Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Happy New Year's Eve
I hope, as you review your 2009, that you find little to regret and MUCH to to be thankful for! AND... plenty to giggle about!
Have a blast tonight!!!
:D
Monday, December 28, 2009
AVATAR in 3D
I just got back from one of the most intensely beautiful films in a while!!!
Not to over-hype it, lol. ;P
But I totally get why everyone -- famous folks and friends alike -- are excited about James Cameron's Avatar!
First, this summer I got the sense of some online buzz about it, if only because James Cameron was back behind the camera. The man makes the highest-grossing film of all time, a film that everyone universally seems to love and hail, and then the cat disappears for the better part of a decade! Some might wonder if he had any more films left in him. Some might wonder if maybe he's afraid to make another movie -- after all, how do you follow up Titanic? We all knew the ending, and yet we all went to see it multiple times while it was still in cinemas.
I had a hint that this movie would probably be great, because I saw Steven Soderbergh's adaptation of Solaris, and knew that Cameron produced it. Not just produced it, though -- there are many, many levels of producers in Hollywood, and some of them are just business guys who took lunches on the studio's dime. Cameron was an active producer on Soderbergh's Solaris, and even did the DVD audio commentary with Soderbergh.
So I knew Cameron was up to something... I didn't have a clue what, though.
But, as I said, I figured it would be good. Here's why: Behind and beneath -- running throughout, really -- of Cameron's work is a soul, a beating heart. It's really the only thing that ties all his work together. Sometimes his soul is laid bare and stamped on every frame of his films, like The Abyss and Titanic. And sometimes the soul is masked by spectacle and/or comedy, like T2 and True Lies. But how else could you link works like Titanic and The Terminator? What other creative element binds them?
And when you watch Soderbergh's version of Solaris, you can see Cameron in the amazing visual effects (another creative element that marks Cameron's work) and you might be tempted to stop there. But I've seen enough Soderbergh to have sensed a more "spiritual" (for lack of a better adjective) quality in Solaris than in, say, Erin Brockovich or Ocean's Eleven. There are areas of the human condition that Soderbergh is interested in, and areas that Cameron is interested in, and Solaris appeared to me to be a blending of those two artists.
Still, even after seeing the first trailers for Avatar, I wasn't quite sold.
I mean, I knew it would be great, and I would have bet real money that it would be a better movie than I expected. I grew up with Cameron's work. I grew up on Cameron's work! One of my favorite movies of all-time is The Abyss! But the trailer didn't really show me anything that grabbed me, in particular. I mean, I LOVE blues and greens, so the blue people in the forest was definitely a plus. The trailer promised that James Cameron trademark action. And you've got to like a movie where a self-absorbed military ass is transformed by an aboriginal people into a deep, thoughtful person. (Which is what the first trailer suggested would be the case.)
But what really started to get my attention was when stars who aren't in the mvoie started talking about how excited they were about Avatar!
I mean, these people were doing press for these other films that they were in, but when they talked about Avatar, they sounded the same way my friends and I did in high school, when the release of a certain movie with a certain star or a certain director was a major event in our life! For that moment, they weren't stars, they were fans!
And how often do you watch stars turn into film geeks?
I mean, if you know them personally, maybe you see that a lot. But I don't know any personally. I see them in their work, or I see them promoting their work. Or on behind-the-scenes featurettes on their DVDs.
So it caught my attention when this started happening.
But that's not what sold me...
When my Gnomey and I got a chance to chat for a while week before last -- like really talk for a while, for the first time in some time -- she was all about Avatar! She loved this movie and couldn't wait for me to see it!
That's when I was 100% SOLD! My baby wants me to see it? I'm SO THERE!
The problem with seeing new movies for me, though, is time and money. I had already made a date with my li'l bro to see Sherlock Holmes on Christmas Day. That was time and money already spent.
I didn't know when the next time I would have both the time and the money would be, but I was determined that I would see Avatar AS SOON AS I could! I wanted to be able to talk to my baby about this movie that had so affected her.
She mentioned how good the music was, so I bought the soundtrack. And James Horner's score is awesome! :D But that's so substitute for the experience of seeing the film.
As it turned out, I got tonight (Sunday night) OFF! I had been scheduled to work straight through the rest of 2009, but just recently the other overnight op, for whom I was filling in, changed his mind and decided to work tonight!
AND, as fate would have it, I had some money!
In fact, the Alamo Drafthouse right next to me (so close that I've walked there before, though I didn't tonight because it's so frickin' cold in Austin right now) is showing it in 3-D!!!
Now, if you don't have an Alamo Drafthouse in your town (which is likely, since it's a local franchise that only recently started expanding to other cities) I need to describe the Drafthouse experience...
They don't serve popcorn, and overpriced hot dogs and nachos. They do serve overpriced candy, but that's not what most people buy there. At the Alamo Drafthouse, you can buy a REAL burger, or pizza, or some gourmet sandwich, and BEER. :) You can buy nachos, but they're not those cheapo cinema nachos, they're REAL nachos! Or you can buy Cheese Sticks or Jalapeno Poppers, if you're just looking for something light.
Me, usually I barely have enough money to buy the movie ticket. I usually don't eat when I go to the movies. If I can scrounge together enough money to get into the theater, that's absolutely good enough for me! :D
But tonight was an EVENT.
I woke up just before 9:00pm. It was too late to hope that my baby would be online, so I didn't bother. I did, however, check Fandango.com to see if the Drafthouse had a 9p-or-later showing of Avatar.
THEY DID!!! 10:00pm!
So I hauled myself out of bed, did some dishes (not apropos to the story, but they needed to be done) and headed to the movie.
I was already a little bit hungry, so I decided I'd shoot the moon and have me some Drafthouse food! This is a ridiculous extravagance for myself, but what the heck? It's that magical time after Christmas and before New Year's Day, when that magic of the Yuletide celebration is still in every breath you take! Plus, this was a magical Day Off! I was supposed to be working tonight, but magically, I wasn't! Plus, when I watched this movie, I knew I would be watching it with Gnomey!!! :D (I do most things with her, even though she's not with me physically at the time I'm doing them, but this was different; this was something she really wanted me to do, so that makes it even more special!)
Another fun aspect of the Drafthouse experience is that instead of playing boring-ass commercials before the feature, they fill the screen with wild & wacky pre-show stuff. Tonight as I was standing in line, or sitting and waiting for the movie to start, I saw the trailers for Return of the Creature in 3-D, Giant Gila-Monster and It Came From Outter Space in 3-D. Whether you can afford the food or not, a movie at the Drafthouse is a REAL movie experience! :D
For breakfast, I settled on this awesome Chicken Parmesan sandwich with REAL, steak-cut fries! You wouldn't believe the chicken patty, either! I've had a lot of Chicken Parmesan -- some from nice restaurants, most cheap frozen stuff you nuke at home -- and there was a subtlety about the seasoning of this Chicken Parmesan sandwich that I've only experienced in restaurants!
But none of this, the Drafthouse movie going experience, compared to the film!!!
Cameron has created this world for us that, at first, feels more or less like "typical" James Cameron... It's the future, it's high-tech, the military is all around... It's gorgeous! (You know, in that high-tech, gritty, futuristic sort of way.) And the way he used 3-D is GENIUS! It's not the old-school, stuff-poppin'-out-at-ya-because-this-is-a-3-D-flick shtick. Cameron uses the 3-D to thoroughly convince you that everything you see is real! And if it were real, THIS is how it would all look!
And starting you out in the gritty, militaristic, mechanized world is the PERFECT beginning for this movie! Because, very shortly, he introduces you into this world of organic, orgasmic beauty!!! A lot of filmmakers use special effects in films to take you to places you've never been before. (Cameron has done this in most of his movies. But, then again, EVERYONE does that now, lol.) But this film... It's all alien and beautiful, but most of the beauty can be found right here, on Earth! It's the beauty of a hike in the woods, or the look on your loved one's face!
Okay, I could get off on a tangent here about the gorgeousness of everyday life, but I'm not going to. It's all been said before, and when you see the film, you'll experience it for yourself.
And THAT is kind of the point of this movie...
I'm sure professional movie reviewers will comment on the "Green" themes or spiritual themes or whatever themes Cameron has woven into this amazing film experience, but what I am profoundly struck by about this film is the LIFE. This action-packed, intensely emotional, 3-D, mostly CG wonder that James Cameron has given us feels like living!
I don't know how to explain it better than that.
I'll put it this way: When I was a kid, the movies that I loved the most were the ones that made me immediately want to go outside and play. Like, after seeing Star Wars I wanted to go outside, gather the neighborhood kids and be Luke Skywalker (though I was usually Chewie, but that was fun, too). After seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark the kids in the apartment complex and I ran outside and got as dirty as we could hurling ourselves off jungle gyms and the like. Superman: The Movie had me running around as fast as I could with my arms outstretched, imagining what it felt like to fly.
Tonight after the movie, I spent half an hour running around the parking lot, leaping from one car rooftop to another...
Just kidding.
But what I'm talking about is that really good movies (the ones I prefer, anyway) tend to make me intensely aware of all the tiny little components of being alive, all the millions of second-by-second miracles that life as to offer. When I was a kid, these miracles included being able to run fast, kicking up dust, leaping off things and crashing to the ground. As an adult, they tend to include the colors of things, the textures of things, a single breath of air. And always, one of the most powerful elements of life, when I was a kid and now, is the ability to feel emotion.
What an amazing thing, emotion!
The ability to be filled-up with this inexplicable sensation that can make you weep tears of joy! Or the ability to feel appreciation -- deep, profound appreciation -- for something you already have not something that you hope to one day attain)! How cool is that!
I'm getting all abstract now, which is probably my cue to move on, lol.
But Avatar is a great movie and great fun! If you don't experience a sense of awe when you see it, you might want to have someone check your pulse.
Know what else is amazing?
Sherlock Holmes!
It's awesome for a whole other set of reasons. A very different film from Avatar, but no less amazing!
I did get to see it on Christmas Day, before I went into work. I didn't get to see it with my li'l bro, however, because he was exhausted and couldn't keep his eyes open, lol.
It also has an excellent soundtrack, this one by the astounding Hans Zimmer! He greats this musical soundscape for Holmes that places you intimately inside his world.
Very cool!
