A brief trip 'round Blogistan

Some things I've seen the last week or so....

:: Bill Altreuter reflects on a visit to Gettysburg:

I believe the United States has as its chief value in the world its aspirational qualities, and I believe that those qualities are best expressed in the Constitution and its supporting documents, particularly the Federalist Papers. The Constitution, a living document, is, like all scripture, flawed. The 3/5ths Rule, for starters was the seed for the horrors of the war I've spent the weekend thinking about, but we spent the next century plus-- up to and including now, today-- addressing the problems created by the country's economic dependence on chattel slavery in an incomplete and unsatisfactory manner. It's great that we have the 14th Amendment, but it would be a far better thing if we had more Supreme Court Justices that believed that the 14th Amendment means what it says.

:: Briana Morgan opens up about depression and how it affects her writing career:

I’ve been battling the blues since I was seventeen. As days of sadness turned into weeks and months and even years, I tried to wrap my mind around this new reality. When would I feel better? When would I be cured? Would the existential loneliness ever go away?

(Briana is one of an increasing number of awesome writers I've met on Twitter and Instagram. Seriously, she's really great.)

:: Roger meditates on Hiroshima and Nagasaki:

Regardless, I was never convinced that the United States should be the first country to drop the bomb. The sheer devastation, not just immediately but in the aftermath, troubled me.

(I confess that I've always believed the "party line", that the A-bombs had to be dropped to keep the war from grinding on into an awful, bloody, hellish 1946. I also confess that my belief in such is not informed by the closest reading of history.)

:: Sheila O'Malley on the anniversary of American Bandstand:

Dick Clark was no dummy: he made sure the show was aired in the afternoon, right when kids got home from school. It became Appointment Television for American teenagers. You could watch new music, hear new artists, see your favorites perform, and participate in the frenzy of rock ‘n’ roll, which was still exploding, outward and outward and outward, a Big Bang Theory of culture. Elvis had already moved on, his explosion was so powerful (Martin Sheen made the comment that Elvis reached the sun – what was it like up there? Who else knew but Elvis?), but many many more followed in his wake.

(I don't remember ever watching Bandstand, but I'll read Sheila writing about anything.)

:: John Scalzi points out, yet again, that GamerGate consists largely of dummies:

Seriously, though. How these people get through life without poking their eyes out with spoons is entirely beyond me.

(Ayup. I've yet to encounter anything from GamerGate that isn't flecked with frothing stupidity.)

:: SamuraiFrog on the death of Rowdy Roddy Piper:

Man, he's only a year older than my Dad. That's hard to think about. I can't imagine what his family is dealing with right now. He was just a piece of my childhood puzzle, you know? Sad, sad news.

(I have to admit this: I had no idea who Piper was, even as he died. It's not uncommon for me to be totally unfamiliar with this or that famous person's work when they die, but Piper took me aback, as I watched people on Facebook -- friends of mine I know reasonably well -- openly mourn his passing as a part of their childhoods. I had to wonder, increasingly, just how I'd managed back then to be so unplugged from the wrestling world that I literally couldn't remember ever hearing of this man, who seems to have generated an awful lot of good will in his time here on Earth.)

:: Cal is unimpressed with Donald Trump.

Conclusion - Trump is a maniac that can't be dealt with like a rational human being. His ego is writing checks that his butt can't cash at this point.

:: Jennifer is not impressed with what her dog did to her glasses.

This. This is a photo of me with my now fixed glasses.

(I've broken two pairs of glasses in my life: one when I stepped on them in second grade, and one in college when I slipped on ice and landed flat on my backpack with the glasses inside.)

:: Lance Mannion is impressed with the rowing team he watched.

The coach finished talking and the crew set to work again. The scull took off and I ran out of room to chase after them anymore. But if I could have, I might have followed them the whole nine miles upriver to Poughkeepsie if that's how far they were going, it was that thrilling to watch and that pleasant to be be outside and if not on the water then at least by it.

:: Lynn is not impressed with somebody's rules for eating hot dogs.

I use whole wheat buns. Is that okay, Your High-and-Mightiness? I haven’t seen any sun dried tomato or basil buns but I would try them. Then they tell us the exact order in which the condiments must go on the hot dog. Sorry, I put the onions on first, then the chili. And I’m right; the Hot Dog Council is wrong. Putting the onions on first keeps them from falling off.

(She's right. Onions on the bottom. I put chili on top, though...and when I have a chili dog, I eat it out of a bowl with a fork because that's how I roll.)

:: Abby Hathorn is impressed with her new pair of vintage overalls.

On my last trip to Nashville, I stopped by this lovely little vintage shop called The Hip Zipper. There, I picked up bunches of new-old goodies, but the piece I am most excited about is my Liberty overalls!

(Abby Hathorn is another writer I met on Twitter and Instagram. She's primarily about fashion, and she writes about clothes and fashion with an infectious sense of fun. She really likes color and variety, which is really cool, and she does not think it's impossible to look good in overalls. Oddly, I do not own any pairs of Liberty overalls. I should probably rectify that at some point...they were the staple brand worn on Hee Haw, which we watched a lot when I was but a wee bairn, and which may well be a big part of my lifelong fascination with overalls. Hmmmm...I honestly don't remember, but I wonder if there was pie-throwing on that show....)

Blogistan is still a nice place, even if nobody goes there anymore!

Sentential Links (the Leonard Nimoy edition)

Bloggers I like react to Leonard Nimoy's passing:

:: I met him one night at an event at the New School. He was there with director Stanley Donen. It was just a quick “Hi, how are you” kind of introduction, but he was one of those celebrities where it was impossible to believe that it was actually him, there in the flesh. His face, as Spock, with the ears and the eyebrows and the hair, is so much a part of our culture that seeing him outside of it, as just a regular elderly guy in a suit, laughing with Donen, that face, that look, is so distinct that it floated around in my head as I looked at the real-life guy. I thought, “Now THAT’S the role of a lifetime, if it’s an after-image forevermore.” And he handled it beautifully.

:: I imagine it’s a strange thing to be a famous actor, anyway. People love and admire you for your having impressed yourself on their imaginations as various someones who are not you. Must be stranger still to be famous for one particular not you.

:: I have all of Nimoy's albums, and while I don't share his assessment, I do think that as a singer he's a terrific actor. I don't think they're embarrassing, but they can be very earnest and Nimoy's vocal range almost doesn't exist.

