Alabama Phoenix Festival

Hello, Readers Mine! As I mentioned in an earlier post, Mockingbird and I headed down to Birmingham, Alabama this past weekend to take part in the Whedon Track and to generally geek out at the Alabama Phoenix Festival. It was a fun, exhausting, and inspiring weekend of old friends, new friends, and a plethora of geek flags flying high, and I thought I'd share a little bit about it with you.

The Whedon Track Super-Panel, from left to right: yours truly, K. Dale Koontz, A.J. Wiley, and Paul Smith (Nicole Brunk and Cam Crowder were also in on the fun, but they're not pictured here). This is pretty much what we did all weekend. Photo credit: Pam Smith.

I've written here about the academic conferences I go to fairly regularly, but this was a different kind of event. Alabama Phoenix Festival (APF) is a fan convention, where geekdoms collide and intermingle, and you don't have to cite your sources nearly as much. The Whedon "Track" was basically a series of discussion panels focusing on various aspects of the works of Joss Whedon including war and military representations, faith and religion, women and feminism, and general discussions about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Serenity, and The Avengers. It was a tremendous time, and great fun to share a table with folks who have the same general passion for all things Whedony, but whose areas of expertise were so varied that between all of us, we were able to field most any question from our audiences. And those audiences were gratifyingly large, well-informed, and comprised of devoted, thoughtful fans who are some of the finest people on the planet, and from whom we all gathered some cool new friends.

APF wasn't all Whedon, all the time, though. There was an enormous amount of stuff going on at any given time. I'm not going to list all the folks and fandoms who were there, but I'll tell you about those with whom I was privileged to meet and greet. First up was Mr. Allen Bellman, who worked at Timely/Marvel Comics from 1942 ~ 1951. During World War II, he worked on Captain America Comics, The Sub-Mariner, The Human Torch, Young Allies, and All Winners, to name just a few of the classic Golden Age comics Mr. Bellman had a hand in. I'll put it to you this way: Al Bellman remembers when Stan Lee came to work at Timely - as an office boy. If you have ever enjoyed a comic book, you have folks like Al Bellman to thank for the medium as we know it today. The Golden Age artists and writers literally invented the medium, and there are damn few of them left today. Mr. Bellman is also one of the kindest, humblest, and funniest men it has ever been my pleasure to meet, making it not only an honor, but a true pleasure to have met him - and to get some originals signed!!!!

Bombs Away! by Allen Bellman, limited edition print numbered and signed by the artist.

Next up was another comics superstar, David Michelinie, who's written comics for DC, Marvel, and Valiant Comics since 1975. He is perhaps best known for writing the Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle arc, which dealt with Tony Stark's struggles with alcoholism with a compassionate realism that is unfortunately still rare today, not to mention in 1978 when he actually wrote the story. It is one of the great moments of courageous storytelling in comics, and it was incredibly moving to meet Mr. Michelinie, who also turns out to be a total sweetheart of a guy. Mockingbird got her hardback collection of Demon in a Bottle signed, and we were lucky enough to chat with Mr. Michelinie off and on throughout the weekend.

In an entirely different fandom, we got to meet Oliver and Terry Holler, who have bought an old DeLorean and modified it into an exact replica of the time-travelling vehicle made famous by the Back to the Future films. The car really is just incredible, and has to be seen to be believed, which you can do pretty easily as the Hollers (and their time-machine) tour the country raising money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. The Hollers are wonderful down to earth, and very funny people, and were one of the highlights of our weekend.

We also ran into an old friend from the academic world, Jennifer C. Garlen, author of Beyond Casablanca: 100 Classic Movies Worth Watching, which, if you love great films, you really should have on your shelf. Jennifer was at APF indulging in her LEGO fandom, including a LEGO Dr. Who-ville complete with custom built Daleks. We also ran into Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers!) and Ernie Hudson (Winston from Ghostbusters!), and I got to sit next to Jeremy Roberts (Kakistos from BtVS!!!) on the Buffy panel!

Finally, there was the exhibition hall, where I spent way to much money on comic books (including some great Bronze Age Our Army at War and Sgt. Rock books), buttons, books, and MST3K episodes, and Mockingbird got herself a very cunning hat! It was a weekend of early mornings, huge breakfasts, late lunch/dinners with friends, and wonderful fun. This was my first con, and I loved it. The organizers brought their A-game, and took extraordinarily good care of us even when they were rapidly spinning 50 other plates at the same time. If you didn't make it this year, plan on going next.

