Blogging is hard...

I have never been good with structured activity. Major weakness of mine. That said, I have nothing clever to offer in ways of an apology for missing the last blog, so we will just move on. I am actually really excited to see that, although the subscription level has remained unchanged, my little counter proves that people are actually checking this thing out. That is kind of cool. Thanks, ya'll.

So, local news first this time. The edit of Ranchero is nearly done, and just in time, as the end of February has been my goal from the beginning as the time for submissions. I think that with the next couple days off work, I am going to get there. This is a very exciting prospect, because it means that I can move on to trying to write a couple other things in my head. Eventually, I hope to be able to do two, possibly even three things at the same time, but baby steps. I will just feel really good to get something done.

LFM is back in production. Website production is the next major hurdle, both monetarily and learning curve-wise. I need to find the best way to get what I want out of a design, a magic money tree to pay for it, and then learn how to upkeep it well enough that I don't have to ask anyone else's help. Luckily, I have a couple of options here, and am nerdy enough to be able to figure it out. Other than that, it is just arc plotting and script writing. I am hoping to see some new art soon, and am really looking forward to sharing one particular piece with you all.

I will talk briefly here about Watchmen, which I was lucky enough to see a sneak preview of last Wednesday. After hearing multiple interviews with Zack Snyder, a couple of years of anticipation, and countless nerd debates, I feel like I can say this without qualification. They have made the best Watchmen movie possible. The tone is right on. The acting is fucking phenomenal. The effects are brilliant. At no point did I come out of the movie thinking, "Well, that isn't really right." True to the source material and (more importantly) the intention of the story, Watchmen is exactly what the fanboys expect to see. THAT BEING SAID...

I am just not sure how far that goes in a story like Watchmen. The movie is slow, sometimes deadly so, juxtaposed with truly brutal action sequences that seem less necessary than they do desperate attempts to inject some adrenaline into a very philosophical and dialogue-heavy story. I am not going to get into specifics (leave a question in the comments if you want to know something, and I will answer it with a spoiler tag), but I don't think that any of these instances are through the fault of the filmmaker. The fact of the matter is, Watchmen is, as a graphic novel, very slowly paced. You can do that in that medium. At the core of the issue here is that there is no main character in Watchmen. Each "costume" is an aspect of the figure we have come to call the superhero. Rorschach is hard line, unwavering drive; a code of ethics that has no room for shades of grey. Dr. Manhattan is the detachment that comes from realizing he has come so far from humanity, he has nothing left to relate to. The Comedian is the grotesque pleasure/desensitization the hero finds in the sometimes barbaric nature of the work. Nightowl is the impotence of never being able to do enough. Ozymandias is the self-righteous judge of humanity's fate. And so on, and so on. This makes for a brilliant story, full of texture and questions and psychology, culminating in this question; if we give these people, ANY people that kind of power, who is ultimately responsible when it all comes apart? What happens when those who we empower to make the terrible, world altering decisions do just that? Pardon the fanboy reference here, but who watches the watchmen?

So, while I commend Snyder and co. for making such a true representation of the story of Watchmen, again I ask, how far does that go? A movie without a single sympathetic character does not work. It is disjointed and tedious and long. That's just the difference in media between books and movies. In not changing the story, Snyder has set himself up for a lot of criticism. And I am awfully thankful for it, because while we didn't get a blockbuster movie out of it, what we did get is a legitimate attempt at a Watchmen movie that tries to tackle the questions the original story brings up. Not a superhero movie, not a PG-13 X-men meets Fantastic Four meets the Avengers in a post 9-11 terrorist war (the original script. Swear to God.) It's Watchmen. At the end of the day, I don't really care that it doesn't work perfectly. I am just happy that this is the movie we got. I will see it again (in IMAX, no less). I strongly recommend it. Know what you are getting into and go anyway. It's worth it to see.

That was vague, I know, but it's the best I can do for now.

I also want to address this issue briefly. To the nerds of the world:

