In the modern day, a girl reads a book. The Old Author wrote the book in 1985, about when he was a young author. The book takes place in the Grand Budapest Hotel of the 1960’s, and tells of the Young Author meeting Old Zero Mustafa, and the story that Old Zero relays to him….

New from McFarland Publishing, Jim M. Curtis’ new book Decoding Dylan: Making Sense of the Songs that Shaped Modern Culture gives us an expert look at the life and work of folk singer-songwriter and cultural icon Bob Dylan. Part biography, part lyrical analysis, part cultural evaluation, Decoding Dylan gives an exceedingly comprehensive portrait of one…

(This post was originally published on No Coast Bias; to view the original post, click here.) 10 years ago today, the second installment in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy of Batman films debuted in theaters across America. Batman Begins revamped the character after Batman Forever and Batman & Robinmade it seem like we’d never get another good Batman movie. But…

(This post was originally published on No Coast Bias, several days before the release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. To view the original post, click here.) We’re only a few days away from the release of the latest film in the Star Wars franchise, the cast of The Last Jedi is all over television, interviewing…

(This article originally appeared in No Coast Bias. To view the original post, click here.) After its release yesterday, the Avengers: Infinity War trailer seemed to break the internet. At the time of writing this, it has been watched over 44 million times and has stayed on the #1 spot of the Trending section on…

(This article originally appeared in AREO Magazine. To view the original version, click here.) Despite being the seventh feature film in the franchise, Star Wars: The Force Awakens was first one debut in December instead of May. This proved to be a highly lucrative change for Disney and Lucasfilm for one simple reason: merchandising. Merchandise…

(This post originally appeared on No Coast Bias. To view the original version, click here.) *Spoilers for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice* The new movie Justice League is coming out soon, and… well, it’s not looking like an Oscar-winner to say the least. Putting Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, and others in a movie…

(This article originally appeared in Areo Magazine. To view the original version, click here.) Ten years ago, Netflix began launched their online streaming service. This effectively put the nail in the coffin of Blockbuster and similar stores. Since then, streaming services have become almost ubiquitous. Nearly everyone has a subscription to Netflix, or Hulu, or…

(This was a paper written for my 18th Century Shakespeare class. It was then nominated for University of Connecticut’s Aetna Writing in the Disciplines Awards under the Humanities category. For more information on the award, click here.) The Cultural Architect: David Garrick and his Influence on Shakespeare’s Legacy Literary canonization can be a difficult thing…

(This post originally appeared in Areo Magazine. To view the original version, click here.) — I’ll be discussing the Season 7 Finale of Game of Thrones, if you’re not all caught up yet, consider this your spoiler warning — The months in between two seasons of Game of Thrones begins to feel like years and years. Fan theories and…

(This article originally appeared in Areo Magazine. To view the original version, click here.) Spoilers for Game of Thrones up to Season 7, Episode 3 When a writer is trying to convey that a character is some kind of hero or redeemer, that character is often made to resemble Jesus Christ. This comes up in just about…