Culture on My Mind – Dragon Con Report 2025 #1: 2025 Wishlist

January 31, 2025January 25, 2025 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

Culture on My Mind
Dragon Con Report 2025 #1: 2025 Wishlist
January 31, 2025

One of the ways that I like to prep for Dragon Con is by listening to the Dragon Con Report podcast. Brought to you by the ESO Network, the podcast is a monthly discussion on all things Dragon Con that counts down to the big event over Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Georgia.

The show is hosted by Michael Gordon, Jennifer Schleusner, and Channing Sherman, and it delivers news, notes, tips, and tricks for newbies and veterans alike. The Dragon Con Newbies community has a great relationship with the show and the network.

In the first episode for 2025, the team invites Sven from Drunken Dragon Hotel and author/podcaster/indie TTRPG designer Bob McGough to discuss what they would love to see at Dragon Con.

My wishlist is relatively simple: I’d love to see more Doctor Who stars. A few of us have a tradition of getting professional photos done with the actors who played the Doctor, and we’re missing Christopher Eccleston, Matt Smith, and Ncuti Gatwa from the modern era. I’d also love to get photos with Jo Martin, Paul McGann, and the remaining classic Doctors.

The show can be found in video form on YouTube and in audio on the official website and wherever fine podcasts are fed. The Dragon Con Report channels can be found on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. You can catch their shows live on those platforms or on demand on their website.

Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

Culture on My Mind – The 2024 LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar

January 29, 2025January 15, 2025 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

Culture on My Mind
The 2024 LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar
January 29, 2025

It’s time to talk about the 2024 LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar!

My family has been doing the LEGO advent calendars since 2015 and I chronicle the daily builds on Instagram. Each of the annual box sets has been spotlighted on this site. This year, we continued our tradition of building the Star Wars calendars. The joy of this calendar is seeing how LEGO interprets ships and locales from the nearly 60 years of adventures in the galaxy far, far away.

The box contained 24 windows with a single LEGO build in each.

Days 2 and 17: The Skywalker Twins

Luke and Leia both make appearances this year in their new holiday sweaters. The twins are the cornerstone of the Star Wars franchise. Luke comes with a lightsaber and is based on his Return of the Jedi look. Leia has her A New Hope hair buns and a coffee mug. Since the newer minifigs comes with two faces, typically a smile and a grimace, my wife had a hard time deciding if Leia should be “post-coffee” or “pre-coffee”.

Days 7: Minikit

This was a LEGO Star Wars deep cut. In the video games, these minikits unlocked bonuses on the road to scoring 100% in the game. Each level had a certain number of minikits hidden in hard-to-reach places, and each one unlocked a piece of a ship in the level. Collect all of them and you have the ship as a trophy.

Seeing one of these in the calendar made me laugh. It was well-played for the 25th anniversary of LEGO’s involvement with this franchise.

Day 10: Ahsoka Tano

It’s no secret that Ahsoka Tano is one of my favorite Star Wars characters, so it was nice to see her represented in the calendar. It’s the same minifig from the T-6 Shuttle set (75362), so it’s not super common but it’s definitely not new.

That said, this is the first time that Ahsoka has been in the calendar. Hopefully, with her many versions since her debut in 2008, it won’t be her last.

(Maybe even with a holiday sweater?)

Days 4 and 15: The Clone Wars

The Clone Wars made a modest showing this year. The two minifigs from the era were a 501st Legion clone trooper and a B2 Super Battle Droid. I enjoy seeing the clones represented since each year tends to include a clone trooper or stormtrooper. Each year also contains a droid soldier, and the B2 is a nice change of pace from the standard B1 Battle Droid.

I think future calendars could branch out a bit with the Separatist troops. Maybe the TX-20 tactical droid (which has only been released once in the 2011 Mace Windu Starfighter set), one of the Commando Droids, or even one of the various B1 repaints.

Oooh! An excellent repaint would be one of R2-D2’s battle droids from the Clone Wars Citadel trilogy!

Day 19: Yoda’s Starfighter

Day 19 brought Yoda’s starfighter from Season Six of The Clone Wars. Yoda is another of my favorites, and his arc in that season was a beautiful addition to the overall Skywalker mythos. I bought the larger starfighter set when it came out, and this mini build is a fantastic interpretation of that build.

