I love sci-fi and sports, and not many stories combine both.

When I research the band’s later years after Epstein dies, (and granting potential bias in the authors and subjects) it seems Paul was the the only Beatle who actually gave a shit about being one anymore.

This isn’t really that shocking, McCartney discussed this on Stern years ago, and probably several times before then.

It’s astounding when you read any of the many books chronicling their day to day life/recording sessions.

I mostly liked S2 but agree about Tory and Aisha. The writers couldn’t figure out what to do with her???? She’s the perfect bridge between Kreese’s dickhead dojo and Johnny’s redemptive Cobra Kai. She’s been bullied hard but routinely resists going full Hawk. It was also nice to see an unconventional body in a place…

Contrary to the memories of a lot of Gen Xers, the era in which MTV and VH1 filled their airtime mostly with music videos was surprisingly short.

I mean...let’s start with General Oh, because I literally became distracted trying to imagine how she got away with suddenly being in charge of a Romulan fleet. Did she just...sneak out of Starfleet HQ at lunchtime and not come back? Why the Romulans keep deactivating their planet killers every time they get distracted…

Does anyone feel like trying to work through what was going on with android-planet?

Rush wrote the soundtrack of my adolescent years. They somehow found that Venn Diagram intersection of “Geeky Sci-Fi Nerds” and “Wannabe Rock Stars”.

Mainstream good will can be transferred towards Latin gangsters as long as they’re portrayed by Pachino, apparently.

Agreed.  Also interesting is the (deeply enduring) racial legacy of mob movies.  Somehow, white America can view the American mob as distinct and even virtuous, when their exact black or Hispanic equivalents are looked at as venal, vile, and evil.  I don’t blame the movie for it, per se - it accurately reflected its…

I think it’s definitely generational. Born in 1986 and the Banana Splits are definitely in my pop culture blindspot, and I actually watched reruns of H.R. Pufnstuf as a kid.

You didn't mention that Richard Donner directed the "Danger Island" segments. Are you new to the internet?

The article kept mentioning his backers or his investors, so I assume that even if the British Government didn’t bite, someone else was always gullible enough to.

It’s amusing how Ged takes one book (the first) to go through pretty much all of Harry Potter’s seven-book emotional journey re: Death. I like Harry Potter and I think those books are up to different things — if nothing else, they are in a large way a war saga, which Le Guin must have despised — the real offender in…

If you haven’t read her final novel, Lavinia, I can’t recommend it enough — it’s retelling of the Aeneid from the title character’s point of view and it’s fantastic, her anthropological background as always informs her fantasy but the dynamic of this being fantasy about “real” cultures gives this a different charge.…

I’ll definitely catch the Le Guin documentary. She was one of the last science fiction/fantasy authors I read before my tastes changed and took me in other directions back in high school. I found her science fiction a bit obtuse but I loved the Earthsea books and Lord Dunsany aside I’ve never cared for fantasy.…

Storm is a terrific/awful example: while Banshee may have been one shamrock away from being a leprechaun (including being named after a female spirit famed for it’s wail), at least he was specifically Irish. Storm was born in Harlem and raised in Egypt before finally ending up in Kenya to complete the circuit of pan-Af…

The biggest strength of the X-Men films has always been allegorical. The best X-Men films deals with socio-political issues no matter how hokey it is. X-Men 2's about Bush-era civil rights violations, First Class links mutants with the growing Civil Rights movement, Days of Future Past and Logan deals with genocide of…

Ramones: Get the self-titled debut, Leaving Home, Rocket to Russia, Road to Ruin, and Subterranean Jungle at the very least :)