You Should Be Watching

Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities

This was originally published in the Watch The Skies November issue.

I’m doing two things with this recommendation that I wouldn’t normally do. First, I’ve not finished all of the episodes of the show in question. Second, it’s a little bit of genre mixing but there’s enough quasi Lovecraft in what I’ve seen to make me thing readers here might be interested. What am I talking about? Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities on Netflix.

To the first point, having watched the first two of the eight episodes, I feel confident in my recommendation. There is a bit of a Twilight Zone vibe as each story has an introduction at the physical representation of the cabinet. The stories have been well written and paced for a shorter time frame, with episodes averaging around an hour (the shortest being 38 minutes, the longest at 1 hour and 3 minutes). The special effects are well done, in that they don’t detract from the story. I think that says a lot in the day and age where the computer is leaned on so heavily for effects that it can have a negative impact on the story telling. Beyond the actual effects is the aesthetic of it all. This show is appealing on the strictly visual level. The details are not lost in this show.

To the second point, it’s the little details. Giant rats, summoned demons, and statues of great Cthulhu (in a blink and you miss it moment) are among the things that lead me to genre mix here. There is nothing expressly or specifically “science fiction” in this show, but there is a lot of the fantastic and I think that’s worth taking a look at.

I intend to follow through and finish all the episodes. I think you should be watching it too!

You should check out the trailer here

You Should Be Watching

Everything Everywhere All at Once

Michelle Yeoh is great!

This was originally published in the Watch The Skies July issue.

The multiverse. A certain MCU character has brought this theory to the attention of the public in recent months. Multiple universe theories, quantum physics, philosophy and all the other Schrodinger equations are generally WAY past my understanding. A version of this theory that I understand is that each choice we make during our lives causes some sort of branch to happen. The alternate choice sort of spins off and becomes another world where our other self continues on that other path. It’s more complicated than that, but that basic thought is the core of this film. What if we made that other choice? Where would that other path have taken us? It’s a thought that runs through most peoples’ heads at some point. I recommend this movie to a science fiction / fantasy based group purely on the strength of using this multiverse theory in an absolutely bonkers way.

What if you could access the knowledge, emotions, life experience of those other lives you might have had? In this movie, a middle aged woman who is struggling with many of the same sort of things any of us struggle with is suddenly confronted with this access… and is told she needs to use this knowledge to save the world. She needs to reach out and draw from those lives and the knowledge those other versions of her have gained.

Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu and Ke Huy Quan are absolutely fantastic in their roles. They are all believable, earnest and relatable, even when the entire world around them seems to be going mad. There is a randomness to this film that would be hard to ride if they weren’t just so good. There is action, humor and romance. I don’t know that any single genre or category would do this movie justice. Absurdist fits, but isn’t fair to the beauty of the performances and the depth of the feelings that show through. There is another big name movie star in the film. This big name star is so deeply into the role that I didn’t realize that’s who it was while I was watching.

Do yourself a favor, stay away from spoilers – even the trailer honestly – and just check this movie out. It’s only just leaving theaters and headed to DVD or home streaming, but it’s worth the effort. You should be watching this movie.

Toxic Fandom

Is terrible.

That’s a simple view, I know. It’s one of those easy to say, difficult to quantify kind of things – to some degree. There are clear examples of what is wrong. Those are the easy ones. It exists in more than one form, and it relates to so many levels of what we do in the science fiction and fantasy fan communities.

I’ve been sitting on this one for a while. It’s a tough topic. I expect somebody will dig this up and that it will cause me problems in the future. This is why it’s on MY site. I own it. It’s mine. I have taken some time and given this much thought and I think it’s important to continue this conversation. That’s the key to all of this. It’s a conversation. It’s something we need to address now and as we move forward. There is no simple solution and there is no easy way to make this go. We need to keep communicating with each other.

Let’s start with the easy stuff. There are some people out there who think, for some unknown reason, that they should be the ‘real’ fans of Star Wars. They’ve declared some nonsense about how people who are not white Americans can’t and shouldn’t ever be in the movies that have been loved since 1977. They’re easy to spot. They’re terrible. There’s simply no place in fandom for people that can’t accept that people who make up less than 12% of the entire world population don’t rule everything and can’t exclude everyone else. Above and beyond a basic level of stupidity, there is no place in civil society for those who make death threats against actors for portraying a character in a movie. That’s a kind of crazy that slides into another topic entirely (we’ve created our own hell-scape of cults of personality) and isn’t what I want to get at here. If you want to read more, check this article out as a starting point. There are lots of conversations going on out there about it.

