Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in mewelke's LiveJournal:

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Monday, May 7th, 2012
11:44 am	Home Again It occurs to me that when I returned to California from living in Seattle I should've realized how often I'd be staying in hotels and started a hotel blog. I suppose there's still time. The room from this weekend certainly would have been blog worthy. The big thing was that it was on an incline, and I don't mean you ask "Is this on an incline? I don't know. Let's put a pen on the table and see if it rolls." I mean a significant... maybe 3%... grade. The tilt was significant enough that I'd gain momentum walking towards the bed. Trying to get out of bed and leave on the other hand, made all the more difficult by the climb. This also added to the difficulties in trying to get anything done while in the room, being in a hotel can be strange enough, but when you're sitting at a desk that's tilted 10 degrees down to the left, it's an extra blow to the concentration. Another weirdness was the cellphone reception. I'm not someone that's always on my cellphone, but there's something strange about my wife texting me while she's at her conference and I don't get the text until she's back in the room and in the bathroom at that. For a disturbing moment I though she was texting me from the toilet. Of course the hotel can't do anything about the incline. The interior design of the room on the other hand was a victory of form over function, and whoever chose the design wasn't going to have it jeopardized by pesky things like "do the customers have access to electrical outlets." The only outlets at the desk were at the base of the oddly shaped lamp, which didn't allow for me to plugin the adapter for my MacBook until I put a notebook under the lamp to tilt it upwards, putting something else at a weird angle in a room of odd angles. Despite being a huge room (we'd gotten an upgrade to this suite), I'd say it was almost as large square footagewise as the condo I'd lived at in Washington, the use of space was strange. The bathroom, the part of it with the toilet and shower, was tiny, so much so that I had to change clothes outside of it. There were two rooms with sinks and mirrors, but one of these was on the other side of the suite, next to the door. Oddly this other sink room had a fan whereas the room with the shower did not. I wonder if when they put the room together they had a list of things that go in a hotel room but chose to put them in at random. Speaking of design over function, the television was far away from the bed, and had to be re-angled to be seen from the bed. I don't sleep well in hotels generally, and like to fall asleep to the television, so that was a bit of a negative, or would've been if I hadn't taken the precaution to pack a bottle of Trader Joe's Single Malt Whisky. My other complaints, was that cigarette smoke from somewhere nearby kept making it into the room. I don't mind the smell of smoke, but my wife does, so I wasn't thrilled about that either. Not that it's the hotel's fault, but our neighbors had kids, and these were running up and down the halls shrieking all Saturday afternoon. On the plus side, I could see across the bay and had a nice view of the San Francisco cityscape. And the hotel did bring us a complimentary wine and cheese platter, and one reason I couldn't be a hotel blogger, I think I'd be far too easily bribeable with booze. So there you go, the DoubleDay Berkeley Marina: Tolerable with Booze. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 12th, 2012
10:01 am	comics After getting back from comicbook Wednesday yesterday I started thinking about how it seems like my interest has had its peaks and valleys over the years. For me the first valley came back when the XMen had their "Mutant Massacre" storyline and got rid of all my favorite characters, replacing them with characters that seemed like they were out of a marketing focus group, like the Simpsons Poochy. After that I abandoned reading comics for years, convinced that it was just part of growing up. Years later someone kindly showed me that not only were there grown up stories being told in comics, but I was missing out on some of the best story telling by not reading them, and there was the Sandman and why hadn't I been reading it all along? I got into Sandman a little after DC switched its adult line over to Vertigo, and here there was a great peak for my interest: a whole line of books that seemed geared to my interests, and so I got to not only go back and read all the Sandman I'd missed, but also The Invisibles came out, and if I liked the Invisibles, I could go back and read Doom Patrol and Animal Man. But at some point the writers I liked at Vertigo stopped writing for Vertigo. Most I think went to Marvel and started telling well written versions of more standard superhero comics. While these were well done, I wasn't real interested in these characters, and eventually I realized I was just spending money on books I wasn't even reading. But now definitely seems to be a peak time. There's just so many good titles now, and really a lot of different and imaginative thinking behind them. If I had to pick just two comics, I'd take Fatale and Saga. Fatale seems to combine my two favorite genres: Loveraftish horror and noirish hardboiled stories. Whereas Saga is a mesh of what I think is best about fantasy/specfic. It's like imagination stew, and I mean that in the best of ways, it's one of the most unique things I've seen. Chew is a great mix of humor and genre storytelling. Manhattan Projects is just starting, but it seems to be doing this well also. A few months ago I wrote about giving DCs "New 52" a shot. Here are the titles I'm still reading from these. I, Vampire. Without a doubt my favorite of the line. It's set in the DC universe, but doesn't compromise the storytelling, telling a great horror story while picking and choosing the elements of DC's world to best utilize. This reminds me of early Sandman, Animal Man, or Swamp Thing when they were still more a part of the DC world. Justice League Dark. I suspected initially that someone had looked at my purchasing habits before putting this together, throwing the characters I like together for a team. This recently did a crossover with I, Vampire that reminded me of why crossovers are good, instead of the more usual forced tie ins. Wonder Woman. I wouldn't have suspected that I'd be reading this, but I like the use of Greek myth, and it makes sense with her background. Animal Man and Swamp Thing. With these I like the concepts a lot, but I kind of think the execution on the writing has fallen off or the writers have been rushed in the last few issues. If I think about what happened in these, I think it's a great story, but if I go back reread them they don't seem as well told as when they started. Along with these I've been reading Buffy Season 9 and Angel and Faith. I'm liking Buffy Season 9 for the most part, as with the show it seems to be the side characters I like the most, thrilled to see Andrew get more time in the recent issue. As for Angel and Faith, I like this a lot, though it did suffer somewhat at its start from beginning with stories told "From the Journal of Rupert Giles" and I couldn't help but think, Why isn't there a "From the Journal of Rupert Giles" comic? I want that story more than the ones being told in the actual comic I'm getting. Hopefully this new peak is just the beginning with so many of these titles being relatively new. It's too nice to have the imagination rekindled every Wednesday, while it would be easier on the pocketbook, I'd prefer not to run into another valley. (Comment on this)
