Wow, and Then Some

So this blog had it’s best day ever yesterday, with people reading about Martin Streek, or about my memory of him and my sadness that he couldn’t find another way out.  Apparently people are searching for reasons or an explanation of how he died, and I’m not sure I even have the right to comment on that, I wasn’t there, and I have no first hand knowledge of it at all, but I’m going to weigh in anyway.

Martin Streek started working at CFNY when he was still a teenager, and given the timelines and the way these sorts of things work that made him 40ish last Monday.  His bio at the Edge website was almost certainly only half true, so you can discount the fact that it said he was 55, I don’t believe he was that old, unless he had failed a number of grades in school.  So far as I know the only job he ever had was working for The Edge, which he did for 20+ years.

Last spring he was fired, or let go or whatever euphamism you would like to use for, as far as I can tell, no FUCKING REASON AT ALL.  He didn’t get to say goodbye, he just vanished a month before Edgefest, his bio was removed from the Edge site and his time slots were given to other DJs.  No one talked about it, it was like a dirty little secret.  I’m guessing, and this is just a guess, he either pissed off the wrong person, or was a victim of Corus making a decision about direction and branding and whatever and deciding that Martin no longer fit the corporate mold.  Corus is the huge entertainment conglomerate that owns CFNY. 

Now, I’ve never had a job longer than a couple years, and I’ve never been fired, so I can only imagine what that must have felt like for Martin.  In all the years I listened to him, all the years I would run into him at clubs the only thing I can honestly say about him was he loved his job more than anything, save music, which he loved in a way that is usually only possible for a 14 year old.  Martin never got old, he still loved his music the way we all did in highschool, when it was important, when we cared, before 9-5 bullshit bogged us down and we got old.  I think that certainly it took a toll when he was told he would have to grow up, when he would no longer be the longest running DJ on CFNY.  I think Martin had a lot of demons, but I think that is what ultimately pushed him over the edge, so to speak.  This isn’t to say it is the management of Corus Enntertainments fault that he did what he did, but it stands to reason someone is going to blame them, and that’s not too far fetched. 

It’s not the way I would want to go out, but like I said, I wasn’t there. 

That’s my 2 cents, and probably a couple other people’s 2 cents too, just for good measure.  I maintain that this sucks more than I can put into words, and that I am deeply saddened by his sudden exit not just from radio, although that pissed me off, but from life in general. 

65 people checked this blog yesterday looking for answers to a question we are all asking and to which there probably is no answer.  That’s the biggest day this blog has ever had, and that should say how much he meant to so many of us.  Remember the man, thevoice and the music and the halloween costumes and fuck the rest.  None of the rest matters.  Don’t be angry and don’t look for answers, use that time to remember him, put on London Calling and kick back and remember.  Do something good with that energy, don’t scrounge it on wasteful things.

I’m listening to London Calling now, and I’m sure somewhere Joe Strummer and Martin are looking down at all of us while they chat about killer guitar riffs and awesome bass lines.  Keep a seat warm for us up there, we’ll see you again one day.

Welcome to the Wonderful World of New Beginnings

Hi everyone, assuming that anyone is left that is.  I’m aware that I haven’t updated this blog in a reeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaalllllllly long time and there are reasons for that, most I will not frankly discuss at any length here.  It has been an absolute shit year so far, but I’m guessing you figured that out on your own.  My life has been tumultuous at best, and frankly if I could go to sleep right now and wake up being someone else I probably would.  Hell if I could go to sleep and wake up in another decade I probably would.  But hiding from life is never a good idea, it will keep going even if you try to divorce yourself from it so you might as well just ride the wave and see what beach you’re headed for.

That’s a more positive statement then I’ve been able to make in a long time.  At least I see the future as a beach and not a never ending abyss of darkness and pain and regret.  So, update time: I’m starting to write again, this is a first step, but not the only one I will be making in the coming weeks.  The comic book is still in the works, though Andy has had life changes of his own that have caused him to slow down on his output, I’ll keep you all advised as to when to expect to see something.

I’m also working on a new book idea with my screenwriting partner, collaborating on something we think will be a ton of fun and completely different from anything else either of us has done in the past.  So it’s all been a bit hectic, despite the fact that I at present have absolutely nothing to show for it.

