Let’s be honest, some are born with gifts, some aren’t. This piece is for those of you not quite as fortunate as I am. While these abilities come to me naturally, I believe that if you follow my advice you too can become a King of Chill. Here’s how.
Step 1: Find a place to chill. It must be comfortable, offer ample room to stretch out, and preferably be owned by someone else.Step 2: Grab some sun if possible. Nothing is more chill than lounging in the sun, pantsless if possible.Step 3: Ignore wannabes. Nobody can harsh the vibe of a KoC.Step 4: Utilize a warmer if one is available. Usually, the only things this guy is useful for is serving up the grub and cleaning up after me (if you know what I mean😉), but on a chilly day, it helps if you have one trained to sit still and warm your chill spot.Step 5: Chilling with a Fabulous Babe is always better.Step 6: Everywhere belongs to a KoC.Step 7: When you become a KoC like me, it is important to pass on the knowledge and ability to friends and coworkers. Spread the chill, brothers and sisters, and the world will be better for it.
With 222 episodes under its belt, Tell The Damn Story, a podcast for aspiring and emerging writers, is not only going strong, it is improving, if I do say so myself.
Full disclosure, I am one of the co-hosts of the podcast/YouTube show, with comics legend and all-around writer guy Alex Simmons. Twice a month we discuss some aspect of the writing process, the trials and tribulations of getting traditionally published, or the challenges of independent publishing. All of it is served up with a side order of humor.
Guest interviews have included Executive Producer of all things Batman, Michael Ulsan, artist Julie Bell, authors Teel James Glenn, Carol Gyzander, James Chambers, Joe R. Lansdale, Don McGregor, Caseen Gaines, Omar Holman, Alex Segura, and Jesse J. Holland, among so many more,
When it is just Alex and I, we’ve mined pop culture for lessons in writing, discussed how to submit stories, listed best practices for rewriting, suggested how to finish what you start, gave advice on pushing beyond doubt, and so much more.
Episode length has varied over the years as we seek the perfect format, but it seems an hour is about average for us. We open with what’s new, then set up our topic for the episode and dive in, pretty simple and direct. We are told that our 30-plus year friendship fuels the approachability of the show and provides warmth and humor. I’ll add that other attractive elements that have earned us compliments include our passion for writing, for serving the story, and for encouraging creatives.
Perhaps the best feature of this positive, encouraging show is that listeners or viewers can jump in at any point, engaging with any episodes that offer topics you want to learn about no matter where in the show’s history it appears.
Tell The Damn Story is available wherever you listen to podcasts and on YouTube. New listeners are welcome. Comments are embraced warmly.
With only a slight switch to patron’s viewing status, Disney+ is making its entire catalog available, including the Marvel Netflix shows. A recent rebinging of Daredevil season one reveals two things, especially after watching four Disney+ MCU shows: these shows are more violent and way better than you might remember.
Noirish in tone, Daredevil relentless in its drive to weave a thrilling crime drama while slowly developing the MCU version of this beloved character so every aspect is rendered acceptable in live action. He wears mostly black street clothes until the 13th and final episode of the first arc. His infamous billy club doesn’t exist but the idea of it develops as “the devil of Hell’s Kitchen” finds throwing found items and confiscated weapons is effective for him. And his heightened senses are given a grounded explanation and slow roll out so we buy it all a bit at a time.
Charlie Cox, Rosario Dawson, and Vincent D’Onofrio turn in thoughtful, grounded, and riveting performances that lend the neighborhood tale a much larger feel. The rest of the cast also embrace their roles, delivering an ensemble feel to the proceedings. The writing, direction, cinematography, and fight choreography are fast-paced, full-blown, and provide the show a summer blockbuster vibe and a noir feel similar to The Batman simultaneously.
Overall, having these shows alongside the rest of the Marvel offerings further defines how diverse and varied the MCU is. With each new offering the channel feels more like the weekly pile of Marvel comics I devoured as a kid.
