Author Archives: Bob Evans

Movie Review: Wrath of the Titans

Sunday afternoon, after a pleasant trip to the zoo, my sweetie-wife and I went to the movies to catch Wrath of The Titans, a sequel the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans. Clash of the Titans was a fun popcorn romp, with lots of nice fantasy elements strung along a fairly thin father/son plot. I enjoyed it enough to buy the blu-ray when it was released.

Wrath of the Titans is not as good and if you thought that Clash of the Titans suffered from a think plot, brace yourself for the lack of plot that is Wrath of The Titans. Continue reading →

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Sunday Night Movie: Little Shop of Horrors

So here is the return of my regular feature the Sunday Night Movie post. I very nearly queued up my copy of Village of The Damned, the original not the boring John Carpenter remake, but at th3e very last moment decided I was in the moody for lighter fare and reached for the musical comedy.

This film has an interesting history. It started way back in 1960 as an extremely low-budget film from the prolific producer/director Roger Corman. Hollywood legend has it that the original film The Little Shop of Horrors was created as part of a bet with Corman and another filmmaker as to who could make a feature film the quickest. (Wikipedia states production was all of two days.) The horror/comedy is best know as the big screen debut of Jack Nicholson as a masochistic dental patient. Continue reading →

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Zoo picture

Thanks to the fantastic work of my chiropractor, me sweetie and I went to the zoo today and I took my camera along. I haven’t taken my camera in ages because even the slight weight of a digital camera seem like a lot when my knees start hobbling me.

Today we walked for more than an hour and I had no knee pain. We left in order to have lunch before seeing a movie. (Review tomorrow)

Here’s what I think is the best pic I took today. It’s a North American Grizzy, though not fully grown.

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Writing update

First the sad news, though in the scheme of things is not very sad, my mystery story “A Question of Justice” is failing to launch. I’ve gotten several hundred words into the story and I can feel that I am on the wrong track. I can’t see what the right track is, but I know I am not on it.
On the upside, my novel “Command and Control” is working. It has taken me a bit of work to get back into the rhythm of writing, and as anyone who knows me can assure you rhythm is not my strongest trait. Thursday night I managed to complete a 1st draft of the opening chapter. It surprised me by coming in at a whopping 32 pages. That’s a very large chapter for me. I may let some people read just the chapter for early feedback.
Because it was written with Scriveners and that ahs changed my approach in a mechanical sense, I’m not sure how much of a content and stylistic change it might have effected in my prose.
Still, I am very happy with the direction to novel is taking and unlike the short story I feel entirely comfortable with its trajectory.

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Friday Fun

Note, this it is not friday Funnies. Today I want to share a new show with you. You can’t find it on your regular TV channels, but on YouTube, where there’s a wonderful channel called Geek and Sundry.
After the cut is Episode 1 of a show produced and hosted by Wil Wheaton called ‘Tabletop.”
It’s a show where celebrities join Wil around a table and play a board game. It’s about 30 min long and frankly I really loved it.
Continue reading →

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Playing with the crystal ball

So let’s warm up the crystal and see if I can peer into the future.
Let’s say that the Supreme Court upholds the ACA either in it’s entirety in a 5-4, or a more narrow ruling with something like a 6-3 split. (Sounds like bowling for precedents.)
The Republican base, energized by the need to repeal the ACA, recovers their enthusiasm, holds the House, takes the Senate and the White House in the trifecta of American Politics, but their hold on the senate is less than 60 votes.
What happens after that?
Well the Republican base demands that the House pass the repeal of the ACA, Romney says he will sign it, and the Bill goes to the Senate, where the Democrats filibuster it. ACA= tyranny and as tyranny cannot be allowed on a procedural trick, the Republican initiate their nuclear option and destroy the filibuster. The repeal passes on a party line vote, amid a storm in insults, shouting, and images of sick people without healthcare, and Romney signs it.
The filibuster once broken, even if the rules were changed for just one vote and then changed backed, is forever a dead letter. The Republicans, knowing that all power is fleeting, use the newly empowered government to pass tax cuts and changes along more party line votes.
What happens, when it must eventually occur, when the Democrats have the three institutions under their control? Of course they will pass the legislation they have long desired and wanted, using the same techniques with the same party line vote tallies.
This could also start the other way, ACA is struck down, and the Democrats hold the Senate and White House and regain the House. (Fairly unlikely I think.) Then blowing up the filibuster and on a party line vote they sweep into existence a single-payer system. Etc etc.
Of course, by that point, we no longer a system of stable laws and government as each change in power can lead to a whiplash of new laws, repeals, and changes controlled only by the whim of political passions.

This is not a good thing. This scares me.

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Nook tablet vs. Apple iPad

I purchased a couple of years ago an ebook reader, the EZReader Pro. It worked fine, but I discoverfd I adopted too soon and the device while perfectly functional doesn’t meet all the needs I have for a good portable reader.
I know that one day I want to get myself a tablet, the question is which one? Continue reading →

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Getting back into the groove

So now that injuries, illness, and contests have been taken care of, at least for a little while, I can get back to the writing schedule I was trying to maintain.

Today I managed to pull out the short story “A Question Of Justice,” and resume work. This is the mystery story and represents a departure for me. I have never written a mystery and certainly never one that lacked all the fantastic elements found in SF, Horror, and Fantasy. (Though I suppose an argument could be made that ghost stories are often mysteries, with the reader and protagonist trying to unravel the reason for the haunting. My story “The House Of Bad Blood,” falls into that vein, but I would still maintain I have not written a proper mystery before.)

While I did not get much written today at lunch – when I am working on short subjects – I did get the story moving again. (Sadly I was unable to resist the sirens of the internet.)

Tonight I will get back to work on “Command and Control,” my new Seth Jackson novel. If that goes well tonight then I shall be happy to be back in the saddle.

 

I’ve also had a setting, more properly a concept, floating around in my head for a new SF novel. It would concern a nebula as seen from Earth, but from a vantage point much closer the nebula vanishes and instead there is a planetary system with inner rocky planet and out gas giants. Of course a ship is sent to study this stranger system up close.

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