Monday, March 26th, 2012
3:07 pm	If you're looking for a Realtor in the Seattle area Now that the sale of my condo is complete, I wanted to take a moment to endorse my Realtor. Through what was, in this case, an arduous process, she stuck with the sale despite the bad market, despite having to deal with outside difficulties well beyond the norm, and she did this for what was a smaller sale and therefore lesser commission. I have also worked with her before, on an easier sale when markets were still thriving, and on two purchases. In every instance she went beyond the call of duty to get the process completed. If you are looking for a Seattle area Realtor: http://www.rhonafeldman.com/ (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, March 10th, 2012
9:56 am	John Carter of Mars I've seen some of the negative reviews, and I've had a hard time reconciling those reviews with my experience yesterday, which was that the movie is some of the most fun I've had at the movie theater since I was a kid. The movie had a lot to overcome. I'm not a fan of 3D, and our theater only had 3D showings. Through the 3D previews I was already growing annoyed with the glasses, the barrier between the two lenses was just thick enough that I kept catching it in my vision making me a bit crosseyed but mostly cross. Despite that I would've preferred a 2D version, the movie was just solid fun. It establishes a sense of mystery early, before ever going to Mars. It's well paced. I love that they told some of his backstory in flashbacks with emphasis on "flash". This is where I think some of the reviewers had a problem. Many of them said that they were confused by the plot, and it took me just about a whole day to put my finger on how anyone could be confused by this plot, and then it hit me that part of why I loved this movie is that the filmmakers didn't feel the need to explain every last thing in detail, they just put it out there and allowed me to think for myself and keep up. I also loved that very conceptually different SciFi of the Burroughs material being portrayed on film. I wondered if that might have been difficult for the reviewers, that it is more fantasy than Science Fiction, I wonder if some of the reviewers just thought "well this can't happen." And indeed if you're concerned about the science in your SciFi, than John Carter being able to leap hundreds of meters at a time because he grew up on a world with a slightly higher gravity is probably going to bother you. Me? I'm happy to enjoy the world. I loved the aliens with the eight arms. The white apes were awesome. And of course Woolah is the most wonderful alien dog creature ever and I want one. I do agree with the critics that the lead role could have been played by a better actor, but I disagree with how much that matters. In my opinion he pulls off what is needed of the role. He is bewildered by his change in surroundings, learns what he needs for us to understand the new world through his eyes (I understood anyway, not sure what's wrong with some of the critics learny bits), he clearly falls in love with the princess (and I love this because it's not an easy story, his backstory makes this difficult for him and pulls that off as well), his character grows from the refusal of the call "I've fought for causes before, I'm done with that" to finding the cause important and fighting for it. And of course he looks very pretty. Some of this pretty contributes to thinking he's not the brightest bulb, and one of my favorite lines is when the evil alien that's apparently manipulating all worlds to go to crap (explains a lot really) is judging Carter he notes the increased strength and agility and then adds "though not an increased intellect." Another thing that might have contributed to the confusion of some, but I liked, was that they didn't take extra time to explain the language they just use it as though it's their normal everyday vocabulary. Personally I much preferred this, and I think they did a good job of not stringing too many of these words together and using visual clues to help you figure this out without stopping to hand you a dictionary. Hell, even before he drinks the magical Babble-fish smoothie and can understand them, enough words are repeated while they're speaking to him and we get subtitles that one starts to pick up on a few words here and there, and they do some nice plays on the confusion with the two cultures meeting. So, overall, I guess I'm confused by the critics' confusion. But what's important is I left that theater overwhelmed with a giddy feeling of joy. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, March 2nd, 2012
3:26 pm	Horrorscope From today's Los Angeles Times: "There's something wonderful about doing exactly what you expected to be doing. Feeling like you are in control will bring you great happiness." Not even close to the mark today, Holiday Mathis, unless you are a Pisces and pissing me off is exactly what you expected to be doing, and it makes you happy. But this here Pisces, not having a banner day. I want my happy day, you fucker. As for being in control, I don't think I can remember a time in my life where I felt like I was in control of anything. Well, maybe playing Civilization or something, but in real life? Heh, the title of this post made more sense when I was originally going to write about a fantasy of tracking down this alleged happy, in control, Pisces, and axe murdering him, a fantasy which I will admit made me sort of happy, for a fleeting moment. Then I remembered from watching thousands of episodes of Perry Mason to never ever say you wish someone dead, so I decided to edit that out. See. It's edited out now. Ugh. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 11th, 2012
10:43 am	Top 5 songs for CPAC These five songs came on my ITUNES DJ while I made the horrible mistake of reading some of the CPAC coverage. 1. Greedy and Pathetic by MDC. Should be dedicated to Mitt Romney. 2. Kill The Poor by The Dead Kennedys. Ann Coulter's speech is the chorus. 3. Let's Have A War by Fear. Could be about any foreign policy speech from CPAC. 4. Paid Vacation by the Circle Jerks. How did the Circle Jerks predict the endless Afghani war thirty years ago? 5. Kids of the black hole by the Adolescents. Yes I did have my playlist on the "punk" list, as I'm writing a story right now with a punkish character, but still I'm stunned by how appropriately all of these songs that were written in the early 1980s fit the current political and economic climate now. Then it struck me that the party that's really been in power is the one that seems use dystopian scifis as their playbooks. At least Black Flag's Rise Above came on after all that. So I do feel a bit more positive. Until I read the next article. (Comment on this)
Thursday, February 9th, 2012
