Don Macnaughtan's Media Blog

WordPress Blogs: Articles, Bibliographies, Media

This media blog is a way for me to keep track of interesting music, movies, television, audiobooks, etc. I include my travel blogs & photography, write a lot about music, and I also research the Clan Macnachtan.

I am a retired librarian and bibliographer from Auckland, New Zealand (to other Kiwis this makes me a Jaffa). My publication catalog is on Academia and my publication bibliography is here. My main work focuses on Joss Whedon, the celebrated screenwriter, producer, director and master quipster. My first Whedon book was The Buffyverse Catalog from McFarland (winner of the Mr. Pointy Award for the Best Academic Book in Whedon Studies). My second research guide to all of Whedon’s work, The Whedonverse Catalog, was published in May 2018. I have also completed the definitive critical bibliography on Whedon for Oxford University Press (updated 2019), and I am a charter member of the Whedon Studies Association . My most recent Whedonverse projects include an archive of rare Buffyverse songvids as well as a survey of critical approaches to “Normal Again” (a famous Buffy episode).

Coming from the islands of New Zealand, I’m interested in how prehistoric humans settled the planet’s more isolated islands, especially the remote “mystery islands” of East Polynesia, South Polynesia, and Northern Micronesia, as well as the prehistoric settlers of Great Nicobar (Indian Ocean) and Isla de los Estados (Patagonia).

I have also contributed to the history of Western Perthshire (Scotland), where my ancestors settled in the Dark Ages. I am currently venturing into the new field of DNA analysis as a participant in the Big Y research project. We have uncovered intriguing Y-DNA links between my distant ancestors and the coast of Norway. I am trying to figure out how they got From Trondheim to Perthshire.

My other interests cover American Indians: the mysterious Haush Indians of Tierra del Fuego, as well as Oregon’s Chinookan, Siuslawan, Kalapuyan, Molala, and Athapaskan peoples. I maintain popular resources on the Indian Languages of Western Oregon, and American Indians and the Landscape in Western Oregon. I am occasionally a consultant on the rare Northwest Coast ceremonial artifacts known as Coppers. My latest publication about Coppers is The Purchase of the Nahuhulk, a “secret history” from the Tsimshian people, first recorded in 1916.