:: This quote I found on Daily Kos is true: “We lost the man who played the first ‘cool’ science nerd… Maybe that’s why his death is having a bigger impact on many of us than we would have thought, until now.” As his last tweet read: “A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP.”

:: Not much of an anecdote, I know, but it's all I've got. I really didn't know the man but if that's what he was always like, I wish I had. (This is a great anecdote.)

:: To be honest, I think I felt more grief yesterday than I did when I lost my real grandfathers, neither of whom I was close with. But Leonard… ah, Leonard I felt like I gotten to know, and I liked him. It’s not the loss of “Spock” I’ve been mourning. It’s the kind, good-humored old Jewish man with the quick smile and the big laugh and the unmistakable voice, the lively wit and strong sense of social justice, the celebrity who seemed genuinely concerned for his fans when he urged them to learn from his example and stay away from cigarettes.… (Jason has to outlive me so he can write my obit. That might be inconvenient for him, as I plan to live to the age of 137, but them's the breaks.)

Sentential Links!

Wheeee! Linking some new blogs (to me, anyway) and blogs that I've bookmarked or linked forever but for whatever reason (usually laziness or lack of time) I simply haven't checked much in a while.

:: The negative is that I have been the subject of body shaming and bullying recently and I feel like I need to have a good talk with you all about the importance of watching your language and the way you talk to people. (Cut it out, people. Just stop.)

:: I swear to you, I don't think I've been in a better mood than I have been today since I last ovulated.

:: I.

Am one with a giant Ponderosa pine tree.

Weird.

Yes?

Blessed and grateful?

For certain.

:: I am over the moon about my debut novel entering the big, wide, world! The unfolding of our own personal stories parallels the publishing of a book in so many ways. For me, it’s just like this gigantic, lean back in the chair, moment of awe. It has been a freaking roller coaster. And you’ve been along for the ride.

:: At a little distance, love
emerged, entirely.

:: But there is so much about the wal-mart experience that is highly unaesthetic and makes me think, "This could be so much more pleasant."

:: He was not a perfect man -- the more I find out about him, the more I realize that -- but he had the courage to stand up for his principles at a time when it would have been far easier for him to back down, and he also had the bravery to stand up against authority in an age when such a thing was not only just not done but tended to be life-threatening as well. These are not bad traits to admire, even in a man whom many might otherwise find less than admirable.

More next week! Or not. You never know.

Non-sentential Links

Just to shake things up, some links which are not sentential in nature. Wow!

::  Writer-acquaintance Ashley Carlson (whose new book, The Charismatics, is both available and good!) has some thoughts on strategy for men who are trying to appeal to women on e-dating sites.

::  A good question, asked by Anne Leigh Parrish: "What if we all wrote with the idea that no one might ever read us? Would this silence us, or set us free?" I'm not sure. I don't like the idea of not being read...but I can't write with the assumption that a specific group of readers will read me. Good question...thoughts?

::  Wow! SamuraiFrog, one of my favorite bloggers, has been blogging for ten years! Congrats to him!

::  Who cares if the movie came out last summer? I love it to pieces, so here's Lance Mannion's review of Guardians of the Galaxy. (My review here.)

::  Ach, I wasn't paying attention and missed the birthday of Robert Burns! Sheila O'Malley, as always, had things well in hand, though. (We did watch an episode of Outlander, which...well, it doesn't count at all, I guess. But a time-travel romance drama set in Scotland is nice.)

::  Finally, I have to end on a sad note. I started reading John Scalzi's blog right around the time they acquired a fuzzy little kitten. That kitten became a beautiful long-haired cat, who has just passed away after twelve years. Don't read this right before driving or handling cutlery.

Keep on truckin', folks, and if you live in NYC or Boston or points in between, stay warm and safe!

Sentential Links

Linkage time!

:: Always be ready for inspiration to strike. For this reason I have more than a hoarder’s share of notebooks I travel with, not to mention my phone with several apps dedicated to jotting down ideas. For this reason there is no excuse for me not to write. If I want to finish all these ideas I have I’ve got to write write write. Morning, noon, and night. (I know the feeling!)

:: Uranus is the only planet to have been named after a Greek God, Ouranos. (Those outer gas giants are so fascinating. It's amazing to me that we're still only a century out from them even being known to exist in the first place. I read a story by one of the early 20th century science fiction writers that had spaceships landing on the surface of Neptune. Wow!)

:: I'm going to be published.

Finally. (Great news and congratulations!)

:: So where have I been? I suppose I've been off being terribly, terribly angry. (Yes, this has been a banner couple of months for the "Everything is terrible" crowd.)

:: Just because I have a new baby doesn’t mean I don’t love my first baby.

:: Because of course that’s the thing: Even when these idiots declare me “not a real man,” it doesn’t change that I am always seen to be a “real man,” and that I get all the benefits that accrue to me for being biologically male, identifying as a man, and conforming to social standards for what both of those mean. The worst these dudes can do is be mean to me on the Internet. It doesn’t change anything about what I get from the world.

:: For some obscure reason, I’ve read old journals/diaries of mine from the 1970s and 1980s, and much of it is cringeworthy. The only reasons I keep them are these: 1) I could use some of it to cull out family and FantaCo history; 2) all the terrible stuff I could throw together as a roman a clef.

:: I believe in being kind to old cars.

Somebody sure had been kind to this one.

More next week, I hope!

Sentential Links

Linkage!

:: Overalls should be large enough to wear a cable knit sweater UNDER them. Overalls should have wide enough legs to go OVER boots, not tuck into boots. (Agreed! Oh, and scarves go perfectly with overalls. I love my scarf collection and am planning to add to it.)

