Category: Opinion

Bill Gates, Philanthropy and a Look at Race and Privilege

Matt Talford

WITH THE WHOLE CORONA VIRUS PANDEMIC and the growing concern surrounding intimations of mandatory vaccinations as put forth by a retired software billionaire-turned-philanthropist—Bill Gates (head of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), and leaders from the US-based Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as the proposed location for human vaccine trials, I think it’s high time we had a real conversation regarding privilege and race.  Before I begin though, I think it’s worth sharing that last week, I ran an informal poll on…

Daniel Chapter Two: A Brief Analysis

Matt Talford

I was a teenager serving in the U.S. Army… the first time I read the Book of Daniel, located in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible (the seventh book after Proverbs, situated between the books of Ezekiel and Hosea).  While I have forgotten most of the chapters in the book, the one that stuck is the second chapter.  In it, Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar (who had the Israelites in forced servitude) has a terrible dream and sends for his spiritual advisors and demands they tell him both his dream and…

It’s Your Narrative; *You* Should Tell It

Matt Talford

EVERY PERSON AND TRIBE ON PLANET EARTH…  has a narrative—a detailed story about who they are, where they’re from and what they’ve done.  Even places have their own stories.  With those things in mind, the question arises: who better to share a narrative about a person or group than the person or people themselves?  As a lifetime writer and lover of non-fiction, I find truth to be the most important element of storytelling, especially when it comes to describing “the people who lived it,” which brings me to why I…

Privileged? – A Response to An Article on The Players’ Tribune

Matt Talford
Matt D Talford, Author

Before I proceed with my response to the article “Privileged” by NBA player Kyle Korver, let me install a little framework… First… for those of you who have never heard of “The Players’ Tribune” (I didn’t even know it existed until I encountered it this morning), it is a media company founded by one of my all-time favorite New York Yankees: Derek Jeter.  According to their “about” page (which you can see here – www.theplayerstribune.com/about), the site serves as a vehicle to allow players’ voices to be heard from a…

Them Old Silver Cars

Matt Talford

Imagine having a fleet of shiny silver cars… Some Mercedes, some Aston Martin, some Bentley, some Cadillac, some Porsche, some Jaguar, some Lexus… being sent to a giant chop shop, having all their interior and exterior badging removed; leather interiors swapped out for old cloth; wheels removed and replaced with cheap rims and hub caps; high-grade rubber tires swapped out for cheap replacements; radios and navigation systems taken out; and finally, rear bumpers taken off and replaced with truck bumpers with big trailer hitches. These “luxury” vehicles are then loaded…

“Damnation” – A Review

Matt Talford

The following actually began as a Facebook post, but halfway through, I decided it was far too detailed not to share with a larger audience.  And after all, most people I know skip over lengthy Facebook posts anyway; so due to its length (short for a blog post but too long for FB), this article is tailor-made for the web.  Anyway, here goes…Early this morning, I finished watching the series, “Damnation,” after seeing its trailer on Netflix just a few short days ago.  For me, the completion of the season…

The Dark Side of Audiobook Production

Matt Talford

The following Forbes article (written by Adam Rowe – link at the bottom of this page) spotlights my only rant with being an independent publisher—who is both an audiobook producer and narrator. Thank God for companies like Author’s Republic and Findaway Voices, who are trying to set the example of how to do the right thing with regards to royalty payments, but even their hands are tied when it comes to giving authors their just due.  So back to my rant… Why should any audiobook vendor (I won’t name them but if…

The Irony of Dystopian Films

Matt Talford

As a writer and reader (mostly non-fiction, but I do enjoy a good fiction tale every now and then), I am well aware of the irony that goes into a lot of the literature that we read in books or see in motion pictures.  Studying irony of situation is one of the things that made English one of my favorite subjects in high school.  Well, a bit of irony recently occurred to me with regard to those futuristic, dystopian stories and films that are so popular among fans of that…

Math, Art & Science

Matt Talford

Math is absolute. Art is the representation of one’s interpretation of an object, a concept or an experience. Science is theory. Furthermore, it is the child conceived of the joining of the absolute nature of math, with the interpretive nature of art.  Science is the attempt at using math to support one’s interpretation of their own observation.  It is because of the absolute nature of math that science is given so much credence, while the art that gave birth to and nurtured that science, is largely ignored or even dismissed.…

Writing Deadlines Can Be Beneficial

Matt Talford

I think that all writers might agree that the more times you read your own work, the more likely it is that you’ll want to “tinker” with it…you know… change this, cut that, add this or that new wrinkle or element.  Well, giving yourself a deadline (perhaps by even announcing a release date to your fans or followers) and sticking to it (if you’re independent, traditionally pub’d authors don’t have as much flexibility), can help you to finally push your “birdie” out of the nest and let it fly! So…