Finally, I get to save the Earth with deadly laser blasts instead of deadly slide shows!



Happy Futurama day, meatbags! Today, November 27th, marks the release of the first new adventure for Fry, Leela, Bender, Hermes,  the Professor, Scruffy and the lovable Dr. Zoidberg in OVER 4 years, 3 months and 17 days! That’s 224 weeks– 37,680 hours– 2,260,800 minutes– 135,648,000 seconds even! Much, much too long for something with as much heart-warming brilliance as Futurama. I can easily remember the frustration of trying to loyally watch each new broadcast episode on Sundays only to face repeated NFL overtimes and poor, lazy Fox scheduling bumps. Who’s laughing now, bastards?! Bwahaha! Well, okay, I’m sure the DVD distribution depts are probably drooling since I really expect Bender’s Big Score to do well, but let the weasels have their money, I’m just happy to have more of what one of the finest works of modern American animation. Matt Groening, Ken Keeler and David X. Cohen– you’re truly princes among men.

Speaking of the esteemed Mr. G, here he is pounding the pavement with fellow scribes. I mentioned that I might eventually blog about the strike, but I don’t have anything relevant to add that hasn’t been said elsewhere. With this week marking the first full month since pencils down I thought that today I’d pass along a few links that cover most of the recent developments. If you’re a stickler for details there’s a good look at the numbers up at the Huffington Post that breaks down all the points, percents and payments. Variety reports that talks resumed on Monday and the early hubbub sounds hopeful. Everyone’s gotta be excited that things could possibly be worked out by the Hols, so here’s to hoping.

The last thing I wanted to mention today was some common sense about antagonists… Mike Werb reiterates one of the most important rules regarding villians- make them fascinating. Seriously, please.

Dazzled and tagged



Sadly, being the consumer of culture I am, I often have a hard time fully throwing myself into a movie. This is something that’s bothered me a bit over the last year, as a lot of the bigger fair has left me less than jazzed. Today however I’m happy to say that some big flicks can still kick my brain out of gear and buzz my reactionary instinctive parts in awesome and elemental ways– indeed, the heart of why I fucking love me some movies.

The flick that’s done this is Zemeckis’ Imax BEOWULF. As if I didn’t already think Mr. Z was the man, Beowulf is best described as 18 different kinds of simultaneous awesome. Now I know some may have traumatic Olde English experiences linked directly to this particular required reading (by the third translation and a really excited college prof I’d decided I really liked it so maybe I’m skewed) but forget all that and do yourself a favor and catch this movie. I’m not going to go into much detail (for that I suggest Scott’s review at Cinematical) but the movie is just pulp-hero, epic action with some breathtaking animation. Hell, I’ll even say some fun acting and cool costumes– and I know, there aren’t really any costumes, wtf?! I’ll pass on something that I continue to hear and recommend that if you can, see the IMAX version, because it really is tailored in a way that no other Imax flick I’ve caught before has quite been able to compare to. Zemeckis has set the mark as far as I’m concerned and I hope some folks (I’m looking at you, Pixar) take note and go further.

On another note, Pooks has tagged me with a music meme from Brett of all things, and because, like everything else, I love me some music I’m obliged to respond. (That sentence totally needs more commas) Details:

So here is your assignment for today, dear readers. Find a song that inspires you to write something, whether it gives you an idea for a script or just puts you into a better frame of mind. AND/OR (don’t you love choices) peek into the lyrics and find a stanza that sums up the theme of whatever script you’re working on. It’s quite uncanny how the two circumstances go together.

If possible, post a video of the song to really get people into the mood. (Yep, I’m aware of the irony of using Internet clips during the pissing contest. I like irony as much as bitchiness.)

Then, send the assignment (by e-mail or posting to one of their blog entries) to 5 other writers to do.

