Where's Jay McCarroll - Staging a Fur Free Fashion show

Christine and I don't watch many reality shows, preferring programs that give writers work instead.

However, we watch avidly the endeavor that is celebrated in Bravo's Project Runway, which returns with a new season later this month.

We hadn't noticed news of last year's winner Jay McCarroll in a while, but Christine discovered today he'll be offering a spring line at the September fashion week.

Unlike many designers--including Kenneth Cole who's reportedly using fur trim--McCarroll's going fur free in his efforts, according to a release from The Humane Society of the United States.

Given inhumane conditions at fur farms, especially those in countries where no humane treatment laws exist, it's wonderful to see a new designer taking a stand.

Bravo, Jay.

Wayne's New Job - Two Takes

You have to have a look at two blog posts.

My friend, Wayne, wrote an entry about the wending journey he takes from his home in the suburbs to his job in Chicago.

Meaningless digression
For some reason one of my favorite lines from The Rockford Files just popped into my head when I said Chicago. Angel reports to Jim Rockford that a couple of hitmen have come to town by saying: "They sent a couple of violinists from Chicago."

That's not relevant to this post. I just always thought it was funny.

Wayne's not a hit man, although I believe there is a multifuction digital color copier he might whack given the opportunity. But isn't there a copier in everyone's life that needs a good kick now and again?

So anyway
Visit Wayne's blog, pause to admire the potential cover art for his new book coming out in August, and read the entry: Doctor Richard Kimbal Fugitive. (Wayne's always liked The Fugitive, although he thinks: "Everybody Gets Hit in the Mouth Sometime" is a lame episode title, while we both like "Landscape With Running Figures" from Season 3. That's the two-parter where Kimble goes Greyhound with Lt. Gerard's wife.)

You with me still? After you read Wayne's blog entry, go to his buddy's blog:

Ormondroyd's Encyclopedia Esoterica: Latest Research

and check out how he illustrated Wayne's tale of his trip into Chicago.

And take this as an example of how to say something in 200 words, when two hyperlinks could have handled the task:

A. Wayne's Entry: Dr. Ricahrd Kimble Fugitive

B. Ormondroyd's Entry: Wayne's New Job

Dracula, vampire detectives and musty bookshops of the mind

I love the blog The Groovy Age of Horror because it's like a stroll through a great used bookshop. Some stores are cropping up at strip shopping centers these days, filled with books that were at Borders or Barnes and Noble five minutes ago. Those are nice for a bargain, but they're not as prone to offer some creased and dog-eared gem you've never heard of.

I love finding used bookshops that have been around forever and boast obscure works, especially in the genre sections.
Groovy Age reveals such lost treasures from obscure publishers like Lancer. You can almost smell that musty paperback smell. Actually I can smell that smell because my office is filled with old paperbacks.

Sometimes Groovy Age spotlights quirky greats that never had a marketing budget to push them into wide awareness. There's also complete crap, the so-bad-it's-good stuff.

The Dracula horror series
Groovy Age has a whole section devoted to one of my favorite series of horror paperbacks, which I read back when I was living through the '70s. That's the Dracula horror series written by Robert Lory. We have lots of vampire detective series today, but back in the day the Lord of the Undead was a crimebuster. Unwillingly, but still…

The series was published by Pinnacle--later, under new ownership to become the publisher of much of my work--and it came out at a time when articles about the true Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, were first gaining popular attention. It must have seemed like the perfect time for new Dracula adventures.

Pinnacle was still devoted to genre series at that time, and they were a major outlet for book packager Lyle Kenyon Engle who did the preliminary outlines that a host of writers turned into novels and series. He re-launched the dime novel Nick Carter series in a '70s setting and had books in many other genres, even a deep-sea adventure series called The Aquanauts.

Robert Lory, a science fiction writer, actually penned the Drac novels.

Harmon vs. Harvey
The series revolves around Prof. Damien Harmon who resurrects the Count in the present day of 1974. As the books begin, Drac is still resting, that is to say dead dead vs undead, after the action of the Stoker novel. But Harmon - who was paralyzed in an attack as a young policeman--unstakes him. Not before he puts a sliver of the stake in a device in the Count's chest, however.

Harmon's psychic ability allows him to trigger the device at will and drive the stake back into Drac's dark heart if necessary i.e. when he isn’t cooperating and crimebusting. Thus Harmon’s able to bend Drac to his will.

The two are helped by Harmon’s assistant Cameron Sanchez and by the mystery woman Katara, whom the Count brings to the picture. In the back of some Pinnacle titles of the day, ads probably based on the original Engle outline touted the series featuring Prof. Charles Harvey and his assistant Eric Fromann.

No pulp please, we're waiting for disco
We didn't have pulp magazines when I was a kid, so things like the Drac series and other 95 cent paperbacks were the next best thing. They were a step up from comic books and a bridge to weightier novels.They were a great stimulant for my imagination. My favorite of the books at least back in the day was "The Hand of Dracula." You can read a synopsis and review of each title over at Groovy Age, and they're certainly some fun, light reads. You can probably find them online or in the musty corners of some used bookstores.

Tags:
Horror

Dracula

What Meatloaf again?

Christine came into my office the other day to talk about something while I was streaming Virgin Radio from the UK. They play a nice, eclectic--which should be my middle name I guess--mixture of new and classic rock and I inexplicably find it cool to listen to what's their late show while it's the middle of the afternoon in Sidland.

As we talked, Bat Out of Hell came on and I turned up the volume.

"Not many people go, `Meat Loaf's on turn it up,'" Christine chided.

"That was a very popular album," I countered and jacked the volume higher for the chorus. Christine was talking about deocrating or something--nothing serious like rock and roll or whether James West could beat up Capt. Kirk.

As the hard-boiled imagry of Jim Steinman's lyrics unrolled, I was reminded of how horroresque Meat Loaf music's trappings are.

A horror place
The album covers and the videos have always appealed to the autumn side of me that likes Stephen King, Poe, rustling leaves and a full moon through rickety, leafless branches. Ozzy gets front-of-the-mind awareness for horror themes, he turned into a werewolf, but M.L. helped me get into a horror writing place many times.

The "Bat Out of Hell" video opens with eerie shots of a full moon through twisted trees, and the images in "I Would Do Anything For Love" are like 10 cool horror movies condensed to a few minutes. The shots of the guys searching dark domains with flashlights always makes me want to be at a keyboard, walking characters through similar chilling scenes.

I don't know what "Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster is Loose" holds. There's unfortunate legal wrangling and unrest between Loaf and Steinman, but I'll be glad when that's over and the album hits the shelves and iPods in October. What better month for it's release?

Monty meets Bigfoot

My hand's almost back to normal size today.

I spent the weekend with it looking like the hand of a cartoon character who's been hit with hammer. I know that's a cliché, but if I could have managed a picture that wasn't too washed out by the flash I'd show you.

It all started when Monty, our mostly inside cat, decided to grant himself a furlough. He's mostly an inside cat because he goes insane when he's outside. His hair stands on end, his tail becomes a bottle brush and he prances about seemingly saying: "Oh my god! I'm outside. I'm outside. I'm outside." As Christine puts it, outside gets him over stimulated.

Since he's used to having a roof over his head, he usually tries to get under something once he's outside.

This time he chose a sycamore near our fence.

"We need to corral him," Christine said.

About then he found the route under the fence that Oliver The Tunnel King uses, and into the woods he went, where there's a lot of "over his head."

Since I couldn't follow him at his point of departure, I went tearing down to the gate where a family of yellow jackets had moved into the space previously occupied by the wasps who stung me there last fall.

One of them zapped me as I went through. It's the yellow jacket way of saying howdy.

What I learned from the experience: Yellow jacket venom makes my hand swell more than wasp venom.

Ignoring the pain I started a commando raid through thickets to the spot where Monty was hanging out. Since I'm taller than he is I had to chart a wending course around things I couldn't walk under. When I made it to the clearing that would lead to the approximate spot he was sniffing, my presence scared him and he fired himself back under the fence, past Christine and to the back door.

Christine sometimes supplies dialog for Monty, or perhaps she channels his thoughts.

She observed that he must be saying: "Let's get back in the house, Sasquatch is out there!"

That's probably how myths are born. Judging by the sniffing the other cats were certainly impressed by his big adventure.

Far more than my swollen hand.

"That's bad," they seemed to say. "But did you hear Sasquatch almost got Monty?"

cats

British TV

Now that 24 and Lost are on vacation, my viewing lineup seems more British than ever. Christine and I have always enjoyed British mystery telefilms. They are often more novelistic than American mysteries. She's reading her way through the Poirot novels this summer, so when she finishes a volume we watch for the TV version to air.

But this summer, even with probably more good shows on American television than ever --because average doesn't draw a thimble full of audience--programming from across the pond is drawing me in more and more.

Midsommer Murders
It's the best, pushing 10 years of two-hour installments. At its most average it's superior. At it's best it's intricate, clever and enthralling. Inspector Barnaby--played by John Nettles, who brought British television into the modern era with the detective drama Bergerac--solves murders in quiet little villages prone to agrarian festivals and dark secrets. I agree with TV Guide's jeer to A&E for dumping it to The Biography Channel. It deserves better placement and a bigger U.S. audience. Of course, it's on DVD. Check out installments "Dead Man's 11," "Ghosts of Christmas Past" and "Hidden Depths" as some of the best of the best. It's on Sundays.

Hex
BBC America has at lost brought this British Buffy to our shores. Set in a boarding school that's darker than Hogwarts or perhaps the Hell Mouth, it's paced a little more leisurely than Buffy but with an engaging style that eventually draws you into its mix of ancient evil and modern adolescent infighting. Oh, and there's a lesbian ghost.

Hustle
As devishly clever a series as you'll find anywhere. Robert Vaughn is the American mentor to a group of Brit con artists. It's fast-paced, and each episode unfolds like The Sting with elaborate setups, twists and slight of hand. Remind me to tell you about the time I interviewed Vaughn, but in the meantime, watch this on AMC. Really. Make time.

BBC America Mystery Monday
Even British Lifetime movies just play out better than ours do. Of late their Monday programming has consisted of miniseries that are cut from the Lifetime telefilm thriller cloth, but with a little more panache than your average Jaclyn Smith vehicle. Secret Smile recently featured a quietly menacing David Tennant (Doctor Who). The lineup actually is like a tour of current and ex-Doctor's other roles. Paul McGann turns up periodically as shady and mysterious characters.
Which brings us to -

Doctor Who
Catch it while it's still on here. Sci Fi Channel has only one more marathon to go, but the DVD is out in July. The marathon unfortunately doesn't include the episodes most likely to hook Americans, but Series 1 should be watched in order for the full effect. Get over the fart jokes and open your eyes. It's Brilliant. It has hidden clues like Lost, special effects to rival Trek and yeah Harlan Ellison was right all those years ago in his introductory material for Who novelizations. It's better than Trek. And I love Trek.

Wicker Expectations

The Wicker Man, you know, the original with The Equalizer, is one of those quietly chilling films. No mutants nor rampant bloodshed required for its ominous, lingering scare.

It comes from one of those through-the-looking-glass revelations, that the rules you've always known don't apply, that civilization is superceded by something darker.

I'm not sure what I was expecting when I saw stills for a remake a while back, but now that the trailer is online it's encouraging. View it online here. It's also available for the iPod.

Nicolas Cage, also seen with head aflame in the Ghost Rider trailer, replaces Edward Woodward, and the clips look faithful to the original's imagry from the sea plane entry to the strange world to the encounters with odd villagers and hints of old ways in practice. I'm sure the plot will diverge, but I'm kind of excited to see this revision.

I never get as bent out of shape about remakes as some people do, and I don't expect it to recapture the quaint eeriness, but with a few rock-'em-sock-'em updates, it may still be good.

Tech Mag Dodging

I feel like I'm on the run from the demographic police.

I get a few free tech magazines. If you touch anything like a computer mouse you qualify because it's circulation figures for industry professionals that matter to their advertisers. Your eyes on their ad = money.

The tradeoff is that every 45 minutes or so you have to be reevaluated in order to confirm your value to makers of network solutions.

"It'll only take a few minutes," the caller says. "Just a few questions. How many people in your office?At your location? At all of your company's locations? At your competitor's locations? At all of the companies in your industry? How many people live on planet Earth? Two comets leave a solar system. One is traveling at a speed of... Do you influence the purchase of comets at your lcation? At all of your company's locations? In this galaxy?"

I'm not alone in finding those moments annoying right?

I've started letting them roll to voice mail along with the sales calls. I even keep a quick link to area code listings on my desktop. If I'm fast I can check an area code and evaluate it for potential annoyance before voice mail picks up.

Sometimes if I don't take the call, they telephone our office secretary and try to get her to put me on.

They threaten to stop the subscriptions if you don't answer. But they don't. They never stop.

One day I suspect someone's going to show up on the doorstep.

"How many employees at this office? Your location? You entire company? Don't try to go out the back way. We have the exits covered. You cannot escape...this location...your company's location...really don't try."

The Simpson's as philosophy

Years ago I wrote a newspaper column that mentioned The Simpsons. I used the word zeitgeist in referring to the show's brilliance.

Our copy editor sent the story back to me electronically with a glowing green note in the reverse field that often made our green and black screens seem like Kryptonite:

"Are you sure you want to use the word zeitgeist refer to a cartoon?"

My answer was yes and I left it in. Ours was an ongoing war about what belonged in the lifestyle pages. I lobbied for movie, book and television reviews of programs people watched, that actually reached the masses.

Like The Simpsons.

I was kind of excited to read this lead on a BBC news article this morning:

"The Simpsons is more than a funny cartoon - it reveals truths about human nature that rival the observations of great philosophers from Plato to Kant... while Homer sets his house on fire, says philosopher Julian Baggini."

Full story

Let's see now what does that make me? I believe it starts with an "R."

Dark Visions

I was link hopping and ran across a great online gallery of horror art. Spookyart.com is a showcase of horror cover art and other visions from a host of artists.

Plenty of scary, ghostly, chilling and disturbing work including paintings, digital photography and more.

New on the iPod - an exploration of Poe

Thanks to Slate's pulp fiction emphasis, I discovered The Poe Shadow in an excellent essay by Christopher Benfey.

It's an attempt to unravel the mystery of Edgar Allen Poe's final and never explained days, and I was quick to get the audiobook version. I have a longtime fascination with Poe.

The imagry I didn't quite understand when my father first read me The Raven was chilling and may have been my earliest exposure to what words could do in the nightmares department. He read me The Gold Bug also from the same Whitman collection. While it's not a true tale of terror, the late night scenes of its depicted treasure quest also invoked scares.

My dad probably didn't know what he was imprinting on my brain way back then.

A sadder side
In high school, coping with adolesence and feelings of alienation at the same time, I came to feel a saddness for Poe's troubled life. We studied him in English classes and I had a teacher, rest her soul, who encouraged some of my short fiction which she said captured some of the same tones as Poe.

I tried writing some poems about his existence but never came up with anything worthwhile, but I've always snatched up Poe fiction.

Marc Olden wrote a novel in which Poe starred as a detective. Poe Must Die was a perfect paperback autum read for me in its day. It paired the purple prose writer with an ex-boxer and pitted them against murder and the supernatural.

Matthew Pearl's Poe fiction is a more realistic effort to solve the writer's missing days. It's "my next listen" as Audible.com might put it.

Now if someone would just come up with a tale that explains that guy who sneaks out to the Poe grave every year...

