Category: Uncategorized

Five great opening song lyrics:

“I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand.“ Warren Zevon, Werewolves of London

“You can’t get romantic on a subway line.”  Van Halen, Everybody Wants Some

“F—k I’m drunk, but I’m off my knees.” Deftones, Feiticeira

“Drop out of life with bong in hand.” Sleep, Dopesmoker

“YOOOOOO, I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want!” The Spice Girls, Wanna Be. 

“Idealistic nature and unrealistic expectations.”

In 1998, Brian Helgeland won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for L.A. Confidential, which was based on the 1990 novel of the same name by James Ellroy. That year Helgeland also won a Razzie for The Postman. Helgeland accepted the Razzie, the fourth person to receive the statuette in person, which was delivered to him in his office at Warner Bros. He keeps the statues of both the Oscar and the Razzie on his mantle as “a reminder of Hollywood’s idealistic nature and unrealistic expectations.”[

Amazon reviews of my short story collection: William Faulkner’s Cannibal Holocaust and Other Stories.

5 out of 5 stars

 Balloon fetishes and cannibals? I’m in.

This book is creative and unlike anything I’ve read before. One of the best stories is about a carnival worker who runs a balloon-popping game and secretly has a balloon fetish. It sounds wild, but it’s actually funny and kind of deep. Every story mixes weird humor, smart ideas, and cool pop culture stuff in a way that really works. If you like books that feel like a mix of movies, dreams, and late night thoughts, this is for you. It’s not for people who want simple stories or need everything to make perfect sense. But if you enjoy strange characters, dark jokes, and thinking about big ideas in unexpected ways, you’ll have a lot of fun with it.

3 out of 5 stars

 Not for me.

I am sorry to say most of these stories just weren’t for me. I appreciate what the author attempted but the stories, by in large, just didn’t make sense.

Commonplace Book and Lew Wallace

“Commonplace books (or commonplaces) are personal notebooks used to compile any information the owner finds interesting or useful. They can variously contain notes, proverbs, adages, aphorisms, maxims, recipes, quotes, letters, poems, tables of weights and measures, prayers, legal formulas, and other professional references.”

I have chosen to use this feature as an online commonplace reserve to post anything useful or interesting… of course, I use both of those categories very loosely:

Lew Wallace was prompted to write Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880) primarily to intellectually explore and justify his own lack of religious faith following a chance 1876 conversation with agnostic2 Colonel Robert Ingersoll. Ashamed of his ignorance regarding Christianity, he aimed to research and write a story about the divinity of Christ, ultimately becoming a believer himself during the process. 

  • The Catalyst Conversation: In September 1876, Wallace, a lawyer and former Civil War General, met Ingersoll on a train. Ingersoll’s questioning of God and Christ left Wallace feeling “ashamed” of his own inability to defend or even understand the theological concepts, prompting him to deeply investigate the subject.
  • Initial Skepticism & Research: Before writing, Wallace was indifferent to religion, possessing no strong convictions about God or Christ. He began his research into the story of the Three Wise Men to write a magazine article, not a novel, but was soon compelled to research the life of Christ thoroughly.
  • Transformation into Belief: During the writing process, which included extensive research on the Middle East, Wallace’s personal views shifted from indifference to a “fierce and unshakable” belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ.