Magazine
I fancy this blog as something akin to my own, personal magazine, where I riff, rehearse and write about whatever has overtaken my mind at any given moment.
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Pong 2: Be the Ball, Danny
Pong’s Legacy Returns with a Twist In something of an early Valentine to Gen X, Atari has announced an upcoming sequel to its groundbreaking, industry-launching, classic video game… Pong. “Sequel” is a loose use of the term since the new game is essentially a wholesale reimagining of the rudimentary dual-paddle-battle save the inclusion of its…
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If you’re going to shoot at an elephant…
Gary Larson’s One-panel Master Class in Narrative Of those of us who came of age in the 80s, many are fans of Gary Larson’s The Far Side — the irreverent, nerdy, sadly extinct, single-panel cartoon that anthropomorphized cows (and their tools), brought beehive hair-dos back to national consciousness and gave us “Anatidaephobia: The fear that somewhere, somehow, a…
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The Lunar Codex, Or…
Lunacy Codified as a Dick Pic? Like any artist, notions of posterity occasionally creep into my consciousness: Will my work outlive me, or will I outlive my work? Right now, me and my work are neck and neck, though I sometimes suspect my work is killing me (though the result, I suppose, would be a…
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Hollywood and AI, the Pas de Deux
If there’s any question that major entertainment studios plan to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) in creative contexts that were once solely the domain of humans, look no further than your local job board or business networking event. As Intercept reported to the consternation of many a creative in late July, “Netflix is offering as much as $900,000 for a…
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Talk is Cheap… And I Like It
Check, check… Is this thing on? And… we’re back! One of the pleasures of being a local media gadfly is getting down with O.P.P. — Other People’s Podcasts — yeah, you know me. Daedalus Howell | Story Desk is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Here…
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Atomic Angst
‘Oppenheimering’ old wounds Nearly two decades ago, I somehow convinced my filmmaking pal, Abe Levy, to accompany me on a drive across the American southwest through the endless ribbon of mirages known as Interstate 40 until we reached the White Sands Missile Base in Socorro, New Mexico. This was not our final destination but an…
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The Expatriate Rabbit Hole
Featuring Hemingway, Banana Republic, The Moderns and Related Mischief Come with me, Dear Reader, into this warren of personal rabbit holes whose “ambient influence” has shaped some of my development as an artist. It starts here: The Banana Republic Catalog No. 32, Summer 1987 — themed on “Expatriates.” This arrived at my parent’s home on Hill Drive…
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Public Domain: How to Win the Free IP Game
Cross Pitch: The Public Domain meets Low-Budget Genre Films The “public domain consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply” — you know, just like that preceding phrase, lifted straight from Wikipedia. Because I can — because it’s public domain. It’s yours, mine, and ours — and soon — so…
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Red slippers: From the Department of No Place Like Homeland Security
Red Tread Redemption The U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota in Minneapolis has indicted a man named Terry Martin for the 2005 theft of a pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz. “The ruby slippers in question, which were recovered in July 2018 in a sting operation by the FBI and Grand…