Interesting Times…

“May you live in interesting times.”

That phrase has been often repeated as an ancient Chinese curse, but it turns out to not be anything of the sort. Reportedly, Sir Austen Chamberlain was the first to relay the so-called curse in a speech in 1936. As far as anyone has been able to determine, that is where the saying originated as there is no evidence of anything resembling the phrase anywhere in Chinese literature and/or folklore. The lesson here is that something isn’t necessarily a fact just because it has been repeated over and over again, nor just because someone says it is so. Considering what is going on in the U.S.A. right now (at the time of this writing it is the end of January, 2017), this lesson has never been more timely.

I’m not sure what more I can say here that I haven’t already said, and continue to say, on my personal Facebook page. One thing I have noticed is that it has all distracted me from creating, and that will not do. I won’t be burying my head in the sand nor will I be ignoring the seemingly ever-growing bad decisions by the man elected as the president of my country, but I will choose to mitigate that by doing what I can to create more art. My form of art is writing and podcasting and I am prioritizing in order to be able to create more of both.

More to come about what I am doing. All I can hope is that some of you will find some of what I do…interesting.

So…What Happened?

Well, hello there! How are you? Me? Well, busy and…really absent from this sight. It’s been over three years since I’ve posted anything of real relevance here. There have been a number of reasons for that, first and foremost being other work, both writing and otherwise. I’ll have more on the writing side in later posts (provided I don’t neglect this site again, which is always possible), but for now I’m just trying out this blogging thing again. Flexing the muscles as it were.

If I’m being completely honest, being busy is only part of the reason I’ve been away so long. After six years of pouring everything I had into running Pop Culture Zoo and making an effort to make it into something real, it basically failed in a pretty spectacular fashion. That is a hard truth that has probably taken a long time for me to come to grips with. I renamed the site and had fully intended to make it more of a personal blog, but, as has been evident, that didn’t really go to plan.

So, here I am, once again making a go of it. I have no idea what I will write about, other than talking about the various projects I have coming out and possibly posting some excerpts for other things I have in progress. We’ll see. For now, even just this one post feels good to write and I think regular blogging will help with regularly writing in other areas. Practice is a good thing. Welcome back again to What Joe Writes!

New Brent Bourgeois Album Available Now

Click HERE or the image below to get your copy now! Featuring Julian Lennon, Todd Rundgren, Charlie Peacock, Rachael Lampa and many, many more amazing musicians, this extraordinary album marks the return of a master musician. Brent is also joined by his former Bourgeois Tagg bandmates Mike Urbano and Larry Tagg. Click now, listen to some samples and pick your version.





What the Heck Happened to Pop Culture Zoo?!?

“This is a new year. A new beginning. And things will change.” ― Taylor Swift

Welcome to the new incarnation of Pop Culture Zoo! As many of you who follow me on Facebook or Twitter know, this change started a while back. Basically, I have a lot of things, both old and new, that I want to do, so it was time to rearrange things online. Pop Culture Zoo itself will be transforming into more of an all-encompassing personal blog. I’ll be archiving the previous 6 years worth of material and making it available in the Archives section over to the left, but for all intents and purposes PCZ will look like a brand new thing.

As far as my news, reviews and interviews writings, that will be available over at The Flickcast. I’m already co-hosting the podcast there with Chris Ullrich so it just made sense to combine our efforts in other ways as well. I am very happy to find a new home over at The Flickcast and just as happy to be doing other writing of a more generic nature at Pop Culture Zoo. I’m also doing a monthly column, View From The Zoo, over at Impact Online, so please check that out as well. I’ll most likely be condensing some of my other ventures down to PCZ as well. Like I alluded to earlier, this is all about condensing and refocusing.

Basically, for my ramblings and views about TV, Film and Comic Books, check me out on The Flickcast. For everything else, including my brewing adventures and general observations on life, stay right here and keep checking out Pop Culture Zoo.

Slainte Mhath!

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