The Literary Thunderdome

What I Respect

By Derek • Jul 22nd, 2010

Hold on to your hats, this post is going to be a bit more philosophical than most of my posts.  Just bear with me.
I’m not great at anything.  That’s not me trying to be humble or some kind of self-deprecating humor.  That’s just a fact, I’m not great at anything.  There are definitely some things [...]



Cloudy With a Side of Awesome

By Derek • Jul 5th, 2010

I was kind of taking it easy for a while today before some people pop by later.  I saw ‘Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs’ on NetFlix instant view.  I had heard some positive things about it and thought I would give it a go in the background while I ate some lunch.  All I [...]



The Nerdcore Rising

By Derek • Jun 21st, 2010

Nerd.
A word I used to dread hearing.  It meant you were a loser, that you didn’t fit in.  You didn’t belong.
Nerd.
A word you can now wear with pride.  Why?  Because a lot of very cool people showed the rest of us we didn’t have to be embarrassed about the things we love.
I was a nerd [...]



There is no Review B

By Derek • Jun 13th, 2010

I am a quasi child of the 80’s, I was only 7 when we were out of the ‘me’ decade.  I do have fond memories of things from the 80’s, a lot of it were things I saw later in the 90’s.  This weekend seems like it should have a been a great weekend for [...]



The joys of being bald

By Derek • Apr 27th, 2010

And I’m back.  Don’t mind that creepy picture above.  It all makes sense.
Around 8 weeks ago many others and myself embarked on the epic adventure that is ‘Minnesela.’  As most regular visitors of the site knows that I am head of the theater department at Belle Fourche High School.  Jesse, is my right-hand man.  I [...]



Tell me a story

By Derek • Mar 19th, 2010

Not literally, you don’t have to send me in a story you wrote.  Well, I mean you could, but that’s not the point of this post.  I’m not even talking about a normal story.  I should start to explain.
This past Tuesday I purchased Drive-By Trucker’s new album ‘The Big To Do.’  This post isn’t a [...]



Something I thought I would never do – defend the Oscars

By Derek • Mar 8th, 2010

If you haven’t listened to the last Sprock-Talk it might not be a bad idea to listen to it here before going further with this post.  It will give you a basis on my thoughts on the Oscars, in particular this year.
Personally, I don’t care for the Oscars.  I don’t really enjoy watching them, I [...]



Going nuts for The Crazies

By Derek • Mar 3rd, 2010

So Matt, our friend Mike and myself went and saw ‘The Crazies’ this weekend.  Mike and I are huge horror movie fans, Matt not quite as much.  All three of us really enjoyed this movie, in keeping with our tastes, Mike and I more than Matt.
That actually says a lot about this movie.  It is [...]



Family Guy and the art of the lazy joke

By Derek • Feb 17th, 2010

So ‘Family Guy’ has another controversy going right now.  Shocker, I know.  On a recent episode the character of Chris starts dating a girl with Down Syndrome, not typically funny stuff but whatever.  The girl ends up being a terrible person and Chris breaks up with her.  During the course of the episode when asked [...]



The true worth of a $20 trophy

By Derek • Feb 15th, 2010

The $20 bit is an exaggeration, or not, I’m not sure how much the thing cost.
I grew up in Belle Fourche, SD.  That’s South Dakota not San Diego to our non-Dakota fans.  I went through all of my school in Belle.  During that time I was lucky enough to be involved in a lot of [...]