State of Affairs
10/09/08 04:13 PM
Before I dive into why this story makes me physically ill, I want to get something out of the way. I greatly admire Johnny Depp and think he is one of the most talented actors living today. He has in fact been my favorite actor ever since I saw him in Benny and Joon back in ‘93. Depp spent the first half of his career taking diverse, non-traditional roles that practically shunned Hollywood stardom and I give the guy a lot of credit for having some integrity and not just chasing the money early on.
Honestly I don’t even fault Depp for taking the cash, if someone offered it to me I’d do the same thing. I also understand that the entertainment industry is a gargantuan money-making entity and that actors are just taking a percentage of that wealth.
My real issue is that no one needs 56 million dollars and being paid that sum of money, especially for a single film, is completely obscene. I don’t care if they “earned it”, the figure is ludicrous and emblematic of a real problem we have as a society. It seems more and more these days that the mundane jobs held by the vast majority of the population are being increasingly devalued. I know this probably isn’t news to most people who have had to deal with rising costs and ever-dwindling raises and cost-of-living increases.
Obviously this issue is a large theme in the upcoming presidential race with both Obama and McCain promising to give tax breaks to the shrinking middle class and increase taxes for those lucky few who don’t ever need to wonder how they’ll pay their bills and make ends meet.
I certainly wouldn’t mind getting back more in taxes, but considering that I’ve worked under both Democrats and Republicans over the years and that each has always taken almost a third of my annual wages in taxes and given me less than a tenth back, I’m not holding my breath.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand and agree with the need for taxes and I comprehend the whole notion of inflation, painful as it is on me financially. My problem is that the salaries for most folks have not kept up with the cost of living in recent years and I can’t really figure out why. Clearly there’s millions floating around to pay actors, but not for the men and women who work everyday jobs.
Again I understand that the movie industry makes boatloads of cash from ticket sales and that’s where the dough comes from, but that surplus came from a steep increase in ticket prices. And before anyone says it, I reject the notion that the entertainment industry should just charge whatever it wants and that individuals can decide whether it’s worth their money. Taking a source of much-needed pleasure and distraction and making it a financial burden on the recipients is not “free-market thinking”, it’s just fucking cruel.
I know the thought of redistribution of wealth or anything even hinting at socialism is a taboo subject in capitalist countries and I personally don’t want to limit anyone’s possibilities or tell them what they can and cannot earn. What I do want is some genuine justification for why most people continue to make less and less while CEOs of companies get 40-million-dollar severance packages for running a business into the ground. I want industries that make billions off the backs of their workers to tell me why they haven’t given out any raises year after year.
I want to understand why we as a society are willing to make kings out of a few at the expense of everyone else and why we seem so willing to devalue the vast majority of the mundane jobs that keep the world running. I’m not placing the blame at anyone’s feet, I’m as culpable as anyone else, but I just wish I could understand how we got to this place, because the current explanation of our financial situation just doesn’t add up to me.
I wish it did, then I’d sleep better at night.
-Quoth the Raven
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Monster October TV Guide ‘08
10/03/08 05:27 PM
Rather than linking to the various poorly-organized web pages that seem to be a hallmark of virtually all TV channels, this year I’ve decided to utilize a resource I discovered last October. The wonderful Monsters-A-Go-Go blog lists all the major station's schedules in an easy to access format.
First off we have AMC’s Fear Fest, formerly Monster Fest, which runs from the 24th through the 31st. Some of my personal favorites from this marathon are the Steven King classics Pet Sematary and Christine, as well as some of my childhood favorites like the original Nightmare on Elm Street and An American Werewolf in London.
Next up we get a touch of creepy class from Turner Classic Movies, whose scary marathon airs on the 30th and 31st. I’m not all that familiar with most of the films in the Turner lineup, but a few titles have definitely peaked my interest. I’m pleased to see The Tingler, starring the late great Vincent Price, in the lineup as it’s a film I’ve always wanted to see, but had never gotten around to viewing. Other promising entries include White Zombie, which inspired the band name, Two Thousand Maniacs!, which inspired another band name, and the cult classic Freaks, which I finally saw for the first time last year and enjoyed immensely.
ABC Family returns with their 13 Nights of Halloween, beginning on the 19th and running through the end of the month. Though this marathon does cater to a younger audience, don’t let that stop you from checking it out. There’s some good stuff to be had here including the Michael Keaton masterpiece Beetle Juice as well as one of the first films to scare the bejeezus out of me, the original Gremlins.
SciFi channel has transformed its previous 13-day marathon into a full-blown, month-long extravaganza. Because of its sprawling nature the Monster blog doesn’t have a schedule for this one. Fortunately I learned a trick to manipulating the SciFi channel schedule page back when I first starting posting this annual piece. Behold the complete listing for October, starting with today and continuing on through the 31st.
Those looking for some education in their eerie entertainment should check out the History Channel’s Halloween site as well as the Discovery Channel’s explorations on haunting.
I’m sure there are other monstrous marathons I missed, so please feel free to leave your own listings in the comments.
And be sure to stay tuned for all the frightening festivities coming up during the scariest time of the year.
-Quoth the Raven
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Good Night Infinite Jester
09/14/08 01:50 AM
A few years back my brother bought me A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again for my birthday. It was my first exposure to Wallace's writing and I was instantly struck by his prose style, which was simultaneously conversational and academic. Wallace's ability to turn personal musings about mundane subjects, such as the geography of his home state of Illinois and its effect on tennis, and transform them into intellectual discourses was both unique and surprisingly captivating.
His mastery of language was staggering and I found myself both inspired by his writing and jealous of it. He seemed to exist within his own world where almost anything might be worthy of thoughtful investigation. A lot of Wallace's philosophizing took on an introspective bent and in many ways I suspect his examination of the world and its machinations was also an examination of himself. If there was one common theme to Wallace's varied and often-disparate works, I would say that it was a constant search for meaning.
There's no way to know or understand what caused Wallace to end his life, but I hope wherever he is that he has found some peace.
I have no doubt that his writing will continue to fascinate and inspire those who read it and hopefully convey some of the intricacies of a mind that was continuously trying to unearth and expose the connective strands in a world that can often feel detached from those that inhabit it.
-Quoth the Raven
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Trudging Along
09/12/08 06:04 PM
It's been taking me two weeks rather than the usual one to complete the last couple entries and I suspect this trend will continue.
My professional duties have once again attempted to metamorphosize into something completely different, a trick they've tried on several occasions in the past, but this time the transformation seems to have stuck leaving my lunches and breaks wrought with unavoidable sources of distraction.
On the one hand I find the change of pace rather refreshing and am glad to have some variety from the routine I've been performing for the better part of a decade. As for the other hand, well it's currently trying to bludgeon its kin for taking on our current gargantuan heap of hectic responsibilities.
Though technically I suppose neither me nor my appendages are to blame for the increased load being that this new assignment wasn't so much presented as a request, something that would imply choice and possible compensation, but rather as a memo with a list of responsibilities.
Ah well, at least I'm managing to keep producing even if it is at a slower rate. In addition to the ever-growing veinti-uno, I've got another short story I'm currently working on for publication. I'm a little stuck on it at the moment, but that's why I like having a couple projects to bounce between as starting to write the shorter piece kicked me in gear again for the novella.
Which brings us to our magic word of the day: Motion
Whether expediently or glacially, you have to keep moving forward. If your creative shark stops swimming, it dies.
Keep that shark alive kids, so it can bite the unsuspecting-swimmers of procrastination firmly in the ass.
-Quoth the Raven
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Black Widows
08/26/08 10:13 PM
I present to you a new poem that combines spousal skullduggery and the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood.
This deliciously debauched piece is entitled "Three of a Kind".
Enjoy.
-Quoth the Raven
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Hot Off the Presses
08/15/08 02:45 PM
The piece is titled "The Negotiation" and appears in issue no. 6 of the literary magazine The Delinquent.
I've added a new section to the site called Published Works that lists all the particulars of where this story, and hopefully future stories, can be found.
My heartfelt thanks and appreciation goes out to everyone visiting this site for all your support and encouragement.
I couldn't have reached this milestone without you guys.
-Quoth the Raven
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Two More Refugees
08/13/08 06:20 PM
So please welcome our two new arrivals "Low Wage Blues" and "Lost Soles". The first is a companion piece to a poem I wrote a while back called "Workplace Blues" that further details my employment woes and the second is a fun little guy that reminds you to be grateful for what you've got.
Enjoy.
-Quoth the Raven
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Curse of Cthulhu
08/08/08 04:00 PM
Why the work of certain writers sparkles on the printed page, but falls flat on the silver screen can be a bit of a mystery. Generally though there’s something in the story that is difficult to translate, a crucial aspect that simply cannot be replicated with a visual facsimile.
One such author is H.P. Lovecraft whose words have seen many film adaptations, most of them ranging from bad to awful. There has been the occasional notable exception, but even in those cases the flicks were usually amusingly kitschy or clever rather than truly frightening or disturbing like its source material.
But hope springs eternal and we Lovecraft fans have another chance to have our wildest cinematic dreams met with a new indie movie titled after HP’s most well-known creation, the elder-god Cthulhu.
Having viewed the trailer, I must say that the prospects appear characteristically grim. The acting and visual look of the film both came off as rather amateurish in the preview and the presence of Tori Spelling in what appears to be a leading role does not bode well for this or any other movie she’s cast in.
Still, there’s always the possibility that this film will defy expectations and be a really great representation of Lovecraft’s work.
And if it doesn’t then at least it can rest assured that in won’t be lonely in that great bin of failed celluloid that has made up most of the adaptations thus far.
Mediocrity loves company.
-Quoth the Raven
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Harry Potter Half-Blood Prince Trailer
07/29/08 10:47 PM
Why it's the brand-spanking new trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
The three available sizes are all in HD so they might take a bit to download and you need Quicktime to view them so grab a copy if you haven't got it already.
I promise the effort and wait are well worth it.
This one looks like it's going to be nice and dark.
Joy!
-Quoth the Raven
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Film Review: X-Files - I Want To Believe
07/28/08 05:33 PM
I have only myself to blame for this. When the movie was first announced I was admittedly giddy and dug up everything I could about the upcoming production. Having been a fan of the show for a long time, it was exciting to know that series creator Chris Carter and agents Mulder and Scully, played by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, were coming back to bring we loyal X-Philes some more of their paranormal adventures.
As the release day grew nearer there were some rumblings about the plot, that the new movie plumbed some pretty dark and controversial subjects that had more to do with politics and social policy than it did with creatures that go bump in the night. Though this certainly wasn't new territory for a show steeped in government conspiracy, it did somewhat contradict the prediction that the new movie was going to be based off the standalone "monster-of-the-week" style episodes rather than the ongoing myth-arc variety that had made up the first film. After viewing it I can confirm that the story is in fact a self-contained narrative, but more on this later.
A few days before the film debuted reviews started to trickle in and they were, to put it mildly, not good. Actually I should qualify that statement. Most of the critiques I skimmed didn't think the movie was altogether terrible, but they didn't seem to find much good in it either. The consensus seemed to be that the film lacked direction and that it just wasn't very exciting, especially for a suspense picture.
Initially I found myself very defensive of the film, especially after reading several reviews that knocked both it and the intelligence of movie viewers by saying that IWTB was inaccessible because it didn't conform to the modern-day style of catchphrase-driven dialogue and Michael-Bay-CGI-explosion aesthetics. Take the following excerpt from Richard Corliss of Time Magazine:
"A subtler anachronism is the seriousness with which Mulder and Scully take their work and themselves. On TV, Duchovny settled quickly into his role as an obsessive plodder; Anderson's gravity served as a rebuke to all the actresses her age who spoke in baby talk and aspired to nothing higher than Baywatch. The movie continues that dark, quiet tone, which means that today's moviegoers will have to forgo expectations of wisecracking heroes and snarling psychopaths, and to take seriously a couple of anguished folks who look and behave with the tired tenseness of anchors on C-SPAN."
Though the above quote seems like a compliment more than anything, it was taken from a negative review of the film. The idea that thoughtful, realistic characters would be seen as a liability rather than a strength was irritating and troubling to say the least. Still, as critics continued to cast their votes and the overall tide remained negative I began to have serious doubts.
And so I entered the screening room with my insides already playing tug-of-war, a fervent fan pulling on one side and a doubting Thomas yanking on the other.
Who won?
Well that question, like everything else surrounding the film, is a complicated one.
Spoilers Ahead
From my point of view there were two main goals set out by Carter and crew for this film. The first was to tell a spooky, supernatural tale that evoked some of the series' classic episodes and the second was to delve deeper into the internal beliefs of its two central characters. On the latter of these two objectives I think the film succeeded, but on the former there were some definite stumbling blocks. I'm going to start off focusing on the second issue and then work my way back to the central story.
The question of belief is at the heart of this movie in the same way that morality was at the core of Dark Knight. In our first glimpse of Mulder we find him in a small home office still hard at work trying to uncover the truth even after being fired and hunted by the FBI and spending the intervening years in secluded exile.
He's contacted by Scully on behalf of the Bureau to ask his help in the disappearance of an agent, but is understandably reluctant to accept. This hesitance is not just because he doesn't trust the FBI and thinks they may be trying to trick him, but also because they fought against him to obscure the truth. The agency is an affront to his whole belief system and helping them even to aid an innocent agent is troubling to him.
Struggling with her own set of beliefs, we have Scully who is now working as a doctor in a church-run hospital. In many ways IWTB is really a story about the two halves of Scully's personality. One of the intriguing things about her character has always been the dichotomy between her rigorous scientific ideology and her devout Catholic spirituality. This duality is brought to the forefront in both the main storyline and in a subplot of the film in which Scully fights to save the life of a young boy using stem-cell research, which is at odds with the hospital administration's values.
Another central character to the film is Father Joe; a man with a psychic connection to the missing agent who also happens to be a disgraced Catholic priest that's been excommunicated and is currently living in a home for sex offenders. Naturally this character greatly offends Scully both morally and spiritually. She doubts his abilities, though whether this is due to her trademark skepticism or her intense repulsion for the priest is unclear.
Mulder's search for the truth and Scully's search to understand her faith and its place in her day-to-day life is really the soul of this story making the subtitle "I Want To Believe" all the more resonant.
As for the narrative itself, that unfortunately comes off less successfully.
The X-Files series generally specialized in two kinds of villains for its monster-of-the-week episodes, the extraordinary creature thrust into our ordinary world and the man or woman endowed with unusual abilities. IWTB eschews both these ideas and give us boogiemen that are merely human. On the surface there's nothing specifically wrong with this approach, except that it takes away one of the things that made the X-Files unique and interesting.
Given the greater spiritual identity of the story, I can see why having a more relatable antagonist makes sense. The problem is that we never spend enough time with the baddies to get their point of view. Not that I think the film needed to explicitly spell out all their motivations, but getting to know their characters more would've helped to flesh them out rather than keeping them generic shadow figures. At the very end we do learn more about them when we discover what they're up to, but at that point the shock feels forced and hard to reconcile given the lack of forewarning.
The kidnapped agent we see in the beginning and the subsequent victims that follow also feel somewhat perfunctory. We never get a family member or work colleague talking about these people or worrying about them and they wind up feeling like a means to an end rather than the driving force they should have represented.
I think that's probably the Achilles heel of the movie. That it took the theme and symbolism of the piece, elements normally reserved for the background touches of a story, and placed them ahead of everything else leaving the actual events of the film as mere fixtures to hang the philosophical discussion from.
So where does that leave the film as a whole?
Honestly, I'm torn. I thought Duchovny and Anderson both did a fine job in their roles and I give Carter a lot of credit for taking what was essentially a film for the fans and making it a think piece on spirituality, redemption and belief.
I completely disagree with the assertion by some critics that the movie was a "cash-in". If Carter had wanted to do that he could've just whipped up a cool mutant for Mulder and Scully to chase rather than addressing the nature of faith. Anyone who puts that many hot-button issues in their film, all but guaranteeing to alienate a wide swath of viewers, is probably not looking to simply make a quick buck.
That said, I don't think you can sacrifice story for message and IWTB certainly did that, to its detriment.
Overall I left the theater both intrigued and unsatisfied. As a standalone piece I don't think this film really holds up to scrutiny, but as a continuation of what came before it I think it was a bold and brave film to make.
If Carter had kept in mind more of what made the show great while he was working to stretch it to new levels, I think he would've had a real winner on his hands.
It seems unlikely, but I hope that Carter gets the chance to redeem himself. I think the X-Files really has a shot of coming back strong if presented in the right way.
I Want To Believe.
-Quoth the Raven
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Woo to the Hoo!
07/23/08 05:29 PM
I’ll post all the details of when and where it will appear as soon as I have them.
Happy, happy, joy, joy.....
-Quoth the Raven
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Film Review: Hellboy – The Golden Army
07/22/08 08:08 PM
My string of summer movie-viewing bliss, which started its joyful ascent with Iron Man and came to a frenzied peak recently with Dark Knight, has finally taken a nose dive.
This occurrence was inevitable and therefore to be expected, but what I didn't anticipate was the agent of my fall. Not from some promising but ultimately ill-conceived comedy or an explosion-filled action spectacle, but rather from a picture whose writer and director I truly admire.
Guillermo Del Toro created one of my favorite films of the last several years, the visually magical and socially evocative Pan's Labyrinth. Before that I had seen his work in the first Hellboy, which I also thought was beautifully rendered with a refreshingly playful plot.
While Del Toro has certainly retained his eye for wondrous creatures and creations in The Golden Army, the film's story suffers greatly from an overindulgence on smarmy dialogue and clichéd romantic tropes.
Spoilers Ahead
The film begins with a flashback of Hellboy as a child with Professor Broom on a military base. It's Christmas Eve and HB is excited and wants to stay up to see Santa. Broom denies this request, explaining that Santa won't come if they don't go to sleep, but acquiesces to his adopted son's insistence that his father read him a bedtime story. The fable Broom reads him is the legend of the Golden Army. The tale is rendered rather interestingly using wooden marionettes to represent the waring factions and is actually one of my favorite parts of the film.
The combatants in this war are the elves, goblins and other fantasy folk versus the humans which have suddenly sprung up and threatened to overrun them. The goblin king offers to make the elven leader a mechanical army to defeat their foes, controlled by a golden crown. The elven king agrees, but after seeing the devastation the golden arms creates he regrets his decision and breaks the crown into three pieces, two kept by the elves and one kept by the humans.
Flash forward to the present day and we have the son of the elf king, who disagreed with his father's decision, at an auction house where a piece of the crown is being sold. He nabs the piece and leaves the assembled guests with a nasty surprise to remember him by.
This finally brings us to the BPRD where we see Abe escorting the meddling Agent Manning around and explaining what he, Hellboy and Liz have been up to in their superior's absence. The scene serves as a way to bring the viewer up to speed and bridge the gap from the first film and mostly works in this regard, at least until we actually get to HB and Liz where we find the two squabbling over their domestic troubles.
This is where things start to unravel for me.
We've got Liz yelling at HB over his slovenly ways and HB complaining that Liz is overreacting and that she just doesn't understand him. The scene, which is supposed to be humorous and cute as well as an indicator that there's trouble in paradise, feels incredibly forced.
It's tempting to think that this might be the fault of the two leads. Admittedly Selma Blair, who plays Liz, has always been a bit hit-or-miss for me and I thought she was one of the weaker links in the original film. Ron Perlman on the other hand is a fantastic actor, those who don't believe me need only watch City of Lost Children to confirm this fact, but even he wasn't able to carry off the stilted, sappy dialogue.
Honestly, it's not that I didn't understand or even agree with what Del Toro was going for, it's just that it didn't work. I felt like I was watching an episode of The Honeymooners with Liz as the henpecking wife and HB as the emotionally-clueless hubby. Not to disparage classic television, but stereotypical views of men and women as myopic gender caricatures don't fly in this day and age. Not because there isn't some truth to them, but because they're just too simplistic.
Maybe this throwback style was intentional on Del Toro's part, but it came off to me as lazy writing and unfortunately it only got worse as the film progressed.
The scene ends with Liz and HB called away before they can completely tear down the BPRD with their fight, as the team is assigned to investigate the incident at the auction house and thus the main storyline begins.
I won't go into detail on the rest of the film, as I've already expounded more than I had intended to, but here's a summary of the events that follow:
A supernatural smoke creature with a German accent dressed in an old-timey, deep-sea, diver suit is appointed to lead the team. Liz and HB continue to bicker until a shocking revelation about their relationship turns it all around. The elven princess takes the final piece of the crown and flees from her brother until she eventually finds our heroes at which point she and Abe fall instantly in love. Abe and HB listen to a sad song and cry in their beers over their troubles with women. HB gets wounded, which makes everyone forget their arguments and go after the prince. There's a big battle that ends in love, loss and new beginnings. The End.
Oh, also, in the middle of the movie there's a big tree monster that's remorselessly crushing everything in sight, but apparently we're supposed to feel bad when it dies.
Most of the fight scenes were at least entertaining if not always terribly logical; the real problem with this film comes down to the two love stories. Hellboy's unrequited love in the first film felt fairly realistic and substantive. The relationship that replaces it tries too hard to paint the ups and downs of romantic coupling without ever ringing true. In Abe's case this failing is even more egregious and reduces one of the most interesting characters in the Hellboy world to a hormonal adolescent on a bad 50's sitcom.