The part that’s much more difficult to deal with is at a very personal level. It happens far too often these days and it worries me for the future of fandom for a whole different reason. Toxicity is eating away at the core of fandom – from both sides. The grievance crowd is going to destroy fandom.

Being the vocal minority doesn’t make you right no matter how right you believe you are. When somebody says something you don’t agree with, it doesn’t mean you are allowed to have them thrown out of the building. If your feelings get hurt it doesn’t mean the other person is automatically a bigot, problematic or any other sort of label YOU believe they should carry. When you think you want to lash out at others, you need to ask why you feel this way and maybe… just maybe… take a step back and allow some time to think about things.

We are all guilty of this to some degree at some point in our lives. We are emotional creatures. We react. We want to defend ourselves and those we care for. It’s natural. IF you’ve been the person that has been slighted, ignored, insulted and treated badly all of your life this is something that builds. This feeling turns into something ugly and dangerous. How we conduct ourselves when these sort of things come up matters.

What am I trying to say? Let me start with my own example. I have worked on convention staffs for many years. I love helping make something for so many people to enjoy. There are challenges, but anything worth doing has those. I have worked with all sorts of people from all over. Fans are great folks and have made some of the most wonderful memories for me. I volunteered to help with the previous world con, a staff team I hadn’t worked with before. I was trying to find my way and see where I could fit in and help. Then the GOH mess went down and I withdrew my help. Did you catch the part about it being volunteers? Yeah, even if you pay me I’m not hanging around for that. The most worrisome part was this was accepted. Not questioned, just accepted.

I wrote about it in a previous post here. Back in February of 2021 in fact. So here we are a year and a half later and I think the issue has only gotten worse. I don’t want people to think this is some kind of ‘crying out’ because I feel like I’m being repressed or something. I’m clearly not repressed or disadvantaged. I know there is privilege living here and I try to be mindful of it. I’m also don’t want this to be a ‘virtue signal’ kind of bullshit. I can’t stand that. “Look at how wonderful and accepting I am! I’m clearly not the problem you’re talking about…” Ugh!

Maybe I am the problem. I don’t know that without talking to others and having them talk to me.

Here’s where the real challenges start. Yeah, I’m a middle aged white guy. I know a lot of other people who look just like me. That’s who I have always associated with. It’s culturally my background and that has a huge influence on my opinions and bias. I have been told more than once that my opinion doesn’t matter simply because I’m a white male. I’ve been told to get over being told that. I’ve been given the ‘so how does it feel’ bit. I’ve been excluded from conversations and told that project submissions were only open to ‘others who need a chance’. While it wasn’t me, but a friend – there was even something in writing, “Well, you’re an old white guy so you must have done something wrong…”. In writing. From a supposedly professional group.

Really? We can’t find it now, but give us time? You’re a white guy so all the problems are your fault? This is all the wrongs of history that (may or may not have) happened to me so now I’m giving those to you! Take that medicine you horrifying bigot!

So, back to the maybe I’m the problem part. OK. Fine. Maybe I am. I can accept that I need to be more mindful than I am and work harder to be better. I certainly try, but success is relative to viewpoint. There are lots of places looking to get more diverse work out there and I don’t qualify for that in this field. OK. I’ll take it.

This didn’t just happen to me. It’s happening over and over again with people taking advantage of the simple fact that people have started to pay attention to what’s being said and taking action on it. Grievance culture. It’s insidious because how do you argue against things like, “you can’t call that person a freak just because they don’t look like you”? You don’t. You can’t. Even when the definition of the word freak is, “A person, animal or plant with an unusual physical abnormality”. Webster be damned! You can’t point that sort of thing out! How dare you?

Where’s the line? When can you tell anyone else what to say, how to think about something or how to address a situation? We’re all products of our own cultural backgrounds. What if I make a mistake? Am I to be punished and then banished forever? Who is the arbitrator of that judgment? Public opinion is fickle and dangerous. Swaying with and allowing the grievance crowd to simply take over is going to destroy volunteer run conventions… faster and more certainly than aging out or poor attendance ever had a chance to.

Don’t believe me?

At this past Balticon (#56) a woman of color living with a debilitating physical condition, parent of a trans person, and long time panelist and guest was summarily chucked out due to a complaint. A single complaint.