Sherlock Holmes was so cool that I finally broke down and am reading the novels for the first time. I've read the collections of short stories several times each, but I've avoided the novels. So last night I picked up A Study in Scarlet (the story in which Watson meets Holmes for the first time) and am enjoying it.
One thing that amazed me about the movie was how faithful it is to the cannon! I've heard a few complaints, based on the TV ads for the flick, along the lines of "I like Sherlock Holmes, and that's not Sherlock Holmes." I was concerned about the same thing when I saw the first couple of trailers for it. It seems like the trailers are actually designed to make you think Guy Ritchie and company are raping the mythology, lol.
But I have 2 notes for anyone debating seeing the film because they're fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories:
First, in the first 2 minutes of the movie the filmmakers sort of explain to you why this more energetic version of the legend is going to work. (It's a subtle thing, but within the first 2 minutes, if you're worried that the visual style is going to violate Doyle's creation, you'll go "Okay, I get it!")
Second, whatever happens throughout the movie, by the last 2 minutes you'll discover that the filmmakers really weren't taking any liberties at all with the original.
Both of these will make perfect sense after you've seen the movie. Because there are times when, if you know Doyle's work well, you go, "Hey, wait a minute..." But then when the movie wraps up, you realize that the writer and director were toying with you and your expectations.
If you've seen Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels you know that Guy Ritchie is an amazingly clever filmmaker. And after you've seen Holmes you realize that he is the perfect artist to reinterpret the characters/world for a new generation!
Okay, I've actually been blogging for a few hours now, and I have a couple of things to do before I go back to work tomorrow. So I bid you adieu for now, and I hope you have a KICK ASS New Year!!! (I will be working New Year's Eve, but I'm taking the first week of 2010 off, so I plan to celebrate the birth of the new year in my own way.)
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
:D
Not to over-hype it, lol. ;P
But I totally get why everyone -- famous folks and friends alike -- are excited about James Cameron's Avatar!
First, this summer I got the sense of some online buzz about it, if only because James Cameron was back behind the camera. The man makes the highest-grossing film of all time, a film that everyone universally seems to love and hail, and then the cat disappears for the better part of a decade! Some might wonder if he had any more films left in him. Some might wonder if maybe he's afraid to make another movie -- after all, how do you follow up Titanic? We all knew the ending, and yet we all went to see it multiple times while it was still in cinemas.
I had a hint that this movie would probably be great, because I saw Steven Soderbergh's adaptation of Solaris, and knew that Cameron produced it. Not just produced it, though -- there are many, many levels of producers in Hollywood, and some of them are just business guys who took lunches on the studio's dime. Cameron was an active producer on Soderbergh's Solaris, and even did the DVD audio commentary with Soderbergh.
So I knew Cameron was up to something... I didn't have a clue what, though.
But, as I said, I figured it would be good. Here's why: Behind and beneath -- running throughout, really -- of Cameron's work is a soul, a beating heart. It's really the only thing that ties all his work together. Sometimes his soul is laid bare and stamped on every frame of his films, like The Abyss and Titanic. And sometimes the soul is masked by spectacle and/or comedy, like T2 and True Lies. But how else could you link works like Titanic and The Terminator? What other creative element binds them?
And when you watch Soderbergh's version of Solaris, you can see Cameron in the amazing visual effects (another creative element that marks Cameron's work) and you might be tempted to stop there. But I've seen enough Soderbergh to have sensed a more "spiritual" (for lack of a better adjective) quality in Solaris than in, say, Erin Brockovich or Ocean's Eleven. There are areas of the human condition that Soderbergh is interested in, and areas that Cameron is interested in, and Solaris appeared to me to be a blending of those two artists.
Still, even after seeing the first trailers for Avatar, I wasn't quite sold.
I mean, I knew it would be great, and I would have bet real money that it would be a better movie than I expected. I grew up with Cameron's work. I grew up on Cameron's work! One of my favorite movies of all-time is The Abyss! But the trailer didn't really show me anything that grabbed me, in particular. I mean, I LOVE blues and greens, so the blue people in the forest was definitely a plus. The trailer promised that James Cameron trademark action. And you've got to like a movie where a self-absorbed military ass is transformed by an aboriginal people into a deep, thoughtful person. (Which is what the first trailer suggested would be the case.)
But what really started to get my attention was when stars who aren't in the mvoie started talking about how excited they were about Avatar!
I mean, these people were doing press for these other films that they were in, but when they talked about Avatar, they sounded the same way my friends and I did in high school, when the release of a certain movie with a certain star or a certain director was a major event in our life! For that moment, they weren't stars, they were fans!
And how often do you watch stars turn into film geeks?
I mean, if you know them personally, maybe you see that a lot. But I don't know any personally. I see them in their work, or I see them promoting their work. Or on behind-the-scenes featurettes on their DVDs.
So it caught my attention when this started happening.
But that's not what sold me...
When my Gnomey and I got a chance to chat for a while week before last -- like really talk for a while, for the first time in some time -- she was all about Avatar! She loved this movie and couldn't wait for me to see it!
That's when I was 100% SOLD! My baby wants me to see it? I'm SO THERE!
The problem with seeing new movies for me, though, is time and money. I had already made a date with my li'l bro to see Sherlock Holmes on Christmas Day. That was time and money already spent.
I didn't know when the next time I would have both the time and the money would be, but I was determined that I would see Avatar AS SOON AS I could! I wanted to be able to talk to my baby about this movie that had so affected her.
She mentioned how good the music was, so I bought the soundtrack. And James Horner's score is awesome! :D But that's so substitute for the experience of seeing the film.
As it turned out, I got tonight (Sunday night) OFF! I had been scheduled to work straight through the rest of 2009, but just recently the other overnight op, for whom I was filling in, changed his mind and decided to work tonight!
AND, as fate would have it, I had some money!
In fact, the Alamo Drafthouse right next to me (so close that I've walked there before, though I didn't tonight because it's so frickin' cold in Austin right now) is showing it in 3-D!!!
Now, if you don't have an Alamo Drafthouse in your town (which is likely, since it's a local franchise that only recently started expanding to other cities) I need to describe the Drafthouse experience...
They don't serve popcorn, and overpriced hot dogs and nachos. They do serve overpriced candy, but that's not what most people buy there. At the Alamo Drafthouse, you can buy a REAL burger, or pizza, or some gourmet sandwich, and BEER. :) You can buy nachos, but they're not those cheapo cinema nachos, they're REAL nachos! Or you can buy Cheese Sticks or Jalapeno Poppers, if you're just looking for something light.
Me, usually I barely have enough money to buy the movie ticket. I usually don't eat when I go to the movies. If I can scrounge together enough money to get into the theater, that's absolutely good enough for me! :D
But tonight was an EVENT.
I woke up just before 9:00pm. It was too late to hope that my baby would be online, so I didn't bother. I did, however, check Fandango.com to see if the Drafthouse had a 9p-or-later showing of Avatar.
THEY DID!!! 10:00pm!
So I hauled myself out of bed, did some dishes (not apropos to the story, but they needed to be done) and headed to the movie.
I was already a little bit hungry, so I decided I'd shoot the moon and have me some Drafthouse food! This is a ridiculous extravagance for myself, but what the heck? It's that magical time after Christmas and before New Year's Day, when that magic of the Yuletide celebration is still in every breath you take! Plus, this was a magical Day Off! I was supposed to be working tonight, but magically, I wasn't! Plus, when I watched this movie, I knew I would be watching it with Gnomey!!! :D (I do most things with her, even though she's not with me physically at the time I'm doing them, but this was different; this was something she really wanted me to do, so that makes it even more special!)
Another fun aspect of the Drafthouse experience is that instead of playing boring-ass commercials before the feature, they fill the screen with wild & wacky pre-show stuff. Tonight as I was standing in line, or sitting and waiting for the movie to start, I saw the trailers for Return of the Creature in 3-D, Giant Gila-Monster and It Came From Outter Space in 3-D. Whether you can afford the food or not, a movie at the Drafthouse is a REAL movie experience! :D
For breakfast, I settled on this awesome Chicken Parmesan sandwich with REAL, steak-cut fries! You wouldn't believe the chicken patty, either! I've had a lot of Chicken Parmesan -- some from nice restaurants, most cheap frozen stuff you nuke at home -- and there was a subtlety about the seasoning of this Chicken Parmesan sandwich that I've only experienced in restaurants!
But none of this, the Drafthouse movie going experience, compared to the film!!!
Cameron has created this world for us that, at first, feels more or less like "typical" James Cameron... It's the future, it's high-tech, the military is all around... It's gorgeous! (You know, in that high-tech, gritty, futuristic sort of way.) And the way he used 3-D is GENIUS! It's not the old-school, stuff-poppin'-out-at-ya-because-this-is-a-3-D-flick shtick. Cameron uses the 3-D to thoroughly convince you that everything you see is real! And if it were real, THIS is how it would all look!
And starting you out in the gritty, militaristic, mechanized world is the PERFECT beginning for this movie! Because, very shortly, he introduces you into this world of organic, orgasmic beauty!!! A lot of filmmakers use special effects in films to take you to places you've never been before. (Cameron has done this in most of his movies. But, then again, EVERYONE does that now, lol.) But this film... It's all alien and beautiful, but most of the beauty can be found right here, on Earth! It's the beauty of a hike in the woods, or the look on your loved one's face!
Okay, I could get off on a tangent here about the gorgeousness of everyday life, but I'm not going to. It's all been said before, and when you see the film, you'll experience it for yourself.
And THAT is kind of the point of this movie...
I'm sure professional movie reviewers will comment on the "Green" themes or spiritual themes or whatever themes Cameron has woven into this amazing film experience, but what I am profoundly struck by about this film is the LIFE. This action-packed, intensely emotional, 3-D, mostly CG wonder that James Cameron has given us feels like living!
I don't know how to explain it better than that.
I'll put it this way: When I was a kid, the movies that I loved the most were the ones that made me immediately want to go outside and play. Like, after seeing Star Wars I wanted to go outside, gather the neighborhood kids and be Luke Skywalker (though I was usually Chewie, but that was fun, too). After seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark the kids in the apartment complex and I ran outside and got as dirty as we could hurling ourselves off jungle gyms and the like. Superman: The Movie had me running around as fast as I could with my arms outstretched, imagining what it felt like to fly.