Nah, for that it's more fun not knowing.

10 Signs You're Too Into The Lost Experience

10. You've ordered a fleet of Jeep Compasses from your local dealership.
9. You've put on 15 pounds drinking Sprites.
8. You've applied to be Thomas Mittelwerk's personal assistant.
7. You've changed your pet's name to Joop.
6. You're convinced that that short in your vacuum cleaner is an electromagnetic pulse.
5. You ask the convenience store clerk if they have any Williamsburg Tobacco products.
4. You settle for a can of Copenhagen.
3. Your summer vacation destination: Vik.
2. You're hoping to stop over briefly for a stay in the Love Suite at La Dolce Vita.
1. You're in love with Persephone.

The Lost Viral Experience

I'm really starting to enjoy The Lost Experience game. The flurry of clues and new online content this week really served to expand the connect-the-dots narrative. It's an incredible online experience, and one of the most interesting advertising/marketing experiences in some time--since sponsor messages are buried amid the clues.

I don't have time to plug numbers into ASCII translators or run my mouse across every corner of The Hanso Foundation site to pick up the tiny hints, so I've been relying on the clues blogs. (Was Ms. Clue in this week's episode a tip of the hat to the online game?)

The best clue blog
The best, in my opinion, is The Lost Experience Clues, interestingly an online project from Watermark Community Church, though nothing overtly geared toward outreach is included. (They have a separate blog, Stories of the Lost, which explores the television show's spiritual themes and links to their church home page. Watermark certainly seems to be an appropriate name for their low-key approach. And it mirrors the core sponsor messages in the game.)

Anyway I digress worse than a Lost flashback. I like to pick up a few clues from the blogs and make my way along the online path from there.

Advertisers
And as I was saying, the subtlety of the advertising is what's most impressive. Surprisingly advertisers are trusting that rabid Lost fans will glean sponsor messages as well as Hanso revelations from the web strands that spread everywhere.

"I smell a lymon," I e-mailed my friend, Wayne, this week as I jumped from the Lost-Clues-provided coordinates on the Hanso Foundation electromagnatism subsite to letyourcompassguideyou.com.

Hugh McIntyre's inbox
By the time the fake Hanso ad flashed on the show with it's tiny "sponsored by Jeep" footnote, I and many many other fans had already been through Hanso Foundation PR Man Hugh McIntyre's inbox.

"This week's spot is sponsored by Jeep," I told Wayne in that e-mail before the show. The way Sprite sneakily sponsored last week's clues with sublymonal.com.

And yes, I wound up looking at Jeep's site for their Compass, as I was supposed to, even though Hugh had only stored a cryptic print ad and an '80s ear Jeep commercial on You Tube. (Addendum: Apparently Hanso is ordering some Jeep Compasses, I stand corrected.)

Some may be cynical, but it's a brilliant business decision by all of the parties, and I think it's paying for great fun.

Namaste, and obey your thirst.

Dirty Blond on the iPod

I have really been enjoying the audiobook version of Lisa Scottoline's Dirty Blond. It's a page-turner for the ear, narrated by Barbara Rosenblat. I zipped through almost the entire first half while painting my living room.

I guess painting and audio books are a good combination. I find it easy to hit a balance between a narrative and the focus on edging and rolling.

Centering on a newly robed Philadelphia judge, Cate Fante, the story begins with an interesting courtroom drama surrounding the rights to a successful television series then spins quickly to murder and much more.

Judge Fante has a self-destructive streak that leads her into casual and dangerous encounters with men, which soon puts both her professional and private life in turmoil.

I've never read Scottoline before, but I'm certainly interested in discovering more of her courtroom thrillers.

Pod Ads

I realized over the last few days I've now been influenced by podcast ads.

That's not a major life milestone, but it is sort of an interesting epiphany. Where were you when you heard the Berlin Wall went down? What was the first movie you saw? What was the first podcast ad that influenced you?

For me it was for The Travel Channel. I heard mention of a show on a couple of different 'casts and while I was flipping channels, it occurred to me to find the Travel Channel. (What that involved was getting my channel card out to check the number. I never seem to surf past The Travel Channel, probably because I worry a little about inadverdently ordering an expensive WWE event if I hit one of those "Click here to order" channels.) I wound up watching a segment about the Ginza. It may have even been on Anthony Bourdain's show, which is what they were hawking in the pod ad.

Other pod ads
As I check through the file cards in the cluttered cabinet of my brain, I notice other references to podcast ads.

I didn't go to Chili's for their special Cinco de Maya menu, available for a limited time only, but I know they had one.

And I know Slate has a writer who goes and tries out different occupations like being a nude model.

That all sunk in, even though I've clicked past everything on my DVR but the commercial with Robby the Robot in it. That I watched, but my real influences are piped directly into my head these days.

That should work until the buds rob me of my hearing.

A good day for pod folks

Yesterday was a big news day for iPod video users. Several Fox series rolled out on iTunes including 24 and Prison Break, as well as Firefly and Lost in Space.

I resisted the urge to impulse buy, but the expansion of available content is exciting.

I picked up the word at The Lost Remote TV Blog. In reporting, they asked: "Has anybody else noticed that you don't use your iPod for video as much as you thought you would when you bought it?"

Guilty as charged
I have to say it's true. I have watched quite a bit, but for some reason I haven't found myself trapped in as many mundane waiting situations since I got the video version at Christmas.

I watched quite a few shows while bicycling at the gym initially, but lately I've gravitated to G4 vodcasts.

I have an Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode I got halfway through waiting on a video crew at my day job, but I haven't had a long wait since then to finish it.

I also have a couple of Night Stalkers I haven't watched.

Superstition
I guess it's because I'm a little superstitious. I don't want to waste purchased content on routine boredom. I have this sense I should save dramas for extreme boredom.

Maybe I will loosen up now that I have options for Jack Bauer, Dr. Smith and the crew of Serenity, and presumably Warner Brothers' upcoming paid content on Bit Torrents won't have the limitations of current online movies. Time will tell on that one.

Addendum
Apparently ABC's streaming has been so successful it will continue, according to Lost Remote. And they'll also be offering Bit Torrent content it appears.

The flood gates are open. I'm sure more companies will be following suit and looking for a business model that works better than selling content that's not portable for the same price as a DVD.

M:I-3

I'm a little sorry to see headlines mourning Tom Cruise's diminished box office for Mission: Impossible 3.

Despite his extracurricular activities, Cruise is still a likeable screen presence , and M:I-3 , as directed by J.J. Abrams , is like a long, exciting Alias episode.

It's definitely better-plotted than the previous two. Things generally seem to happen for a reason and not just to string stunts together, although there are some nice set-pieces.

It's really worth tearing yourself away from the living room TV to see it on the big screen.

"Lost" online

(Apparently I wasn't the only one watching online. ABC.com was overloaded yesterday.

ABC.com's streaming of its shows this month certainly came in handy.

My DVR froze at the thirty minute mark on "Lost" last night. It locked up right in the middle of a commercial with some girls looking over flowers, and even though the record light stayed on - it didn't record even though I waited a half-hour to reboot.

Moral: reboot early and cut your losses and don't believe your DVR's record light.

I went straight to ABC.com this a.m. when I got up to watch, and I'm glad I did. I think if I'd even waited for iTunes I would have found out what happened in the last five minutes.

If you were conscious today, you couldn't miss the fact that You Know Who bought it.

ABC.com wasn't offering the trailer for next week, so I went to AOL.com after watching the episode, thinking I might find it there and was hit with an annoucement headline. Um hum hum died on "Lost."

My friend who didn't get to watch last night she told me she had the episode spoiled by Good Morning America with no warning.

Moral of that story? Whatever network your favorite show is on, watch the other guy's news because they won't be giving the dead chracter or deleted contestant a sendoff on their morning show.

