Spontaneous Musings

David Lynch Died at 78 Today or Thereabouts..

Fri, 17 Jan 2025 03:16:37 GMT

Doing laundry - which makes it difficult to make dinner or take a shower until it is done. (It's in the basement and I'm on the third floor - and requires an elevator - and it's a shared laundry room with 77 other apartments in the building. Although at the moment it is just me and one other guy. And for the most part it's well maintained. Actually, it's the best laundry room/situation I've had since moving to NYC in 1996. I've now been without my own laundry machines far longer than I had them. There's pros and cons either way, as you all know.)

Anyhow just have 19 minutes and forty-eight seconds to go.

The laundry is now done and safely put away. Even though I had to navigate around a woman (who looked much like a kid herself), a baby carriage, and two toddlers to do it. She was speaking on the phone via her earphones and not in English. Dinner made and eaten. Hair washed and dried. Mother called. Soap watched. Lunch made.

Tired.

Been a long and busy week, looking forward to having a shorter week next week. I'm annoyed that the inauguration is on Martin Luther King Day, although I fully intend to ignore it (the inauguration not the holiday - which I thankfully have off) ( Read more... )

In college, I had a creative writing professor who told me once that I was an interesting writer because I was interested in exploring the uncomfortable emotions and thoughts that most people veer away from. He'd picked up a pattern in my short stories. The one that won Second Place in a Literary Competition was a short story in the point of view of a business man on a plane. The man was annoyed by this chatty older woman sitting next to him - who reminded him of his mother. And his guilt at not knowing how to take care of her or what to do, and kind of wishing she was gone. But at the same time not wanting her gone. The woman dies of a heart attack as the plane lands, and he struggling with the aftermath of that, and the troubling mix of emotions. I called it Just a Bunch of Clouds. My father read it - and struggled with it - it hit too close to home. He felt he couldn't share it with his family. So, I veered away from writing anything like it again. Yet, I still find myself doing so - here, and well, in my other writing. I also find myself seeking out stories that explore those monstrous emotions. Because I think all humans have them, and understanding them - looking at them, helps not so much to combat them as to not to be drowned by them or overtaken, and in the end just to let them drift off like a bunch of clouds?

What I found compelling about the New York/Vulture article on Neil Gaiman, was not the women's allegations (which I pretty much already knew from the Tortoise Media coverage and other places and are just horrific to the point of making me cringe inwardly, not to mention unsanitary) - but rather the struggle he and Palmer had engaged in combating his urge to do it.( Read more... )Also why people are attracted to people who have these compulsions. Why were women throwing themselves at him? Why did people put tattoos of him on their bodies? Why the worship of a human? Why is it that people with monstrous compulsions or have chosen to hurt others - have families, children, success, etc - while others who actively chose not to hurt others, and to help people - do not? What is it about charming toxicity that is so attractive? And how did people evolve to this point.

So many songs and stories state - a good person is defined by the people around them, the number of friends, family members, people who love them and those who come to their funeral? If this is true? Then how does it describe folks like Hitler, Trump, Whedon or Gaiman - who have all of that?

I don't know. I can't figure it out.

It's late. And I find myself with more questions this week than answers.

The other bit that I found compelling about the article - was it how it was written - and how much it reminded me of another article written in 2022 about another popular cult writer, in the same magazine. ( Read more... )

David Lynch died at 78 today. And he was the king of showing how reality can bend and twist in on itself. How our perceptions can lie. And often there is a nightmare lying beneath the pristine sunny surface. Fascinated with the dark underbelly of the human condition - he often explored it through surrealistic films. A friend of mine - loves the film Mullohand Drive - and has seen it multiple times. While my favorite film may be Blue Velvet - which shows darkness beneath the American Suburban landscape.
I'm thinking of him now, in the back of my mind as I write this. Because Lynch like myself was fascinated by the duality of the human condition, the dark and light warring for dominance, yin and yang. Seeing clearly the good and bad in humans, and how they can turn on a dime - falling into the abyss, with a single act.

Twin Peaks may well have been his masterpiece in that respect until it slid a bit too far down that dark slope, sliding into incoherence.

Is it wrong to ask these questions? To ponder these things? To look into the dark nether regions of the human psyche, from the safety of my arm chair? I do not know. And I often wonder if I repel you by doing so.

