Monthly Archives: April 2020

Post Release Thoughts

So, it hasn’t quite been a month, ten more days for that mark on the calendar, since my first novel Vulcan’s Forge has been published and I have a few reactions to the whole process.

Naturally I was a little bummed that the sole event tied to its release a signing at Mysterious Galaxy was canceled due to the stay at home order issued here in California just seven days before the book’s release but I’m happy our governor took the action as our state is weathering the crisis better than nearly any other.

Amazon seems to be utterly unreliable as a source of sales information. Though I know for certain books were sold via Amazon directly and more from other sources neither Amazon nor Bookscan is reporting that information so I have no idea how well or poorly the sales numbers are.

The Blog Tour where a different book blogger reviewed the book each day of its release week was quite enjoyable. All of them gave the book varying levels of positive reviews which is nicely gratifying for a novel that I wrote entirely to my own personal tastes.

Speaking of reviews a few have popped up on Amazon that are not from the blog tour and reading those has been informative. It’s quite interesting to see the various lenses and filters people bring to the process. All of the reviews have been positive, 4 and 5 stars so far, but eventually it will land in the hands of someone who hates it.

Overall especially dealing with this pandemic I have been very happy with the novel’s debut.

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Noir Review: The Sniper

Recently a friend and I watched The Sniper as part of The Criterion Channel’s March programing of Columbia Noir. This movie, released in 1952, is shockingly relevant today and presents a story and complexity about its central character well ahead of its time.

Directed by Edward Dmytryk, who also gave us one of my favorite films The Caine Mutiny, and written by Harry Brown, The Sniper is focused on Edward Miller a troubled young man recently released from prison. Miller struggles against a deep-seated hatred of women and after a couple of attempts to get help fail and he is romantically rejected Miller loses control and begins a murderous spree as a sniper killing dark haired women. The police led by Lieutenant Frank Kafka and his partner Joe Ferris are nearly helpless to catch Miller. Stuck in a mindset that looks for motive their focus on peeping toms and men with a history of sexual assault their investigation gets nowhere until the department’s psychologist Dr. Kent, redirects their attention by use of what would eventually become psychological profiling. In a final inversion of classic film tropes, the ending doesn’t rely upon exciting gunplay but instead leaves the viewer with a haunting image of a man in pain.

When we decided to watch The Sniper with its subject matter of random murder we expected a film that leaned heavily towards the exploitive but instead we were treated to a thoughtful, though occasionally didactic, and serious treatment of the problems American society has, then and now, in dealing with psychological trauma and the use of a prison system in lieu of hospitals. Aside from one scene where the plot is brought to a full stop to allow for speechmaking by the filmmakers The Sniper does an excellent job of presenting its themes within the context of a compelling narrative. This one is well worth seeking out and watching.

 

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2016 versus 2020

Barring extraordinary circumstances, and really how likely is that (*cough cough*) we have our contenders for the 2020 United States presidential contest this fall, Trump and Biden. As we look forward to the elect it is instructive to look back at the last cycle and consider some of the things that worked in Trump’s favor in that election and ask how they may have changed for this one.

First off, Biden is not Hillary Clinton. For whatever reason and however large a part misogyny may have played a part in it, Hillary Clinton carried 30 years of vicious political baggage going into that November. Clinton’s candidacy provoked intense reactions that appear to be absent, fairly or unfairly, with Biden. I am not diagnosing why, only observing the effect. Biden is not attempting to counter such levels of visceral hate robbing Trump of that advantage.

In 2016 for those inclined to be charitable Trump was an unknown. There existed in the air the expectation that the immense responsibilities of the office could not leave any person unchanged and that would lead to Trump becoming ‘presidential.’ I think that there was also an attitude that disregarded all of the troubles reporting on trump, his behavior, his disregard for the truth, as simply part of politics and thus turned such things into a non-factor. After a term as president, Trump character is fully revealed and his approval number show that he’s had a difficult time convincing anyone beyond his base of his worthiness.

Perhaps the most important difference between the 2016 and 2020 elections is that it is no longer considered an impossibility that Trump can win.

Five Thirty-Eight on the eve of the election gave the odds of a Trump victory as 1 in 3 and they were roundly mocked for that assessment as so many thought it was by far too generous to Trump.

The L.A. Times predicted an electoral college victory for Clinton of 332 to 206.

Fox News favored Clinton in the E.C. with 274 to 215.

The Associated Press had her at 274 to 190.

The accepted consensus view was that the election was a mere formality to Clinton claiming the presidency and that the evening would prove to be terrible dull of political watchers.

What happened was that by a margin of about 70,000 votes in three states Clinton lost the electoral college. How many people stayed home because they ‘knew’ the outcome? How many people didn’t bother to vote because they ‘knew’ that there was no need to stop Trump because he had already lost? If you ‘know’ that the lying, racist, fool can’t win there’s no need to put yourself through the psychological trauma of ‘holding your nose’ and voting for someone you dislike. It doesn’t matter.

But of course, it did matter.

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Sunday Night Movie: Ghost Stories (2018)

Two years ago the British anthology horror film Ghost Stories was released to a limited run the States; a run that my sweetie-wife and I missed. The movie is currently on the streaming service Hulu and last night we gave the horror film a spin.

Written and Directed by Andy Nyman & Jeremy Dyson with Dyson also playing the lead character Phillip Goodman the film is an adaptation of their stage play about Professor Goodman’s investigation of three paranormal events as he tried to debunk them into rationality.

You would not know that this is an adaptation from a live theater event. Nyman and Dyson have done a terrific job of translating the material for the visual media of film. The movie is filled with delicious and unsettling imagery and many segments build suspense masterfully. The framing device of Goodman’s post event investigation is tried and true cinematic method of linking what would normally be three unrelated narratives. In Ghost Stories though it turns out that the three stories are not unrelated but rather share a central narrative that is an outgrowth of Goodman’s own issues, guilt, and motivation.

Sadly, that is where Ghost Stories fails me. While there are others that count this as their favorite horror film of 2018 (or 2017 if you are looking at UK release dates) it falls apart at the ending. Endings are a critical time for all narratives, it is where the point and meaning if the story comes into clarity and conflicting themes are finally resolved. Nyman and Dyson do that but in such a manner that I found it frustrating and wholly unsatisfying. To reveal this exact shape of this failure would require venturing heavily into spoiler territory but I will say that my sweetie-wife predicted the ending a good ten minutes before it resolved. Naturally your mileage may vary on how well the ending does or does not work for you but for me it ruined what had been a very enjoyable ride with a destination that was a thrilling and exciting as depilated bus terminal.

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Bernie Blew It

Senator Bernie Sanders (I) failed for the second time to take over a political party of which he was not a member. The reasons for his failure are not something that is easily testable. Every election is a one-off with many unique variables but I think there are few reason assumptions that can reached.

Sanders did quite well in the 2016 primary battle against Hillary Clinton but the vote level he achieved were not an indication of his own or his ideas popularity but a mixture of those who supported him for his stands and those voting for him because he was not Clinton. I don’t think Bernie ever quite understood just how much of his success, and that success was still less popular than Hillary Clinton’s, was an expression of a desire for someone, anyone, other than the former Secretary of State. This led Bernie into thinking that for 2020 he had a much higher base to build upon and feeds into his misguided plan of attack to win the nomination, a popular political revolution.

When asked throughout this extended campaign season how he was going to enact his seeping and revolutionary policies Sanders responded that his candidacy was going to energize and mobilize a vast number of people who had never participated in the political process. This wave of new voters would sweep into power not just Sanders but an entire new class of elected officials that shared his philosophy and would remake the face of American politics.

Bernie’s army never materialized at the polls.