:: One of the shows I used to watch religiously was MASH. Indeed, I liked it so much, I’d often watch the summer reruns. But somewhere about season 8, I stopped watching the reruns. This article by Ken Levine, who wrote for the show in the later years, touches on why; they started, generally inadvertently, recycling plotlines. Why would I need to watch the rerun when the story itself was being replicated? (We don't rewatch stuff a whole lot here, and I always get a bit antsy when binge watching. There's always something new to find, but we do rewatch things once in a while. As for M*A*S*H, that show's a bit fuzzy for me. I literally grew up with it; it was on the air my entire childhood until, I think, fifth or sixth grade. By the time I knew what it was about, I think it had gone on too long, and I never felt a great deal of fondness for it. Later on, though, in high school, I discovered through syndicated reruns that the early seasons really were all kinds of brilliant. Oddly, apparently there was a huge M*A*S*H craze at my college the year before I got there, and everybody was watching the reruns at 6:30 or something like that. Weird. This was over by the time I got there. Oh, and this seems as good a time as any to bring up a usual complaint: Where the hell is Season Three of Once and Again?! It has never been released in any format. I do worry that some worthy items will slip through various cracks and never be seen again.)

:: It deeply bothers me that we've basically erased all of the cultural gains made by The Cosby Show and a well-off suburban black family is suddenly a big mystery again, and too many white critics can't relate to it if Dre isn't trying to get the family to out-black themselves every week. (Speaking of teevee...I hadn't even heard of Black-ish until this post. Shows how much attention I pay to teevee seasons at the outset; we only attend to returning shows we already watch, and then we wait to see what's highly-regarded and/or becomes a hit. This was we avoid the "Hey, this is good! Annnnd...it's canceled!" thing. I'm hearing good things about this show all of a sudden, though, and if it survives, we may check it out.)

:: What a tawdry, mean, ugly, unhappy time that was.

And it’s not just the reminders of what it was like back then.

It’s learning there was even more tawdriness, meanness, ugliness, and unhappiness than I remembered.

Or ever knew.

Like the sudden, sharp rise in the price of meat.

:: I watch HOUSE and believe I have whatever mystery ailment the patient of the week has. My doctor then assures me that bleeding out of my eyes is normal, just drink a glass of water. (This is funny because, in light of Roger's quote above, we've been watching/rewatching HOUSE on and off for the last few months. We didn't watch the show regularly until its seventh season; before that it was something we occasionally watched and enjoyed but never paid much attention to. Now we are picking up on some of the standard story beats, and of course, House's lack of social skill is quite legendary and the dialog is whip-smart. Of course, there is a danger with HOUSE that sometimes we watch it expecting a fun medical mystery...and then it's one of the sad ones where the patient dies. It's good to have a comedy or two in the back pocket.)

:: She was a high-school boy’s dream and my mother’s worst nightmare, a five-foot-three gymnast who styled herself after the “Like a Virgin”-era Madonna. I can’t remember how or when we first met — in fact, I really only remember a handful of moments I shared with her — but there was chemistry between us.

:: From a storytelling standpoint, I'll take The Mummy every time. (Michael May is blogging about horror movies all month long. Check it out!)

:: I am interested in the story possibilities of such a moment as this.

More next week!

Sentential Links

Linkage....

:: If you are going to use a game as a delivery vehicle for a movie, then this is how you need to do it: You need to make a proper movie. I am irritated to the point of intolerance with games that interrupt our playtime for movies that are bad, poorly-paced, cliche-ridden, ham-fisted, utterly predictable, filled with glaring plot holes, tonally confused, boringly shot, and completely tedious[2]. The reflexive defense is, “It’s just a game, you’re not supposed to worry about the story!” Which is kind of my point: If the story doesn’t matter, then why are you wasting my time with it? Why did you waste money making this crappy thing that you didn’t want to make and I don’t want to watch?

:: Simmons is confusing death with music that just isn’t meant to speak to him. Each generation creates music that is relevant to that generation. The fact that Gene Simmons is not feeling the same emotions or dealing with the same issues as today’s teenager doesn’t mean the current music is any worse than when he was giving the world classics like “Love Gun” and “Christine Sixteen.”

:: Now, every time my wife starts to get down on her artwork, I can tell her, damn it, Svengoolie likes it, and so do Elvira, Jaime Murray, Ashley Eckstein, Pandora Boxx and Bruce Campbell, to name only a few.

:: The main innovation of The Three Musketeers (1973) is that it’s a comedy. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone – after all, the novel itself is very, very funny. But I was still a bit shocked at how completely hilarious the film version was. I was in stitches most of the time I was watching – and apart from a few wince-inducing moments, I was mostly laughing WITH the movie rather than at it.

:: We very nearly woke up in a different world, kids.

:: His handwriting is a fingerprint. It says: “Him. And him only.”

:: It’s been a great four weeks. If you were a part of it, thank you for being part of it. (I look forward to reading Mr. Scalzi's book...and hope that a future tour brings him closer to Buffalo! Come on, Mr. Scalzi! We don't have cooties up here! And depending on which way the wind blows, our city smells like Cheerios.)

More next week!

Sentential Links

Hey, want some links? Well tough shit, you're gettin' 'em anyway.

:: It’s not our fault that someone as an issue with us. We don’t owe anybody an explanation for our life choices, especially some stranger we neither know or respect.

:: In hindsight, I should have known. I didn’t mention the case, but the defendant was accused of assaulting a police officer at 3:20 a.m. nearly a year ago. I was undoubtedly bumped by the defense attorney because I was still thinking about my victimization, AND because I was perceived, I’m thinking as too pro-cop. Not the way I see myself, but there it is. (I think I'm due to get called at some point in the not-too-distant future. Last time, I got out because The Wife and I were working opposite schedules which would have left a three-hour window during which we had no one to watch The Daughter, who was only six or seven at the time. I was always impressed that the judge was understanding about that, and in all honesty, I found that the Erie County jury-selection process really is designed to be as pleasant as possible, given that nobody especially wants to be there. Next time, we'll see what happens! I wouldn't mind serving, actually.)

:: Oh here’s a good one: The Ice Bucket Challenge is a Satanic Ritual. And Oprah is Satan. (Crap, wish I'd have known about that before I dumped the water on my head.)

:: It's hard to admit I'm happy, but I really am. (Well, they say the first step to solving a problem is admitting...wait, that's not the response called for here...hmmm....)

:: If you ever begin a post with the phrase “In today’s society…” you fail the class immediately.

There. That should take care of that.

You’re welcome, America. (Yeesh. In today's society, profs are jerks!)

:: As I go about my day here in the Queen City of the Lakes what I'm seeing is something quite new to me in my time here: economic activity.

