Hey, want to see the cover art for Dying Is My Business? Here it is!
I love it so much it hurts. I actually teared up a little when I first saw it. (Don’t tell anyone. I have a reputation to uphold.)
Dying Is My Business hits bookstore shelves October 15, but you can pre-order it now!
Not convinced yet? Check out these amazing blurbs!
Surprisingly, there were three new cult-related dramas that premiered on TV this mid-season: Fox’s The Following, which I’m liking more and more (though they need to stop with the double-cross reveal every episode because it’s getting ridiculous — not everyone can be a cult member!); ABC’s obviously doomed from the start Da Vinci Code knockoff Zero Hour, which was unceremoniously canceled after three episodes; and The CW’s Cult.
I watched the first episode of Cult because I thought it had an intriguing concept: a story-within-a-story about a TV show called “Cult” and the mysterious, dangerous, and maybe even supernatural cult that grows around it in “real life.” Spoiler alert: I didn’t make it past the first commercial break. What greeted me in those first (and thankfully last, at least for me) twenty minutes was a mishmash of ingredients stolen from other, better programs that were probably mentioned in the initial pitch: there’s a credit sequence that might as well have been lifted straight from American Horror Story (“Horror is hot right now!”), a segment of the TV show within the show that was clearly aping Criminal Minds and, probably coincidentally, The Following itself (“Everyone loves procedurals about serial killers!”); and front-loaded mysteries they’re obviously hoping the audience will latch onto and try to decipher on message boards (“Hey, you guys, remember Lost?”). Combine all that with cardboard characters who do nothing but vomit exposition all over each other, and I was reaching for the remote during the first commercial break before those wall-mounted fish at the vacation lodge could even start singing about McDonald’s new Fish McBites for the millionth time.
Cult is what happens when a studio tries to force a program to have an obsessive cult following instead of letting it happen organically. It’s like some loser trying to get a girl he likes after she’s broken up with her boyfriend by acting just like the boyfriend. It’s the studio saying, “Hey, remember when you got all obsessed with Lost and went on message boards and had viewing parties where you spent an hour after the show trying to figure everything out? Please do that with our show, too!” Your only consolation? Cult won’t be long for this world. Expect it to join Zero Hour in canceled TV hell sooner rather than later.
My wife Alexa will be running a 5k at the Bronx Zoo on April 27! (Apparently this does not take the form of the zoo’s tigers being released to chase after everyone, which was my first thought.) But this isn’t any old 5k. It’s a fundraiser sponsored by the Wildlife Conservation Society. Here’s some of what she wrote on her donation page:
This year’s event is dedicated to Earth’s largest land mammals, which face an uncertain future in both Africa and Asia. The funds I raise will go toward the Wildlife Conservation Society’s projects to conserve elephants and other imperiled animals around the globe and at the Bronx Zoo.
Like humans, elephants form strong family bonds and friendships, and go to great lengths to care for and protect their herds. But unfortunately, these majestic creatures face an uncertain future across their range. Persecuted by poachers since prehistoric times for the valuable ivory in their tusks, elephants continue to be shot and killed every day.
With your support, I hope to raise my target of $275. Even $10 will make a big difference for elephants. The donations I collect will help WCS to reduce poaching and protect elephants through ecoguard programs and on-the-ground monitoring efforts in some of their last wild strongholds.
If you can, please consider donating, or if you want you can sign up to join her team and run or walk the 5k with her! All the information about donating or joining up can be found here.
