One of my favorite work projects in awhile is the “Save Our City” promotion for 105.7 the Point and Shapiro Metal Supply. I’d been looking for a creative project for our video team that would break away a bit from the usual documentary style of our productions.

Shapiro didn’t lend itself easily to typical promo ideas outside of your basic radio spots. What can you do to make a metal supply yard exciting for a male 18-34 demographic?

Being a lifelong fan of sci-fi and cartoons, the first thing that came to mind was the construction of a giant robot, Asian b-movie style. And why would you need a giant robot? Why, to stave off the attack of a giant monster!

I proposed a pretty crazy promotion, led by an in-house created video (see YouTube video above) shot to look like an amalgam of 50′s sci-fi noir and Sin City style green-screening. The client loved the idea – turns out they have a nice niche business selling scrap and parts to guys building Battle Bots. There was a thematic fit, and we were off and rolling.

The video was shot in a make-shift studio with green screen fabric drops. Documentary portion was shot on location. Filmed on DV tape in 1080i HD, edited in Final Cut Pro. Key Art backgrounds designed in Photoshop.

Special thanks to my co-conspirator Nathan, who really busted his hindquarters on the editing and learning the chroma-key and desaturation techniques on the fly for this project.

• Written, Designed and Directed by Adron Buske (me)
• Videography, Motion Graphics and Editing by Nathan Cowen
• Narrators: Ed Brown and Drew Patterson
• Costumes and Props courtesy of Jason Heeren and Lisa Foiles
• Featuring: Sammy Caputa, Ashley Elzinga, Katie Sorensen, Nathan Cowen, Patrick and myself

Click here for the promotion page on the 105.7 the Point’s website.

I started my 2010 movie year right, with a big screen viewing of Up in the Air, starring George Clooney, Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga. I expect a lot out of director Jason Reitman, seeing as his other two films (Juno and Thank You For Smoking) are in my top twenty favorites from the last 5 years. Mister Reitman delivers here, with a quiet, subtle and engaging little movie. Clooney is, as always, charming, disarming and deft at understated comedy. I was not familiar with Farmiga previous to this film, but her gorgeous eyes and confident sensuality make perfect chemistry with Clooney.

I think the biggest takeaway here is Kendrick, a young actress largely known for a supporting role in the Twilight films. Though diminutive and severely attired, her upstart businesswoman brims over with a mix of perceptive intelligence and naïve personal inexperience. She is Clooney’s real foil, a challenging opposite who is, in many ways, as empty of true personal fulfillment as the isolated traveler.

Kendrick’s portrayal, a poised go-getter on the verge of achievement destabilized by deeper experience, presents that perfect audience challenge – the person you’d likely despise in real life made appealing, developed into someone you want to root for. Prim and stoic or shaken with an embarrassing, hysterical fit, Kendrick glues her scenes together with impressive gravity. She’ll be one to watch**, certainly.

Shot largely in St. Louis, there were a few times where I lost the moment because I recognized locales. In particular, the hotel for the Wisconsin wedding is the Cheshire Lodge, a quaint and cozy little inn I’ve done web promotions for and stopped in for a few drinks. It was cool, though, to hear our Lambert airfield get some loving respect in Clooney’s dialogue.

Up in the Air is likely going to join my list of favorite films – at every point I was enjoying myself, completely taken in by the direction, the cinematography, acting and soundtrack. It fits well on my keeper shelf beside Lost in Translation (which I think of as my favorite film, along with the combined might of the Lord of the Rings trilogy).

* Jason Bateman and J.K. Simmons, both stars of the lamentable Extract, pull smaller – but stronger – roles in Up in the Air. Simmons in particular provides for an emotional scene. I love this guy, seriously. I wish he were my neighbor so we could sit on a back porch somewhere, drink beer and talk amiably about nothing in particular.

** You can follow Anna on Twitter (though she hasn’t posted in awhile) as @AnnaKendrick47. As if she needed to be more endearing, this is her self-description: “Pale, awkward and very very small. Form an orderly queue, gents.”

