A lot of little topics this week. I am really going to try my best to be more consistent with the blog. This summer has been particularly brutal, in addition to some lingering frustration about the inelegant career transition. I lack motivation at times, and triple-digit heat makes it worse. So, so much worse.
To think of things is easy, but to sit and do them is hard. Lately, it has felt insurmountable.
Anyway, onto scattered thoughts.
Mourning Dolly, Tim, and Peter
I try not to dwell on celebrity deaths for too long. There are the deaths of people whom I particularly admire, and it throws me for a few days, but I like to think they may not want to be mourned so much as have their work continue with enthusiasm. I don’t truly know these people, and I don’t have the parasocial-impulse to speak on their behalf, but the vibe I get from most beloved celebrities who pass on is that the best tribute for them is embracing their art. It’s not that sadness isn’t part of the mourning process, but given the inherent distance and artificiality of their image, such deaths feel markedly different.
Even then, losing folks like Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, and Peter Cullen really fucking hurts. All three are beloved and occupied important spaces in the development of so many people I know, and I know that I have fond memories of each of them in the different ways they’ve shown up in my life through popular culture – so I think the best thing to do is just celebrate those things over the next few days.
You know, embrace their work rather than defund it. Sigh.
I am glad to see queer and nerd spaces celebrate their legacies. I just feel bad that the losses are piling up. It just feels worse and worse every day lately. The impulse to celebrate and create as a mourning response is admirable and blunts the edge of the suck. So, let’s focus on that, shall we?
Project Updates
Going with bullet points for this section so I do not need to worry about paragraphs. It’s too hot outside to worry about paragraphs.
- Most of today (Sunday, August 30th, the specific day I write this section) was spent working on the next chapter of Cosmic Dash. I’m very excited about it, but this was only a first-draft effort. Next week is my time to revise and polish, while also working on the chapter image. Thankfully, I have a pretty clear chapter image in my mind.
- I recently posted a chapter of Fang & Bone, which I hope you had a chance to read. It was a real tough one to write for a few reasons, but I think it was worth doing.
- The Supernatural Selection zine is more or less good to go. My plan is to have it uploaded on September 1st.
- As Scene On will update soon. I am prioritizing tasks, and it is a lower priority than the fiction chapters.
- I did dust off Graphic Content for the first time in a while. That’s good, right?
Other than those things, I don’t have much to say this week. Summer can be a real struggle as the heat gets to me pretty badly. Ideally, we escape this current heat wave next week.
Teaching Log
Half my life is teaching, and so far this semester has been pretty ideal. I’m only teaching two classes now due to being transitioned (very much against my will) to part-time, but the overall batch of students seems to be pretty on the ball. The in-person class is a ton of fun, while the asynchronous students have been submitting some quality work so far – after a few hurdles with the submission process.
I am still playing whack-a-mole with generative AI in some submissions, but most are very easy to catch. The major issue I am having is that the college I work for has switched over to Pangram for AI-checking, and I have found it to be very hit or miss. Over the years, and using my scaffolding methods, it tends to become much easier to catch the scent of generative AI without looking at any sort of monitoring system like that. In a lot of ways, it has grown harder, but the most flagrant cases are pretty easy to tell at a glance.
Case in point, this week I had a student who had a submission flagged as 91% AI-generated in Pangram. Not a big deal, as Pangram frequently falsely flags things as AI-generated. The problem was in their Works Cited page; they included a source for an ad I wanted them to write about. That doesn’t sound bad, but they did not use the actual source of the ad I provided, and they left the ChatGPT source referral in the URL of the Works Cited entry. The link didn’t even actually link to the ad itself.
Wild stuff.
Why-AI Bother Getting Worked Up?
Ultimately, I am not very doom-and-gloom about the AI issue.
I am sure some students slip past me with generative AI submissions. To that end, I think that is a pretty strong skill they have exhibited. It recognizes an awareness of conventions and how to adhere to them, even if they are taking a shortcut. Given the mercilessness of capitalism on existence, I get it and see the appeal of generative AI as a tool there. In a system rigged against you, there is value in knowing how to work against it and mitigate resistance to your own success. Whether or not the full understand the conventions of writing and what they generated is another issue entirely, and if they are caught and need to explain their way through a generated idea, that is where the real test comes in.
