James Master's Blog

I love a zombie film. In fact, my introduction to the horror genre started when I first watched George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968). Since then, I was hooked on scary films.   The zombie subgenre is my favorite. The reason why I love a good zombie movie is that it’s never about zombies. Not really. Sure, there are the undead cannibals that […]

I chose this film for the first night of the challenge because I’ve seen some clips of it online and it seems to be something of an interesting story. It’s a simple enough story, some might call it a bit boring, but I think it could have some promise.   About 6:20 minutes into the film, I’m already a bit bored. We’ve set up the backstory for […]

Saturday night was kind of a rare occurrence for me. For once in the last month or so, I had nothing to do on a Saturday night. Oh sure, there were clothes that needed washing. There were dishes that needed scrubbing. There was fiction that needed to be fictioning. But for one blessed night, I […]

When I was a kid, probably around the sixth grade but I can’t remember for sure, my oldest sister asked me if I’d like to learn how to play a card game she was playing. Looking at some of the cards and becoming interested in the card art, I said sure. Sitting down across the […]

Over the weekend, I binged eight episodes of a Netflix documentary Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy War. My favorite western film is Tombstone (1993) so of course I was interested to see how the fictional events of the film differed from the factual events of the past. So, I was surprised to find that while Wyatt Earp and […]

Why do filmmakers like to use monkeys as plague carriers? Directed by Peter Jackson and written by Stephen Sinclair, Fran Walsh, and Jackson, this film follows a basic plot that includes humans being stupid and taking monkeys outside of their natural habitat and then the rest of humanity has to deal with the consequences when, […]

I hate the song “Islands in the Stream” performed by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. It’s by far the worst song and one that I pray I’ll never hear again. Obviously, there’s a history around this hatred so please allow me a few paragraphs to explain. If you were living in the southern St. Joe […]

Last weekend, I managed to start and finish two books. Which, in my humble opinion, is pretty impressive. There are really only two reasons why I was able to complete that feat. Well, two realistic reasons and one fictional reason. 1. I’m a natural speed reader. 2. I have no social life. 3. I’m a […]

Laundry, dishes, cleaning of my room, work on my book, grocery shopping, work on news articles…the list goes on. I know that weekends are meant as a time of rest, but I feel quite the opposite. Because I work a lot during the week, most of my normal general maintenance and upkeep duties are shoved […]

According to the Center for Disease Control in a 2022 report, the average life expectancy for those living in the United States of America is 77.5 years.   That means on Tuesday, Nov. 12 I will have reached the midpoint of my life. Although, to be honest, I’ve probably already reached that midpoint a long […]