Before seeing 'Deep Web', like most people, I believed Silk Road was a criminal enterprise -- a gigantic drug network and online cartel run by a drug lord known as the "Dread Pirate Roberts." It turns out that this was a highly distorted picture.
Read More »Leo Sopicki
Anthem Film Festival: Slavery Is Alive and Well (And May Be Living Down Your Street)
Slavery has become more subtle and is not just something that happens far away in third world countries. 'The Return' takes us into the world of a Filipino house maid held captive for years by an upper class family in Orange County, California.
Read More »Anthem Film Festival: Laughing Though the Pain
Between films focusing on dysfunctional futures, police excesses, brain damage, political oppression, climate fraud, cancer, and unjust imprisonment, Anthem Film Festival director Jo Ann Skousen worked in a few films that inspired giggles and guffaws. Thank you, Jo Ann.
Read More »Anthem Film Festival: Lenny Bruce, Gilbert Gottfried, and Penn Jillette vs. the Outrage Mob in ‘Can We Take a Joke’
We are reaching peak crazy. There are two possible outcomes. We get trampled or the rest of us wake up and start fighting the people who are trying to stifle free speech.
Read More »Politicon: It Takes a Village to Raise a Democracy, with Bill Nye, Sarah Palin and Gary Johnson
Many political events, TV channels, and magazines claim to be non-partisan and “fair,” but few achieve it or even mean it. Politicon, billing itself as the unconventional political convention, actually means it and achieves it. The result is a stimulating and entertaining event for political junkies.
Read More »Electronic Entertainment Expo: Games, Doritos and Wiz Khalifa Take Over LA
This year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was bigger and more virtual than ever.
Read More »E3: Driving Games Drive Me Crazy – Can Virtual Reality Help?
Driving games have been around in one form or another at least since Commodore 64 days. What always annoyed me about them was their lack of reality. I knew how to drive. Yet, every time I picked up a joystick to try out Gran Turismo, Le Mans or Indy whatever, I’d inevitably crash.
Read More »Getting on Board with Acting – Part 1
The common wisdom is that screenwriters should take an acting class to understand what it's like to be on the receiving end of a script. I suppose not doing so, would be like trying to design a boat without having ever taken one out on the water. OK, I'm getting on board.
Read More »E3: Games that Don’t Go Boom, but are Fun Anyway and Have Bacon
E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, invaded the Los Angeles Convention Center and environs from June 12-16, and left craziness and delight in its wake. I’ve never been a great fan of the shoot’em up games, so I searched the humongous displays in the Los Angeles Convention Center for build’em ups. I found two: a relative newcomer, 'Farming Simulator', and the newest iteration of a classic, 'Sid Meier's Civilization'.
Read More »Anthem Film Festival: Do Right-Wingers Have a Sense of Humor?
Do right-wingers have a sense of humor? You'd be less surprised to both laugh and survive at the Anthem Film Festival.
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