Tonight after the movie, I spent half an hour running around the parking lot, leaping from one car rooftop to another...
Just kidding.
But what I'm talking about is that really good movies (the ones I prefer, anyway) tend to make me intensely aware of all the tiny little components of being alive, all the millions of second-by-second miracles that life as to offer. When I was a kid, these miracles included being able to run fast, kicking up dust, leaping off things and crashing to the ground. As an adult, they tend to include the colors of things, the textures of things, a single breath of air. And always, one of the most powerful elements of life, when I was a kid and now, is the ability to feel emotion.
What an amazing thing, emotion!
The ability to be filled-up with this inexplicable sensation that can make you weep tears of joy! Or the ability to feel appreciation -- deep, profound appreciation -- for something you already have not something that you hope to one day attain)! How cool is that!
I'm getting all abstract now, which is probably my cue to move on, lol.
But Avatar is a great movie and great fun! If you don't experience a sense of awe when you see it, you might want to have someone check your pulse.
Know what else is amazing?
Sherlock Holmes!
It's awesome for a whole other set of reasons. A very different film from Avatar, but no less amazing!
I did get to see it on Christmas Day, before I went into work. I didn't get to see it with my li'l bro, however, because he was exhausted and couldn't keep his eyes open, lol.
It also has an excellent soundtrack, this one by the astounding Hans Zimmer! He greats this musical soundscape for Holmes that places you intimately inside his world.
Very cool!
Sherlock Holmes was so cool that I finally broke down and am reading the novels for the first time. I've read the collections of short stories several times each, but I've avoided the novels. So last night I picked up A Study in Scarlet (the story in which Watson meets Holmes for the first time) and am enjoying it.
One thing that amazed me about the movie was how faithful it is to the cannon! I've heard a few complaints, based on the TV ads for the flick, along the lines of "I like Sherlock Holmes, and that's not Sherlock Holmes." I was concerned about the same thing when I saw the first couple of trailers for it. It seems like the trailers are actually designed to make you think Guy Ritchie and company are raping the mythology, lol.
But I have 2 notes for anyone debating seeing the film because they're fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories:
First, in the first 2 minutes of the movie the filmmakers sort of explain to you why this more energetic version of the legend is going to work. (It's a subtle thing, but within the first 2 minutes, if you're worried that the visual style is going to violate Doyle's creation, you'll go "Okay, I get it!")
Second, whatever happens throughout the movie, by the last 2 minutes you'll discover that the filmmakers really weren't taking any liberties at all with the original.
Both of these will make perfect sense after you've seen the movie. Because there are times when, if you know Doyle's work well, you go, "Hey, wait a minute..." But then when the movie wraps up, you realize that the writer and director were toying with you and your expectations.
If you've seen Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels you know that Guy Ritchie is an amazingly clever filmmaker. And after you've seen Holmes you realize that he is the perfect artist to reinterpret the characters/world for a new generation!
Okay, I've actually been blogging for a few hours now, and I have a couple of things to do before I go back to work tomorrow. So I bid you adieu for now, and I hope you have a KICK ASS New Year!!! (I will be working New Year's Eve, but I'm taking the first week of 2010 off, so I plan to celebrate the birth of the new year in my own way.)
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
:D
Saturday, December 19, 2009
5 Days Till Christmas
I AM WRITING THIS ENTRY ON MY VERY FIRST LAPTOP!!! :D (Santa came early to the Edwards house.)
I now have a laptop! I can now live out my fantasy of sitting in a coffee shop or in a park or on the porch and writing!!! :D
How frickin' cool is THAT?!! :D
Does this mean I'll actually get more fiction writing done in 2010?
We'll see.
The truth is that I could have already been writing longhand in coffee shops or on the porch. But I haven't been.
Still, 2 things are true:
1. I seem to be open to more and better ideas when I'm outdoors.
2. Writing is sexier when it's being done one a laptop!
It feels cooler, more sophisticated to be writing on a laptop, lol.
I know, I'm a dork.
And probably old-fashioned, too. I'm guessing that teens and college students don't fantasize about writing on a laptop. That's passe by now. I'm guessing writing on a NetBook or and iPod Touch is probably more chic.
But what can I say? I'm old.
And not rich.
So writing on my very own laptop is the fulfillment of a 15-or-so-year old dream of mine.
So...
Five days till Christmas! Is everyone excited?!
As I've mentioned, I'm working through Christmas Eve and Christmas (and New Years Eve) but I plan to see SHERLOCK HOLMES before I go in to work Christmas Day! How long has it been since we've had a Sherlock Holmes flick in the cinemas? Was it YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES? Maybe WITHOUT A CLUE?
Although, in my heart of hearts, those two aren't really for-reals Holmes flicks. I mean, they're both absolutely great and fun, but, you know... They're sort of alternate-reality Holmes films. You know? Like, SMALLVILLE is to the Superman mythos -- It's Clark Kent and Metropolis and everything... but it's not really SUPERMAN Superman.
In fact, this will be my first time EVER to see a Holmes flick in the theaters!
I watched the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce flicks on VHS first, then DVD. I've watched ALL Holmes films on home video. (Naturally.) It's gonna be SO COOL to watch a Sherlock Holmes film in a movie theater!!!
What else is going on in my life at the mo...?
My Gnomey's a SWEETHEART!!!
That's nothing new, but she never loses her effect on me, lol.
I've watched the first 2 episodes of the new V series! That's going well. I'm not emotionally invested in it like LOST or CASTLE or DOLLHOUSE, but there's absolutely nothing negative I can say about it. I love their angle of Hope as a weapon, and the stories are tight, and the actors are SO COMPELLING to watch! The visual effects are good. There's no bad there. I suspect that in a few more episodes, the writers will have figured out how to own me. In fact, I still have 2 more eps to watch on Hulu... maybe they already have.
Brian is the greatest brother/roommate/friend a dude could ask for! My portable DVD player went out some time ago (the one I used to use to fall asleep to DVDs in my room), so my li'l bro bought me a DVD player for my room! I already had this little TV in there -- in HERE, actually; I'm writing this in my room! I haven't had a (working) PC in my room in SO LONG! I haven't had MY OWN COMPUTER in YEARS! I met my Gnomey Goddess on one of my brother's computers, lol! -- so I come home from work one morning to find UP playing in my room!!!
And Brian's just as broke as I am! But he wanted his bubba (that's how he refers to me, his bubba, lol) to be able to watch movies in my room again!
Dude is a PRINCE!
And this is, like, 2 weeks before Christmas, lol. He simply couldn't wait for me to have his present.
He gets that from our mom, I think. She and our Gan-Gan are the reason Brian & I have laptops. :) (Note: "Gan-Gan" is our maternal grandmother. I started calling her "Gan-Gan" when I was young, dumb and full of... youthful enthusiasm. I thought it was cool to call things by cutesy names -- and, I guess, it kind of was. It was the '80s. But the moniker has sort of stuck. my friend, now full-grown adults, some with kids of their own, still ask "How's Gan-Gan doing?")
DUDE!!!
I finally read Deepak Chopra's novel WHY IS GOD LAUGHING?!!! (That's not an exclamation of curiosity; the question mark there is part of the title. The three exclamation points are MY grammatical expression, whereas the question mark is the expression of the author within his title. Just wanted to be clear.)
I remember seeing the book around the time that THE LOVE GURU hit cinemas. But I never seemed to have the money handy to pick it up. (Because, as you know, I can't just buy the book... I have to buy the audiobook, if it exists, because I'm me. And the audiobook is always well-more expensive than the book.) Then I finally saw THE LOVE GURU on DVD -- thanks to the great and wonderful and loving Netflix!!! -- but I STILL didn't have the money.
Now, as you know, I have purchased and read many, many books between the time that THE LOVE GURU hit DVD and now.
BUT...
I had FORGOTTEN about WHY IS GOD LAUGHING? and so I didn't buy it.
Before now.
But Brian and I are working on 2 comedic novels, and we're playing with the idea of writing some sketches that we can shoot and edit and post on YouTube -- you KNOW I'll tell you about them and link up to them if/when we get them made and posted -- and so I've been itching to buy another copy of my old Comedy text book THE COMIC TOOLBOX by John Vorhaus. This is THE book on Comedy writing if you're an insecure writer looking to hone your comedy skills! I've read a few other authors, many legends in the field of writing Comedy, and NO ONE explains it better than Vorhaus! I don't know why that is. But like, if you want to know how to write, you go to Robert McKee and Karl Iglesias, neither of whom have written a screenplay (to my knowledge) in their life! but if you listen to what Aaron Sorkin or Joss Whedon have to say about writing, you'll be amazed and astounded and impressed, but it won't necessarily make YOUR script better. I think the same is true for Vorhaus. I don't know if he's ever written a screenplay or sitcom, but his take on how to write Comedy is sheer revelation!
They say -- rather snidely, if you ask me -- that "those who can't do teach." But it seems to me to be that many of those who can do, actually CAN'T teach. Not well, anyway. I mean, Stephen King, Michael A. Stackpole and William Goldman come to mind as exceptions to the rule... But you're always going to have the exceptions, right?
Anyway...
So I'm at Amazon, tracking down THE COMIC TOOLBOX, and some angel from Above reminds me about Deepak's novel about a comedian who goes on a spiritual journey -- the novel that Dan Akroyd and John Cleese praise, I might add -- and I happen to have enough money to buy BOTH!!! :D
And it turns out that WHY IS GOD LAUGHING? is great!
Whodathunk!
This is actually the 2nd Deepak Chopra novel I've read! Back in 1996, when I was living in Georgetown and could get a library card without paying a yearly fee for it (grumble, grumble, grumble, freakin' North Austin politics and their questionable politics, grumble, grumble) I listened to Deepak's OTHER work of fiction! It has to do with King Arthur and the gang, and there are these time/space slips, and it's very, very cool! I was just then getting into the Hindu/Eastern/Quantum Physics way viewing Time and I had heard about this guy Deepak Chopra who wrote all these books and was teaching people about the mysteries of Life, and so when I discovered he had written a novel and it was on cassette and I could check it out from the Georgetown Public Library, I pounced on it!
