The Writer’s Brain Never Stops

I’ve mentioned many times the werewolf story that is bedeviling me. Last night I went to bed with the story still pounding in my skull incomplete and useless.
After I fell asleep I dreamt. Nearly every dream in the night was about the werewolf story. Different takes, different points-of-view, different narrative structures in each dream. Sadly, none of them really worked either and all I ended up to show for it was a night of little sleep.
This is what it means to be a writer. Obsession over thing that you cannot control. Like sexuality it is something beyond your control.
Speaking of sexuality — go New Hampshire!

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Feeling Frustrated

I’ve got like half of a horror story in my head and it is driving me crazy that I don’t have the other half.
The problem isn’t plotting because I haven’t progressed to plotting on this idea yet. I know I want to write a werewolf story. I want to use werewolf mythology older than Hollywood’s. That is I do not want to use the tropes that were created, wonderfully I might add, for the film The Wolf Man.
I know I want to use teenagers and high-school and I might even want to make it a period piece set in the 1970’s, but I am still missing the undefined element that makes me go, Bang! I’ve got a story.
All sorts of elements and scenes have formed in my head and rough character outlines, but not everything I need.

It’s so terribly frustrating to be this close and not have what I need. It’s like when you;re trying to remember a name or title and it just will not come out of your head.

arrrrgg

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Too Tired

I’m too tired for much of a post tonight.
Work has been very busy and fairly stressful.

Also we are entering the period when I should be hearing back from Writers Of The Future on the submission Araceli

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Sunday Night Movies John Carpenter’s The Thing

So I sat down to consider which movie to watch as my Sunday Night Movie last night when I noticed that on my Netflix play now queue John Carpenter’s The Thing was going to expire on Monday. If I was going to watch it as a play now without the disc it had to be right then.
That was fine by me I was in the mood for a horror film.

John Carpenter’s The Thing (1981) is a remake of the Howard Hawks’ film The Thing From Another World (1951) and both used are their source material the story Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell. I have not read the original short story so I can’t compare the films as adaptations, but these films are great moments in the culture when they were made.

The Thing From Another World was made shortly after WWII and the culture of the military and the deep faith in the US military infuses every scene of the film. These military men are America’s best and most noble resource. Courageous and resourceful in the face of a blood drinking monster from beyond the planet these men do not despair and do not quit. The scientists of the movie are not evil, not cackling mad scientists here, but are naive in the evils that can exist in this world, evils that these military are well equipped to fight. This film ends upbeat but the the admonition to “Watch The Skies.” Evil can come again at any time and we must always be vigilant.

John Carpenter’s The Thing while released in 1982 is very much a 70’s movie. The viewpoint of people in general is a cynical one and the military men are now seen as misfits and malcontents either lost in their petty power structures, stoned out of reality, or rebels doomed to failure. These military men are unkempt disordered and far from vigilant. Faced with terror and the unknown they are more prone to panic and paranoia than competence and action. The scientists while still not portrayed as evil as more useless and powerless before the alien threat. The film ends more cynically and without optimism. There is no admonition to watch for anything, because doom, destruction, and death are our fates.

These two films makes fro quite a contrast to view. The special effects in the 1982 film are far superior, but that is to be expected. John Carpenter’s The Thing is perhaps John Carpenter’s best film, and he was well served by not composing the music for this film. (The man seems to have a very limited library of musical themes and he has used them all to death.) This movie is not without flaws. There are scenes that are edited together in a ham-fisted way, causing the characters to appear stupid when they were merely ignorant. (These are very different qualities.) Despite the warts though the film is worth watching, particularly when seen in conjunction with the Howard Hawks classic.

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An Amusing Contradiction

Takes a look at this picture. It a group a group of people protesting the agenda of the current administration to expand healthcare coverage in this country.
(It is interesting to note that there has not been a detailed plan put forward, do people are protesting the mere idea of expanding coverage not the method by which it is expanded.)
ocare1

There’s a very good chance that every person in this picture is currently on Medicare. Medicare is socialized medicine, the very thing that they are ‘protesting.’

Government healthcare for me but not for thee?

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Doctor Murdered

Breaking news today of an abortion providing doctor shot dead while at his church. It’s terribly that there are those who when they feel powerless strike out with violence and vengeance. I expect that for at least the next two years, and maybe longer, we will see an uptick in this sort of right-wing terrorism. I am not saying that because I think the right is more prone to terrorists acts than the left. Eco-terrorists and animal rights activist as engage in terrorist activity to promote there causes. While I do not have the data at my finger tips I would not be surprised to to find that the left-wing terrorist actions spiked from 2000-2006. During that time the congress, both houses, and the executive were controlled by the conservatives. The extremist faction on the left feeling powerless and helpless before their enemies would then become more prone to violent action. I think the same dynamic is at work now, but on the right. the Liberal control the congress, both houses, and the executive. the extremists on the right are going to feel powerless and under attack. That is a recipe for violence. We should not condemn everyone on the right or everyone everyone who feels that abortion is not a right. (That does NOT include me. I feel it is a right protected by the 9th amendment.)

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This is Seriously cool

First you have to know that this is not a real movie trailer. Evidently some people have been fooled by it even though the scenes used are from iconic films and very recent trailers.
That said, this is one of — if not the — best fan trailers for an unreal project I have ever seen. A friend of mine who doesn’t like superhero movies watched it and said “Damn I want to see that film.”

A major hat-tip to betnoir for putting this up on her livejournal.

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Prop 8 & The California Supreme Court

I can’t say I am surprised by the decision of the California Supreme Court to uphold proposition 8 and revoke the right to marry for gay couples, but I am saddened and concerned that we have to travel down this road.
My personal belief is that it isn’t the government’s business who we marry. I’m a fairly libertarian kind of guy always preferring to live and let live. However, because I want gay people to have fully the same rights I have does not mean I will gnash my teeth and spit venom over this ruling.
The state constitution is unclear what is a revision and what is an amendment. I could see the argument to overturn Prop 8 based on that premise — that it is a revision and not an amendment — but I can also see the weakness in the argument. The argument did not carry the day and now the fight returns to the ballot box. In the end I think the fight will be won by the right side and if the GOP continues to align itself strong with the opposing side then they are in for hard times.
However there is cause for concern. Right now in California any right not already secured and protected by the federal government is subject the whim of the majority. Fifty percent plus one is all it takes to revoke a right in California.
A constitutional republic is supposed to be about protecting the right of the minority and then has been terribly weakened this week.

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A Bad Buffy Idea

So there is talk about a Buffy The Vampire Slayer movie.
But wait, I hear you say, there already was a Buffy The Vampire Slayer movie back in 1992 and it sucked.
You are correct. Of course since then there has been a TV show that was produced my Joss Wheadon and showed us the true potential of his vision. (Seasons six and seven excepted of course.)
So maybe you ask, is Joss coming back to make a movie but done right, you know, like with Serenity?

Nope.

The people who made the original Buffy The Vampire Slayer want to make a reboot. Like with Batman and Star Trek and while they are open to working with Joss, it’s not high on their list of requirements.

I smell the stink already.

A bad Buffy Idea

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