Tommy Trull - Writer and Musician

I’m taking advantage of my first day off (or at least what passes in my life for one of those) in quite a while to update this blog. First big thing : I’m now enrolled in the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Level 2 certification program. Classes start April 13 th . If all goes well, I intend to follow the program all the way through to Master of Wine. I had originally intended to go into the CMS (Court of Master Sommeliers) program, which has more name recognition. WSET, however, places as much emphasis on the academic and business aspects of the wine industry as it does on a comprehensive body of knowledge concerning wine. This greatly appeals to me. Like with cheese and theatre, my other two passions, the history of wine is the history of world civilization. The deeper I get into it, the more fascinating I find it. Second big thing : I’m pretty far into the second draft of a new novel , which is slated to come out in early June. It’s a very loose adaptation of my f...

CAPTAIN MARVEL , AND A RESPONSE TO SOME OF THE DUMBER CRITICISMS   A quick note: this is not a review of Captain Marvel . For the record, I held off reading any reviews until I’d seen the film (which I quite liked.) As I slogged through a litany of mixed to negative pieces on the film, I took note of some recurring comments. NB: I’m leaving aside any issues outside of the film itself. ·            “It’s another standard origin story.”   This one is curious to me. Looking back at Marvel’s Phase One and Phase Two origin movies, they follow this template: a person with no powers but some semblance of an extraordinary personality is given either powers (Captain America, Doctor Strange, The Incredible Hulk) or a suit (Iron Man, Ant-Man), with which they struggle at first and then use to defeat the Big Bad who seeks to conquer the nation or the world. (Thor is a notable exception in that he begins with powers and then loses t...