The Friday High Five

Deadwood & Dragons, Star Wars Nerds Unite, and Closing Time on Winning Time

HBO

Every Friday I share 5 things I enjoyed this week. Also, high fives are inherently cool, and I think we can all agree Friday is the bestest day. Hence the Friday High Five. 🙏🏻

My Favorite Thing

D&D Birthday Shenanigans, Again and Again

For those of you keeping track at home, this is the 3rd time in 3 months I’ve mentioned playing D&D for somebody’s birthday. And you’ll be hearing about it again next month! My friend is having a D&D sleepover in April. I’ve said it before but it really is like we’re 12 again. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

My son’s birthday was this past week, and it exactly coincided with the day my brother was in town. We have been playing a super occasional D&D game for a few years now, based entirely upon my brother being here.

Anyway, this game is basically Deadwood & Dragons. Al Swearengen is even the main NPC. I love Deadwood, so I decided to drop it into a D&D game, file off the serial numbers, and break all the rules of what fantasy D&D is supposed to look like. There must be something in the water because the party started double-dealing not long after arriving in town. It’s glorious!

This is easily my favorite D&D setting. At some point I may flesh it out into a D&D supplement and I’m not even joking.

Other Things I Enjoyed

Sweet New Journals

Speaking of birthdays! My brother hand-delivered a belated birthday gift for yours truly: A pair of uber sexy / nerdy journals. Feast your eyes and become instantly jealous.

I don’t know what it is exactly about journals, but the simple act of binding paper together is like crack to me. I love them. Can’t get enough of them. I don’t do traditional journaling per se, but like to bullet journal to keep track of things and also note the passing of time. But usually my journals are more likely to end up being used to jot down ideas for D&D or creative projects.

Of the two above, the dragon one seems tailor-made for D&D scribbling. The hand-stitched old world artifact is fated to end up a brainstorming repository for my next fantasy novel. And when it’s not doing that, it will look hella good on my D&D shelf.

What Does Star Wars Mean To You?

Fellow Star Wars obsessive Matthew Freeman, of the brilliant Star Wars-themed Ahch-To Baby newsletter, mentioned going on a Star Wars podcast back in October.¹ I immediately downloaded the episode but didn’t get around to listening until this week for reasons I can neither explain or justify, even to myself. Star Wars podcast. C’mon, man.

I am thrilled to announce I’ve discovered my new favorite podcast.

David Humphreys is my kind of podcaster. His sheer joy for Star Wars seeps into the show, and he clearly loves talking about it. Listening to Dave and Matthew was like hanging with friends. Game recognize game is a thing people say, but I’d argue nerd recognize nerd is just as important.

Being a middle-aged Star Wars fan in 2024 is weird. My love remains undiminished, but often it feels like I spend more time complaining about Star Wars than I do enjoying it. Case in point: I did not exactly love the trailer for The Acolyte. And like, I don’t want to be negative. I just want Star Wars to be good. It’s all I ever want.

I’m increasingly aware that this a me-problem. My idea of what good Star Wars looks like has changed because I have changed. I’d suggest this is what maturity looks like, or something, but I’m also the guy who likes to make lightsaber penis analogies whenever possible.

Ahch-To Baby and What Does Star Wars Mean To You? are beacons of positivity in a fandom that often veers toward the Dark Side. They are the Force Ghosts on my shoulder, urging me to toss away my weapon and reminding me just how special Star Wars is.

Medium Pub Crawl 2024

As some of you know, I am the founder and editor-in-chief of a pop culture publication called Fanfare. Perhaps that sounds impressive, but in practice it just means I’ve fooled enough people into believing I’m kinda a big deal, when in reality I’m just a nerd who thinks about movies way too much.

You can add Medium to the ranks of people I’ve Jedi mind tricked, because they asked me to join a publisher panel this past week to share the knowledge I’ve gleaned after 5 years publishing other people’s stories. (Short version: Find awesome writers and convince them to join your publication through whatever means necessary.)

If you want to listen, the replay is available. Full disclosure: the first couple of minutes are a little rough because one of the panelists was reenacting the beginning of Comfortably Numb. Great discussion, legitimately wish it was twice as long.²

The panel was part of Medium’s Pub Crawl, a 24-hour virtual expo intended to highlight the work publishers do on the platform and also to just generally shine a light on publications. Medium’s CEO name dropped me and my pub in his keynote. So that’s pretty cool, though he did misspell Fanfare.³

I can forgive him though, cause he also said this:⁴

“Eric Pierce is the fantastic editor of the equally fantastic Fanfare.”

~ Tony Stubblebine, Medium CEO

Winning Time: Season 2

I fell hard for this show and devoured season 1 sometime last year, and then abruptly stopped watching after the news that HBO had canceled it. This show is brilliantly written, wonderfully cast, and was just picking up steam.

Winning Time is about the rise of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers dynasty. Season 2—and thus, the show—ends with the 1983-84 season. It’s a real shame because the story was about to get really interesting—the rise of Michael Jordan, the emergence of the Bad Boys Pistons, and the heart of the Celtics rivalry were all on deck. Not to mention Magic Johnson’s HIV diagnosis, his retirement, and comeback. This show easily had 2-3 more seasons of storylines. Alas.

Also.

1. This may be my personal record for times saying Star Wars in a single sentence. Which, if you know me, is saying something.

2. It’s interesting—the introvert in me dreads speaking in public, but if the topic is one I care about, I can’t shut up. It bodes well for the podcast initiative.

3. For a long time, Fanfare was actually FanFare, but never was it Fan Fare.

4. This is perhaps the first time I’ve used a pull quote. Felt appropriate. May also print it out and hand it to strangers at the grocery store.