Monthly Archives: February 2018

February 3, 2018 · 5:10 am

New Yorkers, PT Barnum and angry dogs: movies this week

PLEASE GIVE (2010) is a quirky film focusing on Catherine Keener and Oliver Platt as a couple who scavenge estate sales for valuable pieces they can resell, despite Keener’s liberal guilt at exploiting the grieving. Remarkably charming; with Amanda Peet as the self-obsessed daughter of the couple’s elderly neighbor. “Oh my god, there’s a homeless man with no head!”

THE GREATEST SHOWMAN (2018) stars Hugh Jackman as PT Barnum who finds success as as the flamboyant proprietor of a freak show only to run into trouble when his desire to impress the upper classes estranges him not only from his freaks but from supportive wife Michelle Williams and buddy/partner Zac Efron. The musical numbers are pleasant, but not standout, and the handling of the freaks didn’t work for me; I’m fine with the anachronistic attitudes towards them but the film shows Barnum blowing them off when they inconvenience his social climbing, then ignores that for the happy ending. Not a waste of time, but B-list. “The world is better with a man who has too much imagination than one who has too little.”

Any story about abusing dogs is a long shot to win me, so it was probably inevitable I gave up WHITE GOD (2014) midway through. The Eastern European story of a young girl and how her pet gets mistreated by their caregiver is nasty, brutish and not short enough for me.

All rights to image remain with current holder. #SFWApro

I hate working working on the weekends, but …

Given that I had an eye doctor appointment Tuesday morning, and that I wouldn’t be much use for a while afterwards (I can’t stand using a computer with dilated eyes), I did some advance work Sunday. Definitely not my ideal weekend, but I got some work done on my new Screen Rant (Deaths That Destroyed TV Shows and Deaths That Saved Them) and some of those Leaf articles.

Necessary, but it left me feeling a little stressed the rest of the week. I felt waaay more relaxed this morning when I had all my deadline-related stuff done. And I did have a productive week.

I completed about 12 Leaf articles for the Houston Chronicle’s website, our current client. Not exciting, but profitable.

I got several more chapters done on my rewrite of Impossible Takes a Little Longer. It’s going well but the really tricky chapters (which I will probably blog about soon) are yet to come. I also resumed rewriting Questionable Minds, which is much closer to getting done. I don’t think there are any major problems with it, this is just one final going over before I either self-publish or start sending it out again.

I started on a fresh draft of No One Can Slay Her. It’s really improving, though I didn’t get as far as I’d hoped. And it just sunk in I want it finished by the end of March. No, no market call or anything, but if I’m going to finish four stories this year — well, do the math. So I really need to push.

I also posted a blog post about the Dr. Mabuse films over on Atomic Junkshop. I’ll be reviewing the films in more detail over there than over here, as I have more than enough post topics for this blog.

Given I’m juggling multiple projects, I ordered a planner some writer friends recommended for setting deadlines and tracking performance when you’re writing several things at once. I seem to be doing okay, but as I’ve liked using a journal again, I thought it would be worth expending some Christmas money to see if this thing helps.

Oh, and my eyes are in good shape. Always nice to hear. And after my eye appointment, I finally got my first haircut in several months. I definitely look better with short hair.

I’ll close with this 1970s historical-adventure cover (courtesy of Books from the Crypt) by Frank Brunner, better known for his Marvel work on Howard the Duck and Dr. Strange. All rights to image remain with current holder.

#SFWApro

January goals: how’d I do?

Before we get to that, here’s a photo of the Denver sky, 2008. My sky photos like this one don’t usually work, but I think this came out great. I stumbled across it looking at photos of the Denver national Mensa gathering where I met TYG.

As usual for January, I did well meeting goals — 76 percent. What surprised me is that I did much better with my writing goals than usual, probably because I really thought them out this year and tried to keep them realistic.

I completed Schedule C for my taxes (that one covers my writing income)

I finished the next to last draft of Southern Discomfort and sent it out to beta readers.