It would still be a decade before I would discover what Deepak Chopra and his work were really all about, but it was cool to get the taste. Plus, if you really want to experience non-linear Time -- Time as described by Eastern yogis and quantum physics -- read this book! Rollicking intensity! Besides Michael Crichton, who knew a doctor had such an adventurous side?!
So anyway, Deepak has written 2 novels -- out of 50+ -- and I've read them both, lol. And I haven't, YET, read a word of his non-fiction, lol.
But I've watched and listened to several of his talks. This man is AMAZING! He can tell you that simply thinking that you are healthy can make you healthy, then explain the intricate biological processes so clearly that you simply have no choice but to believe him! I mean, after he explains it, you feel like a million bucks, all energized and youthful and invigorated! GENIUS! Plus, he's got this sly wit and dry sense of humor that makes him easy to listen to. Oh, and don't forget the accent! Something about his very deep, very calm Indian accent makes you think of the voice of God, lol! James Earl Jones or Deepak Chopra, THAT'S what God sounds like!
THIS IS SO COOL, being able to write this!
For a while now, my physical location has limited my ability to write!
I mean, not really. It's all in my head.
If Stephen King were here, he'd call me a puss and tell me I'm not really a writer, I suspect.
I don't disagree, either, but I'm what Eddie Izzard might call "a Comfy Man", lol. I'm no Spartan, I can't fight naked, or live in a box with no bed. Stephen King and Scott Pressfield (author of THE WAR OF ART) are all about "write, no matter what the conditions are". But I'm, artistically, a wimp. If it's not fun, screw it; I'm not doin' it. I'll be creative when I FEEL creative. Otherwise, I can find some other way to occupy my time. I have an RCA Opal, I can let some other creative soul entertain ME. ;P
But anyway, lately I've had trouble being able to write.
In the past -- when Brian had 2 working computers -- I could slip off into his room (which he never used anymore, except for storage) and write on his computer. I met my Gnomey Goddess there, fell in love, wrote at least 2 short screenplays there, one short story, one audioplay, a handful of chapters of a doomed novel, and 2 feature-length screenplays in that room on that computer.
But then it broke down. :(
And, honestly, I haven't been able to write much since.
Something about the conditions one writes in seems to ease or stop-up the flow of creativity.
I'm writing this entry with Notepad, so I have no way of knowing how many words I've written so far, but it feels like a fair few! I can't seem to stop typing! The words keep coming and I feel compelled to type them out!
You can't write a work because... well... there's WORK going on.
And I really couldn't write on the Common Computer, because the chair was so uncomfortable and and space was just... I don't know... it seemed "restrictive" somehow. Read your email, respond if you have to, then get the hell out!
But sitting here, in my room, on my bed... Somehow this just feels PERFECT!
OOH! And I can't wait to see what it feels like to actually GO SOMEWHERE and write!!! :D
I remember, in 1998, my former boss had an extra laptop that he loaned to me. I was living with a roommate in Central Austin (I have yet to live alone... Curious... But usually I live with family, or a hot girl I intended to marry, or my ex-wife. (Who, you know... Was my WIFE wife then...) So the 2 times I live with "roommates" stand out in memory, for some reason.
Anyway, I may have done my best bit of writing back then. It was 45 or 75 pages (my memory can't decide on which) of a feature-length film that has yet to be completed. But the concept was, apparently, so good that two of my best friends, who happen to both be aspiring directors, fought over who was going to direct this movie when the script was completed.
Again, this was more than a decade ago, and we were young enough to hold pretty grandiose ideas about how our lives were going to turn out. Now, one of the friends -- the one that won the battle, actually -- is a husband and father of two AMAZING young girls, and the other is a producer in L. A. but he has yet to direct his own movie. And me... Not sure what I am. I am a blogger, a spiritual journeyman, a paranormal investigator, and I suppose an aspiring writer still.
And I'm Gnomey's boyfriend!!! :D xoxoxo And I'll one day be her fiance, and then her husband, and then the father of her children!!!
Which reminds me of a strange mental journey I took earlier this week! :)
It was the last couple of hours of my shift at work, and my mind wandered to what I might say to my younger self if I could travel, say, 20 years back in time.
At 19, I was thin and sexy, I was at what now appears to be my creative height as an actor (assuming I don't sprout an acting career in the future). I had just performed a lead in the "adult" production of THE NERD (I played Hammond, if you know the play) after more than a decade of playing leads and supporting character in the "children's" productions. I was "taking a year off from school" because, deep down, I suspected I was going to find my way to Hollywood and become a superstar, and skip the whole "higher education" process completely.
And I was also about to become a husband and very young father.
Now, twenty years later, what might I advise my younger self.
The exercise wasn't completely masturbatory: If the tale turned out interesting enough, I might make it a novel. There's certainly a market for it. What teen wouldn't want to learn the secrets of experience from an older version of himself/herself? And what adult wouldn't be intrigued by the possibility of hanging with his/her younger self? If I fit in enough humor and charm, this could be a sure sale!
So I explored it over the course of an hour or so...
You've got a pretty hot 19-year-old me who is at a sort of superficial peak, and you've got a you've got a sort of charming 39-year-old me who is at what may be a sort of spiritual peak. (Actually, I don't really feel like I'm "peaking". I really feel like I'm, maybe, a quarter of the way up a staircase that leads to whatever my next peak will be. But for the sake of the possible story, the character would need to be at a peak, or else there's really little point in telling the story, lol.)
So the 19-year-old me believes he's going to go to Hollywood and become the next Michael J. Fox. The 39-year-old me is the blogger you've come to sort of know. (Actually, if you read this blog, you probably know me in real life. But I'm tend to blog as though I have readers who only know me through this blog, lol.)
I considered the twists and turns my life was about to take -- failed application to the U. S. Coast Guard, a stint in Hollywood as a professional Extra and a failed actor, 17 years of study as a writer, author of a single unpublished Young Adult Horror novel, divorcee, more-or-less-absentee father to Tisha, working behind the scenes at a local TV station, rather than in front of the cameras of a Network TV show, non-degree-holding member of the national workforce making just enough to stay in electricity and a home and sometimes food, blogger, avid porn fan.
At 19, I thought I would be a rich and famous movie star by now.
When I examined the choices I was going to make in the next 20 years, how might I advise myself? How might I help my younger self avoid the needless pitfalls, and make choices to optimize my younger self's Life experience?
There's the old cliche, "If I had it all to do over again, I wouldn't change a thing." This works well for popular entertainment, because it makes us feel more comfortable with the mistakes we've made and the mis-steps we've taken in our lives. We walk away from the movie, or put down the novel, thinking "Whatever I do, it's all going to work out okay in the end." But intellectually, we know that this is probably a lie we choose to believe, so that we can just do any stupid ol' thing we feel like doing in the moment.
So I carried on a silent conversation with my younger self for an hour or so, re-examining the actions (or reactions) I took and where they lead me.
And I discovered a truly mind-boggling fact. Something I couldn't believe, but something the facts only verified, and could not dissuade.
I honestly would not change a thing in my past.
How freaky is THAT?!! I mean, you hear the old saying, and you know it's probably bullshit from an Old Timer to make himself feel better about his pathetic lot in Life, but when I honestly, candidly re-examined my choices and where they got me, I CAN NOT honestly imagine a better outcome!
I mean, could I have made choices that landed me a savings account and a better monthly income? Hell yeah!
Could I have made choices that resulted in less emotional pain? Fuck yeah!
But at what cost?
I'm being dead serious here.
My financial choices:
Until 2008, I read about the paranormal as entertainment, searching for ideas for Horror stories. It wasn't until around October of 2008 that it actually occurred to me that I could investigate this stuff for myself. I could learn for myself! I could take all the theoretical knowledge I gained from my reading and apply it to real-life situations and discover my own truth about the paranormal!
And my real fascination with the paranormal is a study of that shadow-land where the spiritual meets the physical. If I were a rich and famous movie star, I seriously doubt I would be exploring ANY aspect of the spiritual. Seriously, I grew up a fundamentalist Christian, and even still, I was A SLUT! I was perfectly comfortable telling my friends about how they would burn in hell if they didn't stop listening to stand-up comedians (whom I worshiped, too) who cursed, and yet I was getting laid by any hotty who was insecure enough to let me into her panties.
I was a shallow, shallow dude.
And yet, my very strict beliefs about how inescapable hell is are directly responsible for my deepr, more thorough exploration of my relationship to God. Just exactly HOW MUCH does He want me to die and suffer, lol? Why is He pissed off at me, and can I ever make Him not pissed? If He's "all love" then why did He create us to be unlovable? Etc.
My original belief system made it a sin -- I mean, "SIN!!!" -- to even explore paranormal subjects. As much as I wanted to be the Karate Kid, I thought I couldn't learn martial arts because Satan was hiding in Eastern Philosophy, lurking to turn me away from the path of God and lure me into eternal hellfire!
But it was one of my "bad choices" that led me to a deeper, more effortless, more fulfilling relationship as God as I (now) understand Her. (Btw, I don't really believe God has a gender, but I prefer the feminine because it forces me to think of Her in more open-minded terms than the masculine, which I grew up with.)
I'm not trying to preach to you or sell you on anything here, I'm just describing my journey.
But my spiritual identity has A LOT to do with how I perceive myself. And so I couldn't advise my younger self to change any of his choices regarding his spiritual path. Every choice he was going to make was going to subtly guide him to the spiritual landscape I now inhabit. And I know for a fact that THIS is where he wants to be right now.
But more than that, my younger self doesn't know that there will be something called "paranormal investigators"! as far as he knows, there are these nerdy eggheads called "parapsychologists" who have to deal with all the unpleasant aspects of academia, but don't get to make the money a PHd is supposed to afford other folk! My younger self has NO IDEA that some people will find relief from serious fear when he brings to bear his knowledge of the paranormal, and that some people will treat him like a rock star when we wears his investigator uniform, lol. He has no idea that the subject he studies now as a form of entertainment will one day become valuable, useful information for people who simply never gave as much attention to this topic as he has. In other words, by simply being himself, interested in what he's interested in, he will one day HELP strangers!
So if this younger self makes choices that lead him to more personal wealth, he's going to get distracted from the paranormal which, for him, is just a minor curio in which he occasionally indulges when something shinier isn't attracting his attention.
And THIS cat, this younger me, is going to LOVE being a paranormal investigator!!!
Who knows? Maybe in 2011 or 2012 his experiences in and knowledge of the paranormal will even gain him some notoriety.
But what about the heartaches? I know this cat has some seriously emotionally trying times ahead of him. For one thing, he will spend a decade alone, knowing there "must be" some perfect woman out there for him, with absolutely NO proof to corroborate his faith. This guy will spend some lonely, lonely nights imagining a perfect woman that he has no evidence exists. If I offer him a few pointers, he might be married to a great woman in the early 1990s, living a "normal" life and raising 2.5 children in a house with a white, picket fence.
If I help my younger self out, I can see to it that he holds onto a couple of the "good ones", or at least avoids a couple of the "bad ones".
But then there's Gnomey.
I have QUITE an imagination. I'm a writer. I can dream up a woman who is so sweet that your heart just goes out to her and you only want to protect her, and yet she's so sexy that you really, really want to just bend her over and do really naughty things to her, AND YET her physical appearance is just girl-next-door-ish that you really believe you have a shot with her, and only YOU perceive her TRUE beauty and sex appeal. It's not a hard task, actually. I just have to imagine everything I want from a woman, then consider my own insecurities as a man and as a human, then consider what Life has taught me about getting what I think I want, then meld all that into a character who possess the qualities that attract me so much that I want her, but who had flaws (to make her believable) but her flaws are small enough that they don't distract from the positive attributes.
I have imagined many, many incarnations of my "perfect woman".
And then I met Gnomey.
You hear these "spiritual truths" throughout your life. You hear that, for instance, holding our for the "right" whatever makes all the waiting worth it. You hear that everyone has a "perfect someone" somewhere out there, waiting for them. "Patience is its own virtue". Blah, blah, blah.
These "spiritual truths" aren't much comfort when you're on a 10-year "dry spell".
And yet...
This perfect combination of "failed" dreams and optimism, of closed doors and unforeseen opportunities leads the 36-year-old version of myself to meet a woman who possesses ALL my ideals about what "the perfect woman" is like AND BLOWS THEM OUT OF THE WATER!!!
When I got married at 19, I remember considering all the times I had been without a girlfriend and thinking "Thank God I'll never have to be lonely again".
An ironic thought, to be sure.
But now that I have my Gnomey Goddess, I am genuinely SO thankful for all she has given me that if something happened (and I have NO reason to believe it would, God bless) and she decided to break up with me, I would honestly be GRATEFUL for the time she shared with me! I mean, how perverse is THAT?!! This woman, effectively, loves me so thoroughly that Ever After is beside the point! I mean, usually we're looking for that person we want to spend the rest of our life with. And I have found a woman that I SO want to spend the rest of my life with, but if I didn't get the rest of my life, I would be cool with the time we've had with each other!
I get to have my cake AND eat it, too!
I somehow got to fall in love with a woman who makes all my ideals about perfection look half-formed, I got to experience HER falling in love with ME, I get to be loved by her and to love her, and her love for me -- however much it turns out to be in the long-run -- is ENOUGH for me!!!
How insane is THAT?!! Imagine you're at a buffet that you paid A LOT to attend. And imagine you eat absolutely EVERYTHING you want, and after an hour or so you're full and completely sated. BUT THE BUFFET IS STILL OPEN! If you get hungry in another hour, you can eat MORE! And if you're hungry an hour after that, YOU CAN EAT MORE! You don't have to leave! It's just THERE, right there in front of you! And if, for whatever reason, the owner actually does escort you out of the restaurant and tells you the meal is finally over, you feel contended that you have eaten WAY MORE than your money's worth. BUT YOU HAVE NO REASON TO BELIEVE THAT MOMENT WILL EVER COME!!! You may well be allowed to stay at that restaurant for the rest of your life, continually enjoying that amazing feast, forever more!
And if I advised my younger self to avoid any of the emotional low points he has ahead of him, he might never experience this feeling. One emotional low point leads, inescapably, to this emotional high he has waiting for him when he becomes me. I mean, as a writer I might be able to contrive some situation which allows my younger self to avoid the lows and still experience the highs, but even I wouldn't believe they were actually possible.
So where all this is leading is here:
In my imaginary conference with my younger self, I discovered that I simply could not, in good conscience, suggest that he make any choices different from what I, myself, chose.
In all sincerity, no bullshit and I'm not being sentimental here, if I had it all to do over again, I genuinely would not change a thing.
How messed-up is that?
I sincerely hope you're enjoying your holidays, and I very genuinely hope that should you ever take the time to look over your past choices, you discover that you are exactly where you want to be!!!
:D
I now have a laptop! I can now live out my fantasy of sitting in a coffee shop or in a park or on the porch and writing!!! :D
How frickin' cool is THAT?!! :D
Does this mean I'll actually get more fiction writing done in 2010?
We'll see.
The truth is that I could have already been writing longhand in coffee shops or on the porch. But I haven't been.
Still, 2 things are true:
1. I seem to be open to more and better ideas when I'm outdoors.
2. Writing is sexier when it's being done one a laptop!
It feels cooler, more sophisticated to be writing on a laptop, lol.
I know, I'm a dork.
And probably old-fashioned, too. I'm guessing that teens and college students don't fantasize about writing on a laptop. That's passe by now. I'm guessing writing on a NetBook or and iPod Touch is probably more chic.
But what can I say? I'm old.
And not rich.
So writing on my very own laptop is the fulfillment of a 15-or-so-year old dream of mine.
So...
Five days till Christmas! Is everyone excited?!
As I've mentioned, I'm working through Christmas Eve and Christmas (and New Years Eve) but I plan to see SHERLOCK HOLMES before I go in to work Christmas Day! How long has it been since we've had a Sherlock Holmes flick in the cinemas? Was it YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES? Maybe WITHOUT A CLUE?
Although, in my heart of hearts, those two aren't really for-reals Holmes flicks. I mean, they're both absolutely great and fun, but, you know... They're sort of alternate-reality Holmes films. You know? Like, SMALLVILLE is to the Superman mythos -- It's Clark Kent and Metropolis and everything... but it's not really SUPERMAN Superman.
In fact, this will be my first time EVER to see a Holmes flick in the theaters!
I watched the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce flicks on VHS first, then DVD. I've watched ALL Holmes films on home video. (Naturally.) It's gonna be SO COOL to watch a Sherlock Holmes film in a movie theater!!!
What else is going on in my life at the mo...?
My Gnomey's a SWEETHEART!!!
That's nothing new, but she never loses her effect on me, lol.
I've watched the first 2 episodes of the new V series! That's going well. I'm not emotionally invested in it like LOST or CASTLE or DOLLHOUSE, but there's absolutely nothing negative I can say about it. I love their angle of Hope as a weapon, and the stories are tight, and the actors are SO COMPELLING to watch! The visual effects are good. There's no bad there. I suspect that in a few more episodes, the writers will have figured out how to own me. In fact, I still have 2 more eps to watch on Hulu... maybe they already have.
Brian is the greatest brother/roommate/friend a dude could ask for! My portable DVD player went out some time ago (the one I used to use to fall asleep to DVDs in my room), so my li'l bro bought me a DVD player for my room! I already had this little TV in there -- in HERE, actually; I'm writing this in my room! I haven't had a (working) PC in my room in SO LONG! I haven't had MY OWN COMPUTER in YEARS! I met my Gnomey Goddess on one of my brother's computers, lol! -- so I come home from work one morning to find UP playing in my room!!!
And Brian's just as broke as I am! But he wanted his bubba (that's how he refers to me, his bubba, lol) to be able to watch movies in my room again!
Dude is a PRINCE!
And this is, like, 2 weeks before Christmas, lol. He simply couldn't wait for me to have his present.
He gets that from our mom, I think. She and our Gan-Gan are the reason Brian & I have laptops. :) (Note: "Gan-Gan" is our maternal grandmother. I started calling her "Gan-Gan" when I was young, dumb and full of... youthful enthusiasm. I thought it was cool to call things by cutesy names -- and, I guess, it kind of was. It was the '80s. But the moniker has sort of stuck. my friend, now full-grown adults, some with kids of their own, still ask "How's Gan-Gan doing?")
DUDE!!!
I finally read Deepak Chopra's novel WHY IS GOD LAUGHING?!!! (That's not an exclamation of curiosity; the question mark there is part of the title. The three exclamation points are MY grammatical expression, whereas the question mark is the expression of the author within his title. Just wanted to be clear.)
I remember seeing the book around the time that THE LOVE GURU hit cinemas. But I never seemed to have the money handy to pick it up. (Because, as you know, I can't just buy the book... I have to buy the audiobook, if it exists, because I'm me. And the audiobook is always well-more expensive than the book.) Then I finally saw THE LOVE GURU on DVD -- thanks to the great and wonderful and loving Netflix!!! -- but I STILL didn't have the money.
Now, as you know, I have purchased and read many, many books between the time that THE LOVE GURU hit DVD and now.
BUT...
I had FORGOTTEN about WHY IS GOD LAUGHING? and so I didn't buy it.
Before now.
But Brian and I are working on 2 comedic novels, and we're playing with the idea of writing some sketches that we can shoot and edit and post on YouTube -- you KNOW I'll tell you about them and link up to them if/when we get them made and posted -- and so I've been itching to buy another copy of my old Comedy text book THE COMIC TOOLBOX by John Vorhaus. This is THE book on Comedy writing if you're an insecure writer looking to hone your comedy skills! I've read a few other authors, many legends in the field of writing Comedy, and NO ONE explains it better than Vorhaus! I don't know why that is. But like, if you want to know how to write, you go to Robert McKee and Karl Iglesias, neither of whom have written a screenplay (to my knowledge) in their life! but if you listen to what Aaron Sorkin or Joss Whedon have to say about writing, you'll be amazed and astounded and impressed, but it won't necessarily make YOUR script better. I think the same is true for Vorhaus. I don't know if he's ever written a screenplay or sitcom, but his take on how to write Comedy is sheer revelation!
They say -- rather snidely, if you ask me -- that "those who can't do teach." But it seems to me to be that many of those who can do, actually CAN'T teach. Not well, anyway. I mean, Stephen King, Michael A. Stackpole and William Goldman come to mind as exceptions to the rule... But you're always going to have the exceptions, right?
Anyway...
