My flash story Courtney, Reanimated has just been published on the MicroHorror site. Striving for a mix of atmosphere and action here, with a little bit of character as well. I hope it succeeds.
Iron Man 2
I went to see Iron Man 2 last night and I would say that it’s mixed and fragmented. Some moments are superb, others lackluster. The action didn’t live up to my expectations, there were too many baddies and the story seemed to drift around without real urgency (perhaps a bit too much set up for an Avengers movie?). I guess I like my action flicks simple – one big threat, escalating danger and lots of stuff blowing up. When I start noticing continuity glitches (the angle of the box of strawberries on the table) then I know I’m not fully engaged.
The highlights, however, were anytime Robert Downey Jr and Gwyneth Paltrow were on screen together – the dialogue is busy and natural, their characters so real and fluid: those scenes alone made the movie worth seeing.
Certainly some of the effects are extraordinary, but given that just about anything can be done digitally now I guess I’m getting harder to amaze. I went with a mate, who loved it, says it’s better than the first, so it’s all just opinion anyway.
Date Night – maybe not
No writing for reading post this week – my reading is just going way too slow and I’ve been hard at work on a 5000 word story with a deadline of tomorrow, and trying to do that review.
We thought about going to Date Night – should be a good date movie right? I think Steve Carrell and Tina Fey are both amazing. But then I read that it’s their performances that save mediocre material. Uh-oh. Then I saw that the director also directed Night at The Museum. Now that’s one of the few movies I’ve stopped watching, and fairly early on at that. Usually I can stand almost any old dross, but Night at The Museum just didn’t work for me at any level. I’m perhaps the only one, since it made a ton of money, enough apparently to justify a sequel. Anyhooo, I’ll save my $14.50 and maybe check out Date Night on DVD in six months.
The Neuron Thieves – story in The New Flesh Magazine
My quirky flash story The Neuron Thieves has just been published in The New Flesh Magazine. This is an odd piece, in a world that takes a lot of filling in from the reader – I can see it in my head, but lots is still grey. I wonder what others will make of it. How big is the building, how long is the pipe, what’s the world like outside of the pipe? Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
Savvas Ysatis and Taylor Deupree – The Sleeping Morning
I listened to The Sleeping Morning, a 21 minute ep, last night while I edited a new story. Two of the four tracks include vocals, which is a bit different to the usual stuff from 12k, and different to what I’d normally write to, but it works. The tracks are quite distinct, minimal and controlled. Ysatis and Deupree have worked together a lot over the last decade or so, with some long gaps – this came out after quite a long gap (many years), and they have worked again more recently on another piece – hourglass – which is available on vinyl, but also (as with Sleeping Morning) as a download through itunes. Definitely worth checking out.
To double feature or not.
Sometimes it works, sometimes not so much. So I watched Alien versus Predator, which, although a bit light and breezy (and filled with factual inconsistencies) still has some cool elements. Then, right after that I watched Aliens versus Predator Requiem.
Hmmm. So AVPR has its problems, but does have some cool elements too – I do like the dark forest with face-huggers. I’m not sure that it works so well as part two of a double feature. Maybe I should just watch it stand-alone with the commentary.
Another time I watched Pitch Black – one of my favourite low-budget movies. Again it has some problems and some logical inconsistencies, but it’s fun for what it is. Then I watched The Chronicles of Riddick. Hmmm, again. Riddick has its problems and its cool elements (I like the opening chase, with the bearded Diesel, and some of the prison scenes), but as a double with Pitch Black, I can’t recommend it.
What would I recommend? We stayed home to watch Stone of Destiny followed by Moon. Both intense, character studies, but wildly different – different enough that it’s easy to stay engaged. Another time, last year, I think, we saw The Hangover, followed by Inglourious Basterds. We had meant to see Bruno, but had misread the movie schedule, but had organised the time, so chose The Hangover – probably enjoyed it more since we had low expectations and it was better than those. When we got around to seeing Bruno, didn’t like it as much. Hmm. Anyway, back to that combo – Hangover then Tarantino – certainly no boredom, both such different movies, and both above average (though I struggle with Tarantino at any time … though he did do the Grindhouse thing, which I never saw). I wonder how that mixing up would work though for movies I’ve seen before and want to revist on DVD? I guess I’ll try it sometime – Bull Durham and AVPR, or Pitch Black and Wedding Crashers. Or maybe not.
Missoula Night Hikes – new werewolf story on Flashes In The Dark
My story Missoula Night Hikes has been published at Flashes In the Dark as part of Lori’s lycanthropy contest. Missoula is my hometown’s sister city, but we don’t have wolves here and they figure in the story (well, wolves aren’t really around Missoula so much, but they might wander down from that other country north of the US whose name escapes me). It was fun to write, trying to build tension and hint at werewolves. There are some awesome entries in the contest, all definitely worth checking out.
Diving into the Wreck, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Thursday, reading for writing post, and I find I’m torn and distracted. Another review book arrived over the weekend, but I’d already started Diving into the Wreck and I tried to put it aside, but it’s too compelling and the review book is, well, less-so. My compromise at the moment is 50-50, so I’m progressing through both slowly, brakes on for Wreck, pushing through the other (which is by an established, prize-winning, well-regarded literary writer, but a bit too conceptual).
So I’m still only halfway into Diving into the Wreck, but it’s too clever and well-constructed already so I just have to blog about it. It does have an intriguing structural element that I’m not sure will resolve – the first third feels like a separate adventure to the next part. Certainly it is setting up what is to come, and did leave me wanting more, but the ideas and characters are engaging, intriguing and deftly handled.
Rusch’s reputation in the field is huge, and, yay, she has sold a new book in the same universe, which should be out next year.
Friday update: okay, can’t stop reading this – really this just cements advice that you shouldn’t try to read two books at once, alternating is too confusing. I finished part two, and of course, consummate novelist that she is, it does link back to part one, much better than I’d expected.
Saturday update: well, I’m nearly finished Wreck and it does make sense. Sure the structure felt odd (and I’m sure would still even if I hadn’t been tried multi-booking), but it fits and fits well. I’ll probably finish it tonight, then return to the review book. I like deadlines (gotta have this review in by May 5th), but perhaps get a little hung up on them – there’s plenty of time to finish Wreck, read the other and write the review. I’ve already been researching the author (which is fine, non-fiction biography is a different kind of reading) and have drafted some of what I’ll write in the review anyway.
Sunday update: okay finished now, it all makes sense, it all works well, actually better than I had expected and it’s great: I really have to recommend this book. Now, on with the review.
Suspension
In a brief moment I had to spare (well 98 minutes), I watched Suspension, an indie film with a cool concept – that time can be stopped by an individual, and the world manipulated while the rest of us are in suspension. It was hard to identify with the main character, sure he’d lost his family in a wreck, but he became creepy and scary. It was cool, plotwise, to think that there were alternatives the writers could have taken, but didn’t – not that it’s bad, just at times it didn’t quite gel for me. The end, though, brought it home well. I think it’s cool to see low-budget indie films like this from time to time since the hollywoodmachinery hasn’t cloyed it into romcom banality. And, surprisingly, the production values were excellent – those moments of stopped time kept me wondering “how did they do that?”: enough that I watched “the making of” (oops, so that’s more than 98 minutes of my life gone).
Michael Tanner – Selection
Fluid Radio is hosting a four track, forty-five minute mix of some of Michael Tanner’s fairly unreleased tracks. I didn’t really know Tanner’s work before this – there’s plenty of information about his bands and musical history at the Fluid Radio site there. What I enjoy about the selection is how unhurried it is, slow delicate builds of guitar and piano over some lovely soundscape washes – absolutely fantastic to write too: so moody and haunting.
Each of the tracks is already a mix of other tracks, so it’s intriguing:
1. A Pelagic Recital – Dawn reflects in the East
2. Bridegroom of Snow – Solicitude
3. Summerhouse – The rest I leave to the poor
4. Gloaming – Sirens
Triple V Publishing 