Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Sticking my head out of the shed
Hola, Amigos!
It's about time I pop my head out out of the shed I've been hiding in for a while. I'm still here. No bites yet for [The Obscure Opus] that's to be expected. I can expect rejections possibly going into the double digits before someone makes a call which will require me to have a change of pants nearby.
For [The Noxious Novella], I wound up going in a totally different direction and started from scratch during the last days of last year, naively believing I could have about 200+ pages churned out by Dec. 31st.
It was originally going to be a novella about an old man climbing 100 flights of stairs, each year representing a year of his life. When reaching certain floors, he would recount particularly miserable moments of his life.
I had it all laid out, and had gotten a good amount of it done before deciding I wanted to do something different. Pour some milk on me, because I flaked. From the old man story, while working on his adolescent years, I made him as someone detached, and suddenly, I wanted to focus something entirely on this detached adolescent. From there, I decided I wanted to explore the notion of teens romanticizing death that my friend [Spaghetti Western] informed me of half a decade ago. So, I put them together, and basically, that's what [The Noxious Novella] has become now. And since its projected length is more than 100 pages, it should actually be titled [The Noxious Novel].
I project getting the first draft done by the end of the month and having my final draft done by August, then ruminate until I decide to send it no later than November 28th.
Also at [Miskatonic University] I have decided that I want to major in Multimedia with a combined major or just minor in Theatre and Film. I have enjoyed what I've seen of the courses in each programme so far, and I won't deny that I want to tell stories in as many mediums as possible, so it's only natural that I would dabble with Multimedia. As for Theatre & Film, I can do without the theatre part, but I love movies just as much as books, and during busy periods with school and work, I wind up seeing more movies on average than reading books. I wouldn't mind getting into movies some day. I mean, there was my short-lived porno career, but I would rather not discuss that now...
After seeing Charlie Kaufman's most polarizing, but (in my opinion) strongest film Synecdoche, NY last summer, I have been inspired to put getting behind a camera on my bucket list. I know, obviously ambitious, possibly even a pipe dream. Especially considering that at the moment, I can't even get a book published. The way I see it though, is that I'm still young enough to be picking umbilical cord chunks out of my teeth, so why not go balls out now before life catches up with me? Going balls out could possibly result in a smashed testicle or a torn scrotum sack, sure, but the pay off could be well worth the risk.
I know my limits, I can't save the world, cure cancer, fix a car, heat a house with a block of ice, change a diaper, or be a shoulder to cry on. I make stupid little mistakes all the time, and I would probably lose my head if it wasn't attached to my body. But what I think I can do best, and with comfort is tell a story. So, as long as a shelf of books don't drop on my head a work and give me brain damage, there will always be that to get me where I want to.
And on that note...
See everyone in hell (I promise a lot sooner next time)!
posted at 5:00 PM | Permanent Link
Monday, December 14, 2009
Darkly Deeming Dexter (quasi-spoiler free)
[Disclaimer: This review contains allusions to moments which are spoilers but that are not spoilers themselves. Doing such a thing refrains from revealing major plot points, but may provide vague hints to what happens. This is done in many reviews, but most reviewers tend not to have the courtesy to warn readers.]
I'm not a big fan of television, but there's a handful of shows I still watch, even if most of the shows I watch have to be... obtained. One of those shows is Dexter. I found out about it around three years ago while roaming the aisles of [Pages] and harassing customers. I saw a picture of Michael C. Hall who I knew as the homosexual mortician David Fisher from Six Feet Under with his head being propped up by a dead hand and thought it was some weird spin off book. Then I looked further to see the title Darkly Dreaming Dexter and was charmed enough by the title to look at the description. The words "darkly comic" jumped out at me, and I liked the premise enough. It is about a likable blood spatter analyst who kills his spare time by killing people who kill people. A quasi-moral serial killer. Then I saw "Now a series on Showtime!" on the back and decided to make a point to check it out. So after that shift, I made an effort to... gain access to the 10 or so episodes which had already aired. It took two episodes for me to get into it, and the rest is history.
I really like the show because of its titular character. Next to the protagonists of Murakami novels, Dexter is one of the few fictional characters I can relate to. Like me, he's emotionally empty but pretends to be more charming and likable than he is. He is also a detached introvert who is at his best during his time alone to work on his craft. He is also immensely secretive, though he at least has better reasons to be. And while we don't have the same hobbies, who wouldn't want to play chop suey with the scum of society? It's a well done show, but one that isn't without its flaws. Each season brings something new to the table, but obviously, there are certain similar things to expect in each one. It's entertaining, and the stories are well told, but it's not without its plot holes, but that's fine, it's entertainment. Anybody who thinks of this as a slice of life needs to open a window and get some air.
Season one is still the most perfect, and surpasses the book it was based on. It was about a serial killer whose MO is slightly similar to Dexter's but he leaves the bodies out in the open, and bloodless. Eventually, the killer begins leaving hints in Dexter's apartment and at crime scenes which speak to him alone. It was great. It created a formula and got everything in it just right: Dexter's introspection (which I can never have enough of), Dexter's hunts, revelations of his past, Dexter befriending a serial killer/homicidal maniac who he relates to, learns to be more human from and then winds up being disappointed by. And of course, also the mystery, plot twists, and melodramatic side plots involving the other characters of the show. While not a puzzler, it was the most cerebral season of the show.
Rating: 9/10
Season two, I don't think I will ever watch again. It's my least favourite season of the show. It is still a cut above most television programming, but I was irritated with the direction it went in. It was a direct continuation of the first season. And from this point on, none of the seasons follow the books (which isn't a bad thing). It starts with Dexter feeling off his game, being pursued by a rival cop, telling his girlfriend Rita that he is "an addict" to cast off suspicions of what he really is, and an investigation is lead by FBI agent Frank Lundy after the bodies Dexter disposed of are discovered. It had all of the ingredients of the first season, but the poorly measured balance of quantities affected the quality. There was too much melodrama and personal bullshit. There is nothing wrong with personal drama, and I would rather have the characters have some form of depth rather than just act as tools for solving the cases. But they cranked it up a few notches too high, and it became more of a soap opera than anything else. Dexter and his girlfriend Rita's character also jumped the shark a bit from what they were like in the last season. Especially Rita though, who all of a sudden became a nag. It also had a few plot twists which I found to be a bit contrived. Especially ones involving initial perceptions of Dexter's adopted father, Harry. And the main premise seemed to be trying too hard to hook people. Not that that's a bad thing, at all, but it did set into motion one of the major problems I had with the fourth season, this desire for the writers to keep viewers going "OH SHIT, WHAT IS EVERYBODY GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS NOW?!" The explosive finale more than made up for it, and is probably the only episode I'd look at again if I decide to watch anything from that season.
Rating: 5.5/10
Season three got the formula right again, and even toyed around with it a bit. It involved Dexter befriending a DA whose brother he killed spontaneously. There was also a side mystery about a serial killer who skins victims. He was the most uninteresting serial killer for the show so far. As I said, it got the elements of the formula just right, as Dexter would say, "It followed the code." I enjoyed the bizarre bromance between Dexter and Miguel, the DA. The series doesn't have that much black humour in it, though it is present, but I have to say, that season got it down the best. Their relationship reminded me of the one between Henry and Otis in Henry:Portrait of a Serial Killer, though not as disturbing, and maybe not as funny. Excellent season overall, and the most well done next to the first.
Rating: 8.5/10
Season four has been the most thrilling, and had the most intriguing moments, but was a bit of a mixed bag. I enjoyed it, but it could have been six episodes shorter. It involved Dexter adjusting to married life with Rita, who becomes even more of a nag than ever in this season. Special agent Lundy returns to chase down The Trinity Killer played by John Lithgow, who has been my favourite actor ever since I saw Raising Cain on TV when I was 8. As usual, Dexter befriends him (sort of), and learns a few thing from him. Honestly, all I liked if not loved about this season was Dexter's pursuit of Trinity. This one involves some of the worst side plots such as Dexter's family life, Debra wondering if she wants to rekindle the (over-written) flame she had with Lundy in season two, and a love affair between the two senior detectives Laguerta and Batista. Their love affair was the most brutal thing about the series. Yes, more brutal than any murder Dexter or Trinity could pull off. There was no reason for it whatsoever, their personal lives in earlier seasons were seldom delved into, except for season 3 which Laguerta's sort of had an integral role. Their romance does absolutely nothing to advance the plot or create any tension. If their scenes (which there are plenty of) were removed, nothing would be lost. The only side character who they did next to nothing with, and hardly ever do anything with is Vincent Masuka. He's one of the only side characters I kind of like. He's just the comic relief, and almost every line out of him is a smart-ass remark or a perverted joke. What's even funnier than Masuka's character is American media's lack of interest in Asian males. They can't catch a break. At least Asian women get to play the exotic romantic interests for the dashing white heroes of their movies and TV shows. But I guess anyone who wants to see Asian males as leads who are not geeks or martial arts experts can always watch Asian movies and dramas. My friend [Lotus Kai] swoons over those guys. a bunch of effeminate dandies. I think the problem is that when things are about minorities, they have to be about what it's like to be the minority, rather than a character being a character. And that writer's don't know what direction to go in with Asian American characters other than the usual stereotypes. They don't really explore the stereotypes with Masuka, and that leaves him with even less to do.
That leads me to the race-baiter who put up a video on Youtube ranting about the moral turpitude of the show and its viewers and asked if people would like the show if Dexter was black. My first thoughts were, "What a pointless question? You can ask an infinite amount of other whatif questions for any movie or TV show? What if Dexter were a hermaphrodite?" I don't think it would make much of a difference, so long as Dexter acted the exact same way and lived the exact same life. But if all of a sudden it were, Dexter the black serial killer and a good portion of the show dwelled on what it's like to be a black serial killer, then it would be a different experience. Though I admit, it could make an interesting black-black comedy if done by the right director. It's a premise that could work also, if the show didn't have a thriller element. If it were exclusively about the mundane duties of him balancing his personal life with serial killing, then fine. Michael C. Hall's character David Fisher in Six Feet Under did have to deal from time to time with the implications of being a gay mortician dating a black man. It wasn't entirely what the show was about, but it was an element, and it worked, but Six Feet Under was a different kind of show, a family drama.
Me and my tangents, I was doing pretty good too, until then... Back to Dexter.
While the premise for the fourth season was good, the writers seemed to have a hard time doing much with it. The first five episodes, Dexter avoids the Trinity case like a plague until something happens halfway through the season for him to gain a personal interest. Then the episodes are spent with Dexter stalling because he wants to hang out with another serial killer for a while and learn a few tips on pretending to be human. Then when he decides he's ready, his plans are constantly thwarted. I didn't mind all of the cock-teasing of the second half of the season, however, because a lot is revealed about the Trinity Killer's warped psyche which I quite liked.
However, the last two episodes together could have been wrapped up in a half hour. Episode 11 was an exercise in fiddling around for 45 minutes to finally reach its titular climax. And now, after watching last night's finale I have to say, the episode was sort of inert, but I can't say anticlimactic. The episode was much like the season and spent a lot of time on filler until it lead to its climax. I found it to be satisfying, though they could have spent a lot more time and sadistic glee on it after all of that wasted time in the episode. The episode had a twist which I only mention because they had been hyping for about a month. It is something that I figured out would happen only because they wouldn't stop pumping up how shocking the final moment would be. I ranted about this in an earlier post, but I will say it again, if you want to "blow the top off" of people's heads as they kept saying the ending would do, then they shouldn't have announced that there was going to be a twist. It's like telling somebody that you're throwing them a surprise party. Again, an overall good season, and I look forward to the fifth which I hope will be the final season, and which I hope doesn't figure the solution will be for Dexter to go to jail or die. And I also hope they won't hype up any twists.There are a lot of sensationalistic "OH SHIT, WHAT IS EVERYBODY GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS NOW?!" moments in this season. I think they relied too much on it, but, from a commercial point of view, I understand why. Shockers, and cliffhangers are an easy way to keep the conversation going. Ironically, the "big twist" ending didn't impact me that much and I'm not saying "OH SHIT, WHAT IS EVERYBODY GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS NOW?!". I know it's probably wrong, but, I sort of like what happened, at least the consequences and that it sort of fits. Still, the use of it, and its impact was pretty underwhelming and it seemed really forced. It would have been more surprising if they didn't use a pretty similar "OH SHIT, WHAT IS EVERYBODY GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS NOW?!" twist earlier in the season.
Rating: 7.8/10
I wish that the show could be more twisted and less twisty. What I mean is that it could take weirder routes, not necessarily like the third book which had ancient gods and spirits, but go for weirder ideas. Have more characters who are unconventional than just Dexter and the guest serial killer friend. And have more twisted sorts of relationships. An example of what I mean by twisted as opposed to twisty is the ending of Hannibal which had Hannibal and Clarice, the detective pursuing him wind up becoming lovers and eating the brains of a corrupt agent from the justice department. Something like that is not really a moment which makes viewers say, "OH SHIT, WHAT IS EVERYBODY GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS NOW?!", but a moment which makes viewers say, "WHAT THE FUCK?! DID THEY REALLY JUST DO THAT? HOW DID THEY EVEN COME UP WITH THAT ONE?" The show, while it has dark subject matter, is kind of safe and is very accessible, which of course, it has to be. I'm sure it will continue to go in the direction that this season went in, especially since the ratings are apparently way up. But, just saying, it would be a lot better if it were a little more bizarre.
See everyone in hell!
posted at 2:16 PM | Permanent Link
Saturday, November 21, 2009
If I ever dare...
I might sound like a broken record when I say that I don't think I'll ever get married. The most persuasive reason for me to ever dare to get married is to avoid dying an embarrassing bachelor's death such as choking on baked beans that I'd be eating out of a can while wearing a greasy white t-shirt which hasn't been changed for two weeks, and while watching old sitcoms on a tiny old television. If I ever dare to, I will have to do what Robert Parker or Tim Burton do, and live in the same house, but split so that I have my own half and she gets her own.
Besides my view that relationships tend to be Rube Goldberg devices which clunk up pleasurable ends such as conversation, intercourse, and good company, my gravest concern is what gets buried along with me after I pass away, if I have to go first. I would hate to have my dying wishes defied. As what has happened to Vladamir Nabokov.
He is a writer whom I like, but I admit, need to get better acquainted with. When he died in 1977 he was in the process of writing a novel. He had ideas jotted down on note cards. He told his wife to destroy them. She never did. And now, 32 years later, after his wife passed the cards down to his son (don't even get me started on my thoughts on having children), it's been published as the most useless work of fiction I have ever seen, and I have to sell Twilight books. I was surprised to find out about it as I found myself shelving it the other day at [Pages]. I asked my boss [Amber Danielewski] if I could remove the plastic wrap of one to see what it was like in there. I wanted to see what made it worth 42 Canadian smackeroos. The answer: nothing.
The entire book is a series of one sided note cards centred in the pages. Now obviously, I understand the significance of Nabokov, and literary critics tend to barely contain their hard-ons over such memorabilia, I don't see the point of their publication. Not even a rough draft. Just a basic schematic. I'm as it stands, a nobody at this time, but even now, I would be mortified if any of any preliminary material for my work were made public. They are ideas which tend to make only enough sense to the writer to be used as a springboard for the first draft, and are subject to change.
What bothers me so much about it? I mean, on the other hand, I have read many works published posthumously, such as the work of Franz Kafka, who, like Nabokov said he wanted his work destroyed, and 2666 by Roberto Bolano, who intended for his work to be published beyond his life. And last month, I was doing cartwheels over the fact that a book of Kurt Vonnegut's unpublished short stories were released. The difference is that they were actually in the form of prose rather than just notes. Prose is a format more ready for public perusal.
To bring it back to having a spouse and children, they're not the only villains. It can be anyone, anyone who you trust to leave your work with. But in most cases, who else would people trust more to handle their intellectual remains? Given I a piano doesn't drop on my head, or some other spontaneous death blindsides me, I will make sure that if I feel my death impending, I'll shred, burn, and delete anything I have in the works that I don't want seen in the public eye.
See everyone in hell!
posted at 11:06 PM | Permanent Link
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Speaking From Beyond The Grave
A mountain load of books came in to [Pages] on Tuesday. Towards the final hour, second in command [Veronica Oxford] pulled out a book, she said, "You like this author, right?" I looked and recognized it was a Vonnegut book. His books all have a new style to their cover designs. When I was introduced to him, his books all had covers with giant Vs which alternated in colour depending on the novel, and a small square in the top with an image pertaining to the story. The new design has his crude illustrations, and as well, alternate in colour. So, mind-numbing details aside, what I am saying is that I thought it was just one of his older books with a new cover. But then I looked at the title, and also saw that it was a hardcover and realized that it was all new. It's titled Look At The Birdie. It's a collection of unpublished short stories. Needless to say, I'll have to pick this up soon enough. I wonder if bits of the last novel he may or may not have been working on will be in it. I'll find out soon enough.
See everyone in hell! (Except for Kurt Vonnegut who is up in heaven now.)
posted at 10:17 AM | Permanent Link
Thursday, October 15, 2009
The Brutal Stuff Legends Are Made Of
OK, so the game's been out for two days now, but this is practically my first bit of spare time not playing it. I'm not much of a serious gamer. As a matter of fact, most games, I guess like most of everything else are shit. But since games are so expensive to make, they take a lot less risks. So most games are derivative and bland. But this game, I almost never want to stop playing.
I'm talking about Tim Schafer's latest brain spawn Brutal Legend. For people who don't know much about him, Tim Schafer is a creative genius. I have played just about all of his games. From Secret of Monkey Island, to The Day of The Tentacle, to Full Throttle, to Psychonauts, to Brutal Legend. Whenever a game of his comes out, it's an event.
