Musings on biblical studies, the crusades, film, D&D, Stranger Things, and other strange insanity.
Stranger Things
The Seasons Ranked
The Episodes Ranked
Stranger Things: Beyond the TV series
Vol 1: The College Years (1990)
Vol 2: The New Generation (2009)
Vol 3: World’s End (2037)
Vol 4: The Witch of Yamhill County (1992)
Vol 5: The Black Rose of Newberg (1997)
Vol 6: Endless Night (1987)
Vol 7: The Lost City (1983)
Fiction
The Blue Rose Trilogy (1): Koko
The Blue Rose Trilogy (2): Mystery
The Blue Rose Trilogy (3): The Throat
Peter Straub Ranked
The Best of Stephen King
Historical Fiction Pick List
Science Fiction Pick List
Fantasy Pick List
The Lions of Al-Rassan: The Passing of the “Golden Age” in Islamic Spain
Whirlwind
Faerie Tale
King Harold: Two Novels of the Norman Conquest
Dune
Dune Messiah
Children of Dune
God Emperor of Dune
Heretics of Dune
Chapterhouse: Dune
Paul’s Holy War in Dune: Jihad or Crusade?
Supreme Court
The Supreme Court Justices Ranked
The Presidents
Ranked on one page (Brief Capsules)
George Washington (Excellent)
John Adams (Very Bad)
Thomas Jefferson (Average)
James Madison (Good)
James Monroe (Very Good)
John Quincy-Adams (Good)
Andrew Jackson (Very Bad)
Martin Van Buren (Poor)
John Tyler (Excellent)
James Polk (Bad)
Millard Fillmore (Good)
Franklin Pierce (Bad)
James Buchanan (Complete Failure)
Abraham Lincoln (Poor)
Andrew Johnson (Poor)
Ulysses Grant (Poor)
Rutherford Hayes (Excellent)
Chester Arthur (Very Good)
Grover Cleveland (Poor)
Ted Roosevelt (Bad)
William Howard Taft (Average)
Woodrow Wilson (Complete Failure)
Warren Harding (Excellent)
Calvin Coolidge (Very Good)
Herbert Hoover (Poor)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Very Bad)
Harry Truman (Very Good)
Dwight Eisenhower (Very Good)
John F. Kennedy (Average)
Lyndon Johnson (Bad)
Richard Nixon (Poor)
Gerald Ford (Average)
Jimmy Carter (Good)
Ronald Reagan (Average)
George H.W. Bush (Poor)
Bill Clinton (Average)
George W. Bush (Complete Failure)
Barack Obama (Bad)
Donald Trump (Very Bad)
Biblical Studies
Historical Jesus Pick List
Paul and the Law Pick List
The Subjective Genitive Reading of Faith
Context Group Essentials
Jew or Judean?
Jesus the Israelite
Why the Secret Gospel of Mark Still Fools People
Q, Thomas, and Killjoy Scholarship
Reasons to be Skeptical about Jesus’ Parables
Sex, Wives, and Warriors
Obscene Speech in Early Christianity
Did Muhammad and Jesus Exist?
Holy War
The History of Jihad (Review)
Holy War in Islam
Holy War in Judaism
Holy War in Christianity
Special Crusades Series
Crusades Pick List
The Dark Ages: Speaking the Unspeakable
Miscellaneous
Social Justice Theories
Myths, Illusions, and the Taboo
Female Circumcision: A Religious Practice in Islam?
Pedophilia and Ephebophilia
Horror Movies and Rape Fantasies
Call of Cthulhu
Tabletop RPGs of the 70s and Early 80s
Berlin: The Wicked City
Revelations
Beyond the Mountains of Madness
Dungeons & Dragons
D&D Editions (1e-5e) Ranked
Classic D&D Modules Ranked
D&D Campaign Settings Ranked
Looking Back on D&D
The Tomb of Horrors
The Lost City
The Lost City Reincarnated
Castle Amber
Castle Amber Reincarnated
Vault of the Drow
Inferno
Dark Tower
Inferno: Journey Through Malebolge
Middle-Earth Modules Ranked (Campaign)
Middle-Earth Modules Ranked (Adventure)
Middle-Earth Retrospectives
Of Bibles and Balrogs
Special Guest Post: Bob Kruger on the Essentials of D&D
Television
Film
Cinematic Milestones
Twenty Great Religious Films
Ten Films/TV Shows that Terrified Me
Ten Great Science Fiction Films
The Witch
Hard Candy
Whip It
Conan the Barbarian
Last House on the Left
The Chronicles of Narnia
Alfred Hitchcock
David Lynch
Ingmar Bergman
Stanley Kubrick
William Friedkin
Terrence Malick
Quentin Tarantino
Martin Scorsese
Ellen Page Ranked
Music
Baba O’Riley (1971)
The Battle of Evermore (1971)
Supper’s Ready (1972)
Welcome to the Machine (1975)
Losing It (1982)
The Order of Death (1984)
She Sells Sanctuary (1985)
Here is the House (1986)
Sacrilege (1986)
Pictures of You (1989)
Black (1991)
Disarm (1993)
Ode to My Family (1994)
Signal to Noise (2002)
Mountain Lions (2010)
I Found a Body (2011)
Raconte-Moi une Histoire (2011)
State of Grace (2012)
Graffiti (2018)
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Loren thank you for a thought provoking and entertaining blog. I found you through the Last Chronicles before the Last Dark post and have been coming back ever since. While I do kot agree with all of your opinions, I do appreciate that all of the arguments you posit have nuanced, well thought reasoning supporting them. I work a job with a lot of downtime, and I consistently find myself coming back to read your posts. Again thank you
You’re welcome Christopher. I appreciate the comment. The Last Chronicles are quite something. I think the first half of Fatal Revenant is some of the best writing that’s ever been put on paper.
Hello, I just read your post on the alterations you made of LOTR movies. I really like the changes you made and the reasonings. I was wondering if it’s possible to get a copy since you already did the 2 hard parts haha. Also, my wife hates frodo, I was planning on cutting them out as much as possible so that she’ll be willing to watch it with me. What scenes would you argue would be the most important ones of them so that it gets the story across. Also, do you think it’d be interesting to cut and arrange the movies in a different way so that you see one person’s story at a time and pause their story when they meet up again to then continue the story as a group. For example, I think it’d be interesting to see everything just from arogons view and always just missing the hobbits but still hearing about them. It’d be like trying to find a kidnapped person.
Hello,
I came across this blog when I was trying to look up other old D&D module that I might like. I came across your list of best modules of all time and lost my mind when I noticed B4: The Lost City was finally at the top of a list as it should be. I love B4 with a passion and I’m glad to see there are people out there who understand how amazing of a module it is, the pure genius of Moldvey is 28 pages is astounding and I pray to God I get to actually run it one day. Seriously glad to find someone who give this adventure the respect it deserves!
Thanks Ben. You may want to follow the novel I’m writing about the Lost City. Weekly installments, the first four chapters have been posted already!