I’ve decided I think I should write for TV.  I think I could really flurish in that sort of collaborative writing environment.  The most fun I have writing is riffing off of someone else’s idea and having them riff right back.  I love that.  Only works with people who play on my level though, and it helps if they’re a bit off, cause well, I’m a bit off and that’s just the way that works. 

So I’m going out Saturday night, these are new plans, you see, so I thought I would tell all of you.  I have no idea where I’m going or what I’m going to do.  it should be fun.  I’m being vague, I know.  I think the evening will start with sushi, but that is really all I know so far.

As for my real job, my regular full time day job, it’s fine, and might lead me to the career I want.  Of course it might not, but that’s the nature of any career, it’s always a gamble at some point.

In case you were wondering, and I’m only going to say this once, mostly just to say it, my wife and I have separated and are planning to get a divorce.  It has been a very long process to get to where we are now, and our daughter is now the only thing either of us cares about, and we struggle to make this as easy for her as possible. 

I will not mention that again.

I will however blog more regularly now that I’m starting to get back in the swing of things.  Promise.  Information about the upcoming book idea with my screen writing partner as soon as we finalize some details.

-m

Interesting Times

Confuscious once said “May you live in interesting times.”  I think that’s as much a curse as a blessing, a vicious double edged sword that can cut as easy as protect.  There’s something romantic about living in a simpler age with fewer concerns, though all such remembrances are hopelessly filtered through rose tinted glasses and I’m sure people in those simpler ages spent a lot of time worrying about getting enough to eat or plugging the hole in the thatched roof, so I’m not completely daft.  I know that life was never easy and is not likely to get any easier despite the improvements we make.  It also isn’t going to get harder, just different. 

My own times are becoming more interesting (and here I use that term somewhat ironically) as I type this.  For those of you who know me you might know that my wife has decided to leave me, that she announced this decision on Facebook of all fucking places and that I learned of this turn of events (not entirely unforeseen) in an email.  Interesting times my ass.  Now I am as much at fault for the breakdown of my marriage as she is, perhaps more, and I really wish her only the best, but at the moment I’m angry, hurt and not sure quite what to feel. 

So now things get sticky.  How do we tell our daughter, what do we tell our daughter.  What kind of visitation rights is my wife going to give me, do I have to sue her for full access, it’s all a very large mess.  My hope is that it resolves itself in time to a solution that provides maximum visitation for me and minimal irritation for my wife.  That’s the dream, lets see what actually happens. 

I had intended to post more, but frankly I don’t want to.  I’ll post about completely meaningless stuff soon as I wrap my head around all of this and begin to have the impulse to do something else with my time.  Sorry about Rabbit Hole day, if you were looking forward to what I might say, this sorta happened instead, so I unofficially declare Feb 27 2009 as my rabbit hole day, as hopefully a day I can start to climb out of the hole I have dug for myself and get on with my life.

You can’t be happy with anyone until you’re happy with yourself.  Remember that, it’s true, and good advice to boot.

-m

Rabbit Hole Day

I will update on my life and bitch like normal soon, promise, but in the meantime, this struck me as interesting (Cross posted from www.warrenellis.com)

Dan Curtis Johnson:

Let’s face it. You’re in a blog rut.

Most of the time, you write about more of the same kinda stuff that you usually write about.

Maybe it’s your day-to-day life, the stuff you did. Maybe it’s topical news response. Maybe it’s short fiction. Maybe it’s re-linking random stuff you see on the internet. Maybe it’s LOLCAT porn. (I hope it’s not LOLCAT porn.) Maybe it’s here on LiveJournal, or it’s over on Vox, or Blogspot or Blogger or Blogblog or Postablogablowablog, or WordPress or Facebook or FacePress or FacePlant or maybe it’s just your Twitter account. It’s what you’re comfortable with, I know, I know…

…but why not try doing something different, just for a day?

Two weeks from today, Tuesday January 27th, is Lewis Carroll’s 177th birthday. Carroll, you’ll recall, wrote about a girl who fell down a rabbit hole and found herself in a place where all the rules had changed. In two weeks, on Lewis Carroll’s 177th birthday, you should do the same.

That’s right: the 5th Annual Rabbit Hole Day is coming.