3:00 pm	Long Beach Writers Group Anthology I have a short story in this anthology. Also my fellow editors went with my choice of order to put the stories and poems in, which I'm pretty proud of. Check it out. I think you can read Thomas Riordan's excellent story, Deuda Perdita in the free sample. (I like a lot of these stories, but his was my favorite.) http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/124219 (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 4th, 2012
1:44 pm	The Superbowl, the drinking game. I may need to add a few, but here are my rules for tomorrow: Drink (Beer)whenever: One of the announcers say "In the National Football League..." One of the announcers starts a sentence with "I'll tell you what" During any pregame show musical act. During any human interest story. Anytime there's ad that no one in your house can identify what they're selling. Drink a shot of whiskey whenever: Tebow is mentioned. Especially since he's not playing but somehow is still a story confirming his status as the Sarah Palin of quarterbacks. During the halftime, each time a new song is started. (Trust me, I'm doing you a favor with this rule). Any political ads. Two shots if there's a Focus on the Family ad. Two shots + the Tebow shot if he's involved with the ad. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, January 20th, 2012
9:17 am	In the last 24 hours... Newt Gingrich, the same man who went after Clinton for his affairs, claimed the media shouldn't ask him, a candidate for president, a question about an affair he had. Sometimes I think people aren't running for president, so much as acting as setup men for Jon Stewart. Mitt Romney complained President Obama is practicing crony capitalism. His example of this was the Obama administration asking for more time to study the Keystone Pipeline instead of rubber stamping it the way Romney would. That rubber stamping it would actually be crony capitalism and not caving to the corporate interests is sort of the opposite, apparently doesn't matter here. MPAA head, and colossal gobshite, Chris Dodd, claimed that people protesting the SOPA bill by blacking out their own websites were abusing their power. He followed this up today by adding that the bill failed, not because it goes to far, contains ambiguous wording that suggests it could be misused to go after more than pirates, or people's beliefs that it goes too far in punishing these miscreants, but because people attacked his right to free speech. The sad thing is, this use of Orwellian doublethink has become the norm, and this hasn't been that abnormal a news cycle (especially with a GOP debate every six hours). (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, November 11th, 2011
9:57 am	The Irish Rover For the few people reading this that are not also on the Facebooks or the Twitters, a story I wrote it appearing in the Winter 2011 issue of Big Pulp, which I believe is out next month. Preorder info is here: http://www.indiegogo.com/Big-Pulp-Winter-2011 My story, Last of the Irish Rover, is partially based on the Deep One monsters from HP Lovecrafts Innsmouth stories, and partially based on the pub song the Irish Rover. If you're familiar with either, you're probably thinking things don't go real well for people on the boat in the story, and you're right. You can now read the story here: http://www.bigpulp.com/issues/2011_12/welke_irishrover.html Updated ordering info is on that link as well. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 27th, 2011
10:34 am	The Occupy Movement This is long and rambling. You may want to spare yourself. I wasn’t going to write anything about this. I was going to keep my mouth shut and remain focused on my fiction writing, which has actually been going pretty recently (for about the length of time I’ve kept focused on it instead of seething about the state of the world). But I feel like things have come to a point where I have to get these things off my chest, and if the four or five people who actually read this feel similarly, who knows maybe the word will spread and help somewhere. First I need to get this out of the way. I really don’t believe in street protest. Under the normal run of things, I think street protest is counterproductive. You don’t win people over to your side by making their commutes even more hellish. Also protests tend to bring out the Protesters with the capital “P”, those that live up to the most concentrated stereotypes of a protester, those that will be most likely interviewed by the media (if the media bother to show up), and those least equipped to answer the questions. But this movement is also attracting protesters that are not the Protesters, and here is why: this is not the normal run of things. Things are so far out of hand economically that regular people feel compelled to get off of their sofas and attend these protests. Having a history degree, I am overly fond of historical comparisons. The one that’s been sitting on my brain like a thought crippling cranial hippo is the end of the Roman Republic. Not the end of the Roman Empire. I’m talking about the period leading up to the civil wars that ended the Republic. Under the normal run of things, Pan Et Circenses, kept the people mollified. Sure they might have bitched in graffiti scrawls on the walls (early blogging), but they had food, entertainment, and a feeling that they had a chance for things to improve for them. But then things got out of hand. Things became very much not the normal run of things. The owners of the Latifundia (early megacorporations) started to own too much of the wealth. Plus the Latifundia relied on slave labor (deplorable ethics aside, the economic effect could translate to automation in our society), which meant that unemployment was high and growing ever higher. The Republic deteriorated into social unrest and a series of civil wars that led to the rise of the Caesars and the end of the Republic. Do I think we’re headed to the end of our republic? I sort of doubt it, but I do believe we’ve entered into a dangerous period where the corporate greed has gotten out of hand, and the ability of those corporations to control everything, including stop or neuter any checks or balances from the government, has made it so that the people feel like there is no other recourse than street protest. By their ability to buy congressman, their control of the media, and the fear they wield with their financial control, the financial establishment has turned this country into pure corporatocracy. People feel that voting is pointless since their representatives do not represent them, and any one who would represent them and not giant corporations is unelectable. So people have taken to the streets. The question being asked now is: what do they hope to achieve? That’s probably honestly unanswerable because there seems to be no one in charge. This is as close to democracy, not a republic, as you’re likely to see without replacing the legislative branch with internet voting. And I’m not saying that’s a good thing or a bad thing. As far as a protest movement goes, it has its advantages and disadvantages. For instance: It has the advantage that the powers that be can’t just arrest the leaders. It has the disadvantage that it’s hard for the movement to articulate its goals. Regardless of goals, I think one thing that has been achieved is it has altered the national discussion to some degree. Before the protests it seemed like there was no one in the mainstream world taking unemployment seriously, every public discussion was focused