You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September, 2007.
so a few friends have asked why i don’t use capitalization on this blog.
mostly it is an aesthetic choice…i just prefer the way lowercase letters look…especially “i”…why should it be capitalized? it doesn’t make sense…i guess I just don’t feel that important that I should be capitalized.
also, and this is a bit renegade of me, but who made up these capitalization rules in the first place? it seems a bit arbitrary to me. i’ve never been the greatest fan of “official grammar” and “perfect sentence structure” in writing (which i suppose is obvious if you’ve been reading this blog). i like to think that things can be beautiful and well written (and well spoken) without catering to the sometimes clausterphobic rules of “the man”
lastly, i like the more casual informal look that it gives to my (or anyone’s) writing…as if you are looking in on someone’s thoughts, or a private conversation, instead of something more formal and structured.
that said, again for largely personal reasons, i’ve decided to switch over and bow down to “the man”. As of this post…and this sentence…all posts on 1979 Semi-Finalist will be done with proper capitalization. As for proper grammar? I can’t promise anything there, but I’ll do my best.
one of my all-time favorite artists (if not my absolute favorite) is James Jean. i just received this week (finally) his book Process Recess 2. it is stunning. Jean does a lot of comic book cover work for fables and many other publications…
…look familiar? but he also does a lot of ad work for places from Target to Playboy to Men’s Health and it all has one thing in common…it’s all insanely beautiful. there is something somehow haunting and creepy yet beautifully rendered about everything Jean does. i cannot recommend his work or his book enough. go here to read more about Process Recess and to buy one now! below are some other favorite images of mine by Jean…
i was excited when i heard that they were doing a re-make of The Bionic Woman…i mean you would have to actually TRY REALLY REALLY HARD to make that lame and stupid…it’s the Bionic Woman for cyring out loud. yeah. right.
these people apparently tried REALLY REALLY HARD.
i cannot believe how bad this show is. the writing is terrible and cliched and the acting is just the most wooden and flat out bad acting i have seen…well maybe not ever…but certainly in a long time. also, while i blame this mostly on the writing and the acting something has to be said for the fact that there is not one interesting character in the whole show (except the ex-bionic woman played by Katee Sackhoff) and the relationships and chemistry are respectively, totally unbelieveable and totally non-existant.
a reason that i thought it would be fun to see a retelling of the Bionic Woman is obviously because our effects technology is so much better these days, but these effects sucked. i mean they were just awful…the “super fast running” being the worst of it. i admit that i’m not a fan of CGI i think it often looks fake and out of place, but some films and television shows dealing with superpowers or “enhanced humans” have found ways to use it to their advantage (X-Men and even better – X2; Heroes mostly does an excellent job, etc.) but this was just bad decision after bad decision on the CGI.
back to the wooden acting…Michelle Ryan was absolutely the worst part of this show i’m sorry to say. the writing and story certainly wasn’t doing her any favors, but she lacked the charisma and acting chops to make it better than it was. there are many actors out there that manage to turn crap into watchable stuff because they are skilled, not so here, she was unbearable to watch, and surrounded by almost as unbearable performances. the relationship between she and her boyfriend was downright laughable.
i’m sad to say that this episode was credited to a woman writer. i suspect with all the drama and rumors related to this show she got a thousand notes and changes, so perhaps it’s not her fault, but i was originally happy to see a woman writing the show, as i thought that would help the handling of some of the larger feminist issues but sometimes i guess it just doesn’t matter.
there was this moment last night while watching Bionic Woman when i stopped making sarcastic comments and sighing loudly and thought “maybe i’m totally off base. maybe i’ve become a complete pretensious snob that can’t see the forest for the trees…maybe this is actually not bad and i just can’t tell.” then i watched a little bit of the show following it, Life, which was pretty damn good, strong acting, strong writing…and as i was watching it i realized, “no. i know exactly what i’m seeing and this show Life is a perfect example of how good television can be (in a pilot even) and The Bionic Woman is a perfect example of everything being done wrong”. it’s good to realize you’re not crazy. thank you Life for cementing that fact, and i’ll be tuning in to you Life next week – Wednesday at 10pm NBC – to see if they can keep it up. interesting stuff.
