bryant

Man, I should really go back and tag all of these posts with relevant directors and so on. But who has time when you’re busy lobbying the Criterion Channel for a Boston Crime collection? And here we are, almost at Halloween, with November’s lineup to discover. I hope you and yours had an October filled with all the horror movies you felt like watching.

November is traditionally Noirvember in our household and sometimes Criterion feels the same way. Not as much this month, with the partial exception of a Starring Gene Tierney collection introduced by the always-awesome Imogen Sara Smith. Tierney was just generally great but Criterion’s correct to say she made her greatest impact in noir; I’ve seen all the noirs here but you should absolutely check out Laura and Leave Her to Heaven if you haven’t. I’m putting Rings on Her Fingers on the top of my month’s watchlist, sight unseen, just because I’m a sucker for con artist movies.

Full post: https://popone.innocence.com/archives/2026/10/22/november-2026-criterion-channel-lineup/

This is not going to be a surprising revelation. I am writing it down because otherwise I will keep forgetting and being surprised when I remember it and so on and so forth. Sometimes I’m slow.

The other day I was noodling on a Frontier Scum one-shot I want to run at Con of the North, because I want to start running more games at conventions and Frontier Scum looks really easy to run and I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about Westerns in the last year. (I will playtest it before I run it in public, no worries.) And I had a great concept about a bunch of scum who get caught between the law and a bunch of people who are even scummier than them, but it wasn’t solidifying. It was a few frames of film in my mind and a couple of NPCs and then… what?

Full post: https://popone.innocence.com/archives/2026/10/08/physical-value/

We can forgive the Criterion Channel for failing yet again to provide the much desired Boston Crime collection, since it’s Halloween season and that simply wouldn’t make sense. No, today I’m going to complain about their failure to provide a New England Horror collection. The Dunwich Horror, Jaws, The Witch, The Haunting, and I suppose one could make room for some adaptations of that Maine guy’s novels.

I get it. Criterion is a New York company and New Yorkers are allergic to Boston. I won’t dwell on this further; let’s get to the October lineup. It’s scary.

Full post: https://popone.innocence.com/archives/2026/09/22/october-2026-criterion-channel-lineup/

The first time I saw Sugar live was at the University of Iowa Memorial Union in Iowa City, on April 27th, 1993. That’s still one of the two most intense concerts I’ve ever seen, although I’m not a frequent concert-goer. I remember the music much more than I remember the band: huge sheets of guitar snarling out of the speakers and permeating my body. I’d never heard anything so loud.

Full post: https://popone.innocence.com/archives/2026/09/14/sweet-memories/

I am pretty sure this is the specific story that’s gotten me hired more than once. It’s a good story about a project I’m really proud of and I’ve gotten pretty skilled at telling it. It’s also a great example of how rapidly careers could move in those days. I’m good at what I do but I also got lucky here and there and this story is about me being both competent and lucky.

Full post: https://popone.innocence.com/archives/2026/09/10/you-want-me-to-do-what/

I’ve told the big Netcom stories; you know how I got there and you’ve heard about my brush with history. This post contains a bunch more that aren’t really big enough to hang an entire article on.

My first day at Netcom, everyone was freaking out. It felt like the sky was falling. When someone slowed down enough to explain what was going on, I decided the freak out was justified. Back in those early days of the Internet, nobody had realized that you could just send bulk messages to as many people as possible on the theory that some small percentage of them would reply. Commercial spam hadn’t been invented — in fact, people were a little bit dubious that asking people to pay for an Internet account made sense.

Full post: https://popone.innocence.com/archives/2026/09/04/netcom-grab-bag/

So that’s the first week in the Twin Cities. We’re loving it so far although we’re about ready to get our stuff back; fortunately it shows up Tuesday. I dropped an AirTag in one of the moving boxes to figure out if it’d be an effective tracker and it sure was; I can see our things in a warehouse to the northwest after a somewhat alarming trip down to Chicago.

Full post: https://popone.innocence.com/archives/2026/08/30/first-week/

On Sunday, August 16th, we checked into a lovely AirBnB near our house in Seattle with the cats. On Monday, we went back to our house and supervised while the movers loaded all our crap into two U-Haul pods. On Tuesday, we packed up everything we needed to bring with us for a week and a half before the pods made it to St. Paul, stuffed it in the car, and started driving along I-90 starting at the western end.

Full post: https://popone.innocence.com/archives/2026/08/28/states-of-mind/

Another month, another Criterion Channel lineup. Still no Boston Crime collection. It’s OK, this is my first of these posts from the lovely city of St. Paul so now I’m gonna demand a Viking themed collection instead. Fun month this month, which definitely reflects the wide range of programming the Channel provides, so without further ado, let’s hit the headliners.

And this month the main attraction is Directed by Abel Ferrara. They did a great job here, getting movies from Ferrara’s whole career. I’m interested in his first (non-pornographic) movie, The Driller Killer, and his most recent fictional movie, Padre Pio, both of which are here. So are his classic New York movies, his Body Snatchers, New Rose Hotel — it’s really comprehensive. The only thing I’m sad is missing on a quick look is Mary, which has such a good cast (Binoche, Whitaker, Cotillard), but it looks like rights are a bit of a bear there.

Full post: https://popone.innocence.com/archives/2026/08/24/september-2026-criterion-channel-lineup/

There’s this restaurant in Seattle, Canlis. It has a reputation for excellent service and very good food. It is the only restaurant in Seattle with a dress code, which is fairly loose but don’t show up in a T-shirt. It is pricy – $185 a head for a six course tasting menu before you get into drinks – and it has a remarkable view of Lake Union. My in-laws kindly gave us a gift certificate for Christmas several years ago and it’s use it or lose it now that we’re moving, so we invited our dear friends Joe and Harli out to a big old blow out dinner. Here’s how it went.

Full post: https://popone.innocence.com/archives/2026/08/09/the-big-dinner/