Chris Braak's Blog, page 44

Julian Comstock

Here's a review over at Black Gate that I did for a book called Julian Comstock.  I actually wrote it a while ago, and the book had come out even before that, but it never ended up going to print.  So, now you can read it. Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd Century America is [...]

'Best' Vs. 'Favorite' Twilight Zones

Every New Year's Day, I take great pleasure in returning home, getting back into my pajamas, making a bloody mary, and watching the Twilight Zone marathon – a tradition that, thankfully, has not been ruined in SyFy's periodic attempts to appear "hip" and with it and "what the kids are into" (see: current spelling of [...]

The Theology of Stevie Johnson

I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO… Wide receiver Stevie Johnson, of the Buffalo Bills sports team, to God, after Johnson dropped a potential game-winning touchdown pass.  He said this some time ago on Twitter, which is [...]

The Insane Paganism of Rankin and Bass

It is the Christmas season, and Christmas season means those Rankin and Bass stop-motion animation specials.  You've probably seen at least Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer–because EVERYONE's seen that one–but there's actually a whole bunch of them, and they get sort of increasingly demented. Jeanine just bought a DVD for five dollars that has Year Without [...]

Christmas Slow-Down, Day 1

I dunno about Chris, but this week's a bit packed for your old uncle Holland. So, in the grand tradition, I offer a week of reruns. Starting WITH! Let's Talk About Christmas Songs, Why Not? Filed under: Threat Quality

On…Incest…

Ugh.  Why did I agree to this again? Let me be clear:  DO NOT DO INCEST.  It is gross.  Don't.  Seriously, I am not advocating incest.  If you ask me, "Chris, should I do some incest?"  My answer is, unequivocally:  "No.  DO NOT DO INCEST." Okay, so.  But.  Let's discuss, briefly, whether or not incest [...]

Comics: Christmas Help and Missing Hellblazers

Thing 1: If you are stumped for a Christmas gift for the comics lover in your life, you could do a lot worse than Atomic Robo. Seriously. I know it can be hard to buy a comic for someone if you don't really know their tastes, or worse if you don't really know comics yourself. [...]

Holy crap, product placement (post brought to you by Sprint)

I'm of a few minds when it comes to product placement in pop culture. Mind #1 (The "pissy art purist" argument) – of course it's not great. Every moment the makers of a given TV show or movie are making deals over, say, which scene would best showcase a giant Mountain Dew vending machine in [...]

Why I'm Not a Mathematician

I am putting this up to avoid the work that I know I'm supposed to be doing.  It is, ultimately, a story that reveals my own capacity for spite far more than it exposes problems in our education system. Anyway, I was thinking about this because of the recent Gawker hack, that leaked their database [...]

The Thing About Wikileaks

Hahah, I don't know anything about Wikileaks.  I'm not even sure how to parse this, at all.  On the one hand, yeah, I understand the need for a nation to have the ability to keep some of its operations secret.  That makes sense.  But it's not like what's turning up on Wikileaks is "Here's where [...]