I was there when they came to get her. It was the panel I was moderating. I was standing there. I can’t speak for how others feel, but the lone staffer seemed quite respectful when asking her to gather up her things and accompany him to con-ops. He wasn’t loud and he did not make any accusations while there. He didn’t express anything other than, “please come with me, we’ll talk elsewhere”. It was a very simple and quiet thing that most had no concept about anything happening at all. I feel that the characterization of being treated ‘criminally’ is inaccurate, but again – that’s from the outsider point of view. In the end, that little bit that I witnessed isn’t important but it gives context for the rest of my message. They weren’t coming for me… this time.

I regret not digging into things more while I was there. I attempted (successfully) to steer clear of personal drama. I attend and work cons as a matter of enjoyment, and I find that type of drama stressful rather than enjoyable. Maybe I needed to do or say more… but there’s a problem with that. The grievance crowd. How can I help when my opinion doesn’t matter or is discounted or ignored out of hand?

This isn’t about me, but this whole post is to explain where I’m coming from. The only thing any intervention by me would have done is muddy the waters (at best) or cause a significantly bigger issue (at worst). I have been seeing a distressing trend in fandom – pushing people away rather than working with them and trying to relate to them. I have been called a racist, accepting of racists, problematic and told flat out to my face that I’m a white, straight (assumed), middle aged man and therefore part of the problem and that it’s not possible for me to be part of the solution. I have been marginalized by my appearance and had power taken from me on that basis. What it looks like to me, in a deeply oversimplified way, is that those who have suffered that treatment before are now taking any and every opportunity to do that to others rather than working to make things better for everyone. Sort of a ‘how do you like it’ approach to being in power.

Conventions are not my direct livelihood, nor to they help or hinder my day job. My reputation in the convention circuit doesn’t stop me from putting food on the table for my family. Conventions are some people’s livings or a significant portion of them. Their standing and reputation there matters. If somebody came at my job in that way I’d be more than angry – and rightfully so. The person in question is a pro and while I have found her point of view odd at times, I have never felt that it wasn’t important. I love the stuff she brings to panels. Having diverse opinions matters. Having authors like her, and so many others is vital. I’m sorry that she won’t be back (and if I were her, I wouldn’t be either).

The culture of con running is in trouble. This is not the first time I’ve encountered a mess like this. It’s the reason I won’t work on con staff for other cons anymore. There’s part of me that’s very sad about this. I do love doing all these wonderful, creative things.

So long as I’m unfailingly polite and professional there’s nothing to latch onto as a complaint. Maybe I need to say more. I deeply believe that the science fiction and fantasy community needs to be more accepting and welcoming. I said, specifically at the panel I moderated, “If you can’t find that person, be that person…” and gave some examples. I will continue to go to Balticon (and others) if they’ll have me (I understand that I’m a ‘D’-lister that just fills space). I think there’s a dangerous culture growing around the idea of ‘you didn’t say exactly the right thing’, and I fear for the future of convention staffs across the board. I hope by continuing to attend that I can in some way be part of the solution. I told people I wasn’t going to virtue signal and I don’t want this to sound like that. I am, however, going to reach out to people about this when I have the chance. I want to stand up for others. I want the toxicity to go away. I’m sick to death of the grievance crowd. I want fans to be able to keep doing the things they love. I hope to be able to continue to have important and meaningful conversations about making cons a safe and accepting place for everyone. I hope you’ll join the conversation too.

BALTICON – The Panels – Wrapping Up

The workshop I ran was the last of my panels at Balticon.

The workshop was GMing for Beginners. It’s exactly what it sounds like. If you hadn’t run a game before, but wanted to. IF you had, but you stumbled or wanted tips to get to the next level sort of thing. In short, my wheelhouse. I’ve been doing this for years.

Turns out the hardest part of all that is going back to the start.

It was a very small group of folks that showed up in person. The panel description stated it was aimed at a younger demographic and that’s precisely the folks that showed up. They were fun and creative and our hour melted away and then some. We were still sitting there when the hotel staff came and asked us to give up the space for the next event.

There was a part of me that really wanted to do pictures and notes and all sorts of things related to what we did, but I think that would take something away from the folks that were there in person. I was absolutely delighted to share with them. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did (and they did seem to). I will probably ask to run that workshop again next year, though perhaps earlier in the weekend to give folks that want to try things out more of a chance to hit the game room.

In the end, the con was very successful for me. I’m glad I went. I’m glad to be getting back into the con circuit and working on being creative again. It’s been a rough couple of years for everyone. I’m looking forward to going again. I’m looking forward to meeting new people and seeing my old friends again.

Will I see you there?

BALTICON – The Panels

The last actual panel I had was on Sunday morning. There was a workshop to run later in the day, but this was the last of the traditionally formatted panels. As it turned out, I was also scheduled to be the moderator. As a moderator, I didn’t prepare notes in the same way I would have for other panels. I went for questions. My job was to get the other panelists to talk about the topic and keep things moving.

