Pulp

I've be looking through this fascinating collection of "pulp" magazine covers. Hundreds of covers. This stuff is gorgeous. The colors and composition. "Evocative" is the word. Each cover immediately sends you into a world. Here are just a few that stood out to me.

Oh, jesus! A giant flying buzz saw of death!
I believe this one is pretty famous. This is what aliens look like in my nightmares (except without the weird duck feet).
Why are albino gorillas so freaky? Even ones that look to fat to stand up and can only throw rocks?
Temptress of Planet Delight! Or is it Deliyht? Or Deliyhj? Either way, I love the composition. The flowing of her yellow dress like flames balanced by the harsh orange-yellows of the explosion below.
I have no idea what to even say about this one except you can see why Congress was worried about the effect it was having on the nation's youth.
Okay, not great art. But art to not post.

It occurs to me that this all has the making of yet another improv project I probably won't get around to: Randomly select any of the covers from this collection and use that as the suggestion. After that it pretty much works its own magic.

(via Papa Scott)

Del's Amazing Wood Thingamajig

(via Boing Boing)

My Schedule, My Slump

I've been trying to be better about updating my "Where To Find Me" section that you can find to the right. While it isn't always accurate since I sometimes decide to stay home at the last moment, it probably hit about 90% true.

I was noticing that I am doing or seeing improv almost constantly this week. I've been accused of being a UCB junky before (or worse, a UCB groupie). Whatever. I like the craft.

But lately I have been in a slump. Maybe I am just seeing my flaws more. Maybe I am seeing my flaws and that is making me skittish... making me make even more mistakes. (Yeah, yeah. "There are no mistakes in improv." That is a lie. You make mistakes all the time. It's just that if you are good you can make beauty from the mistakes.) Maybe I'm plateauing. Happens to lots of people at a similar place to where I am. I just wish my plateau was at higher level.

Either way, I have to slog through the slump. One way for me to do that is to keep working my ass off. And to keep watching. One, to learn from others. And two, to keep my passion for improv high.

Also in the post-Idiotarod world (and post-other things), it's good to keep busy. Improv is cheap (especially if you are taking classes). In the 7 hours of improv/sketch I plan to see this week, I will spend a grand total of $5 (not count PBRs).

But even I will admit looking at the list... I look pretty one dimensional. So if anyone out there has something better for me to do, speak up!

Something ELSE I shouldn't talk about here...

While working my tuckus off getting done all the things I still need to get done this week, I began to think of other things that I want to do. Something that I am a tad embarrassed to mention. Something that I've wanted to do for years but repress because it is hard to find someone willing... preferably a few people who are willing. And a time commitment. But while taking a bath tonight, washing off some paint, I was thinking back to the last time a did it and the desire came back in a rush.

I want to game.

And when I say game, I mean pen and paper, plastic polyhedral dice gaming. Roleplaying. RPG. In terms the rest of you might understand (but not understand why I hate using this particular term), D&D. Dungeons and Dragons.

I don't want to play D&D. But something else. vSomething of my own making. See, I always have stories flying around my head. Thousands of stories. Some of these stories are suited to big books, novels (like the one yesterday about the first robot to run for the U.S. Senate). Some are suited to short stories (like the Valentine's Day horror story of the suspicious man who discovers his girlfriend is the first succubus but only loves him). Some suited to radio play (like the invasion of earth by everyone's parallel twin). Or a sketch (man goes on a series of dates with Google, Wikipedia and YouTube). Or a play (The Last Sad Days of Squirrel-Boy). But some stories, certain stories in my head, are suited to roleplaying.

The best experiences roleplaying I had were playing in an alternate dark New York. A New York of shadows and demons and magic. Still the New York we know, but behind the nameless doors are things that are best not spoken of. Lovecraftian Noir with a thick slice of punk and faerie tale. Nothing new there, I know. But that is the thing with roleplaying: it is always new when playing with smart people.

I miss that. I miss the creation from nothing. Improv is a bit like it, and it is certainly better suited to be watched. But to experience a truly evolving story, to be part of it, to have a moment when everyone at the table is near tears at just the story... that is special.

Sigh. I'm such a geek.

(I also took some time out today to see Children of Men. Wow. More on that later, but... wow.)

To keep on hand for Monday morning

How Hangovers Work.

Hope you all have a glorious New Year's Eve and a not to painful New Year's Day and a mindblowing, fantastic, rewarding, warm, sexy, loving, pleasing, laugh filled, magic packed, crazy in a good way 2007.

C.O.B.R.A. presents the 2007 Idiotarod

As it is late in the evening, I won't go into this in much detail right now. Just that the Idiotarod... the greatest sporting event to grace this planet... is coming in just two months. TWO MONTHS! January 27. Mark it on your calendar. Mark it well. Start "obtaining" those carts. Start building that team. Get ready.

Go to the site. Talk on the forums. Sign my butt. Teach me to read. (A cookie to the first person you names that movie.)

Because this is the Idiotarod C.O.B.R.A. style. The world will never be the same again.

(I apologize for all of the labels... The Idiotarod crosses so many boundaries.)

Four Eyed Monsters opening in NYC

I've talked about the film Four Eyed Monsters before. You've you've seen it, great! Go see it again. If you haven't, you owe yourself a treat. If you don't trust me, go to their website and check it out. Watch the podcast (start at episode 1). You'll be hooked in no time.

After a year plus of screening here and there, they are getting a real run at Cinema Village starting Friday, December 1st. Go go go. Really. Not just because it is a great movie, but because they are trying to change how films are distributed.

Pre-NaNo Inspiration

I'm in the Tea Lounge trying to finish writing my sketch for class. Meanwhile, I've been trying to find a "best friend" for my novel's main character. And I am listening to a Kurt Corbain-look-alike play guitar and play Wheels on the Bus for a gaggle of under 4 year olds and their West Indian nannies. He seems to be enjoying himself, but what if he was more like ol' Kurt? What would have Kurt been like if he had never formed Nirvana and became a coffeehouse children's music performer? But still shot herorin?

I have my best friend.

Back to the sketch. Jane is about to start nursing her dog.

Four Eyed Monsters: This is how it changes

After months of watching their amazing vidcast, I finally saw the actual movie. Wonderful film. I don't want to use the term unflinching, because that isn't quite right. It is full of flinching. It makes you, the viewer, cringe in the best possible way. Capturing that struggle of finding that "other," how language doesn't come close to conveying your true thoughts, how you don't even know your own true thoughts, how art can seem so distant and unachievable but yet is the only way to speak.

To paraphrase: "I am going to say something... and I am going to film it."

For such a simple film, it work so beautifully on so many levels. Especially on the issue of art... and truth. Which makes the film seem mindboggingly pretentious, which it is not. It is slyly aware of it's place, yet manages to exceed that place. In spirit it reminded me of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Combine it with their vidcasts and you have a piece of meta (yes, I hate that term too) that is excruciating true. And for all it's flinch worth cringy excruciating pain, it never drops to melodrama.

Yes, I liked Four Eyed Monsters.

Afterwards, I walked home and thought of just going to sleep. But the urge to talk to the film makers overtook me, and I headed off to Soda Bar to see if they were there. They were. Let me say that Susan Bruice and Arin Crumley are just plain nice. Friendly, nice, open folks. Rambling conversations about truth, autobiography, the future of the internet, open source, art, financing, the future of film distribution, etc. These are amazingly real people.

So, go to their website. Watch the vidcast. Fill out a request for a screening in your neck of the woods.

Also, a note on the generosity of people: I have been frozen by the world, by pain, by this city. Recently, tonight in particular, I was reminded about how good people can be. It saddens me GREATLY that I am unable to either receive or return this. I hope it is temporary. But the fact is that I have destroyed so much good, have rejected it. If I was whole, if I was able to process the good that is passed towards me... Wow. I want to, and I am trying to, but I haven't yet. I pains me and to watch it pain others... Oh, hell. I can feel love, feel it embrace me, desperate to comfort me, yet I am still unable to accept it.

Sigh.

Confessions

Somethings I feel like I need to get off my chest:

- I like vacuuming but I don’t like lugging the vacuum cleaner around. I also have a vacuum cleaner that is worth more than my computer.

- I have an unhealthy relationship with cheese and Coke w/ Lime and Hot Pockets.

- If someone got me reservations at Mesa or Per Se tomorrow night, I wouldn't blink about spending $500.

- I want to eat the offal meal at The French Laundry.

- I can and do use the word “mythos” in reference the superhero genre. With a straight face.

- I like television and I love my Tivo.

- I try to limit what shows I watch regularly but the list gets large quickly. Currently? Lost, Gilmore Girls, Project Runway, Battlestar Galactica, Rollergirls, The Office, 24, The Boondocks and Survivor. I will add The Amazing Race and The Venture Brothers when they start up again.

- I still believe that, in general, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the best show that has ever been on television.

- I watch the Food Channel more than I cook.

- I applied to be on Survivor and got an interview. My audition tape was quite good, as was my interview. But there are only so many over 30 skinny white boy slots.

- I almost applied for the next cycle of Survivor. But the application was due on Feb. 3rd and I was going to film my tape at the Idiotarod and things got to hectic to thing about lugging around a camera.

- I cheated in a relationship once. And the sex was horrible. It was a drunkin' thing. Afterwards (right after the deed), I casually, because I could think of nothing else to say, mentioned that I had had never used a ribbed condom before. She thought I said "ripped condom" and panicked a bit until I cleared it up.

- I have a desire to do a podcast. Radio drama thing. I wrote a mini-script last night. But my computer is chugging a bit these days. But I may upgrade in March and get the new iLife and see what happens.

- The morning after I cheated, I had to go to a set strike with both women. Later that night (after ending it with both of them), I got drunk with ANOTHER gal that I dated the next semester.

- I chew paper.

- I don't go a day without coming up with an idea for a story. Not a day. Today's story was about a sock that goes to group therapy.

- My rewriting the novel is a huge pain. Not because it's boring and hard (which is true) but because I get distracted. Every time I cut out some element, I feel the need to think about how I can rework it into a new story.

- I really miss playing cards at 2 in the morning at the Hard Times Cafe in Minneapolis.

- More to come.

28 Days Later

97,494 words.
29 Chapters.
256 pages in Time Roman, 12 point, 1.5 spaced.
349 pages in Courier.

Deaths: More than I thought there would be, but less than there could.
Sex scenes: Almost 1.
My favorite charcter: Dave
My favorite scene: I really like the last one. It's sweet.
Most surprising scene to me: Allen and Dave after Thanksgiving.
Words I think I over use: turned, spun, nodded, bit, and slightly.
Why do I use them: The first two are dramatic. The last three are some moments.
Hardest scene to write, intellectually: The shopping cart race or The Met. Toss up.
Hardest scene to write, emotionally: Easy, Chapter 16. The whole thing.

Lost hours of sleep: Eh. Who cares?

The last chapter took long than I thought it would. When I thought I only had five pages left, it turned into 10. Maybe I didn't want to give it up. But I also wanted them to resolve things. Allen and Dave had some things to work though. Still do.

It's not high art, but I think it's fun. A good yarn, as they say.

Now, of course, I can't sleep.

But that's okay. You wanna know why?

Because I wrote a novel and I like it.

Drunkin' Post #1

Let's see how this goes. I am many G n' Ts and countless PBRs in, so I have no idea if this will make any sense.

B-Star. Man, have they ever gotten better! The first 3rd of the show was plagued by bad sound. Michi's violin (fiddle, whatever) kept goin' in and out and Sleuth's turntables weren't going through at all. But once it all kicked in? Damn! As a band they just drive me forward, get me off my ass and jumpin'! Now that the socialist thing has been pushed back a bit, they're just frickin' fun. Nothin' wrong with socialism... it just does'tt say "dance." It's how I felt at ska shows in the late 80's / early 90's.

Good crowd. Go listen to "How I Could Just Kill A Man" on their website (see Link-A-Dinks). Tell me that is not the shiznit.

What's a shiznit? I don't know, but B-Star is it.

So, anywhozits, I am off to try my hand at a bit of drunken novel writing. We'll see how it goes. Characters still knockin' Vegas, so it should fit.

Love ya all,
Six Sider

Brooklyn, Burning Man, Las Vegas and Back Again

The novel plugs on. WriMos talk of the second week slump. The first week you are excited and happy and thrilled. Week two hits like a wall when you realize how far you have to go. The lack of sleep starts to creep up on you. All the things you put of the first week (cleaning, shopping, etc.) suddenly start to loom larger. Coffee starts to taste funny.

I can't say that has been the case with me. I am well ahead on word count (if slightly behind on schedule to get the novel to it's final chapter by the 30th). Yeah, the house is dusty and I need to do laundry, but I've been there for a lot worse reasons.

But I did hit a wall, but on I knew was coming since day one. The main character as had his life change dramatically in chapter 7 & 8. To help with the transition (both for him and me), I send the five main characters on a road trip. Seemed like a good idea when I was doing the outline.

But getting them from Brooklyn to Burning Man in any concise way while still being interesting was a chore of tight structure. Then Burning Man had to be just as concise but a totally different tone and feel. And I've never been there. I've heard about it, read about it, viewed countless photos. But it is not the sort of event I should be writing about without having experienced it. If I had only known, I would have gone this September. But no one was kind enough to tell me that I'd be writing a novel with one chapter set there. Damn you all!

