The Original Intro.

This blog was set up three weeks before my 40th birthday as a means of charting the effects of the aging process and this fallen world’s degrading standards on my impressions of, reactions against, and general experiences with various works of art, commerce, wonder, majesty, and shamelessness. It’s my way of keeping the writing part of my brain alive and active, rather than let it atrophy and die.

Until and unless I can discern what I’m meant to be doing with this alleged ability, here I remain, watching as the cultures of pop, geek, and faith intersect in my head. Sometimes they team up; sometimes they fight. Meanwhile, my chances of aging gracefully through it all hang in the balance.

Worlds live. Worlds die. Worlds get rebooted again and again.

The Midlife Crisis Crossover.

Sometimes it’s about our ongoing tradition of road trips my wife Anne and I taken each year from 1999 to the present. Sometimes it’s about the comic book and entertainment conventions we attend, whether here in Indianapolis or in relatively neighboring cities such as Chicago or Cincinnati. Sometimes it’s about recent theatrical excursions, because everyone needs reasons to get out of the house, even if it’s just to sit in a different chair in front of a different screen. Sometimes it’s about Internet ephemera, heavy burdens, photo galleries, family, faith, food, or folderol.

We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do.

The Site Name.

Fans of TV’s Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune either jump for joy or groan in disgust whenever the “Before & After” category comes up. “Midlife crisis” is a sufficiently common term that I trust we don’t need to cite Webster’s Dictionary here. Non-comics readers (or simply fans under 35) who weren’t around to buy the original “Crisis Crossovers” when they hit newsstands and comics shops circa 1985-1986 can learn more from a previous MCC entry filled with comics nostalgia and covers.

Hence the portmanteau. I wanted a name that wasn’t taken and wouldn’t be desirable to any other person or company. So far, so good.

The Author Bio.

I’m a full-time customer service rep; part-time Internet participant; longtime comics collector; former English major and two-time college dropout; pro bono content provider to the internet since 1999; and message-board staffer from 2001 to 2010, including six years as Administrator. I’ve been married for fifteen years to a spectacular kind of lady who memorized several books of the New Testament, as well as the titles of all 178 episodes of Star Trek: the Next Generation. I love that she knows which is more important. I have a son with a college degree who maintains a strict line in the sand between his half of the Internet and mine.

I have published no books, have no works to sell you, have never submitted a single piece of writing anywhere in my life with hopes of income, and have never been invited to do any of the preceding. I don’t use affiliated links. I don’t personally sell advertising. I don’t receive or expect freebies with the promise of guaranteeing a glowing review. I’ve written hundreds of thousands of words over the course of nearly eight years, posted thousands of photos, reviewed thousands of works across multiple media, and poured countless labor-hours into this site because I enjoy doing it.

I’m not here to make money. I just really like assembling words and pictures into readable shapes.

If any of the preceding section changes, MCC readers will be the first to know.

The Addenda.

I’m prone to lurking on Twitter as @RandallGolden. Here or there, I welcome input, questions, ideas, simple pats on the head, and constructive criticism, though I’m beginning to forget what that looks like. We have a contact page with email address and form. Online marketers need not waste their time attempting to ply their wholly unwanted wares in my direction.

For value-added personal trivia, check out an old entry with 100 bullet points’ worth. For a list of respectable places that have generously name-checked MCC elsewhere online, I refer you to our “Mentions” page for links and incredulity.

Once you’re done here, you’re more than welcome to return to the main page and keep scrolling, scrolling, scrolling.

Views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of any other being, corporation, hivemind, or party line.

[Last updated: 4/5/2020.]