on debt reduction, regardless of how many economists shouted that the debt was not the problem. (I still don’t see why Paul Krugman and other Keyensians don’t stop trying to help, why it is they continue to present rational and supported articles instead of just automating their jobs to post “I TOLD YOU SO” every three weeks is beyond me.) So here, for what it’s worth, is what I think the movement should try to achieve, and some wishful thinking: DOABLE GOALS 1)Make the problem part of the national conversation. Like I say above, they’ve done this, to a degree. Now I think this needs some focus. I think it needs to be made clear that it’s not that corporation are experiencing record profits that is a problem. It’s not even that they’re doing it at a time when they’re paying record low taxes. It’s that they’re doing it at a time when they’re paying record low taxes and unemployment is high. There needs to be a counter to this “can’t tax the job creators” statement that goes unchallenged every time it’s spoken in the media. People need to point out that lower taxes have not led to job creation. Times with higher upper income taxes have been some of the most productive times in history for the nation’s economy. In fact, with less regulation and less taxes, corporations hire fewer people. They instead ship jobs oversees, or work the existing workforce longer hours and with fewer benefits and less pay. 2)Create a voting block that won’t stand for bought out representatives. This goes to item one above. But I think if enough people can come together as one and say “we’re on to your shit” some representation in congress can be found to stand up and put the brakes on our slide into some horrible spec-fic dystopia. 3)Make it clear that this isn’t going to go away. I think part of the problem with media and also mainstream thinking right now, is in the back of our heads we really think that the economy will at some point correct itself. Every now and then there’s an article or news story where you get that sense of confusion from someone, why hasn’t this gotten better yet? The reason is that we have a legislative branch that for whatever reason, -cough- bought out by corporate interests –cough-, has stood in the way of any attempts to fix the situation. That people have adopted the insane logic that the government can’t help to right the economy, despite countless examples in history where it has, and that the market will correct on its own. A protest movement can at least counter that argument. WISHFUL THINKING AND OTHER PROBLEMS This may be just me rambling. But I think some of this is really important. We have an opportunity for the country to be a better place. And I really think it’s going to slip us by and things will just get worse because of a combination of greed, ignorance, and apathy. So here are some things, I think we, as a people should demand. Safety net for displaced workers. I’ve known people who have been out of work for lengthy periods. Some of them have worked in the games industry, and I hear people say “it’s not like we need games to survive.” The crassness of that statement or an argument on what we do consider necessary or worth preserving aside, it got me thinking. All the jobs that used to exist that we’d consider essential have been replaced or at least reduced by automation. Not that any of my computer games making former cohorts are going to be out on the farm, but our food is now produced largely on giant corporate owned megafarms (Latifundia really) and the labor is all automated or poorly paid to the point it’s practically slavery. The garbage men… when I was a kid there were three of these per truck, now there’s one. The grocery store: you want the convenience of the self checkout, fine, but why does this mean they’re not going to hire as many people? And if that’s simple capitalism, I’ll point out that the stores with these self checkouts, cost more than the store I shop at that’s packed with workers. I’m sure there’s someone at the top making the difference. These are just a few examples, I’m sure it’s worse in what’s left of the manufacturing sector. Something needs to be done for people who lose their whole line of employment. Moving forward. We have entire towns where property values have crashed, unemployment is through the roof, and interest rates are super low. We should be investing in these towns by creating research facilities and universities. We should be encouraging education for its own sake right now. I loved hearing about Steve Jobs taking calligraphy at Reed, the importance of taking classes that weren’t obviously and directly career oriented. Sometimes it’s the indirect learning that leads to the most important innovation. And speaking of which… NASA. I saw a figure the other day, I didn’t research if it’s true or not… this diversionary journal post is already taking twice the time I’d thought and it’s not done yet… But the figure stated that the Bank Bailout has cost more than the entire NASA budget combined from NASA’s inception. And then you think of all the technologies and products that came out of NASA indirectly positively affecting our economy while trying to better our future. We should be investing in our future and that means exploring space. As Warren Ellis put it “having the entire breeding stock in one place is a bloody stupid way to run a species.” Health care and housing. Part of my problem with the way the world has become is it’s the things you actually need that are unaffordable. Property Costs: It used to be that someone making minimum wage could save up and buy a house. Even with crashed prices that’s never going to happen again. Rents remain high. This is a problem both for people finding a place they can afford to live… I forget what the percentage of what you make is supposed to go to rent, unless you are really well paid forget about it… and it’s also a problem for people trying to run a business. Why is it hard to run a brick and mortar retail business? Because the people who own the property would rather see it empty than rent it at an affordable rate. Health Care: Our system is broken. And I don’t just mean for the people that go bankrupt because they get sick. Even when you have insurance through your employer the insurance companies dick you around with changing your doctors, telling your doctors they can’t run tests, and sending you bills that they may or may not actually cover, just to see if you’ll pay them. I really think insurance is an example where things have gotten so egregious, the greed so out of hand, that it’s time for the government or a mob with pitchforks and torches to step in and right things. Water and Power. It just came out recently that PG&E knew that the gas lines that exploded were unsafe and lied about it, but what do you expect? Things we need to survive should not be on a for profit system. We need to fix the electric grid. And we should be building wind farms and investing in solar energy until we have more than enough electricity. The problem is that while it’s a commodity the people that produce it are financially motivated to keep it scarce. As for water, this is a southern Californian thing, but we need to build a series of cisterns and water collection devices so that we don’t waste what water we get. “No one makes anything anymore.” This is something my very conservative Fox