Mike Sirota's Blog – Swords, Specters, & Stuff

Welcome to My World

I started this blog in January 2012 for one simple reason: I love to write. I named it “Swords, Specters, & Stuff” because I especially love to write about writing, about books and movies in my favorite genres, about authors that mean a great deal to me. But there’s so much more than that, hence the all-inclusive “Stuff” in the title. It is “Stuff” that gives me carte blanche to write about anything, which is why you’ll see stories about special trips to Cooperstown, Sedona, and other places; about getting older; about baseball; about the otherworldly way in which I met my soul mate; about the loss of good friends, and so much more. Enjoy! And feel free to leave a comment.

Throwback Thursday: Films About Writers—Secret Window

by mike | Jul 18, 2019

“You stole my story!” That is arguably the most memorable line from the 2004 psychological thriller, SECRET WINDOW. Based on a short story by Stephen King, the film stars Johnny Depp as successful but troubled writer Mort Rainey. Depp has played many a weird role, and this is one of the weirdest.

There Is No Try: Lines From The Star Wars Universe—Part Two

by mike | Jul 15, 2019

So at the end of EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH (2005), Darth Vader is put back together from Anakin Skywalker’s spare parts, newborns Luke and Leia are sent to Tatooine and Alderaan respectively, and Obi Wan Kenobi and Yoda go into exile. We have a seamless transition into Episode IV—which had already hit the big screen twenty-eight years earlier!

Throwback Thursday: Atomic Radiation—What Would Filmmakers Do Without It!

by mike | Jul 11, 2019

Films like this one were staples in the paranoid 1950s. This post first ran in 2015.

A Disturbance In The Force: Lines From The Star Wars Universe—Part One

by mike | Jul 8, 2019

This coming December the highly anticipated EPISODE IX: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER, will give us the final installment (really?) in the Star Wars universe, a place that so many of us have visited for over four decades now. This “space opera” series is one of my personal favorites, so I thought it might be fun to recall some quotes, memorable and otherwise, from the first eight films, as well as offer some observations about each one.

Throwback Thursday: Reconciling Kindle With Real Books

by mike | Jul 4, 2019

I admit it: when it came to reading eBooks on Kindle or other e-readers, I stood in the forefront of many other Luddites who insisted that holding a paperback or hardcover book—a REAL book—in their hands was the only way to go.

One More Inspirational Sports Movie That You Probably Missed

by mike | Jul 1, 2019

Inspired by a true story, CHASING 3000 (2010) is, of course, a baseball movie that highlights the legendary Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder, Roberto Clemente. But transcending that, it is a moving testimonial to the powerful bond that exists between brothers, especially when those siblings undertake a seemingly impossible feat: traveling cross-country during the final week of the 1972 season with the hope of seeing Clemente achieve hit number 3,000, a great milestone in baseball.