Steven M. Moore's Blog, page 121
September 9, 2016
Movie Reviews #35…
Don’t Think Twice. Mike Birbiglia, Dir. I liked the characters, the plot not so much. An improv acting group dies a slow death when one actor (Keegan-Michael Key) hits the big time. The ending is as unsatisfying as the plot. That said, there are positives. This movie gives you a bittersweet and realistic glimpse into the hard life actors face in the competitive NYC theater world. Tami Sagher is great as the rich Westside pothead and Kate Micucci’s deer-in-the-headlights ingenuous eyes never c...
September 8, 2016
News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #130…
Busy summer. When I announced the reorg of this blog, my excuse was that I needed to dedicate more time to my writing. I’ve done that, but that’s only partly the reason that there hasn’t been much news about the writing business to comment on. That’s more due to things slowing down in the lazy summertime (for some folks, anyway, but not me)—readers might buy books or load up their e-readers for vacations and beach trips, but publishers take a hiatus too, if we discount media blasts about poli...
September 6, 2016
Common sense in a nonsensical world…
If your perception about U.S. policies is that they don’t make sense, you are correct—most of the time they don’t. Not necessarily in order of importance, here’s why: First, the courts are stuck in the 19th century because the laws are. Second, American foreign policy is still based on the credo that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Third, the people running everything, the super-rich, don’t give a rat’s ass whether things are done right, as long as they get richer. I could go on, but yo...
September 5, 2016
Monday words of wisdom…
Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.—Oscar Wilde
This Labor Day make sure you’re not one of those who go. Drink, eat, and celebrate responsibly and drive safely…
In libris libertas!
September 1, 2016
Are traditional crime stories passé?
Recently there occurred a terrible crime in Gotham: an imam and his assistant were shot execution style in the back of the head while walking on the sidewalk in the middle of the afternoon. NYPD already caught the assassin and charged him with first degree murder. The case is still pending. Whether this was a hate crime—the Bangladeshi community was justifiably outraged and thinking it was—the perpetrator will get life in prison.
Besides being shocked, angry, and saddened, in that order, I wa...
August 30, 2016
Deserving damnation…
The use of children as suicide bombers is on the rise. Children are sold by human traffickers, or even their parents, to satisfy the appetites of sexual predators and porn movie makers. Girls are blown to kingdom come because they dare to go to school. They are also murdered because their parents want only sons. The persons who perform these and other atrocities against children deserve to be damned by society and every religion on the planet worth its salt. Most of all, governments should no...
August 29, 2016
Monday words of wisdom…
Wine makes dinner a real winner. Red or white, try it tonight.
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On sale: The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan. Last three days! This sci-fi thriller will be on sale at Smashwords for $0.99, reduced from $2.99 (67% discount) from now until September 1. Use the coupon code FU54W. First question: what will the U.S. in the future do with retirees with Top Secret information? Second question: how do you prevent the assassination of a presidential candidate? Third question: is there room for roma...
August 26, 2016
Movie Reviews #34…
[August dog-days often mean slim pickin’s for movies, unless you want to hear Streep sing off key or lewd sausage jokes, but here are two “sleepers” I enjoyed…]
Pete’s Dragon. David Lowery, dir. A pleasant movie that leaves you with a good feeling, a bit like Free Willy with a dragon taking the place of the swimming mammal. It’s also a bit like The Jungle Book (it is Disney) where the kid is raised by a dragon, not wolves. Old-timer Meachan (Robert Redford) spins stories about dragons in the...
August 25, 2016
Is the internet making us hermits?
Writers tend to be introverted, so I have no problem working mostly online. (As you get older, it’s harder to be social in the conventional sense—many of your friends and colleagues have passed on, after all. The crowds in the pubs are younger; if you go to church, you only see irascible oldsters like yourself worrying about their mortality; and so forth) But three news items from the business world caught my attention recently. First, venerable Macy’s is closing a slew of stores. Second, boo...
August 23, 2016
Putin is always scheming…
Ex-KGB VIP and supreme ruler of Russia Vladimir Putin—let’s call him Volodya—is always scheming. He channels Machiavelli but only serves his sociopathic self as prince. He had managed to annex a large part of the Ukraine with negligible reaction from the West; he’s biding his time on the old “socialist republics” of the U.S.S.R. he believes to belong under Moscow rule too, but they have to be nervous after Ukraine; and he is doing Assad’s dirty work in order to maintain influence in the Arab...