We sure are!

Meth Monday No. 12: the Origin of Wanna Cook?, or How I Wound Up writing a Book About Breaking Bad

Good morning, Readers Mine, and welcome to another Meth Monday here at Solomon Mao's! This week I thought I might do something a little different and use this space to tell you how I ended up co-authoring a book on Breaking Bad. It's called Wanna Cook? The Unofficial Companion Guide to Breaking Bad and it's being published by ECW Press in the Spring of 2014. Or have I mentioned that already? Anyway, my co-author, K. Dale Koontz, already has an academic monograph to her credit, so this isn't her first time at the rodeo, but it is mine, and I thought one or two of you might be interested in how that came about.

Breaking Bad fan art by Ian Glaubinger

It all began when Dale started letting me tag along to the popular culture and Joss Whedon conferences she was regularly presenting papers at, and in the process introduced me to a group of incredibly smart, fun, funny, and accomplished scholars who were also into pop culture, Whedon, and TV scholarship. Up until this point I had no idea that I could combine some of the things I love and am passionate about with rigorous scholarship and actually do something I love as my work. This was a pretty exciting and important discovery.

For full disclosure, at the time all of this started I was 37 and had just gone back to college after finally getting some things figured out in my life (I am, Readers Mine, a slow learner at times), so while I was new to  the world of academia, I also had some miles on me, and during the previous 25 years or so I had almost always been writing. Bad poetry, stories that started but never finished, angry poetry, editorial essays, a self-indulgent ream of paper I called a novel, and even some pretty fair blank verse. The point of telling you all of that is to emphasize that, despite never really having done anything with it, I had been writing pretty constantly and consistently for much of my life, and I have always (and still do) read voraciously. In other words, I had accidentally created the basic structure of my own voice as a writer. That turns out to be important.

So, after going to a couple of Popular Culture/American Culture Associations (PCAS) in the South conferences, meeting people, and hearing some amazing papers, I had an idea that no one seemed to have looked at yet. I wrote a piece called "'We Just Declared War': Buffy as General" and presented it at the 4th Biennial Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses in 2010. Later, the full paper was published in Watcher Junior: the Undergraduate Journal of Whedon Studies, and I was over the moon. So I kept writing, kept presenting, and kept going to school. I like to think I've built a reputation for doing quality work on time, and have a speaking style that generally keeps my audience interested. I also can't emphasize enough the importance of sticking my hand out and asking for guidance and mentorship from the scholars and friends around me. Rhonda V. Wilcox encouraged me to publish my Buffy piece. David Lavery mentored me in television studies. David Kociemba at Watcher Junior gently guided me through the review and revision process of academic publishing. Oddly, they were all eager to help. All I had to do was ask. Who knew?

So, along the way, I met Nikki Stafford, another scary-smart scholar who is also the ultimate companion guide writer, an editor at ECW, a geek's geek, nerd's nerd, and more fun in 5'5" than should be legal. This was around the time of Breaking Bad's third season in 2011, and she was a fan like I was. She heard that I was presenting a paper on Lonnie Athens' theory of violentization in regards to emotional realism in Breaking Bad and asked me to send her a copy. I did, and never heard from her again. Until six months or so later at the 2011 PCAS Conference in New Orleans, when she blew me away and left me walking about 12" off the floor by practically gushing  about how much she liked my paper. She also seemed to really enjoy my presentation at that conference on Samuel Colt and Supernatural. After the conference, I struck up an e-mail correspondence with her. (Turns out we both like to write LONG chatty e-mails [and blog posts, apparently]). In one of her letters one day, she broadly hinted that I ought to write an episode guide on something. With everything going on school-and-life-wise (Dale and I married in 2010), I wasn't too sure about taking on a book project all by my lonesome, and Dale was every bit the Breaking Bad fan I was, her style was also adored by Nikki (and most everyone else who's ever met her), and Nikki was really excited about the prospect of both of us working on a guide, so Dale and I expanded our partnership into a whole new area, and it's worked out beautifully.

