Brent
Happiness, Happiness, and Happiness
As I learn to improve myself, I’ve been learning to unpack the idea of happiness. We use happiness in at least three ways: the emotion, the attitude, and the state. When we’re in the state of happiness, we feel happy all the time. This is the dream world we’ll live in after we’ve won the lottery: a big home, a fast car or two, and lots of pleasurable activity. In this world, we fulfill every need. This is bliss. Unfortunately, […]
The Bachelor Brothers’ Bed & Breakfast Pillow Book
Every often, you stumble upon a book that precisely fits your mood. I bought this tartan-covered novel on impulse at a used book store while I was on vacation. I wanted a light book to read. This delivered. In The Bachelor Brothers’ Bed & Breakfast Pillow Book, Bill Richardson describes a year in the life of two bachelor brothers who operate a small B&B for bibliophiles. Not only is the house stuffed with books; […]
AttrAction (Game Review)
This cannot be a review of AttrAction, precisely, because AttrAction is so simple. Imagine a handful of rare-Earth magnets, each a misshapen cube. Spread them out on a table. Now, play a sort of billiards with them: pick up a magnet and flick it towards other magnets. It will slide across the table, pulling other magnets into a chain. Grab the chain, then acquiesce to the next player. When your turn […]
Oz, the Great and Powerful (review)
A lot of people dislike this movie. I suspect people came into the theater with inflated expectations. I would instead urge you to go back to the classic film: it told a simple story with a vivid palette of characters in a rich, colorful fantasy world. That is exactly what Oz, the Great and Powerful does. You likely already know the premise: a young man is swept into the land of Oz, where he […]
Cards Against Humanity (game review)
Cards Against Humanity has an enviable reputation. Retailers can’t keep it in stock. People rave about it. It’s modular, easy to learn, and quick to play. It’s also very, very naughty. It’s that last aspect that gives me pause. I don’t mind adult content in games, but Cards Against Humanity encourages the players towards depraved thinking for the entire game. Quite simply: each player has […]
Forgotten Silver
Imagine a documentary about a little-known New Zealand filmmaker from the silent era. This is a man who invented the close-up and synchronized sound before anyone else…before his work was tragically forgotten. Imagine that his last work was an Biblical epic, its monstrous, life-size sets constructed deep in the New Zealand jungle. Now imagine Peter Jackson decides to tell this man’s life. Sounds amazing, right? […]
Fish and Chips, Middletown MD
One advantage of being the only customer at a restaurant: my lunch came out in about 5 minutes. Today, I’m wandering around Middletown, Maryland. It’s one of many Middletowns, this one nestled between two ridges. An important rest stop in the steady river of trade between Baltimore and the west during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it slid back into a sleepy backwater town as larger highways arose in the last hundred years. Unfortunately, […]
The Middle of my Media Fast
I’m halfway through my yearly Media Fast, a week where I consume no mass media. That means no movies, no TV, no DVDs, no books, no newspapers, no magazines, no blogs, and no music. As happens most years, I struggle most on the first day, the middle day, and the last day. I come home from work and, after making dinner and taking care of a few duties, I dive into some […]
The Apex of the Puppeteer’s Art
Imagine a fantasy film about the misdirected prince of a dead king, sent out to get revenge against a neighboring nation. A movie of swords, enslavement, armies, and death. Now imagine this is all done with stringed marionettes. Moreover, imagine that these marionettes are aware of their strings. Strings is an award-winning 2004 puppet movie, directed by Anders Rønnow Klarlund with puppeteering by Bernd Ogrodnik. It’s set in a fantasy […]
Yobi, the Five-Tailed Fox
Every so often, you stumble upon a hidden gem. This is one of them. Yobi, the Five-Tailed Fox is a 2007 anime film from Korea. It’s a quiet, rural tale of a shape-changing fox that takes on the form of a young girl. A handful of “troubled youths” are being forced to attend a special summer school near Yobi’s territory, and she investigates. These kids aren’t future criminals; they’re just kids […]