Ethan Parke Author Blog

 Normal was much like the nobody movies, with Bob Odenkirk playing a former assassin with a troubled life, ending up in a massive battle, after taking an interim job as a sherif in a small Minnesota town. It was clear from the beginning that he was eager to atone for his past acts, particularly when he talked with his wife he was not answering. It was weird seeing the mayor played by Henry Winkler in an action movie, because it's impossible not to separate him from The Fonze, but it was fun seeing him get shot with a grenade launcher. The people initially thought to be bank robbers also repented, when they saw that the town was allied to the Yakuza, and Odenkirk teamed with the deceased sheriff's daughter who eager to make up for his mistakes, and in the end, he was able to reconcile and speak with his wife.  It was clear the theme of the movie was atonement, and that is a major theme in my latest book, The Loathsome Serpent. In the Covert Militia's Third Campaign, Jack Sta...

 I remember having a good time going to see the last Mario movie, and I had a good time see the Galaxy one this weekend. The best comedy was the interaction between Mario and the shrunken Bowser, and the way they met all the other Nintendo characters. I also liked the love letter to everything Nintendo, that we saw in the background and foreground. Critics may have disdained it, but everyone seeing it in the theater with me clearly enjoyed it. I know many people who would be glad Mario didn't have to rescue the princess like he usually did, same as in the last one. If anything, this time it was Princess Peach, who rescued Princess Rosalena, her sister, who do not remember from when I played Mario, though to be fair I had not played a Mario game since I had a Nintendo 64.  The aspect of princess rescuing made me think about how in high school when I told my friends my aspirations to be an author and my intent to model characters on people I knew, nearly all my friends that were...