news watching friend said to me. And I think he’s right. I’m sure he’s convinced it’s because the Mexicans and Socialists are out to make him get gay married. I’m convinced it’s because our market system, specifically our stock market system has gotten so absurd, that a large business makes less money on services rendered or products produced than it does convincing stock holders that its stock price will go up. Now that would be fine if that stock price were better tied to the business’ production and sales, but instead it’s tied to the things that people have been told increase a stock price: a hotshot CEO, acquisitions, and layoffs of the workforce. Thus American business doesn’t make money by making something, it makes money by paying someone at the top a lot of money (including a giant payout if they leave, rewarding failure), taking debt in order to buy out smaller companies that might actually make something, but then firing the workforce of the smaller company so that they can no longer actually makes anything. The logic of this is like a demented and depressing Lewis Carroll story. The stock market needs to be well regulated. Also, the capital gains tax needs to be just as high as income tax. No reductions in government spending until cost cutting can be properly targeted. This goes for defense spending as well. The reason I’m not in favor of reducing defense spending is I am certain that instead of cutting costly and unnecessary programs, the cuts will go straight to military families, the V.A., soldier’s equipment, etc. Just as cuts to education don’t go to reducing the costs of the highly paid administration, they result in teacher layoffs. Some people might read this and go back to that worry about the debt and the deficit. There’s this wrongheaded thinking you see in these man in the streets interviews: “when you’re in debt you reduce your spending and pay off the debt.” And if the government’s revenue were a constant, that could work, but it’s not. There is a circular affect. In this case a downwards spiral down the toilet bowl, where the government cuts spending, people lose jobs, spend less, so private sector people lose their jobs, so the next year there’s less revenue and the circle starts again further down the bowl. The best way to fix the debt is to tackle the deficit by creating jobs, closing tax loopholes, and returning the upper tax incomes to their pre George W Bush rates. Speaking of taxes, let me stress again that the loopholes need to be closed or the whole code needs revision. Without fixing the loopholes, any attempt to use taxes to really fix anything, only amounts to a stimulus package for tax attorneys and CPAs. Well that’s 2500 words and not what I would have liked to have written on today, but like I say this is not the normal run of things. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011
3:50 pm	comics and the new 52 I've been reading more comics these days. I'd been looking for something to supplement my normal reading of Chew and the Whedonverse stuff, just in time for DC's The New 52 to come out. Well obviously I wasn't going to buy all 52, not at $3 an issue, but here's my thoughts on the ones I did get. As well as some suggestions regarding the other non superhero books I'm more normally inclined to read. Justice League Dark: Apart from the goofy title, I really liked this. It's not Peter Milligan's best work, but it is good Peter Milligan. I've definitely seen some bad Peter Milligan in the past. While it's not as awesome a story that includes John Constantine and Shade the Changing Man could be, it is a very good story with those two characters, and I'd recommend it on that alone, but also I think this issue exemplifies what I like thus far about the new 52 (or at least the books I've liked in the new 52): the writers have gone a long way to creating interesting villains and situations rather than using the old stock villains and typical superhero story lines. These are #1 issues, but I'm yet to read an origins story, or something I recognize as a retelling of another story. Before I go further discussing individual books, I think I need to mention some of the controversy with the new books. Some of this was discussed here: http://io9.com/5844355/a-7+year+old-girl-responds-to-dc-comics-sexed+up-reboot-of-starfire . Basically the argument here is that DC is making a mistake with having the women in ridiculously over the top little left to the imagination outfits. I have to agree to a point. For one thing I saw a title called Voodoo, and I thought that might be interesting but I wasn't sure as I hadn't heard of it and I can only afford so many books each week. So I turned to the first page, and there's a woman with massive breasts bending over on page 1. I put the book back on the shelf. It's not that I have something against breasts. But when I see that, I get the impression straight away that the focus of the book will be on breasts and not story, and it's story I want in comic books. If I want to see breasts on the page, I'll look at porn. Or if I want to see comic book breasts, I'll read H-Manga. I really don't know in this day and age, with internet access to dazzling arrays of perversion, what DC thinks they're accomplishing with drawings of two massively large tatas with just the nipples covered. Fortunately I didn't let the naked character on the cover of I, Vampire deter me. I thought this was a well written book, and hilariously the naked woman on the cover is dressed throughout the actual book. Wonder Woman is not a book I would have thought I'd buy, but I did so on a whim, and I'm glad I did. Once again, I see interesting characters, actually scary monsters and a storyline mixing Greek mythology with modern times. I like this. Batwoman: I like how screwed up the protagonist is. One of the problems I often have with comics is that the characters often don't have problems outside of the ones being created by their foes. Batwoman definitely has issues. Actually, most of the characters I've read so far in the new 52 seem to have genuine problems in addition to being attacked by freaky villains. Swamp Thing: This seemed to be a setup issue, but again it setup the story by establishing an edgy and creepy tone, and gave us a protagonist that's clearly troubled. Suicide Squad: This was a hoot. And yeah, call me a hypocrite for not complaining about Harley Quin's outfit, though I will say if she were fully dressed this would still be an interesting story with nicely messed up characters, and a hell of a twist at the end. Can't wait to see where this is going. Cat Woman: Again it's the creepy villains that are making the stories work for me. Though I will say this issue is one of the few times reading comics where the art got in my way of enjoying the book. The last panel, Cat Woman is mounting Batman, pulling his shirt up, and I don't know what's going on with his torso. Has he fallen on a bad run of depression? Too much Ben and Jerrys? Is that supposed to muscle and he's muscularly eight feet wide? Has a Cthulhu creature infiltrated his abs? Birds of Prey: Interesting storyline. But we're now into the books I would consider buying if I'm already in the store. I couldn't see me making a trip to the comic book shop to buy the next one if there weren't something else there I was getting. Ditto for the Flash and Red Hood and the