All of that sounds like happenstance and good luck and I'll be the very first to admit that Fortune has favored me, but there's also a good bit of hard work and discipline there (remember the "quality work on time" bit?) The scholars who helped me are not only kind people, but produce brilliant works of rigorous scholarship, expect nothing less from me, and also expect me to get better, so I can help mentor the folks who come after me. All of this is incredible fun, but it is also an incredible amount of work. Often it doesn't feel that way because of the whole passion-work combination thing, but it is. At the end of the day though, I get to do something I love, and to call myself a professional writer and scholar. And that ain't bad.

That's it for this week! Tune in next Monday when I promise to look at something beyond myself, and in the meantime, check me out of Facebook and Twitter for all the latest BrBa news that crosses my screen. Until then, be well.

Meth Monday No. 11: The Academy Breaks Bad

Hello there, Readers Mine! I know, I'm late again this week, but once again I plead graduate school. The couple of days before and after a conference always seem to be really busy, but what needed to get done today is done, and it's time to play a bit.

Fan art by Paul Flanders

Speaking of conferences, you might be interested to know that the one I just got back from was the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association in the South, held this year in Nashville, Tennessee, at the incredible Hutton Hotel. Seriously, I have never stayed in a hotel with such exquisite customer service. We were gypsies in the palace, for sure, but boy what a palace! Anyway, we'd driven half-way across Tennessee in order to present Friday morning in a panel devoted to Breaking Bad. Unlike this blog, or even Wanna Cook? PCAS is a full-on academic conference, and so were the papers.

Dr. David Lavery of MTSU chaired the panel, and gave a presentation on "Vince Gilligan, Breaking Bad, and Television Creativity. When it comes to the critical study of television, David's name pretty much heads the list, and his work has been instrumental is establishing television studies as a vibrant, growing field of scholarship. In his presentation (which I unfortunately missed half of in an ultimately vain attempt to fix some of the tech issues the panel was facing) David looked back over Gilligan's career in television to find the roots not only of Breaking Bad, but of Gilligan's own inimitable creative style. Focusing on some similarities in his work on The X-Files, David demonstrated that Gilligan's latest success was the product of a long process of dues paying, and continuous creative work.

Next up was Trevecca Nazarine University's Dr. Jeffery D. Frame with "Walt's Wake: Chemical Disincorporation and the Break Down of Breaking Bad's Secondary Characters." Jeff used Walt's technical term for dissolving bodies in acid as a bridge to looking at the ways in which Walt destroys so many of those he comes into contact with after he has decided to "break bad." Examining what might be called the collateral damage, Jeff looked at how Walt's actions corrode his family, his enemies, and even true random innocents through various direct or indirect chain reactions. Jeff also referred to Walt as the agent and Jesse as reagent/reactant, and framing which I think is just brilliant. I'll have to ask him if I can use it.

Then came yours truly, with "Buying the House: Place in Breaking Bad," where I used humanist geographic theory to examine the ways in which Jesse's house at 9809 Margo St changes throughout the series, and how those changes are projections of Jesse's own psychological state as he moves through incredible - and often incredibly painful - transformations of his character. This evolution, which the audience watches, imbues Jesse's house with indelible history and memories that reach out beyond the narrative universe and into the viewers' and thus makes the house a place with significant meaning for both Jesse's character and we who travel along with him for 8 - 13 weeks a year.

The panel was closed with true brilliance by my wonderful partner and co-author, K. Dale Koontz, of Cleveland Community College, with "Pregnant Pauses: The Uses of Nonverbal Communication in Breaking Bad." To set the mood, she began by "ding-ing" a bell like the one attached to Hector "Tio" Salamanca's wheelchair, which go the audience ready for more. From Marie's penchant for purple, to the foreshadowing "bell of doom," to Gus's stillness, to deadly car horns, to the Cousins' creepy crawling to the shrine of Santa Muerte; Dale showed us that the words we hear are only part, and not even the major part, of how information is communicated to us in Breaking Bad, what's not said, but seen; not articulated, but heard, sometimes tells us more than anything else, and more than we realize.

