DERIVATIVE WORKS: Legitimacy, Ownership and Creation (The Community Fires Dan Harmon Remix)

Do you know what’s puzzling about the divide between ‘legitimate creative works’ and ‘illegitimate creative works’? The idea that the creator and unique voice of a creative work can be legally prevented from creating it further, and that someone who has never been a part of that project can, without the creator’s consent or permission, [...]

TV: Boardwalk Empire and Power

I’ve just started watching Boardwalk Empire, and though I’ve got plenty left to watch – I’m six episodes in – I have a few thoughts on what I’ve watched… (Spoilers for the first six episodes of Boardwalk Empire. In turn, I would request you don’t spoil me for anything after ep 1.6 in the comments. This is [...]

MEDIA: Why Crowdsourcing is Awesome

I’m a huge proponent of crowdsourcing funding for creative projects. With Kickstarter getting projects that hit a million dollars, plus others like IndieGoGo growing at a steady pace, crowdsourcing is bigger than ever, and steadily growing. But why is this a good thing?

TV: Raising Hope, Sabrina, and Mad Pride

On television, there’s really only a couple of stories available for themes of mental disorder or mental illness. There’s the crazy psycho, who has schizophrenia (or just an ‘unknown mental disorder’, a la Tyler Barrol of Revenge), and is a danger to anyone and everyone they come across. They are serial killers, rapists, kidnappers… you name it. [...]

TV: Netflix and One Season Wonders

There was a time, not too long ago, where a marginally-rated show would go off the air and never resurface. If you’d missed it, unless you knew someone who had taped it, it was gone. Even illegal pirates had a tough time, searching for months to find a show that would probably never surface. But [...]

TV: Was Adoption the Victim of Foul Play in Once Upon a Time’s Pilot?

I enjoyed the pilot of Once Upon a Time. I had some issues – Jennifer Morrison‘s gritty character, the best thing about it, clashed completely with everything else in its universe. The ‘fairy tale’ world was a bit hokey. Alright, a lot hokey. And one odd recurring theme was about adoption and, if you read [...]

TELEVISION: The End of ‘Big Love’

I was a faithful watcher of HBO’s Big Love throughout its 5-year run. However, there was always a disconnect between what plenty of critics thought about the show, and its point-of-view about its lead character, and what it seemed the producers saw in him. That extended right down to the very end of the series. [...]

Derivative Works IV: Taking Back the Culture

In previous Derivative Works pieces, I’ve written about how the stigmas regarding fanfiction are inaccurate, and how derivative works can use a majority-centric work to create a space for a minority. In that last essay, I wrote about how cover songs can ‘queer’ a mainstream song, giving queer voices a way to access a song [...]

WRITING/PERSONAL: Building a Portfolio I

So, in amongst the many projects I’m tackling for school and elsewhere, I’ve begun thinking about the breadth of work I’ve done over the past few years, and what would add up to a good, wide-ranged sample of my work. And, of course, what it means to have a portfolio in the first place…

MEDIA: Sites We Should Have in Canada

Tell me if this is a familiar issue for you: you encounter a website and think, wow, that’s amazing, and decide you’d like to participate – only to discover it doesn’t offer its services in Canada. A lot of really popular websites develop in the U.S. and, sadly, have no Canadian arm or equivalent to [...]