Outlaws. Teen Titans: I just couldn't get into this. This book read more like I remember other superhero books reading that I couldn't get into. I've heard some people say that the new 52 has offended DC's audience with changes and with not continuing the old storylines. That may be true. I hadn't bought a DC comic in at least two years. But in the last month I've bought eleven. But then I'm not usually a reader of the superhero type books, unless they've got some other hook (loved Powers, the Authority, Nextwave, and quirky others). But thus far I think the new 52 are doing a good job of providing the characterization and story I look for in comics. As for the non superhero books: I'm still loving Chew, great concept and great delivery. Criminal is some special... I just wish I'd been better about getting to the shop before. They seem to be breaking it up into different named stories which is good, because there's less of the "I missed an issue, now I'm screwed effect" and yet that still happens to me. But I'm always happy when these are collected in trade paperback. When I was a kid and reading comics, and also more into superhero books, I always shied away from the comics based on some other source material, but now, part of what got me back into comics was the Firefly and Buffy books. The Angel and Faith series I think is great thus far. My only complain is that the first issue started with "From the journal of Rupert Giles", and all I could think about was, how is "From the journal of Rupert Giles" not its own book? Seriously. I would steal if I had to in order to read that. And indeed the few pages that introduced the series were better than the rest of the books thus far, but the rest have been good. Buffy season 9 is off to a good start, though again, it's no "From the journal of Rupert Giles". The Dollhouse series going on now is also quite good, but then again as I watched the often flawed show, I always thought it might be better told in a different medium. The surprising pick up in this area was I picked up the first Star Trek issue from IDW. I thought this was great, and it's totally the sort of thing I'd have avoided when I was younger, but now that I'm older I can't help but think: why wouldn't I want to read more adventures of Kirk? I think the same thing will cause me to check out the new Ghostbusters series. Why not? And if I can ever catch up, I'd love to read more Dr. Who. If the stories are well told, I know the characters are going to be entertaining. (Comment on this)
Monday, September 19th, 2011
3:08 pm	Suckerpunch The first question you'll likely ask, seeing the title, is why did I watch this? Knowing that essentially no one liked this movie, seeing it's awful reviews, why would I watch it? From what I read of the story description, the movie seemed to be the exact sort of story I would want to tell. I'm a huge fan of mixing fantasy and reality, of ambiguity whether the character is insane or that's really happening, or the character is insane and also right. I'm a huge fan of Philip K Dick, Neil Gaiman, and all sorts of other fantasists that often seem to hold escapism almost as an ideal. So I wanted to watch Suckerpunch, and see if I could tell what went wrong. I thought it opened well enough. In Watchmen and Dawn of the Dead, I think Zach Snyder did a fine job of delivering a lot of backstory and establishing mood, all while showing the opening credits. In Suckerpunch, I think the opening does a decent enough job at that. I admire that he seemed to trust me as his audience to keep up, draw my own conclusions. But then it came almost immediately off the rails. I can't put my finger on what happened, but I almost entirely lost interest in the film during a two minute shift from the man that wronged her to the asylum he was putting her in. Snyder effectively established that man as someone I wanted to see something awful happen to, which is often enough to carry a story or at least buy some time, but not here and I don't know why. I will say that I spotted the next mistake. Everything is in this character's head... if you haven't seen the film just trust me... but there's a point of view shift almost immediately after switching into the hallucination that the asylum is a noirish dancehall/brothel. This stood out. The first hallucination with the hallucination the guardian angel character gives her a list of things she must quest for. Now they did establish those things earlier when she entered the asylum, but the way in which he gave her the quest, I couldn't help but think: are you sure you're writing a movie and not a video game? He seemed so much like an rpg quest giver at that moment I kept expecting her to ask more questions and have him repeat some line of dialogue like "Have you got that key I asked you for" over and over. The next problem was that I got the sense that the brainstorming session for this movie was all the thinking they did. Often when I'm thinking up a story I'll think about all the cool stuff that could possibly go in the story. Usually only a small fraction of the stuff I think of makes it in. This is because there's usually a lot more thinking about how to connect the scenes and how to actually tell the story. That second batch of thinking, not in there. There's Nazi undead monsters, and robots, anime moves, attractive women dressed like they've come from the cosplay session of the gods, steampunk bits, scifi, horror, genre mashups galore, but no adult to step in and say "alright how do we make the story work?" If I didn't know any better I'd think Zach Snyder has found a means of detaching his id, and put it in charge of this film. All of the action scenes played along to interesting, if not always good, covers of great songs. It got to the point that I wasn't interested in the story, I wasn't interested in the action scenes, I was just fast forwarding to see what song they covered next. I did really like the very slow tempo ultra sad version of "Where is my mind". I didn't think the end was all that bad. Chinatown is my all time favorite movie, so I like a dour ending. The problem is I had the feeling like the movie knew the rest of it sucked and was just going through the motions. It had a very Ed Woodian "perfect print that" feel. So after all this, I'm still not sure I know what went wrong. Although I think it sums up something I'd been thinking about the last year: ideas are over rated, it's the execution that really matters. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 17th, 2011