With the start of 2022, one of my priorities is increasing productivity. I even created a daily schedule for myself. While adhering to that schedule has not been perfect, there has been one undeniable success: more productivity.
It has become clear to me yet again that as long as you get to that chair, that writing space, and open the laptop, or turn on the computer, or pick up the pen, you will write.
It does not matter what gets you there, as long as you do, and as long as you begin. And it does not matter whether that writing is perfect. Quality can come later, the process is now, doing the job is all.
So don’t worry about perfection, or the amount of work ahead of you, or whether it will be published, or win awards, or any of that nonsense. Just do whatever needs to be done to get to that chair. You don’t even need to sit. You can stand in front of it, as long as you write.
Post-holidays and amidst rising Covid numbers, ugly weather, the one year anniversary of Jan. 6, and other bleak news, it can be hard for independent creatives to get going and maintain productivity. Something as simple as a schedule might help.
As a recently retired teacher, a scheduled workday is still ingrained in my professional DNA, so, after much deliberation, I plan to start 2022 on a schedule that lays out smaller goals to be done by a certain time each day.
Instead if “write everything and create successful marketing plans and social media platforms that sell your work” as an endless goal, writing from 8-10 am seems much more achievable.
Taking a quick walk or stretch and grabbing a water might be enough to re-energize and refocus for a 10:15-noon social media training/creating/scheduling session.
After a sensible lunch and walking the dog or showering, more writing or proofreading/editing from 1-3 and then checking email and/or sending out work from 3-5 can end the day productively.
Will every aspect of this work well? I don’t know. Might it prove to be more productive than throwing my whole creative world onto my shoulders every day? I suspect it will. In either case, I believe it is worth a try. I’ll keep you posted.
What works for you as far as productivity? Let me know in the comments.
Last night was a pretty honest mess. Miley’s party was self-conscious and apologetic. Ryan Seacrest’s joy seemed forced, almost desperate. And seeing Anderson Cooper drunk on air again just underscored how few fucks we have left to give as a society.
Millions of masked masses crowded together in defiance of all social distancing suggestions. Then the revelry kicked in and naked faces crawled out from under the tenuous safety of thin material. By the countdown, New Year’s Eve 2021 was a sea of masked chins even as hospitals filled and Covid case numbers soared. Says a lot about our national mindset as 2022 dawned.
Yes, we all want this to be over, want this endless uncertainty and illness to be gone. After such a long, depressing purgatory, it is understandable that so many just wanted to ignore the risks and get their dance on.
So, happy new year. My wish for the revelers is that Covid took the night off. We all need a break.
As for 2022, I hope we embrace the truth that hate won’t save us, knee jerk reactions won’t improve our collective fate, and pointing fingers always guarantees failure. We need to listen to each other and negotiate our way to taking responsibility for our mutual well-being.
We tried hate and mocking and violence. Mutual assured destruction thrived there, not much else. This year, let’s try mutual assured survival. Which thoughts must we rethink to be able to have constructive discussions again?
All we really need to do is decide there is a better life available and then be brave enough to step toward it.
I hope to see you there.
We have a chance to move forward in 2022. Are we going to make another mess of it? Or can we win together?
In the wake of the monumentally successful release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, there has been a satisfying amount of scrutiny, opinion, and interpretation that Marvel geeks like me eat up by the bowlful. And in the spirit such delicious exchanging of ideas, allow me to suggest one other small element of interpretation: the Home trilogy completes our cinematic connections to beloved Spider-Man comics.
Spider-Man and TheAmazing Spider-Man each told the titular hero’s origin (key points – Uncle Ben’s globally known statement and subsequent murder, followed by Peter Parker’s resulting guilt and commitment to web-slinging). Recently, it was suggested that the Home trilogy didn’t show Uncle Ben’s death because the entire trilogy served as the origin story. This culminated, of course, in a dramatic variation on the tragedy, which occurred about two thirds of the way through No Way Home. This tear-jerking twist may have hit a deeper emotional note with us because it built over three films, but ultimately the movies collectively deliver Tom Holland’s Spider-Man to the heartbreaking legacy that is our hero’s essence.