What makes him such a legend? None of his games really reinvent the wheel in terms of gameplay or technological aspects. He's not a Shigeru Miyamoto or even a Yuji Naka. What he does do, however is come up with games that have interesting and well-developed stories, immersive worlds, and unique main characters. Very refreshing when you look at the characters of most games; soldiers, warriors, and sometimes ninjas/martial arts experts.
Brutal Legend has all of the above ingredients of what make Tim Schafer games such treats. It stars Jack Black as Eddie Riggs, a roadie who gets into a stage accident. His blood drips into his cursed belt buckle, and he gets transported into a hellish but "bad-assed" heavy metal world. Look at the surreal heavy metal album covers of the 70s and 80s with spiders made out of motorcycle engines, mountains made of skulls, panthers who shoot lasers out of their eyes, trees with flesh and teeth, etc. and you'll have a good idea of what kind of world Eddie has found himself in. It's populated by characters modeled after and voiced by heavy metal musicians such as Ozzy Osbourne as the guardian of metal, Lemmy Killmister as a doctor whose music heals people, Lita Ford as a warrior princess of sorts, Kyle Gass (Jack Black's partner in Tenacious D) as a bouncer, and some others I have yet to meet. The main villain, a sadomasochist demon is voiced by Tim Curry of The Rocky Horror Picture Show fame. I'm sure there are others I met in the game, but couldn't identify, but I admit, I'm not the most versed guy when it comes to music of any sort. I have what I like, and that's it. That said, I really like the music in the game. 90% of it I've never heard in my life, but I constantly pause to get the names of the artists and the tracks.
There is a lot to the gameplay mechanics, and it really merges genres. It's an open-world that the player can drive through a la Grand Theft Auto. Honestly, my only problem with the game stems from this aspect. Not the driving, which I am fine with, but the navigation. I am a person who is generally not good navigating, directions mean very little to me. In the game, the player has to constantly look for a white light coming from the sky at a far distance to figure out where to go next. Not all the time is the light even visible, so I wind up getting lost or have to constantly go back to the menu to look at the map.
Basic action is hack and slash, guitar solos (hitting the right buttons on time) can be pulled off to cause certain effects such as the face melt. There are a few types of side missions you can go on, and so far most have been one of about four different types over and over again. Highly repetitive, but too short to get bored of.
There are also elements of real-time strategy where the player builds up Eddie's band and stage and has them take down the enemy's stage. That is also what the multiplayer mode consists of, the RTS gameplay. The player can choose from three armies: Ironheade - Eddie's army, a band of headbangers and razor girls. Drowning Doom - An excellent parody of goth culture. When I see and hear them I almost have to think that Tim Schafer plugged in the brains of Edward Gorey and Charles Addams, and then hired Jhonen Vasquez to consult him on their gothic sensibilities and aesthetics. Naturally that is the army I almost always use. There is finally Tainted Coil - The demonic army themed around S&M and dark divinity. For example, in the army, there are nuns in skimpy outfits with zipper-teeth, men with large torsos with arrows sticking out of their backs and gag balls in their mouths, and leather faced priests.
The story has been really involving so far. Most of the characters all have an interesting flair to them, and are more than just stock characters. Eddie Riggs seems like a mind meld of Tim Schafer and Jack Black, and of course the character is incredibly likable as well as has the funniest lines. The only character who I found to be a little one dimensional was Lars, who leads the resistance at the beginning. Mr. Schafer has listed Kurt Vonnegut as an influence on more than one occasion and it's certainly helps. The game never forgets to have a sense of humour, even during or not long after some of its darkest moments. I've reached about a third through, and the story and humour seem to be getting better. Though it has reached a point where it strikes a dark chord. Tonally, the game is a lot darker than its predecessor Psychonauts, which was purely whimsical, and pretty lighthearted. But that's to be expected. Psychonauts was set in a psychic camp for preteens, this game is set in Heavy Metal hell, so it's darker, gorier, and edgier.
I haven't finished it off, and I think I will try to stretch out my enjoyment of it as much as possible, since it was four and a half years between this and Psychonauts. It will probably be just as long of a wait for the next. But I am already excited for what it will be. I can only assume it will probably have a totally different tone and style, since, in an interview, he once said he likes to go from one end to the other in terms of what his games are about. I look forward to it, but until then...
See everyone in (heavy metal) hell!
posted at 1:04 PM | Permanent Link
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