Day 20: Praetorian Guard

The calendar had some representation for The Mandalorian, and this minifig was a decent part of it. While I’m not a fan of the bad guys, I’m a sucker for the red armor. This minifig comes from the 2024 Paz Vizsla and Moff Gideon battle set, so it’s another somewhat limited release.

Days 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 21, 22, 23: The Themed Builds

One of the strengths in the Star Wars advent calendars is the themed builds. The company taps into the history and plays with those elements in efficient micro-builds. I love seeing what they do every year and how they interpret the Star Wars elements in tiny form.

The builds also offer the opportunity to have fun, like the AT-AT walker (a staple of recent calendars). Yeah, it’s a fearsome war machine, but after 2010’s AT-AT Dog Day Afternoon, it’s also been an Imperial puppy in our house, and makes us laugh as we put bows or other decor on its head. None of the themed builds are boring, even it we’ve seen them done before (like the AT-AT or the Millennium Falcon) because LEGO keeps innovating, even on this scale.

This block of builds is the magic of the LEGO Star Wars advent calendar.

Day 16: The Ghost

I loved seeing this for purely sentimental reasons. The Ghost was home for the Star Wars: Rebels crew, an animated series that didn’t pull many punches when it came to exploring the galaxy in the height of the Empire. It’s a simple build but a fun one to see.

Day 24: The Crimson Firehawk

It’s easy for Star Wars fans to get jaded. I see collectors griping all the time about action figures and how Hasbro doesn’t manage the lines exactly like they would. I see fans complaining about new movies and series, some even making up lies from whole cloth to express how they feel. Don’t even get me started about the people who still can’t let the Expanded Universe go.

But there are also Star Wars fans who give new things a chance, and I’m glad I listened to them about the Young Jedi Adventures show. I’m not in the target demographic for this show about younglings training to be Jedi in the High Republic era, but I found it to be wholesome and fun. Yes, it’s predictable, but it’s also a great in-road for little kids and echoes the era of animated shows presenting a life lesson alongside entertainment.

The Crimson Firehawk belongs to pilot Nash Durango, a kid who isn’t a Jedi but helps them on missions when she can. The show ran for two seasons on Disney, and it wasn’t something I expected to see in the advent calendar despite having a whole line of LEGO sets. I think it’s neat to see LEGO speaking to fans of the Young Jedi Adventures, telling them that they belong to this fandom regardless of their entry point.

It was a surprise to end the calendar and a welcome message in an era of jaded adult fans.

Overall, I really enjoyed this year’s calendar. As I’ve said before, the strength is in embracing the brand and its history, and they continue this every year with innovations to keep it fresh.

Something I’d love to see is more of that history, such as builds from the comics or novels, and even from the Expanded Universe. I’m thinking E-Wings and Thrawn here, both of which LEGO has done in the main line. I’d also like more Clone Wars and Sequel Trilogy minifigs (like Rey with her yellow lightsaber, Pong Krell, or other Jedi Knights).

This year also marks the 10th anniversary of The Force Awakens, the 20th anniversary of Revenge of the Sith, and the 40th anniversary of both the Ewoks animated series and The Battle for Endor. It would be fun to celebrate some of this in the calendar, though I don’t expect to see a Princess Kneesaa (even though it would be a pretty easy repaint to pull off).

Finally, it would be fun to do a one-off Indiana Jones-themed calendar. Minifigs could include Indy, Marion, Sallah, and others, and the themed builds could represent the Ark of the Covenant, the sankara stones, the boat from Venice, and so much more. The five films (and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles) are chock full of icons and ideas, and with the franchise formally coming to an end in 2024, if could be a fun send-off.

Anyway, if you’re looking for a fun interactive gift leading up to the holiday season, I wholeheartedly recommend the LEGO Star Wars advent calendar. We have a blast each year and people love following along with us on Facebook and Instagram.

Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

Culture on My Mind – When Compassion Becomes Resistance

January 27, 2025January 25, 2025 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

Culture on My Mind
When Compassion Becomes Resistance
January 27, 2025

That eloquent plea for mercy and compassion resulted in people “wishing” for her death. For asking others to love their neighbors as written in scripture. A Georgia congressman even suggested that she should be removed from the country (despite being an American citizen) for her words.

Bishop Budde is the first woman to be the Bishop of Washington. She has dedicated her life in service of her faith, the very same faith as (one assumes) most of her detractors. She stands by the philosophy of justice, peace, and respect for human dignity.

She exemplified this in the case of Matthew Shepard.

