Authority(Southern Reach Series Book #2)by Jeff VanderMeer Chalk Annihilation up to one of those books that was loaded with potential and was unsuccessfully adapted for the big screen. It’s a shame too, because few books are as intriguing, spooky and downright chilling at that first Annihilation book. It’s such a gripping rich story that the cliffhanger ending (almost literally) eggs the reader to keep reading. I don’t know if the Southern Reach Trilogy was originally intended as such, but I...

Ghost in the Shell: 4K/Blu-Ray When speaking of classic Japanimation, the words Masamune Shirow and Ghost in the Shell are standards. And if they’re not, they should be, because Ghost in the Shell is one of my favorite movies. Adapted from the masterful mangas (read: Japanese comics) of the same name, Ghost in the Shell is one of those films that has been lingering in my mind ever since I saw it, which last was about 10 years ago. While...

Scharpling & WursterRock, Rot, and Rule I mean it when I say that Tom Scharpling and Jon Wurster will go down in history as one of the great comedic duos of our time. Maybe the greatest. For those of you who are uninitiated, don’t feel bad because I didn’t know who they were a year ago either. But one thing is certain, if you get what they’re doing, you won’t be able to get enough. What these guys are good...

We Saw Scenery: The Early Diaries of Merrill Markoeby Merrill Markoe About two thirds of the way in, I thought I might be the wrong person to review this book, because I wasn’t aware that I knew who Merrill Markoe was. But then it turns out I did, and it made me want to start over with that information in mind. Markoe was the head writer and creator of the Late Show with David Letterman and I read many of...

Mo ShafeekArtistic DirectorMondo As far as vinyl soundtracks are concerned, Mondo has quickly become the gold standard over the years. From their roots as a shirt company in Austin TX, Mondo’s soundtracks are probably the most in-demand records for collectors. Their wild curating (they’ve released Raw and Josie and the Pussycats and Avengers Endgame) and meticulously detailed packaging and artwork, have garnered a devoted fanbase. We decided to talk to artistic director Mo Shafeek to gain a little knowledge of...

Coming to America We’re kind of living in a special time where we get to witness Eddie Murphy’s comeback. I’m at that age where it’s hard for me to appreciate what a giant star he was in the 80s and 90s. His movies were simply huge, and it was almost as if he was the comedy version of Schwarzenegger’s action blockbusters. What I was unable to appreciate as a Gen X-er/Millenial is the subtlety and charm in Eddie Murphy’s...

METZAtlas Vending One of my first priorities when the quarantine is over will be to start going to shows again. Not sure how well it’s going to go with a newborn child (quarantine makes fools of us all), but the Metz have shot up the priority list as one of the must-see live acts ever since Atlas Vending came out. Why? Because it’s the best thing they’ve done yet. One of the reasons I wax philosophical about the Metz is...

Stalin: Passage to Revolutionby Ronald Grigor Suny How much has been written about Stalin since he came to power? The man’s history has been written, reanalyzed, and re-written over and over again so much that’s it’s hard to imagine anything new can be said about the guy. However, we always hear about how new documents are uncovered when the soviet archives were opened and the past decades, scholars have taken this opportunity to reevaluate the big figures in Soviet history....

Our Mother the Mountain50th Anniversary EditionTownes Van Zandt There comes a time in a punk rocker’s life where they have to go back to where it all came from and really branch out. And really, that’s what good punk rock does: it broadens our horizons. For a while, punks were really getting in touch with their folk side. That has since passed, but for aging punks, the midlife crisis music discovery seems to be country. You start with basics like...

Total Recall30th Anniversary Edition You kids might not know this, but Arnold Schwarzenegger was a very big deal at one point. His handshake in the movie Predator is that thing you’ve been memming as well. But no, when I was a kid, maybe too young to really appreciate Arnold, I was absolutely transfixed by the man and his movies. It seemed like whenever there was a huge blockbuster, he would be featured in it. I was a little...