Let's talk about the big picture. 

I've been toiling away as a critic --- first of films,later comics --- for going on a decade now and, arrogant as it no doubt sounds, I'm starting to think I've got some stuff figured out. About how art communicates specific ideas in specific ways at specific times. About how corporate media bosses do the same. About this ever-moving and ever-tenuous intersection where art, commerce, politics, even spirituality converge and how they either form temporary allegiances in order to co-exist, or flip each other off and head in opposite directions. About how said actions or reactions end up mixed together in the always-combustible cauldron we call the cultural zeitgeist. And about how, if we learn to read between the lines about where we are now, who knows? We might even be able to intuit where we're going.

Here's what's in it for you if you sign on for this ride : smart, insightful, entertaining commentary. Really. If I'm not writing the best stuff you read week in, week out, then I'm not doing my job.There'll be movie talk. Comics talk. Book talk. Television talk. And probably plenty about real life too, now that our media consumption informs so much of what --- and even who --- we are.

This is no small project. No simple string of commentaries. This is where the jigsaw pieces get put together, starting from the corners, working our way in, until we see the puzzle's actually been a mirror all along, and now we're finally called upon to swallow up our courage and take a good, hard, sobering (but funny, I promise!) look at our collective reflection. So join up, read my posts, leave comments, let's see if we can't make this some kind of --- dare I say --- community?