Matthew Shepard was a student at the University of Wyoming. Because he was gay, he was beaten, tortured, and left in the elements tied to a split-rail fence. He died from his injuries six days later. His murderers are serving two consecutive life sentences each.

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was signed into law by President Obama in his honor, expanding hate crime legislation to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

Bishop Budde came into the story when the Shepard family was looking for a place to memorialize their son. The family considered spreading Matthew’s ashes in Wyoming, but also wanted a place to visit and reflect upon his memory. Unfortunately, they also feared desecration of his final resting place after seeing protestors from the Westboro Baptist Church at his funeral.

Twenty years after Matthew’s death, they were offered a space at the National Cathedral, and the interment service was presided by Bishop Budde. His resting place acts as a monument to sanctuary and healing through compassion. As Bishop Budde told the New York Times, “We are doing our part to bring light out of that darkness and healing to those who have been so often hurt, and sometimes hurt in the name of the church.”

Her views on compassion and mercy continue to this day. To Time, she said: “The real people who are in danger are those who are fearful of being deported. The real people who are in danger are the young people who feel they cannot be themselves and be safe and who are prone to all kinds of both external attacks and suicidal responses to them. So I think we should keep our eyes on the people who are really vulnerable in our society.”

Love they neighbor as thyself. A directive for compassion and mercy and respect. One of the two commandments upon which should hang all law and prophets according to the New Testament, from the words of Jesus.

It is sad that, in this day and age, such compassion is needed as resistance against tyranny.

Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

Culture on My Mind – The 2024 LEGO Spider-Man Advent Calendar

January 24, 2025January 14, 2025 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

Culture on My Mind
The 2024 LEGO Spider-Man Advent Calendar
January 24, 2025

It’s time to talk about the 2024 LEGO Spider-Man Advent Calendar!

Spider-Man debuted with Marvel Comics in 1962, a creation of writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko. The character has gone through a lot of iterations over the years, becoming one of the most popular and commercially successful superheroes of all time. The character has appeared in comics, animation, live action television, and live action film. Most recently, Spider-Man appeared in Spider-Man: No Way Home, in which three different cinematic Spider-Men shared the screen in a celebration of the last two decades, and the Sony Spider-Verse animated films, in which we saw a lot of Spider-Men from across the character’s history.

The box contained 24 windows with a single LEGO build in each.

Days 1-2: Spider-Man

The calendar kicked off with the titular character and a ton of webbing effects. The minifigure has a box of pizza and a shooter construct to connect the webs. The webs aren’t particularly exciting, but they do add a playability factor to the box for kids who don’t have a separate Spider-Man LEGO set.

Days 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 15: City Streets

Five of the next six days were all about building the street. They included a hot dog cart, a lamppost with a camera, a traffic light, and the Miles Morales Spider-Car. Day 15 complimented them with a Peter Parker Spider-Car.

My favorite from the City Streets builds was Day 3’s newspaper vending machine. It included Peter’s backpack, which fit inside the newspaper machine and could be “stuck” there by a web. That’s one of my favorite spider-gags, as if someone in the city isn’t going to try stealing that bag while Spidey’s off doing spider-things.

My second favorite is the camera webbed to the lamppost. As an amateur photographer, I have to marvel at Peter’s skills here. I mean, in the modern era, everything’s digital and autofocused, so depending on the size of the SD card there’s a lot of space for photos on a camera that’s just snapping away. But in the film age, there were only 24-36 shots available on a single roll, and setting the focus in the right spot could make or break the shot. Peter also had no idea what he shot until the roll was developed. He must have been quite the photographer to get pics good enough for the Daily Bugle!

Days 5, 9, and 10: Venom and Spider-Gwen

Two minifigs popped up in the midst of the street builds. Of the two, I was happy to see Spider-Gwen and her drumkit. The figure itself is pretty standard, but it continues the character’s popularity boost following the Spider-Verse films. The drumkit is well-constructed and neat, and is personalized to Gwen.

It would be criminal to overlook the Venom minifig. Again, while not unique, I laughed at the addition of the scarf and hot dog, drawing inspiration from the season and the hot dog cart build that preceded it.

Days 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 24: Holiday Accoutrements

A good chunk of this calendar was taken up by the LEGO Marvel tradition of random Christmas-themed things. While the LEGO Star Wars boxes focus on minifigs and creative starship builds, the LEGO Marvel calendars fill space with seemingly unrelated constructs. Unless present catapults and candy cane statues have some meaning in the comics that I don’t understand.

The LEGO Marvel boxes have improved over time, this time including builds like the Rhino wind-up toy and a nice fireplace mantel. The pizza and cookie build was whimsical, but I wasn’t impressed with the Electro-themed Christmas tree to close things out.

This mid-month fluff is where the LEGO Marvel calendars have room to improve. The Marvel universe is just as expansive as the Star Wars universe, and some of those mid-range to deep cuts (like the Rhino wind-up toy) would make the box all the better.

Days 13 and 23: Miles Morales and Spider-Ham

Day 13 brought us Miles Morales, but what makes this minifig stand out is the effort. Instead of recycling a Miles minifig, LEGO gave this one an ugly holiday sweater and trousers instead of a Spider-suit. I appreciate that little bit of extra effort to make it a bit more exclusive.

The same goes for this Spider-Ham snowpig build. It made me laugh so hard even though the head is a simple repaint of existing Spider-Ham minifigs. The snowman build around it was just unique enough to make this day fun.

Days 19, 20, 21, and 22: Goblin Claus

Finally, the calendar followed a LEGO advent calendar tradition of making a character into a Santa analogue. This year was Green Goblin with his trademark glider and an additional sleigh, gift bag, and shiny presents. The Goblin minifig is vibrant in its green and purple paint, and it comes armed with a pumpkin bomb. The glider is also pretty fun. This four-day stretch is certainly a better ending than that strange Electro tree.

Overall, this was pretty standard for the LEGO Marvel brand. One thing they do differently than the LEGO Star Wars line is presenting a unique theme – they’ve done the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and Spider-Man – and the variety keeps us coming back. It’s also the moment of truth every August when the sets are announced because of how much non-themed filler exists in the month.

If the LEGO Marvel boxes could take a cue from the LEGO Star Wars sets and keep the non-minifig builds on theme, these advent calendars would be top tier. Instead, I have to consider the expenditure every fall. The Avengers calendar was a given based on the minifig selection and the novelty. The Guardians calendar was also a given because of how much we love those misfits in this house. But the Spider-Man calendar was almost a pass.

We’ll see if LEGO learns anything about the Marvel calendars come next August when the theme is announced.

Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

Culture on My Mind – “A Happy Beginning” by B.A. Richards

January 22, 2025January 22, 2025 Michael Falkner1 Comment

Culture on My Mind
“A Happy Beginning” by B.A. Richards
January 22, 2025

Thanks to NetGalley, City Owl Press, and B.A. Richards for providing an advance reader copy. I was invited to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A Happy Beginning is an urban fantasy romance novel, and the debut novel from B.A. Richards. It is a (literal) fairy tale about an instant connection between Alard, a New Orleans-based lawyer, and Raz, a businessman in town for a conference. What was expected to be a one-night hook-up transforms into an accidental bond that has major repercussions in both of their worlds.

This is a world with vampires, werewolves, and the fae. Richards weaves a beautiful tapestry of vibrant and magical worldbuilding, combining the world we know with another just the other side of the looking glass. It combines classic themes of royal marriages and palace politics with modern diversity and LGBTQ+ representation from across the spectrum. It is an easy and enjoyable read, comparable to a fun popcorn flick or a young adult novel, and sets the hook with enough temptation to read just one more chapter. Who needs sleep anyway?

This is a benefit for someone who doesn’t read a lot of fantasy or gets lost in the flood of details found in something like Game of Thrones or The Wheel of Time. My wife is familiar with the fantasy genre, but I often find it frustrating. This story is easy to follow and has relatable characters drawn from all walks of life. (Given her familiarity with urban fantasy and its subgenres, my wife was a good reference for those genre elements that made me stumble.)

The romance between the main characters does include erotic content, something that I wish had been more “closed door” or “fade to black” style given this novel’s tone. The magical relationship remains believable, but the spicy scenes presented an abrupt tonal shift, pulling this novel away from one that I could recommend to older family members as an entry point to discuss LGBTQ+ issues. Without those scenes, this could easily become a YA novel.

I do wish that this world was more fully fleshed out. Main characters like Alard, Raz, and Meyda have depth but secondary characters (such as the story’s antagonist) often don’t. The majority of the story ends up being told from Raz’s point of view, giving us the fish out of water perspective like John Crichton of Farscape. In fact, the prose shines in that exploration – a favorite chapter was a trip to a major metropolis told from the perspective of a character unfamiliar with the human world – and exemplifies the concept of “drinking from the fire hose” for Raz as he learns a whole new reality in a short period of time. But the tale falls flat in filling the magical world as much as it does the human world, often whisking the reader over interstitial spaces and leaving empty a world that we’re told is full of good, honest, caring people.

