You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July, 2008.
I am officailly getting old. I know this because I went to an amusement park with 3 of my friends last Thursday and we didn’t fight. No one in the group ever threw a hissy fit about not getting their way, we walked at a leisurely pace and no one need, absolutely had to try, to win some ugly stuffed toy. I was pleased by this, and felt relaxed and not exhilarated by the whole experience. That is how I know I’m getting old.
I went to see The Dark Knight twice…in the same day…I had my reasons. And I have to say I wasn’t so sad about Heath Ledger being dead before (I didn’t see A Knights Tale until a year ago which is, as I understand it, the way that most girls came to love him), but after seeing his take on the Joker, I am really very sorry that he is no longer amoung the living. He was absolutely fantastic. I have never hated and loved a movie character so much. I also haven’t enjoyed a movie so much in years.
After the movies, there was camping. From Friday night to Sunday afternoon. Interesting experience, that. It rained most of the time and I barely slept. I think the best parts were getting to throw a frisbee around which I really enjoy doing and rarely do, and being introduced to cheese burger pizza. I have about 30 bug bites to show for the whole thing and I’m hoping they’ll clear up before I have to be all pretty for my cousins wedding in a week and a half. My brother in-law commented that I look like a leper, or maybe he said leapred. Hmmm, anyway.
And throughout all of this I’ve been pondering what it means to be an adult and what the criteria is for being one. Still working on the check list, I’ll probably post it at somepoint.
By the way, you all remember Jay and Silent Bob? Yeah, there’s this movie called “Lady is a Vamp”, don’t bother. Really. Don’t. Unless you happen to like soft core, vaguely humorus, bad vampire movies. Then by all means.
“I’m geekin’ out here!”
-Syndrome, The Incredible’s
(And now you know.)
In this age of the endless hyperlinks, and a culture truly ruled by fans I find my self in wonder at the powers of the new god, the Internet. I’m not even sure how to explain what I mean by that.(Best example, Harry Potter.)
I picked up a copy of Frank Beddor’s The Looking Glass Wars knowing nothing about it but that it was an Alice in Wonderland parody. I read the novel and found it fascinating, an imaginative and interesting take and twist on the whole story from beginning to end. And because of that I found it almost totally unsatisfying. Beddor didn’t go deep enough for me, and deeper only takes a few more words, a few more sentences to please me. The action was high and kept building with a pace and ingenious that I find envious. The ending however was dissatisfying, it was rushed and the lack of explanation, and detail was so glaring I found it even harder to enjoy the story. However this disjunction between reality and imagination that Beddor portrays in Alyss’s world (that seems to be very purposeful) goes just a little too far for me. As gaps open in the narrative we try hard to stay on the same page with him, it’s obvious he’s brilliant, however writing the equivalent of the statement “like, you know, with the thing!” is less so. As the story went on I felt like begging the author for more, more description, a tighter narrative. I understand and like the placement and use of some of these gaps but some seem just so glaring that it became difficult to continue to read. I feel as though the author didn’t do his own vision justice.
Come to find out, that apparently there are other books to go with this one, one after the end of the current narrative, one for Hatter alone, and a card game. It seems people that like to fill in the gaps and I’m just greedy.
A friend directed me to the website, where I’ve discovered music inspired by the book, and a movie in the making. Is this a normal practice I was not aware of? Writing books that are in and of themselves teasers, addictive, artful trailers to merchandise; a lure to bring you into the world the writer has made so that you will stay awhile? I don’t know how I feel about that. This doesn’t seem to be malicious, but I don’t know how I feel about the change in media and approach to story telling that this seems to represent.
Looking into Frank Beddor himself, it seems he’s a producer/free style skier/veritable renaissance man, and the movie is entirely his own idea with help from friends and associates in the industry. Well that all makes a little more sense now. I had wondered why it felt like I was reading the narrative of a film.
Why does everything need a card game? Who’s playing them all, really?
…..
I suppose understanding now that the whole thing is headed toward being a movie, it says more about the movie industry diversifying and trying to make a better connection with the reader/viewer and less about a globalized inability to appreciate subtlety and detail, or to pay attention that has become so grievous that everything has to make noise, have flashing lights, and read like someone made a narrative out of cliffnotes.
Still, this doesn’t explain the utter lack of originality in today’s mainstream media.
More on that later, I’m sure.
I spent 3 hours last night writing out 5 year plans, and I’m starting to come to the conclusion that I’m going to have to get a job at Wal*Mart while I’m in college. The main issues I have are 1) Wal*Mart is evil, 2) I don’t know if I’ll have enough time if I start a job outside of school. 16 to 19 hours (depending on how they workout) in classes, 4 washing dishes, 10 or so for work-study, and 56 hours a week assuming I sleep 8 hours a night. All that leaves me somewhere around 72 hours of homework-eating-living-transitions-writing-exercising-socializing-and-so-forth time a week, take away 20 to 30 hours if I get a job. I’m not sure if that’s do able, 52 to 42 hours that is. Maybe if my prof’s had given me the reading lists like I asked and I had a buffer crop of short stories to use in advanced fiction workshop, but I don’t have either. I’m not a fast reader or writer and I’m taking 4 English courses and 2 history courses, I need my spare time badly. Ugh. Maybe I should tell them to forget about the work-study, quit the dining hall, and work at Wal*Mart on the weekends. It would probably be the most sensible move.