one last thing about my dissappointment in Bionic Woman. this is such a minefield for cool stuff that has deeper meanings to go on. the idea of two cyborg women, one that is making herself more machine by the day so she has to be less “woman” and one who wishes she was back to being more “woman”. the feminist issues here are interesting and the idea of the badass cyborg (that is more cyborg than our lead character) sometimes getting her ass handed to her by a cyborg that’s got more “soul” left is all interesting stuff. i can tell from this first epsiode though, they won’t begin to scratch the surface of this and if they do, they’ll screw it up. and with crappy shows like this out there, the superhero bubble will burst all the more quickly, and so interest in my “hard to market” novel will wither and die.
that’s right, in the end, it’s all about me. 
charisma-less Bionic Woman Michelle Ryan, above.
cast of nbc’s Life, above.
last christmas while home visiting my wonderful family (they sometimes read this blog – so be nice) i was subjected to this very issue that Ebert goes on about here. i can’t agree with him more. it is a sin against artists, directors, writers, actors, and the very medium to so corrupt it by viewing anything at the wrong ratio and thus changing the very way in which it was INTENDED to be viewed.
you are slapping brilliant artists in the face by ignorantly complaining that you “want to fill your screen” or that you “hate those black bars” (sorry mom and dad). the thing i really don’t get is why this doesn’t just LOOK wrong to people. i understand wishing that everything was shot at an aspect ratio that will maximize your expensive new screen, but wishing doesn’t make it so…and neither does stretching programs to inhuman and abnormal proportions.
if you genuinely don’t see the difference (or don’t think you do) i beg you to try a little test next time you’re watching something “stretched”. wait for a good scene where this abnormality will be most obvious…a scene of a character or two walking down a street together would be a great example. pause your dvr/tivo/dvd/vcr whatever (or if it’s a long enough scene just let it keep playing) and switch from the way you have been viewing it to the other options available…and see how suddenly people don’t look so chunky, stretched, and abnormal. it’s a world of difference. if you can’t see it, well i guess i just don’t know what to say, there’s no way i can help you.
sidenote: don’t try to cheat and use the “zoom” feature that many screens have available, where you fix the aspect ratio so that nothing is stretched, but then to get it to fill in your screen you zoom it so that in close ups heads are cut off or other important things. you will never know what you might be missing if you do not view things they way they were intended by creators to be seen…you could be missing everything.
so i finally got around to watching my first episode of Tell Me You Love Me last night. it was okay. i liked it, but i wasn’t blown away – it certainly was no Big Love, but it was also miles better than Entourage, so take that as you will.
my biggest problem with Tell Me was not *gasp* the sex or *double gasp* the male nudity, but the therapy sessions.
last year at this time I doubt this would have occured to me, but having been in couples therapy this past year, i have a better perspective on it. it’s not that the counseling sessions seemed fake necessarily, it’s just that Tell Me has made me understand that i don’t (and likely never will) have the kind of money these “people” have, because couples counseling is extremely expensive. so if you’re going to go in there and lie…then you’re basically flushing lots and lots of money down the drain. i was an open book in couples counseling…how else was i going to justify $600/month that i don’t have? and that’s a reduced rate!
very frustrating to watch.
that said, i’ve got the rest of the episodes tivo’d and i’ll be giving it a shot. there were some things i really liked and that were worth coming back for. one thing i’m ashamed to admit i don’t want to come back for? the old people sex. i know i know, i’m a horrible person, but that was just really difficult to watch. i applaud the creators/writers/directors for trying to tell the story of couples at all different places in their lives, and i don’t necessarily want it to stop as i think it’s the right thing to do, just know that i will be fast forwarding through all those scenes.
these two people (foreground) didn’t say one true thing in their whole therapy session…which is like tearing up $200 and sprinkling it on your breakfast cereal and eating every last bitter bite.
go now and read this great short fiction piece about time travel called Troubleshooting Guide for TimeCorp’s VH3928-Model Time Machine today by Jonathan Baude & J. Alex Boyd on the McSweeney’s site…it’s hilarious. definitely worth the read, especially if you’re a fan of the idea of time travel and the all the crazy nonsense that must come with it.