:: It’s a poison place filled with poison people; it makes Reddit look like a circumspect garden party by comparison, and that is indeed the very point of the site, to allow people to wallow in this sort of thing anonymously with no consequences. (Every new story about the rampant sexism in the gaming world gives me pause, because The Daughter's favorite hobby is gaming, and she's actually mentioned it as a field she'd be interested in pursuing later in life.)

More next week, unless I decide that there won't be. In which case, well, you know....

Sentential Links!

Time for linkage! These are from blogs of fellow writer type people.

:: Sometimes life imitates art, but more often it's the other way around. As strange as it sounds, what happens to Sara in this chapter happened to me when I was visiting my best friend's grave. Darbi died in a car accident when we were only seventeen, and I thought of her often while I was writing this book. Her death hit me really hard, but I believe what happened that day at her gravesite was her way of letting me know she was okay. (I haven't been reading this story, but I do believe in our writing and our art being shaped by the things that have happened to us along the way.)

:: Something incredible happened to me this weekend. It was an unexpected, monumental moment in my life, one that I have dreamed about for so long but part of me actually doubted if it would ever happen. But it did happen. It definitely did and I have the proof here on my computer.

I started to write my novel again.

:: Do you ever read a book and one of the main characters, or a beloved character, dies? Do you get upset with the story itself or do you actually get upset at the writer? (It depends, I suppose. A death has to make some semblance of sense within the story. It needs to be set up; it can't be arbitrary. Yes, in life, death is often insanely arbitrary, but I don't read or write in order to reflect the real world. Arbitrary death always feels false to me. So does excessive death. George RR Martin comes close to being excessive at times, although frankly, the degree to which his stories are bloodbaths isn't really among my complaints about his books. Nicholas Sparks, though? There's a guy who is so reliant on death as a narrative device that it really lessens the impact his books have, the more you read. And then there are movies where the villains do so much killing that it's not a moment of triumph when they are defeated, but one of relief. I'm thinking of The Patriot, with that awful scene in which a villain whose villainy is already well established decides to lock a bunch of colonists in a church and set the church afire. Another example is Air Force One, which has Gary Oldman kill a couple of people in taking over the plane...and then, a bit later on, has a gratuitously depressing scene where he holds a gun to some poor woman's head as he gives the Action Hero President until the count of ten to surrender. The President doesn't, and Oldman kills the woman. For me, in my writing, death is the Big Gun. I know that I will have to kill a few characters off over the long haul, but I don't look forward to it. You know who handled death really well in her books? JK Rowling. The deaths in the Harry Potter books get to both mean something and be arbitrary. I'm kind of starting to think that Rowling is underrated as a writer.)

:: Have you planned a writing retreat or attended one? (I never have, and I'm not sure I'd want to...let me put that differently, I'd be nervous about attending one. I tend to be wary of sharing my work or talking about writing at all, which is my introvert self taking over. Maybe I need to start getting over it....)

:: So far, so good.

I have a place for all the Elements.

But the problem I have here, is that the mythology of these Elemental directions is then out of whack.

This causes me problems, because I like the idea of endings in the West, where the sun sets, and begins in the East, with the rising sun, and the many stories that go with these associations.

Placing my Elements as I have, doesn’t fit this.

So what is one to do?

:: Parker is almost six, though she will correct you immediately that she is “five and three-quarters” if she hears you say that because she is precise, and detail-oriented, and very much her father’s daughter in that way.

But she is my daughter too.

A daughter that I was petrified of having, and then elated that I was having – all because of a very tumultuous past I have with my own mother.

:: Sometimes when I'm reading a novel or watching a show, the writer throws an empty threat into it. In a novel I was recently reading, a love triangle develops, but I knew from day one that the protagonist was going to stay with her first love. Yet, the author dragged me about this awkward love triangle for the majority of the book. It was still interesting, but it lacked stakes, it lacked intensity because I knew nothing big would come out of it.

Sentential Links

Linkage.

:: But now I understand why people are nostalgic. It’s your brain trying to express a moment, and recognizing that the only people who would ever truly get what you’re trying to express were the ones who were there, and they already know.

:: I got in trouble at Graceland, basically, because I wanted to read Elvis’ marginalia. (Wow...why have it on display if you're going to discourage people reading something Elvis scrawled in a book?)

:: Police militarization was a mistake. You can argue that perhaps we didn't know that at the time. No one knew in 1990 that crime was about to begin a dramatic long-term decline, and no one knew in 2001 that domestic terrorism would never become a serious threat. But we know now. There's no longer even a thin excuse for arming our police forces this way.

:: You might think that Dolly is being a dolt about how day, night, and the various bodies in our solar system relate to each other, but she’s actually 100% right: it’s two in the afternoon and the “dark” is the construction paper Mommy and Daddy have used to block all the windows in the Keane Kompound, punishing the children for some minor act of disobedience with simulated eternal night. Sorry, PJ, but you won’t get to see the sun again until your older siblings show some halfway convincing repentance.

:: Chad Scott. What did you do to the world? Was this a joke? Some plot to punish people? Were you sitting at home in your rat cage and your roommate said, “Gee, what do you want to do tonight, Chad?” and you respond with, “The same thing we do every night, Pinky, try to kill the entire population of the world with stench and bad ideas.” (I wasn’t a fan.) First of all, I’m very open-minded when it comes to flavor combinations and food and trying new things … I sort of have to be in my line of work. But all of my senses were assaulted, here. For this, I will never forgive Mr. Chad Scott. - See more at: http://www.hobotrashcan.com/2014/08/14/bacon-and-legs-cappuccino-chips-and-the-seven-depths-of-hell/#sthash.MUj5z9G0.dpuf (Yeah. Under no circumstances will I subject myself to this.)

:: So I'm going to help Marvel find it's "next Guardians," the C and D characters who will rack of a few hundred million at the box office.

And to make it a challenge, I'm only going to use characters who've starred in Marvel Premiere and Marvel Spotlight, because that's a key breeding ground for losers.

Let's start with this guy... (Hmmmm. Maybe...just maybe....)

:: I hate writing tributes. And this year it seems I’ve had to write more than ever. Some are more personal, some are bigger stars than others, but they all chip away at the soul.

:: I like to think that before Robin Williams passed from this world altogether, bound for whatever lies ahead for all of us in that undiscovered country, he was granted a brief moment to pause and look back and see how many of us have been standing on our desks this week in solidarity and affection for our fallen captain. I hope the sight made him smile. (Like Jason, I have problems with Dead Poets Society, but in terms of sheer imagery, the standing-on-the-desks is so iconic that it really seems the best way to say farewell to a deeply talented, and apparently deeply troubled, man.)