Finding Your People:

Whether you are a writer, gamer, costumer, maker, filker, or LARPer, there is a thriving community for you. Panelists will discuss opportunities for attendees to connect with like-minded others outside of Balticon.

  • How did YOU find your people?
  • Best ways to track like minded folks down in general? (discord, failbook, message board at the game shop, others?)
  • Should we ponder the future of in person conventions?
  • What if you’re painfully bad at all the social stuff? Plans are hard, and going out fills me with anxiety.
  • Have you had any experiences that put you off to a group? Any tips on avoiding that kind of thing?

I based my questions on things I believed would be useful from my own experiences. I wanted the folks I was working with to be able to express their thoughts on connecting with others and providing a way for cons and game groups and costumers and all those crazy folks to still be able to get together and enjoy our hobbies like never before. Interestingly / sadly this was also the panel where I caught the fringes of how this all goes wrong. I’ve got a lot of thoughts on the subject, so I’m going to dedicate an entire post to that at a later date. Other than what amounted to a minor ‘blip’ for me, the panel seemed to go well enough. A lot of the answers tended to circle back around to finding connections via the web, but that’s the world we live in these days.

Do you have any great answers for the questions above?

You Should Be Watching

The Owl House

Fun animation style too!

This was originally published in Watch The Skies May issue.

I’ve noticed a trend lately toward animated shows. While this show is once again aimed at kids, I have found a number of interesting and fun writing choices being made. The show follows a human girl named Luz who stumbles through a portal into another world. The land known as The Boiling Isles is filled with startling, weird and amazing characters living on the remains of some kind of giant or titan. There she becomes friends with a rouge witch named Eda, also known as the Owl Lady. Luz decides to stay and learn magic from this most powerful witch.

While I have not yet finished the first season, I suspect I will consume the entire series. Yes, each episode is relatively short and contains a ‘lesson of the week’ kind of format, but there are much longer story threads being woven through the background. It’s got some really fun and funny moments that are clearly aimed at the adults watching the show. At one point Eda is relaxing and says (fourth wall breaking style), “Ah, a quiet moment of domesticity… I wonder how long that will last” and in moments she is rewarded with a crash and screams. “Ah, there it is…” and she moves into the story. It was such a small moment, but anyone that has dealt with kids of any age knows that moment, deeply, and would just feel that come right through the screen.

In looking up some information about this show I’ve encountered a few spoilers that I will not share here. Anything beyond an abridged third season seems to be in jeopardy as the comedy / horror vibe (along with a couple of other factors) seem to not fit with the current Disney+ vision. I can say with certainty that I am not the only one believing in the writing for this show. It first aired in 2020 and won a Peabody Award in 2021. Weird, whimsical and believable fun – you should be watching this show.

Check out the trailer here:

Legend of Who?

Pre-pandemic, if you’d asked me about the Legend of Vox Machina I would have stared at you blankly. I had heard, vaguely, of Critical Role but that would be about it. The team producing the web hit Critical Role has certainly made a massive impact on media and the route things have to production.

I’ve talked in other places about something people are labeling “the Mercer effect” as it relates to the expectations of people when they play Dungeons and Dragons. The team at CR (and it IS a team, including a lot of production) create a drama that people can follow along with BUT it doesn’t meet the expectations of players when said players get to their own game tables. Most people don’t have a production team to help run their game, nor do they do it as part of their job so even regular old game / planning time is limited. A new players view of the game can be warped by production quality.

Now, take that same story with all the warping. Get professionals to set the script, trim the action, do the voices and then have crazy good animation and you get Vox Machina’s first season on Amazon video.

I have watched the whole season. I can say that I enjoyed it. It is a very well done animated series.

The criticism(s) I have for it revolve around that warping.

I don’t watch CR when they role play their campaign on YouTube. IF I have that many hours, I’m playing or I’m designing my own game for when I’m playing. It’s not a polished show and you’ve got to wade through it all to get to the good stuff. That’s the whole point I hear you saying, but really – I don’t have that kind of time. Am I maybe missing some Easter eggs or not understanding the ‘in’ jokes? Absolutely. Do I care? No. No I do not.