there is also this completely awesome selection of very short fiction pieces by three authors (Eggers, Manguso, and Olin Unferth), as a promo for their book called One Hundred And Forty-Five Stories In a Small Box. number 49 by Sarah Manguso, which you can read here, is a measly 73 words, and completely blew my mind. i love it when someone can blow my mind in only 73 words. i’ll be picking up this book as soon as humanly possible.
you should too.
overall a very disappointing start. i’ll give the show a pass as you could see how much trouble they were having getting viewers caught up with such a large cast of characters (Niki, Michah, & D.L. were blissfully absent – the biggest upside of the whole episode).
[spoilers]
we got a few interesting threads to start us on our path (e.g. the mysterious killer of Hiro’s father) good stuff, and the last 10 minutes was pretty compelling, but overall there were too many chessy saccharine speeches and repetitive bits (if i had to hear Hiro say that Kensei was “supposed to be a hero” one more time i was going to pull my hair out). and the sad thing about that whole bit was that having Kensei the mythic Japanese legend turn out to be a white guy (and very much not a hero) was pretty funny, but everything that was interesting about that was worn away after seeing the same conversation between Kensei and Hiro twenty times.
the good: my boy Nathan Petrelli is back and with a badass grizzly beard – and what was up with his burned off face in his reflection in the mirror? one of the coolest things we saw all episode…can’t wait to see more of what is up with that – also cool was Nathan ripping his mother a well deserved new one. my boy Peter Petrelli is obviously not dead (as we all knew) and we finally got a peek at him at the end of the episode, with nice shorn off locks. I’m not a fan of amnesia as a plot device, but they’ve made Peter so powerful that i guess they will have to keep thinking of ways to hold him back…this season it will be amnesia i guess. my boy Parkman back in fighting form and seeming less whiny than before. my boy Suresh being smart (finally).
the bad: the saccharine sweet and too long awkward speeches by various characters (most notably HG…say it ain’t so). the cheesy over the top stuff e.g. dialogue between Claire and her new teen “love interest”; almost every word out of Molly’s mouth; HG’s “kinko’s” boss…played for laughs, but it was just….uncomfortable; and as mentioned before the repetitive speeches with Hiro and Kensei.
the ugly: what is Claire made of glass? why on earth would she suffer such a horrible break from a simple back tuck. i mean, i would probably suffer that break, but Claire? i don’t buy it, a weak device to get us to see her powers…i liked the scene overall the idea of highschool as the horror show we know it is and Claire being forced to hide her true awesome self was all good, but the scene would have played better if she had just done the back tuck and been fine…no reason for the badass leg break; also ugly were the horrendous accents and bad acting on our “Irish” guys in the final scenes…ugh what a horrible note to end on.
as a first episode i give this a: C-
if this had been the first look i’d ever gotten at Heroes i never would have come back for more. fortunately i know they can do better, so i’ll come back. maybe since my expectations are now down around my ankles i won’t have to worry about them “living up to anything” anymore…see…i can be a glass half full kind of person – i swear!
my officemate Gordon sent me this pretty cool music video (i never see music videos these days unless someone alerts me to one…no time!) by The Brunettes. the music is not necessarily my style, but the video, a combination of awesome comic book features and marionettes, is completely great.
it reminded me a lot of a video my good friend (and amazing artist) Rebecca Hahn did a couple years ago for a song called Stay.
i’m happy to report that someone found this blog with the search terms “BRETT RATNER HACK” (and all in caps). it’s good to know that other people have put these words together and are actively seeking out further information. go world!
here is a quick list of Ratner’s unforgivable directing sins against the people of the world (and is it any coincidence his last name has the word RAT in it? i think not:
Rush Hour, The Family Man, Rush Hour 2, Red Dragon, X-Men: The Last Stand (for this i could kill the man); and let’s not forget Rush Hour 3 (whoo-hooo!).
i mean are you kidding me? how is it this guy gets hired for anything? this is your list of credits? i gracefully left off Money Talks and After the Sunset as i have not seen enough of either to judge – but i’m confident they suck as well. how does one even go about destorying franchises already so carefully built? well okay, only one franchise, but whatever.
sidenote: as karmic payback for my HACK posts, when my book is no doubt optioned by hollywood someday (blessing or curse?) i’m sure Brett Ratner will direct my precious baby into Rush Hour 3 ridiculousness…oy.