More next week!

Sentential Links

Time for some linkage!

:: Fast food is obviously not great for you in the best of conditions. So if you’re going to indulge in a burger like me, or (God help you) a burrito – pick a good one. Don’t waste the calories and cholesterol on a Jumbo Jack for crissakes. Treat yourself to whatever you feel is the best. (If I must have a fast food burger, it's Wendy's. McDonald's has its uses, but they're pretty limited to Shamrock Shakes.)

:: I will not describe the finale to you because like most of this film it has to be seen to be believed. Not the worst way I have spent 90 minutes of my life.

:: I was reading a bit about Scientology today, on account of a Gawker network article about someone who went in to take their personality test just to see what the results were. (Spoilers: She's a terrible person and she needs Scientology's help badly.)

:: One of the things I've always thought was interesting about Jim Henson is that he never really set out to become a puppeteer. He wasn't really that interested in the art of puppetry.

:: Taking a picture of a flower is a substitute for picking it. I get to pick flowers and leave them where they are, to live a little longer.

:: Great fear makes your choices clear: get the hell OUT OF THERE. But performers have to learn how to cope with nerves, work with them, embrace them, turn that stress into something positive and expressive. It sometimes takes years to master. This is why actors spend so much time in learning relaxation techniques. Because it’s all well and good to be brilliant alone in your bedroom, but when an audience is suddenly looking at you, shit starts happening to your body that you cannot control. You have to anticipate that: “Okay, I am going to have a dry mouth and throat, so make sure to drink a lot of water, and vocalize.” “Okay, I am going to be scared, so I need to find a way to concentrate and relax anyway.” Normally, this takes training. It takes practice.

People like clutch hitters are those who can come up BIG in very stressful moments. They do not lose their nerve. They are special people, different from most of us. Nerves do not affect them in a detrimental way. On the contrary: nerves are what make the clutch hitters do their best work. They perform their best when the stakes are high. (Longer excerpt than usual for one of these posts, but I couldn't figure out where to stop quoting Sheila. It all adds up.)

:: Sendak had a tart wit and a low tolerance for foolishness, but when it came to the people who were working for him, he never had a diva-ish moment. He was, to use a sarcastic phrase in a sincere way, good to the little people. And people just don't come much littler than a young woman calling you to ask if a school may do a staged reading of Where the Wild Things Are. (This wonderful post is almost two months old, but somehow I missed it, so it's still new.)

More next week!

Sentential Links

Time for linkage!

:: This past year, for spelling, there was this predictable pattern for the homework of approximately 20 words. (I'm fascinated by the acrostic exercise, and I wonder if it would have helped the terrible spellers I knew. On a side note, I often wonder about spelling. I can think of few areas where lack of ability is so divorced from, well, general intelligence. This is to say that I've known more than a few folks who are very bright and very articulate and who read a lot and who can hold forth on many topics, and yet, they can't spell 'cat' without three Ms.)

:: Look at that curved beak, it is made for tearing apart his prey.

:: Using corsairs as the pirates is a good move too. I usually enjoy the liberty and style of Western pirates more than the structure and uniformity of the Barbary corsairs as presented here, but so many pirate films focus on the Caribbean that The Sea Hawk is a nice change of pace. (Until I read Michael May's post, I had no idea there'd been an earlier film called The Sea Hawk, different from the Errol Flynn film that is one of my all-time favorites!)

:: But Elvis stayed scattered on the table for the entirety of the week, in case anyone felt like working on it.

:: All I ask is a little bit of Bobo every so often. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to have Dr. Teeth and Rowlf back--some of you may remember that Rowlf the Dog is my favorite Muppet--but a little bit of Bobo is a grand thing.

:: The novel Fight Club only sold about 5000 copies, according to Palahniuk, and the rest of the print run might have been pulped if it hadn't been for the Fincher film encouraging the publisher to get the copies back into circulation. That the film was no great financial success is a well-known story, as is the disastrous marketing campaign that Fincher still regards with chagrin—he recalls the head of marketing saying “You've found the perfect nexus—men don't want to see Brad Pitt with his shirt off and women don't want to see fighting.” (I never liked Fight Club, but almost purely on the basis that it simply isn't my cup of tea. I honestly can't cite anything that I specifically think is a flaw in it. I wonder what a return to that story will look like.)

:: In my not inconsiderable experience, even the most intelligent and literate authors have between 300 and 800 mistakes in an average sized novel. (Oy...my work's cut out for me....)

:: It needn’t have been this way, and it still needn’t be this way. There are those who still dream, who understand the call to space, and who are devoting their lives to make it reality. We’ve faced adversity before, and have not let it stop us.

I think we can overcome our own petty blindness. Sometimes we humans look up, not down, and see not just the Universe stretching out before us, but also our place in it.

We’ve done it before and we can—we must, and we will—do it again.

More next week. Or possibly not. You never can tell!!!

Sentential Links

Linkage!

:: The morning after the Poseidon disaster, the broke captain (Caine) of a cargo tug discovers the wreckage and takes his crew (Field and Karl Malden) aboard to look for salvage. At exactly the same time, a wealthy doctor (Savalas) also goes aboard, claiming he wants to assist survivors. But is that really his goal or does he have something more sinister in mind? (Wow...never thought I'd find someone who speaks positively of Beyond the Poseidon Adventure!)

:: Just think of the people your stories are helping.

Trust me--they're out there.

:: Like two films in one — the first one on land when the inhabitants of Amity Island are forced to deal with a predator that’s slowly devouring its citizens one by one, to the three men (Chief Brody, Matt Hooper, and salty sea veteran Quint) going out to sea to try and catch the shark singlehandedly — Jaws is an absolute memorable classic of the history of the cinema. (The 50 Greatest Jaws quotes -- and they purposely omit the one that everybody remembers! What a great movie. I need to watch it again. By the way, my favorite quote in the movie is the exchange between Brody and his wife, just before he sets out with Quint and Hooper: "What do I tell the kids?" "Tell them I'm going fishing.")