Anyway, I got through that. Totally switched up my writing style (even my punctuation and how I handle dialogue). I'm quite happy with it. It's light and surreal, full of import and signs. It is what it needed.

Then they took off for Vegas, for a chapter of wacky adventure and for me to ease back into normality. And now Vegas is kicking my ass. I think I'm struggling with writing from four year old memory and wanting to be funnier than I am right now and needing to get my main character back being active instead of just reacting or just observing, as he has for these last two chapters.

Get on with your life, MC! Get on with the story, Chris!

Sidenote: I have just fallen guiltily love... with FreshDirect. Shut-in status here I come!

The Met, My Docent and Me

Today I had to get out of the house for a big chunk, so I headed over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to do some research. A beautiful day to be out in the City, but I still managed to make the worst of my timing. I arrived the 86th street subway station at the same time as hundreds of folks arrived there for the marathon.

This happens every year. I just somehow miss the fact that the marathon is coming. It just kind of appears out of nowhere. I suppose if I was a runner it would be different. I am amazed at people who run the marathon. Not the professionals, but one's who sign up in April just so they can say, "I ran the New York Marathon!" Those are some crazy kids.

I like the Met but I am usually annoyed by its coldness. It normally doesn't move me. But today I had a great time all by my lonesome! I had some very specific things I was looking (Temple of Denur, mainly) but then I started to look for things as "color" and I went crazy. It's nice when you know your characters so well that you know exactly what they will respond to. And it will all fit very nicely, thematically.

(I had a perfect surprise/inspiration in the Arms & Armor Hall. I walked in and it was an Oh, Wow! moment. If they made a movie of my story, it would be one of those perfect scenes where fiction and real world just cross.)

I did get frustrated in the Painting halls. I decided I wanted a painting with a specific mood and pretty specific content, but had a hard time finding what I wanted. So I hijacked a docent (is that a crime?) and dragged her around for half an hour. She actually got excited with the project and I felt very author-ish.

Eventually she knew exactly what I wanted, but it's not at the Met. It's not in New York as far as I know. But we (my docent and me... which is an interesting title) decided that the wood engraving could be in a traveling collection being displayed at the Met. At least in my story.

So not ALL of start aligned, but good enough for goldfish swallowing.

NaNo Word Count: 18,596

NaNoWriMo

Always the problem when you move to new dig: you never know what to take with you and you should just get new.

Seeing that at the start at least this blog shall be pretty much whatever is floating around Chris's head at the moment, som duplication from one blog to another is just one of those things.

So short form here:
I am writing a novel in one month. Nov 1st, 50,000 word by Dec 1st. Quantity over quality. It's an excesize thousands of people, all over the world are partaking in. It's good. It's fun. The forums on it are very enteratining. And hey it's still not too late to start!

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

This are still going swimmingly! One problem. Last night, I ended up figuring out exactly how many chapters I'll need. I even named them all!

Chapter 1: A Departure and Two Visitations
Chapter 2: The Agreement
Chapter 3: A Life Examined
Chapter 4: The Tiny Thing
Chapter 5: A Series of Awkward Moments
Chapter 6: The Revelation
Chapter 7: A Different Perspective (tentative)
Chapter 8: The Trip (tentative)
Chapter 9: A Random Coincidence
Chapter 10: The Body Part
Chapter 11: A History Lesson (tentative)
Chapter 12: The Door Ajar (tentative)
Chapter 13: A Day of the Dead
Chapter 14: The Red Passage (tentative)
Chapter 15: A Black Meal (tentative)
Chapter 16: The White Bed (tentative)
Chapter 17: A Pale Caller (tentative)
Chapter 18: The Straw (tentative)
Chapter 19: A Deal Unbreakable (tentative)
Chapter 20: The Long Silence (tentative)
Chapter 21: A Gathering (tentative)
Chapter 22: The Plan Unending (tentative)
Chapter 23: A Search for Answers (tentative)
Chapter 24: The Race (tentative)
Chapter 25: A Final Judgment (tentative)
Chapter 26: The Departure and Two Visitations

Now, the problem is that I finished chapter 4 tonight. So I've been doing about a chapter a day. I am also at 14,500 words or so words. So I am averaging 3625 a chapter and a day... I am don thing I am going to be able to keep up that pace. My chapter outline gives me four day wiggle room if the goal is to get to the end of the story. But that also ends up being a 94,250 word novel, significantly over the 50,000 goal.

So I am torn. But it's a great thing to be torn about.