Without his mythical army of new voters Sanders exposed as a factional candidate and he failed to adapt to this. Instead of seeing that his core message and support was limiting his ability to grow his voter base and win the nomination Bernie ‘doubled down’ on his message and relied on stubbornness and his own power of personality to take over the Democratic party. You can respect him for staying committed to his ideals, to refusing to show any sign of compromise, but in the Democratic party as it is currently constituted that is far from enough to win majority support.

None of this underscores the effect Sanders has had on American politics. He has dragged the Democratic party to the left and the policies proposed by other candidates and getting wide support are much further to the left than anything since before the rise of Reaganism and had Bernie himself been willing to meet the party part way he may have done better but he did not.

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To Hold onto Power the GOP is Willing to Kill You

We are living through a global pandemic and to gather in large crowds is to take a risk to your life a risk that grows greater with your age. Wisely, many states, though not all, have issues orders and guidelines for the population to stay in their homes, to avoid close proximity to other people, and take other precautions to void becoming infected or passing the virus to others. 2020 is also an election year and recognizing the importance of both our electoral and health civic duties many states have postponed their primary and other elections while also instituting procedures allowing people to vote by mail ensuring that both duties are honored.

Except for Wisconsin.

Wisconsin held an election this week, April 7th, 2020 to be precise. The Governor, Tony Evers, a Democrat, had called the legislature into a special session to deal with the electoral issue during their pandemic crisis. The Republican controlled body gaveled themselves into session and then immediately disbanded the session without taking any action or debate at all. They were equally unwilling to make voting by mail any easier even as the virus continues to spread throughout the nation and their state. Milwaukee normally has 180 polling station for an election, due to people fears of coming out and gathering in large numbers so many volunteer polls quit that the city was forced to conduct its election with just five polling stations.

The GOP sees this election as critical. The state is filling a spot on the Wisconsin Supreme court and if the conservative can win the seat it will cement a conservative majority on the panel. It is axiomatic for conservatives that low turnout elections benefit the Republican party and apparently, they are willing to do anything to depress turnout and win including placing the voting population in peril of a deadly infectious disease.

Here is Wisconsin Speaker of the Assembly Robin Voss and how he appeared at a polling station to advise the public it was ‘incredibly safe’ to show up to vote.

Photo from CNN

This portends badly for the November elections. The popular vote has been trending against the GOP for several elections and rather than adjusting their stands to conform with the public they would rather disenfranchise and kill voters. I hope this blows up in their face. I hope that in Wisconsin the voters brave enough and committed enough to show up and stand for hours with other people are the ones dedicated to seeing the perversion of democracy ended. Only time and the vote total will tell.

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Captain America: Was He Always Worthy?

This post will have spoilers for Marvel’s Avengers movies.

I recently started a re-watch of the MCU’s Avengers and Captain Americafilms. This has coincided with the one-year anniversary of the release of Avengers: Endgame and people are sharing videos of crowd reactions to key moment from that movie. A popular moment to share is when Captain America in the climatic battles against Thanos wield Mjolnir. It is a moment when the audience reacts wildly and enthusiastically and even after having seen the movie several times both in the theaters and at home one that still stirs my own blood.

Earlier in the cycle of MCU movies, specifically in Avengers: Age of Ultron, at a celebratory party various characters attempt to lift Mjolnir but the enchantment upon the weapon specifies only one who is worthy can wield the hammer and with it the powers of Thor. Character after character make the attempt and Thor’s hammer remains utterly immobile. When Steve Roger, Captain America and in many ways the moral compass of the MCU, tries the hammer rocks and Thor immediately reacts with apprehension but Cap doesn’t lift it and Thor relaxes.

The question becomes; When did Cap become worthy? Or Was he always worthy and chose not to lift the hammer at the party?

It can be argued that he was always worthy and felt the hammer rock under his grip and did not lift it to save his friend embarrassment. (Not to mention that Cap lifting it early in the movie would have undercut Vision’s wielding of Mjolnir and proving his worthiness to the Avengers when they doubted him.) Steve is a decent fellow and would be very considerate of Thor’s pride but I am not persuaded by this line of argument. I think at the time of Age of Ultron Cap was nearly worthy but not yet there.

In Captain America: Civil War Steve paternalistically keeps the truth of the murder of Tony Stark’s parents secret from Tony and this lie ruptures the Avengers. At the end of the film in his letter to Tony he confesses that really he wasn’t protecting Tony but himself. Steve too scared to confront the hard truth with Tony. It is this moment of self-realization that clears that last of the moral clutter away from Steve’s nature and I think allowed him to be worthy for that amazing moment in Endgame.

 

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Everything Old is New Again

Back in the golden age of Hollywood the movie studios owned the entire economic chain of a film. An MGM movie would be conceived, written, produced, shot, and edited on studio property and then the film would be shown to the paying public at an MGM theater with all the proceeds going back to MGM and this was true for all the major studios. Minor studios and independent production companies had a devil of time getting their product to the public because even if there were independent theaters the studios used their enormous leverage to lock up the auditoriums for their own product. You want the next hit movie from 20thCentury Fox? Well then you have to take all Fox films including the lower half of their double bills know as ‘B’ features. This came to an end with the Paramount Decree in 1948 when using its anti-trust powers, the US Government forced the studios to sell off their exhibition businesses. In November of 2019 the Department of Justice announced it was withdrawing from the Paramount Consent Decree.

AMC Theaters is the largest movie theater chain in the world with more than 8200 screens in the United States alone. March 17th, 2020 AMC closed all of its theaters due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. April 2nd the Hollywood Reporter posted that the credit rating for AMC theaters had been downgraded amid concerns that it was unable to withstand the financial shock of the crisis and the closing of all theaters.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that Disney doesn’t like anyone getting a cut of their cash.

I suspect that given that AMC was not in the best financial shape before the pandemic killed the summer released schedule and with the DOJ withdrawing from the Paramount Consent Decree that they will swoop in with their vast economic might and buy AMC theaters from the Chinese company that currently holds majority control. They probably will not lock out films from other production companies, after all why not get their beaks wet by tasting the profits from Universal and their other competitors?

I don’t know what final form the exhibition business will take but I do know it is going to change.

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Sunday Night Movie: Murder by Contract

Apparently, the Criterion Channel recently dropped a bunch of noir films into their streaming service. Yesterday as I browsed the ‘recently added’ queue I stumbled across noir after noir and the titles were unknown to me. Under the limitations of a time and temperament I selected Murder by Contract as the one to watch Sunday night.

Hailing from 1958 Murder by Contract is a low budget quickly produced film noir centered on Claude and man with large dreams and no empathy. Claude leaves the respectable life of an upright citizen and becomes an assassin for the mob in order to secure the funds for his dream home. Curious for a character of this type and profession Claude rejects firearms for most of his contracts and quickly establishes himself as a killer of unusual competence. The mob sends Claude out west to Los Angeles where he meets up with two local hoods, George and Marc, for the most challenging assignment of his cruel career where nothing goes as anyone planned.

Though the word is never used in the film Claude is presented as a sociopath. He professes to have taught himself to have no feeling but it is more likely that this is a justification for the character than an actual achievement. His intellect and cool demeanor carry him through most of his assignments unperturbed but as this final contract goes awry the illusion of his self-control crumbles.

Shot in seven days Murder by Contract presents the material in a spare and unadorned style. Aside from Vince Edwards as Claude who would later go on to portray Doctor Ben Casey from 1961 thru 1966, the aspect of casting that leapt out to me was that four future Star Trek (the original series) guest actors also appeared in the crime drama, Phillip Pine, who played the genocidal Colonel Green in the episode The Savage Curtain, is the hoodlum Marc, Kathie Brown plays a secretary who moonlights as an escort and she appeared in the episode Wink of an Eye as Deela one of Kirk’s alien romantic conquests, Joseph Mell who plays Harry also was in the pilot for Star Trek as a trader from Earth who sparks Pike’s interest in the Orion slave woman, and finally David Roberts as a Hall of records clerk but got a promotion to doctor for the episode The Empath.