I warned Christine, my wife, to avoid any site that might be risky today. I should have said: "Just stay the hell away from a computer or a TV." She learned more than she wanted to on CNN just checking the news. "They said shots rang out," she said.

"Trust me," I responded. "Shots rang out is not a spoiler." It's who they rang out at. And rang out at.

We watched on ABC.com this evening so Christine could see what we missed last night.

I've also watched a little of Desperate Housewives and Commander in Chief, not because I really care, but dang it's convenient having those streamed episodes. I'd like this to catch on, because I could have some kind of incident during an episode of 24. Ye gods!

And you don't even have to sit through the whole mandetory commercial with ABC's streaming. You get a prompt when ABC deems you've watched enough of a message about Cingular or Tylenol.

That's a bit of all right.

Hours of "Lost" fun

A press release on TheTailsection.com reveals that the official Hanso Foundation site is back online.

It's souped up quite a bit and as alluded to in one of the official Lost podcasts, it should provide hours of fun.

More about Joop, the 100+ year old orangutan and strange things if you try to sign up for the newsletter.

I'm hoping Wayne, my buddy and a Lost lore expert will crack some of the mysteries and save me a little time. (Some great helps are now available here.)

The most interactive TV show ever
I'm hopelessly addicted to Lost's plot and characters, but I'm also fascinated by it pop culture impact and the viral marketing it has touched off, fueling the fascination with secrets and clues better than anything since So The Dark the Con of man was scrawled in the Louvre.

Dangling Conversations

I used to get phone calls from an elderly man in a nursing home. They came to my desk when I was reporter, though someone had told him I wrote novels as well. He wanted me to write a book for him, or with him. The first time he called, I told him to take a number.

I know you've probably heard this. Every writer, even obscure, minor American authors like me, gets endless queries: "I have this great idea, do you want to write a book with me? I'm sure it would be a bestseller."

Yeah, right.

Plotlines
Usually those ideas run along the lines of: "It's like The Firm except it's set in a (fill in the blank industry.)" Or it's the person's life story, which he's convinced is so interesting everyone will want to read it. (I used to get calls from a guy who thought the Russians were controlling the weather, but he never asked me to write his life story. His I might have been interested in.)

When I wrote young adult novels under the Michael August pseudonym, Michael got letters from adults saying they'd read his book and felt he was perfect to write his/her biography. I'm not sure what part of Mike's YA horror novels qualified him to chronicle lives from suburbia which featured "something for everyone."

BB
Bear in mind all this was before blogs which I assume takes care of a lot of the need for personal biography.

My elderly caller wouldn't have wanted to use a blog. He was convinced his knowledge was so valuable he couldn't reveal it for fear of losing the vast sums of money it would net if only it could be put into narrative form.

What he said he knew
He knew, he said, who the Green River Killer was. Look that up now and you can't help but find Gary Ridgway, but this was before he was caught.

I don't know if Gare was the guy my caller had in mind. He was living a long way from Washington state.

He always spoke of "This individual."

I suggested he contact the authorities.

He just kept contacting other writers. He'd call me back periodically to tell him who'd turned him down. I don't know if he found Ann Rule, but I remember him reading me a letter from Robert B. Parker who politely told him: "I prefer to work alone on my books."

Chiding
A time or two he called to chide me. "I guess you're sorry you passed up writing about this."

Annoyed, I told him no, but he either didn't notice or didn't care when he heard annoyance in my voice.

Eventually he stopped calling or I moved on and he lost track of me. By now, I'm sure he's passed on.

Looking back, I wonder how badly he wanted someone to write a book. Maybe he just wanted someone to talk to.

And I have to note him as one of the people I wasn't particularly nice to.

Perplexing, challenging and fun flicks

I wrote this a while back for epinions.

I’ve discovered the movies I enjoy best these days are those that keep me a little perplexed about what’s going on. The standard-issue thrillers and the routine romantic comedies may tend to focus my attention more on my DVD player’s counter than on the action on screen.

Here are some flicks I’ve found intriguing.

Mulholland Drive directed by David Lynch This film demands that you examine it carefully. Any attempt to offer a synopsis is fruitless, you’ll just have to see it. Clues are nestled in every corner of the screen, or are they red herrings? It’s an over-the-top tale as offbeat as Lynch’s Lost Highway and if you’re up for it, it’s rewarding entertainment. (If you really want an explanation, search Salon.com’s archive for an interpretation.)

Swimming Pool directed by François Ozon Charlotte Rampling is Sarah Morton, a writer who kicks back for a summer at her editor’s villa, only to find she’s sharing space with his stunning young daughter, a girl both troubled and annoying. Are the scenes from Sarah’s book, her imagination or an alternate reality? You have to decide as you go along.

Spider directed by David Cronenberg This is atypical Cronenberg, no odd body growths or manifestations. It’s all psychological. Ralph Fiennes is Spider, a man recently released from a mental institution. He’s withdrawn and caught up in a world inside his schizophrenic mind, devoted most of all to solving his mother’s murder. The narrative twists through his reality building ultimately to a shattering climax, but along the way, you have to interpret and extrapolate.

Memento directed by Christopher Nolan This is the backwards one, the only movie I know of with a surprise beginning. Guy Pearce is Leonard Shelby, a man tracking his wife’s killer while coping with the fact that he has no short-term memory. The tale is masterfully told, and the gimmick is more than a gimmick. Well worth the time to watch, and if you’re a CSI fan, Jorja Fox has a prominent role, in flashbacks at least, as the deceased Mrs. Shelby.

Donnie Darko directed by Richard Kelly A dark tale, no kidding, of a young man’s journey through a twisted reality. It’s high school hell compounded by a Billy Pilgrim experience. Everything winds up neatly in the end, but you’ll do some head-scratching along the way.

Following directed by Memento’s Christopher Nolan It’s black and white, short, strange and features a surprise ending that fits perfectly. Only a few characters are involved in this drama, much of it takes place on the street or in a few rooms and it’s all fascinating. Bill is a young man who’s hobby is trailing strangers, following. His path leads in bizarre directions with he starts to trail a man named Cobb.

One Hour Photo directed by Mark Romanek It’s all about Sy Parrish, the man who develops your film at Sav-Mart. He’s obsessed with the family of Connie Nielsen and Michael Vartan. It’s a thriller, but an eerie, subtle one without more suspense than violence. What are all those still-life photos about?

Vanilla Sky directed by Cameron Crowe A lot of people don’t like this movie. They’re wrong. Don’t listen to them. Based on and almost, though not quite, a shot-for-shot-with-higher-production-values remake of Abre los ojos or Open Your Eyes, this film wends in and out of reality. David Aames is a “has it all” magazine publisher who falls in love with a beautiful young woman played by Penelope Cruz. They share “a moment” only to have their world shattered by David’s jealous um hum buddy Julie (Cameron Diaz). Hideously scarred, David spirals into and out of madness and a science fiction universe that’s intriguing. The mystery doesn’t end with the last frame, and you can spend hours reading Internet message boards for conflicting opinions once it’s over. It’s a film that keeps on giving.

Incubus directed by Leslie Stevens It’s black-and-white and shot in Esperanto. They were going for an Ingmar Bergman, art-house feel when this was shot in 1965. William Shatner faces the forces of evil in a strange land where demons manipulate humans. It’s spooky though not an absolute horror movie. (Incidentally, this is the William Shatner movie they're watching in Blade: Trinity)

Waking Life directed by Richard Linklater The plot is minimal but the conversations are fascinating, and it’s visually unique and surreal. Actors were filmed and then animators went to work re-interpreting. The main character says he feels he’s in an alternate universe. You will too, probably for multiple viewings.

Searching for the right word? The Visual Thesarus Can Help

One of the most valuable online writing tools I've found is The Visual Thesarus. I think I read about it in a writer's magazine, otherwise I'm not sure how I discovered it, but it's fabulous for those frozen moments when the right word won't rise from the subconscious.

Allow popups and make sure your Java runtime environment is enabled then visit the website for a trial. When a word is typed in, almost immediately if you have a fast connection, a tree of alternate words is provided and definitions are available with a click.

Point to a new word and another word tree is produced introducing you to an even broader vocabulary. As with any thesarus, some words are archaic, but sometimes those are fabulous tidbits of knowledged.

I never knew a susurration described the "indistinct sound of whispering."

If it won't cure writer's block, it will entertain wordsmiths while waiting for blockages to clear.

Self doubt and Kurosawa

In an interview on This is Audible, Campbell Scott mentioned recently that the masterful filmmaker Akira Kurosawa at 80 said something like, and I'm paraphrasing, "I almost have this filmmaking thing figured out."

I find comfort in remarks like that from the acknowledged great.

I struggle with self-doubt like I guess everyone who writes and who has moved past the arrogance of youth. A writer friend of mine, who I've always felt is far more talented than I am, mentioned recently that he'd been plagued by negative feelings.

I guess it's part of the creative process and perhaps valuable if it makes us endeavor to do better.

Doctor Who Storm Warning

Budget limitations on the early Doctor Who shows meant rubber suits and occasionally wobbly sets. For anyone who ever failed to get past those and appreciate the brilliance of the stories, there are Who audio adventures from Big Finish that filled a gap for fans of The Doctor between the end of the last television series and the beginning of the new one.

I discovered the Big Finish audios while listening to Podshock, and I've thoroughly enjoyed the first I've purchased - Storm Warning.

Utilizing the mind's eye,

OK, I'm not really into Death Cab for Cutie, but I am wearing my tie-dyed t-shirt as I write this

I think I'm a grup.

I've always known I'm a bit un-grown up for my age, but I didn't know I was part of a cultural phenomenon.

The New Yorker has identified a modern-day Peter Pan syndrome, and they're using the word grup from Star Trek TOS as the term-of-choice.

With a few variations, I think they're describing me. I guess it stands to reason that a lot of people who grew up with the same cultural reference points and influences are exhibiting the same behavior, but I was a bit elated to discover I'm not alone.

And it's a little exciting that a whole segment of the population is choosing a different approach to graying.

It's not your father's middle age.

Surface Again

Pigalina mentions in a comment below that there is a petition urging NBC to renew "Surface" for a second season.

I thought I would pass that on. It's here.

One of My Horror Comics - The Mantus Files

I had a devilishly fun time writing The Mantus Files, a horror graphic novel about an investigator of the paranormal. Though the title might sound like a ripoff, it actually pre-dates the X-Files. I just happened to be influenced by The Night Stalker and The Norliss Tapes just like Chris Carter.

Peter Mantus, my haunted hero, was scarred by his past. His father was a sorcerer who tried to sacrifice him in a dark ritual. Surviving that, he devoted his time to opposing the forces of evil.

In the Crescent City
The storyline took him to New Orleans and cool places like Jackson Square and St. Louis Cemetery to investigate the disappearance of his friend and mentor, the man who saved him from his father, and Mantus had to face down vampire cults, hideous demons and a dark magician with world domination on his mind.

The artist and the inker had different styles (I was fond of saying at the time it was Joe Kubert artist being inked by a Russ Manning inker) so the full potential of the pencils didn't make it to the page with all of their eerie glory, but there were some great moments and flourishes.

I've posted a few pages on Photobucket - kind of large jpegs. It's usually available from Nostalgia Zone and turns up on ebay now and then, if you're just dying for the whole story.


Graveyard Monsters

Tarot reading

What's on the iPod? - Dr. Who Podshock

I find Podshock, which I've mentioned here before, to be one of the most addictive listening options out there.

Each week it's a sometimes lengthy conversation between three long-time Doctor Who fans, Ken Deep, James Naughton and Louis Trapani, and it's the item on my iPod I always work into my schedule.

News and analysis
There are news tidbits from both sides of the Atlantic, reviews of Who audios--there's a seemingly endless supply from a company called Big Finish--and of course discussion of the new and stunningly good Doctor Who now airing on the Sci Fi Channel.

But it's not the news or the reviews so much as it's the fan analysis and camaraderie that makes this a great show.

Reviews of the new show are wonderful and welcome, but it's just as entertaining to hear Deep riff for ten minutes on intrusive station identifications or program promos.

If you're just discovering the Who universe, Podshock is the spot to get caught up. I suspect you don't really have to be a serious Who fan to enjoy their show, but after listening to their enthusiasm and reverence you'll probably feel compelled to check out Doctor Who in one form or another as well.

Surfacing

I've decided NBC's Surface got a bad rap from critics somewhat undeservedly.

It's the story of a group of strange, unidentified sea creatures, and I had no plan to watch it when promos began last summer.

But I did, and I was hooked from the first episode.

Paging one heroic scientist
As the plot goes, one heoric scientist is faced with unraveling the mystery of the strange creature's existence along with an insurance executive who lost his brother to a creature while SCUBA diving. (The insurance man is played with great earnestness and authentic Southerness by Jay R. Ferguson.) A parallel plot involves a young North Carolina boy who's unwittingly-at first-raising one of the creatures hatched from an egg. A mysterious scientist and his evil henchman loom behind everything.

I watched the final four episode-arc this weekend, cleaning off my DVR a bit. There were moments it reached a level of 24-style suspense as its plot threads converged to reveal a complex scienentific conspiracy. Not to mention the fact Ian Anthony Dale made a devilishly evil bad guy with surprising secrets as it all wound down.

TV movie climax
A tidal-wave finale in the final hour was a little like a typical TV-movie climax, but even that played out with some edge-of-the-seat complication.

I'll grant the sea-creature raised by the North Carolina boy, named Nim--short for Nimrod the hunter-- is a little cute, but the relevance of their union excuses any generated sentimentality.

If
--You're a Dean Koontz fan
--A fan of supsense with science fiction elements
--Appreciate a bad guy who makes you want to hit him
--Need something for your iPod

get caught up on this show and hope it returns for a second season.

The Muse's Tune

I haven't posted in a while, but I've been productive in other areas of late. I guess the muse is just singing a slightly different tune.

Or maybe blogging has had it's impact. The writing manual The Artist's Way encourages journaling as a way of uncorking creativity, and my creativity certainly seems to be stimulated of late.

I feel like I did once upon a time when ideas seemed to come from all directions.

I'm slower and more meticulous these days, but it's good to feel more creatively alive. Maybe Clio handed off to Calliope or something.

Cool science fiction podcast

It's hard for me to pick a favorite podcast, because the offerings are so rich and diverse, but I've certainly been enjoying Escape Pod: The Science Fiction Podcast Magazine of late.

Each installment includes an introductory editorial followed by top-notch short stories and occasional short-shorts called flash fiction.

The story so far
So far, I have not found a tale that I dislike. They tend to skew toward humorous, but there's still significant variety.

One of my favorites is a zombie tale: "My Friend is a Lesbian Zombie," that's loads of laughs, but the jokes are held up by a solid voodoo terror plot.

Recent entries
Recent entries including a fractured fairy tale called "Practical Villainy" and an erotic science fiction story called "Little Helper."

If you're remotely interested in literature of the fantastic, this is a great download choice. Check it out. For convenience, it's also available via iTunes.

Blue Dog Relief

I had not thought of the famous Rodrigue Blue Dog in a while but ran across this poster via a banner this morning.

Took me back to visits to a Blue Dog Gallery in the French Quarter ages ago, located as I recall, behind St. Louis Cathedral.

The "FEMA Throw me a Bone" version is certainly a wonderful Blue Dog variation and very topical today.

