How To Become A Writer

Neil Gaiman finally reveals the secret to it... (I've been going about it all wrong, it turns out!)

The Many Dimensions Of Robin Williams

I've been on an on-again, off-again fan of Robin Williams since I first saw him playing Mork the alien on Happy Days before spinning off into Mork & Mindy, way back in my adolescent days.  I loved him in Awakenings, Dead Poets Society and Goodwill Hunting, though at other times his schtick would completely take me out of a film.

Vicki and I were eating dinner at Crabby Joe's this week when I looked up and saw the TV screen showing CNN with the banner, "Breaking News: Robin Williams Dead at 63."  I actually said, "What the Hell?" to Vicki then, which was kind of cruel as she couldn't see what I was looking at.  Within minutes, of course, incredulity turned to realization and sadness, as usually happens in these situations.

In the wake of his death, we've learned all kinds of things that most of us would prefer to have never learned, such as the fact that one of the funniest people on the planet suffered from deep bouts of depression, and that his death was likely a suicide.  Maybe something good will come of it, though, as mental health is a topic that desperately needs to be discussed more and stigmatized less.

On a more positive note, I saw this wonderful article today, in which it's revealed that Mr. Williams required that all events and jobs that wanted to book him also commit to hiring a certain number of homeless people to work on it, as well.  Imagine that: a celebrity who made it a condition of his employment that some of the less fortunate members of society also benefit.  And considering that I've never heard this before now, I'm guessing he didn't exactly broadcast the fact, either.  Wow.  That's a good man for you.

John Oliver's Takedown Of The Climate Change "Debate"

I really miss John Oliver since he left The Daily Show to star in his own weekly comedy program, Last Week Tonight.  He clearly showed just how talented he was during Jon Stewart's summer-long sabbatical last year (to film a movie in Iran) so it's no wonder the British comic was given his own show shortly thereafter.

Anyway, in case you haven't seen it, Oliver did a hilarious bit on climate change and the false equivalency that most media reports give to both sides of the "debate" as to whether it's man-made or not.  If you haven't already seen what he did, you should definitely check it out.

Big News: Colbert To Replace David Letterman On Late Show

As a one-time fan of David Letterman (back in his NBC days) and a big-time fan of Stephen Colbert and The Colbert Report, today's news that the latter funnyman is taking over the former's spot on The Late Show is both exciting and worrisome.  Colbert's on-screen persona as a staunch conservative buffoon is, presumably, not the one taking over the hosting role on CBS.  It'll be the real Stephen Colbert, I would imagine, sitting behind the desk, rather than the satirical character he first developed on The Daily Show.  If so, it's exciting to think that we'll get to know the real man, but sad to consider losing the great figure he spent so many years perfecting.  I guess we'll have to wait and see just how it all plays out, though.

Boy, That Was Stupid!

A couple of days ago I received the two print draft copies of Leap of Faith that I'd ordered the Friday before.  I was naturally very excited to see the package arrive, and Vicki and I gathered around the kitchen table while I cut open the box and pulled back the cover sheet to reveal... a pair of AgileMan-sized copies!  Somehow I'd accidentally selected 8.5" x 11" instead of 6" x 9" for the format, though I can't imagine why.  Anyway, the novel looks quite ridiculous in that oversize format, so I've had to place another order to get the right size so we can see what Leap of Faith will actually look like.  The good news is that the initial order took less than a week to complete and we're still six weeks away from publishing.  Or, to put it in project management terms: we've left ourselves some slack in the schedule!  Whew!

But what a stupid thing for me to have done...

Gotta Love Fox News

They're almost as comical a news provider as The Colbert Report, especially when they do stuff like this: interviewing people about how Obamacare has adversely affected them, without even bothering to check to see if any of the stories are real/accurate. Or maybe they knew full well that those tales of woe were complete bullshit and went with them anyway. Either way, that seems about right for Faux News.