Needless to say, and gratifying to report, the panel was packed and all of our papers very well received. The rest of the conference was spent in leaping from panel to panel to try and hear at least most of the presentations we wanted to, and catching up with old and very dear friends from across the country, a process which included a walking ghost tour of downtown Nashville, and one hilarious night spent with 10 friends packed into our hotel room watching Joss Whedon's Avengers with the English subtitles on and the snark in full bloom. The kids on the Satellite of Love would have been proud.

That's it for this week, Readers Mine. Be sure to head over to Dale's Unfettered Brilliance this Wednesday for "Walter White Wednesday," and in the meanwhile, look us up on the social media and whatnot - we'll keep you in the loop of all the Breaking Bad news.

Slayage 5 and Coming Attractions

Hello, Readers Mine! Long time no see.Things are finally easing up on the homefront, with the Avengers chapter for A Joss Whedon Reader done, and the 5th Biennial Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses having wrapped up last weekend. Soon as one thing gets done, though, the next thing comes along: in this case Season 5 of Breaking Bad, which looks like it's going to be a wild ride.

First things first, though. Slayage 5 (SCW5), was an absolute blast, my paper, "War in the Whedonverses: Representations of World War II in Angel, Firefly, and The Avengers" was very well received, as was that of my co-author and partner K. Dale Koontz, "Some Call Me the Space Cowboy: Anime, Outlaws, and All That Jazz." We got to catch up with a ton of really good friends from all over the US and Europe, and even made a bunch of new friends while we were at it. Vancouver was lovely, Canadians as polite and friendly as advertised, and the papers presented were dazzling examples of incredible scholarship. Other than that, however, I'm not going to say much more about SCW5. For one thing, recapping the conference is a time consuming task that very rarely gets completed, and for another there are already some folks out there who're doing a hell of a job at it! I recommend checking out the always brilliant and funny Nikki Stafford's conference round-up at Nik at Nite, and also David Kociemba and Kristen Romanelli's recaps on Watcher Junior: the Undergraduate Journal of Whedon Studies' blog. Additionally, you can find a copy of the conference program here, and Slayage: the Journal of the Whedon Studies Association will soon be posting the traditional conference reports, put together by Ian Klein, Elizabeth Rambo, and AmiJo Comeford on the Slayage website. Trust me, between these three sources, the conference will be well covered! Plus, you can bookmark Watcher Jr.'s blog so you can find it more easily when I put up a few guest-posts there in the next couple of months. So head on over to get all of your SCW5 news!

Next up, of course, is Breaking Bad  Season 5! The season premiere, "Live Free or Die" got things started off with an intensity that promises that the final 16 episodes of this remarkable series (which will be split into two 8 episode mini-seasons airing this summer and next) will be utterly insane. Episode 5.02 "Madrigal" (remember Gus' international shell company?) airs tonight at 10pm Eastern/9 Central on AMC, and if you're a Dish customer, AMC will be streaming the episode in full after it airs tonight, and a standard definition season pass on iTunes is just $14. To get you psyched, here's a sneak peek released by AMC:

Looks like ASAC Merkert may be making some things click for Hank! Hot damn! Which brings me to thing three tonight. Starting tomorrow, and continuing throughout the season,every Monday I'll be posting my thoughts on the previous night's new episode of Breaking Bad. I'm not going to do plot summary or recaps, but something a bit more analytical and even speculative, which will also serve to give you a little sample of how parts of our forthcoming book Wanna Cook? The Unofficial Companion to Breaking Bad will read. These weekly posts will appear under the title "Meth Mondays" and will complement Dale's stunning work over on Unfettered Brilliance where she has been posting "Walter White Wednesday" for months now, ramping up to Season 5. She'll also be posting on the new episodes every week, and it's worth checking us both out, as we often tend to spot very different things when we watch.

So that's it for now. Catch "Madrigal" tonight on AMC, and I'll see you tomorrow for the first "Meth Monday"!

Speaking Out, Speaking Up!

Jeez! Where the hell did all of this dust come from? I mean, I know I haven't posted here since... um... March. Waaay early March. Still, how does server space get dusty?