Cell Phones - A new did ya ever notice

Everyone talks about how annoying people on cell phones are. That's possibly even a topic of some of the people talking on cell phones. They certainly talk about every other topic, while I'm stuck next to them.

I sat in a waiting room one day listening to a woman tick off symptoms of her digestive disease, and yeah, digestive disease is a euphamism.

I had a "Did ya ever notice" moment this afternoon while I was on my cell phone, however. Shoe is on the other foot, mile in someone else's moccasins.

Here goes:

When you're next to someone on a cell phone, they're annoying.

When you're trying to talk to someone on a cell phone, everyone around you is annoying.

You just can't hear very freakin' well on a cell phone.

I guess that's the whole cell phone social problem in a nutshell.

Recalling Invictus

Of late, I've found myself recalling lines from "Invictus" (the "I'm the captain of my soul poem) by William Ernest Henley.

For me it resonates most for its sheer tone of defiance as I can apply it day to day life:

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

I hope I can always be that strong.

Shows are better in captive environment

When you're bored, television just seems better somehow.

I can remember watching the Dean Martin Western "Five Card Stud" once upon a time while we were visiting relatives. My mom was caught up with talking to her sister she hadn't seen in a while, and I was far away from my stuff.

Crooning cowboy
Dean as a cowboy tracking down killers was far more entertaining than I probably would have found him any other time.

I think the same was true once of an episode of "The Rookies" on another visit to relatives.

I thought of that tonight at the gym while watching the free pilot episode of the new Dick Wolf series, "Conviction," from iTunes.

Viewing with conviction
I can't keep up with all the versions of "Law and Order," but "Conviction" was free and it got me through the tedium of exercise on stationary bikes and tread mills. At least while working out, I found it pretty interesting and entertaining. I got as mad at Stephanie March's call on the prosecution of a drug dealer as her fellow deputy D.A. did.

It wasn't nearly as bad as the review I read in "Entertainment Weekly" or "TV Guide," can't remember which.

Would it be as entertaining in my living room? That's a good question, and one whose answer I may never know.

Advance Buzz - Joseph Finder - Killer Instinct Reviewed

(Kind of a special entry. I was privileged to receive an advance review copy of a new thriller from Joseph Finder. Watch for it May 16.)

Corporate sales can be war. Sales directors bully. Clients double cross. Co-workers backstab. It’s all in a day’s work for those workaday warriors who must accept rejection as a cost of doing business and continue to ride on a “smile and a shoeshine,” as Arthur Miller once had a character say.

Joseph Finder, whose novel High Crimes became the movie with Morgan Freeman, captures that world beautifully and a bit ironically in his new corporate thriller, Killer Instinct, due in stores May 16. It’s a perfect companion to his previous page turner, Company Man.

In both books, the corporate drama and intrigue become as engaging and fascinating as the building menace and conflict between hero and antagonist.

A call for meat eaters
The protagonist in this story is Jason Steadman, a sales executive for a major electronics company that’s coping with Japanese ownership and a competitive marketplace for its large-screen, plasma TVs.

Jason’s boss is one of those macho middle managers who values “meat eaters,” strong willed and driven employees. Easy-going guys don’t earn his respect. Jason, he believes, lacks the killer instinct of the title.

That’s unfortunate because Jason has a wife with a background of privilege who’s under employed by an arts organization. He’d like to climb a few rungs on the corporate ladder to help regain the lifestyle to which she was once accustomed.

A bit docilely, perhaps with a little willing suspension of his ability to see evil, Jason finds help from Kurt Semko, late and dishonorably discharged from U.S. Special Forces.

Bad luck for bad guys
Jason helps Kurt land a job in his company’s security department. Soon mysterious misfortunes befall Jason’s rivals. Cars break down, appointments are missed and Jason’s fortunes improve even as Kurt puts him on a Special Forces training program that helps him improve stamina and drop pounds. All of it plays out against in counterpoint to military-themed business self-help books Jason reads, by the way, adding irony and subtext.

As he did with office furniture manufacturing in Company Man, Finder blends the double crosses and sneaky corporate politics of the electronics industry into a compelling and deceptively intricate narrative. It’s so engaging it could make the book a fine read without the added, simmering menace of Kurt.

Coping with dirty deeds
Coupled, the parallel plotlines weave a relentless thriller plot with constant twists and tension as Jason is forced to unravel dirty deeds by his superiors and cope with the dangers his friend represents when confronted.

Psychological thriller fans may wish for a little more exploration of Kurt and his motivation. That’s not this book’s focus. It’s a study of Jason, his moral compass and his role in a cutthroat culture that’s in a war zone as hot as some real ones.
Killer Instinct should be on your Amazon wish list now if you’re a suspense fan. If you toil in the corporate wars, you’ll find vicarious thrills as Jason outwits those treating him as a pawn.

Staying Alive

For the fun of it, I decided to enter the ComingSoon.com poster contest for Stay Alive, a teen horror film that looks not bad in the trailer. It involves gamers who become immersed in a computer RPG with a Victorian setting. When their characters die in the game, well you can see the tag line.

Kind of like the designers on "Project Runway" might leave a few strands of thread dangling from a seam, I have a rough edge here or there. So you see why I'm primarily a writer.

The hand is mine
The hook and manacles are from the offical entry packet. I got the computer monitor from Stock X Change, and used some blood spatter brushes for Photoshop that I picked up somewhere back down the line.

Took a digital image of my own hand against a mirror and cobbled it all together. The background, which doesn't show up well here is a techno-texture of glowing lines. Matrix-style stuff in red.

The most fun since glowing text
It's the most fun I've had in Photoshop since mid week when I dropped my friend Wayne Allen Sallee's face into a frame of a screen capture of the herioglyphic clock on "Lost." I put a scan from his business card in the slot that never got filled in before Locke re-entered "the numbers."

Wayne said it made his week. It's nice when secondary skills can do that.

G.I. Joe as Doc Savage Sometime in the '70s

I found some of my G.I. Joe photo efforts from back in the day. I'm afraid the scan is about as sharp as I could get it. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had a Kodak Instamatic, and the drug store printed on a non-glossy paper. This is actually a later era of Joe photography for me.

I did some early shots with fox holes and sandbags using a couple of Joes with molded hair probably when I was six or seven. These were probably taken toward the end of the time I played with G.I. Joes, and this cast was assembled with help from friends.

Doc and the fabulous five
As Doc Savage fans will notice it's an attempt to re-create the scene on the back of the Bantam paperbacks using action figures.

G.I. Joe with his tattered fatigue shirt is Doc Savage. The shot also stars:

• A G.I. Joe with a Captain Action head as Ham the attorney.
• The G.I. Joe sea adventurer as Johnny the archaeologist.
• An early Joe with lifelike hair as Renny the two-fisted engineer, wearing the sea adventurer's clothes it appears.
• Johnny West as Long Tom the electrician.
  
• Big Jim as Monk the chemist.

Ham's sword cane is a sawed off chopstick painted black. It's more visible in this action scene:

The box of 64

Once upon a time, Christine helped plan a women's seminar featuring a relationship speaker. He noted different people have different ranges of emotion and empathy.

He used crayon anaologies. Some people get a box of primary colors. Everything is red, blue and green. Others get 64 crayons- not just red, blue and green but salmon, cerulean and asparagus as well as dandelion and burnt sienna.

Did ya ever notice?
The people who experience life in red, blue and green, or even just black and white, think those blessed or cursed with a range of wider emotional hues are somehow the ones lacking something?

The Wounded King

Monty--the senior male cat in our household that's now full of cats (4)--has had a rough week. The vet called it a fever of unknown origin.

Mon has lived with us since 1998 when Christine saw his picture in the newspaper - one of those Pet of the Week shots from the pound. He's always seemed invincible, so it's been tough watching him suffer through an illness.

King of the Cats
In Shadowland, Peter Straub's myth-rich novel of magic and mystery, I was introduced to legend of the King of the Cats.