:: Whatever their approach, for these gardeners, creating a garden is a process. It is not a remodel that will beautify the neighborhood while the gardener kicks back and enjoys having finished. It may very well beautify the neighborhood, but it will never be finished — which is really the point.

:: Elvis had been performing “Hound Dog” live for months and it was always a hit with audiences, especially the slowed-down coda, where Elvis went wild, one of his signatures. (Elvis always thought the song was silly, and he originally performed it as a joke, and its success surprised him as much as anyone.) So Elvis and team finally decided it was time to get the thing down on tape, audience demand was enormous. Photographer Alfred Wertheimer was there, and captured Elvis through the whole process.

:: Publishing is a business. As a writer, you are enaging in business with others, sometimes including large corporations. It’s not a team sport. It’s not an arena where there are “sides.” There’s no “either/or” choice one has to make, either with the businesses one works with or how one publishes one’s work. Anyone who simplifies it down to that sort of construct either doesn’t understand the business or is actively disingenuous, and isn’t doing you any favors regardless. The “side” you should be on is your own (and, if you choose, that of other authors). (Sage advice and well-worth remembering. And even though it's only tangential to John Scalzi's main point here, it's along these lines that I always end up thinking that we should be really careful about the way we're constantly pushed to "privatize" things. Introducing the profit motive is not always the best way to go about achieving certain goals.)

:: Oh, man, check out how terrified Les looks by the idea that even in the fictional world being weaved by Cable Movie Entertainment, Lisa might live! It’s almost as if her death was the foundation on which he built his entire artistic career and sense of self. It’s almost as if he has to kill her again every day in his mind in order to stay Les. It’s almost as if the thought of Lisa alive, standing before him, and seeing what he’s done with his life for the past decade fills him with a the darkest sort of dread. (Oh man, this particular storyline in Funky Winkerbean is beyond the levels of awfulness usually plumbed by this strip. Just the notion that a film company is going to fly the original writer out to the set after the script has been heavily revised, and after a crew has been hired and the film cast, is nonsensical on its face. The bigger problem with the whole storyline is laid out here, but Les's reaction to Lisa surviving her death-porn movie is just too hilarious to let pass.)

:: For those who missed it (most of the world, as it has to be!) it was announced from the office of the Governor General of Canada yesterday afternoon that I have been named to the Order of Canada. (Huzzah! And let me say this, folks: If you love fantasy but you haven't read GGK, you are failing at life.)

More next week!

Sentential Links

Linkage!

:: I have a confession to make.

I'm not brave.

:: The garbage we hear on TV and from our friends gets into our heads and we tend to talk like everyone else even when we know better. I resolved a while back to stop saying “theory” when I really mean “hypothesis” but it’s hard.

:: The record for keeping the world's longest (or largest) personal diary might belong to Reverend Robert Shields, who on a whim began one in 1972 and wrote in detail about himself and every day of his life until 1997, when a stroke disabled him. He then turned his opus, which had to be packed up in 91 boxes, over to a university. Exactly how long is it, and is it a good read? Actually it'll be a while before we know. Rev. Shields donated it to the university in 1999 with the stipulation that no words would be counted and it would not be read until 50 years after his death.

:: Yog’s Law: Money flows toward the writer.

Self-Pub Corollary to Yog’s Law: While in the process of self-publishing, money and rights are controlled by the writer. (I've thought about this stuff a lot as I start thinking about gearing up for my first foray into the self-publishing world.)

:: So in that respect, as much as I loved the series, I'm glad Firefly was cancelled. (I'd like to disagree, but I can't. When we rewatched the series last year, I found this the most troubling aspect of the show. I'd like to think that they would have figured this out in a putative Season Two -- and maybe in the new comics which are continuing the story, we'll find out.)

:: We spent three hours in that booth in the early-morning hours of Labor Day of 2002.

And then we dated, got engaged, got married, bought a house in the suburbs, had a baby, had another baby. And it was all so easy. And it was the hardest thing either of us had ever experienced. Our hearts soared and our hearts were broken – both at the hands of others, of fate, of each other. And romance fizzles as you concentrate on the kids, on your job, on your mortgage, on real life.

:: To remind y’all: you can ask me ANYTHING, and I will answer, reasonably soon, generally within thirty days. Last time out, I kept getting followups, which, BTW, are fine, but it took a bit longer than I had anticipated. (Go ask Roger anything. My next go-round for Ask Me Anything! isn't until August, so this will keep you busy until then. And yes, I'm aware that I flubbed this past February's Ask Me Anything!, and I will finish those answers in August. I probably should have skipped it, with the impending move.)

Sentential Links

Haven't done one of these in a while! Some links:

:: I’m not trying to raise a Mini-Me, but a thinking, separate person. And, increasingly, she is. (This is, to me, one of the more fascinating facets of parenthood: watching The Daughter's interests and passions develop, and noting the areas of commonality we have as well as the points at which we diverge. Sometimes I have to catch myself and not allow my thinking to shade into disappointment -- "Y U NO LOVE STAR WARS AND SPACESHIPS LIKE I DO!" -- but mostly, I find it amazing just to watch another person's way of being develop. It's surely a sign of something that I, a former brass player and eternal lover of fine pens, have turned out to be raising a string player whose favorite pens are cheap BIC sticks. And that's OK.)

:: Therapy is a mixed bag. It takes a long time to understand why you're holding yourself back and when you finally do, it's not easy to face. And this is just one aspect. It's better than feeling that way the rest of your life. But the hardest thing I've ever done is getting to know who I am, and why. (Another of SamuraiFrog's always-moving posts of self-examination. It takes a lot of bravery, I think, to write about oneself like this.)

:: Welcome to farm life: epic views, pure joy, beautiful moments, friends in need, chores, different people, chaos, guilt, and disappointment all within one hour of living. I wouldn't have it any other way. (Farm life wouldn't be for me...but I'm really glad it's still an option for some folks.)

:: I would love to travel the ocean in this bad boy. It could be our flag ship that allows us to move away from the Cave of Cool at a moment's notice. Tell me these have a job onboard that I could do for them besides cabin boy or bait. (Yup, that thing is pretty nifty!)

:: God, I hate having an English professor for a father. (Mine's a mathematician. On road trips, I'd ask, "How much farther?" and get a response like, "Our remaining mileage is the only positive integer to lie directly between a square and a cube." Which I kind of miss, actually...but to this day, he still works number-stuff into casual conversations!)

