Category: television

happy endings

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They’re kinda bullshit, aren’t they? I mean, all endings can be happy if they release the tension risen by the narrative, but still, complexity is better than 80s style TV wrap-ups.

I love it when a plan comes together, says Hannibal, chewing his cigar like cud. Yep, everything wrapped up nice, no real damage done. Lots of bullets fired and things blown up, cars flipping sideways over conveniently placed ramps, yet everyone walks away with nothing but a bump on the noggin and no concussion or post-injury brain bleeds or whatever.

Whatever.

People should end up scarred and broken. It gives them something to work on and overcome.

Like Scott Snyder wrote in American Vampire, scars on the skin aren’t bad things; they’re part of the story.

It’s a shame to filter them all away.

(Speaking of which, is that what’s behind this skincare craze, beyond corporate greed? People trying to make sure they have absolutely no blemishes, like an Instagram filter that scrapes away a person’s leathery skin, so when you see them and you think, yikes, what happened? Are you okay?)

Anyway, be proud of your aging skin. It got you where you are.

Nothing wrong with aging gracefully. Just me and Harrison Ford and Leonard Cohen. Looking like silver-haired gods.

(Them, not me. I’m but salt-and-pepper yet.)

Target: 1700 words
Written: 1597 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Jagannath, Karen Tidbeck
Comics: Invincible Universe: Battle Beast 10-11, Capes 8-9
Music: Hallowe'en, The Misfits

tom baker

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I know everyone has their own favourite Doctor (and I adore David Tennant, as well as Patrick Troughton and even William Hartnell, the old curmudgeon), but man, Tom Baker was next level, wasn’t he? (So’s Tennant, obviously.)

And I know it’s vogue to consider Rose, Amy Pond or Sarah-Jane Smith the greatest companions, but damn. Leela was fucking terrific. The first woman of real action, not screaming at every little thing. Plus, she nailed the comedy aspect of the thing.

Louise Jamieson, I salute you. You are my new favourite, even over Frazier Hines, who I loved, but also panicked over everything (come to think of it, only Ian Chesterton wasn’t otherwise running around in a panic.)

Target: 1600 words
Written: 1699 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: The Stand, Stephen King
Comics: Invincible 105-106, Invincible Universe 6-7
Music: Funeral, Arcade Fire (I mean, it's okay, but not worth all the praise they get.  They're Modest Mouse ripoffs.)

in the olive of a dry martini

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It’s funny, how ideas jump from place to place, little things that maybe the later progenitors didn’t even realize from where they came.

A bug in an olive in a martini. I first saw it in Danger Girl; turns out, it came as a suggestion earlier by “Count Diaz” in Wonder Woman.

J. Scott Campbell and I have seen the same shows (and if you’ve seen Campbell’s work, that he would have spent some time with Lynda Carter is unsurprising).

I feel like kindness is much the same way. Someone commits a small act. Someone else sees it; maybe it doesn’t register right away with them, but later, in a similar situation, they see that as a valid course of action.

Enough acts of kindness witnessed, and perhaps, in time, it will become the default course of action for us all.

One can only hope.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 1357 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Definitely Dead, Charlaine Harris (definitely boring, already a third of the way through)
Comics: Noble Causes 3-4, Invincible 18-19
Music: For Blood And Empire, Anti-Flag

ugh

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I love Doctor Who and Tom Baker in particular, but The Talons Of Weng Chiang?

Yikes. Racist.

It’s got Leela at her best, however, so there’s that.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 1134 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Coppermine Journey, Farley Mowat
Comics: Wildstorm Revelations 2-5
Music: The First Edition, Kenny Rogers & The First Edition (I just dropped in)

wonder woman

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So I’ve been watching oldie TV lately, and I’ve finally hit on the first season of Wonder Woman. Now, I love Lynda Carter, and not just because she’s one of the most beautiful women possibly ever.

She seems like a very good person, strong, compassionate, kind – it’s like she took all the non-magical traits of Diana and kept them for herself. She is an inspiration and much to be admired (personality-wise, I mean, although she’s still very good looking. She’s aged exceptionally well. I certainly hope she’s that nice in real life, and not some Neil Gaiman redux.)