The core element of the story seems to suggest that the average household tabby might have a richer-than-suspected background.

To tell it briefly: A man recounts to his housemate that he witnessed a funeral procession of felines with a tiny cat coffin decorated with royal markings.

Upon hearing the news, their cat, seated on the hearth, announces: "That means I'm now king o' the cats," and shoots up the chimney to claim his post.

Fancifully, since we don't know Mon's heritage, I've always held he is a king in exile awaiting restoration of his throne. House of Orange, don't you know?

Sofa throne
In the interim my sofa fills in. Other than an occasional tussle with young upstart Oliver--which he strangely loses in spite of an age and weight advantage--he presides over everything in kingly fashion. (Speaking of tussles with welterweight Oliver, I think that may have pinpointed the fever's origin, though the vet couldn't find evidence of an abscess.)

With the fever, his eyes grew sunken; he was listless and stopped eating. It made me conscious of his mortality. At age 8 or so, I’ve expected to have him around a while, and to date the biggest challenge to that expectation has been the struggle to diet him down from door stop poundage.

When a heavy round of antibiotics didn't have an impact I started to grow worried. I was relieved the vet had tricks up his sleeve that I couldn't find on the Internet. It's a real source of gloom and doom when you Google "fever" and "cat" and get past the Ted Nugent and Pantera references. (Rest in peace Dime Bag Darrell.)

Two consecutive afternoon vet visits for I.V. treatments finally broke the fever, and he started eating again last night, though we were armed with a syringe and nutrient goop if that hadn't been the case.

It was cause for celebration. His sidekick and court jester, Ash, cut capers. Even Oliver the Usurper took a moment to lick his head.

I'm glad I didn't have to give up a friend, though I'm sure somewhere a royal feline pretender still quakes a bit.

And Mon's next-in-line of succession probably hated the news that traveled on the wind: “Long live the king.”

(Re-edited 3:30 p.m. 2/11)

Yo Joe!

I've received a lot of nice notes from G.I. Joe enthusiasts since my mention of the G.I. Joe photo stories. It's opened the door for considerable nostalgia for me and also pointed me to some really interesting sites- a. b. etc.

I've Googled G.I. Joe in the past, but it's been a while. I remember finding mainly some interesting collector sites. There's much more in the blogosphere and across the web now - tons of great picture stories, I've learned, and lots more.

A Who Slide
In my review blog, irregular reviews, I recently suggested sort of jokingly, that it would be fun to fill the wait until the new Dr. Who debutes on The Sci Fi Channel by making a personal iPod slide show using the BBC's bounty of Dr. Who images provided as mobile phone wallpaper.

It would be great as well to see some of the G.I. Joe photostories turned into slide shows ready for import into a photo or video iPod. I know I could right click images and make my own, but I'd love to find some already prepared if they're out there.

If somebody's already doing that, please point me in the direction.

If not as my Adventure Team Commander might say: "I've got a tough assigment for you."

Somebody start a Yo!dcast.

I suspect, "The Adventure Team has the situation under control."

(Pictured above are a couple of my Joes who posed for a quick digital snapshot.)

G.I. Joe stories

When I was a kid, Hasbro had a G.I. Joe club with a membership magazine and a certificate and other cool stuff related to the G.I. Joe toy series, I think even a set of dog tags.

They also encouraged you to send in pictures of your G.I. Joe adventures. I lived next to a vacant lot for a long time, so I snapped a lot of pics with the Kodak instamatic I got one Christmas.

There was a wide ditch where water tended to pool after rains, a great place to simulate a shoreline. The lot had other terrain that simulated other backgrounds. I liked to dig fox holes. My mom and dad didn't care much for that. My photos usually starred the G.I. Joe air adventurer because he had blond hair like I did in those days. I didn't have a beard then, though.

Taking it to new levels
I had no idea--though I should have imagined--that there was a G.I. Joe fan base today that had taken photo stories to a whole new level. But I discovered the intriguing levels fans are accomplishing when I listened to Podshock's latest Dr. Who podcast. (More on that here.)

Photo series creator Sean Huxter is interviewed rather extensively about his Dr. Who stories starring a Buzz Aldrin G.I. Joe against some elaborate back drops. It's really incredible what he manages.

Nerd fan stuff? Not at all if you consider that it comes from the heart, and his Remembrance featuring an old man's (Starring a Special Issue General Lee G.I. Joe) return to his Newfoundland home is truly touching.

For more interesting G.I. Joe work, visit here.

On a Cloudy Day

Cloudy Day 1,
originally uploaded by willysid.

I did not quite capture the cloud formations behind my office the way I'd hoped in this photo.

I tried several variations in composition but I don't think any quite revaled the full expanse. From the set, I like this vertical best.

A few others included a bit more of the winter trees with some streetlights still glowing and I kind of liked that.

I was proudest of myself because I had my camera handy when I drove into the parking lot yesterday, so I was able to at least take a few quick snaps.

Usually I don't slow down long enough.

And no, it was rainy but these didn't form into anything that blew our building away.

The Day the Music Died

Today is literally the day the music died: Feb. 3, 1959 was the day The Winter Dance Party came to an end with the crash of a flight that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper.

I listened to Don McClean's chronicle American Pie many times as a kid before I came to appreciate the rock-and-roll history it portrayed.

Its sad high school imagry and mentions of poets dreaming and the like appealed to me first, especially since the initial recording I made from the radio--and listened to repeatedly--was missing several early lines.

Since "American Pie" and "MacArthur Park" used to be the songs of choice for DJs needing a bathroom break because of their extended length, even missing a few lines, my tape had plenty of song left - several rounds of the chorus and many of the richest allusions.

Later
Only after many listens did I start to learn it referred to Buddy Holly and his lost companions. I had to age a little more to fully appreciate their impact and what McClean was really singing about.

My iPod On-the-Go Playlist today:

American Pie
LaBamba
Chantilly Lace
Peggy Sue

"And they were singin' bye, bye..."

A round of applause for...

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) who has been named Humane Legislator of the Year by the Humane Society of the United States for legislation he authored to help crack down on animal fighting and to stop the slaughter of American horses for consumption.

HSUS also noted:

"Sen. Ensign didn't stop with those two bills. He also co-sponsored the Pet Animal Welfare Statute, S. 1139, which will require commercial breeders who sell directly to the public to follow the basic care standards outlined in the Animal Welfare Act. What's more, he co-sponsored the Captive Primate Safety Act, S. 1509, which would prohibit the interstate and foreign commerce in nonhuman primates (chimpanzees, monkeys, lemurs, and others) for the pet trade. The senator also supported millions of dollars in increased funding for the enforcement of existing animal welfare laws."

Other House and Senate members from both parties were also recognized as Humane Champion Award winners, Legislative Leader Award winners and Humane Advocate Award Winners.

Have a look here.

For those thrown off course

I feel bad when the search engines lead people astray and they land here when they were actually looking for other things.

When I mention something I usually try to cross link so that there's a one click-destination for more information, but sometimes people get here due to keyword combinations I've never expected. So I thought I'd put together a few links to help those of you who didn't mean to be here get where you're going.

Ambassador Sidney Williams
I couldn't find a definitive biography on former Ambassador Sidney Williams, but there's a pretty good synopsis of his service at the bottom of this page. Scroll on down until you see the heading Ambassador For Bahamas. And of course you can always read about his wife, Congresswoman Maxine Waters.

Boy Named Sue Lyrics
A good source for the Johnny Cash song penned by Shel Silverstein can be found here.

Delphine LaLaurie
Learn more about her haunted New Orleans Mansion here.

The Colin Farrell/Jamie Fox Miami Vice video
Is now available on Quicktime.com

Information on Hugh Laurie
Go to the Wikipedia entry for an good overview and photographs.

