Mr. K's Geek Cornucopia

In the not-too-distant future, next Deadshirt AD (La la la)

2017-04-14T09:41:00.000-07:00

In honor of the return of MST3K, Deadshirt asked me to contribute a write-up of my favorite MST3K episodes. Check out my choice (and the other talented Deadshirt writers' choices) here.

There's no easy way out/There's no shortcut home...

2017-01-20T09:47:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone, I get to talk about ROCKY IV, the "Rocky ends the Cold War" installment with Max Robinson, over at Deadshirt. It's something that might not hurt your soul today?

"So sweet/On Christmas eve/ With the snow set deep when we went walking through the pines": The Ref (1994)

2016-12-12T10:41:00.000-08:00

I've got a new article up on Deadshirt, part of a feature on dark Christmas movies called Black Snow. My contribution is a bit on the 1994 dark farce The Ref with Kevin Spacey, Judy Davis, Denis Leary, and early-in-their-career appearances from B.D. Wong & J.K. Simmons. Check it out!

Something to think about....

2016-11-30T16:12:00.003-08:00

“MAKE YOURSELF BE BELIEVED. Dante in exile, walking in the streets of Verona—people whispered to each other that he goes to Hell when he chooses and brings back news from there.” - Robert Bresson

"I made the list of top 5 Hitlers of all time - real Hitler's not even on the list!"

2016-04-20T15:06:00.000-07:00

As much as I find this new season of UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT overly broad, the bit where Titus earns the wrath of a bunch of bloggers has really rung true as of late. First, io9 issued the breathless "Reminder: Rudyard Kipling was a racist f*** and the JUNGLE BOOK is Imperialist Garbage", written with the zeal and incompetence of a fourteen year old who just discovered Howard Zinn. I'm not

Speak of the blogger and he shall appear!

2016-03-15T09:12:00.003-07:00

So, once again, I am contributing to a Deadshirt retrospective, this time about Batman, in honor of Coldstone Creamery, Turkish Airlines & Warner Brothers Presents Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Franchises. My choice was The Dark Knight Rises. And it's still a flawed movie, but some of those flaws now seem kind of charming? Check it out here!

A Very Coen Brothers' February....

2016-02-02T10:09:00.001-08:00

So the wonderful folks at Deadshirt asked me to write about one of my favorite Coen Brothers films (so far), MILLER'S CROSSING. You can find that here. I'd like to thank Max Robinson, who has been an amazing, sympatico editor for the two articles I've written for them so far, as well as my lovely wife Terra, for watching the movie again with me and discussing it as I tried to articulate my

My thoughts on STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

2016-01-21T16:08:00.002-08:00

Hey blog fans, sorry for the radio silence. I've been busy with moving to Seattle, starting a new job, having a baby and getting another dog. However, I do have a new post on awesome pop culture website Deadshirt about THE FORCE AWAKENS. You can find it here. And it should be a different take than most of the stuff the blogosphere has been talking about. So check it out and there might be

Flash Fiction: FIRST CONTACT

2015-01-06T12:56:00.001-08:00

FIRST CONTACT They came in peace. They wanted to share their advanced knowledge with us and help us travel to the stars. But they were made of felt and poly-fill. And they met dogs first.

Characters who will be popping up in GAME OF THRONES next season

2014-05-27T14:36:00.000-07:00

As yet another season of Game of Thrones draws to a close, pop culture sites have already started seeding the soil of fandom with news items on the next season. Despite the fact that this series is based on books that you can read, people like to read press releases and gossip about what is coming next season and what will actually make it from page to screen. Luckily, Mr. K. happens to

Fear of monsters...

2013-11-18T12:54:00.001-08:00

I wrote this piece for a Halloween-themed story-telling event about fear. It's very different from my normal snark. It's about the murder of a close friend and it was one of the most difficult things I've ever done.

Italian buffonery at the outset of World War II

2013-11-11T17:12:00.000-08:00

I'm reading The Second World War by Antony Beevor, which is yet another general account of World War II, distinguished by two things: 1) With the exception of Weinberg's World At War, this is probably the most global depiction of the entire war that I have read; and 2) Antony Beevor wrote it. As always, reading a history of World War II can be dehumanizing or brutalizing: endless statistics and

"Christianity is stupid! Communism is good!": IF FOOTMEN TIRE YOU, WHAT WILL HORSES DO?

2013-10-31T13:57:00.000-07:00

If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do? (1971) Directed by Ron Ormond Based on the writings of Estus W. Pirkle Starring Judy Creech, Cecil Scaife, and Gene McFall While Ron Ormond might not be as famous as Ed Wood or Herschell Gordon Lewis, he occupies a very curious place among schlock auteurs. A hacky B-movie director in the 50s, Mr. Ormond found religion and decided to devote his "talents",

Self-promotion time: Sketch comedy!

2013-10-03T11:37:00.001-07:00

So some friends of mine (the amazingly talented Katie Hall & her fiancee Travis Goodman) shot a sketch I wrote for them. I've worked with Katie before through my college's alumni association, and she & Travis did a good job bringing this to life. Check it out on Youtube! Oh, and stay tuned after the credits for some hilarious out-takes.

Helen Rittelmeyer has returned...

2013-09-18T16:34:00.000-07:00

And it's been well worth the wait. Helen has an interesting essay on "the distraction war" and the internet mindset which lowers the stakes of that conversation debate, in the best possible way. She sums up pretty well that these new things aren't the end of the world or its salvation, they're just new. And they serve the same purpose as talking about weather or mutual friends. I do want to

What I learned from... watching END OF WATCH

2013-09-06T15:45:00.000-07:00

So, in the interest of actually putting things on my blog, despite the fact that I'm not really in the place for major thoughtpieces right now, I'm going to try a new thing. I've got mixed feelings about the screenwriting site Scriptshadow on various levels, ranging from the aesthetic to the ethical. But one thing I have found interesting is the occasion feature the site does where they list 10

Thought about Steve Ditko

2013-07-11T16:40:00.004-07:00

It's been a while between posts, but life has been interfering. To tide you over, here's something I wrote about Steve Ditko's latest work from Robin Snyder's publishing imprint. They are Kickstarting a reprint of another one of Ditko's later works right here. My thoughts, inspired by reading his self-published SEVENTEEN: