A Review of Dune (2021)

Why I only want to go through this desert once.

The film Dune’s (2021) $165 million dollar budget, sci-fi bona-fides, and impressive cast of bankable Hollywood stars lead by Timothee Chalamet should have guaranteed a decent weekend opening. And it didn’t disappoint, bringing in $41 million in the US and $87.5 million worldwide, and topping the box-office the following weekend to boot. Which is why I cannot understand how I have come to the opposite conclusion, that the Dune experience is not built on solid foundations, but shifting sand.

CONTINUE READING

Why Technology Won’t Save Us

How the Star Wars vs Star Trek debate has now officially been settled.

Source: “Science Worship” by jurvetson is licensed under CC BY 2.0

The camera pans around to Captain Kirk, his gaze stoic – yet – genial, as he negotiates with an alien, whose face fills the massive video screen at the forefront of the Enterprise’s bridge. Kirk receives the alien’s outrageous demands with a smirk as he stiffens his back slightly as he readies himself to dismiss them. He will tell the eight-eyed creature how things are really going to go, with a confidence that comes not only from experience, but from something greater. And you’d be forgiven if you thought it was the technological might of the Federation’s armies. For all their impressiveness, it is not what that fortifies Kirk’s nerve. It’s something much mightier than photon torpedoes.

CONTINUE READING
Business / Entertaiment / Politics / Tech / The Future / World0 Comments

The Case for NTF’s

Beeple’s collage, Everydays: The First 5000 Days, sold at Christie’s

Why (and why not) NFT’s are here to stay

NFT’s or Non-Fungible Tokens are the new ‘thing’, the cool kid on the blockchain, for reasons I can’t completely understand but am nonetheless convinced of. And if that’s nonsensical enough to convince you to stop reading, then don’t. Let’s try to find out together and enjoy the process, since the art is in the telling.

CONTINUE READING
Entertaiment / Writing0 Comments

Embrace Your Inner Demon

How a hard look in the mirror will help you write a better villain

I am fully awake, alert and ready. A villain looms nearby, wraithlike in form, it skulks in the darkness. And I’m scared. Not because it will harm me, rather, because I struggle like mad to coax it out of the shadows.

Why would I?

Because I am a writer of stories. And stories need villains. Much has been written about what makes a good villain, but little is said about where to find the inspiration necessary to shape one. And the stakes are high too! Writing your villain poorly sets your novel’s foundation on shaky sand.  To shore it up on solid ground, you must tap into a part of you that you’re intimately aware of, but one that you’re loathe to embrace.

Your dark side.

CONTINUE READING
Entertaiment / Reviews / The Future0 Comments

A Quick Review of Midnight Sky

Good sci-fi films are hard to find these days, and so I was intrigued to see Midnight Sky released on Netflix this month. If its slick trailer and all-star cast were any indication, then I was due for a treat. It’s arrival just in time for the holidays was an added bonus, I could watch with much less distraction, and so, I hoped to add it to the pantheon of great sci-fi flicks. So … did it live up to its billing?

CONTINUE READING

SEARCH THE CATALOG