Having watched the show I get what people mean about expectations. They fight and kill a dragon in the first or second episode. I have NO idea what the actual level of the characters are in the CR game, but in MY world dragons are epic, boss level fights that don’t get resolved that quickly. Dragons are part of the name of the game and defeating them like some kind of minor winged reptile without the kind gravitas they deserve just doesn’t seem right to me. It set me off for the whole series. This is made worse by the fact that one of the main bad guys is (or appears to be) a vampire. That in NO WAY works out that way in my world. Are vampires exceptional and challenging monsters? You bet. Do they have more power than dragons? Never. So – my hang up on that one, but I think it ties in with expectations.

Percy has a gun. Yes, it’s demon related and possibly magical in nature, but it’s still a gun. This is not a chocolate in my peanut butter kind of situation. I don’t want guns in my swords and sorcery game. I play fantasy for a reason. IF I want guns I’ll play a role playing game with guns. This was an aspect of the show that clearly worked, but just took me out of the right head space.

Editing the story down to basically half hour episodes is both good and bad. It’s good, because the writers got to the meat of what’s going on without requiring me to wade through all the dice rolling and background decision making that goes with any good role playing game. I really appreciated being able to get through the shows in a timely manner. What they did while doing that is skipped past longer story arc development. I know – can’t have it both ways, but this is the expectation thing again. Part of the joy of the game is working up all those deep character backgrounds and having all the other players know and use that info. It’s that shared aspect that makes the game great. The animated show didn’t give the feeling of weight that all that stuff was in there. It’s not easy to describe that feeling when you don’t know all the backstory, but you KNOW all that backstory is there. You can feel it with little details.

In the end, it was a fun ride. I found myself pointing and laughing on more than one occasion, remarking that actions / choices reminded me of our own game or that we’d had remarkably similar actions in our game. It’s relatable, but it’s just one version of how the game goes. It’s not MY version and maybe it’s not YOUR version either. It’s worth checking out. It’s fun. I look forward to the next season – just don’t expect to see a dragon defeated that easily in any game I run.

Expensive Art

Many years ago I wrote up a post here about this bonkers concept for creating a Dune movie that I’d caught wind of on the net. I went and found the documentary and consumed it. I was enthusiastic about the concept at the time.

In the intervening time it has been pointed out that the creator of this concept brought out some very problematic things about how he created his art. Creating art using rape is NOT acceptable. It is probably a very good thing that his vision never actually made it all the way to the point of filming.

All that being said, I would still love to see the mythical book that was created to showcase the concept for this film adaptation. With all the attention being given to Dune again, one of the ultra rare books has popped up and will be sold at auction.

IF I had the money, I suspect I would have gotten in on the bidding, just for the chance to check out some of the artwork inhabiting that book. Maybe someday they’ll market a digital version and we’ll get a chance to peek at the art from some masterful creators.

Check out the article about the auction here.

Dune – the meme

No Peace

Peace Talks by Jim Butcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


As with so many of Mr. Butcher’s books, I read this very quickly. I think I was actually finished within the first day or two after buying it.

It’s been a long wait to get here. I jumped in and went along for the ride with Harry. I kind of expected things to fit a certain mold that I could see for him. He’d be trying to have a regular day, something would go wrong. Harry would say something that wouldn’t sit right with someone or something powerful. He’d then doggedly keep pushing forward while finding no help and no resources while stretching himself nearly to the end of all his resources…

And we sort of got that? And then.

And then the author did something that any truly excellent author will do – sets your expectations out on their collective ears and does something that makes you say, “Oh, wow… did not expect that”. I will not spoil any of the plot points here. If you’re on board with Harry at book 16 you’re on for the whole ride.

Go, read this. Then wait with the rest of us for September and the next book so we can find out what happens!



View all my reviews

Failure and Fan Art

It would be easy to call entry into a contest and not winning a failure. Easy, but not true.

I created the picture below to enter into a fan art competition in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Dresden Files. I really am a big fan. I have read more of this series than I have of any other book series or author out there. Admittedly, some authors I’ve read don’t have as great an amount of work available. There are some that have comparable amounts of work available, but they have not met the standard set by the Dresden Files for me.

I didn’t share this entry before the contest winners were announced. It was not at all about a “jinx” or any other kind of superstition. It was that mean, nasty thing called ‘hope’. IF you’ve got even a little it makes you think things like, “Gee, I don’t want to put this up on my web site where it will be considered ‘published’ before the winners are announced… what if I win and then they want to do a business deal and can’t…”

Intellectually it was very easy to see that I didn’t have much of a chance. I am an amateur artist on a good day. This contest was open to all comers – and there were a lot of them I suspect.

So – I didn’t win – BUT

What I did get was a chance to make art. I like what I made. I am going to make more art. This was a fun little project and I’m very happy with the results. What do you think?

Bob The Skull