While lacking the depth of characterization found in classic noir such as Double Indemnity and with a jazz inspired soundtrack that bordered on irritating, Murder by Contract still proves to be an interesting entry in the sub-genre from the end of its classical period.

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The Two Visions of The Marvel Cinematic Universe

Recently I have been watching video essays from the YouTube channel Implicitly Pretentious about the thematic nature of the MCU and its characters which inspired a re-watch of the Avengers cycle of films. My original intention had been to, over an extended period, watch just the four Avengers films but that fell apart once I completed The Avengers and decided to include the Captain America films as part of this cycle making the list of movies: The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Solider, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and finishing the series with Avengers: Endgame. Since I have seen all of these movies, I am not committed to watching any single film in a single seating but rather breaking the individual films up over two or more nights. I am currently in the midst of Civil War.

What has been fascinating to watch is the different tones struck by the different guiding visions of the MCU. While the entire project is under the hand of Kevin Feige the MCU has been under the influence of two principle visions and they are contrasted in this series of films.

Joss Whedon wrote and directed the first two Avengers films while the Captain America movies and the final two Avengers films were directed by Joe and Anthony Russo and written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely. (Side note: when you see the ‘&’ symbol in an American film’s writing credits it means those people worked as a team on the script and where the word ‘and’ connects writers it mean one wrote and then another came in and rewrote the screenplay.)

Implicitly Pretentious suggested in one of his essays that Joss Whedon’s view of humanity is one of cynicism and I think that he is not far off with the assessment. Ultron’s assertion that everyone creates what they fear and their own destruction even including children as something to be feared and something that is a threat is an inherently cynical philosophy. Whedon often coasts his cynicism with a heavy icing of snark and humor. His dialog is snappy, witty, and quotable but underneath it lies a dark view of the world and humanity’s place in it.

With the Russo brothers, Markus, and McFeely there is a much more positive interpretation of humanity. There is a nobility that fights in the face of evil and this is a theme returned to several times in their cycle of films. Consider Captain America’s effect on non-enhanced characters in two scenes by the two teams of filmmakers.

In The Avengers Captain America needs a local police officer to follow Cap’s direction to safeguard trapped civilians and set a parameter to limit the immediate damage. The cop incredulously asks why should he listen to Cap? At that moment alien warriors attack Cap and with an impressive display of strength and skill Cap dispatches the several opponents. The police office reverses his opinion and implements Cap’s orders. The most charitable interpretation is that officer is impressed with Cap’s skills as a warrior and follows the order of the stronger fighter. A less forgiving view would be that the officer is intimidated by Captain America but in neither case is the officer inspired.

Captain America: The Winter Solider presents us with a different view on Cap and his effect on others. Cap and his small team infiltrates S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ to prevent the launching of HYDRA’s plan to subjugate the world. Cap has no idea how many of the SHIELD agents are actually ones loyal to HYDRA, but he makes an impassioned plea over the loudspeakers for people to rally to his fight, to stand for freedom and against the coming tyranny. Throughout the base people unlimber arms and take up Cap’s fight but the most emotional moment is when an unnamed character who is not a fighter sits with a gun literally at the back of his head and under the threat of his immediate murder refuses to comply with a HYDRA agent’s command. He is terrified but holds fast to what is right because he has been inspired. The unnamed character returns in Avengers: Age of Ultron but Whedon’s script and direction treats the him most unfairly.

There is a clear and distinct difference between these two visions of the MCU and there is no doubt I prefer the one presented by the Russo brother and Markus & McFeely.

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