:: Everyone who thinks they want a big cat as a pet should visit this place, see these animals and hear their stories. (I'm reminded of something Chris Rock said, years ago, when one of their tigers attacked either Siegfried or Roy: "People are saying the tiger went crazy, but he didn't. That's what tigers do. The tiger went tiger.")

:: The contrast between funny actors and comics is most apparent in the early episodes of SEINFELD. Jerry is clearly the weak link. And I’m sure he’d admit it. I give him credit for allowing himself to be surrounded by comic actors who were spectacular and he learned and grew along the way, but who are we kidding? He’s a kazoo player in Wynton Marsalis’ jazz combo. (This is true, as in the early seasons Seinfeld is clearly doing stand-up amidst a bunch of actors doing comedy. He got a lot better as the show went on, though. He'll never win any acting prizes, but he figured out quite a bit of stuff, and show-Seinfeld became much more of a distinct character as the show progressed.)

:: Oh, sorry, the God of the Funkyverse isn’t actually trying to stop Wally and Rachel’s wedding, just drive it into Montoni’s, where by immutable law all economic and social activity in Westview must take place. They don’t call Montoni’s “The Wedding Chapel of Love” for nothing! Actually, nobody calls it that, but Funky refuses to stop trying to make it a thing. (I wish I had thought of doing a blog mocking daily comic strips, way back when. Sigh....)

More next week! (Or maybe not.)

Sentential Links

Linkage!

:: But now I'm home, and it feels as though I never left. Did I just dream the entire thing?

When you travel, you are who you are in each exact moment; there isn't time to question yourself. Everything is new. Survival instincts guide every decision... shelter, water, food. A lumpy bed, canned corn for dinner, and cold showers start to become natural, but so does swimming under a waterfall, visiting ancient ruins, and eating couscous in the Sahara Desert. It is a lifestyle of constant change and adaptation. At home, those instincts vanish and our biggest obsticale becomes ourselves. (You know, I think that's what Tolkien was getting at when he ended The Lord of the Rings with Sam getting home, after everything that's happened, after bidding farewell to Frodo and Bilbo and Gandalf and all the Elves, and saying, "Well, I'm back." It's the idea that the great experience of his life is over but life still looms ahead of him. I often feel that way after trips elsewhere, although my longest trips have never gone more than a single week. Returning always feels like a recalibration of the brain to its original level of smallness.)

:: There will come a day in the future when you will wonder how you could have ever smiled, and you will think that before your life was filled with smooth seas and ignorance is bliss. Hold the memories of the good times like a talisman to your heart, and let the knowledge that the bad days won’t last forever warm your indifference and renew your spirit.

:: I don't know much about the upcoming sci-fi comedy, Space Station 76, except that it is directed by Jack Plotnik, stars Liv Tyler (whom I adore) and Patrick Wilson, and that it's currently doing the film festival rounds. Well, I also know that it apparently takes place in the future as it was depicted back in the ‘70s, with Old School sets, costumes, effects, moustaches and feathered hair... which is why I'm mentioning it here on Space: 1970 at all! 

:: It is nowhere written in the heavens that Pro Football shall always and ever be America's most popular spectator sport. A hundred years ago the most popular sports in the US were horse racing and boxing, and those have faded almost completely from the scene. How much longer does football have at the top? (This is a good point, one which I argued with a friend at work a few months back. He utterly rejected the notion that football will ever lose popularity, to which I pointed out that even baseball is nowhere near the going concern it once was. He seem to deny this, too...but I remember when the World Series began on a Saturday night and when its ratings were high enough that networks simply didn't schedule new episodes of anything while the Series was running. Now it starts in the middle of the week and networks don't avoid it at all. None of which is to say that football will be forgotten in fifty years or whatever, but it's worth noting that the sporting world changes too.)

:: With only a few weeks to go before the very few students I have left write their GED exam, I find these images on the Tumblr. I have nightmares that these will be the answers they will put down even though the real GED test is mostly multiple choice except for the written essay.

:: No wonder people back then believed Heaven and Hell were as real as London. They lived in not just a demon-haunted world but an angel-infested and God-bothered one. They believed the borders between this world and either of the next were permeable and devils and angels were roaming back and forth between here and whichever place they called home and taking living human beings with them as they went. Essentially this meant they believed that this world wasn’t quite real, and you can hardly blame them for that.

:: I always wonder how they’d do THE FUGITIVE today. Richard Kimble would have a bitch of time getting a new identity every week and getting an apartment and job without having his credit record and job history revealed. Whatever story he told employers could be checked on line.

More next week!

Sentential Links

Linkage!

:: Overalls are everywhere at the moment. I'm loving all the new skinny jean overalls. I seriously considered investing in a pair, but I already had the overalls you see here. And no one needs two pair of overalls. That's just excessive. (Excessive? Never! Obsessive? Well...um...moving on!)

:: I feel like I can get a glimpse of why someone might become a work-a-holic, especially in this stage of my writing career when I’m really fighting hard for my dream. Not writing seems like wasted time. There is a balance to be found for sure. (Anya Monroe has become one of my favorite writer-peeps. Check her blog out!)

:: So, did I know about Ellen Page?

Sure. Why not?

How did I know?

Same way I know most everything I know.

I read it…

…somewhere. (I didn't know! But then...I didn't care, either. But you know, it's interesting to me on this basis: I tend to just assume people are straight, mainly because that's the statistical likelihood. And then I find out they're gay, and I'm briefly surprised, and then I invariably end up thinking, "Why do I need to know this, anyway?" I understand on one level why it's "news" when someone famous "comes out", but at the same time...I just don't care. And I shouldn't, right? Thoughts?)

:: Maybe that's the muse of sleeping poets and passed out musicians, but my muse is none other than Lucy, and I have always been Charlie Brown.

:: Is it easier to write paranormal, as opposed to contemporary romance?

:: It has taken me a while to realize that the truth doesn’t always need to be shared. And when you do, it’s important how you say it. But there’s even more to it than that.

:: You’ve probably experienced this yourself at some transitional point in life – listened to a song, and its melody and/or lyrics leapt out to fill your mind with stunned silence, that weird missed-step feeling of Fate having a hand between your shoulder blades. Regardless of its release date, that song would then become synonymous with a fragment of time when, for a few moments, you didn’t feel quite so unique, or so alone and unheard by the world, depending on how you viewed it.