Heroes season premiere is tonight (9pm on NBC)…also it’s my brother’s birthday (happy birthday Scott!).
i’m sure i will have many thoughts about the season premiere tomorrow, so feel free to check in and see.
my pre-viewing Heroes thoughts pretty much boil down to excitement and apprehension. the excitment bit is obvious i suppose, the apprehension comes from a general concern that the show cannot likely live up to the high bar it set for itself in the first season. in the tradition of shows that start off and kind of blow your mind right off the bat and then can’t live up to the standards they’ve set for themselves (first season of any of the following could apply: Alias; Lost; CSI; Grey’s Anatomy; and according to my officemates Desperate Housewives and The O.C. – which i have never seen – and would never admit to seeing). there are a lot of shows out there that just can’t follow up their first act…i hope Heroes will not be one of them.
also, while overall i loved the show and thought they did a good job, there were occasional serious mis-steps. the kind of dialogue or plot points (or deus ex machina) that i feel are warning signs in a show…of bad things to come. let’s hope it’s not true here.
below is a link to a teaser (posted on myspace last week). Also, if you feel like freshening up on how the season ended you can watch the finale here. if that’s not enough for you there are literally dozens of bits on you tube if you search for Heroes Premiere…from ads to 7 minute clips.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=18301677
character i most hope will fall on a blade (and not be able to survive): Ali Larter’s Niki Sanders. i’m so very sick of her and all her whining.
character i most hope will return in a blaze (or no blaze) of glory: Christopher Eccleston’s Claude and my beloved Nathan Petrelli.
Less than 5 days after posting the Daniel Clowes NY Times Weekly Strip on my blog, I came across this blurb on Vulture about this article.
What is the world coming to? How did Americans…a people that should be like the revolutionary teenagers of the universe (making idiot rookie mistakes but being young and confident and full of ideas about change and pushing limits) become the fucking scared conservative old woman of the world? When did this happen? WHY?
Yesterday it is cover stories about genital cutting and today it is about censorship in schools, it’s too much. If the father of this girl (who is a complete ass) would read a book once in a while maybe they would realize that their daughter is actually better off being challenged by teachers that don’t have blinders on.
I have read the book in question and while I will concede that it is debatable as to whether it is definitely appropriate for a 14 year old (it really depends on the 14 year old I suspect) I can also say in no uncertain terms that I WISH I had been given something like this by a teacher. Something that actually was outside the box. Something that made me think and/or feel. One of the mother’s complaints is that the teacher asked the student “how does this make you feel?” she said it like that was an inappropriate (read: pornographic) question for a teacher to ask a student…are we really no longer even allowed to FEEL? Is it wrong to read something that causes you to feel something more than the crappy television shows that just wash right over you? Is it a crime to challenge a student to not just do the assignment but to be challenged to answer tough questions about it? I just can’t believe this. If I had been given things like this when I was kid, maybe I would have learned something about life and what else was out there much sooner…as is, I feel like I had to hunt down every single thing I have learned…if ONLY someone could have handed me something that would have challenged me…think what I could have been.
I’m so disappointed in this planet and especially my backwards fucking nation. Stop the planet, I’d like to get off please.
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/09/daniel_clowes_pornographer.html
to lighten the mood after the genital cutting post, here is a quote from one of my favorite comedians, Jim Gaffigan. i lifted the quote from the Vulture Blog, and they lifted it from EW…
“I’ve been outside. It’s not that great. Outdoor activities always tend to interrupt my napping and watching of Law & Order marathons.” —Jim Gaffigan on why he’s glad summer is over [EW]
sidenote: i may actually BE Jim Gaffigan
i’ve been debating all day whether to write about this article i read in the New York Times today or not. i guess i decided to write about it. but i still feel conflicted.