I started rewriting The Impossible Takes a Little Longer and I got two redrafts in on No One Can Slay Her.

I finally broke myself of wasting too much time on email.

I wanted to get the cover selected for the Atoms for Peace short-story collection and fix the cover problems for the Createspace Atlas Shagged. But the paying work I’m doing for Leaf squeezed that stuff out. However I did keep my goal of putting in at least 1,000 words of fiction a day, despite the paying gigs.

On the personal stuff, I got my bicycling and walking goals done by default: I have a “weather permitting” out and the weather this month really didn’t permit. Okay, technically I could go cycling in freezing weather — I’ve done it before — but l’m willing to cut myself some slack.

By meditating in the morning, before the dogs are up, I’m finally doing it regularly, though not always effectively (but that’s why I practice). I’d like to do something at the end of the day to mark the break from work but Plushie and Trixie don’t see much point in the contemplative life (“Daddy, play now! Now Daddy!”).

I think you can see why my sweet pup distracts me so.

There were several projects I’d hoped to start, such as finding where some of my English relatives are buried, but I didn’t get very far with that. The missed goal that surprised me most was not keeping the bird feeder filled — I didn’t buy bird seed one week and when the blizzard hit, the food ran out. My bad.

I don’t know how well I’ll do next month, as I have a trip to Mysticon planned and the Leaf work. I’m taking that into account setting my goals, but I fear it will slow me down for the year. But I like money and I like being a con guest, so there you are.

#SFWApro

The thing about cover-ups (a sexual harassment link post)

People often say that “the cover-up is worse than the scandal.” Meaning cases of police brutality, sexual harassment, corruption etc. would cause less of a shit-storm if people hadn’t covered them up. But as I pointed out in an old And column, that’s not really true. The players can reasonably hope that the cover-up will hold until they’re retired or dead so they’ll never suffer any blowback from either superiors (“How could you humiliate us by taking this public?”) or the enraged public. It’s a gamble, but it’s not a foolish one. Just an utterly unethical, morally bankrupt one: screw the needs of the many, what’s in it for me?

Case in point, Michigan State University which Athletic Magazine shows completely failed in its handling of the Larry Nassar sex harassment case (not to mention sexual assault cases involving athletes). Well completely failed unless it’s intention was to bury the accusations by Nassar’s victims, such as Rachael Denhollander. If that’s the standard, they were aces. Nevertheless, the only thing MSU President Lou Anna Simon is suffering is resigning her job, while insisting the university did everything right (the MSU attorney told them they were doing great!). Nassar himself spent more than two decades abusing girls with impunity before justice caught up with him. Prior to Simon’s resignation, one board member laughed at the idea she needed to go — what was “this Nassar thing” compared to MSU’s new basketball stadium?

And of course, there’s plenty of harassment elsewhere to go around. Like a black-tie fundraiser that offers up its female waitstaff as sex toys for guests. Or Silicon Valley swinger-parties for dudes who feel they don’t get enough sex.

Rep. Patrick Meehan insists he totally did not sexually harass the staffer he called his soul mate.

Stanford University is putting up a memorial plaque on the site Brock Turner assault victim. When the university didn’t like the quote she suggested for the plaque, it picked “Everything is okay” out of context from her trial testimony.

Kirsten Gillibrand on not letting your side get away with harassment or abuse. “[Franken] is entitled to a hearing. He’s not entitled to my silence.”

Perhaps part of the problem is that even in consensual sex, women are taught their discomfort is normal.

Missouri Republican Courtland Sykes is so stereotypically sexist, Slacktivist wonders if he’s a hoax (but thinks he’s probably for real).

For something to wrap up, when teen adventurer Jade Hameister encouraged her fellow teenage girls to shoot for the stars, Internet trolls responded with “make me a sandwich!” So she did — they just have to get to the South Pole to eat it.

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Filed under Politics, Undead sexist cliches