When you wake up on the 27th, instead of writing about your usual work and school and politics and friends and news and stuff, experience life down the Rabbit Hole and write about the work, the school, the politics, the friends, the news, the stuff that you find there instead. Travel through time. Turn into an animal. Flee from assassins. Talk to your goldfish. Conquer Greenland. Sprout some extra limbs. Learn how to walk on water. Marry an insect.

Take a break from the Every Day and write about your Rabbit Hole Day. Your normal life will be waiting for you when you get back.

 

On the off chance that any other bloggers read this, I think they should follow Dan’s advice and see what happens.  And if you do please drop by and leave a comment with your blog address, I’d like to see what comes of it.

Real post to follow shortly.

Faster than a Speeding Bullet

Hello Interweb.  How are you?  Anything exciting happen since the last time I found a spare moment to wax philosophic on this site?  No, not really?  A black man was elected President of the United States, that’s pretty cool.  An idiot woman failed in her bid to become Vice President, that’s even better.  Halloween came and went, of course I wrote about it, so that gives me a timeline.  The world economy continued its slow decent into madness, but that started months ago, so all in all I think the world is continuing whether I chronicle my thoughts about it or not.  Good to know, sometimes being inconsequential is comforting.

My job is going well, for those of you who are interested.  My comic book is also going well, for those of you who care.  Andy is drawing as I type this (well, probably not exactly as I type this, although he could be, but you get the point), we should have Issue 1 done by Christmas, I think he told me.  Not much else is new, really.  I signed up for Nanowrimo and failed miserably, in word count, inspiration, drive and just sheer lack of time.  I enjoyed getting the emails from other writers telling all the participants to keep at it though, I have marked them as saved so I can go back and read some advice next time I get really stuck on a book. 

The rest of my world is in its usual state of flux, Jordan appears to be doing well in school, though we will know for sure on Wednesday when she gets her report card.  Shanna is doing well at work, and has so far failed to get mad enough to quit over some trivial annoyance.  That might almost be a record for her.  Oh, back to me for a moment, I have unofficially been promoted to trainer for my team, (unofficial because it comes with nothing resembling a pay increase, but I do have the new people sitting and listening to my calls, which is sort of unnerving, and a little empowering at the same time).  We have gone from a team of one, before I started, to 5 reps plus a new manager for the team in just over 2 months.  I tell you I got in at the right time, we are growing by leaps and bounds. 

I realize having typed that, that I have been working for this company for over 2 months, and let me tell you, the time has flashed by like a speeding bullet.  It seems like just yesterday I was finishing my first week.  November in particular has flown by, I don’t have any idea where all the time has gone.  Christmas is just around the corner and as December nears I’m positive it will seem like only yesterday that I was typing this very post as I open gifts Christmas morning.  Have you noticed that the older you get the faster time seems to pass?  I remember the first term of school taking forever, years, not months, certainly not weeks or days (in Einsteinian relativistic physics, of course).  I honestly remember the two months of summer vacation seeming like a lifetime, right up until the Friday before Labor Day long weekend, where I would invariably look back and wonder just what I had wasted my whole summer doing. 

Now time slips past me like a rushing tide and I am a rock sticking out of the shallow part of the lake.  I can’t control it, I can’t slow it down, all I can do is stand there and let it wear me down with each passing second.  I feel old.  Is thirty too young to feel old?  I realize I have bitched and whined a fair bit here about the passage of time and getting older and resetting priorities and such, and I’d feel bad about that, but no one is making you read this, so what the fuck?  I had this thought earlier tonight: remember the movie Fight Club?  Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, male bonding and Mrs. Tim Burton (or Helena Bonham Carter, if you prefer)?  It was based on the novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk, but that’s not really important to this line of thought.  There’s this moment when Brad Pitt turns to Edward Norton and explains the modern human condition, I’m going to paraphrase this a bit, only because I’m too lazy to dig out the book or the movie to make sure I get the quote right, but he says something like this: ”We were raised to believe we would grow up to be Rock Stars and Movie Gods, and now we’re figuring out that that isn’t going to happen.”  That’s a really true sentiment.  I’m not old enough to have a mid life crisis, though in many ways I’m sure that’s exactly what I’m doing, and really, unless I plan to live till i’m 100 I’m not actually that far from the middle of my life and I feel like I haven’t accomplished all the things I want to, not by a long shot. 

The question then becomes what to do about it.  I mean I suppose I could grow some sideburns, buy a sports car and drive around like I was 19 again, but that doesn’t seem to work for me.  I have sideburns already, I’ve had them for as long as I have been able to grow hair on my face.  I can’t afford a sports car, and even if I could I wouldn’t be buying it to overcompensate for lost youth or shortcomings, but because I think it looks cool and is fun to drive.  Maybe that’s what everyone says.  I watched my dad do that, and it seemed to make him happy, he loved that car, but it still rings hollow somehow. 

So “no” to plan A. 

How about I take stock of my life and find out just where I am? 

More on this tomorrow when i’m not late for getting to sleep.

Thanks for giving and assorted other crap

Hi,

this is going to get done even if I have to force myself to just write for no real reason whatsoever.  For the record my life is so boring right now I have nothing of any true relevance to contribute to any sort of ongoing metaphysical quest for meaning (which is what I usually think I’m doing when I write weird shit here), nor do I have time to do anything even slightly creative so it’s not a workblog of my progress through editing my novel or anything like that.  No, what we have here is mostly just a failure to communicate, and Paul Newman’s dead, so now what?

I’ll give you all an idea of what a typical day in the life of me is like.  I get up at 6:30 am, a time of day I normally have never seen unless I had failed to go to bed the previous night.  I shower and get dressed and leave the house when it is still slightly dark and there is frost covering the ground.  Okay the frost isn’t there all the time but it adds to the effect, doesn’t it?  I drive for about an hour through stop and go rush hour bullshit traffic, a distance of some fifty kilometers.  That means i’m not driving very fast and I’m usually irritable by the time I get to work. 

I have coffee.

I love coffee.  I love that my new job has a coffee maker that costs nothing, no matter how many coffees you have in one day.  I love that there are different flavors of coffee.  I wish it was Tim Hortons, but whatever.

I make a bunch of phone calls.  My job consists of calling people who don’t want to talk to me and convincing them to talk to me, and eventually to buy things from me.  This isn’t easy and people don’t always have warm fuzzy feelings when I call them.  It’s sort of the weirdest job I’ve ever had.  I’m half convinced I could sit there and do nothing and no one would notice a difference.  Anyway, I make my calls.  Sometimes I eat lunch, sometimes I don’t.  After 8 hours of sitting at my desk I get up and drive home, another hour in rush hour bullshit traffic.

Sometimes I have dinner waiting for me, usually I don’t.  I make something for the kid and I to eat for dinner and settle down to watch LOST on Space at 7pm.  I have been up for over twelve hours so far.  Jordan is usually watching tv or doing homework, sometimes both, or having a shower/bath while I watch Lost, otherwise she talks all the way through it. 

Just a word to any other writers out there who might stumble on this blog someday.  Don’t ever buy a TV if you want to be a serious writer.  Don’t get cable, don’t buy a blueray player, forget all that shit.  When you get home from your “real” job, write!  I get home and my brain is half comafied, so I complete the process by watching a couple hours of TV and losing myself in the mindnumbing awfulness that is American Network Television.  I like JJ Abrams though and Smallville, but other than that the rest is all crap.  Don’t bother with any of it, just write.  I should be writing when I’m watching TV, I feel guilty that I’m not, I’m just so burned out after the day that I can’t think of a single interesting new sentence to bother jotting down.  This is what real life is like.  It sucks.  I need to figure out a better plan, but I digress.

Anyway, put Jordan to bed around Nine, maybe read a story, or listen to her tell me a story, then continue my comafication in front of the idiot box.  Sometimes I turn on my computer pretending I’m going to write something interesting, sometimes I don’t bother.  At some point Shanna will likely have come home, though her presence has little to no effect on the events of any given evening, except she might put Jordan to bed instead of me.  Anyway, somewhere between eleven and twelve I go to bed and read until my eyes get fuzzy and then I fall asleep, only to do it all again the next day.

