Do you ever listen to music when you’re about to attempt something difficult? Something that gets your heart pumping. Some people like “Eye of the Tiger” from Rocky III or “Barbarian Horde” from Gladiator.
Those are both solid pieces of music. But for me, there’s nothing quite like “Good luck, Starfighter” from The Last Starfighter. Continue reading
I lost my job of 15 years on May 22, 2025 and started a new job on February 2, 2026. So I was out of work for a little over eight months. That wasn’t how I planned to spend last year, but I’m grateful for the experience it gave me. I needed to go through that get to where I am today. And now I’d like to share 11 things I learned to help you if you’re unemployed or otherwise looking for a job. Continue reading
Jo’s matchmaking skills are even better than those of Yente the matchmaker! She already helped me discover the chiasmus in How to Train Your Dragon 2, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, The Lion King, The Hunt for Red October, and Tron: Legacy. And now she’s here again to reveal the symmetry in Fiddler on the Roof, one of my favorite films.
She sent me a huge chiasmus and asked me to fiddle around with it and tighten it up. This is what I pared it down to. Continue reading
I’m sure I’m not the first one to consider the idea that the entire history of the world is a chiasmus. However, I didn’t know how to find the edges of such a large puzzle and fit them together. That’s why my “Chiasmus of the World” article comes across as so rough. It was my attempt at broaching a topic too big for my mind to contain.
I’m happy to report that someone else has been able to do a much better job putting all of the pieces together. Totally independent of me. I was pleased to recently find a YouTube video entitled “Last Days Signs of the Times in Exact Order According to God’s Chiasmus” on a channel called Gospel Lessons. He’s speaking my language on a whole different level than I can comprehend. Continue reading
In 2023, I started to have an itch to find a 1970s movie that I didn’t even know the title of. I described it in my article, “My Quest to Find an Obscure 1970s Film.” It’s frustrating to be convinced that I know something but not be able to describe it well enough to have anyone else recognize it.
As time passed, and I didn’t find what I was searching for, I started to question my own memory. Did I actually watch a movie when I was a teenager that I knew at the time was old and obscure? Continue reading
Can we all just take a moment to marvel at the complexity of this little dance number in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers? The song is called “Lonesome Polecat.”
Some people like to examine the endings of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Inception, and The Usual Suspects as masterclasses in complexity. Those film endings are endlessly minable for depth, and they’re quite challenging to decipher. There’s one film I’ve never heard included in the same breath as those others, although its own ending rivals the complexity of anything a science fiction or crime drama film has to offer: 1951’s An American in Paris. Continue reading
I have a copy of The Secret Garden novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett that I didn’t realize contained a secret hiding in plain sight. The pictures on it are from a film adaptation I didn’t know existed. You see, I’ve known about the 1993 adaptation of this classic book for many years. Francis Ford Coppola executive produced it, and it’s a wonderful film for anyone who wants this timeless story captured on celluloid as faithfully as possible.
But did you know that there was another adaptation of The Secret Garden made just six years earlier? In 1987, The Secret Garden was translated into a TV movie. Filmed entirely in England, it certainly doesn’t feel like it lacks anything a major Hollywood production would contain. That’s the adaptation whose pictures grace the front and back covers of my copy of the novel. I had no idea until recently!
It stars such big names as Barret Oliver (The Neverending Story), Derek Jacobi (Gladiator), and Colin Firth (Pride and Prejudice). The latter two actors appeared together again in The King’s Speech. You probably don’t know the name Billie Whitelaw, but you might know her voice. She played Mrs. Medlock in this adaptation, and a few years earlier she provided the voice of Aughra in The Dark Crystal. Continue reading
As a writer, I love reading other authors’ work, especially when they’re trying to sell me on something like a movie. When you buy a physical copy of a film, do you ever read the back cover? It’s fun to do that and ask yourself a few questions. What do the authors emphasize and leave out? How do they grab my attention and get their message across in the most effective way possible?
When physical space is limited, writers have to get creative to pack in everything they’re trying to say. For example, what should they put on the back cover of a VHS tape, DVD, or Blu-Ray to explain the movie being sold? There are all kinds of factors that go into this kind of decision. Let’s look at the art of film back covers and see what makes them memorable and interesting. Continue reading
Some movies inspire me to be a better man. Standout: The Ben Kjar Story is one of them. It’s a documentary about a good man who managed to find joy in spite of incredible hardships. Continue reading
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