The film is seemingly a morality tale about moral ambiguity. What’s lost is Zuckerberg’s ingenuity and the network that allowed it to flourish.
My Pitch for a Truly Gruesome Vampire Story
This week I got PR email about new “True Blood” comics, and I received Rolling Stone issue 1112 with cast members from the HBO series on the cover. Suddenly, an idea came to me for a different, modern vampire drama. Here is the plotline of the story I’d tell: