JOSS RULES THE 'VERSE!!!

Here's why I dig Joss Whedon so much:

He creates either the most artistic entertainment around, or he creates the most entertaining art around.

And if you're debating the point intelligently, it really could go EITHER way.

I was about to say he's kind of the KISS of storytelling, but that's not quite right.

I LOVE KISS, but I can't argue with, say, Zeplin fans or Beatles fans that KISS has contributed more to music and music's evolution. George Lucas is more like KISS. GREAT showman whose movies DO sometimes just reach the uppermost stratosphere of storytelling... And some of his work falls a bit short. And you love him because you love him, and it doesn't matter if your snooty coffeehouse friends mock you 'cause screw them! Besides, they like him too, they just won't admit it in mixed company.

No, Joss is more like the Alice Cooper of storytelling! Most people go to the show for the makeup and spectacle, and they buy the cds for the guitars and the hooks. But when you get around your artsy buddies, if they should start ragging on Cooper as all showmanship and no substance, you actually CAN defend the artistry. Alice Cooper actually DID help shape music as we know it now!

Same with Joss.

In an interview he'll blithely quip about how explosions are cool, but he'll also let you glimpse his intense intelligence he applies to his craft. He can chat with fan-boys or with artists with equal ease. He embraces ALL aspects of what he does -- he tells stories that are successful when they're entertaining... and even MORE successful wehn they're GOOD.

I would say that Joss Whedon is VERY successful at what he does!

He hooked me with the pilot episode of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. I was disappointed by the film, but intrigued by the possibility that the TV show might ACTUALLY have some real horror elements in it. (Horror on TV, like when I used to watch black-and-white reruns of THE TWILIGHT ZONE ever so often as a kid!)

Turns out I was right!

I could not have guessed how right I was, either!!! Not only was it genuinely scary, but it was LOADED with comedy THAT DIDN'T DISTRACT FROM THE HORROR OR THE DRAMA! In fact, the comedy was character-driven, GROWING OUT OF the horror and drama!!! The humor actually made the horror/drama MORE "REAL"!!!

This was a revelation to me!

Forget about the pop-y cute theatrical version of the material, I grew up with the A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET franchise, and I watched the series morph from really good low-budget horror into self-mocking, dumbed-down crap!

[For young students of horror cinema, there was a long period from the late '80s until the very late '90s when good horror writers ceased to exist -- sucked into an alternate dimension wherein Jason never took Manhattan or went to hell -- and fumbling children pretended to be writers and shat upon blank script pages until a studio paid them to stop it and agreed to turn their defication into movies. (Some of them had British accents and pulled random quotes from the Bible and were therefore revered as artistic geniuses.) Then very, very, VERY young directors had to come up with the stories AND DIRECTORS -- by and large -- ARE NOT WRITERS! Except for when they ARE writers, which is rare. This isn't ENTIRELY true... But it's close enough.]

But then Joss shows us, with BUFFY -- the TV series -- that you can have the most outrageous sense of humor, and still tell genuinely scary stories!!!

Largely because he made us genuinely CARE about these people he created!!!

I've learned SO much about writing from watching Joss do his thang over the last 8 years!

And I think the reason he can keep knocking them out of the park is that he always seem to approach each new project with "What would be cool to see?" And then he follows it up with intelligence and skill and boldness... and a slightly twisted excitement about making us -- his audience -- gasp in shock and horror.

This is the guy, remember, who killed Jenny Calander in the 2nd season of BUFFY. He also killed Doyle in the 9TH EPISODE of ANGEL!!! (That season ran for 22 episodes! Doyle was in the OPENING CREDITS for goodness sake!!!) And in FIREFLY he continually shocked you with swift and violent death.

(Kind of makes me nervous about what he might do in the movie...)

Now, some "fans" bicthed and complained about Joss's seeming disreguard for the lives of these characters.

I didn't!

I friggin' LOVED the fact that this cat loved me so much! Think about it: He loves his audience enough to ensure that we never get complacent in his worlds, and never forget just how high the stakes are! That creates true tension! That creates REAL horror and drama!!! Stuff REALLY matters in this 'verse where you never know just how much time you have left with some beloved friend! Real death equals REAL VALUE TO LIFE.

Anyway, I'm straight-up gushing now, so I'll stop it. (Time to stop talking about his work and go WATCH the stuff!!!)

I'm all Joss-ed-up right now because I've spent a great deal of my evening reading interviews with him. Here are 2 that I read tonight:

[WARNING: These interviews DO contain some SPOILERS for the upcoming movie SERINITY!!!]

The Toronto Star
Gimongous

And here are 2 that I haven't read yet, but will be returning to soon.

NY Times
The Age

(I largely put these last 2 links in here for myself, so I can get to them more quickly...)

Go See SERENITY!

SERENITY's coming!!!

I so far have only re-watched Disc One of FIREFLY, but I've also read the 3-issue comic miniseries. It's a prequel to the movie and it rules!

Then, turns out that Alamo Drafthouse is doing a Rolling Roadshow 2 days before the movie opens! Summer Glau and Jewel Staite will be there!!! I hope to get tickets tomorrow, when they go on sale.

Um...

OH! Brian and I watched HICTH this weekend! It was REALLY funny! And I was shocked that Brian was down for checking it out, as he usually avoids Romantic Comedies. (Though he's totally down with some shows with strong romantic themes like SMALLVILLE and ROSWELL.) But then, how can ANY not dig Will Smith comedy?!!

Um...

I'm sure there's something else worth blogging about.

Hmm...

Oh, and, keeping in the spirit of Firefly/Serenity, I've listened to 4 episodes of The Signal, a podcast designed to keep us Firefly fans fanatical and hopefully helping makes some converts before SERENITY's opening weekend. 3 of the 4 episodes I listened to had interviews with Rong Glass, Jewel Staite and Adam Baldwin. VERY COOL!