Okay, okay, I'm a lousy blogger lately, but I plead personal stupidity in taking on too many projects all at once. I'm also pretty sure that I won't be posting regularly here for at least another month or so, but we'll see. Wanna Cook? The Unofficial Guide to Breaking Bad is coming along nicely. We're turning notes into prose and our editor at ECW Press seems to like the sample pages we've sent her way. Unfortunately from a fan perspective (yet fortunately from a writing deadline perspective), AMC has announced that it will be splitting the final 16 episodes of Breaking Bad into two mini-seasons, airing eight episodes beginning July 15 this year, and the final eight in the summer of 2013. So, it looks like Wanna Cook? won't be hitting stands until the very end of 2013 at the earliest, and most likely not until the spring of 2014.

In other news, I've been awarded a B.A. in History from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, graduating summa cum laude (yay!), and I'll be entering the Master's program in history at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN in the fall. Currently I'm working on knocking out the first draft of a chapter on Marvel's The Avengers, written and directed by Joss Whedon, for the upcoming edited colection A Joss Whedon Reader. It's a short deadline, but I'm really enjoying the project and the film has me firing on all fan-scholar cylinders.

Also, as most of you know, North Carolina, where Mockingbird and I make our nest, passed Amendment One to the State Constitution on May 8, a "Constitutional amendment to provide that marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State." We worked hard against this amendment, not least because it's just not right to write discrimination into our state's constitution, but also because it is stupidly written law which could dramatically and negatively affect all unmarried couples in NC. Anyway, we lost, but the people in my state who were politically "activated" to oppose this issue have refused to disband and disappear. We're all determined to keep fighting for civil rights for all citizens, and to speak out against discrimination and hate.

Which brings me to Pastor Charles Worley of Providence Road Baptist Church in Maiden, NC (NOT to be confused with a church of the same name in Charlotte, please!). If you haven't heard Worley's deal, here's the sermon, on Mother's Day no less, which has got me and some 1000 other people driving up to Newton tomorrow to protest using the pulpit to preach hate:

Now, Worley and his congregation are going to be meeting at an undisclosed location out of town tomorrow, thus demonstrating the strength of their convictions, and we are going to gather with like-minded folks on the lawn of the Catawba County NC Justice Center in Newton to protest hate speech, particularly hate speech which has been despicably presented as being the word of the Christian God. Which it ain't. Mock and I will be there with a these signs:

You can even come and join us if you want! For more information check out the Protest's Organizational Facebook Page, but please, if you do come, familiarize yourself with the code of conduct we're going to be abiding by:

Click To Enlarge

So, remember: we lost a battle in NC, not the war, and people like Worley are not representative of my state. And if you decide to come to Newton tomorrow, look Mock' and me up. We'll be the ones with the signs! ;)

General News and Something to Remember

Well Readers Mine, it's been a couple weeks again, but they've been busy ones, and I must warn you that today is not the day when you'll see a substantive new post here, but expect a new Book O' the Fortnight by week's end.


So what's been going on? Well, last week, Mockingbird and I celebrated our birthday (we have the same one, you see. Different years, but the same day) with a series of dinners, many cool presents, and by sleeping in until 11 and enjoying the extra snuggle-time. Meanwhile, school has cranked back up for both of us, me on one side of the desk, and she on the other, which also means the commuter marriage has resumed, and I am once again feeling the growing suspicion that my real permanent address is Interstate 85. So it's been the usual round of quizzes, exams, assigned readings, short papers, figuring out topics for long papers, etc, but this is the last semester I'll be facing those particular tasks -- at least in an undergraduate setting. Graduate school applications are all out and I should start hearing from a couple of the schools as early as the end of this month. (Crossed fingers, prayers, and good vibes are all welcomed and encouraged!)

The Avengers coming May 4, 2012

Of course, amongst all of this normal stuff is work on Wanna Cook? The Unofficial Guide to Breaking Bad, which is proceeding well, but in the re-watching and note-taking phase is somewhat time-intensive (as I expect the writing will be as well). Still, so far the project is a lot of fun and my co-author and I are having a blast analyzing and critiquing the episodes over the phone almost nightly. I also have the paper for the Fifth Biennial International Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses coming up in Vancouver in July, for which I have, for the first time ever, applied for a passport. And finally, just yesterday I was presented with an offer that I couldn't refuse in the opportunity to write a brief essay about The Avengers, directed by Joss Whedon, for the forthcoming The Essential Whedon Reader from Syracuse University Press. So many incredible opportunities have come my way this year! But the plate, Readers Mine! The plate, she is very full!