My role in composition instruction is to allow them to develop and articulate positions and support them through the writing process. If they find a way to shortcut that and pick up nothing from me, more power to them – success from target, specific effort can be admirable. However, if a reckoning comes and their decisions come back to haunt them, I also think that is perfectly fair.
Recent Movies
Lastly, I ended up seeing three movies this week, which was very fun. I enjoyed all of them, so here are some quick impressions as Letterboxd has revealed itself to be not my speed. I’m not a fan of writing one liners and my reviews there have been pretty in-depth. I’ll probably throw these up there anyway, though.
Coyote vs ACME (2026)
It’s amazing we have a second summer film that adapts Greek mythology and does it pretty well. Coyote vs. ACME (which should be capitalized as such) is a film whose conversation will be rightly dominated by the circumstances surrounding it’s release. The fact that a film of this quality was almost written off and unreleased for a paltry $30 million dollars is frustrating. The fact it was released most definitely is inflating the good will toward it, but you gotta take the “W” as it comes.
As for someone not taking the “W,” ever, the film is true to the Sisyphean nature of the character of Wile E. Coyote. Wile E. Coyote as a metaphor for persistence is nothing new, nor is reading him as foolish. The film does well to play into the latter but embrace the former. The film sticks the landing of carving out a solid, funny movie that is true to the character while also serving as an unintentional (and sometimes very much intentional) critique of corporations. It sags slightly in the middle and could benefit from a run-time cut of about ten to fifteen minutes, though.
The Looney Tunes are integrated well into the story, and some of the deep cuts are delightful. The humans pull their weight with Will Forte and John Cena putting in admirable work. There is also a surprising amount of heart to be drawn from the film, which gives it a little more weight than most Looney Tunes films.
Ultimately, I am glad this is a very real movie that was given its chance. 3 1/2 stars.
Buddy (2026)
If you’ve seen one mascot-horror ARG or analog horror video on YouTube then you have experienced pretty much exactly what Buddy is and it doesn’t go much further than that.
With that said, it is fun and the artistry of the film itself is quite good. Fans of the infamous Too Many Cooks short on Adult Swim will recognize the style of Casper Kelly pretty instantly through the sinister nostalgia artifice of the majority of the film. If you ever wanted to see Clint Howard dress as a man-boy in a cowboy outfit you’ll be delighted. If you’re a fan of Cristin Miloti you’ll enjoy it but feel she was underutilized (which she was).
Ultimately, between some delightfully fucked up children’s show imagery and the surprisingly strong acting chops of some of the children, the film was quite fun. Nothing revolutionary. The “worldbuilding” of the last 20 minutes also feels as empty as the backroomsesque school hallways in which these reveals play out.
But for what it was worth, I had fun. 3 stars.
Tony (2026)
I have a soft spot for Anthony Bourdain and when I found out Matt Johnson (of Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie) was directing a biopic, I was very excited. I was even more delighted to learn the biopic was not one all-encompassing look at the life of Anthony Bourdain, but instead a sketch of one period of his life. Even better, it would be about a summer when Anthony Bourdain was at his worst – the pretentious kid who needed his ass kicked.
The film is largely fiction, but true to who the man was in the best way possible and lived up to my expectations as a person who finds Bourdain fascinating. There is a great deal to love about the film and it is gorgeously shot. The performances were great all around, but Antonio Banderas absolutely was the highlight and well deserving of a best supporting actor nomination.
The film does some clever bits in showcasing the growth of “Tony” without relying on too many tropes and montages. One of it’s best scenes involves refilling salt shakers and ketchup bottles and it is such a great representation of an evolving and increasingly complicated dynamic between two men.
As someone who has read Kitchen Confidential numerous times and grew up watching Anthony Bourdain explore the world, I leave off with this: the Eric Ripert cameo says everything you need to know about the respect the film has for Anthony Bourdain. 4 1/2 stars.
That’s it for me this week. Take it away, Dolly.