:: If a candidate for federal elected office cannot muster the courage or mental fortitude to be interviewed by the singular local paper covering her district, she’s fundamentally unqualified for public office of any kind. (Alan Bedenko is rather unimpressed with the birther lunatic the Republican Party is offering up for Congress in this area. What a disgrace...but then, this is the same NY GOP that begged fellow birther lunatic Donald Trump to run for Governor. Having one of our major parties be so completely insane is so bad for the country.)

More next week. Unless there aren't.

Sentential Links

Links!

:: So yes, I sing. I’d rather sing harmony than melody. I’m a baritone and can generally find the bass line to any song, even those without one. I sing in the shower. I sing inside my head when singing out loud would be inappropriate.

I do sing.

:: You know, I believe you. You work hard for the money. Harder than people know.

But the question is still: How hard?

:: Casper is a GHOST and by definition that means he's is a transparent spirit that everything can pass through, light, RAIN and even that gun you will throw at the ghost after you waste your bullets trying to kill it.

:: What passes for joy in the Funkyverse: He’s Not Really Dead, Part IV.

:: It’s also to the point that culture is not static and that every generation wants their own music, books and movies. (Odd thing: Aside from a few short stories, I've never really read Heinlein. I bounced off The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress years ago, but I've never really tried to get into him outside of that.)

:: It’s a trend that comes and goes. Forty years ago we loved Archie Bunker and those kooky Corleones, and thirty years ago we cheered on J.R. Ewing. I suspect the trend really reignited with debut of THE SOPRANOS. Tony Soprano was clearly a monster, but he was so fascinating and complex that he drew us all into his world. Don Draper on MAD MEN was another. Walter White became America’s chemist. Vic Mackey brought new meaning to good cop/bad cop. And who can forget everybody’s favorite serial killer, DEXTER? (I don't know...to me, evil is only interesting to a point....)

:: The use of drones as a tool to study wildlife is a marvelous idea. We all like the various animal cams. My mother-in-law is absolutely obsessed right now with a camera that's fixed on a bald eagle's nest. I saw this footage and was thrilled by its potential.

More next week.

Sentential Links

Linkage...or something....

:: Back in mid-February, our local newspaper social media guru wrote: “A good deed loses some of its purity when it’s broadcasted by the ‘doer’ on social media.” I thought this was self-evidently true.

:: In dining establishments all over America, there is a pattern that is hurting us. We, as Americans, are a nation of consumers, no doubt. We tend to like things big: big cars, big coffees, big houses, big buildings, big sodas, big macs, big deals, big flavors, and big entrée portions. These last two are the ones that concern me most as a chef.

:: There is no reason that this should be the only video of the Court. Proceedings held in secret are suspect proceedings, and proceedings that cannot be recorded, in 2014, are not public in any meaningful sense.

:: Other than that, I have no idea what I’m doing.

:: Meanwhile, in the “fun” Funkyverse strip, the actual, literal spectre of Death is strolling through Crankshaft’s suburban neighborhood, looking for souls to reap.

:: I started a bit of a minor nerd kerfuffle yesterday on Twitter when I said this, but I’m standing by it.

:: But it's March now, and time to talk about cats. Specifically, it's time to talk to all the people who hate cats. "Ewww!" they say. "I hate cats! They're so aloof! They're not affectionate and demonstrative like dogs are!"

More next week. Theoretically.

Sentential Links

Linkage!

:: Saying you're going to stop eating meat to prevent animal suffering is like saying you're not having children to prevent child abuse. Pacifism doesn't create change. Ever. (Oooooh, I love Jenna Woginrich and her blog and her books, and I love the full-force with which she is attacking her pursuit of the life she has decided she wants. But this bit here stuck in my craw the second I read it. The post is a collection of "life lessons" Jenna has learned, and a lot of them are great. This one, though, bugs the hell out of me. First, the comparison in the first sentence just doesn't make sense at all, but that's not what bothers me. "Pacifism doesn't create change, ever"? That might come as news to the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King Jr., Mohandas Gandhi, and Jesus of Nazareth, to name a few. And while I'm at it, Tennessee is almost certainly a fine place, but to my way of thinking, no state that doesn't have any coastline either along ocean or Great Lake is in the "Best state" conversation. But that's just me and my love of great bodies of water talking....)

:: You know that icy stab of fear that penetrates your chest when you realise you've made a huge mistake? (Oh, do I ever...!)

:: Imagine you've been following Harry Potter and Voldemort's conflicts all the way from the first book to the seventh book. Harry and Voldemort are finally battling it out face-to-face. It's a legit battle, think of the movie version. Then suddenly, someone stronger, even more evil appears and defeats Voldemort, and we find out the seventh book isn't the last book.

:: Let me ask you a question: after you heard Louis CK’s rant, did you step away from your screens for even an hour? Or did you “like” it, forward it and then go right back to playing Candy Crush Saga? Or checking your emails? Or tweeting something about whatever exciting sandwich you ate today? And if you did, do you often take the advice of rich people who don’t have the same daily grind that you do? Sure, it’s nice to pull over and listen to a Bruce Springsteen song and have an emotional moment, especially when you don’t have a “9 to 5” you have to get to. But a lot of other people want to check the news and need to stay in touch with work. (Aaron thinks that LouisCK is as full of crap as I did last year. Great minds think alike and all that! Speaking of which, I need to return to that topic, now that I actually have a smartphone....)

:: Arthur Chu’s play does not bother me. (Me either. I don't know what the big deal is. It boils down to "But that's not how they've always played!", plus, I think, a bit of the old "Oooooh, Chinese guy." Ken Jennings did some of these things, but geez, look up "Nice white guy next door" in the dictionary, and it's his picture you'll find there.)

:: Because in the meantime, it's the story that matters, and nothing is as joyous as loving the story you're telling. I remind myself to just immerse myself in the story and that's what's important and the rest will come as it comes. And I trust that it will come.

:: Hello? Anybody out there? It’s good to see you all again. It’s been far too long. You’re probably wondering just what the hell happened and where I’ve been, and why it’s taken so long to get this place back in business again. At least… I hope you’re invested enough to be curious about all that. (Jason Bennion is blogging again, huzzah!)

More next week!