Learning about story craft from “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.”
What can a bad movie from 27 years ago teach us about how stories and characters work?
Latest
The New York City Draft/Race Riots and “Gangs of New York” (Repost).
A bug-free summer and its ominous implications.
Whaling in the 19th century, by the numbers: A quantitative look at maritime history.
Historic Photo: Dubai Creek in 1964, compared to today.
Sweltering in the Old World: The European heat wave of 2003.
Behind the Scenes: San Francisco That Survived.
The Verge
Learning about story craft from “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.”
What can a bad movie from 27 years ago teach us about how stories and characters work?
The New York City Draft/Race Riots and “Gangs of New York” (Repost).
A bug-free summer and its ominous implications.
Whaling in the 19th century, by the numbers: A quantitative look at maritime history.
Sweltering in the Old World: The European heat wave of 2003.
The legacy of Watergate in 2026: Does it still mean anything?
Interiors: Crew quarters aboard the Liberty ship SS Jeremiah O’Brien.
The Outer Garden
Historic Photo: Dubai Creek in 1964, compared to today.
The mainstay of this waterway used to be pearls. Now it's oil, and high finance.
Midsummer Eve: A brief hiatus for this blog.
My book “Faraway Star” is out!
My year of AI resistance. There’s hope!
Cover Reveal: “Faraway Star,” my upcoming science fiction novel.
Interiors: Entry hall of Haas-Lilienthal House, San Francisco.
More concept art for “Faraway Star” is out!
The Inner Garden
Behind the Scenes: San Francisco That Survived.
My latest video looks at some interesting pieces of San Francisco's history.
Behind the Scenes: Akhenaten, Egypt’s Strangest King.
Behind the Scenes: Millard Fillmore, The Conspiracy Theorist President.
Behind the Scenes: TWA, The Rise & Fall.
It’s Not Love, Actually: Watch me do an about-face on the world’s worst Christmas movie.
Behind the Scenes: China’s Long Revolution, 1900-1950.
