Photo: Alexis Wary & NEXTpittsburgh
scop (noun): Old English – bard, minstrel, storyteller
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The Art of Rotoscoping
Animating Life Since 1917 Nearly a century before James Cameron transformed 5′ 7″ Zoe Saldaña into the nine-foot-tall Neytiri in Avatar, cartoonist Max Fleischer pioneered the first motion capture device in his Brooklyn living room. Consisting of a projector mounted behind a transparent easel, the rotoscope machine transformed the art of animation by allowing cartoon…
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Rockhounds
The Ballad of Marsh and Cope Heard about the Bone Wars? You’re not alone if you haven’t. Back in 1977, I doubt my brother John had heard about it either when I showed up to band practice with a new song called “The Rockhoud Rag.” In truth, it was more bluegrass than ragtime, but I…
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4.5 Million Podcasts
Are you listening? Lots of folks are. According to Variety, last week’s installment of the New Heights podcast racked up 13 million views in just 24 hours. Of course, it helped that pop star Taylor Swift dropped by to join her buddy Travis Kelce to talk about her upcoming album. I’m sure brother Chris and…
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Classic Spinoffs
“You Know–For Kids!” Name the Classic A recent challenge in our Minute-Men: Execute and Run newsletter asked folks to identify the classic predecessors to the six books and films pictured above. Some of the contemporary spinoffs–like The Scarlet Letter Man and All for One–are fairly obvious. I figured the titles alone were enough to link…
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Iconic Book Illustrations
Worth 1,000 words. Artists have been illustrating the written word for ages, and in some instances, the illustrations have made such indelible impressions that they’ve become forever identified with the author’s work. With that in mind, we asked newsletter subscribers and social media followers to consider the above illustrations. The Challenge Can you name any…
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Minute-Men Preview at …
Plus Panels on AI, Horror, Writing … and more! This year at Confluence, I’ll be joining brother Christopher Connolly for an in-person preview of our forthcoming novel Minute-Men: Execute & Run, set for release this fall from Caezik Science Fiction & Fantasy, an imprint of Arc Manor Books. The preview will take place 2:00 on…