So I'm at Amazon, tracking down THE COMIC TOOLBOX, and some angel from Above reminds me about Deepak's novel about a comedian who goes on a spiritual journey -- the novel that Dan Akroyd and John Cleese praise, I might add -- and I happen to have enough money to buy BOTH!!! :D
And it turns out that WHY IS GOD LAUGHING? is great!
Whodathunk!
This is actually the 2nd Deepak Chopra novel I've read! Back in 1996, when I was living in Georgetown and could get a library card without paying a yearly fee for it (grumble, grumble, grumble, freakin' North Austin politics and their questionable politics, grumble, grumble) I listened to Deepak's OTHER work of fiction! It has to do with King Arthur and the gang, and there are these time/space slips, and it's very, very cool! I was just then getting into the Hindu/Eastern/Quantum Physics way viewing Time and I had heard about this guy Deepak Chopra who wrote all these books and was teaching people about the mysteries of Life, and so when I discovered he had written a novel and it was on cassette and I could check it out from the Georgetown Public Library, I pounced on it!
It would still be a decade before I would discover what Deepak Chopra and his work were really all about, but it was cool to get the taste. Plus, if you really want to experience non-linear Time -- Time as described by Eastern yogis and quantum physics -- read this book! Rollicking intensity! Besides Michael Crichton, who knew a doctor had such an adventurous side?!
So anyway, Deepak has written 2 novels -- out of 50+ -- and I've read them both, lol. And I haven't, YET, read a word of his non-fiction, lol.
But I've watched and listened to several of his talks. This man is AMAZING! He can tell you that simply thinking that you are healthy can make you healthy, then explain the intricate biological processes so clearly that you simply have no choice but to believe him! I mean, after he explains it, you feel like a million bucks, all energized and youthful and invigorated! GENIUS! Plus, he's got this sly wit and dry sense of humor that makes him easy to listen to. Oh, and don't forget the accent! Something about his very deep, very calm Indian accent makes you think of the voice of God, lol! James Earl Jones or Deepak Chopra, THAT'S what God sounds like!
THIS IS SO COOL, being able to write this!
For a while now, my physical location has limited my ability to write!
I mean, not really. It's all in my head.
If Stephen King were here, he'd call me a puss and tell me I'm not really a writer, I suspect.
I don't disagree, either, but I'm what Eddie Izzard might call "a Comfy Man", lol. I'm no Spartan, I can't fight naked, or live in a box with no bed. Stephen King and Scott Pressfield (author of THE WAR OF ART) are all about "write, no matter what the conditions are". But I'm, artistically, a wimp. If it's not fun, screw it; I'm not doin' it. I'll be creative when I FEEL creative. Otherwise, I can find some other way to occupy my time. I have an RCA Opal, I can let some other creative soul entertain ME. ;P
But anyway, lately I've had trouble being able to write.
In the past -- when Brian had 2 working computers -- I could slip off into his room (which he never used anymore, except for storage) and write on his computer. I met my Gnomey Goddess there, fell in love, wrote at least 2 short screenplays there, one short story, one audioplay, a handful of chapters of a doomed novel, and 2 feature-length screenplays in that room on that computer.
But then it broke down. :(
And, honestly, I haven't been able to write much since.
Something about the conditions one writes in seems to ease or stop-up the flow of creativity.
I'm writing this entry with Notepad, so I have no way of knowing how many words I've written so far, but it feels like a fair few! I can't seem to stop typing! The words keep coming and I feel compelled to type them out!
You can't write a work because... well... there's WORK going on.
And I really couldn't write on the Common Computer, because the chair was so uncomfortable and and space was just... I don't know... it seemed "restrictive" somehow. Read your email, respond if you have to, then get the hell out!
But sitting here, in my room, on my bed... Somehow this just feels PERFECT!
OOH! And I can't wait to see what it feels like to actually GO SOMEWHERE and write!!! :D
I remember, in 1998, my former boss had an extra laptop that he loaned to me. I was living with a roommate in Central Austin (I have yet to live alone... Curious... But usually I live with family, or a hot girl I intended to marry, or my ex-wife. (Who, you know... Was my WIFE wife then...) So the 2 times I live with "roommates" stand out in memory, for some reason.
Anyway, I may have done my best bit of writing back then. It was 45 or 75 pages (my memory can't decide on which) of a feature-length film that has yet to be completed. But the concept was, apparently, so good that two of my best friends, who happen to both be aspiring directors, fought over who was going to direct this movie when the script was completed.
Again, this was more than a decade ago, and we were young enough to hold pretty grandiose ideas about how our lives were going to turn out. Now, one of the friends -- the one that won the battle, actually -- is a husband and father of two AMAZING young girls, and the other is a producer in L. A. but he has yet to direct his own movie. And me... Not sure what I am. I am a blogger, a spiritual journeyman, a paranormal investigator, and I suppose an aspiring writer still.
And I'm Gnomey's boyfriend!!! :D xoxoxo And I'll one day be her fiance, and then her husband, and then the father of her children!!!
Which reminds me of a strange mental journey I took earlier this week! :)
It was the last couple of hours of my shift at work, and my mind wandered to what I might say to my younger self if I could travel, say, 20 years back in time.
At 19, I was thin and sexy, I was at what now appears to be my creative height as an actor (assuming I don't sprout an acting career in the future). I had just performed a lead in the "adult" production of THE NERD (I played Hammond, if you know the play) after more than a decade of playing leads and supporting character in the "children's" productions. I was "taking a year off from school" because, deep down, I suspected I was going to find my way to Hollywood and become a superstar, and skip the whole "higher education" process completely.
And I was also about to become a husband and very young father.
Now, twenty years later, what might I advise my younger self.
The exercise wasn't completely masturbatory: If the tale turned out interesting enough, I might make it a novel. There's certainly a market for it. What teen wouldn't want to learn the secrets of experience from an older version of himself/herself? And what adult wouldn't be intrigued by the possibility of hanging with his/her younger self? If I fit in enough humor and charm, this could be a sure sale!
So I explored it over the course of an hour or so...
You've got a pretty hot 19-year-old me who is at a sort of superficial peak, and you've got a you've got a sort of charming 39-year-old me who is at what may be a sort of spiritual peak. (Actually, I don't really feel like I'm "peaking". I really feel like I'm, maybe, a quarter of the way up a staircase that leads to whatever my next peak will be. But for the sake of the possible story, the character would need to be at a peak, or else there's really little point in telling the story, lol.)
So the 19-year-old me believes he's going to go to Hollywood and become the next Michael J. Fox. The 39-year-old me is the blogger you've come to sort of know. (Actually, if you read this blog, you probably know me in real life. But I'm tend to blog as though I have readers who only know me through this blog, lol.)
I considered the twists and turns my life was about to take -- failed application to the U. S. Coast Guard, a stint in Hollywood as a professional Extra and a failed actor, 17 years of study as a writer, author of a single unpublished Young Adult Horror novel, divorcee, more-or-less-absentee father to Tisha, working behind the scenes at a local TV station, rather than in front of the cameras of a Network TV show, non-degree-holding member of the national workforce making just enough to stay in electricity and a home and sometimes food, blogger, avid porn fan.
At 19, I thought I would be a rich and famous movie star by now.
When I examined the choices I was going to make in the next 20 years, how might I advise myself? How might I help my younger self avoid the needless pitfalls, and make choices to optimize my younger self's Life experience?
There's the old cliche, "If I had it all to do over again, I wouldn't change a thing." This works well for popular entertainment, because it makes us feel more comfortable with the mistakes we've made and the mis-steps we've taken in our lives. We walk away from the movie, or put down the novel, thinking "Whatever I do, it's all going to work out okay in the end." But intellectually, we know that this is probably a lie we choose to believe, so that we can just do any stupid ol' thing we feel like doing in the moment.
So I carried on a silent conversation with my younger self for an hour or so, re-examining the actions (or reactions) I took and where they lead me.
And I discovered a truly mind-boggling fact. Something I couldn't believe, but something the facts only verified, and could not dissuade.
I honestly would not change a thing in my past.
How freaky is THAT?!! I mean, you hear the old saying, and you know it's probably bullshit from an Old Timer to make himself feel better about his pathetic lot in Life, but when I honestly, candidly re-examined my choices and where they got me, I CAN NOT honestly imagine a better outcome!
I mean, could I have made choices that landed me a savings account and a better monthly income? Hell yeah!
Could I have made choices that resulted in less emotional pain? Fuck yeah!
But at what cost?
I'm being dead serious here.
My financial choices:
Until 2008, I read about the paranormal as entertainment, searching for ideas for Horror stories. It wasn't until around October of 2008 that it actually occurred to me that I could investigate this stuff for myself. I could learn for myself! I could take all the theoretical knowledge I gained from my reading and apply it to real-life situations and discover my own truth about the paranormal!
And my real fascination with the paranormal is a study of that shadow-land where the spiritual meets the physical. If I were a rich and famous movie star, I seriously doubt I would be exploring ANY aspect of the spiritual. Seriously, I grew up a fundamentalist Christian, and even still, I was A SLUT! I was perfectly comfortable telling my friends about how they would burn in hell if they didn't stop listening to stand-up comedians (whom I worshiped, too) who cursed, and yet I was getting laid by any hotty who was insecure enough to let me into her panties.
I was a shallow, shallow dude.
And yet, my very strict beliefs about how inescapable hell is are directly responsible for my deepr, more thorough exploration of my relationship to God. Just exactly HOW MUCH does He want me to die and suffer, lol? Why is He pissed off at me, and can I ever make Him not pissed? If He's "all love" then why did He create us to be unlovable? Etc.
My original belief system made it a sin -- I mean, "SIN!!!" -- to even explore paranormal subjects. As much as I wanted to be the Karate Kid, I thought I couldn't learn martial arts because Satan was hiding in Eastern Philosophy, lurking to turn me away from the path of God and lure me into eternal hellfire!
But it was one of my "bad choices" that led me to a deeper, more effortless, more fulfilling relationship as God as I (now) understand Her. (Btw, I don't really believe God has a gender, but I prefer the feminine because it forces me to think of Her in more open-minded terms than the masculine, which I grew up with.)
I'm not trying to preach to you or sell you on anything here, I'm just describing my journey.