11:28 am	Moderation I've attended a few cons now, and having sat in the audience during a lot of panels I have a series of suggestions and requests for the panel moderators. 1) Don't forget to introduce the panel. Sometimes it's okay to have the panel introduce themselves, but even then there's a good chance they won't include pertinent information about why they were selected for this particular panel. 2) Shut the fuck up. I felt that it's important to get this one out of the way quickly. Your job as moderator is to ask the panel questions and to keep the conversation moving along. There may be times where you are tempted to interject your own opinion to the conversation: don't. Now maybe your opinion is something that will help guide the conversation and the panel will build upon it. Okay, but if you find this necessary to do more than once or twice in a forty minute panel, you're doing something wrong. 3) Keep things on topic. Some digressions are fine, and often I don't mind if the panel members go off on tangents. They are afterall the people whose opinions I came to hear. If you start on a tangent or say ... and I'm thinking of you moderator of the Victim to Hero panel at this year's worldcon... just want to bitch about the source material, I suggest you look up at rule number two and shut the fuck up. 4) Be aware of the time. Seems obvious, but there's likely going to be people coming into the room for the next panel while the one I'm interested in is still wrapping up. Try to keep the panel discussion well within the time allotted, and save the milling about time for the questions for the audience. 5) With regards to questions... If you are going to do questions from the audience tell the audience in advance that you only want questions for the panel. It is possible that someone in the audience has a really interesting comment, but this has never happened in my experience. In my experience someone in the audience that makes a comment instead of asking a question, is someone that believes they should have been on the panel and demonstrates clearly why they should not have. Again, it's the panel that we've come to see, not the people in the audience. If the people in the audience want to discuss their opinions, there's a place for it called the bar, where such things can be cushioned with booze. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 7th, 2011
1:50 pm	SadCenter Probably a bad sign, but my mood's peak today was a bit of delight imagining a Sportscenter style show concentrating on my depression. I guess it could be anyone's depression for the show in general, but the episode was concentrated on mine. Specifically the imaginary analysts were trying to determine whether today's mopeiness is up to the high standard set when I was leading the league earlier in the summer. The highlight reel I imagined was just too precious. "And here is the first week of July just laying down in the middle of the floor staring at the ceiling. He's still at his desk today. Not even the same category." Ah well, time to get over myself and put some words on the page on what I'm meant to be working on. (Comment on this)
Monday, September 5th, 2011
5:08 pm	Holllywood Forever Today we went the Cemetery of the Stars tour (http://cemeterytour.com/) of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. http://www.hollywoodforever.com/ I highly recommend this if you're in or are going to be in the LA area. Lots of information about early and modern Hollywood. Also lots of entertaining stories. One nice thing about the tour, that Amy noted, was that both this tour and another tour we've been on (http://esotouric.com/ ) are very good about noting their research. It's interesting to learn not just about the subject, but how they went about finding out about their subject and confirming that information. Both sets of tour guides are also adept at dishing out the dark, seedy side of their subject matter as well. Hollywood Forever's new (since 1998 we learned) management seems to have good ideas on using the institution as a cultural center. I regret missing the screening of Evil Dead they did back in July. (They regularly have night screenings of movies on the weekends, on the lawn behind the Fairbanks memorial.) All in all an interesting day. (Comment on this)
4:43 pm	Sequoias I used to think that though I'm not the sort of person that enjoys camping, that I am the sort of person that likes to see some nature, and staying in a lodge is a good way for that. (For me, camping breaks down with the essential first question I ask during any change in my surroundings: where do I shit?). But I'm starting to think, that even the lodge isn't for me. I like nature. I like to know there is nature, but I really am starting to believe that I belong in the city limits and any leaving of the city should only be attempted if it is necessary to travel to another city. Amy and I drove to the Sequoias this weekend. We were about ten minutes into the park limits, when we saw something moving on the road. At first I thought it was a large mouse, or small rat, but no, it was a spider. Spiders that are large enough that I take notice of them from my moving vehicle are not acceptable. And this was the first time I pondered turning around and heading back to LA. It was also but the first of three of these we saw on our way to the lodge. I used to think that tarantulas were things that lived in other places, preferably other nations or continents, not within a day's drive of my home. But it was being out in nature that was the worst for me. On the short hike to see General Sherman, the world's biggest tree or it was at one point, I noticed that my progress was constantly impeded by wasps, yellow jackets, and large bees, all of which tended to hover a half inch in front of me like they were just daring me to take one more step forward. It was as though my sunscreen were made of precious nectar or honey. Somehow we made it down to the tree. These great big trees really are sort of a majestic sight, but it really is a majestic sight ruined by the hordes of tourists flocking about them, screaming. Then I saw this walking alongside the trail. Now I admit, my first thought was "ooh neat! A bear!" But as Amy and I snapped a photo and started trying to make our way slowly away, the rest of the crowd started racing along the trail to get closer, and two thoughts popped in my head. 1) One of these assholes has probably fed that bear in the past. And 2) It's not that large a bear, I hope its mom isn't about. This was followed by a third thought regarding feeling light headed walking uphill in the high altitude air, and a moment of panic that if I did have to move quickly, would I be able to. I at least was able to reassure myself that if the bear's mom did show up, it would probably take it some time to plow through the children racing towards its cub, and that should buy me enough time to stop and catch my breath. I also don't think there's a lot that I'm "in to" about nature. There was some decent food in the first lodge we stayed in, but nothing worth the sort of money they were asking. And the second lodge, the John Muir lodge, was particularly devoid of anything I find interesting. I'd say I could at least have read a lot, but for some reason, the lure of the quiet solitude of nature, is shattered by screaming families of tourists. Amy said to me: Breath in that good clean air. I said back: It burns us, precious. Fortunately, it was a short trip, and Amy got me back to the safety of the smog. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, August 29th, 2011