Between school deadlines and writing deadlines, I expect to be something of a rapidly typing recluse from mid-April to mid-July, in which time all of the various deadlines fall. It is doable, but you can see that I'm going to be a bit busy in the coming months. (By the way, if anyone ever tells you that writing is not really working, politely take them out back and hit them in the head with a shovel, because they are obviously insane and therefore likely a danger to themselves and others.)

Here's the thing, though: I am going to be incredibly busy doing something that I love and that I have wanted to do since I was 10! I got sidetracked for several years along the way, but I'm here now, and finally following Joseph Campbell's incredibly sensible advice: "Follow your bliss." Not to mention that I'm doing a good chunk of it in the company of an incredible woman and partner (who also happens to be the love of my life) who feels exactly the same way.

When things get a bit overwhelming, it is good to remember this last part -- and to give thanks.

Thank you.

BtVS's "Chosen" Live on Twitter From My Living-room Tonight

Well, it's been one hell of an eventful year Readers Mine, and one of those events is coming to an end tomorrow night at 8pm EST as the final post in the Great Buffy Re-Watch of 2011 goes up on Nik at Night. Great praise and burnt offerings go to the one and only Nikki Stafford (who has written lots of books you should buy) for what turned out to be a full year's worth of chasing down guest bloggers, editing and formatting posts, organizing the whole shebang, and cranking out not one but two blog posts every Tuesday night on top of all the other writing, editing, child rearing, and husband-wrangling this remarkable woman does. Many thanks Nikki! You're just insanely cool.

The Slayer and the Scoobies

In honor of the Great Buffy Re-Watch Finale, a few of us are getting together from our various points on this good Earth at 7pm EST to re-watch "Chosen," the final televised episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and to Tweet about it as we do so. You can find all of the fun under #gbrfinale over on Twitter, and of course, you're welcome to get there by following me via the handy and nifty button you see under the pic of yours truly at the top right of the page.


For those who may not be either fond or familiar of/with Twitter, you can follow the entire re-watch and Tweet-fest by simply typing in #gbrfinale in the search box at the top of the Twitter page, which will give you all the posts by everyone taking part in the live-Tweet. Then just sit back and watch the fun, or, even better, grab the last disc of Season Seven and watch and Tweet along with us. Remember, we're starting tonight at 7pm EST, and we'd love to see you there!

A Very Whedon Christmas!!

In a nod to the holiday season, I'm pleased to announce the first-ever Whedon Christmas Shopping Guide here at Solomon Mao's!

Joss Whedon his own bad self!

In the comments below you'll find a (hopefully) wide selection of the best writing on the work and worlds of Joss Whedon, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Dollhouse and beyond, by some of the most brilliant and talented minds around. Here at last are the perfect gifts you've been searching for, and just (barely!) in time for Christmas! 


At this point I have to give a nod to John Scalzi, who's series of Whatever Shopping Guides inspired this little effort. You should read his blog and books too!


Here's the rules:


This comment thread is for authors and editors of books on the works of Joss Whedon and the Whedonverses only. Please do not leave other comments, as they will be removed by the moderator.


1.) Posts by authors and editors of books only. If you are not the author/editor of the book you're posting about, please do not post.


2.) Your book must currently be in print and available.


3.) One post per author, please. Those among you who have authored/edited more than one book, feel free to post about multiple works, but all in the same post please.


4.) Please keep your description of your book brief and entertaining, as if you were talking to someone at a signing who might buy your book!


5.) Include a link to your book at an online bookseller. You can use standard HTML link scripting, a useful guide for which can be found here.


6.) Feel free to share and link to this blog post on Twitter, Facebook, Google +, or any other social media.


7.) As noted above, comment posts that are not by authors/editors promoting their own books will be deleted by the moderator.


Okay: now tell us all about your book!

Tooting My Own Horn A Bit

Well, Readers Mine, I'm pleased to be able to announce that as of today, I'm officially a published writer. Watcher Junior: the Undergraduate Journal of Whedon Studies, published it's latest issue today, and I'm in it! "'We Just Declared War': Buffy as General" grew of out a presentation of the same name I gave at Slayage 4 in St. Augustine last year, and I'm still pretty proud of it. Go check it out!