It’s been some time since I’ve written here. As you may or may not know, I lost my mother at the end of October. It was very unexpected, and the single most difficult and damaging experience of my life. You expect a trauma like that to affect you, but I think ‘how’ is always the big surprise. My family and I are healing, and I appreciate all the help we received during this trying time – particularly from The Armada who, as always, stood by me and propped me up when the weight of it all threatened to overwhelm. I love you all. And no words can describe the unimaginable support provided by my wife and best friend, Wendy. She understands what I’m going through all too well, and it has been her unenviable task of picking up my pieces and gluing them back together when I am struck by the need to fall apart. I hope you all can be so fortunate to have somebody in your life with the capacity to love and give that she possesses.

As for my mom – I love her and miss her, always. Sometimes the ache of it all sets in without warning, waves of sadness and surreality crashing against my weary mind. If you discover me to be a bit odd now and then, please excuse – the carrier pigeons that pass for my neural impulses are slow to deliver to all the dusty corners of my brain. When they finally arrive, I get to experience it all again anew, and apparently each uncharted faction of the mind requires its own slightly personalized method of dealing.

However, this is not a blog about all of that.

I’d like this to be the beginning of a weekly entry – I’m not so thick as to think I’ll always been consistent, but I imagine it’s a worthy goal – especially because I wish no structure on it at all. Just a random collection of my thoughts on the things I encounter day to day. So, that said…

I WATCHED “WAITRESS” TONIGHT. It’s a little film about little people with complex, tangled relationships and one woman’s effort to escape a dead end life. It features Keri Russell (remember “Felicity”?) in an impressive, nuanced performance, and Nathan Fillian (Captain Mal in our beloved “Firefly”) as her awkward, sweet OBGYN and extra-marital love interest. Also contains a splendid turn from Andy Griffith. Sadly, the quirky, talented writer/director (and supporting cast member) Adrienne Shelly never got to see her film debut – she fell victim to an absolutely irrational act of violence, murdered by a construction worker in the building where she kept her office. “Waitress” is a testament to her filmmaking vision, a unique understanding of personal drama, friendship and the gravity of our decisions. It’s funny, sad and insightful, and you should go rent it.

I READ “THE BLADE ITSELF” BY JOE ABERCROMBIE. This is a hard book to describe succinctly, because it doesn’t have an obvious plot. Instead, it follows three very different characters as the threads of their lives are woven together against the backdrop of vivid and brutal fantasy world. Abercrombie’s startlingly good debut novel is packed in turns with exceptional characterizations and visceral, engaging action scenes. He finds a voice quite apart from most fantasy fair, in turns frank and funny and vulgar. Inspector Glokta and Logen Nine-Fingers are two of the most fascinating fantasy characters I’ve encountered in years, and I most eagerly await the sequel (set to land on American shores in February, I think). Get thee to a bookstore.

I MET WRITER/DIRECTOR JAMES GUNN. First, outside of the radio station, where I quickly introduced myself (with the obligatory “I’m a big fan” AND “we’re friends on MySpace”). Later, Cory, Big T and I spoke with him after a Q&A session at the St. Louis Movie Festival. Both times he was very gracious and easy to speak with. And he was hella funny during the Q&A – the man is a silly bitch. Not surprising from the fellow who wrote/directed “Slither” (starring the aforementioned Nathan Fillian as ‘Bill Pardy’).

I SAW “THE MIST” IN THE THEATER. 95% awesome, but that last 5% was such a kick in the privates that it made me hate the film. The director and I will have words some day, oh yes. Skip the last 3 minutes and it’s a pretty good flick.

ALSO SAW “BEOWULF” AT THE CINE, IN 3D. I felt bad that I missed Neil Gaiman’s “Stardust” in theaters, so I hastened to “Beowulf”. It’s impressively animated, but at times poorly directed or edited – it loses its flow frequently, with long, boring moments creating an awkward canter between some really thrilling action sequences. The dragon battle near the end is particularly badass. Angelina Jolie’s digital presence in the film is distracting, and the fact that her computer-rendered face looks absolutely identical to the real life version and yet is still sort of disturbing only suggests that she borders on inhuman. If you love CGI or sword-n-sorcery tales, give it a go. But it can wait for dvd – the 3d is neat, but I don’t think it will lose much without it.

THE UNRATED, UNCUT OF “TALLEDEGA NIGHTS” SUCKS. Seriously, get the theatrical version – the director’s cut ruins the comedic timing of the entire movie. They say 13 minutes were put back in, but it feels like an extra 2 hours. “The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” works as a concise piece of pop silliness, but fails when the editor becomes indulgent. And you’ll hear the phrase ‘Shake and Bake’ way more than is really tolerable.