Martha Stewart's Anti-fur Video

Martha Stewart is hosting and narrating one of the scariest videos I've seen in a while. Hostel and Wolf Creek have nothing on the shivers from her discussion of the fur industry.

Movie Options that Didn't Happen - The Scary Book

This was a long time ago. I'd just had a conversation with someone about how comedy and horror never mixed well, and we'd cited numerous movies that proved that fact. Then I got a call from my comics editor, Roland Mann.

"I want you to write a comedy horror comic," he said.

"Well," I said. "That's probably impossible to do well, but I'll give it a try."

It wound up being something I feel is one of my most interesting pieces. It died at one comics company, bloomed again at two others and was considered as a treatment at 20th Century Fox once upon a time.

Laugh at the devil
When I began the first outline, I decided to brew a mixture of every zany horror element I could find. The devil, usually no laughing matter, became a key figure along with is goat-horned office manager Baalberith.

In the story, due to a shipping error, the scary book of the title, fell into the wrong hands. It was a sorcery tome that really worked and was meant only for the most accomplished adepts.

Quickly, the wannabe sorcerers of the world shared it, invoking all of the demons from the pits at one time and bringing Hell itself to a standstill.

Angered by this problem, Satan ordered the hapless bookstore clerk who sold the book on the open market in the first place to get it back or face fiery retrobution. He sent a beautiful but damned soul to help him.

Proper British form
Malibu Graphics, later to be swallowed by Marvel, optioned it initially and had me script it in a British comic style with frequent cliffhangers in hopes of re-selling it abroad after its U.S. run.

Developing complications
I think we developed the complete four-issue miniseries, written by me and pencilled by Steve Willhite and inked by Dan Schaefer. Then some shakeup at Malibu killed it.

Roland felt so good about the project that he shuffled it over to Caliber, publisher of The Crow.

They put out two issues then stopped.

The Scary Book - The Graphic Novel
So Roland, not to be defeated, eventually formed a publishing arm of Silverline Comics which had previously been a packager for other publishers.

He brought out a complete-in-one-volume graphic novel version of The Scary Book.

Having worked for a while at Malibu, Roland knew quite a few people in the comics industry and he and Warren Ellis talked over a Silverline book with a title to be named later.

So flash forward to Comics-Con in San Diego: a Hollywood person stopped by Roland's table that year, caught wind of a possible Ellis property and started talking to him.

The result: 20th Century Fox asked for a list of Silverline titles and from that list they asked for a treatment of The Scary Book, which we gladly produced.

And that's about as far as it went, but it was certainly a fun and exciting experience and educational about how things happen.

I guess The Scary Book would not have been quite right for prime time or Pixar but it would have been fun to see what came about with say: Danny DeVito as the devil, Mike Myers as the hero and Jennifer Love Hewitt as his sultry sidekick (the cute one in the fedora in the sample page).

Oh well. Life goes on.

Whooo Who!

Dr. Who is coming to America, according to the BBC and The Sci Fi Channel. Looks like he'll be landing the Tardis where the Battlestar Galactica is now parked.

It seemed for a while like the new Doctor, who (:-)) I guess is already sort of the old Doctor everywhere except the U.S. , was never going to get here.

BBC has a dandy flash animation on their site of the Tardis landing on the White House Lawn and a press release that explains how the deal was struck and that Sci Fi also has an option on Dr. Who Series 2.

Once upon a time in America
Once upon a time I knew people who thought it was heresy that Harlan Ellison said in his intro to the American Who novelizations that the series was better than Star Trek. I figured it must be. What could be better than Trek.

Then, finally, I got to see a few Whos and realized how right he was. I was introduced via the Jon Pertwee incarnation on PBS in my general assignment days -- I worked nights

Though saddled with rubber suits and videotape production values, the scripts were great science fiction stories, sometimes brilliant.

And in Britian the Doctor is/was considered children's programming. I know, so are Teletubbies.

But maybe there's something we could learn from that.

Church Sign!

I opened an e-mail from my friend Wayne and was a little alarmed at first glance. It looks quite real, doesn't it? Actually, as the sign says it's from www.churchsigngenerator.com. You can put anything you want in the space, provided it doesn't have too many letters.

"House" provides Customer Service Training

Ironically, I've been assigned to find a good customer service video. I guess it's because I'm usually unhappy when I don't get good customer service. That's the reason I'm no longer a customer of my local cable company.

When I worked directly with customers once upon a time I tried to be good on that front.
I was often successful, except, you know, with people who bothered me.

Hugh Laurie teaches
In perusing titles and clips online, I ran across something that may interest House fans. Hugh Laurie appeared in a customer service series from Monty Python's John Cleese, I'm guessing in the late eighties by the size of the cordless phone he's holding in one clip.

I mention those here for the Hugh Laurie fans who occasionally get thrown off course and land on this blog because of the occasional mention since my wife is a fan. I hope the information is of value.

American viewers who've missed Laurie's guest shot in Friends or in roles such as Jeeves and Wooster will be a little surprised.

It's Bertie
He's a lot more Bertie Wooster in the clips. My favorite about internal customer service provides him a great line.

Samples seem to be all over the place, but the best I found are here. You'll also see Jennifer Saunders of Ab Fab in some scenes.

Scroll down (way down) to the John Cleese listings on this page to see clips of Hugh in several clips.

A Bit Belatedly - My Resolutions

I resolve to take my time in 2006. I'm not talking about just slowing down, smelling the roses and seeking solace in peaceful silence.

I resolve to achieve an annoying level of slow. I've tried to be nice in the past and nobody's been considerate of me in return, so things are gonna change.

• I will talk on my cell phone in the car, ignoring all others. I will cause people to miss lights while I drag under a yellow. I will bring traffic to a crawl as I babble about nothing.
  
• I will take as much time as I want at the fast food drink fountains, filling my cup slowly with ice then slowly with a drink. And then I will take plenty of time selecting an affixing a plastic lid.
• Ignoring the various opportunities to plan in advance--newspapers, phone, web--I will hover outside the theater box office deciding on the movie I want to see before purchasing a ticket while others wait.
• Ditto cafeteria lines.
• I'll be waddling in department stores and parking my buggy in front of the canned goods you want to browse at the super market.

I'll be adding to this list as the year progresses. It's no more Mr. Nice Guy.

The Intimate New Year's Dinner

The intimate New Year's dinner Christine and I had planned at an elegant little restaurant went a bit awry.

We arrived to find they were serving only their New Year's Eve couple's package, a fact they didn't mention when I made the reservation. It involved enforced appetizers, wine, desserts and more. My thought was: If I wanted to eat off the rack I'd have gone to Micky D's.

After a brief conference in which we decided we didn't care for not being able to choose what we wanted from the menu in combinations that we wanted i.e. we were planning to skip appetizers and just have dessert, we developed a plan B -- Olive Garden.

Sure it's a chain and not exactly what you think of when you think elegant little dinner spots, but they were more than happy to provide a choice and combinations we could abide.

15 minutes
We only had to wait about 15 minutes for a table, though we were a little overdressed for OG. OK, I was wearing a shirt that was a fashion risk. Everything from jeans to tie and sports coat were represented, though, so I got away with it without many glances.

It proved to be a great evening - nice waiter and good food. I used to go to an Olive Garden in Lafayette, Louisiana where they were stingy with the breadsticks.

The waiter would bring about two in a basket then disappear for an hour. That was a bit disappointing since my first experience in an Olive Garden was in San Antonio where the waiter was there every couple of minutes to check on your needs.

Even though he was busy, our waiter was attentive last night.

I had their Chicken Vino Bianco for the first time and enjoyed it. Ate everything too fast as I am wont to do of late and resolved to take things a little slower in the new year.

I've also resolved to be less snobby about chains. And to be more thankful in general.

A lot of people didn't eat at any restaurant last night. Lot of people didn't eat at all.