Music is a necessity for me and I would say that I put a lot of thought into listening. As far as writing goes it depends on what the situation calls for as lots of songs get me pumped in many different ways. I will do ’soundtracks’, but more often I’ll mentally categorize albums, tracks or artists by character as much as anything else. Whether it’s something I actually think the character will listen to, it expresses the crux of moment between characters, or just has the feel/tone to get me into a character’s head when staring at a blank page, music lubricates my processes. (Not exclusively mind you, the brain is a complex machine dontchaknow!) With that in mind I’m going to share a few tracks and how they fit some character tucked away in the scary recesses of my mind…

Character: Mort Brown from The Mysterium Obscurum of Gallows Gulch
Artist: Okkervil River
Reasoning: Since MOGG is one of the things I’m working on right now and I recently got into these guys with the album The Stage Names and as they’re from Austin while Mort’s script is set in TX– not that there’s much overtly country-western going on with either Mort or OR. I would definitely say there’s slight brooding vibe that the character and the band have in common in my mind. Also both keep changing up on me at any given moment. Really Mort-vibing tracks: Plus Ones, John Allen Smith Sails

Character: Edison Wiley from Nickel & Dime
Artist/Track: Doves – Pounding
Reasoning: Well, I like the Doves and this song is a bit of tribute to the mental state and motivation underlying my protag in Nickel & Dime. While I want a lot of this script to be exaggeration, action and heisty goodness I think the meat of the story is Edison & Max and I can’t help but associate this energetic and comfortably repetitious cacophony with Max & Ed’s ups and downs from the opening words:

I can’t stand by
And see you destroyed
I can’t be here
And watch you burn up
Lie for the moment
And lie as a decoy
So does it matter
If I give in easy?
So why
Is it so hard to get by?

This is a track I come back to ever few weeks or so and oddly enough N&D may end up being the script I never fucking finish as I think I’m officially taking another pass at. WTF man, every time I put it down and start something else something pops into my head to improve. Stupid malfunctioning attention span.

Will add some tags in the morning.

Your friendly, schizophrenic blogger.



You know it’s odd, for someone who likes to talk as much as I do, you would think I could update my blog a little more. I suspect the problem is that I have too much to say, because if I didn’t try and limit myself to a few single topics when posting lest the blog would appear to be pretty schizophrenic. Which, in looking back at the last 10 posts or so, it still manages to be. I do try and keep posts more to the media/culture/movies crap that rattles around in my head, but I often get distracted when typing these things up so there’s no telli–

FUCK YES, for more Robert DeNiro! I don’t know what it is, but since the beginning of summer 2007 I’ve distinctly coveted regular exposure to the Almighty Bob. I mean I have plenty of the hefty DeNiro on the shelf, but it was somehow not enough. I didn’t care about plot, or the rotten factor- I just needed to see DeNiro doing his thing. This was 80% of the reason I went to see STARDUST and subsequently 90% of why I’ll probably buy it at some point. (Because that shit was absolutely hilarious, also hawt.) So this morning when I found the trailer for Righteous Kill it kicked that compulsive watch-DeNiro vibe up a notch. At any rate it’s Pacino + DeNiro so I can’t imagine anyone not wanting to catch this flick. Check out the Trailer at /film.

Elsewhere in the world the WGA has gone on strike. This concerns me much in the same way that David Bowie’s shenanigans tend to be a concern for the Monarch. Which is to say, vague and perhaps entirely fictional. All the same I may have some future comments as things drag on. Right now if you’re interested there’s plenty of blog & news action going on so if you don’t understand ths situation completely I suggest you google that shit.

私は日本語を今学んでいるが、それは全別のレベルの精神異常である。 == watashi ha nihongo wo ima manan deiruga , soreha zen betsuno reberu no seishin ijou dearu . == I leaf Japanese language wo living room manan deiruga, soreha before betsuno level of vibration control malfunction to be.

The above was supposed to be more along the lines of ‘I’m learning Japanese now, but that’s insanity on a whole different level,’ but because I fail, we’ll just go with ‘Nihongo ga sukoshi wakaremasu, demo mata jozhou ja arimasen.’ Although something about ‘vibration control malfunction’ seems much more appropriate.