Friday, May 06, 2005

Today's Word: Pop

The explosive decompression of the spacesuit next to him, and the frantic arms of Alan, grabbing from him, trying to pull any life out of his friend before the oxygen leaked away, before the pressure shifted in the suit and his long-time friend and partner died.

The End-ish

Wrote the final scene last night. Of course since I'm writing the novel out of order, it's not all that monumental. Still, it was a moving movement, to have the end in front of you, knowing this will be the destination of the ride. You can sit back and breathe, knowing the maze has an end, even if you are going to re-write the damn thing. A lifeline to a swimmer struggling through underwater caves.

Three Days

It's sinking in. I'm seeing "Revenge of the Sith" Monday morning.

On the iPod Shuffle, random 10 songs

Temptation - Moby
Never the Same - Supreme Beings of Leisure
Excess - Tricky
Blackbird - Mocean Worker with Nina Simone
Where Do I Begin - Chemical Brothers with Beth Orton
Small Time Shot Away - Massive Attack
The Tower That Ate The People - Peter Gabriel
The Hand That Feeds - Nine Inch Nails
Until the End of the World - U2
#1 Crush - Garbage

Everyone sing!

Share and enjoy

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Last Night's Sleep

I'm in the Tuesday night classroom with my writing mistress and a few other students. I'm reading from an exercise. I start at the first line, and I stumble. I start again, stumble some more. I keep going, I'm getting flustered. I can't get through my exercise. I can't get past the first line. Words are blurring together. The air is turning into lead. I can't read. I can't speak. It's all falling apart; everyone is looking at me. I have this urge to run. Can't. I'm trapped in that dissolving first graph, until I fade away in futility.

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Today's Word: Shy

The fainting type, with the in-board allergy to social scenes. The last place he felt safe was in the honey-hued sunlight of the vacant library near the cafe.

Been very busy with the gravity of real life. Writing class last night went fine. Have three assignments to write up, and one of them is the last scene of the novel. Wrote the framework of it last night for 30 minutes, and I'll maybe keep a third of it. I'm also on a self-imposed research project that I can't get into lest I tip my hand about the meta-theme of the novel. My writing dominatrix wants us to have a skeleton of scenes for a first draft by the end of the term (four weeks and counting, y'all). I'm relieved to have some assignments again, to have the leash tugged and plod along with some faith that I'm not being led over a cliff.

The anti-Davros

I urge everyone to vote in the election tomorrow only for MPs who voted against the war in Iraq.
Prof Stephen Hawking
Cambridge University


From the Guardian's Letter section, May 4.

You know, I spend way to much time on poli-blogs getting outraged at the idiocy of the powers-that-be and their rabid sycophants. And then I read Hawking's comment. Compared to Hawking, everyone else is an foaming idiot, and yet Hawking is cool, simple, and eloquent.

Makes me wish I paid attention in math class.

Monday, May 02, 2005

Have Towel, Will Travel

A few brief comments about the new Hitchhiker's film that opened Friday.

Pros
* You could tell it was a labor of love from start to finish
* Singing dolphins
* The planetyard sequence
* The casting was near perfect. Sam Rockwell as Zaphod as George W. Bush. Brilliant.
* The Guide, itself, was better than how I imagined it looking. Voice-based interface. Bright colors on a sleek, black mobile device. Imagine the PSP merged with the old Powerbook 540 line.
* Vogons were real creatures instead of CGI.
* The romance angle wasn't half-bad. Trillian comes off far better in the film compared to being almost a non-being in the books after "Restaurant."
* Deep Thought (Helen Mirren!!) watching cartoons for millions of years
* Nods and winks to the fans of the TV series and books
* Yarnspace
* Marvin


Cons
* Story was a bit jumbled; ended with a couple too many loose ends.
* The vice president in love with Zaphod
* The rebooting of Earth Mark II sorta negates Arthur's importance from the books
* No entry on the importance of towels
* No Peril-Sensitive sunglasses
* No mention of Ford's "Mostly Harmless" entry
* No clear reason given for the mice to go after Arthur's brain.

But all in all, I had a great time, and my wife loved it more than I did. Parts of me where overwhelmed, stunned by bliss by actually seeing "Hitchhiker's" as a real, fully fledged motion picture. I'm going to rent this on DVD at the very least, just to see all the extras (fingers-crossed it'll be better than the paltry "12 Monkeys" special edition I just reviewed) and to see it again with a digital projection at home. I wouldn't be surprised if I go see it again before it hits rental shelves. It's not a film for everyone (and it's bound to piss off the religious conservatives in this country), but it's a rare beast of good comedy and science fiction eye candy.

Oh, and one more thing about "12 Monkeys." Terry Gilliam (auteur, mad genius, drama queen) should never be allowed to adapt a William Gibson novel. His brain would explode.