THE FIRST EPISODE OF THE “TERMINATOR” TV SERIES ROCKS. I was fortunate enough to land a screener of the upcoming “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” pilot from Fox. I didn’t have high hopes for this, but Summer Glau (River on “Firefly”) co-stars as a new take on the protective Terminator, and that was enough to get me in the door. The show follows roughly after T2, with some time lapse. And it rocked – totally captured the feel of T2’s ominous paranoia and machine-blunt action. T, Cory and I re-entered this world with severe doubts and left genuinely jazzed up. Debuts in January, and I think a fair amount of it was finished before the writer’s strike, so yay for non-rerun TV!

I JOINED A COMIC BOOK CREATOR CLUB. My new dorky haunt, Twilight Comics in Shiloh (in the Green Mount shopping plaza near Target) is hosting a bi-weekly gathering of writers, artists and assorted other creative types interested in making comics. Despite the crappy weather, the first meeting was well attended and tons of fun. It was compelling to converse with a handful of other guys entrenched in the craft of sequential art storytelling. The group was heavy on writers in this first go ‘round, but there was an artist there whose portfolio and work ethic were extremely impressive. The second meeting is this coming Thursday. We’ve been charged with creating something new for each week, pages of script or art, at least a little something creative to share with the group. I’ve not had a very productive couple of weeks, but I’m hoping to complete a six page rough draft of a script for one of my comic properties.

A HANDFUL OF OTHER THINGS:

I’m reading “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Joss Whedon’s Season 8”, DC’s “Booster Gold” and My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way’s “Umbrella Academy” comics. Good stuff all around. After 7 years, though, I’m losing interesting Brian Michael Bendis’ “Powers”. I think I’m only still getting it out of habit.

I received the “His Dark Materials” trilogy as an early Christmas present, which I’m excited about. Also got the first volume of “Preacher”, which I read on the job at Fantasy Shop years ago. It was a fun re-read – a little rough around the edges, but sets up the inspired insanity of the rest of the series.

I’m 3/5 of the way through “The Spiderwick Chronicles”. It’s pretty decent kid’s fare, really one book split into a 5 volume serial – presumably to make more money by releasing them as $10 mini-hardcovers. The reading leans a bit thin as it often relies on the accompanying illustrations to describe the people, creatures and locales. My favorite element so far is, of the three sibling protagonists, one is singled out as our main touch point, while his twin takes a backseat. I think that’s a fairly unique way to portray twins in fiction.

My friend Roi’s band, The Material, made it all the way to second place in a big MTV2 contest. They performed at the competition finale in Times Square. It’s a big deal for these guys, a real break that is creating some exciting opportunities. Roi’s been pursuing music as a career for the better part of 15 years, so I’m really excited for him. (Some of you may remember him as the guitarist from Cory’s old band, Cope.) The Material has a nice hard melodic rock sound with a female vocalist. Strangely, I’d been following the band for almost a year on MySpace before Roi moved west and eventually joined up with them. Find them and show them some love.

Jimmy Eat World’s new record is pretty awesome, especially the first single “Big Casino”.

Another band to check out is In This Moment – met them the other day. Nice folks, solid performers, and the lead guitarist is sorta like a dreadlocked, metal version of Seth Rogen.

It’s now 12:30 and I have physical therapy in the morning. Yay for cracking and stretching and putting my body back into some semblance of alignment.

All my love,
adron

I used to hate Hugh Grant in every movie he appeared in. Then he was a part of the fabulous ensemble cast of ‘Love Actually’ and his suckage rating went way down. Today we saw him with Drew Barrymore in ‘Music and Lyrics’, which was a helluva lot of fun. Drew is as cute as I’ve ever seen her (and that’s pretty darn cute) and Grant’s character is likable, funny and altogether someone you’d be pleased to know. It’s a light movie with a ton of laughs and personalities you actually believe in and want to root for. Check it out.

New Hotness

We got the new hotness in a work. About 8 months back I put in a request for phatty-boom-blatty HD camera and editing system, with little hope of it happening. Found out right before we left for NYC that we got it. Received all the pieces and set it up on Friday. We’re talking tricked out Mac Pro system with a freakin’ huge monitor, a really nice video camera and the Final Cut Pro editing suite. It’s all so sexy!

