Category: Uncategorized
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How Do You Feel About Learning?
Humans have learned so much since the dawn of the Age of Enlightenment two and a half centuries ago. We learned our universe was inconceivably larger and older than we had imagined. We learned life on earth began, not in a Mesopotamian garden with magic fruit trees and a talking snake, but in the ocean,…
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Fiat Lux!
I’d like to take a few minutes to explain why yesterday’s news from the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Livermore, CA, was such a big deal — and why it also wasn’t. What I don’t want to do is suggest I’m an expert in nuclear physics. No, I’m a geek with a lifelong affection for…
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Game of Sabers: A Star Wars Speculation
If you aren’t a Star Wars nerd, you can skip this post, I promise. I think episode 5 of The Book of Boba Fett has been out long enough now that I can share a pet theory of mine here publicly. You might remember that four years ago, David Benioff and D.B. (Dan) Weiss were…
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REVIEW: Dune (2021)
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: There’s a desert planet, OK? And on this planet is a teenage boy with a Biblical first name. He doesn’t want to be there. It’s a world where moisture is currency, rusty mining vehicles share the surface with giant worms, and a tribe of hooded “sandpeople” ambush the…
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There Has Been an Awakening
Have you felt it? I haven’t updated this site in over a year. That changes now. I’ve completed the first draft of a new novel. Expect to hear more about it soon. COVID struck America hardcore in March 2020. With nothing to do but stay home for the summer — my day job is teaching…
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Problematic
We need to rethink how we approach so-called “problem plays.”In Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, a woman is threatened with the death of her brother if she doesn’t submit to sexual assault. The guilty party gets discovered and punished, but the innocent victim is victimized yet again by an allegedly just duke coercing her into a…
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Tragedy Tomorrow, Comedy Last Night
I am a lifelong fan of stand-up comedy. Among my earliest memories are the hours I spent listening to and all but memorizing the classic Bill Cosby albums in my uncle’s collection. When someone asked me recently what my favorite TV show of all time was, I decided it was Saturday Night Live, from the…
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On Success
After a long conversation with my mom the other day, I’ve been thinking a lot about the nature of success. Sometimes it’s happening to us and we don’t even notice it. Forty years ago, a silly space opera hit theaters. Little did I know it’d be one of the pivotal events of my childhood. On…
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The Grand Debut of OLY ARTS
A generous patron of South Sound theatre, author Ned Hayes resolved to publish a periodical called OLY ARTS. This magazine would focus exclusively on art and culture in Olympia…
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Glory, Glory, Vanished
It’s been a while, so I grabbed a few minutes to tell you what’s been happening in my life…