Having trouble deciding which of the 8 story’s I’ve got started to dedicate my time to.
1)The one with the fish (I know where this is going)
2)The fantasy one (I know where this is going, and damn it’s gonna take forever to get there)
3)The other fantasy one (I know where this is going, but it needs work)
4)The one about the apartment (I have no idea where this is going)
5)The one with the stripper and that other guy (See above)
6)The one about growing up (See above)
7)The one with the bomb shelter (See above to the tenth power)
8)The poem one with the pregnant lady (Not sure where it’s going either)
My best bets are probably 3, 4, and 5. The rest are just too much work or research. Ugh.
On to talking about something more interesting then my rambling inner dialogue and woe’s.
Oh why bother, you’re just skimming anyway.
In other news I’ve started working out some. I did something good/stupid the other day and went for a 1 hour and 15 min walk in 96 degree weather. Dumb, good that I got out, but dumb. I have the blisters to show for it, those are so going to suck when they pop.
General over view: OMFG, Bella is stupid.
I started reading the Twilight’s series by Stephenie Meyer and I can’t decide how I feel about it. On the one hand I’m tearing through it, I’m not a fast reader, but I had the first novel (498 pgs) done in about 12 hours, that’s fast for me. And I’m eating through the second as well.
But I’m having the same trouble with the main character that a lot of people (including me) had with the Harry Potter series, the main character is a self centered, unthinking idiot. I understand people are flawed, but for the love of crap (yes, I know, no one loves crap), can’t these people manage to BEHAVE THEM SELVES AND THINK RATIONALLY?! The writer slips in the characters excuse “love makes you stupid”, and yeah, yeah it does, and I know that. But the character from that point on starts wielding that excuse like a weapon against all rational thought and her own happiness. I find this infuriating.
Most people who read this and know me are right now thinking “You’re one to talk.” And the answer is “Yes, yes I am.”
Meyer plays her up at the beginning as a responsible person, she claims herself as a sensible and driven human being. And then as soon as Edward looks at her she suddenly looses sight of almost everything thing else in her life. School, friends, family, life, and herself. Even proper prespective on the guy shes dating. I don’t know how many times Meyers has her use the words “I’m not hungry.” as her reaction to being upset, personally I almost think thats a crutch for her, writing wise. Anyway. I fully realize that people get strung out like this. I’m all to aware how that can happen. But to see someone go from responsible and intuitive to that is truly disheartening.
Then again, thinking on it, her way of dealing with new people and a new school was to lie to everyone. Hair brained little twit.
Also the difference between the ways we love people is something she potraites in this. As of New Moon, page 436 (where I’m at at this very moment), the line as been drawn between two types of love. The wild and friece “die for you and cry to see your face” kind of love, and the “comfortable, comforting, everyday love”. Let’s get this clear right now. Fire that burns bright and hot, consumes it’s self and dies. A fire that smolders, endures. This is the fire that you warm yourself by, this is the fire that lasts you through the coldest of nights.
Advice for a few select characters that I wish I could give them:
-Harry Potter after the fourth book if not before- get over your self you whinny little snot. Think straight and grow up and you will own the world, whine like a bitch and you’ll camp a lot, I mean a lot. Did I say a lot? No one wants that.
-Everyone over the age of 7 in the Harry Potter series from just about start to finish. The kids life started hard, and you all know it’s probably gonna stay like that. Keep him well informed, set some fucking boundries and teach him to fucking plan better.
-Alexander from the movie “Alexander”. Forget your mother. Do us all a favor and go to some quiet corner of the world, herd goats and fuck your boyfriend and only your boyfriend for the rest of your life (R.I.P. 3 hours of my life I will never get back.)
-And Bella, Bella please. Learn to think through your goodbyes. Telling the boy, “I love you, I really do, but if I let him die like I know he will, I won’t be able to live with my self, I have to try.” is infinately better then “Bye.” Can no one communicate properly!?
-Oh, and bye the way Bella, just date Jacob already. Really, he’s SO much better for you.
Give me Mercedys Lackey, where peoples stupidity only lasts so long as it takes someone else to reach out, smack them across the back of the head and say, “Dumbass. Behave your self!”
“Just one question. Is your head up your ass for the warmth?” -Burt Gummer
OK, so, I haven’t looked too closely into the fan base, but I believe I’m part of a rather small, dedicated fandom who know and love the best made cheesy monster movies in history. Tremors 1, 2,3, and 4 along with the delightfully amusing TV series that I didn’t manage to catch nearly enough of. Now I don’t know why, a scardy cat like me loves these sort of movies, or even the proper name for a group that I believe includes movies like Jurassic Park, Lake Placid, and Tremors, along with other nameless movies that have amused me throughout the years.
Shoddy, vaguely scientific reasoning for the goings on, and a kind of humor that is at once self deprecating and truly witty. I do have to say that if there were two things I’d change about the third movie it would be the CGI of the creatures, and the music; I really wish they had stuck more toward the music that was used in the first movie. In the second movie too for that matter.
“Oh, you, you guys definitely need to be supervised.” -Jodee Chin
If anyone knows a way to get a hold of a copy of the series I would be very happy to hear it.