That is my life.  It is ending one second at a time even as I type this, which is a horrible and yet fitting cliche.  Lennon said life is what happens while you’re making other plans.  I’m not even making other plans anymore, i’m too fucking tired.  so what do I have now, really?  Am I living my life, hell, a life?  Is going through the motions of existence enough to justify the existence itself or is something more required?  Have I reverted to the pre-Descartes philosophic outlook that I am therefore I think?  Is thinking even necessary, perhaps the fact that I am here is enough by itself.  Is anything else required of me?  Is there any other way to do this?

Does anyone else think that if only they had the courage to change everything about their world they might be happier, but they would also likely not be themselves anymore?  How much of my personal self-image is based on being miserable in the day in day out echoes of my life?  If I were to wake up one day and find out that this isn’t all there is to life would that change who I am? 

Clearly I’m talking nonsense and you have all stopped paying attention to me.  Rightly so, I’m losing my mind. 

I’ll write more later, probably.

-M
Up past his bedtime somewhere in Canada.

New Job, New Beginnings, New Everything

Hi,

I haven’t written anything for this in a while now, sorry.  I have actually written a couple posts that I didn’t bother to finish, and so didn’t post them, but all in all it has been a long slow summer filled with oddities that I felt no need to record here and highs and lows that were better left for me to deal with alone. 

It’s strange, this is sort of a diary, but it is one that anyone can read anytime, which takes away an integral part of the whole diary experience.  Even now I wish I could keep a diary, but I’m useless at that sort of repetitive task.  I would like to have kept a diary years ago so that I could go back and read some of the things that happened to me, figure out where all the plot threads came from, which ones vanished without a trace, etc.  But I didn’t, and years from now all I’ll be able to do is look back at this half record of things and try to remember what else was going on.

So, to recap, I quit my job with Rogers/Discover in June, and spent the summer being a bum, basically waiting for something to happen to me, rather than proactively searching for that something.  I really have to admit I did fuck all for months, and as the months dragged on it got harder and harder to think about doing anything.  I got used to having nothing, no money, no self-esteem, no anything except the constant glow of re-runs on TV.  If there is a Hell it’s a place that sneaks up on you, the borders are fuzzy, and it’s impossible to say when you got there, but it is painfully evident that you are there once you wake up enough to realize what has happened. 

Shanna and I had our share of problems this summer, the jury’s still out as to what will happen with us now that things are back to “normal.”  In truth I don’t know what I want to happen with us, which I’m sure caused her and continues to cause her more grief than she deserves.  I’m an asshole.  For those of you who don’t know me personally, that is the truth.  I think being able to admint I’m an asshole is a start though. 

So, the rest of the summer: I hung out with Jordan, drank a lot of coffee, wrote a bit, hung out with Troy and basically felt sorry for myself most of the time.  I also worked a couple of days here and there with my buddy Dave in his warehouse.  I have to say, I kind of liked that job, it was straightforward and easy to tell when you had a good day.  It wasn’t enough money, and it was in Kitchener, but I enjoyed it for the most part.  Plus I got to hang out with Dave, who I see all too seldom, and his new baby Sebastian, and his girlfriend Karee, which was also worth the drive most times.  Sebastian is five months old and still can’t say “mike,” but I keep trying. 

Anyway, about the end of August I got a call from a company looking for someone to fill a position they thought I would be qualified for.  After several interviews I got the job.  I started yesterday.  I am excited about the opportunity, I think I can be successful, and it’s better than watching Fresh Prince on TV every day.  I also wrote my first comic book script, for the (I think) aforementioned new project with my friend Andy.  I’ve seen some of the preliminary pages he’s starting to put together, and if my words turn out half as awesome as his pictures we’re set.  I’m incredibly excited about the prospects of getting this project off the ground.  Time is now more of a factor than anything, as both he and I have recently started new jobs and finding the time to work on something personal is always going to be hard.  But, that being said, it should be fucking amazing.  I’ll post a promo shot as soon as we get one finished (or rather he does) and we aprove distributing it.  For the record, it’s called Tyrant, an Alternate History.  And that’s all I’m going to tell you.

Did you see any good movies this summer?  I watched the pre-requisite BDB’s (Big Dumb Blockbusters), Iron Man and Batman and I’m sure a few others besides, though those are the two that stick out the most.  I had a whole post where I proved that Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne (Iron Man and Batman respectively) were actually the same character, well, on the surface anyway.  Tony is who Bruce pretends to be, and Iron Man is who Bruce wishes he was.  But it all ended up sounding like I was trying really hard to prove something that really doesn’t matter, so I scrapped the post.  I still think it was interesting watching the hopeful, bright, shiny Marvel Movie (Iron Man) play against the grim, dark and gritty DC one.  I always thought of DC as the optimistic, Pollyanna company, and Marvel as being populated with the grim anti-heroes, and yet I was surprised this summer to find out the movies are sort of the opposite.  Or they were this year anyway. 

I could bore you for hours talking about both of them, I have tons of opinions and fanboy geek outs at some of the things in both films, but really, I’m sure if you’re interested you’ve already heard it.  On the subject of Heroes, i watched the season premiere last night and I was happy, it was well put together and looked just as cool as always.  The plots are still a little cliche for someone who has literally spent decades reading comic books, but I’ll forgive them that, at least they wrap the ideas in new colours of paper. 

I was also going to talk about politics, because that is one of my other favorite things to watch on TV, but I’m just not feeling it really.  I could tell you the Liberals are committing suicide, and speculate that they are doing it on purpose (in Canadian politics, I mean), that Dion is a strawman meant to be destroyed in this election so that the Liberals can elect a new leader next year who might actually bring the party back from the dismal place it is in now.  I can say that it is brilliant strategy on the part of whoever actually decides these kinds of things, the power brokers in the background, the great and mighty Oz behind the curtain, whoever those old wrinkly men are, they’re smart fuckers.  The Liberals were going to be punching bags this election anyway, might as well sacrifice your single biggest liability (ie Dion) so that when he retires he is out of politics forever.  At least if I’m reading it right, anyway.

On the politics of my neighbor to the south, a subject that I’m sure is on many people’s minds, well, what can I say?  I would vote Obama and be unsure if I was making the right decision, but at least it would be something new.  McCain is another old windbag, and I swear if I have to hear that he was a POW one more time I’m going to blow up my own TV.  The whole Sarah Palin thing I think is just overplaying itself, and she scares me more than I thought she would.  Do you have to be completely soulless to get anywhere in American Politics?  Or does it just seem that way?  Anyway, despite the disaster that George W has made of the country I have this steady sinking feeling that McCain is going to win anyway, and then I don’t think Canada is going to be far enough away.  Maybe Tahiti.  I think I could live in Tahiti.  you never hear about people trying to blow up tropical islands, you know that?  Do you know why?  Because terrorists want somewhere nice to vacation too!  Word to the wise, if McCain wins, get out while you still can.  Just don’t come here, I won’t be here either.

I have been writing this mostly to get my fingers moving so that I can get to some of the revisions I need to do to Tyrant, so I think I will sign off hereabouts, and leave you with the following philosophical thoughts:

Is it better to be happy or ignorant of your unhappiness?

Would you have the courage to change everything about yourself if you thought that was what you had to do?

and lastly: How many roads must a man walk down?

Okay, the last one was a joke, but the first two were serious. 

I’ll post sooner than later, I almost promise this time.

-m

Updates, updates, get your updates!

Well, as any of you who might be left must have realized, I am a terrible blogger.  When I have a lot to say, I haven’t the time in which to say it, and when I have the time, I am bereft of things I find interesting to talk about.  It has been over 2 months since my last post, dear god, I can hardly believe the time has gone by that fast.  I was going to type quickly right there, but I remembered what Stephen King said about adverbs, and so went with “fast” instead.  Anyway, I have been very busy of late and will catch you up on this just a bit.

Editing is slower, so much slower than I might ever have imagined, but it is getting done, and it is making Paradox a better story.  The narrative voice is much stronger now, and more sarcastic, both qualities i like in my fiction.  I will talk more about this in a later post, when I have some time to collect my thoughts.

In the world of Pop culture my days have gone something like this: Saw Iron Man, twice, loved it both times.  If you haven’t seen it yet (and really there must be something wrong with you if you haven’t) go see it, twice.  It’s that freaking awesome.