Spider-Man is a tragic figure in our modern mythology. He must always lose someone. That spurs him on to do good for others. Yes, many Marvel characters have variations on this trope, but worldwide, we strongly recognize ourselves in Spider-Man. We see Peter Parker (or Miles Morales or Gwen Stacey) trying to be Spider-Man (or Spider-Gwen), sacrificing so much to be the hero that he or she failed to be for a person close to them. We cannot help but want Spidey to overcome failure because we want to overcome our own shortcomings. We identify with this grief-stricken kid because of his determination to be better because we want to be better, too.
There is no new ground here at all. This is merely a confirmation of all the conversations that have gone on recently. I applaud them. They are a lot of fun to dig into. I love this stuff so much that, with all respect, I’d like to add just one more element. This is not to negate or contradict anything that’s been said before. It is just meant to, hopefully, add one more layer of fun.
When I was growing up there were three major Spider-Man titles that Marvel published: The Amazing Spider-Man, The Spectacular Spider-Man (which eventually just became Spider-Man) and one other. If we look at the three Spider-Men (Toby McGuire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland), each of their cinematic journeys match one of those major titles. Toby McGuire’s films were called Spider-Man and Andrew Garfield’s movies were entitled The Amazing Spider-Man, covering those two comics. I suggest that, besides accomplishing so many other things, Tom Holland’s MCU adventures sting suggest the formula of the third beloved Spider-Man title of my childhood, that classic comic called Marvel Team-Up.
In every issue of Marvel Team-Up, Spidey would meet another Marvel character and their interaction would influence the outcome of the adventure. The Home trilogy is very much (though not perfectly) film versions of Marvel Team-Up.
In Spider-Man: Homecoming, the web-slinger teams up with Iron Man, sort of. In Spider-Man: Far from Home he works with Nick Fury and, in a weird way, Mysterio. And in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Spidey clearly teams up, at least for the beginning and the end of the movie, with Dr. Strange. And, um, other Spider-Men. And, er, a reformed villain. If it was an actual issue of the comic, the cover would read Marvel Team Up Spider-Man and Dr. Strange and Spider-Man and Spider-Man and Dr. Octopus.
This is neither deep nor revelatory. It is just fun to note that there is a Marvel Team-Up series in the MCU. To the best of my knowledge, the Tom Holland films were never promoted this way, but I can’t look at these films without seeing one of my all-time favorite comic books very well represented.
Fans may dream of a Marvel Team-Up series on but I don’t think that’s ever going to happen. First of all, Spider-Man is still and probably always will be owned by Sony. Secondly, Spider-films are expensive to produce in any form. There seems no way a series could afford to pay all the headliners currently in the MCU to come in for one episode or a two- or three-episode arc (as seen in the comic). Further, MCU/Disney+ shows have established themselves as season-long arcs rather than adventure of the week, so adding new guests each episode would result in a pile of expensive characters for each season’s finale, costing about as much as a major motion picture. That is not a goal of these shows, according to what MCU guru Kevin Feige has said.
But all of that is okay because, honestly, we are already enjoying MCU Team-Up.
We are less that a week away from the finale of the MCU’s Loki on Disney+ and it might be fun to ponder who is actually running the TVA and is therefore the series’ Big Bad.
Spoiler warning just is case any of this comes anywhere close to happening next week. If you are concerned about possible spoilers, 1) thanks for your faith in my guesses, and 2) stop reading right now because this is all just for fun and I don’t want to ruin anything for anyone.