Stop it. I mean it. Now. On Wednesday, I sat in that theater waiting for the Watchmen movie like a kid getting a sneak peak at Christmas presents in the living room closet. I was happy to be there. I am sure you were too. Here is the problem though. I don't care that you are clever. I don't care that you know more about the obscure origins of pop culture/comic figures than the 38 year old Mtv A.D. trying to keep you entertained while things are being set up. I don't care that you have a snarky little quip to everygoddamnthing that is said. Shut up. It is not clever, it is sad. Sad that you have to garner attention by acting out in public. It is sad that your friends support the behavior by laughing and congratulating you on every stupid interruption you throw out. It is sad that you think being on the fringe of society at large entitles you to voice every opinion that flows through your bespectacled, self-important, high-school-bullied-to-the-point-of-bitterness mind. KEEP IT TO YOURSELF. Please. Look, I am one of you. I read comics. I memorize lines from movies and use them in daily conversation. I know that Gambit first appeared in Uncanny #266. I have been to Comic-Con. I have read everything Neil Gaiman ever wrote. I LOVE Jonathan Coulton. I took a picture of David Tennant into my last hair cut so I could look like Doctor Who. I AM A NERD. The difference here is that I am not deluded into thinking that just because society at large doesn't value the things that I value, I am entitled to some sick sense of superiority. You are not doing anything but perpetuating the impression that all nerds are man-child, anti-social, Comic Book Guy clones. I refuse to be a part of that, and I cannot allow you to continue along that path. So I am blogging about it. CAUSE I AM A NERD. And proud of it. I would like to keep it that way. Thank you.

Lastly, tomorrow is Spring Opening for the MLB. St. Louis is playing the Florida Marlins. I am like a dog hearing the gate open, waiting for someone, anyone to come in and pet me. The need is palpable. Go Cards.

So much time, so little to do...

Happy day after Monday! So, I am obviously a day behind my original schedule of blogs, now apparently writing on Tuesdays and Saturdays. What a wild ride this must be for you, my 5 subscribers. What twists and turns await us? Assured that there will be two posts a week, do you fear irregularity in the calender or do you embrace the terrifying unknown. Who can say, dear friends? Who can say? Well, I suppose you could. Also, I am nearly 70% sure that there are more than just those that subscribe that come to check this little page out. To those tragic figures, those Ronin Readers standing on the fringe of the blogosphere, glancing in from time to time with eyes wide with innocent possibility and appetites whetted for trivial, random, and often uninterestingly personal information, to you poor wandering souls I say this: Come, join us. Subscribe and get easily clickable updates. Also, subscribe and drive my readership up so I can look impressive to the nice gentlemen and ladies on craigslist to whom I will eventually send this blog in hopes of compensation. But mostly, you know, do it for yourself. You're the best.

So, I am pulling skyward from this weekend's down in the dumpsery. As such, I will not default and bore you with another treatise on ultimately unimportant baseball junk. I will briefly state that it is one week till the first Spring Training game, and I am excited. Not just excited, but twitchy. Anxious. Slightly engorged. Pujols had a really great press conference this weekend in which he talked about playing in St. Louis and stating how much he hopes to play his entire career there. I only own one baseball jersey, and I take a little bit of pride in wearing that number 5 around, not just because of the Birds on the Bat, but because the character of the man who owns that number is the stuff of legends: Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Cal Ripkin Jr., George Brett. These are all men who not only embodied athleticism and the competitive spirit of the game, but who also respected the fans and the legacy of baseball as an institution. Albert Pujols belongs in the discussion alongside these icons, and even a passing fan of the game should feel privelged to be able to watch him play the game. Idol worship end. Yay baseball.

It's Oscar time, and as such, my neighborhood is a ridiculous mess. Hollywood blvd. shuts down for 2 weeks, and let me tell you, if you think L.A. is gridlocked normally, the state of downtown Hollywood from Feb. 16 - 22 can only be described as a cluster fuck of mythic proportions. To give you an idea, I live here (I know, stalkers, you are welcome). If you look at the map, my clearest access to the 101 freeway is Highland ave. by way of Franklin. This leg of my travels is, at most, about 1/4 mile. With Hollywood Blvd. closed, this poor little road gets so clogged, it takes me easily 20 minutes to get to the intersection. C'est la vie, I also walk by numerous incredibly cool things every day, so I have no real complaints. Still, another reason to hate the Oscars.

Speaking of perks one enjoys living in Los Angeles, I will now brag. Ahem. ::knucklescrack:: I will be seeing Watchmen, not on opening night 03/06/09, but tomorrow. Wednesday. February 18, a full 2 1/2 weeks before the rest of the poor, pitiful world. Thanks go to Stephen Cross here, who picked me as his +1 for an Mtv event that will include the screening followed by a Q & A with Zack Snyder and a handful of the cast. This program will then be edited and shown on Mtv, which my generation remembers as a haven for music and cartoons. It is now known for slightly less stellar entertainment options. None the less, if having to appear on Mtv could be construed as a means of paying for the event I will attend, I feel the price is adequately fair.

In local news, Grandma Rhoads is back home and doing as well as one can expect. If you wouldn't mind, I would like to ask you now to shift the mighty powers of all the positive vibes you sent her over to my Grandpa, who is charged with caring for her. If you don't know me all that well, you may not have heard me talk that much about him. I will say without hyperbole that in my eyes, he is the most genuinely remarkable person to ever live. He is the embodiment of ideals and a lifestyle that has been all but forgotten in the modern world, and I firmly believe that every person in the world would benefit from sitting with him for one hour. I am lucky to have been given a life time with him, and I worry about him being able to carry another load on his 81 year old shoulders, so give a little thought to him when you can. I'm not sure what sort of metaphysics actually exist, but it can never hurt to try a little of everything.

Short story is moving forward. I will have the edit done by the beginning of next week, and then the long awaited submissions. I have played around with posting an excerpt here or some such thing, but I don't want to mess with the exclusivity of digital rights. That is to say, I don't want The Missouri Review to write me back saying, "Well, we love the story, but it is technically already publish on some shitty little blog, so no thanks." So, with that in mind, I will just keep it off the intertubes for now.

I lieu of that, I do have a treat. I can see you salivating there, starving for a little taste of exclusive material from your favorite unpublished, yet-to-complete-a-project, procrastinatory creative mind. Calm yourself. I am benevolent. Feast your eyes on this. A little free preview and a sneak peak into how Darrell and I communicate all rolled up into one barely legible tidbit. Be sure to zoom in.

That's a good bit for today. I will talk to you all at the end of the week with a very vague review of Watchmen. Spoilers will be hidden, so do not fear coming by for the rest of the info. Have a great Tuesday all. I am off to find a second cup of coffee.

Sometimes I struggle with Titles

Happy Monday, all. I have to say, it's going to be a busy week here in my little corner of the world. Granted, this is a relative sort of busyness. It is busy, i suppose, when you consider that six months ago, I was unemployed and would have likely spent a normal day walking around Hollywood for 5 or 6 hours, popping in and out of cafes/bars, only to be followed by a nap, and then a trip to the Valley to sit on Stephen Cross's couch for an indeterminate amount of time till I went home and prayed for an interview the next day. Rinse and Repeat. So, given that I am coming from that place, it is busy. ::armswideopenforsympathyhug::

::armsstillopen::

::armsgettingtired::

So, let's hop to it. I am feeling link-y today, so the first thing you should check is the continuing adventures of Ms. Eve Ning over at Octopus Pie. I love this little webcomic, and there are definitely similarities between it and LFM (soon to be riding your way on the waves of the intertubes). The current story arc is brutally familiar, and today's joke is one of my top 5 all time favorite webcomic punchlines. Oh yes, there is a list. Go ahead and judge.

Speaking of webcomics, GarfieldminusGarfield is awesome today too.

I enjoyed the Super Bowl yesterday. I thought the game was well played, although the officiating was suspect for a bit. I also have to say that I was a little disappointed in the Steelers. Listen, I get it. You are paid millions of dollars to be brutal and strong. The game is physical. You get worked up. Sure, I get it. Having said that, the personal fouls and unsportsman-like conduct during the game last night were far and beyond the normal aggression inherent in the game. It showed poor quality of character. I know, I am just some schmoe sitting on a chair munching on carne asada and passing judgement, but I don't watch football to see some roided out dickhead knock a dude down and hold him there, lording over his conquest. I have seen more friendly, respectful UFC fights. More punishing, maybe, but certainly less brutal. Just an observation.

This is still the best part of the game. Possibly any game.

I have selected the 5 most prestigious literary magazines from my list and will have Ranchero out to them by Friday. I hope it is ready to be seen, but I think the most important thing I can do right now is just keep moving forward. Not to manifest negative energy or whatever, but I am very realistic in my expectations from this first encounter. How cool would it be to get a really competitive paying mag on my first cast though? We can dream.

Coraline comes out Friday. Or Thursday at midnight, if you are as obsessed as I am. I am begging everyone I know to go out on the first day to see it. If my plea is not enough, perhaps these words from the author will sway your hearts.

My buddy Brandon is writing a sports blog, and is applying to work for mlb.com. Hit up his page and check it out. Even if you don't like sports, he is a good writer and every little hit helps (buh-dum-bum).

Finally, I promised a surprise. I was thinking about posting a snippet of the short story or maybe a poem or somesuch. Then, I started working on Looking For More again a little, and I got myself reinspired. In case you don't know, Looking For More (LFM) is a webcomic that I am writing with my friend and longtime collaborator Darrell Claunch. Darrell is a really brilliant artist. He is very versatile and works in a lot of different media. You can see some of his film work here. He is an artist for an very clever independent video game house called Black Lantern Studios. I realize that I am probably more than a little biased, but I think he is really hitting his artistic stride as a cartoonist. So, he is drawing our little comic. I will talk about it quite a bit on here as the weeks go by, and hopefully the launch will happen sometime in Spring.But, as a little treat for ya'll, and as a little catalyst for me, I figured I would post a couple early character designs. So, without further ado, meet some of our friends from LFM.

This is a profile of Kirk, our intrepid hero. He has since changed a bit (a little longer in the face.), but this is definitely a good idea of his look.



This is a very rough frontal from earlier in the conception phase, but you get a great look at his remarkably marketable pong shirt...

This is his buddy Neal. Neal is equal parts Jack Black and Matthew McConaughey (with a dash of Stephen Cross thrown in, if you know him). His blond faux-hawk, though still a work in progress, may be the most beautiful thing ever beheld by the human eye.

There is a lot more where those came from, and more yet to come, but I don't want to give away the farm here, so that should do for a taste. Stay tuned for updates and maybe more little blog exclusive give-aways. Even more importantly, tell everyone you know about this great little comic you heard about and help build readership. so I can get money. And buy you coffee. Cause I will. Desperate? Yes. Pathetic? Yes. Pointless, as the website isn't even functional yet? Yes.

I think that about covers it for today. See you on Friday.

Inspired or Insipid: You be the Judge.

So, I have a handful of various issues with blogging. Mostly, I refuse to believe that anything I say is interesting enough that someone will want to take the time to read it. As thrilling as my day to day is (and believe me, it is damn near impossible to keep up with me. I sometimes drink coffee in THREE different coffee-serving-establishments. In one day.), the practice of sharing it with the world seems largely to be an exercise in vanity. I prefer to be vain in private, as it draws less attention and I can always deny it later, given that I am the only witness and I have absolutely no problem lying to myself about myself. Also, I tend to ramble, which does not really make for good reading.

Having said all that, I woke up this morning to begin my normal routine. I slid the unlock slide on my iPhone (still one of the most satisfying tactile experiences of my life. I know, get a girlfriend...) and went though the usual checklist. Email: check. Myspace: check. Twitter: check. And there, on my Twitteriffic feed, I read the series of posts in which Neil Gaiman discovered he had won the Newbery Award this morning (they began with "who is trying to call me at 5:45 am, and WHY?", and ended with "FUCK!!! I WON THE FUCKING NEWBERY THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME!!!"). I was thrilled for him. I know, I kind of idolize this guy, but for good reason.

I have been a huge fan of his for years. I think he is one of the most important writers of our generation, and he has inspired me to get back into shape (as it were) and try writing myself. He has won every major comics award there is, a shelf load of sci-fi awards (Hugo, Nebula, Locus, etc...), blogging awards (yeah, they have them), his movie Coraline is premiering in two weeks and is really a groundbreaking piece of film for the stop motion animation set, and now he has won the Newbery for a book that has been on the New York Times Bestseller list for 16 weeks and counting. What do you think that feels like? He has proven capable of writing award winning material in ANY given medium (Comics, Film, TV, Poetry, YA literature, Fiction, Non-Fiction, onandonandon...). He has made a living as a storyteller, regardless of the structure and form, he just tells stories. Well. Very, very well.

At any rate, I realized that I want that. That is why I loved acting. That is why I love movies, and books, and friends, and video games. Everything I enjoy in life I plug into through the story of the thing. I want to tell stories. However I can. So, I went to my little cafe across the street, I bought a cup of coffee and a burrito, and I decided that I needed to set up a regimen of writing. I have one short story nearly polished and one that is just being written. I have a children's poem that I am getting illustrated and I will be sending it and the first story out for publications this next month. I am writing an online comic strip that is going to be really brilliant and likely fall flat on its face, but I am still really excited about it (even though it has stunted a bit in the last couple months. But we are fixing that. ). And, I have decided, I am going to blog. Twice a week. About whatever. Because in order to be a writer, you have to write. And, I figure, if you want to be a writer of many various things, you should write a number of various ways.

So, if you don't have anything else to do, I'd like to invite you to take this little ride with me. I can't promise it will be interesting all the time, but I can guarantee that when it is, it will be worth it. And maybe you will get a sneak peak of new things as they are happening. Or maybe you can help out because you know someone who takes young writers under their wing and grooms them to be actual Writers, with big capital Ws. Or maybe you can just make fun of me for being 27 and just now trying to direct my life in some sort of proactive way. However you look at it, I will be here; and I would love the company.