Saw Narnia II (or III really, in book chronology), it was okay.  If you liked the first, you’ll like this one, if not, well, you figure it out.  It was fun, and from what I remember fairly true to the book.  Jordan loved it, so take the kids (slightly older kids, anyway).

Going to see Indy IV this weekend, it looks like it should also be fun.  I have no huge expectations out of anything this summer, so I find that I am pleasantly surprised when a movie is passable, as opposed to being horribly dissappointed.  I think this is, in general, a much healthier attitude. 

I read Trouble is my Business by Raymond Chandler, because I was ashamed I had never read anything by him before.  I liked it a lot and started to talk like a gumshoe for a day or so, it was fun.  Reading another of his and a Terry Pratchett novel right now. 

In other news, my old laptop that served me well for many a year (seven in all) died unceremoniously at the beginning of April, and it was a bit of a pain in the ass, and one of many reasons I didn’t blog for a bit.  I have now got a replacement in the form of a brand new toshiba laptop, which kicks ass, it has a DVD burner, and a battery that works!  These are the the things you care about after 7 years of no burner at all, not even CD, and at least 5 years of no battery life either.  It’s really nice, you can see it at a Future Shop or bestbuy near you.

Lastly, Andy and I have actually started working on our Comic book thingie, tentatively titled “Tyrant: An Alternate History”, I have written the begginning of the first issue, and a fair ammount of an outline for the entire miniseries.  Andy is just starting to do some of the design work now, and he has a rough shot of the cover that I really dig.  I’ll see if I can get permission to put it up here sometime soon.  It’s looking really cool, I can’t wait to see what Andy does with my script, I’m very excited.  the first issue is going to be called Wolf Son, as opposed to Cold Dawn, which I liked when I thought of it, but like significantly less now. 

That’s the big news, we’ll be at Toronto Comicon this summer with something, not sure what, but something, probably a first issue mockup (maybe some ashcans) and a synopsis and probably three maybe all four or five issues written.  Our hope is of course to score a publisher, or perhaps some pro gigs, who knows?  Nothing ventured, and all that. 

So, thanks for sticking with me through the long crappy spring, I promise to be far more regular from now on. 

-m

Overwhelmed and yet curious

It’s late in the afternoon as I sit in my office typing this.  It’s snowing, a little, outside, and is bitterly cold.  I’ve spent the lion share of my day driving all over the fucking place, and in a moment I will have to make a phone call that I don’t really want to make, but you know, that’s the price of doing business.

 I saw Jumper over the weekend, and more on that in a moment, I also got an interesting email from an old friend from Highschool late last week, again, more about that in a minute.  I also have almost finished my own read-through of Paradox Magic, and I have to say, perhaps because no one else will, that it is a damn fine book – not perfect, not yet, but really pretty good.  I’m amazed at just how much magic the main character uses and the ways he uses it.  I’m pretty impressed with myself, as you might be able to infer.  Anyway, on to the other things I mentioned.

Jumper was a fun movie.  It wasn’t great, it suffered a bit from a story standpoint, and the motivations were a little wonky, the dialogue was actually pretty good, and the girl from the OC (who played Summer, I’m ashamed I know that) was pretty hot.  The directing and effects were in-fucking-credible!  Teleporting has really never looked so cool.  I was a little dissapointed in Samuel L. but I’m always a little dissapointed in him.  He is cast in movies now so that he can play Samuel L. and doesn’t appear to try to hard to act, particularly not in the pop-corn munching movies I’ve seen him in lately.  His character in this is rather like an evil, although still snide, version of the character he played in XXX, which is just a bit out of place.

Hayden Christiansen was pretty good, and only did his whiny Darth Vader voice for a moment.  As my wife pointed out, he grew up “hot”.  I’m not going to get into my problems with the plot or motivation or whatever, frankly because I don’t want to devote that much time to it, and because if you go to that particular movie expecting perfection in those areas, you’re destined to be dissapointed anyway.  It’s not an art movie, it won’t win any awards for best screenplay or best actor, but it’s not supposed to.  If you want to see a movie like that, well, you were in the wrong theatre.  Like I said, it was fun, and that was enough. 