Roller Derby Will Save Your Soul Next June

Two years ago, Vicki and I went on the road to take in Hamilton Fringe Festival, and when we came home I wrote about all the plays we'd seen there, even going so far as to provide our personal rankings for each.  Very near the top of both our lists was a wonderful one-woman performance called Roller Derby Saved My Soul, featuring Nancy Kenny.  Ms. Kenny was funny, poignant and totally engaging in RDSMS, and I've hoped ever since that she'd someday be able to bring her wonderful act here to London.

Well, as she blogged about yesterday, it's happening!  She's doing a multi-city tour next summer, and she's kicking it off with a stop here during London Fringe (June 4 - 15).  I'll be sure to promote this great show again closer to the start of the festival itself, but I wanted to get the word out nice and early.  Any fans of humour and pop culture will definitely not want to miss RDSMS in 2014.

Baking Bad

For those who, like me, remember the old Hostess Twinkies ads that used to run in Marvel and DC comics, featuring the likes of Spider-Man and Batman, I give you this.

Our First TIFF

No, this post isn't about the first time Vicki and I had a big disagreement... Instead, it's about our trip to Toronto earlier this week to take in our first ever Toronto International Film Festival with Tammy!

Tammy and I had picked out three relatively obscure movies to buy advance tickets for, after discovering that all of the films we'd actually heard of were already sold out.  The ones we selected ended up all being interesting, in one way or another, and here's a brief description of each:

South is Nothing - We started off with an Italian story about a father and daughter trying to come to terms with the death of a family member.  The teenage daughter is interestingly presented as a boy throughout the early parts of the film, and it only gradually becomes apparent that she's actually a young girl.  Dressing and acting like a male are just her way of resisting the pressures to outgrow her tomboy adolescence in the wake of her brother's mysterious and sudden death.  For the Q&A session after the film, both the director and the actress who played the daughter fielded questions from us, and I asked a couple.  First, I wondered if the story had been inspired by anything in the director's background (he said 'yes' but was vague as to exactly what).  I also asked if the slow reveal of the character's gender had been done to allow each audience member to come to the realization at their own pace, and he confirmed that was exactly his intent.  I thought this was a very good film, though not quite nosing into great territory because of a few aspects of the story that could've been presented more clearly.

Canopy - This was the film I was most looking forward to, and perhaps my high expectations worked against it.  The premise sounded fascinating to me: an Australian paratrooper in World War II is stranded in a Singapore jungle and meets a Chinese soldier there while both try to evade capture by the Japanese army who've invaded the island.  I could imagine all kinds of ways to make that interesting, but the actual product was paced too slowly and spent much too much time on the scenery.  I liked the film but only just.  As with each of the shows we went to, the director (from Australia) and the lead actor (also an Aussie) took part in a Q&A afterwards, though it wasn't all that illuminating.

A Place in Heaven -  The highlight of the festival, for me anyway, was our final film on Monday night.  This Israeli tale about a father and son relationship against the backdrop of the hostility between the Jews and the Palestinians, stretching back several decades, was riveting from start to finish.  I found myself trying to guess what would happen next and failing nearly every time, which is a wonderful feeling when the developments on the screen exceed your expectations!  The lead actor Alon Aboutboul (playing the father) was present for the Q&A along with the director, and I discovered from Tammy that he'd had a small part in the opening Bane sequence of The Dark Knight Rises.  That may constitute the closest I've come yet to Batman!  At any rate, I loved A Place in Heaven and wouldn't be surprised to see it get Oscar consideration for Best Foreign Film.