Please check it out here:


The Signal


OH! And I finally watched STEPHEN KING'S THE TOMMYKNOCKERS.

It was...

Have you seen the KISS video "I Love It Loud"? It was made in 1982, and it's cool because it's KISS and it's a classic KISS song... But the cinamatographer over-uses the blue lights, and everything looks all fake... fake in that EARLY-80s WAY...

Cinematically speaking, it's not great.

Well, THE TOMMYKNOCKERS is like that video.

But instead of over-using blue lights, this cinematographer over-uses green lights... And it's 177 minutes longer than the KISS video... And KISS isn't in it.

And I'd bet plenty of money that you'll never hear "Theme From The Tommyknockers" on one of those Halloween compilation cds. Not gonna happen.

But I've seen it now. I've been meaning to since it first aired as a TV miniseries, and now I have seen it.

And never have to watch it again.

Okay... so... I guess that's it. That's all I got for now.

PEACE!!!

Talk Like A Pirate Day!!!

Argh, Maties!!!

Me brother, "Beard-Eye" Brian, declared this t'be TALK LIKE A PRIATE DAY -- he even writ it on our livin' room calander, aar -- and so I'm cooperatin'. Seein' as he played along with me own whimsical day-pronouncin' a couple o' weeks ago.

Let's see... What 'ave I been up ter lately?

I discovered a yar new comics writer by tha name o' Robert Kirkman!!! He's a lubber, but he writ the titles THE WALKING DEAD and INVINCIBLE -- both o' which are worthy booty indeed!!! He's like a comic-book version o' Joss Whedon -- ignorin' the fact that Joss writes comic titles as well. Aar!

THE WALKING DEAD be an apocolyptic zombie story, rife with characterization an' social commentary, like the Romero zombie flicks! An' INVINCIBLE is a sup'r hero book with the kind o' characterization and art that be makin' the first few issues of ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN such a thrill! (The same type o' writ'n' that makes the flicks so pow'rful!)

Aarr!

I'm gettin' a mite tir'd o' this manner o' writ'n'. (P'rhaps not as tir'd as you be o' readin' it.) So I'm goin' away now. (Aarrrr!)

But here's hopin' yer TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY be a beaut!!!

A Few Changes...

Just letting you know that I've been customizing the blog bit.

First off, Comments:

I'm sorry to say that to comment you're going to have to pass one of those "I'm a human, not an automated spam program" tests. Just getting sick of having spam "comments" appear THE MOMENT I post a new entry.

I also went back and cleaned out the faux-comments.

BUT THE GOOD NEWS is that I figured out how to make it so that you DON'T HAVE TO HAVE YOUR OWN BLOG to post a comment!!! I'm THRILLED about this! I didn't even know this was an option!

So please, comment often!

The last major change is that now you can email entries to someone else.

I just like that option, personally. When I read something on the Net that makes me think "So-and-so would dig this" I like to be able to email it to them easily. So now you can do that with my blog entries... You know... If ya wanted to....

Anyway, just keeping you updated.

AARR!!!

"Breaking" Into Screenwriting

Sorry, but I have to do some thinking on the screen.

Why do screenwriters write alone like novelists?

It's insane! Anyone who knows the different writing media knows that novels are novels and screenplays are screenplays and plays are plays and comic books are comic books are... You get it already.

Plus, there are always, like, 2 or 5 screenwriters credited on most movies that come out anyway! As far as the filmgoing audience is concerned, screenplays are written by commity.

But the truth is that a guy or a writing team sit alone in their office and bang their heads against the keyboard until they have 110 pages. Then they rewrite, and then probably rewrite a couple more times.

Then, if they're REALLY lucky, a producer or production company buys their script, and then they rewrite it another 3 times. (I'm probably being optimistic here, unfortunately.)

THEN the producer/production company hires someone else to come in a rewrite the script another couple of times.

THEN the producer/production company hires a third (or fifth) writer to come in and polish the dialogue or punch up the action or comedy.

Then the Writers Guild steps in and decides who gets screenwriting credit. And there are usually at least 2 names on the credits when you see the movie.

Filmgoers think that the screenwriters are all partying together, drinking and laughing and somehow managing to get script pages written along the way. But the truth is that each writer/writing team is sitting all alone, wondering if it's too late to go to ITT Tech and get an engineering degree. Or maybe Starbucks is hiring.

But you know who IS writing by commity and having a decently good time in an atmosphere of commeradare while still producing scripts with surprising speed and prolificness?

TV staff writers.

They all break each of the season's episodes together, then divide up and write the actual pages alone. And they get SOLO credit for the pages they write!

Why aren't beginning screenwriters doing this?!!

Seriously, why doesn't a group of, like, 5 beginning screenwriters get together and help each other break each other's scripts, and then let each other go off and write their own screenplays?

I mean, the pros use each other as sounding boards for their projects. And they're not worried about taking the credit for someone else's project. They're just helping their buddies out.

But with beginning writers, usually if one guy gives his screenwriter friend a single idea he's all "I want co-writing credit and half whatever you sell the script for".

It's lame!

And instead you get a lot of wannabes who bang their heads against their keyboards and produce complete shite that they're too insecure to improve because they only want to hear about how great their work is, rather than hearing what can be made better.

But if beginners were less worried about ego and image and more concerned not only with making their scripts better but helping others in their own situation, maybe all concerned would have more success.

And how bad WOULD sharing credit be? Let's say you've got 3 writing partners and you all take equal credit and equal pay. Okay, so less money for you each. But the sad fact is that Hollywood's probably going to FORCE you to share credit anyway. You do not get to make that decision.

Writing alone or writing with a group, unless you're REALLY, REALLY good you're most likely going to have to share the credit whether you wrote over pizza and beer and laughs or wrote alone and miserable.

I know this sounds like a strange idea, but I grew up in a theatre troupe and found that work shared is a lot more fun than solo work.

PLUS... I HATE writing. And I love it. I mean, I love the craft, but I hate the brick walls.

And I'm not a freak here. Douglas Adams hated writing novels, but he had a great deal of fun writing sketches in college and writing the first couple of series HITCHHIKER'S series for radio because he had the producers and cast to bounce ideas off of.

Like TV staff writers.

I mean, let's say you DO manage to write a screenplay so well that you don't get rewritten by someone else (you do all 25 of the rewrites on this particualr screenplay all by your lonesome) and you DO get solo credit when the movie comes out and you ACTUALLY DO get paid every step of your contract, including the solo credit bonus...

If the movies any good, the director's gonna get all the credit anyway. Movie audiences don't realize how much screenwriters have to do with the story. Film critics don't seem to realize how much screenwriters have to do with the story. (Even Roger Ebert, who wrote and sold a screenplay back in the '60s!) NO ONE, execpt for screenwriters, understands how responsible screenwriters are for the story of a movie. (I kid you not! This summer no one talked about David Koepp's adaptation of WAR OF THE WORLDS, but a lot of people talked about Steven Spielberg's WAR OF THE WORLDS. Including Kevin Smith, who is a writer himself!)

So okay, you're gonna do all this work and get shafted anyway, right? Why not share the load and have a good time while doing it?

Blah.

Just had to organize those thoughts and see them on the screen.

HHGG DAY Pics

Here are some pics from THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY DAY. Me, Brian and Two And A Half Foot Batman all getting into the spirit of things...




Brian and I took turns crashing during this 24-hour extravaganza.















As you can see, we spent more time enjoying the genius of Douglas Adams' universe than snapping pics. But I thought I'd share the couple of decent ones with you.

DON'T PANIC!

It's Comin'...

My friend Delma, at work, showed me the online trailer for the remake of THE FOG! It's looks GOOD!!! (Selma Blaire in the Adrienne Barbeau roll, Stevie Wayne, it looks like!)

It starts the day before I turn 35, even!!!

And that's cool enough!

But then I walk outside to have a smoke...

The two lightbulbs in the east entrance are winking on and off. The leaves of the surrounding trees are rustling as the winds whines softly across the brick walls and concrete on my side of the alley.

The moon is waxing three-quarters, but shining just as brightly as it can in the blue-black sky. White-grey clouds rush up to engulf it as, on the oposite side of the sky, other white-grey clouds rush in the opposite direction.

The wind is really kicking up, and I feel the temperature drop a degree, despite the stubornness of this year's Austin summer.

It's coming.

Fall is coming.

The Austin summer heat is fighting for supremecy, harder than it ever has in my 13 years here, but the Fall is coming!

Fall has always been my favorite season!

Actually, I can find something wonderful in every season.

But there's something MAGICAL about Fall. Something dark and magical!

I was born in the Fall, I am a child of the Fall.

Fall gives us a break from the heat. Fall gives us a renewed sense of purpose as we say good-bye to the vacation of Summer. Fall gives us beautifully colored leaves. Fall lets us wear our new jackets.

Fall also lets us frolic! But it brings the night sooner, so we sometimes frolic in twilight and darkness.

I usually am able to tell when Fall is coming by a particular chill inside and otherwise mild breeze. But this year the Summer heat refuses to relent. (Austin is infamous for it's Summers that begin in February and end in November.) Still, about 8 days ago I felt the Fall despite the heat. There was this OTHER quality to the air.

And I'm not nuts! Brian felt it, too! (He loves the Fall as much as I do, and for many of the same reasons. Which isn't surprising really. We're brothers. In many ways we shared a childhood.)

But tonight!

Tonight when I walked outside, the night was still, but Fall entered with quite a show! I watched the clouds and moon do their little dance while I listened to crickets and the clicking of one of the elecrtic bulbs winking out, and the clack of the leaves against each other and the faint "Woooo" of the wind!!!

The Fall was talking to me! It was telling me not to worry, it hasn't forgotten. It explained that Summer was putting up a real fight, but here it was. Fall didn't even have to assure me that it would win, I could feel it's determination, it's strength, it's playful spirit that will easily overwhelm Summer's oppressive weight.

It's coming.

And it's ready to play!

It's Good To Be The "Mayor"

HHGG Day was a complete success!!!

I started off by buying the dvd on my way home from work. (Widescreen, natch!) Then I slipped into my pajamas and housecoat, slug my trusty towel over my shoulder -- full-on GEEK mode, baby!!! -- and Two And A Half Foot Batman and I proceeded to watch ALL the bonus features, then I watched the producer commentary of the movie -- with Robbie Stamp and Sean Solle, both friends and collegues of Douglas.

I crashed out on the couch.

I regained consciousness around 2:00 pm and immediately watched the other audio commentary, with director Garth Jennings, producer Nick Goldsmith (they guys who makeup Hammer & Tongs, a British production company), Martin Freeman (Arthur) and Bill Nighy (Slartibartfast) and then watched the making-of featurette again.

When I got home Monday night (/Tuesday morning) Brian was asleep. But he woke up in time to catch most of the making-of featurette.

When that was done it was time to go to dinner with Mom.

That was pretty groovy. We went to this opne place that is sort of a posh version of Souper Salad. The location is kind of frou-frou and the ambience is much nicer, but the food is just kind of nyah.

Still, the company was great!

Then after dinner Brian and I returned home to watch the movie proper, go through most of the extras, and Brian fell asleep toward the end of watching the director/producer/actor commentary.

Around 4:00 am I declared THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY DAY a success and took the disc out of the dvd player for the first time in 24 hours. (Brian and I left it running when we went to dinner; and it was still playing when I crashed and woke up.)

I capped off the day by completing Level 4 of TOMB RAIDER: THE LOST ARTIFACT. There are only 6 levels, so I'm bookin'! This morning I made some serious progress on Level 5.

Life is good.

I'm serious, it really felt like a holiday for me yesterday! I know that's lame. Intellectually I GET that calling a tree blue, then seeing it as blue is impossible and ridiculous. But yesterday ACTUALLY FELT like a holiday to me!

I had A LOT of fun!

I had so much fun yesterday I'm thinking about declaring October 18th LAND OF THE DEAD DAY.

OOH! SERINITY opens on the 30th! I should TOTALLY have a FIREFLY Marathon one weekend soon!

Then again, I don't want to abuse my new superpower... Discretion is probably called for here...

HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY Day!!!

One of the cool things about having a blog is the fact that I, effectively, have my own little universe here.

Everything that I report about is what I perceive. And what I perceive isn't an event, but the way that I remember that event -- the way that event exists IN MY MIND. And what you perceive of those events I report on is what happens in YOUR MIND as you read MY WORDS. You read my words and they unfold an event in your mind, and that becomes the reality of the universe that is this web-log.

SO...

As the sort of creator of this little virtual universe that is rayjaysblog, I can name myself mayor.

Mayor Ray Jay.

And as mayor, I can create new holidays to commemorate the people and events that I feel are most important and influential!

Therefore, as Mayor Ray Jay -- mayor of RayJaysBlog -- in commemoration of one of the GREATEST literary minds OF ALL TIME, Douglas Adams, and in commemoration of the single work that introduced his brilliance to the world, and in commemoration of the single incarnation of this work that proved most elusive even though not ultimately unatainable, I declare Tuesday, September 13, 2005 THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY Day!!!

That's right! From midnight tonight until midnight tomorrow, it is officially HHGG Day all over RayJaysBlog!!!

Tomorrow is a holiday for me! When I get off work tonight, I'm stopping by Walmart and picking up a copy of the Widescreen Edition of THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY on dvd, then Brian and I will most likely watch it and the bonus features until one or both of us pass out!

Then, when we wake up, MORE HHGG!!!

I'm listening to the Primary Phase of the radio show in my car.

No work tomorrow. (Actually, that's just kind of how my schedule works out, but HEY! Who CARES, right?)

I don't think I'll be watching the 1982 BBC TV series in commemoration, though. I'll probably just stick to the current dvd. (Better directing, better sfx, hotter Trillian.)

AND... I invite YOU to -- whithin the guidelines of your own spiritual beliefs and lifestyle choices, naturally -- celebrate HHGG Day with me! I get that maybe you didn't set aside money just for the release of this dvd as I did. And maybe you don't own the BBC TV show, or the BBC radio show version, or even any of the books.

That's okay!

Here are a couple of links that will allow you to enjoy the genius that is Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy without spending a dime:

www.hitchikersmovie.com

www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game

www.douglasadams.com

www.h2g2.com

The first one is the official movie website. I recommend the games, but in particular you MUST play with the animated GUIDE!!! It's only got a few entries, but they're fun! You can find the Guide in the "Characters" section of the site. (The Guide is, indeed, an important character in the stories.)

The second link takes you to a Flash version of Douglas Adams's 1985 text adventure game version of HHGG! It's infuriating, but FUN! Plus, BBC has Game Hints off to the left of the game screen, so when (not "if") you get stuck you can have Douglas himself help you out with hints he wrote back in the 80s!

The third link is to DNA's website. HHGG Day really isn't about any version of HHGG, it's about that whimsical, stimulating, FUN state of mind that Douglas Adams is, uniquely, able to place us in. So if you don't know tons about Douglas, or you want to learn more, this is a good place.

The last link is to a site Douglas co-created on the Net in the mid-90s. When he created the fictitious Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- the book within the books -- he has it written by contributors who beamed their entries into the Sub-etha Net, so that those entries could be viewed INSTANTANEOUSLY by any Hitchhiker's Guide unit (think laptop or Palm Pilot, in Real World terms) out there.

In 1978, when Douglas created the fictitious Guide, he had NO IDEA that the Internet was going to develop along almost exactly the same lines as his Sub-Etha Net.

But once he realized that it HAD done so, he helped develop a website that allowed contributors to upload their entries about life, the universe, and everything onto the Internet, so that those entries can be viewed instantaneously by any PC, laptop or Net-capable Palm Pilot out there.

And if you're wondering: Yes, I am a contributor! I have contributed to date, ONE whole entry! A review of WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW?!. (Just seemed like SOMEONE should mention that movie on that site!)

So go check out my review of WTBDWK?! on h2g2, and play Dougla's text adventure game, and check out the clever Flash version of the Guide, and do whatever else you can think of to help ensure you HAVE A HAPPY HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY DAY!!!

Transporter 2!

Brian and I just got back from THE TRANSPORTER 2 at the Alamo Drafthouse! It was fun! (Got the jalapeno poppers and mozarrella sticks for munchies.)

I just watched the first THE TRANSPORTER this morning. I really liked that one!

AND I WAS OFF YESTERDAY!!!

I got to work and there was one more person than there should have been, so I checked the schedule AND I CAME HOME!!!

It was cool!

Spent most of the day watching the behind-the-scenes stuff for COMIC BOOK: THE MOVIE -- which Brian and I watched Friday night, and which I recommend to anyone who loves comedy!!! -- and then when Brian got home we watched some of the making-of-stuff that he hadn't seen before popping in PAULY SHORE IS DEAD.

We started watching THE TRANSPORTER last night, but I couldn't finish it. And then when I got up, he was watching it again, so I figured it was good. AND IT IS!

With the sequel, it seems in a couple of parts that they were trying a little too hard to top the first one. But it's still a lot of fun, and the character is in tact. So like the SCREAM and INDIANNA JONES movies, maybe the third one will be really great! (Assuming there is a third one. But I bet there is.)

Last night, while Brian and I were watching PAULY SHORE IS DEAD, I got a phone call -- at 12:37 am. I pause the movie, answer the phone, and a female voice says "I'm mad at you!"

It's Tisha.

And I laugh.

She's been starting off conversations with me like this a lot recently. One such conversation revealed that Tisha hates her too-thick eyelashes. When she wears mascara her lashes look like fake ones. I explained that many women pay to have lashes like heres, AND the cool thing is that she doesn't NEED mascara because of her naturally enhanced lashes!

Didn't get me off the hook though.

Anyway, so I ask her why she's mad at me and she informs me that it's offically Sunday...

And she DOES NOT have to tell me the significance of it being Sunday. she turned 15 today!!!

And apparently she was expecting me to call her THE MOMENT she turned 15. Which is not an unreasonable expectation in the slightest. She knows I'm up at this hour, and it's a Saturday night so I know she's up. Plus, I may have threatened to do so in a conversation we had a few days ago.

In actuallity, though, I was just pestering her. I intended to call her during the day today.

But Tisha took it to heart. "I waited 30 minutes," she informs me in mock exasperation.

She was out catting around with some members of her church Youth Group, and they were just returning to her house to watch a movie. They watched CRASH. (She liked it! I haven't seen it yet, but I LOVE Sandra Bullock, and I love Don Chedle (sp?) and Brendon Fraser.)

I talked to her again tonight, and she said she had a good birthday, so cool!

Meantime, I'm outty. Got an early dentist appointment, so I don't want to stay up TOO late.

This Is The Martez Randle Entry

Taking you back now to Wednesday night. I'm downtown at Room 710, having stepped outside for a smoke after Marvin played with The Gorey Boys for the last time.

I'm already having a cool day, but then this complete stranger approaches me.

The guy's holding a sketch pad and pencil and shakes my hand, introducing himself. He's Martez Randle and he does sketchs in 5 minutes or less. He's not a characaturist, and he works for love of drawing, for tips and donations. I am in no way obligated to by the portrait if I don't like it, and if I do like it any donation will be appreciated. He assures me that in 4 minutes, 5 tops, he will capture my features in a portrait that anyone who knows me will recognize as me.

I look in my pocket. I bought a beer and tipped the waiter, so I'm down to a Fiver and 2 Ones. I tell him I can only give him $5 if I like it, and ask him if it's worth his time. He enthusiastically tells me that it's all practice, and it's always worth his time. "It's a spiritual thing," he explains.

How can I turn THIS down?!!

He doesn't ask me to pose, he just starts sketching right there on the street, conversing with me casually as he does so.

He's from Chicago. His wife grew up here in Round Rock, and when he took her to Chicago, she hated it. "How's that possible?" "Well, we went in the winter."

He's got twin sons in college, both in MENSA. He explains that his only job in raising them was not letting them be lazy. He recounted one time when they were young and their grades slipped, and he had to have "the talk" with them. They looked at the problem and discovered that the only problem was that they were being lazy. No problem after that. (Did I mention that they're in MENSA?)

As I'm chatting with him and his eyes are taking in the lines and shadows and highlights that make me recognizable from everyone else on the planet, I'm thinking to myself that it's really no surprise that this cat has a couple of genius sons! You know when you look into a person's eyes and you immediately see a soul that has nothing to hide? That's Martez. His easy way of speaking to you and the words he uses and how he uses them convey a guy who has seen some stuff in his lifetime... and UNDERSTOOD what he saw, and LEARNED from it!

He's been sketching for 35 years. He's done, like, 650 sketchs for people since he's been in Austin.

I tell him if he's any good (I still haven't seen the portrait at this point) he should DEFINITELY be able to get a showing of some sort here, some kind of "Faces Of Austin" type of thing. Then he tells me (brainturst that I am, with my 135 IQ) that he doesn't have any of the sketches.

DUH! He SELLS THE ORIGINALS! They're sketches, not photographs!

While Martez is sketching, a guy walks up to me and hands me a tiny, gorgeous orange flower. I look at him, and he's holding another flower. I mean no disrespect here, but this guy has the kind of gaze that most of the strangers who come up to you on the street have -- as oposed to the insightful depth that Martez's eyes reveal. I give the Flower Guy a dollar and he says "I'm not gonna lie to you, I was hoping for two. I wanna get a girlfriend." I don't know what this means exactly, but I still have $6 in my pocket, so I give him my other Single. Martez looks up and calls him by name (but I didn't quite catch it, with the street noise and the surrealness of this whole scene). The Flower Guy wanders off and Martez wraps up his drawing.

I'm eager to see Martez's take on me. When I was a kid -- basically, up until I turned 14 or so, when I started getting leading roles in the community theatre troupe I was a part of for 8 and a half years -- I drew. And I drew pretty well. (That is to say, people were always telling me how well I drew, even though I could see all the mistakes I made with each picture.)

Plus, one of the first things I did when Brian and Tommy and I got into Flash animation back in 1998-ish was to create toon versions of all of us (Tommy, Kelly, Brian and me). I mean, all I did was essentially import digital photographs of each of us into Flash and then trace over them. But to be honest, I actually did use the knowlege I had learned from drawing since I was 5 years old.

Art is not just about what you put on the page, it's about what you don't. It's choices. It's personal taste and personal perception.

It took me a long time to create cartoon versions of each of us because I would try to be literal in my interpretation of all the things I saw in those pics, and it just didn't convey the "sense" of what we looked like. Then I would remove lines, leave out details that the camera showed, but somehow misrepresented us.

Also, when I was a kid I used to dig on toons like the animated version of Punky Brewster or the animated version of Mr. T. And I loved reading comic book adaptations of movies. (I almost said "my favorite movies", which is largely true, but I dug on the comic book adaptations of just about any movie.) There was some fascination for me in seeing images of things I was familiar with in real life being drawn by someone.

And so the first thing I did when I started getting to know PCs was to attempt cartoon versions of myself. I mean, having an ego the size of mine, there was NOTHING I wanted to see made into a cartoon or comic book more than ME!!! And I had never had a lot of luck at drawing me as a kid. I could draw John Meric, I could draw Rod Serling, I could draw my heroes from Star Trek, but I couldn't get me down convincingly.

Until 1998, I could never capture my appearance on paper.

Then Martez Randle comes up to me an offers to do it for a paltry $5 in 5 minutes.

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but when I saw it I was surprised.




First of all, his style is different from what I was expecting. I guess in 5 minutes I was expecting a more minimalistic style -- like comic artist Alex Toth, who drew some of the greatest ZORRO comics ever! But Martez's portrait contains shadows and highlights. And you can see every strand of hair on my head, in my eyebrows on on my chin. You can even see individual eyelashes! And there's something about the eyes, they seem be a different texture than the skin. And they have personality, they're not just these vacant, maniquin orbs.

Moreover, when look at this protrait I see me just a smidge older than a teen. Like what I looked like as a teen, only grown into a young man. Now, when I look in the mirror I see a slightly different guy -- I see someone who could stand to work out a bit and maybe is no longer in his "prime". But when I saw Martez's protrait I saw someone very close to the guy I imagine when I think of myself. Looking at the picture now, I catch nuances of characteristics I FEEL, but that aren't reflected in a mirror.

Does that make any sense?

It's like this guy was able to capture more than what is seen by the human eye.

But then, that's kind of why art exists, right? Portrait artists didn't cease to exist when the camera was invented. Movies didn't disappear when documentaries were created. Hell, the invention of fiction itself reveals the purpose of all art: We experience stuff in everyday life, but the artist gives those experiences that Something Other, that little extra that makes it... I don't know... worthwhile in some way.

It's choices. It's personal taste and it's personal perception.

"It's a spiritual thing."

August 30

By the way, if you're jonsein' for a new Two And A Half Foot Batman entry, there's one here:

http://rayjaysblog.blogspot.com/2005/08/not-bad-monday.html

What A Difference A Day Makes!

I took today off -- my first 2-day weekend for at least a month now -- and it ended up being really groovy!!!

First, I get up slowly, eat some breakfast burritos while watching the first part of BIGGER THAN THE SKY -- a really cool little indy flick about a guy who joins a community theatre troupe to sort of find himself -- and then after breakfast I play TR: LOST ARTIFACT for a few hours.

Check my email.

We were Net-less yesterday! For some unknown reason, none of the computers in the casa had web access! Luckily, though, Brian and I are fairly skilled at amusing ourselves, so we didn't really notice. We got to spend some time with Mom, then had a night of Alamo Drafthouse At Home: We made jalapeno poppers, popped some cold ones and watched THE OBLONG BOX and SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN, both staring Vincent Price and Christopher Lee.

It was really fun!!!

So anyway, we got the Net back today, so after some Tomb Raider I checked my email to discover that my friend, for whom I had made a little birthday ani (that's sort for "animation" and is a term Brian and Tommy and I have adopted to short-hand our little Flash shorts), really liked it!!!

I slapped this together in, like, 3 days and it came out better than I hoped. But I was shocked to discover that Brian -- the Animation God of the Core; the cat who has taught me the most about animating with Flash animation program -- was really impressed with the finished product! He had even seen it in one of its latter stages because I needed his help to get the dialogue into the program. (This is the first time I've animated anything with sound, much less spoken dialogue.)

But the icing on the cake was my friend's email!!! She just seemed to really appreciate it, and said that it came at a fortuitous time.

So YAY, RAY JAY!

Oh, and while I was surfing the Net I stumbled across a free IQ test, and I took it.

I'm a 135, thank you very much! According to www.tickle.com/tests I'm in the top 1% of Humanity, intellectually. Yep, yep. That means that of all you mere mortals walking around on this planet with me, 99% of you will have to struggle to grasp the vastness and complexities of my intellectual constructs. Yeah, only 1% of you can handle the ASTOUNDING MENTAL POWER OF RAYJAY!!!

Heh, heh, heh.

I've always been told I'm special, but usually in the OTHER way.

Oh, and, my intellectual Type? Philosophical Visionary!

Yep.

So it turns out I'm a Smarty. Just call me Smarty MacKnowsalot. Smarty Smarterson. Smarty-san. His Royal Smartness.

Yeah, baby! I'm sexy, AND I'm SMART! The WHOLE PACKAGE! (Well, maybe not the "rich" part... And I haven't accomplished all that much, career-wise... And I've been told I have this wierd odor about me... BUT OTHERWISE...)

So, yeah. That was pretty cool. I've actively avoided taking IQ tests because I was afraid I would discover that I'm not as smart as I hope I am. So to take one be told I'm smarter than I imagined was kind of an ego boost!

And I'm SURE that the fact I had to read an add for online college courses before I could get my test results has NOTHING to do with the accuracy of those results! I'm certain of it!

And don't try to tell me otherwise, 'cause I'll pelt you with rocks and garbage! And I may cry a little.

So then Mom calls me up and asks me to come look at her computer. There's something up with her Outlook Express. So I go over and I didn't figure out what happened, but I was able to fix it so she could use her email again with ease -- Mom's not a Net Monkey, she checks her email and that's pretty much it; the last time she even attempted to explore the wilds of the Internet she would up with this quite lovely new screensaver that no one can make go away. And so one of Brian and my greatest pleasures is getting a call from Mom asking us to do something with her computer. (Makes us feel like big MANLY MEN.)

Then after that I picked up a couple of frozen pizzas -- a Tony's and a Totinos, both sausage and pepperoni, about $4 all together -- and dined in bachelor/artist bliss while watching the last episode of the first season of the original THE TWILIGHT ZONE called "A World of His Own".

The episode originally aired July 1, 1960, was one of Richard Matheson's scripts, and features this really funny tag wherein the main character in the story interacts with Rod Serling doing his Narrator thing!!! The way I discovered this flick is I was reading a book of Matheson's TZ scripts and this was one of the scripts! I couldn't believe what I was reading! I figured it was just an in-joke, something Matheson wrote to give Serling and the other producers on the show a larf, but surely never made it on the air. So I grabbed my trusty TWILIGHT ZONE COMPANION -- written by Marc Scott Zicree back in 1982, currently published by Silman-James Press, and this is THE TV series companion, the one that set the standard for all that followed! -- and discovered that the episode DID air as written!!! So I tracked down the dvd collection that contained this episode, stcuk it in my Netflix queue, and it arrived today.

And I watched it while scarfing down a couple of tasy, inexpensive pizzas!!!

Good day for Ray Jay!!!

If I'd passed out from sheer contentedness right then and there, it would have been a fine day off for me!

But that wasn't the end!

My buddy Marvin Day -- special makeup effects stud and bass player for the local band Gorey Boys -- is leaving for the Northeast tomorrow. Tonight he played his last gig with the band at Room 710 (7th and Riverside). And he was inviting his friends to say goodbye over a beer and some really loud music. (Marvin-style!)

Brian was going to go with me, but his job had other thoughts about it.

Still, I don't get out nearly enough, and I love Marvin to death, so I was perfectly content to cruise solo.

And it was worth it! I headed downtown around 11:00 pm with, like, $12 in my pocket. (That's the way I roll.) I would have had $16, but I got that hankerin' for frozen pizza... You know.

I get there and Marvin spots me before I see him, waving me over. We get basic greetings in before, like, 3 other people pop up, wanting to tell him not to move and stuff. (Marvin's one of those dudes! People LOVE him! Marvin and Kelly, two cats who just don't have enemies.)

Before Marvin is pulled away, though, I get to meet his hottie girlfriend, Katy, who presses and address book and a pen in my hand and asks my to add my contact info. Which is a relief for me, because when Marvin's on a film set -- studio or indy -- he can be hard to reach. Plus he changes email addresses every 3 months, it seems. But as long as he's got MY info, I know I'll be hearing from him.

I see many friendly faces of cool people I know only through Marvin, so I get to mingle with them for a while before the show starts.

Turns out that I know all but one of the band members!!! The lead singer is this great actor that I've gotten to act with, but haven't gotten the chance to write for yet, named James Brownlee.

This is a cat with PRESENCE, so it wasn't a big stretch of the imagination to discover that he's the lead singer.

And the guitarist is Marvin's groovy roommate, John Hilbun. When you first meet see him you get that intellectual-art-geek/fan-boy vibe, but then you talk to him and discover that he's really sweet. As well as being smart, creative, and down with comic books and movies and stuff.

And then you hear what he's capable of making a guitar do!!! Stung upside-down, Hendrix style, John's guitar fuckin' SINGS!

I never could pin down just exactly what John's niche was, artistically. Looking at him, your first guesses would be writer or painter. I've seen him act.

But then you hear his guitar work and you go "Oh yeah! Of course! That's it!"

I'm not saying that's his only talent; I supect John's a master of a few different crafts. But I'd say guitarist is DEFINITELY one of them!

The drummer is the only band member I hadn't met yet. But he seemed cool, quiet and funny.

And he wailed on those drums! Arms and legs flying in all directions at breakneck speeds!

A little before midnight Gorey Boys hit the stage, and it's this rock-em-sock-em set that is over WAY too soon!

My Genius Friend Dave once told me about seeing the Ramones live. He said they got up on stage, started playing their first song at, like, twice the speed that they recorded it, and an hour or two later the show was over. They played all their songs without pausing, just blowing the audience away with this incessant wave of sonic energy.

The Gorey Boys only have 10 songs, but the way they draw you in, wind you up, and then it's over and you're left going "DO IT AGAIN!" reminded me of Dave's exeprience with the Ramones.

I'm just waiting for them to make an album!!! I can't believe they're not selling an album!!! What band with talent an panache, in 2005, DOESN'T have an album?!! They're ALL computer geeks! They're all cinema savy!!! (Maybe not the drummer, but I doubt it.) And it's not like they don't know how to utilize the Net: They have their own MySpaces, and I'm told the band has a MySpace!!! (It's supposed to be at www.myspace.com/goreyboys, but I haven't been able to find it yet... But they have recorded 4 of their songs and they're -- supposedly -- there.)

After the show many of us pile outside for a smoke -- it's not legal to smoke in bars in Austin anymore!!! -- and after Marvin tears himself away from the many people who want to talk to him, he joins us. Marvin says the set used to be tighter, John says they made a bunch of mistakes tonight, but I didn't hear any of them!

Someone catches Marvin's attention and he's pulled away...

...and then this guy comes up to me and makes my already cool night just a little bit COOLER!

The guy's holding a sketch pad and pencil and shakes my hand, introducing himself. He's Martez Randle and he does sketchs in 5 minutes or less. He's not a characaturist, and he works for love of drawing, for tips and donations. I am in no way obligated to by the portrait if I don't like it, and if I do like it any donation will be appreciated. He assures me that in 4 minutes, 5 tops, he will capture my features in a portrait that anyone who knows me will recognize as me.

I look in my pocket. I bought a beer and tipped the waiter, so I'm down to a Fiver and 2 Ones. I tell him I can only give him $5 if I like it, and ask him if it's worth his time. He enthusiastically tells me that it's all practice, and it's always worth his time. "It's a spiritual thing," he explains.

How can I turn THIS down?!!