As for my friend, Andy, and his email.  Andy is an artist, and a damn good one.  He has always dreamed of drawing comic books.  This works well considering one of my life long ambitions is to write a comic book.  So, Andy has been working on an Original Graphic Novel (what we nerd-like people refer to as an OGN, yes, I know, we’re very imaginative) which you can check out at: www.usna.ca, there’s sample art and a brief story synopsis and so on.  Anyway, USNA looks cool, and Andy’s art is looking incredible.  I can’t wait to see the book all done.  And that is sort of what the email was about.  It seems that Andy will be finished his current commitment around about the time that I should be done editing Paradox, and he is looking to colaborate with someone on a comic book project all his own (USNA is in conjunction with his uncle, who wrote the story) and he wants his collaborator to be me.  He had some ideas for the book, and I have “signed on” to flesh out the story and deliver the script.  Can’t talk to much about it yet, but I’m excited to see what happens with it.  Working title (in my head, I haven’t even told Andy this yet) is Ursa.  First chapter working title is “Cold Dawn.”  I will have more to say about this as the months go on.  So, go check out USNA, and then think about the titles.

 That’s it for me, I’ve gotta get out of here.  Later folks,

-m

Harlan Ellison on the WGA Strike

I’m reposting something that Harlan Ellison, sage sci-fi writer and member of the WGAw wrote on his semi-private message board.  I haven’t heard the details of the contract yet, but apparently, he isn’t happy about it.  I respect him as a writer and I’m a huge fan of his work.  I don’t know if it’s as bad as he is making it sound, but I don’t think he’s full of shit either.  Read on if you’re interested. 

HARLAN ELLISON ON THE WRITERS STRIKE SETTLEMENT

YOU HAVE MY PERMISSION TO RE-POST THIS ANYWHERE:

Creds: got here in 1962, written for just about everybody, won the Writers Guild Award four times for solo work, sat on the WGAw Board twice, worked on negotiating committees, and was out on the picket lines with my NICK COUNTER SLEEPS WITH THE FISHE$$$ sign. You may have heard my name. I am a Union guy, I am a Guild guy, I am loyal. I fuckin’ LOVE the Guild.

And I voted NO on accepting this deal.

My reasons are good, and they are plentiful; Patric Verrone will be saddened by what I am about to say; long-time friends will shake their heads; but this I say without equivocation…

THEY BEAT US LIKE A YELLOW DOG. IT IS A SHIT DEAL. We finally got a timorous generation that has never had to strike, to get their asses out there, and we had to put up with the usual cowardly spineless babbling horse’s asses who kept mumbling “lessgo bac’ta work” over and over, as if it would make them one iota a better writer. But after months on the line, and them finally bouncing that pus-sucking dipthong Nick Counter, we rushed headlong into a shabby, scabrous, underfed shovelfulla shit clutched to the affections of toss-in-the-towel
summer soldiers trembling before the Awe of the Alliance.

My Guild did what it did in 1988. It trembled and sold us out. It gave away the EXACT co-terminus expiration date with SAG for some bullshit short-line substitute; it got us no more control of our words; it sneak-abandoned the animator and reality beanfield hands before anyone even forced it on them; it made nice so no one would think we were meanies; it let the Alliance play us like the village idiot. The WGAw folded like a Texaco Road Map from back in the day.

And I am ashamed of this Guild, as I was when Shavelson was the prexy, and we wasted our efforts and lost out on technology that we had to strike for THIS time. 17 days of streaming tv!!!????? Geezus, you bleating wimps, why not just turn over your old granny for gang-rape?

You deserve all the opprobrium you get. While this nutty festschrift of demented pleasure at being allowed to go back to work in the rice paddy is filling your cowardly hearts with joy and relief that the grips and the staff at the Ivy and street sweepers won’t be saying nasty shit behind your back, remember this:

You are their bitches. They outslugged you, outthought you, outmaneuvered you; and in the end you ripped off your pants, painted yer asses blue, and said yes sir, may I have another.

Please excuse my temerity. I’m just a sad old man who has fallen among Quislings, Turncoats, Hacks and Cowards.

I must go now to whoops. My gorge has become buoyant.

Respectfully, Yr. Pal, Harlan Ellison

(this is presumably copyright (c) The Kilimanjaro Corporation)

There you go, all his rants.  Repost this if you like, I think he’s really pissed and wants everyone to know about it.