9/11

From two years ago.

Nuts About Craig's List

Nineteen top posts on Craig's List. Much to like here.
Via My blogless friend, Ken.

Cthulhu Con A'Coming

A film festival devoted entirely to all things Lovecraft. This weekend in LA and October 1 - 3 in Portland. Having just sold a Lovecraft-inspired short story to Necrotic Tissue, I'm thinking of heading down there and hobnobbing with my fellow Lovecraftians. The event motto is: "The only festival that understands." Ieeeee to that.

via Mike M. on Facebook
Video: mikeboas

Review: Machete

A breathtaking film, Machete is director Robert Rodriguez homage to beloved children’s tale Charlotte’s Web. Set in the southwest, the film employs the subtle storytelling and layered characterizations that have built Rodriguez’s reputation as the David Lean of Texas. Teen heartthrob Danny Trejo portrays Machete, a blade-packing, Wilbur-like character. Forced to move about like a runt pig in order to remain alive, Machete lives on the allegorical chopping block. In a deft choice, Rodriguez crafts a web of racism and corruption that only Machete can slice. Rotten Senator McLaughlin (Robert DeNiro) is the anti-Charlotte. He is assisted by Michael Booth (Jeff Fahey), a hate-filled businessman who kills illegal immigrants and grinds their bones into bone powder. But Machete has his own Templeton the Rat—Shé (Rebecca Rodriguez). Shé is a taco-truck driving revolutionary who hopes to reclaim Texas for Mexico. Once back in the right hands, Texas will be transformed into a paradise, modeled after the Swiss-like order and civic honesty of Tijuana. Rich with themes of loyalty and undying friendship, Machete, not surprisingly, includes a scene at the Texas State Fair. There, Machete wins a blue ribbon for throwing knives at a spinning target on which is tied a pretty girl in tights (Lindsay Lohan). I believe E.B. White would heartily approve.

Patsy Cline Bio Piece

Patsy Cline would be 78 today. Check out my mini bio of the talented, but doomed, country/pop star.

Circuit Riding

Speaking of buzz, Nate Ruegger does the necessary work to promote his film.

The Year in Fiction

Back in 2009 around this time I wrote a post in which I hoped to sell ten short stories in six months. (Note: the fire I mentioned finally went out and Colin Wells returned safely home from Afghanistan, got married and is completing his Army service.)

I have sold 4 stories—my sidebar tells the tale—out of 21 submissions with one story still out. I expanded a short story into a novella which I'm now expanding into a several hundred page novel.

For the last three years, animation writing has morphed into a maze consisting mostly of dead ends. That could change rapidly, but so far has resisted the impulse.

In any case, nothing gets finished by wishing and wanting, so on I go. Halloween is my deadline for finishing the novel's first draft. I hate and resent the novel. It's like a five-pound bee you can neither kill nor drive from your home.

October 31. Death to the bee!

Review: The Last Exorcism

Teen comedies aren't my first choice, but "The Last Exorcism" had me chuckling like a fat man in a dryer. This light-hearted spoof of religion, dating, and southern mores carried with it the bawdy overtones of American Beauty combined with the serio-comedic stylings of John Hughes' Breakfast Club. Director Daniel Stamm employed a first-person camera ala "Blair Witch" in this often touching tale of 16-year-old Nell Sweetzer (Ashley Bell) who finds she has a demon in her life and must grapple with maturing needs as well as those of an evil being from Hell who desires her degradation and destruction. Patrick Fabian portrays Cotton Marcus, a cynical preacher called upon to exorcise Nell at a remote Louisiana farm. Fabian captures the same hapless frustration as Jeffrey Jones' principal in "Ferris Bueller." Writers Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland weren't afraid to insert a little slapstick as Cotton Marcus and Iris Reisen (Iris Bahr) discover slaughtered cattle, then share a scene straight out of Johnny Puleo and the Harmonica Gang. Unknown Caleb Landry Jones steals the film as Nell's brother Caleb, exhibiting an innocent buffoonery reminiscent of beloved Mexican funny man Cantinflas. "Last Exorcism" hits all the right notes for a late-summer, light-hearted romp to take your mind off the heat and give the funny bone a good workout. (Rated 'R' for scenes of torture and mutilation.)

Thar She Blows!

They couldn't find a large enough jar of sleeping pills.
via Drudge Report

Bollywood Rocks

Another tedious gabby film from India

via Hot Air

Review: The Expendables

This classic European mood-piece featured long establishing shots, talky scenes inserted for tone, and searing close ups of tormented characters adrift in a world devoid of action, reduced to lashing out at each other with knives and guns which symbolized the clever, hurtful sarcasm that really wounds. Director Stallone's use of outer violence to mirror inner turmoil was well-intentioned but too subtle to be very effective. Giselle Iti's Sandra was the perfect post-modern, feminist heroine, isolated in a culture that saw her only in terms of gender: general's daughter, revolutionary, nation builder. In a pivotal role, Senyo Amoaku portrayed the Tall Pirate, the Every Man for our own inner tall pirate; that part of us who is always asking, bargaining, threatening hostages with machetes.

In general a thoughtful film to be discussed over espresso and macaroons. All I can say is: bring a hankie.

Link to Read Comics in Public Day

Geek O System alerts us to tomorrow: Read Comics in Public Day. I always thought comic book ads were tough to beat. They're an interesting piece to any business model.

Texas Freakazoid Shirts!

Combined with takineko exploring the wonders of Laptop Face.

Author Reading on a Hot Afternoon

Yesterday afternoon, my friend Bernadette organized a reading in a private home. About eight authors presented an eclectic mix of poetry and prose. My wife read a short story she's intending to send out. And, despite a five-minute time limit, I got a good response from "Dagon and Jill." (At least the portion I could read in five minutes.) Hot as the surface of Mercury outside, but the air conditioning worked and there were numerous fresh-baked goodies. We stole several small, easily pawnable items from our host but we're caught and asked to return them. This marred the event somewhat, but will make a nice story for the next one.

Fest Control

Belated congrats to director Nathan Ruegger whose film Another Life was accepted into the Temecula Valley International Film Festival. Follow his Hollywood journey at Another Life in Film.

Well Said, Don Roff

Over at Forces of Geek, author Roff offers sage advice on meeting the daily word count. I've encountered many of his pitfalls enroute to my own 1k a day.

My wife and I are away this afternoon to a gathering of fellow writers. There we'll each read a few pages from our various works. (I'll present about 5 minutes worth from the recently purchased "Dagon and Jill.") Nice people, good atmosphere, free food—everything a writer needs.

Piranha 3D

i09 has this baby's number.

Batman Beyond on DVD

All of it, the complete series. I was fortunate enough to pen two episodes and this nice site mentioned me along with the talented artists and writers who made "Beyond" an interesting, fun iteration of the Batman saga.
Via Danny Barer

Freak/Cosgrove Tale

Maz' story more directly reached here.

Links to Ruegger Art and a Freak/Cosgrove Adventure

Scroll down as Maz envisions a Freakazoid!/Cosgrove adventure. (My only quibble involved the monkeys' fate. I believe they would be dressed as evil scuba divers first.)

In addition:

A few drawings from Sam.

Tom renders Yolko and the life of a Basset Hound.