On the Monday afternoon, while Tammy was working, Vicki and I went to see another film, more or less on a lark:

The Green Inferno - This is the latest from Eli Roth, known for horror films (like Hostel and Hostel II) although he more famously played Sgt. Donny Donovitz in Tarrentino's Inglourious Basterds, which Tammy claims to have seen 10 times (making her quite jealous that she missed seeing him live and in person at this show).  Anyway, this was billed as a homage to the Italian cannibal movies of the 70s, and it certainly delivered on that promise.  The story was completely predictable and appropriately gory, but otherwise fairly forgettable.  Vicki stuck it out like a trooper, though, reminding me once again that I did, indeed, win the wife lottery all those years ago!  In the Q&A afterwards, we learned that most of the natives (i.e. the "cannibals") shown in the film were from an actual tribe in the Amazon who'd had limited contact with civilization before Roth and the crew found them.  They'd never seen a movie before, and so they were shown Cannibal Holocaust, from 1980 (billed as "The Most Controversial Film Ever Made"), which they found to be hilariously funny!  They loved what they perceived as the comedic aspects of it, laughing from start to finish, and this experience completely sold them on the idea of appearing in the film and hamming it up as cannibals.  That, I have to admit, is strangely awesome all on its own.  The movie crew did their best to upgrade the tribe's little village before they left, including installing metal roofs and providing some cash that could be used in trade with the boats that travel up and down the Amazon selling supplies.  The Q&A was definitely the most interesting part of this, but I suppose I've also earned a tiny bit of street cred from being able to say I've been in the same room as Eli Roth!  That puts me one degree of separation from Tarrentino, for whatever that's worth (much less than being one degree from Batman, if you ask me!).

And that was our TIFF 2013 experience.  We all loved it, and hope to be able to repeat it next year.

The Day The Clown Cried

I love movie lore, so when I recently read a random reference to a never-released Jerry Lewis film from the 70s that I'd never heard of called The Day The Clown Cried, I was intrigued.  If you've seen the 1997, Oscar-winning Life Is Beautiful, then aspects of Lewis' stillborn project will sound familiar: set during the Holocaust, a clown has to entertain children in a concentration camp while they unknowingly wait to be executed.  Lewis has generally refused to talk about the film, but today I came across an Entertainment Week article about one time he didn't.  It's a fascinating read and really leaves you wondering just how achingly-bad the film probably is, though it sounds like we'll probably never know.  Not while the comedian is still alive, anyway.  (He's exactly five days older than my sole surviving aunt, interestingly enough.)

At The Intersection Of Music And Sci Fi

I was doing a little research on Don Maclean's epic '70s hit, "American Pie" today, and was quite surprised to learn that the musician has managed to keep mum on most of the references he wrote into it over 40 years ago.  That sort of thing seems almost unheard of to me when it comes to pop culture these days.

Anyway, one of the sites I visited was "20 Things You Might Not Know About Don Maclean's American Pie," a very worthwhile stop on my journey.  While most of the items were fascinating, I have to say that far and away the most rewarding one was # 18, the Weird Al Yankovic mashup of Star Wars Episode I and "American Pie," which I didn't even know existed before today.  If you've never seen it, you have to watch this thing of beauty!




I especially love the chorus:

"My my
 This here Anakin guy
 Maybe Vader, someday later, now he's just a small fry
 And he left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye
 Sayin', 'Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi... soon I'm gonna be a Jedi.'

I have an inexplicable affection for those 3 Star Wars prequels that most members of my generation seem to lack, and I have to admit that just watching that video made me want to put Eps I, II and III into the DVD player once again...

All that notwithstanding, if you love "American Pie" (as I do) then you should check out the other 19 items, as well.

For The Programmers Out There

A funny list of 30 examples of new programming jargon.  # 10 naturally made me think of Jimmy Hinckley, who we all miss dearly.

Alan Moore Cracks Me Up

In an interview about various comic topics, author Alan Moore also mentions his prose novel, Jerusalem, that he's been working on for years now. It sounds like it's going to be quite the daunting challenge to read (never mind writing it!), prompting Moore to say:

"You’ll be probably one of the few people who actually gets all the way through it. I was thinking of having a blurb on the back saying ‘If you only read one book in your life, make it this one, and if you make it this one, you will only read one book in your life.’"

I love it!