I’ve never gotten around to really blogging about the NYC trip, out of pure exhaustion, and it’s not likely that I will. So I’ll try to share a few photos here and there. You know, for continuity.

Gene at the New York City Comicon

NYC sandwich shop with an awesome name.

Signature of Brian K. Vaughn, writer of Y: The Last Man, new story editor on Lost and number one super guy.

Animated Batman bank, purchased at the con. Nine dollars and 99 cents of awesomeness. (For some reason, you can't see his mouth in the photo...)

Wendy and I have returned from our adventure to New York City for a stay with the lovely Gene and Mary. I had intended to blog extensively this evening about the trip, but I’m still exhausted from all the travel. For now, I share this photo from the New York Comic Con:

Nothing like watching a Storm Trooper and a Tie Fighter Pilot dancing to pass the time in an exceptionally long line.

Tonight, Wen and I watched “The Prestige”, a flick starring a handful of my favorite actors (Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson and Michael Cane) by a favorite director (Christopher Nolan). Alas, I didn’t enjoy this flick so much. The never ended twists got old after awhile, and Nolan’s love of twisting time annoyed me repeatedly. Strangely, the film’s most outlandish conceipt didn’t annoy me as much as a simpler but unforeshadowed one. Plus, the final big reveal (of around ninety) was obvious way ahead of time.

Monday afternoon, Big T and I sat through a matinee of “Ghost Rider”, starring Nicholas Cage’s hair piece, Eva Mendes’ cleavage, Sam Elliot’s cowboy getup, Peter Fonda’s pomade and Wes Bentley’s over synthesized voice. Co-starring Bentley’s sideburns, and a handful of actors that had been out of work since “Highlander 3″.

I love comic books. I support comic book movies when I can. Make no mistake, I know that many of them aren’t good – and Ghost Rider certainly falls in that category. As expected. What I didn’t know going in was that “Rider” was written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson, the Alex Proyas-wannabe toolbox that directed the “Daredevil” movie with Affleck. Johnson’s not the worse director in Hollywood (Uwe Boll holds that particular title), but his misuse of the excellent Daredevil character should have ended his tenure with Marvel films. His take on Ghost Rider is the kind of heavy-handed cheese that gives comic books a bad name. If there was a text book called “Making a Scary Movie: Mining 60 years of pseudo-horror cliches and neo-modern, MTV editing techniques to create crappy cinema”, Johnson would own every edition, signed by the authors.

I didn’t expect art. And, truth be told, I walked out of the theater laughing, in a mostly pleasant way (though the “Ghost Riders on the Storm” techno-garbage over the end credits almost caused Travis’ head to burst into flames). The actors in this piece of hack work do their level best to have fun with their roles and make the most of a mediocre production. Nick Cage is capable of truly honest, heartfelt work (check out the quite good “Weather Man”). This is his chance to live a comic dork dream, and I respect that of him. Unfortunately, the script is so bad, the direction so over the top, the geeking out is lost to really putrid pastiche.

The age old question arises – how do movies like this get made? How does a studio exec look at a rough cut of this shlock and give a green light? It happens because they have a sudden insight into the future, at a 45 million dollar #1 opening weekend and a chance to cuddle up to Eva Mendes at the premiere party (or to Cage’s insanely cut abs – whatever your thing is).

You gotta give “Ghost Rider” this: the special effects are really nice – GR looks pretty badass. It’s funny, mostly intentionally (though certainly not always). Mendes is actually likable for once (I generally can’t stand her on screen). Watching GR give cops the finger as he rides away from them on his flaming cycle on a river (!) is worth a dollar of my ticket. Cage’s final speech to the main badguy at the end – pricelessly awful writing, directing and acting. It’s awesomely bad.

I think this will be a good movie to watch with a case of beer and the intent to MST3K the hell out of it. Then, perhaps after a viewing of “300″, we should rally the loincloth clad troops and descend upon Mark Steven Johnson and his support base at Marvel with our brand of merciless vengeance. Prepare to face the Penance Stare, Johnson. You have been prounounced guilty.

My January underground wrapped up this week without a great deal of creative activity. I had a couple of nights of decent productivity, but I’m still having trouble staying awake at the keyboard past 10:00pm.

I have been toying with something new on my lunch breaks at Starbucks. I think it spawned as a result of my reading “The Cthulhu Mythos” by August Derleth, and feeling like I could do better. Derleth was a contemporary of H.P. Lovecraft (kind of the Stan Lee of horror, for the uninitiated), and took up his mythos after Lovecraft died. I’ve owned this story collection for years (I went through a big Cthulhu phase in early college), but just now got around to Derleth’s work. And, no sir, I don’t like it.

I’ve read almost half the book, and the author seems a one trick pony. Most of the stories seem practically identical, with a few different names and places. Worse, Derleth resorts to the meta-fictional technique of referencing H.P. Lovecraft in almost every tale! In each story, at least one character has just discovered extensive knowledge in Cthulhuian lore. They inevitably reference the same set of ancient tomes and evil texts Lovecraft created for his own stories. Yet Derleth goes a step further by having his characters cite “the fictional accounts of one H.P. Lovecraft” as filled with insights into the stories’ strange and horrific phenomenon. This has happened in no less than eight stories so far. Ye gods!

The last time I encountered such literary bungling was in “Vengeance of the Black Donnellys: Canada’s Most Feared Family Strikes Back from the Grave”. I was working at a bookstore in DeKalb, IL, which had a discount branch that sold markdowns and closeouts. We literally bought books by the crate, without knowledge of what we would receive. In one shipment, we were cursed with about a hundred copies of “Vengeance of the Block Donnellys” in a small, plain trade paperback. They became a joke around the stores – we’d display them everywhere, priced at a whopping ten cents, and hard sell them to any customer who’d listen. “Vengeance” is a fictional sequel to a non-fiction book (itself wholly inaccurate, sensationalized and poorly written, yet has somehow managed to maintain some popularity since the 1950s). The novel, a hack job of epic caliber, makes constant reference to its precursor, often with characters espousing the book’s virtues and “widespread” fame. It would be laughable if it had not managed to be published time and again over 50+ years. Look it up on Amazon and you’ll find four customer reviews, all 4 or 5 stars. I’m guessing these are family members still pulling in the royalties…

I didn’t watch the Super Bowl, but I was informed that the 2nd Quarter Sprint commercial featured the voice of my work buddy Rob Naughton. Rob does imaging for KSHE 95, and on the side has been trying to get into the big time movie preview / commercial business. He’s read for several high profile companies, but hadn’t made it on screen yet. Awhile back, he cut a VO for Sprint, was paid for his work, but never told if it would be used. So he’s sitting with some friends tonight watching the big game, the Sprint ad rolls and it’s his own voice playing back to him – and 100 million other television viewers. I think it’s safe to say he was pretty stoked.

Meanwhile, I was hanging some art in the kitchen, washing dishes and watching a few minutes of Puppy Bowl III on Animal Planet. Go team.

Wen and I went to Stars on Ice on Friday night. She’s a lifelong fan of skating, and in the past couple years has gotten me into it. We watched the USA Nationals last week, and I was really excited to see a gold medal win for Kimmie Meisner, and an explosive, first place performance from Evan Lysacek. Stars on Ice didn’t have the big bangs of the competitions, but was still a lot of fun. Some of the routines were a little dull, but Michael Weiss proved to be a strong entertainer (though I’d seen him live at Nationals last year and was not impressed), and Olympic Gold Medalist pair Jamie Salé & David Pelletier were outstanding.

I picked up “Batman: The Animated Series” Vol. 1-4 on DVD from Slackers (in large part on the merits of my recent Xbox console and games trade in). My immersion in the “Justice League (Unlimited)” cartoon series has hooked me on the DC Comics / Bruce Timm – Paul Dini animated universe. Since I don’t have the time or money to devote to comic books right now, this has definitely filled the void.

Watched “The DaVinci Code” on DVD with Wen last night. I saw it in the theatre as well, and read the book before that. Critics called it slow-paced and dull, and I’ve never understood that. I think it’s a very well constructed adaption of the novel. It has a lot of big ideas to communicate in a short time, and I think it does that pretty well. Some of the dialogue gets heavy-handed, but it doesn’t weigh the film down too much. The media made a big deal about Tom Hanks’ hair in the film as well, which is ridiculous. It suits the character, looks good on him, and was simply something to gripe about. Up yours, movie critics.

My “underground” month continues, though the last two weeks without the benefit of being on vacation. I’ve learned an important lesson in these 14 days: I am not one of those “write my best stuff at 2:00am” nocturnal writers. I am way more productive in the typical 9-to-5, probably as a side effect of working that for years.

Now that I’m back in my daily work routine, I’ve generally been fitting an hour or two in a night, between 8:00pm and midnight. My productivity has gone way down, which was to be expected, but I’ve been rather caught off guard by my penchant for falling asleep at the keyboard around 10:45. (Cory and Amy will have a laugh at that because, as they know, if casual conversation around the house goes that late, I tend to fall asleep on the couch or, sometimes, the floor.)

Despite all that, I’ve gotten some work done. “Pitch” has progressed a little, but I spent a couple of nights scrapping a big chunk of it, removing a character and rewriting a page. It’s starting to feel right, but I think this one is going to see a lot of action on the redraft frontlines.

Late last week, a casual observation on the Metrolink kicked my brain into momentary overdrive. In the three minutes between stepping off the train and Wendy arriving at the station to pick me up, I had a whole new story, beginning, middle, end. I’m never at a loss for ideas, but I don’t often get the whole package delivered at once.

Since I was feeling some strain with “Pitch”, I decided to step aside a bit and explore this new short story. It’s tentatively titled “Mercury People”; I’m 8 pages in, about 4000 words. Which is a lot wordier than I expected it to be (cue snickers from the in-the-know crowd), because I initially envisioned the language and action in a kind of clipped, matter-of-fact fashion. I’m at the end of the second act (of sorts), and the language and situation has become, well, dense. Right now, my plan is to finish it in its present style, redraft it in the same, and then go to town on it with the methaphorical red pen, maybe cut it by half. Perhaps I’ll send different versions to my creative-crit friends, and see how they react to each.

This past Friday, another “train of thought” on the Metro (how it hurts me to pun it that way) stuck with me into my morning Starbucks ritual. I sat to jot down a few notes and turns of phrase. The second stanza was just beginning when I realized I was constructing a poem. Again with the freaking poetry. Perhaps since I’ve not done much in the way of songwriting lately, that part of me manifests in the poetic structure. In any event, this new thing is called “The Kind Man Looks Death”, and it’s not at all like the last one I wrote. Its tone seems fitting for a publication like “Dark Wisdom”. If I don’t have a polished short ready during their next submission period, a sharpened version of “Kind Man” might be worth a shot.

OTHER STUFF

. Friday night, a small handful of Armadians ended up in little, out of the way Trenton, Illinois, at a bar called The Jailhouse Rock. I was highly skeptical of the locale and venue in question, but it turned into a really fun time. The place is really quite large, with a decent bar area, and a whole other section with a big stage, dance floor and game room. The motif is very Elvis, obviously. I imagine it was once a schoolhouse or church, or maybe even one of those tiny concert halls that used to litter the country fifty odd years ago. They had karaoke that night and, as you may know, Armadians are black belts in Karaoke-Fu. The guy running it was really nice and respectful (all too often not the case) and the song selection reasonable. And the Boulevard on tap was dynamite.

. I felt like crap all weekend, something like food poisoning without the vomiting. Might have been my recent flu shot just catching up with me. Watched a bunch of mediocre movies to distract me from whining: Idiocracy, the lost Mike Judge picture with Luke Wilson. Futurama without the sci-fi (and most of the biting wit). Extremely funny at times, with some poignant observations, but overall not a good film; Crank, an all-out actionfest that would have rocked at 30 minutes but lost its edge at 90. Sorta fun, if you’re feeling ADD; and Beerfest, from the Broken Lizard comedy troupe. Actually pretty funny, in that Saturday Night Live spin off movie way, it’ll entertain when you’re holed up on the couch and don’t feel like doing shit.

. I parted ways with my Xbox. The console and all my games made the trip to Slackers today. I picked up the first Clone Wars animated dvd and ordered the first four seasons of Batman: The Animated Series. I’ve been loving the Justice League collections, and feel its time to catch up on the series that got it all going.

. Finally took all the Christmas decorations down. Woo-hoo!

. One of my favorite high school teachers, Connie Brubaker, just published a book of poetry. Connie was always a big proponent of my writing, and shared her work with me as well. She’s doing a sale/signing at a cafe in my hometown which I’m hoping to attend. It is, incidentally, the coffee joint my old friend Jessi runs that I’ve been meaning to visit. Economical use of a stone, that.

. Just finished reading Tim Pratt’s short story collection, Little Gods, a Christmas gift from my wife. This is a wonderful little gathering of fantastical-stories of many flavors and tones. I haven’t enjoyed a new author find like this since I discovered Kate Atkinson. There’s plenty of material to dig into, here, but my two favorite stories from the collection are “Bleeding West”, a gritty piece of mythology in the spaghetti western tradition, and “Behemoth”, a tale of forsaken friendships, unrequited love and the creatures of the apocalypse that left me weeping in a corner at Starbucks.

My week’s vacation from work is over and the first quarter of my January “underground” is done.

Late in ’06, I decided to get my creative projects in gear by taking January and throwing myself headlong into the process, swearing off my social life and cuddling up to my new laptop. I burned a handful of vacation days so that I could take the first week of the month off. My plan was to spend about 2/3 of my time writing and the other third working on my music demo.

I’ve had a nasty, lingering cold that’s made me varying degrees of miserable over the past week, effectively eliminating my voice most of the time, so I didn’t so much as pick up a musical instrument or sing a note. (You might be thinking, hey, you could have recorded the instrumental tracks even if you couldn’t sing. True, but my plan had been to lay rough simultaneous voice/guitar tracks first, to use as guides for the multiple musical lines and then finish up with the vocal track. With my process mangled, I put it on hold.)

So, I’ve spent the majority of my time writing, which is really what this was all about anyway.

My original plan was to primarily focus on my first novel length effort, with a backup short story and (somewhat uncharacteristically) a poem to play with if I needed a diversion from the novel. I had a rough draft, hand written, of the prologue to the novel. I ended up spending several days typing it up, revising, adding new parts, cutting things, re-evaluating dialogue and revising again. Now I have what I think of as a second draft, 14 (microsoft word) pages, just shy of 10,000 words. Even considering the deeper cuts and cleanup I’ll perform on it, that’s one hefty prologue.

During this time, I have also been researching the market for my kind of fiction, and have found the most obvious place to break into the fiction business is in the short story market. There are numerous magazines that print first-time, genre writers. They don’t pay that much, but if I can get published in them, it’s a stepping stone to where I eventually wish to be.

With this in mind, I also came to the decision that a novel is too big a project for me at this stage of my practice. While I have a detailed plot prepared for it, the prospect of tackiling it is honestly quite daunting. After a long discussion with Wendy about the whole thing, I’ve made up my mind to focus on shorter works first, and to move up to novella and novel length pieces as my craft improves.

With this in mind, I’ve begun writing a story called “Pitch”, based on a concept I’ve been kicking around for about a decade. Over the years, my excuse for not writing it (in my head) was that I thought it was a really great, original idea, and I didn’t want to attempt it until I had some writing chops. Which was another way of saying I was scared to try it, or just lazy. I still think it’s a very good story but, skill or no skill, it’s time to write the damn thing. At the point of this writing I’m five (ms word) pages in, about 2,600 words. And I’m just now getting to the event that really sets the story in motion. Apparently I’m going to be one of those long-winded writers that will eventually need to cut, cut, cut. *sigh*

Also, after examination, the prologue for my novel stands very well as a short story unto itself. With some re-tooling, it might be worth submission to publishers. If I can get it in print, reaction to it could tell me if the subsequent novel is something I should really invest my time in.

As for the previously mentioned poem, it’s called “Corners”, and is currently in second draft status. While I fancied myself a poet-type in early high school, it’s been a long time since I’ve put any non-prose together outside the purpose of songwriting. I generally don’t enjoy reading poetry. It’s just not my thing. Long ago my interest turned towards the lyrical, and I don’t often stray from that. Once in awhile, though, an idea forms on paper (or computer screen) in poetry form, rather without my consent. This is one of those times and, for once, I actually like it. It’s really a narrative in poetic form. I’m not sure if it’s good, but I really felt it when I wrote it, even in revision.

I hope to soon pass along these works to some creatively-bent friends for real constructive criticism, but I’m waiting to complete third drafts first.

TOTALLY UNRELATED STUFF:

If you’re a fan of horror, stuff that’s crudely funny and/or Nathan Fillion (Mal from Firefly/Serenity), you should watch “Slither”, now on DVD. Sadly a box office bomb, this is a really entertaining film, thick with classic horror homage, great dark humor and ridiculous amounts of old-school-meets-new-school, over-the-top gore. While gross, the movie isn’t really scary, more creepy in a fun way. Plus, the DVD special features are awesome and generally quite funny, especially the ones devoted to Nathan.

