Category: television

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

westworld

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See, these are reboots that I can get behind, because the movie was whatever. The series though…

The problem is, we don’t need to need to reboot everything. Where’s our new ideas?

Where’s the innovation?

No wonder fascism is on the march.

Everything old is new again, and we’ve apparently run out of ideas.

Target: 1400 words
Written: 1392 words, novel: Bad Neighbours

Read: The Never-Ending Present, Michael Barclay
Comics: Bloodstrike Brutalists 23-24, 0, Bloodstrike Battle Blood 1
Music: Where The Fuck Is The Revolution?, Closet Monster (RIGHT?)

how proper can we get

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How precious? How far are we willing to sacrifice our happiness to hypocrisy, cruelty or outrage?

How many concessions must we make to others’ feelings?

Is there a limit to empathy? Is there a limit to courtesy?

Sometimes, joking about farts or shit or cum or dicks and boobs is just fun.

What happens when we live for the microaggression, so we can live for our offense? So we can satisfy the dragon of outrage?

Or should the focus be on live and let live, taking a stand when it truly matters, like ICE or concentration camps or the oppression of the minority vote?

Sometimes, a U-turn is strategic, not sexist. That’s all I have to say about that.

Target: 1400 words
Written: 1275 words, novel: Bad Neighbours

Read: The Faded Sun: Kesrith, C.J. Cherryh
Comics: Bloodpool 2, Riptide 1, Youngblood v2 1, Chapel v2 3
Music: The Weirdness, The Stooges (yikes, downhill, guys)

creepy

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My daughter just turned on How It’s Made, and it’s about making a fur coat.

This shit is disgusting. Food for sustenance is one thing; we have things that work better than fur now.

What a fucking disgrace.

Target: 1300 words
Written: 1505 words, novel: Bad Neighbours

Read: Dead To The World, Charlaine Harris
Comics: Team Youngblood 7-8, Brigade v2 8, Bloodstrike 9
Music: Wave, Patti Smith Group