The Cambias Digression

Notes and thoughts on everything from what I had for breakfast to the fate of the Universe.

  • Iron Man 3

    I don't want to get into the habit of acting like a poor man's Roger Ebert and reviewing every movie I see. I'm not a moviemaker, I'm not a particularly representative moviegoer, and my eyes start to glaze over when I see the word "cinema."  But I do want to talk a little about Iron…

    jamescambias

  • Work In Progress: Corsair (Part 3)

    In my previous posts about Corsair, I mentioned that I have to expand my first draft to make it a proper book-sized book. Doing that revealed a structural problem. The original short story "The Barbary Shore" had extensive flashback sections, since it was simultaneously about Captain Santiago of Orbital Command battling Captain Black the Space…

    jamescambias

  • Battleship (Part 3): Aliens

    I write science fiction. A lot of my stories have alien beings in them. I like to think I'm pretty good at creating aliens and alien civilizations. Which is why I am developing an irresistible urge to drive out to California and shout at every screenwriter who has used aliens in a film during the…

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  • Battleship (Part 2): What Could Have Been

    I'm going to continue posting my reactions to watching the movie Battleship. Today I want to talk about a startling thought I had when it ended: It could have been a good movie. In fact, I have a strong suspicion that it began as a much better movie than it ultimately became. I don't have…

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  • Battleship (Part 1): Not Stupid Enough

    My family recently rented the awful big-budget action movie Battleship, which of course was based on the board game. I learned a great deal from watching Battleship, mostly about things that I don't like. Today I'll talk about the first thing that bugged me: stupidity. Battleship was stupid — in a Facebook comment I said…

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  • Getting Rid of Books

    This week my wife and I tackled the hardest task for any family of readers: getting rid of books. Our house has about 200 feet of shelves, some of them packed two layers deep with books. We also have stacks of books in the office and the bedroom waiting to be read. They pile up…

    jamescambias

  • Movie Review (sort of): Forbidden Planet

    Last Sunday the Crack Team went to see a showing of the science fiction classic Forbidden Planet at Popcorn Noir in Easthampton. I had never seen it on a big screen, and it's definitely better than watching it on television. I'm not actually going to write a review. It's a great movie, even after half…

    jamescambias

  • Spelling Bee After-Action Report

    My talented wife Diane and I were recruited by a friend to join her team in the Northampton Education Foundation's annual spelling bee. We agreed, so last night the three of us turned up in yellow sweaters to battle the other teams. Funds were raised, somehow. When we agreed to participate, both Diane and I…

    jamescambias

  • Why Comedians Aren’t Funny

    Lately I've been watching a lot of standup comedy bits on YouTube, and as a result my thoughts drifted to the question of why so few comedians are able to make the jump to film. I'm sure we all know about the Saturday Night Live curse — where movies starring SNL cast members not named…

    jamescambias

  • Ozblogging: Oz the Great and Powerful Review

    I saw Oz: The Great and Powerful earlier this week with my wife and my 10-year-old son. He liked it a lot, we . . . liked it less than he did. Oz: The Great and Powerful isn't a bad movie. It's a perfectly fun children's movie that adults can enjoy. But I'm afraid that…

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The Worldbuilding Index