The drawbacks don’t detract from the potential provided by worldbuilding and thematic exploration. These are huge strengths, and since this is Richards’s debut work, it shows room for them to grow as they hone their craft. I enjoyed this read and would love to see more from them in the future, especially in these realms.

For more from City Owl Press, please visit their website. For more about B.A. Richards, please visit their author profile.

A Happy Beginning is available via City Owl Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million as of January 21, 2025. If it’s not in your local store, ask for a special order!

The ebook is available for $0.99 from January 21 through 25, 2025.

Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

Culture on My Mind – January 20, 2025

January 20, 2025January 11, 2025 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

Culture on My Mind
January 20, 2025
January 20, 2025

Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

Culture on My Mind – The 2024 Star Wars Droid Factory Advent Calendar

January 17, 2025January 11, 2025 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

Culture on My Mind
The 2024 Star Wars Droid Factory Advent Calendar
January 17, 2025

It’s time to talk about the 2024 Star Wars Droid Factory Advent Calendar!

My family has been doing the LEGO advent calendars since 2015 and I chronicle the daily builds on Instagram. Each of the annual box sets has been spotlighted on this site. This year, we saw a preview of the Droid Factory advent calendar and decided to add it to our lineup.

The droid builds are from the Disney parks Droid Factory action figure series. Each is scaled to the 3.5″ action figure lines and this set is Christmas themed. I’ve been collecting the Disney holiday exclusive droids, and these will be a wonderful addition to that set. My wife is a big fan of the astromech droids, especially R2-D2, BB-8, and Chopper from Star Wars Rebels, so this box was smack dab in the middle of our interests.

The box contained seven different droids of varying complexity. Unlike other advent calendars we have done, this one had 25 windows instead of 24.

Droid #1: Gingerbread R2 unit (Days 1-5)

The first droid was a spin on the classic bartender R2-D2 from Return of the Jedi. This one came in five pieces – the drink tray, the left leg, the right leg, the dome and front tripod leg, and the drink dispenser – and the drinks were colored like milk (or eggnog). This correlated well with the cookie aesthetic, including frosting-like highlights. The droid sits well except for the tray which is tricky to balance correctly.

It’s an obvious repaint of the R2-S4M figure from 2023, which was released as part of the Return of the Jedi 40th anniversary celebration. Luckily, they secured the drinks to the tray this time so they don’t fall off as easily. That’s one of my least favorite aspects of the bartender droids.

Droid #2: Snowman BB Unit (Days 6-10)

This BB unit was adorable. The paint job really sells the snowman concept, down to the buttons on the body and the carrot nose. The body is a reuse of the standard BB-8 body that Droid Factory has used for years, but I couldn’t find the small top hat or scarf in the previous releases, so I think they’re unique to this build.

I have never torn apart a Droid Factory BB-8 before, so I had no idea what was inside. This build showed it clearly on Day 7.

Basically, this Borg sphere-looking thing fills the BB body. The sphere is weighted, so no matter how we tossed it around, it would always land right side up, thus ensuring that the BB-unit doesn’t tip over. We thought it was pretty cool.

Droid #3: Candy Cane R1 Unit (Days 11-12)

I’m not as familiar with the R1 units since they don’t really appear that much in the movies. (No, you can’t have my Star Wars fan card because I burned it years ago.) Once we figured out how the pieces went together, the build was interesting, though not our favorite.

This is a repaint of the R1 droid from 2021’s The Mandalorian 4-pack, though the R1 first appeared in 1977’s Star Wars.

Droid #4: Gonk Package (Days 13-16)

Who doesn’t love a GNK power droid? This one is pretty neat with a wrapping paper appearance and a Santa hat to cap it all off. The Gonk has been in the Disney collection for a while, starting in 2018 with the Droid Factory playset that accompanied opening day at Galaxy’s Edge in Disneyland. It returned in 2019 with the Jawa sandcrawler vehicle, and again in 2020 with the Droid Depot 5-pack. The droid in this advent calendar is a repaint of the 2020 EG-01, which introduced the accessory hole on the top of the figure, and was previously used in the 2022 Droid Factory advent calendar.

The Santa hat, which we moved to another droid later, comes from 2021’s R2-H15 holiday figure.

Droid #5: B2EMO Gift (Days 17-19)

Coming from the Andor series, this version of B2EMO is designed to look like a package. It’s not much of a stretch for the boxy droid, and it was fun to see him in this lineup because he was a favorite from the Andor show.

This is a repaint of the 2022 figure, though the expansion joints to make B2 taller have been removed. The feet still slide around, though, so not all of the functionality has been lost.

Droid #6: Holiday D-O (Day 20)

I absolutely loved D-O from Rise of Skywalker, so this was a nice surprise. I love the colors and the fact that added a stand to balance him. This is a repaint of the D-O from 2019’s Droid Factory Disney Parks 4-pack.

Droid #7: Penguin Chopper (Days 21-25)

The final figure in the box was this C1 (Chopper) droid dressed as a penguin. We love the paint job and the beak. The wreath comes from the R8-H23 carded release, and the C1 itself has a long history with the line – Chopper’s initial 2017 release (and 2024 re-release in the Ahsoka 4-pack), the 2019 color-changing version, the C1-4B from 2021, the C1-940 from the 2022 D23 expo, the 2022 advent calendar version, and 2023’s C1-MNST4 Halloween release.

This version did not include the dish on top of the head, so we transferred the Santa hat from the GNK. It looks better, honestly.

Overall, this was a really fun box. We chose it because it looked better than the droids in the 2022 box and there was a sale just before December at the Disney Store. The base price is $80, which is about $13 per figure (if you count D-O as a pack-in), but a good sale is obviously better. If you’re a fan of droids, we recommend this set. The first was released in 2022, so it seems like a new box comes out every two years.

Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

Culture on My Mind – The Disturbing History of America’s Highways

January 15, 2025January 8, 2025 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

Culture on My Mind
The Disturbing History of America’s Highways
January 15, 2025

This time around, I’m thinking about the dark side of American history.

A video from PBS Origins popped up on my radar and continued my research into how the development of the United States wasn’t equitable. From redlining and disproportionate penalties from the War on Drugs to the outright ignorance of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, the fortification of the Republic has cost some citizens more than others.

It’s important to think about and discuss these things because they affect a large population of the country, and in turn, that affects us all. It’s important to recognize the reasons how prosperity and success impact various communities so we can do better in the future. You know, that whole “liberty and justice for all” part of the Pledge of Allegiance.

This video is part of a series called Roots of Resistance, which I intend to check out further. In this episode, host Felecia For The Win takes a look at metropolitan highway systems, how their development deliberately targeted minority neighborhoods (which were deliberately classified as “slums”), and how they contributed to putting thousands of families out of their homes in the name of progress.

Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

Culture on My Mind – Section 31

January 13, 2025January 8, 2025 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

Culture on My Mind
Section 31
January 13, 2025

This time around, I’m thinking about something new in Star Trek that I’m not really excited about.

I started watching Star Trek in the mid-‘80s when my parents wanted to show me their science fiction. Throughout the years, Star Trek has become one of the cornerstones of my philosophy and life.

The Gene Roddenberry school of Trek described a utopian United Federation of Planets where members upheld strong morals on a quest for self-enlightenment and exploration. While the Federation and Starfleet skirted the edges every so often, they usually embodied what was right and just.

That philosophy still exists in Trek, but Star Trek: Deep Space Nine took a different approach by showing us life on the frontier, deconstructing the status quo and challenging the concepts of utopia and paradise by (as inspired by British screenwriter and playwright Harold Pinter) looking for “weasels under the coffee table.”

Through its history, Trek has explored corruption in the ranks, usually with “Badmirals” – admirals doing questionable things to defend their visions of the Federation’s security. Some of the greatest hits: Fleet Admiral Cartwright spearheaded a conspiracy to drive the desperate Klingon Empire to its knees; Rear Admiral Norah Satie led a paranoid witch hunt in “The Drumhead”; Admiral Mark Jameson supplied weapons to both sides of a war in violation of the Prime Directive; Rear Admiral Erik Pressman violated the Treaty of Algernon by developing a cloaking device for Starfleet; Vice Admiral Toddman threatened the lives of the DS9 crew to protect the Cardassian-Romulan fleet when they tried to destroy the Founders; Vice Admiral Dougherty nearly committed genocide to find a fountain of youth; and Admiral Leyton tried to stage a military coup on Earth by faking a Dominion invasion.

It evolved into the 1998 introduction of Section 31 in Deep Space Nine’s “Inquisition”. A secret branch of Starfleet Intelligence, their existence has been part of the Federation charter since the government’s foundation. To paraphrase the introduction to the tie-in novels, Section 31 is a self-appointed protector of the Federation’s interests, answerable to no one while they act in the shadows.

That’s precisely why I cannot stand Section 31. It flies in the face of what the Federation (and by extension, Star Trek) stands for. While they are more transparent and accepted in the Discovery and Lower Decks eras, their actions are a black mark on the Federation’s moral standing.

I mean, they tried to end the Dominion War by committing genocide and destroying the Founders. Genocide isn’t something that our captains would embrace. We’re talking about literal war crimes committed by villains literally wearing black and sneering at the protagonists.

As Jaime Babb wrote in “‘A Critical Division of Starfleet Intelligence’: Section 31 and the Normalization of the Security State” on Reactor: “I do wish that DS9 had put its weasels away once it was done with them! Instead, they were allowed to escape into the basement of the franchise and breed down there.“

To wit, instead of exposing and dismantling this supposedly secret society of obvious villains, the franchise has embraced it across Enterprise, several novels, Into Darkness, Discovery, Lower Decks, and Picard. In that last title, it’s apparent that Starfleet has pretty much legitimized and accepted 31’s goals and methods. It has embraced the security state status quo, suggesting that torture and genocide are okay as long as the good guys are doing it.

Riding this wave of apparent popularity, the franchise is releasing a television movie focused on S31 and Philippa Georgiou (played by Michelle Yeoh).

The backstory is complicated, but the short version is Georgiou was a captain on Discovery who died. Later on, we find out that her Mirror Universe counterpart is the Terran emperor, and she seeks asylum in the prime (normal) universe. Eventually, she encounters the Guardian of Forever and gets a second chance to make a difference. While her story is interesting, however, the advertising for the Section 31 film is not. That is what bothers me.

The teaser, from July 27, 2024:

The trailer, from December 7, 2024:

Both the teaser and the trailer focus on action and the spectacle, but neither divulge any real hint of the story. I would expect some indication of the story beats from the trailer, and added to how Section 31 has been portrayed, the lack of plot concerns me.

Star Trek has had success with Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, and Prodigy. Discovery was also quite successful, though sometimes dodgy on the story front, but Picard was really rough. That’s almost an understatement of my opinion: Season Two was nonsensical and Season Three was focused more on action and nostalgia hits than actually boldly going anywhere.

These trailers focus on action and nostalgia – Rachel Garrett (“Yesterday’s Enterprise”) and a Cheron alien (“Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”) are prominent – and that makes me worry that this film will be more Picard Season Three and less exploration of the human condition like we expect from Star Trek.

Ideally, a film about Section 31 would do some shady super secret squirrel ops stuff, but also discuss the points above. Especially considering that a future Enterprise captain is among the dramatis personae. This film can’t be all about glorifying war crimes as though they’re sexy and acceptable with the franchise’s ethos. It needs to balance exploration of the human condition with the action and nostalgia.

I’m not convinced that it will.

I hope I’m wrong. I’ll be tuning in on January 24th to see what the film has to offer. I have been on board with ninety percent of what has come since Discovery revived the franchise in 2017. But neither Section 31 nor Section 31 excite me.

As a fan of Star Trek for nearly forty years, that’s a sad thing to consider in this era of strange new worlds and new stories in the universe.

Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

Culture on My Mind – President Jimmy Carter

January 9, 2025January 8, 2025 Michael FalknerLeave a comment

Culture on My Mind
President Jimmy Carter
January 9, 2025

President Jimmy Carter tenure behind the Resolute Desk was before my time. I grew up during the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton eras in a time when the Religious Right used its faith as a bludgeon of shame and intolerance. As I became more aware of the world and the beautiful diversity it offers, my respect for President Carter and his humanitarian efforts grew. From the Carter Center in Atlanta to his work with Habitat for Humanity, he was a man who used his faith as a helping hand to build futures for all, not just for those on the same side of the aisle.

As he once said:

President and Rosalynn Carter were examples of faith and humanity, and the world is a bit darker without them in it. I only hope that we can learn from their examples and build an equitable world that makes a difference for all.

Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.

For more creativity with a critical eye, visit Creative Criticality.

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