I really wanted to like this movie, but it just couldn't function under the weight of its poorly rendered story. Maybe Del Toro was going for something classic when he wrote this script, but regrettably it comes off as clichéd camp.
Here's hoping his next film is a winner. Until then I guess I'll just re-watch Pan's Labyrinth.
-Quoth the Raven
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Film Review: The Dark Knight
07/19/08 03:39 PM
With the heap of positive reviews already out for this film it may be a bit redundant to add my praise to the pile, but I'd like to give my take on why I think this film worked so well without giving anything specific away.
Spoiler-Free Review Ahead
Before I start I should state that while I enjoyed Batman Begins, I wasn't enamored with it the way many have been. Don't get me wrong, I think Nolan's initial effort was a solid film, but I felt the third act had some definite structure and execution problems and that the villains in general came off as somewhat cardboard and cliché.
I mention this because I think a lot of people walked into Dark Knight riding high on the wave of Batman Begins, but personally I wasn't one of them. In truth I was a bit worried for the new film, since sequels often suffer from a lack of vision when compared to their progenitors and the original, as I said, already had issues.
Aside from my feelings about the first film, the only other preconceptions I had for Dark Knight came from the decision to cast Heath Ledger as The Joker. At first this seemed like a strange choice given Ledger's previous roles, which while good were far removed from superhero movies or action films. Also I must admit that his stature as one of Hollywood's pretty faces did make me think he might be wrong to play the disfigured, clowned-prince of crime.
After seeing some of the early clips and photos of Ledger in the role my opinion began to change and after viewing the movie I'd say that for me Ledger's Joker is the definitive screen representation. I still truly enjoy Nicholson's performance in the Tim Burton adaptation, but Ledger takes the character to a level that hasn't been seen before on film.
While Ledger's bravura performance is certainly one of the major highlights of the film, the real genius behind The Dark Knight is its take on the philosophy of morality. The dissection of good vs. evil and right vs. wrong is the central tenet of the film and it is woven throughout the movie in the arcs of the film's three central characters: Batman, The Joker and Harvey Dent.
It comes as no surprise that The Joker is an "agent of chaos", but the movie does an excellent job of expounding upon this idea and making it an actual viewpoint rather than just a tagline. At the same time there's no phony grandstanding with The Joker. The character doesn't come off as a holier-than-thou parental figure the way that Liam Neeson's Ra's Al Ghul did in the first film. Ledger's Joker simply does what he does; there is no reason why.
Batman and Harvey Dent have a more clouded perspective with both men trying to rid Gotham City of crime in their own way and each finding it increasingly difficult to do so while still staying true to their ideals. This is further complicated by their own personal feelings and ambitions, which is personified by their mutual affection for Rachel Dawes.
This struggle of how each man chooses to define morality is what makes Dark Knight such a compelling film. Add to this the exciting pacing, the stunning cinematography, the clever writing and the inspiring acting and you're left with something that makes you consider the essence of human nature all while providing an incredibly entertaining viewing experience.
In short, see this film. It's definitely worth your money, your time and your respect.
-Quoth the Raven
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New Poem
07/16/08 06:18 PM
Rather than trying to shoehorn it in, I decided to compose a new piece for Twitter and have placed my original composition up in the poetry section of this site.
The piece is called "Underhanded" and details the rivalry that beings of like minds sometimes fall victim to.
I hope you enjoy.
-Quoth the Raven
P.S. The new Twitter piece is also up.
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Teeny Weeny Poetry
07/09/08 08:23 AM
What's Twitter? You may ask.
Twitter is a micro blog service that's used to quickly convey small bursts of information. Each post, called a "tweet", can be no longer than 140 characters, which is about a line and a half of text in a standard word processor.
So what do you do with such a limited format?
Some use it as a replacement for group emails or text messages, while others employ it as a business tool for maintaining status updates on a project.
The biggest utilization however seems to be casual updates about a user's current status: "I'm eating a taco", "I'm watching The Venture Brothers on TV", "I got heartburn from the taco", "I'm taking some Tums", etc.
Personally I find this practice kind of ludicrous since the only thing more egotistical than writing about the mundane minutiae of your existence is expecting other people to read it. Then again I suppose that's what all blogging is essentially about and being that I'm currently composing an entry in one I guess I've just painted myself as a hypocrite (yet again).
So maybe I've misjudged this whole Twitter thing and should really give it a chance.
Still, I just can't see myself typing miniscule missives about my activities without at least having some kind of festive gimmick to make it more palatable and entertaining. That being the case, I've decided to utilize Twitter for the forces of creative good by wrapping my daily observations in a warm, fuzzy poetry blanket.
Since turning all my spare resources to fiction, I've come to miss writing poetry and I think this abbreviated format will give me a way back into the form without diverting too much of my time.
I'm not sure what the poems will look like as the character limitations will certainly shape and change my writing style. For now I'll just have to wing it (horrible double pun intended).
Those wishing to keep updated on the feed can sign up for a free Twitter account and then click the "follow" button under my name "ravenpen" or alternatively you can also just link to it from this site.
I hope this little experiment proves entertaining for all of us. Look for my first post sometime later today.
Update: First poetry tweet is up. Second tweet up.
-Quoth the Raven
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We Finally Got a Good One
07/04/08 10:01 AM
You may have noticed that I haven’t had much to say about it since then. That’s because the episodes…oh how can I put this…the episodes haven’t been very good, in fact most of them have been cliché, badly written, predictable and not particularly scary.
After the first installment, which I commented on in my initial post, I was a little worried, but the director of that episode was not someone whose work I particularly knew or cared about. The second show was directed by Brad Anderson, which I was definitely looking forward to. Unfortunately that one, while starting off strong, developed into a cheesy mess with an ending that was painfully silly and overacted.
Fast forward to the forth episode and we come to John Landis. This ep more than any of the others is the one I was psyched about. The premise about a bride-to-be whose slipped a note that she’s about to marry a serial killer is wonderfully ripe for the type of tongue-in-cheek humor that Landis excels at. For whatever reason Landis or the writers decided not to go in that direction and instead we get a weird, tension-laden piece that just didn’t work with the setup, especially the ending which I predicted in the first few minutes, but assumed they wouldn’t actually use given what happens in the rest of the episode.
So after four entires that ranged from lackluster to bad, I’d pretty much given up hope, but continued to watch the series because what the hell else do you do on a Thursday night. I had completely forgotten that this week’s show, titled Eater, was the Stuart Gordon directed one and from the very beginning I knew I was in for something different.
The setup is a trio of cops in their small-town police station charged with guarding a serial killer overnight before he’s transferred the next morning. I won’t got into anymore detail, but those curious can check out a full review.
Before you do that however, you should actually watch the episode.
Just make sure you haven’t had a big meal right before you do.
-Quoth the Raven
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Real Life Daredevil
07/01/08 10:27 AM
I know this story isn't technically writing or art related, and at least a couple years old, but it was the first time I’d seen it and it was just too remarkable to pass up.
It’s just unbelievable to me how this kid has been able to adapt to his lack of sight. Talk about talent and innovation, not to mention persistence and perseverance. I think the most incredible bit is his ability to play videogames. I know that sounds kind of silly given his other more practical abilities, but when you think about the fact that he’s fully interacting with something that complex based solely on minor nuances in sound it just blows me away.
At any rate, just wanted to share this incredible story with those who hadn’t seen it yet.
-Quoth the Raven
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Dark Knight Goes Back to Basics
06/27/08 06:33 PM
Everything from the daring aerial stunts to the gritty bank-robbery explosions were executed on location. The new Batmobile-inspired motorcycle is an actual vehicle that was created and driven around the streets of Chicago. Even the scene of Batman hanging off the top of the Sears Tower is real and if that weren’t impressive enough it turns out that the man behind the cape and cowl is actually Bale himself who decided he just couldn’t miss out on the opportunity.
“I said to Buster [Bale’s stunt double], ‘No you’re not. You get to do a lot of fantastic stunts. You’re not taking that one away from me.’”
Though he may have gone old-school for the effects, Nolan went high-tech with the shooting when he decided to film several of the movie’s more spectacular scenes using 70-millimeter IMAX film stock rather than the 35-millimeter used in standard motion picture cameras. This not only gives the film the ability to be shown on the enormous multi-story screens, but also gives the images a depth and richness that carries over to your plain vanilla multiplex as well.
Another interesting tidbit to come out of the article is the fact that Nolan dislikes doing overdubs and prefers to rerecord any garbled audio from a scene on set while the cast and crew and are still present. This sheds some light on how Heath Ledger had already finished all his work on this picture despite having tragically died while the film was still in the editing room.