I honestly believe that the quality of our life can be measured fairly accurately by the stories we and others can tell about that life. Today has already been, for me, a satisfying day, but Martez Randle and his 5-minute portrait added a particularly metaphysical sheen to this day!

I want to give Martez his own entry when I resolve the issue about getting pics onto my blog. So suffice it to say that I dug the portrait and he made $5, which was shamefully little compaired to what he gave me in terms of this experience. (Also, I give my last $2 to Flower Guy, but you'll read about that later.)

Re-entering the bar, I catch John on his way out and we chat for a bit and exchange cell numbers. Then I track down james and tell him he rules! Then I track down Marvin and chat with him for a bit before telling him he'll be missed and demanding a manly hug. I'm wussing out and going home -- Marvin's probably going to close the bar down. (Marvin-style!)

Back home and here I am.

I've been writing on this entry for the past 4 hours. I wrote all the stuff about Martez, but decided to pull it out until I can get the pic up. I'd just rather not talk about the man until you can see his work. I think it'll make more sense that way.

So now I guess it's time for bed. Going back to work tomorrow, so I might as well get some sleep.

Still, it's AMZING to me the difference having 2 days off IN A ROW can make!!!

May All Your Labor Day Dreams Come True!

It's been a lazy Labor Day for Ray Jay.

I'm working at the station today, but the work that usually keeps me occupied for the first half (approx. 5 hours) of my shift was completed Friday.

So I've been watchin' TV all day! (Not as sexy as it sounds; I don't get to change the channel...)

Before work, though, I got a little further on TOMB RAIDER: THE LOST ARTIFACT! I found a quad-bike and jumped it over a moving subway car, barely missing this deep, deep pit of glowing green stuff. (Well... I actually fell into the pit 3 times before I figured out how to avoid it. But that's the beauty of the Save feature of videogames!!!)

Let's see... Last night I all but finished this animated short I'm doing for a friend. It's not, say, INVADER ZIM good, but it holds up to, say, SEALAB 2021. I'm pretty proud of it.

Also, watched most of PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL again!

THAT MOVIE RULES!!!

Seriously, that movie is just PACKED with genius!!!

For instance, I noticed this one really odd, quirkly line: Captain Jack Sparrow is trying to convince Barbosa to let him into his confidences by way of making him commodore of his own fleet. And as the final bargaining chip -- one that seems to work, even! -- Sparrow says, "I'll even buy you the hat. A really big one."

GENIUS!!!

And I point this oddity out to Brian -- whose all about quirky humor, and the character traits they appear to reveal -- and Brian points out that at the end of the movie Sparrow compliments Will Turner on his hat, and is particularly concerned with his own hat earlier in the movie.

CAPTAIN JACK SPARROW IS OBSESSED WITH PEOPLE'S HATS!!!

How kooky is THAT?!

And it's the type of thing that you don't even notice until the 5th or 15th viewing of the flick, because there's SO MUCH going on in that movie!

Next summer, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST!!! Can't wait!!!

Oh, also I've been reading some Ray Bradbury: THE OCTOBER COUNTRY. It's a collection of dark short stories that he wrote between 1943 and 1955, all before he turned 26 years old!

Bradbury has STYLE! In fact, in a couple of his weaker stories one could argue that perhaps he has a bit too much style.

Not that I would argue that.

I mean, the worst episode of a Sorkin-written WEST WING is still pretty good TV, because Sorkin has his own style and he's not afraid to just run with it! Same could be said of Rod Seling's weakest TWILIGHT ZONE script, or Stephen King's weakest story.

But MAN, Bradbury has style! Reading his 40s stuff, you might even confuse him for one of the Beats -- Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burrows. There's sometimes this stream-of-consciousness, and sometimes he'll just describe the shit out of a person, place or thing! I mean, he makes up words like Dr. Suess, and like Suess, his made-up words hold more depth and meaninful explaination that 100 words used by the best 100 news reporters all put together! It's like Bradbury's wordsmithing razors into the heartscape of our mind, dimples the grey matter, claws taking firm hold, then forges an elecrtified communication line between his writing and our soul.

You know?

Anyway, I'm not really reading Bradbury so much for the education, but to try to capture that Halloween feeling from my childhood. THE HALLOWEEN TREE and SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES are able to tap into this sense of harmless fearful excitement I used to enjoy, dressed as The Wolf Man for an elementary school costume festival, or watching FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES one summer afternoon. OOH! Videotaping HALLOWEEN off Network TV at the house of my then-girlfriend, Kim Dobbs!!! (Could any man have a hotter girlfriend than someone who will sit at home with them and let them tape a classic horror movie, and then make out with them during the commercials?!! Shouldn't have let HER get away!!!)

There's this odd thing we experience -- particularly when we're children -- in which the possibility of ghosts and monsters open up this door to a more "magical" version of our own world! And there's this feeling that's, like, 20% dread, 30% awe or wonder and 50% straight-up JOY OF LIFE! And there's something about that mixture -- the little bit of negative emotion mixed with a whole lot of positive emotion -- that just IGNITES the imagination! Makes ya feel ALIVE!

And somehow Bradbury comes closest to reviving that feeling for me than any other storyteller so far. Mattheson, Serling and King can get me close, too, but not as often, it seems, as Bradbury.

Anyway, pretty groovy Labor Day.

AND I'M OFF FOR THE NEXT 2 DAYS!!!

My Special-Makeup-Effects Buddy Marvin is leaving for the East Coast Thursday morning -- The East Coast is SO LUCKY!!! -- but Wednesday night he's playing his last gig with his band, the Gorey Boys. (Marvin's last gig with them, but not their last gig.) The show starts at midnight, and knowing Marvin and his crowd the night should be off-the-hook.

So I hope to have one or two really crazy stories for ya by Thursday. (We'll see.)

MERRY LABOR DAY! Go shoot off some fireworks or ask neighbors for candy or something!