here’s the problem, i’m a smart girl, i’m no genius but smart enough most days and while i’m more informed about worldly events than the average American (and apparently more educated considering i can point to not only North America but several other continents – not to mention actual countries too – on a map) i have been doing a piss poor job of keeping involved in current events, politics, world issues, etc. i get my news mostly from the internet, clicking on stories that interest me. i don’t regularly read any newspapers and i refuse to watch American news reports which we all know are really entertaiment news programs anyway. as such i feel like my information is a bit limited and part of this is deliberate. like many educated people i suffer from a strong desire to know these things and be involved, but also like many people i feel overwhelmed quickly. i can only read about a war that i have no interest in (and if it were up to me we would not have ever gotten involved in) so many times before i give up in frustration.
i think it’s a combination of things, but mostly there are not enough hours in the day for me to work my job, submit (and write) short fiction, submit my novel, re-write my novel, re-draw and re-tool my graphic novel, work out (which always seems to get lost in the shuffle), engage in my relationship, and also both care about and do something about things like female genital mutilation in Egypt (or anywhere else for that matter). so all i end up feeling is frustration.
on one hand it is my choice to not do anything about it, to instead focus my energy on becoming a “successful” writer. on the other hand if people like me don’t care (there seem to be so few of us out there) then who will do anything? *sigh* it’s depressing. in my mind there is always going to be ample time to care about such things when i quit my full time job and become a “full time writer” because then i will have all this magical free time that used to be used up on writing…but we all know that is a myth. there will never be any extra time. maybe this is why i get mad when people tell me they are bored. please, give me your extra time that you have to be bored, because there are plenty of things i’d like to do with your “i’m bored” time.
okay, enough of the rant. please read the article below, and if you’re a better person than me (i hope you are) consider getting involved. there must be something that can be done.
these men are cowards. they are afraid of change and more importantly they are afraid of the power of women. they hide behind religion because it is hard to attack religion without being called all sorts of things, but what they are too cowardly to realize is that they are hiding behind man’s interpretation of God’s word and man gets things wrong all the time, this is no exception.
and speaking of getting things wrong…how is female genital mutilation the same as circumcision? it’s not female circumcision it is female castration.
it is female castration and it has to stop.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/20/world/africa/20girls.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin
this is a picture from the NY Times article of some of the men who defend the tradition of genital cutting with the words, “we support circumcision!” you are cowards. you are all cowards.
the first 14 minutes of the Bionic Woman have been posted online, click below to watch, but be warned, you will probably want to claw your eyes out, even if there are no bionic eyes with which to replace them. it is a pretty horrible 14 minutes. i don’t know how hard you have to try to write something this terrible. and it’s a real feat to get actors that are equally as terrible as the writing. whoo-hoo! the only bright spot seems to be Katee Sackhoff, but even that stuff is stiff and frustratingly stupid.
i promised myself i would sit through the hour long premiere…boy do i hate it when i promise myself stuff. yuck.
http://video.aol.com/video/tv-bionic-woman-2-acts/1970902
check out the cast shot below, how do you make even a simple cast shot look lame? the show is called the bionic woman for chrissake…i mean you actually have to work hard to make that boring…congrats guys.
UPDATE: looks like they have pulled the first 14 minutes of the net (could it be because it sucks?)…the link above no longer works and i can’t find a duplicate that is the same as the one i originally posted. interestingly enough there was an older 4 minute trailer on youtube that had very similar scenes but with a different “sister character” (pictured above actually) who is deaf (like in the original Bionic Woman). i think it’s a mistake that they changed this direction, at least it would have given something unique to the show. also, it’s annoying that they went with the “cuter, slimer, bitchier and more annoying” actress that is also not deaf as the sister. not that i’m shocked. it sounds about par for the course.
this show just keeps getting better and better. the last two episodes have been spot on and i can feel it just arcing it’s way into an intense closure. i can’t wait to see how the writers are going to wrap all this up, it’s all coming together beautifully…
if you haven’t been watching this show, it may be too late to join now (unless they do another marathon) you should definitely try to catch it on the flipside though (netflix, repeats, whatever)…it is wholly worth the tv time, well at least it is right now with Katie blissfully absent…
so i thought about spending all this time prefacing the strip, saying how this is not the style i hope this strip will turn into, that i am still experimenting with brush pens since my inking is so shitty in this one, that i would prefer to use a standard three panel strip but that more often than not my “gags” need more flexibility than that, that i have been sketching a lot to try to bring my drawing level back to what it was three years ago (which was still not great), that the only thing i draw worse than drawing myself is a big perspective shot, that i’ve always been and always will be a better writer than an artist – so hopefully the writing gags will rescue the pitiful art…whatever…it’s all just bs. here’s the strip and we’ll see what comes of it. enjoy – and thanks for reading. as always, your feedback is welcome…unless it’s about the shape of Adam’s head (Josh that means you!)