9:43 pm	trips Been trying to find some time to reflect upon the recent trips: Washington, then Reno. They were both fun and interesting, but also odd. We flew up to Washington a couple weeks ago. Maybe it's my strange new fondness for LA, but as we landed I looked over all the trees and the sound and thought "I already miss the smog." The first night we went down to Kelso to stay the night before heading to St. Helens the next day. Kelso was depressing. If ever you fall under a spell and think our economic system works, there are plenty of places like Kelso to remind you that it does not. St Helens was interesting. We got there just in time to hear a Ranger talk about the damage caused by the eruption. The nearby lake being launched eight hundred feet in the air was the fact that reminded me that I don't really want to be anywhere near volcanoes. On the way back we stopped and ate at a very good restaurant that also had helicopter rides to the mountain. No helicopters for us, but I did have a couple of very nice beers and a good sandwich. If ever I learn that I have like a few weeks to live so I might as well eat what I want, I'm going back there to eat one of these burgers: Big Foot Burger: Top bun, onion ring, swiss cheese, patty, onion ring, swiss cheese, patty, two mozzarella sticks, patty, onion ring, American cheese, patty, bottom bun. Sasquatch Burger: Top bun, fire sauce, 2 jalapeno cheese sticks, 1/2 lb fire mountain patty, pepper jack cheese, 3 jalapeno poppers, 1/2 lb fire mountain patty, pepper jack cheese, fire sauce, bottom bun. Each of those are served with a pound of French fries. Interestingly, as I look at the picture I took of this menu item, I see (and I assume it's for the helicopter tour) the words "Want to go in the crater?" I'm fairly certain if I ate either of these burgers, I would have a great need to "go in the crater". That night we had dinner with my aunt, uncle, cousin, and cousin's son. It was nice to get to see them, though I believe this is where I got a cold that didn't surface till the flight back. In Seattle, Amy went to attend a history conference, while I met up with some peeps and a lot of vodka. I believe the total was two bloody Marys at Lindas, 6 greyhounds at Six Arms, and a martini at the Rennaisance Hotel. This lead to a dinner I can't quite remember for some reason. Sunday, we hung out on the East side getting to see friends, which was great.My brain was still sore from the vodka on Saturday, but I was really glad to get to see everyone. While I don't miss living up there, I do miss my friends up there. I think I'm going to have to plan a trip where visiting friends is the focus of the trip so I can see everyone and spend more time with people and maybe a little less time in the car. On the flight home, I started to feel the cold. I assumed at that point it was just the flight, but no. The next day we drove to Mammoth en route to Reno, and the cold hit me in full as four times my own mass in snot tried to leak out through my nostrils, pores, and eyes. Mammoth was weird. I hadn't been there since I was a kid, and never in the summer. It didn't help any that I was feeling like shite. Reno was also weird. Every time I've been to Reno, as an adult anyway, I've stayed downtown, and also been very drunk. On this trip we were there for the Sci Fi Worldcon, and since we didn't go to any parties just panels, I stayed pretty sober. Also the area around the convention center is different. It's like a very depressed Orange County. Instead of the neat dive bar feeling of downtown with it's local niche eateries and bars, everything near the convention center is a chain. The convention itself was pretty awesome. Saw a lot of panels, especially ones with Tim Powers, my favorite living writer. Came away from the convention with some fun geeky shirts, and some good short story collections. I highly recommend Tim Powers' new collection: the Bible Repairman. Best thing about the convention though, was it was pretty inspiring, and I'm back to writing every day, following a three week funk of low to in-activity. So overall a good time. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 14th, 2011
4:16 pm	LACMA We went to LACMA the other day to see the Tim Burton exhibit. The exhibit is awesome. In some ways it had me thinking that it was perfect. When his films don't work there's usually still that neat oddity to them, and some of those things were great to see in the museum, better for them there than the films in many cases. And for some of the films that did work, seeing things like the angora sweater from Ed Wood, was pretty cool. LACMA itself is immense. I really had no idea. I thought we'd go see the Burton exhibit, then go through a building of art seeing all there is, and go home, likely not to return. I was very wrong. For starters there's not just one building, there's a campus of buildings, or so it seemed. And as far as I can tell, there's no way to see all that I'd want to see in the space of a day, especially not without preparing first. So I'll have to research, plan, scheme, and return again. But I could think of worse things to have to do. (Comment on this)
Thursday, June 16th, 2011
8:05 am	Why I am glad the Canucks lost At the start of the Stanley Cup Finals I had mixed emotions. On the one hand, I’d written a story, just a first draft, about a ghost of a Bruins fan that needed the Bruins to win a championship for him to move on to the afterlife, and I figured that would be shot if the Bruins were to win. On the other hand, something had always bothered me about the Canucks. I had figured it was the Canucks’ diving that bothered me. Switching sports, some people say that it’s the lack of scoring that makes soccer less popular in the US, I’ve always felt it’s the diving. It’s particularly loathsome I think in a sport like hockey, where part of the allure of the game is the violence. And yes the Canucks lived up to their reputation as divers during these finals. But what I think really did it for me, was the turtleing, going into a fight and then covering up before the other guy can hit you so that the referee grabs him. I’ve been watching hockey for 37 years now. I have never seen a team do this to this degree. What’s more they were often the ones who started the fight. One of the Canucks would go hit or shove a Bruin after the whistle, and then if he had the temerity to fight back, the Canuck would drop to the ice and turtle up. Over and over again. The Bruins are not my team, but by the end of it, I was as emotionally drained as I am at the end of a playoff series with the Kings. Then there’s the rioting in Vancouver following the loss. Sore losers? Ah well, I’d ignore that, they got drunk, emotions running high, whatever, can’t blame the fans. But there’s this quote from the coach following the loss “I know we gave it our best shot, but in this one game, they were the better team.” Um, that one game? They beat you four games to three fair and square it wasn’t just that they got lucky in that last game. If anything if the Canucks had won that final game, I’d expect the Bruins to have a complaint. For those that weren’t following this series: the Canucks won each of their three wins by one goal, all of those games in Vancouver. The three games in Boston were all won by the Bruins: 8-1, 4-0, and 5-2. The final game in Vancouver the Bruins won 4-0. So the Bruins outscored them by fifteen goals overall. But according to the Canucks coach, the Bruins were just the better team in that one game. So the Canucks managed to piss me off enough into being just as emotionally involved in the series as if it had been the Kings playing in it, and that I think is one of the glorious things about hockey. It’s hard to become as emotionally involved in other sports, unless your team or your teams’ specific rival is involved. Hockey can do this. The Canucks did this. That emotion in this case is hate, but it still made for a great series. (Comment on this)