But my spiritual identity has A LOT to do with how I perceive myself. And so I couldn't advise my younger self to change any of his choices regarding his spiritual path. Every choice he was going to make was going to subtly guide him to the spiritual landscape I now inhabit. And I know for a fact that THIS is where he wants to be right now.
But more than that, my younger self doesn't know that there will be something called "paranormal investigators"! as far as he knows, there are these nerdy eggheads called "parapsychologists" who have to deal with all the unpleasant aspects of academia, but don't get to make the money a PHd is supposed to afford other folk! My younger self has NO IDEA that some people will find relief from serious fear when he brings to bear his knowledge of the paranormal, and that some people will treat him like a rock star when we wears his investigator uniform, lol. He has no idea that the subject he studies now as a form of entertainment will one day become valuable, useful information for people who simply never gave as much attention to this topic as he has. In other words, by simply being himself, interested in what he's interested in, he will one day HELP strangers!
So if this younger self makes choices that lead him to more personal wealth, he's going to get distracted from the paranormal which, for him, is just a minor curio in which he occasionally indulges when something shinier isn't attracting his attention.
And THIS cat, this younger me, is going to LOVE being a paranormal investigator!!!
Who knows? Maybe in 2011 or 2012 his experiences in and knowledge of the paranormal will even gain him some notoriety.
But what about the heartaches? I know this cat has some seriously emotionally trying times ahead of him. For one thing, he will spend a decade alone, knowing there "must be" some perfect woman out there for him, with absolutely NO proof to corroborate his faith. This guy will spend some lonely, lonely nights imagining a perfect woman that he has no evidence exists. If I offer him a few pointers, he might be married to a great woman in the early 1990s, living a "normal" life and raising 2.5 children in a house with a white, picket fence.
If I help my younger self out, I can see to it that he holds onto a couple of the "good ones", or at least avoids a couple of the "bad ones".
But then there's Gnomey.
I have QUITE an imagination. I'm a writer. I can dream up a woman who is so sweet that your heart just goes out to her and you only want to protect her, and yet she's so sexy that you really, really want to just bend her over and do really naughty things to her, AND YET her physical appearance is just girl-next-door-ish that you really believe you have a shot with her, and only YOU perceive her TRUE beauty and sex appeal. It's not a hard task, actually. I just have to imagine everything I want from a woman, then consider my own insecurities as a man and as a human, then consider what Life has taught me about getting what I think I want, then meld all that into a character who possess the qualities that attract me so much that I want her, but who had flaws (to make her believable) but her flaws are small enough that they don't distract from the positive attributes.
I have imagined many, many incarnations of my "perfect woman".
And then I met Gnomey.
You hear these "spiritual truths" throughout your life. You hear that, for instance, holding our for the "right" whatever makes all the waiting worth it. You hear that everyone has a "perfect someone" somewhere out there, waiting for them. "Patience is its own virtue". Blah, blah, blah.
These "spiritual truths" aren't much comfort when you're on a 10-year "dry spell".
And yet...
This perfect combination of "failed" dreams and optimism, of closed doors and unforeseen opportunities leads the 36-year-old version of myself to meet a woman who possesses ALL my ideals about what "the perfect woman" is like AND BLOWS THEM OUT OF THE WATER!!!
When I got married at 19, I remember considering all the times I had been without a girlfriend and thinking "Thank God I'll never have to be lonely again".
An ironic thought, to be sure.
But now that I have my Gnomey Goddess, I am genuinely SO thankful for all she has given me that if something happened (and I have NO reason to believe it would, God bless) and she decided to break up with me, I would honestly be GRATEFUL for the time she shared with me! I mean, how perverse is THAT?!! This woman, effectively, loves me so thoroughly that Ever After is beside the point! I mean, usually we're looking for that person we want to spend the rest of our life with. And I have found a woman that I SO want to spend the rest of my life with, but if I didn't get the rest of my life, I would be cool with the time we've had with each other!
I get to have my cake AND eat it, too!
I somehow got to fall in love with a woman who makes all my ideals about perfection look half-formed, I got to experience HER falling in love with ME, I get to be loved by her and to love her, and her love for me -- however much it turns out to be in the long-run -- is ENOUGH for me!!!
How insane is THAT?!! Imagine you're at a buffet that you paid A LOT to attend. And imagine you eat absolutely EVERYTHING you want, and after an hour or so you're full and completely sated. BUT THE BUFFET IS STILL OPEN! If you get hungry in another hour, you can eat MORE! And if you're hungry an hour after that, YOU CAN EAT MORE! You don't have to leave! It's just THERE, right there in front of you! And if, for whatever reason, the owner actually does escort you out of the restaurant and tells you the meal is finally over, you feel contended that you have eaten WAY MORE than your money's worth. BUT YOU HAVE NO REASON TO BELIEVE THAT MOMENT WILL EVER COME!!! You may well be allowed to stay at that restaurant for the rest of your life, continually enjoying that amazing feast, forever more!
And if I advised my younger self to avoid any of the emotional low points he has ahead of him, he might never experience this feeling. One emotional low point leads, inescapably, to this emotional high he has waiting for him when he becomes me. I mean, as a writer I might be able to contrive some situation which allows my younger self to avoid the lows and still experience the highs, but even I wouldn't believe they were actually possible.
So where all this is leading is here:
In my imaginary conference with my younger self, I discovered that I simply could not, in good conscience, suggest that he make any choices different from what I, myself, chose.
In all sincerity, no bullshit and I'm not being sentimental here, if I had it all to do over again, I genuinely would not change a thing.
How messed-up is that?
I sincerely hope you're enjoying your holidays, and I very genuinely hope that should you ever take the time to look over your past choices, you discover that you are exactly where you want to be!!!
:D
Friday, December 11, 2009
13 Days Till Christmas
Finally found a moment to blog.
I've been busy!
Looking back, I see that I last posted back in November. Since then I have finished Under the Dome -- which was AWESOME!
PLUS, it has a cameo by a friend of mine, Reynolds Wolf, who was our morning weather guy back in the '90s, and now he's at CNN! So how weird is it to have and old friend pop up in a Stephen King novel?!! Cooler still was the fact that I appear to be the first person who knows him to have read the book, because I got to be the guy who told him! :D That was a neat feeling. His response was, naturally, "Really?"
Brian & I also drove to Louisiana to spend Thanksgiving with Mom, Gan-Gan and Mom's husband. (It seems weird calling him my step-dad because I'm 39 years old, lol. I think of him as Mom's Boy-Toy. Mom's Man-Thang. Is that wrong?)
I've also read MICHAEL CRICHTON'S LAST NOVEL, PIRATE LATITUDES!!! It's a PIRATE NOVEL!!! :D MICHAEL CRICHTON WROTE A PIRATE NOVEL!!! :D
It was awesome!
The visual authenticity of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies is matched by the EVERYTHING authenticity of Pirate Latitudes. What I mean is, the way everything looks realistic and believable in the Pirates movies, everything in Crichton's novels feels that real. Anyone who has read his work knows Crichton is fascinated with historical and technical details, and is a master at entegrating them into a tight, fast-paced, exciting story. The historical detail in Pirate Latitudes is no exception. You feel as though you're cruising around in mid-1600s.
What else?
I'm working.
What I mean is that I'm filling in for a co-worker on vacation. This Sunday will be 1 of 2 days I get off for the rest of 2009. I'm off Sunday, then off again next Sunday, then the next time I'm off work is January 1, 2010.
But this isn't a bad thing!
First of all, who couldn't use overtime nowadays, right?
Secondly, overnight on the weekends is pleasantly uneventfuly usually. (Unless something blows up... which happens... but, thankfully, not often.) So I may get to catch up on my Hulu queue. I'm behind several episodes of Castle and Dollhouse and Ghost Hunters, and I added V to my queue and haven't even watched the first episode yet. So I'm hoping to empty my Hulu queue out by the tiome 2010 rolls around. (We're having computer issues at home, so I haven't been watching much Hulu at the house.)
Anything else?
I haven't heard much from my sweety, but she texts me whenever she can. The holidays always seem to be busy for her, and I imagine they are more so this year. (♥LOVE YOU, GNOMEY!!! xoxoxo ♥)
OH! The paranormal-thang is AWESOME! I lead my first investigation with Texas Spirits recently!!! :D And I think I did a competent job! It was freaky, because I'm directing people who are much more experienced than I am! And they're following my lead!!! :P It's wacky!
I'm not really into titles, so being "lead investigator" on a case doesn't really do anything for me (besides make me anxious, lol), but what I'm floored by is the fact that these cats that I love and respect seem to think of me as an equal. (I guess I've got them fool, huh?)
Also, I've been corresponding with a couple of people who have questions about possible paranormal activity, and it's really neat to be able to share my thoughts on the subject! You know? Like, to have someone ask me a question and be interested to hear what I think about a paranormal matter. VERY cool! :) I feel like a legitimate member of the paranormal community, lol!
I know, I'm a nerd, right?
OOH!
SHERLOCK HOLMES!!!
CHRISTMAS DAY!
I'm working Christmas, but I am making it my mission to see the new Sherlock Holmes flick ON CHRISTMAS DAY!
DUDE!!!
Holmes is one of my FAVORITE, FAVORITE, FAVORITE characters of all time! I love the original Conan Doyles stories, I love the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce movies, I love the Rathbone/Bruce radio show, and I love the Jeremy Brett series (1984-1994 by Granada Television)!
Now, it seems wierd to me to have a Yank playing Holmes -- like having an American play Bond (or, for that matter, like Angelina Jolie playing Lara Croft) -- but if you've got to cast an American as Holmes, Robert Downey, Jr. is DEFINITELY a good candidate!
Plus, this new flicks looks like it's going to explore some "new" aspects of the Holmesean mythos.
Like, for instance, the action angle!
In the short stories, the action always takes place "off screen", as dialogue. "Oh yes," said Holmes, "I had to rough up eighteen hooligans before being thrown off a train crossing a hundred-thousand foot bridge, and then I was forced to duel Jack the Ripper with sabers before vanquishing a sasquatch with a straight razor, but finally I was free to look at the footprints inbedded in the clay surrounding the murder site and I noticed..."
Apparently, Conan Doyle simply wasn't interested in the action as much as the deduction, so he never wrote those parts, merely had his characters refer to them.
Then, I believe, Holmes went to the stage. Well, the theatre doesn't really lend itself to action set pieces so, again, the action elements of a Holmes story was de-emphesized or removed.