And Then There's This

If you haven't seen Patton Oswalt's improvised pitch for Star Wars Episode VII on Parks and Recreation, you have to check it out.  Definitely one of the funniest things I've seen in a while.

Unveiling My New Book: The Royals!

I provided a huge hint on Facebook a week or two ago, when I revealed that the title for the new novel would be two words, with the first word being three letters and the second one being six letters.  That seemed like a dead giveaway, so I was a little surprised that no one got it right, although Boneman was very close with The Robots.  Now it's time to finally end the waiting game and share my big news.  Here's the cover, title and description of my next book:

In The Royals, we visit a slightly fictionalized British Empire where a mostly-bionic Queen Lizzie has been ruling with a literal iron fist for fifty years, much to the frustration of her son, Charlie, and her grandsons Willy and Andy.  But now two generations of royals-in-waiting are willing to wait no longer!  Instead, the three of them have joined forces to bring the old lady down, while scheming to take each other out in the process.  Exploding compacts, poisoned caviar, electrified toilet seats and deadly corgi imposters are just the beginning in this farcical romp through the bedchambers of Buckingham Palace, the secret catacombs beneath the Tower of London, and the indescribably dirty Royal Riding Stables!  Will the last prince standing get to Rule Britannia like never before, or will the plucky octogenarian monarch outwit - and outlive - them all?

I must say what a relief it is to finally be able to talk about my Magnum Opus, and to start April off right!

Life Down Under

Our 32 hours of travel, starting with my brother Richard kindly shuttling us to Detroit Airport and ending with a $70 cab ride to Tammy's apartment in Melbourne, went very well.  If you have to fly as far as Australia, paying for first class (or business class) is definitely worth it.  The seats were incredibly roomy and folded out into beds, allowing me to get my first ever significant amount of sleep on a plane.  I think I may've racked up as many as 5 hours of snoozing out of the 15 total that the flight occupied.  But even the other 10 hours were enjoyable, with much of it passed playing Resistance: Burning Skies on my Vita as well as various free games on my laptop.  Vicki watched a couple of movies and seemed to be entertained by them.  Having a power outlet available as part of my seat made a huge difference in keeping me going, electronics-wise.

I had a lengthy afternoon nap today.  We'd arrived at 9:00 a.m. local time (5:00 p.m. on the second day of travel according to our internal clocks) and spent the first several hours walking around Tammy's neighbourhood and grabbing lunch.  Thanks to that nap, I'm still feeling perky as we approach 11:00 p.m., even though Vicki, Tammy and Ryan have all crashed already (Ryan worked a full, 10-hour day).  It should be interesting to see how long it takes before my sleep cycle gets back to what passes for 'normal' for me.

I should soon have some photos to post here to give a sense of what sort of things we're seeing.  I will mention that the stores are quite different down here, at least in terms of brand names.  While McDonald's ('Maccas' here), Subway, EB Games, 7-11 and Burger King (known as 'Hungry Jack's' to Aussies) were all familiar, the vast majority of the signs were for companies I'd never heard of.  My two favourite of the day were Condom Kingdom and Massive Wieners, only one of which, surprisingly, was actually in the sex trade.

Joss Whedon For Romney

By far the most shocking of 2012's political endorsements:

Use The Force, Harry

Emma just brought this to my attention as a fine start to a Monday morning:

I know this has been around for awhile, but it still delights me because of all the geek buttons it pushes. It's like it was genetically-modified to cause the greatest possible consternation within the typical nerd mind with the fewest possible characters and images. My hat goes off to whoever came up with it.

What Paul Ryan Makes Me Think Of

Paul Krugman, on Paul Ryan (who famously said that Ayn Rand is the reason he got into politics):

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

If Mitt Romney's selection of Ryan as his running mate this weekend didn't give the election in November to Barack Obama, then the American people are even stupider than I thought... which is a pretty tall order, these days.

This Thing Is Awesome

It's no big secret around here that I love John Carpenter's The Thing, so how could I not enjoy this: