TV Music - Frightened Rabbit on Chuck September 26, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a comment
Whoever picked the music for the “premerie” of Chuck is pretty awesome. Frightened Rabbit tops out at 89 plays on MySpace. MySpace! How did they find that one???
PS: The song is the third one down called “The Twist” - currently sitting at 43 plays.
Diamond Age Miniseries Delayed September 16, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a commentSo, I wasn’t the only one wondering What ever happened to that Diamond Age adaptation? Brett Love over at TVSquad actually went to see Neal Stephenson on his book tour for Anathem, and found out that (like most shows) the writers’ strike had caused a delay in the development of the show. Stephenson said he’s still working on it, and I think it’s cool that he gets to write some episodes or treatments or whatever they’re called. So, no production date - and I’d assume, no cast information yet - but it is at least still in the works.
Rainy Sunday September 14, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a commentI’m not sure if this is the last vestiges of Ike, but today is the epitome of a Rainy Sunday. Good thing there’s going to be some football on.
Yesterday was a (somewhat) banner day for writing. I got 975 words (so close to that 4 digit barrier!). So, today, of course, I am suffering a bit of a let down. I’m oscillating between the feelings of “This whole plotline is weak, short, and tacked on” to “I wrote so much yesterday that I deserve a day off today.” Both of these, I believe, also stem from the fact that I sort of drank a bit last night, so my brain just feels like it doesn’t want to do any work today.
I took Val to a brunch date, though, and was mulling over this post on the drive back, and that actually helped warm my brain up a little. I’m to the point now where - with some proper protein and caffeine - I feel like I could get some more writing done. Time to push through and turn the currently anemic plotline into the idea that at one point I felt might be big enough for it’s own book…
Make Some Illinoise! September 13, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Really? , add a comment
A meteorologist (who will remain anonymous) on Good Morning America (sort of a national news program) just said that Hurricane Ike may even get up to Illinoise. Really? I mean, really?
I wonder what the weather is like in Oregone.
Fringe, Terminator, and Hulu September 10, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : TV , add a commentSo, last night was debut of Fringe, and the effective season premier of Terminator for me. I watched Fringe on Live TV (!), and then watched Samson and Delilah on Hulu.
Not sure where to start, so I guess I’ll go with Fringe since I watched it first…
I think they actually went a little too far with this first episode. I think they could have hinted more at a mystery without spelling it out so much. Maybe I’m just skeptical because I’ve seen Alias and LOST and I’m wary of JJ Abrams great concepts that fail to deliver on their promise. I’m worried that it will seemed somewhat contrived if they try to fit the fringe science experiments into every episode. Will it get to the point where viewers will be saying “Really? Another unfinished experiment that just happens to have relevance and possibly solve the problem we are currently facing? What a coincidence!” I am also concerned that the “mysterious” science has already been explained too much as being a product of rogue scientists from (and probably within) a large corporation. Are they going to have “unexplained phenomena” coming from other sources? Knowing JJ Abrams, I will be thinking that it’s all going to be tied back to Dr. Bishop and his former labmate.
I do like the look and feel of the show, though, with the blue-tinted graphics before commericals, and the 3D location overlays. I also feel like Olivia Dunham is what Serena VanDerWootsen will be like after college when she finally has her ultimate rebellion against the NY high society establishment. Not sure why, but that’s a plus for me. Speaking of actors, I have to wonder if Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick) - aka the lead FBI guy on the Hamburg plan investigation - is somehow playing the same character JJ had him playing in LOST. Just something for the message board crowds to think about.
On to Terminator, but with a similar start… I feel like they went too far with it. I think they could have stretched the middle a little more and left the conclusion for another episode. What is with TV shows these days where they have to advance the plot through what feels like half a season’s worth of material in an episode? I’m afraid it’s a result of the audience’s increasing lack of attention span (and perhaps because there are so many alternatives) that shows feel like they really have to wow people or else everyone will stop watching and the show will be canceled. I can certainly understand that, but it doesn’t stop me from wishing it weren’t so.
As for Terminator itself, why was this episode called Samson and Delilah? I’m not that familiar with the story, but is it supposed to be that John is Samson and the cutting of his hair at the end is tying in to that symbolism? Other than that, it seems like just a reason to use that song at the beginning of the episode. Which, really, I don’t think conveyed the emotion it was supposed to. I only guess that because Sarah keep asking John if he’s okay, and she knows that he needs her today, but really, I didn’t understand why? Because they killed someone? If that’s the case, I don’t think they should have hidden it behind the veneer of the slow-mo action with the peaceful song behind it.
Finally, a comment on Hulu, since that was probably the best part of last night. I was able to watch Terminator in full screen HD on my laptop with no problem. I realize that there are still a lot of people who don’t want to watch TV on their laptop (cause they have friends to watch shows with!), or who don’t have a computer hooked up to a TV, but for me, the experience was great. I only remember seeing three 15-second ads, and the rest of the 45 minutes was just the show in HD. Not bad. And Hulu still has the best user interface of any online TV I’ve watched. NBC is still too cluttered with tie-ins for the shows, and ABC’s video player is nice, but doesn’t load even close to as fast as videos on Hulu.
[Writing] Word Count Wednesday 9.10.08
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a commentFiction Words This Week: 1,608
I actually got to the point this week where I wish I was keeping track daily… but then I looked at my weekly tracking spreadsheet, and it’s starting to look decent, which makes me feel a lot better than when I looked at my pathetic daily tracking sheet.
[Writing] 20% Done! September 6, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Milestones, The Nine Mothers, Writing , add a commentI can’t believe I forgot to post about this when I actually did it. I gave a little bit of a Yattai! when I totalled it up. I topped 20,000 words in The Nine Mothers! Now it actually feels like I can make it! I am not sure about making to to 100K, but I’m pretty sure (judging by what’s happened in the first 20K) that there will be at least 75K before this story has been told.
As of this writing, I’m at 20,253 words total (I have a spreadsheet which does some simple addition since there are two threads to the story which I keep in separate OpenOffice documents).
3 Random Things for a Rainy Friday that’s not actually raining September 5, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , add a commentCory Doctorow has an article in Locus Magazine about getting paid. He’s what you could call a Forward Thinker.
John DeNardo declares that JJ Abrams is the new Overlord of SciFi Fans. Well, duh. I been had known that since Alias. I’m not sure about the putting down of Joss Whedon, but we’ll see when Dollhouse hits the digital streaming media player formerly known as a TV.
3rd… Val wanted me to post this:
As someone who grew up in the Pac-NW, I do find it interesting that storms from the Gulf Coast just make their way up the Midwest through Chicago.
[Writing] Word Count Wednesday 9/3/08 September 3, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : The Nine Mothers, Writing , 1 comment so farFiction Writing This Week: 2,260
Non-Fiction Writing This Week: A bunch
I believe that’s the first time (since I’ve been keeping track) that I’ve topped 2,000 words in a week! I was inspired! I’ve been writing some somewhat tough scenes, too, in that, I already know what happens before and after the scene, but I’m filling in what actually happens so that readers don’t have to make spectacular jumps of logic to follow the story. And in doing so, I am now only 517 words away from 20,000 in The Nine Mothers of White Home. With a goal of 90-100,000 that puts me at 20% done! That actually seems like a decent number.
Anathem Advanced Blogger Reviews September 1, 2008
Posted by fanaticalpupil in : Writing , 1 comment so farNow, I don’t know who either of these people are or if they’re good judges of the quality of books, but they have posted advanced reading copy reviews of Anathem, and they’re both similar enough that I believe them.
Marcus also posted this picture, which I had not seen before:
So far, it sounds like a book that could have used a little more editing, but then, the publisher has probably given Neal Stephenson some sort of de facto right to just say whatever he wants. I mean…
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #36 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in these categories: (What’s this?)
#1 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction
#4 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary
It’s not every day that an author gets two vidoes on Amazon.com.
Also of note:
Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
So, yeah, I’ll probably be waiting for the paperback version before I give myself the opportunity to read this one. Of course, I still have to finish The Confusion and The System of the World, and by the time I’m actually able to finish those, there will probably be a paperback of Anathem. Hooray for slow readers!