ARC Book Review; Decoding Dylan: Making Sense of the Songs that Changed Modern Culture

A few weeks ago, I was sent an advance review copy of Decoding Dylan: Making Sense of the Songs that Changed Modern Culture by Jim Curtis. 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…

40 Years of Stephen King’s The Stand

This month is the 40th Anniversary of Stephen King’s 1978 post-apocalyptic epic fantasy novel. Among Stephen King fans, this book stands with his other well known works – It, The Shining, Carrie, Misery, The Dark Tower, The Green Mile, 11/22/63 – The Stand is on a level equal or higher to any of these works. So, on this anniversary,…

Intertextuality: Typecasting, Toy Story 3, and Rango

*This post has spoilers for Rango and Toy Story 3* The 2010’s decade has granted us with some wonderful animated classics, but few as beloved as 2010’s Toy Story 3 and few as wrongfully overlooked as 2011’s Rango. These films came from studios – Disney-Pixar and Paramount’s Nickelodeon Movies respectively –  with vastly different reputations. There’s differing characters – anthropomorphic toys…

Intertextuality: The Empire Strikes Back and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

This post will have spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. It will also have spoilers for The Empire Strikes Back, but I know that you’ve seen that movie because literally everyone has. The Marvel Cinematic Universe films exist in Disney’s pantheon of intellectual properties alongside the Star Wars franchise. In that way, these movies are linked together.…

Intertextuality: Princess Bride and Pirates of the Caribbean

Hi everyone! A few announcements for my dedicated fans who have been wondering about my infrequent posts! (Perhaps about ten of you XD) I’ve been rather busy lately, so I haven’t been able to dedicate quite as much time to this blog. I missed last month’s Captain’s Log, but have been posting to twitter a little…

Intertextuality: The Noble Heroes of The Magnificent Seven Samurai

Regarded as some of the greatest films of their genres, Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven both hold a special place in their respective Japanese and American cinema. Akira Kurosawa’s 3-hour samurai epic debuted in 1954, and was re-worked into the 1960 Western that audiences loved. (It’s worth noting that The Magnificent Seven will be remade later this year,…

Intertextuality: Star Wars and Avatar: the Last Airbender

At certain points throughout the series, I would say “Hey wait, this reminds me of…” and (not surprisingly) it was usually the Star Wars films that it reminded me of. There were moments of Intertextuality.