Anyway, not the point, my point is this. There’s an episode late in the season where she’s tracking down some cattle russlers, and some war orphans break her out of jail by giving her back her belt.

And I swear, there’s a moment where she’s pulling open those bars (filmed mostly for the male gaze with an emphasis on the chest, obviously), and then they cut to the kids looking flabbergasted, and I swear, I SWEAR, you can actually see those kids hit puberty in real time. And I totally get it. I think I may have gone back through puberty as well.

I’m not going to say that’s how it happened for me as a kid (I’m pretty sure it was my first time seeing Elvira), but you know. It made me laugh.

Target: 1600 words
Written: 1661 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Side Hustle: From Idea To Income In 27 Days, Chris Guillebeau
Comics: WildC.A.T.S./X-Men 4, WildC.A.T.S. 50, WildC.A.T.S./Aliens 1, Wild Times: WildC.A.T.S. 1
Music: Fear Of Music, Talking Heads

the world must be terrifying

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I mean, it is, but if you went by all these 911/CSI/NCIS shows (the U.S. Navy must have the highest peacetime mortality rate of any branch of service in the world), or by the local news, you’d swear you were about to get ganked around every corner.

I think there’s a lot more kindness happening than that.

Although… why is this newslady smiling about the murder/suicide that resulted in an apartment building half-burning down?

This is a twisted planet.

Target: 1500 words
Written: 1400 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: On Cats, Charles Bukowski (I'll admit, I teared up at the Manx)
Comics: WildC.A.T.S. 34-35, WildC.A.T.S./X-Men 1, Grifter v2 8
Music: Far Side Of The World, Jimmy Buffett (and now you know why I'm chill today)

9-1-1

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I’ve no desire to watch any of those types of show, but I think I would if they were based on the ones that were considered the “worst” 9-1-1 calls.

Like the one complaining that their neighbour is wearing too much cologne.

Or there’s a domesticated-looking bunny in the park.

That motherfucker. How dare he?

Target: 1500 words
Written: 720 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Interview With The Vampire, Anne Rice (I'm so into this; I forgot how fucking good it was)
Comics: WildC.A.T.S. 29-30, Spawn/WildC.A.T.S. 4, Grifter/Shi 2
Music: Family Man, Black Flag

shrinkin’

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I wish it were possible, but I don’t feel like I could ever open up to a therapist.

I like the show though.

Harrison Ford is one of my spirit animals (we share a birthday… Patrick Stewart as well, which is equally cool).

(Also Julius Caesar and Cheech, so you know, pretty good crew.)

Target: 1500 words
Written: 1421 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Call For The Dead, John Le Carre
Comics: WildC.A.T.S. 7-10
Music: November 15, 2006, The 9:30 Club, State Radio

welp, botched the fuck out of that

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Yeah, a pivotal scene and I wrote it like a ninth grader, or a cop show writer.

Grabbing someone by the lapels and screaming, “Where is he?”, like my main character is fucking Mel Gibson or Clint Eastwood, when he’s more like Buster in Arrested Development.

Jesus, I’ve let my family make me watch too many episodes of Tracker – my writing is now devolving as a result.

(For the record, Tracker is shit. The only time I was even remotely interested was the UFO episode, because I thought they might be pivoting and turning it into something good, like the X-Files. Sadly, they’ve never mentioned it again.)

Target: 1500 words
Written: 2666 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Code And Other Laws Of Cyberspace, Lawrence Lessig (like, I see good points, but his pro-corporate copyright stance is distasteful, and his insistence on interjecting the government into everything is as well.  He claims to have made a point or taken a stance in there somewhere, but other than saying, hey, this is an issue - and it was, back then, I don't really see much of a stance on anything, other than we need more government or the magical mystery market will solve the problem, like some kind of divine hand.)
Comics: Gen 13 v2 65-67, GenActive 6
Music: 3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of..., Arrested Development