The Ancient One While very knowledgeable about the sacred timeline, concerned that The Avengers could screw it up with their time heist plan, and potentially observing Steve Rogers’ lovenest alternate reality, The Ancient One is least likely to appear in the Loki finale even though she is alive and serving as The Sorcerer Supreme at the time Loki escapes his reality.Christopher Ryan, Scourge of the Marvel Cosmos Correction, I am the least likely to be running the TVA. Apologies to The Ancient One. Okay, let’s get on with it.Mobius M. Mobius This TVA servant turned rebel is very unlikely to be the entity running the TVA, though I do suspect he will lead an army to the end of time to help the Lokis in the finale.Hunter B-15 She is not running the TVA. I suspect she will team up with Mobius to “burn the place to the ground” and travel to the end of time to help the Lokis, completing her arc.Ravonna Renslayer It is possible that Ravonna Renslayer could be running the TVA and face down the Lokis at the end of time. I suspect, however, that she is more likely to be revealed as an assistant to or lover of the main villain (the other “investigator” that Mobius teases her about). Alternately, she might just make things more difficult for the Lokis during the finale.He Who Remains It is probable that some form of He Who Remains will be running the TVA at the end of time as he did in the comics. However, this being the MCU, I suspect this incarnation could take the concept of He Who Remains and combine it with one of the next few possibilities, making him an ancient version of one of the following characters.Miss Minutes In all probability, Miss Minutes will be a key element of the finale. Is she running the TVA? Is she an avatar of He Who Remains or someone else? Is she the Big Bad? I suspect she will be an assistant to the Big Bad and make things more difficult for the Lokis.Classic Loki Classic Loki has a chance to appear in the finale mostly because Richard E. Grant killed it in the penultimate episode and if you sign an actor of his caliber, you use him as much as you can. Additionally, the idea that “Lokis don’t die” was repeated so often it feels like a hint. And finally, because it might pit Classic (villainous) Loki against New Improved (heroic) Loki, or, more probably, allow Classic Loki to save the Lokis one last time.Sylvie I am almost certain Sylvie will remain who she has become and face the Big Bad, whomever he, she, or they may be. One form of that could be an ancient She Who Remains that Sylvie has to battle while Our Loki fights ancient He who Remains Loki.Kang the Conqueror While all the talk is that Kang will appear in the next Ant-Man movie, it makes the second most sense that he is running the TVA to protect “The Sacred Timeline” that he has been curating by eliminating all others, the timeline where he has conquered all. He can even be in the form of He Who Remains and only hint at who he is and what is to come. However…Loki I believe it is most likely that the Big Bad will be the Sacred Timeline’s version of Loki. This explains why all other timelines have been pruned (to eliminate other Lokis, whom this Ultimate Loki would see as his only competition). More importantly, this allows new improved hero Loki to face off against his darker self, completing his arc by defeating Ultimate Loki utilizing the one power he has never possessed before – love.
What do you think will happen? Have some fun in the comments below, but be kind. Thanks.
Joe R. Lansdale utilizes his long career as a gifted storyteller in many styles to create what may be the ultimate multi-genre mixtape of a summer must-read.
While Lansdale has delivered horror gold and crime classics, pulp delights and comic book fun, TV and film gems, he’s also written deeply emotional novels that should stand alongside To Kill A Mockingbird and True Grit as modern classics of American Literature. In Moon Lake, he manages to mix most of those styles into one novel. The result is compelling.
What starts as near death experience which decimates a family turns quickly into an unblinking look at the Jim Crow South. The narrative then evolves into a mystery mixing crime, horror, small town politics gone insane, dark pasts, and disturbing secrets. That feast is leavened with humor that runs through the novel like new laces on a well-loved pair of Converse.
America’s champion mojo author once again visits the theme of dark waters, conjuring unique takes on gothic tropes, modernizing monsters, refreshing fiends, rehaunting houses, creating more current catacombs, and keeping the pace as swift as a runaway current.
Looking for a summer read that sweeps you away? Lansdale’s latest, Moon Lake, is highly recommended.
Chris Ryan 