My day off from snow days yesterday

[thehefner]

Thanks to having no electricity for two and a half days due to SNOWMAGEDDON, I passed the time drinking and reading the following by candlelight:

1.) HELLBOY: EMERALD HELL, by Tom Piccirilli, which was the first Hellboy story I've ever liked. This was a Henchgirl recommendation, but I was hesitant. I've always found Hellboy in the comics and films to be a character of great potential in stories that were always pretty but kinda forgettable and paper-thin. But this novel was the first truly engaging Hellboy story I've read, with his character nailed beautifully throughout. I kinda wish we'd see Mignola illustrate it, but then we'd lose Piccirilli's wonderful atmosphere.

2.) Fantagraphics' POPEYE, vol. 2 and 3. So far, the stories aren't as knock-me-down brilliant as the rougher stuff in the first volume, but it's still consistently great, and I have high hopes for the much-hyped fourth volume.

After we finally got electricity yesterday morning, I celebrated by showering and going out to drink and see THE IMGANINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS and AVATAR. When it comes to films that are purely about the spectacle over story, give me PARNASSUS any day. Ugh, I hadn't wanted to walk out of a film in years, and only the obligation gained by paying fourteen frickin' dollars made me sit through AVATAR.

Now I'm off to help unpack tomorrow's comic shipment, hopefully getting back before the second wave of SNOWMAGEDDON. They're now saying ten to twenty more inches. Wheeeeee? Look, man, just let me have electricity so I can write, that's all I ask (and anyone who makes a crack about how pens and paper don't need electricity gets a stern look from a frustrated writer with creative constipation). Maybe I should print out a hard copy of my work just in case.

Comments

[night-train-fm.livejournal.com]

I got through Avatar without much trouble, though it was mainly thanks to Grace and Quaritch. Of course, I still need to see Up (and the Princess and the Frog).

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, definitely track down both! They're both excellent!

[pokeyburro.livejournal.com]

Wow. Surprised your reaction to Avatar was that bad. I was getting bad story fatigue, too, but it was a matter of the eye candy being just that good. Oh man, that hardware...

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Maybe something's wrong with me that I can't turn off my brain and enjoy spectacle. At least, not that kind of spectacle. Gilliam, I can watch happily.

But man, I feel like I've see. That world and that tech in everything from video games to Saturday morning cartoons (was anybody else reminded of Exo-Squad?). Avatar would have been awesome to play as a game! As a film, it was about as interesting to watch as watching someone else play a video game, and the script was about as good as one.

[pokeyburro.livejournal.com]

Apropos of what you said - I'm kinda wondering why I *was* able to turn off the story and just gawk at the pictures. Not that I wasn't P.U.ing at the story during the film - but even so, I had a better reaction to Avatar than I think I should have.

Even now. I think Cameron was never really known for thought-provoking stories. I never looked to him for that. I look at his stuff that I liked - Aliens, Terminator, Abyss, True Lies, and now Avatar - and they all deliver what I expect. He's really good at directing action scenes, and showing off machines that are just at the fringe of plausibility.

Maybe that's what got me liking Avatar. I see that movie, and think, to hell with noble night elf hunters; dude, we could really pull off an expedition to Alpha Centauri!

Also didn't hurt that I noticed Wayne Barlowe's name in the credits. He's pretty much the father of Real-Looking Aliens. I should show you some of his art books some time.

[surrealname.livejournal.com]

I've been avoiding Avatar like the god damn plague. I don't care how pretty it is, I'm not dumb enough to pay to have white man's guilt and noble savages in space shoveled down my throat.

Creative constipation? Dude, there's a pill for that...

[treyhawk.livejournal.com]

I write stories and skits first with pencil and paper, especially the game show scripts. I use it to force myself to write what is in my head down immediately, even if it is still in a rough form. My first bunch of edits and rewrites occur as I enter it into the computer.