I have to say that everything I’ve read about Dark Knight so far looks like they took incredible craft and care with this movie. While I certainly enjoyed Nolan’s first Batman film, I think this one is going to top it by a startling degree.
I’m waiting with popcorn in hand on opening night for this one, which considering where it was shot will be a bit surreal. It’s good to live in the new Gotham City.
-Quoth the Raven
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Thanks For All The Little Things
06/23/08 05:50 PM
Carlin in many ways was as much a sociologist as he was a comedian and his material was mostly constructed from his astute observations on society and its evolution. He was one of the first comics to satirize consumerism and our need as a species to accumulate things.
Later in his career he took on everything from politics to religion, performing a savage, satirical dissection of some of society’s most sacred subjects. Whether you agreed with Carlin or not it was hard to ignore him. He had a knack for calling things as he saw them and for removing some of the pomposity from everyday life.
Still, I think what I’ll remember Carlin most for is his humanity. More than anything I think he sought to break down society’s barriers in order to bring people together. So much of how we choose to define ourselves as people can end up blocking out others who see things differently.
To Carlin I think we were all just silly little creatures trying to stumble our way through life. Maybe that view makes us a bit less unique as individuals, but at least it puts us all in the same boat.
Rest in Peace George. I hope you’re having a good time wherever you are and that they’re letting you say whatever you want, even those seven little words you could never say on television.
-Quoth the Raven
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Grosser Than A Note From My Mother
06/21/08 01:14 AM
Just so no one thinks I'm making up excuses, here's a nice shot of the stitches from my mole removal:
I think my dermatologist did a top-notch sewing job, so much so in fact that with the clear thread it's almost hard to see the incision. For those curious about the procedure, the mole in question was about half the diameter of a pencil eraser. The incision was originally about half an inch wide and as the photo illustrates is about two inches long. This is obviously a lot larger than the mole itself, but the extra skin removal is necessary to get all of the potentially effected area.
Personally I got the little bugger removed for medical reasons, but some people also do it for cosmetic ones. This puzzles me a bit since the procedure leaves you with a nice little scar and I can't imagine how it would be favorable to just keeping the mole as far as appearance goes, but hey that's just me.
Anyway just wanted to prove I wasn't fibbing and show off my boss Frankenstein threads.
When it heals, this little beauty will go nicely with my modest collection of fun stitch jobs.
-Quoth the Raven
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Twenty-One Up
06/20/08 12:18 AM
Thanks again for your patience with the fluctuating schedule. I'll do my best to keep it as consistent as I can.
I'm going to try and get a bit ahead in the writing so that any schedule conflicts in the future won't derail the progress.
With any luck it should be smooth sailing from here on out.
-Quoth the Raven
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Twenty-One Delayed Again
06/11/08 07:17 PM
I’m currently in the midst of our busiest time at work, a series of days I lovingly refer to as hell week. My lunches and breaks have once again vanished and that being the case I don’t think I’m going to be able to post this week’s 21 installment. I have actually started writing it, but I don’t think I’ll have the time to finish and properly revise it the way I need to.
Next week I’m having a minor surgical procedure done on my arm, which may also slow me down a bit, but I think between this week and early next I should be able to finish and post page 18 to appear this coming Thursday, the 19th, so that the gap is only just this week.
Sorry again about this delay and thanks for your patience.
-Quoth the Raven
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NBC Brings Some Spooky to Summer
06/06/08 05:00 PM
Another trait of this scorching season is usually a dearth of horror entertainment on television. Though the cinemas pump out fright flicks pretty much year round, TV only seems to view October as worthy of such scary spectacles and does not deign to acknowledge such fare during the other eleven months.
At least not until this year.
NBC has decided to buck the trend and has come out with a summer series of scary stories appearing on Thursday nights under the moniker Fear Itself.
The series seems to be formatted similar to classics like The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits as well as the current Showtime program Masters of Horror, a little research revealed Mick Garris listed as the creator of both Masters and Fear. As in the above examples, the various tales and characters in Fear will change from week-to-week and are being helmed by some pretty notable names in the industry including: Brad Anderson the writer/director of Session 9, one of my favorite little indie horror films, Stuart Gordon director of cult classic Re-Animator and the incomparable John Landis who I feel personally indebted to for giving the world one of the great werewolf films of all time.
Those looking to pick and choose can consult the schedule to