Then, if I'm not mistaken, Holmes moved to the radio... Again, not really an action-friendly medium.
Then Holmes moved to the big screen... BUT...
By now, everyone is used to a sort of non-action style Holmes. Plus, it's more expensive to shoot action scenes than it is to shoot talking scenes. And I'll bet part of the appeal of Holmes for the studio was the fact that they could simply film a stage play (logistically speaking) and still rake in Big Budget box office. (I don't know how much the Holmes films made when they we in cinemas, but they made 14 of them, so I'm guessing they made plenty.)
So, basically, generations have grown up with an inactive Holmes.
Jeremy Brett energized the personality of Holmes with his performance, but that was still a TV show, so action still remained largely off-screen.
So I'm excited to see an Action-Hero version of Holmes! I think it'll be fun. Plus, there have been flicks in the last 15 years or so that have played-up some of Holmes' more eccentric personality traits, but usually in a more somber way. It looks like Downey, Jr.'s interpretation of Holmes is, like Brett's, that sort of manic energy, dropped into a Guy Ritchie scope! :D
FUN!!!
PLUS... WATSON!!!
I blame Nigel Bruce for being so loveable as Watson and for being so talented as a comedian, but Watson WAS NEVER a bumbler! EVER! In the Conan Doyle stories, Watson is a doctor and a war vet! He may not be as smart as Holmes, but NOBODY is as smart as Holmes. (There is Moriority and Mycroft, but that's it. Holmes is in a league of his own, and that's the point of the character.) Watson was smart enough to continue to get calls from Scottland Yard to help them on cases after Holmes (apparently) died! That fact really doesn't jibe with Nigel Bruce's intepretation of Watson.
Still, the long-standing popularity of the Rathbone/Bruce team in 14 films and 7 years on the radio has created this sort of inescapable image of Dr. Watson being an affable bumbler.
The Granada TV series(s) did a whole lot to repair that image, though. There are now generations of folks who know that Watson is competent.
But THIS Watson...! Jude Law, dude!!! :D THIS is gonna be an AWESOME Watson!!! In fact, the trailers and commercials I've seen so far sort of make Holmes look like the oddball! Like, Watson is this cool, competent guy, and Holmes is the freak... which... is really the way the relationship would have worked out, if you think about it. I mean, yeah, Holmes was famous and all, but he was a geek. Watson was really the one you would rather have a conversation with. Like Monk and Sharona/Natalie: You talk to Sharona/Natalie, and let her deal with the crazy genius freak-guy.
Blah.
So anyway, I'm stoked! I SO can't wait to see this flick!
Merry Christmas to me! :D
Okay, I'm goign to go do work now. There's not a ton to do, but it would be wisest for me to go ahead and do it before I slack any further.
Enjoy your weekends and the season! :D It's the greatest time of the year!!!
I've been busy!
Looking back, I see that I last posted back in November. Since then I have finished Under the Dome -- which was AWESOME!
PLUS, it has a cameo by a friend of mine, Reynolds Wolf, who was our morning weather guy back in the '90s, and now he's at CNN! So how weird is it to have and old friend pop up in a Stephen King novel?!! Cooler still was the fact that I appear to be the first person who knows him to have read the book, because I got to be the guy who told him! :D That was a neat feeling. His response was, naturally, "Really?"
Brian & I also drove to Louisiana to spend Thanksgiving with Mom, Gan-Gan and Mom's husband. (It seems weird calling him my step-dad because I'm 39 years old, lol. I think of him as Mom's Boy-Toy. Mom's Man-Thang. Is that wrong?)
I've also read MICHAEL CRICHTON'S LAST NOVEL, PIRATE LATITUDES!!! It's a PIRATE NOVEL!!! :D MICHAEL CRICHTON WROTE A PIRATE NOVEL!!! :D
It was awesome!
The visual authenticity of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies is matched by the EVERYTHING authenticity of Pirate Latitudes. What I mean is, the way everything looks realistic and believable in the Pirates movies, everything in Crichton's novels feels that real. Anyone who has read his work knows Crichton is fascinated with historical and technical details, and is a master at entegrating them into a tight, fast-paced, exciting story. The historical detail in Pirate Latitudes is no exception. You feel as though you're cruising around in mid-1600s.
What else?
I'm working.
What I mean is that I'm filling in for a co-worker on vacation. This Sunday will be 1 of 2 days I get off for the rest of 2009. I'm off Sunday, then off again next Sunday, then the next time I'm off work is January 1, 2010.
But this isn't a bad thing!
First of all, who couldn't use overtime nowadays, right?
Secondly, overnight on the weekends is pleasantly uneventfuly usually. (Unless something blows up... which happens... but, thankfully, not often.) So I may get to catch up on my Hulu queue. I'm behind several episodes of Castle and Dollhouse and Ghost Hunters, and I added V to my queue and haven't even watched the first episode yet. So I'm hoping to empty my Hulu queue out by the tiome 2010 rolls around. (We're having computer issues at home, so I haven't been watching much Hulu at the house.)
Anything else?
I haven't heard much from my sweety, but she texts me whenever she can. The holidays always seem to be busy for her, and I imagine they are more so this year. (♥LOVE YOU, GNOMEY!!! xoxoxo ♥)
OH! The paranormal-thang is AWESOME! I lead my first investigation with Texas Spirits recently!!! :D And I think I did a competent job! It was freaky, because I'm directing people who are much more experienced than I am! And they're following my lead!!! :P It's wacky!
I'm not really into titles, so being "lead investigator" on a case doesn't really do anything for me (besides make me anxious, lol), but what I'm floored by is the fact that these cats that I love and respect seem to think of me as an equal. (I guess I've got them fool, huh?)
Also, I've been corresponding with a couple of people who have questions about possible paranormal activity, and it's really neat to be able to share my thoughts on the subject! You know? Like, to have someone ask me a question and be interested to hear what I think about a paranormal matter. VERY cool! :) I feel like a legitimate member of the paranormal community, lol!
I know, I'm a nerd, right?
OOH!
SHERLOCK HOLMES!!!
CHRISTMAS DAY!
I'm working Christmas, but I am making it my mission to see the new Sherlock Holmes flick ON CHRISTMAS DAY!
DUDE!!!
Holmes is one of my FAVORITE, FAVORITE, FAVORITE characters of all time! I love the original Conan Doyles stories, I love the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce movies, I love the Rathbone/Bruce radio show, and I love the Jeremy Brett series (1984-1994 by Granada Television)!
Now, it seems wierd to me to have a Yank playing Holmes -- like having an American play Bond (or, for that matter, like Angelina Jolie playing Lara Croft) -- but if you've got to cast an American as Holmes, Robert Downey, Jr. is DEFINITELY a good candidate!
Plus, this new flicks looks like it's going to explore some "new" aspects of the Holmesean mythos.
Like, for instance, the action angle!
In the short stories, the action always takes place "off screen", as dialogue. "Oh yes," said Holmes, "I had to rough up eighteen hooligans before being thrown off a train crossing a hundred-thousand foot bridge, and then I was forced to duel Jack the Ripper with sabers before vanquishing a sasquatch with a straight razor, but finally I was free to look at the footprints inbedded in the clay surrounding the murder site and I noticed..."
Apparently, Conan Doyle simply wasn't interested in the action as much as the deduction, so he never wrote those parts, merely had his characters refer to them.
Then, I believe, Holmes went to the stage. Well, the theatre doesn't really lend itself to action set pieces so, again, the action elements of a Holmes story was de-emphesized or removed.
Then, if I'm not mistaken, Holmes moved to the radio... Again, not really an action-friendly medium.
Then Holmes moved to the big screen... BUT...
By now, everyone is used to a sort of non-action style Holmes. Plus, it's more expensive to shoot action scenes than it is to shoot talking scenes. And I'll bet part of the appeal of Holmes for the studio was the fact that they could simply film a stage play (logistically speaking) and still rake in Big Budget box office. (I don't know how much the Holmes films made when they we in cinemas, but they made 14 of them, so I'm guessing they made plenty.)
So, basically, generations have grown up with an inactive Holmes.
Jeremy Brett energized the personality of Holmes with his performance, but that was still a TV show, so action still remained largely off-screen.
So I'm excited to see an Action-Hero version of Holmes! I think it'll be fun. Plus, there have been flicks in the last 15 years or so that have played-up some of Holmes' more eccentric personality traits, but usually in a more somber way. It looks like Downey, Jr.'s interpretation of Holmes is, like Brett's, that sort of manic energy, dropped into a Guy Ritchie scope! :D
FUN!!!
PLUS... WATSON!!!
I blame Nigel Bruce for being so loveable as Watson and for being so talented as a comedian, but Watson WAS NEVER a bumbler! EVER! In the Conan Doyle stories, Watson is a doctor and a war vet! He may not be as smart as Holmes, but NOBODY is as smart as Holmes. (There is Moriority and Mycroft, but that's it. Holmes is in a league of his own, and that's the point of the character.) Watson was smart enough to continue to get calls from Scottland Yard to help them on cases after Holmes (apparently) died! That fact really doesn't jibe with Nigel Bruce's intepretation of Watson.
Still, the long-standing popularity of the Rathbone/Bruce team in 14 films and 7 years on the radio has created this sort of inescapable image of Dr. Watson being an affable bumbler.
The Granada TV series(s) did a whole lot to repair that image, though. There are now generations of folks who know that Watson is competent.
But THIS Watson...! Jude Law, dude!!! :D THIS is gonna be an AWESOME Watson!!! In fact, the trailers and commercials I've seen so far sort of make Holmes look like the oddball! Like, Watson is this cool, competent guy, and Holmes is the freak... which... is really the way the relationship would have worked out, if you think about it. I mean, yeah, Holmes was famous and all, but he was a geek. Watson was really the one you would rather have a conversation with. Like Monk and Sharona/Natalie: You talk to Sharona/Natalie, and let her deal with the crazy genius freak-guy.
Blah.
So anyway, I'm stoked! I SO can't wait to see this flick!
Merry Christmas to me! :D
Okay, I'm goign to go do work now. There's not a ton to do, but it would be wisest for me to go ahead and do it before I slack any further.
Enjoy your weekends and the season! :D It's the greatest time of the year!!!
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