ps – i was trying to think of a good name for this strip, but everything i came up with was incredibly cheesy…so suggestions are welcome. if someone actually comes up with a great title that i can use maybe they could win a crappy original sketch…signed by yours truly…
the formatting of this blog is not great for comics as the column is too thin. i’m going to have to consider changing my format if comics are going to continue to be at the forefront on this blog. in the meantime, you need to click the thumbnail below to get a readable version.
you know who i really dislike, despite the fact that i have never met her and cannot give you one good reason for disliking her, except for the fact that i think she’s a shitty actress? that’s right, Sean Young.
i can’t put my finger on it, but she annoys the hell out of me, to a really insane degree. anyway, for some reason, despite the fact that she’s sort of a has been/never was, Entertainment Weekly is doing a cover story on her (why? i don’t know…i don’t ask these questions anymore…mostly because nobody answers me). so i am kind of loathe to give her the free press of my dozens and dozens of readers (that’s you!) but i posted the link to the full story below.
she’s so pathetic in the interview that i actual started to feel a little sorry for her, but then she just continued being whiny and annoying and fake and psycho and comparing herself to Julia Roberts (are you kidding?) and saying she has at least as much charisma as George Clooney (are you KIDDING?!) and so my ’sorry feelings’ evaporated like fine mist and i just went back to hating her again. this is one of those few times that Hollywood seems to agree with me and has forcibly kept her on the sidelines…it feels good when a powerhouse like Hollywood finally agrees with you. it feels like delicious satisfaction and let me tell you, i could get used to it.
as a sidenote, i’ve been compiling a list…you know how i love lists dear reader…of the “10 Most Overrated Actresses”…Sean Young would be #1 on it, but since she isn’t really “highly rated” i guess she’ll just have to get an honorable mention, as only women who are actually getting good roles in Hollywood (for no reasons understood by mankind…or, well, me.) should be on the list. anyway, here’s a link to the full story, in which you can feel writer Karen Valby’s palpable disdain for her, you can feel Valby trying to like her and Young just cutting her off at every pass:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20056516,00.html
ps – no picture of Sean Young because i hate looking at her (even though she says “humor and beauty are two things that come naturally to her” yuck – i just threw up a little bit) and i don’t want her image posted on my blog…ever. it was painful enough to write her name and link to a story…
UPDATE: this is not a “cover story” in Entertainment Weekly, it is just “a regular story”…the cover i saw in the current article (but didn’t bother to read the caption on) was a cover story they did on her back in 1992…she didn’t warrant a cover story back then to my mind either, but at least she could have been considered “entertainment news” back then. sorry for the error!
Adam and i were very excited to learn that The New York Times would be running a weekly strip from Dan Clowes (awesome!). it was almost enough to get us to subscribe to the Times. unfortunately we are not only on a tight budget these days, but with a fourth floor walk up, the odds of the Times actually sitting there waiting for us when we woke up in the morning are like 10 to 1, so we’re going to hold off until we’re in a more Times delivery friendly building. Adam’s wonderful co-worker Reina however pulled the strip for Adam and he scanned it for me, and now i bring it to you as the comic of the week…!
of course my weekly strip (i’m not even going to address the fact that i haven’t posted my premiere stip yet) will NEVER be this good, let alone in color, but everyone should get to see Clowes beautiful work, so here it is (click the image to see it larger – and more “readable”).
thank you Reina!
i’ve been reading girl-wonder.org off an on for the last month or so and generally enjoy what she has to say over there, but never have i agreed with her more than in her post of September 9th 2007. check it out if you find yourself interseted in comics, feminism, or better yet, both.