If you’re looking for non-cerebral fun in theaters, check out Night at the Museum. This is purely a kids’ movie, but it’s a good ride. Yes, you could nitpick the hell out of it, but take it from a kid’s level, and it’s a blast. Plus, it encourages kids to learn! It sure is silly, but sometimes, that’s just what the brain needs.

X-BOX FOR SALE: In case anybody is interested, I’m selling my Xbox gaming system, with two controllers, for $60. Intent on pursuing the writing life, I’m trying to purge unnecessary distractions, video games being a big one. So, my Xbox and games are on the market. (Now, if I could just tear myself away from New Super Mario Bros. on my wife’s Nintendo DS…).

Here’s another round of random bloggings:

. Pro Evo – I got this book today in the mail called ProEvo: Pro Evolution – Guideline for an Age of Joy. I’ve never heard of it, didn’t order, don’t know where it came from, other than it was plastic wrapped with an insert that mentioned the mysterious “Foundation”.

Googling the book, and it’s author, Tomotom Stiflung, only led me to a string of other blogs of people who had received the book under similar circumstances. It can be found on Amazon (see the link above) for a penny (!) and no real information. The actual website for the book is extremely vague – and in German, I think. I translated it in BabelFish, but it was not informative in any way.

On brief inspection, the book seems to be a weird mess of common sense ideas laced with wild assumptions and stretched logic, pushing a hive-mind agenda, insisting that no one is a true individual. For instance, from pages 78-79:

Man in not an independent being with his “own” strength and his “own” thoughts and actions. Whatever he may think or do consciously or unconsciously: all is behavior that occurs automatically within the energy-organism of the universe…

Reading the back cover of the book brings on a true WTF moment – all seven supportive blurbs are credited to people identified only by their initials, with equally vague descriptors. Example: Prof. Dr. L. K., world famous scientist, and Dr. B. M. S., university professor. The most ridiculous attribution is to “A large country’s institution for press, books, films, television and radio”! Whoa.

. Carbon Leaf Concert – thanks to the handful of folks who joined me out at the Carbon Leaf show back on the 6th. The concert was fantastic, and I think all who came with me to Mississippi Nights walked away with a solid appreciation for this group. They currently share the position of “Adron’s Favorite Band” with Breaking Benjamin, albeit in a completely different musical genre.

. B-Day – Thanks also to everyone who sent me birthday wishes and to whom I haven’t responded to yet. I’m wayyyyyyyyyyy behind in all my communications, so please bear with me. My cellphone currently has 12 messages I haven’t listened to yet (I hate talking on the phone and checking voicemails), and my inbox is full of un-replied-to messages. I usually try to bury my birthday and keep it a very quiet thing, but this year it got turned into a week long event. If I seem like I’m hiding from the world right now, it’s because I was so social for a couple of weeks that I kind of burnt out. I have to hermit out once in awhile just to retain my sanity.

. NEW GIG – It’s literally been a year since the last time I played a show, so it’s fitting that my first gig in a long while would be the same show I played last year. Come check out the 3rd Annual MS Benefit at Laurie’s Place in Edwardsville, IL, on November 4th. I’ll post more details for the show when I have ‘em. It’s for a great cause and it’s a good time. If you’re reading this and thinking “what? Adron’s a musician?” then you really should come to the show.

. Fragile Things – Just started reading Neil Gaiman’s new short story collection, Fragile Things. It is, as usual, utterly brilliant most of the time, haunting, compelling and thoroughly enjoyable. If you’ve not read Gaiman, then you’re missing one of the great voices in modern literature.

. Down in the Valley – Watched Down in the Valley, starring Edward Norton, Evan Rachel Wood and David Morse, on DVD the other morning. Despite all of the critical praise, I didn’t find much in this film. I think Norton could have performed this role in his sleep. It’s a slow flick and I had to fight to retain interest. The “twist” is just a very surprising moment, and it did catch me off guard, but I felt like it meandered afterward into a vaguely unsatisfactory ending. I gained no big insights from the work. Just a curiousity about Ed Norton’s inconsistant facial hair. Good music choices, though, including the quiet beauty of Mazzy Star.