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Amanda Palmer's Songs About Gaiman...and more on the situation, with links

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 00:18:48 GMT

After reading the Neil Gaiman article last night, this morning at work I listened to Amanda Palmer's New Zealand Survival Songs Album (referenced in the article) on Apple Music. There's five songs in all. And got obsessed with three songs - two of which pretty much convinced me without a shadow of doubt that it all happened.

They are fascinating songs, that resonate in some respects. My favorite is the Ballad of the New York Times (which isn't about Gaiman at all).

1. Whakanewha (with Aurelia Torkington). I got a little obsessed with this song today in that I listened to it repeatedly. Why? It talks about how you can get sucked in by someone, seeing the good in them, trying to save them, and end up almost being pulled down by them into their darkness.

It's gut-wrenching song about a bad breakup and an abusive relationship.

"Whakanewha"

Another forest metaphor
You've heard a million before
The trees know everything, I tried a wedding ring
But you just cringed and said, "What for?"
And now the whole thing's turned to ash
You try to cover it with cash
Another falling tree no one can hear but me
Another suicidal mass
Landing on my doorstep, thanks a ton
Oh, darling, how can I repay you for what you have done?

And then you lied to me at Whakanewha
And you sealed it with a kiss
I wanted to live with you, but, fuckin'-a, fuck you
No one on Earth could live like this
( Read more... )

The song is furious and as it goes, she inserts the word fuck repeatedly.
It goes from wistful poetry and metaphor to simmering rage, that finally boils over.

2. The Man Who Ate Too Much. Another gut-wrenching song about trying to hold onto a marriage for a child and realizing it won't work.

"The Man Who Ate Too Much"

8,000 miles away
My life is still packed up in boxes
I was positive I would sort out in May
I keep telling my friends that it's strange
How many times can you say that before it's not strange?

We've spent all summer in the winter on a stingray that was hacked to pieces
And Ash points to the giant in the mountain and he asks me where his arms is

Another man who ate too much
And women keep grieving them with the songs we sing
I wanted to get back to New York
And now it isn't looking promising

But Kya brought Izzy's old coat and it fits like a glove
And Aidan put Ash on his back when we went for a walk
And one of these days, I swear, I'll take a second for me
And one of these days, I swear to God, I'll get out to the sea

8,000 miles away
A man in a White House refuses to face his own pain
Why should it matter? What lives really matter?
Why bother to open your heart when there's pussy and fame?
( Read more... )

Palmer's lyrics at times feel like a punch to the gut. In your face like a closed fist. But at the same time soft and meandering, painful, like tears falling down a cheek. You can you almost hear the tears in her voice. It's a song that brings tears to the eyes with the utter pathos.

3. The Ballad of New York Times - this song is half spoken, half sung, and resonated with me. It explains why I stopped reading the New York Times. It's funny and painful at the same time. Raging and self-deprecating.

"The Ballad Of The New York Times by Amanda Palmer"

It's a cousin of the song I wrote a year ago. Like a first cousin, so they can't have babies

They sell Canadian grade A maple syrup in New Zealand
It's expensive but I splurge
So I can put it on our pancake breakfast and
Sometimes I forget to put the lid on and the ants come
Into the kitchen of this AirB&B we've been renting for six months for a fortune and
Sometimes I take a magazine and I escort them two by two
In a little glossy lifeboat into the garden and
Sometimes I just create an ant holocaust and kill them all
With a paper towel
(Fuck the ants!)

I don't understand which part of me is kind
I don't understand which part of me can be so goddamn unkind
I don't understand why I'm tired all the time
All I know is that last night I wanted to go to bed by five o'clock
And I took off my necklace
And I turned on the heater
And I couldn't stop shaking
So I put on a sweater

And I read the New York Times
On an app in my phone next to my sleeping child
And the headlines hurt my mind
Five thousand dead, Cher got an elephant back into the wild
And the light on his face
And his curly-haired head
And I knew I should be reading a good book instead
I can't fit all of all humanity into this bed
With me
( Read more... )

It's a wonderful song about being overwhelmed by the pain in the world.
And the need to help but the inability to do so - and wondering if one is a horrible person for not wanting to.

****

The things I didn't post from the Neil Gaiman article and now can't, because I don't have access to the article any longer. It was far too long to post all of it, and the former copyright lawyer in me - couldn't do it.

Apparently, Gaiman did some degrading sexual acts with Pavolich, his son's babysitter, with his son in the room. They were together in the bedroom. These acts included things like..( trigger warning for degrading sexual acts ) Pavolich told all this to Palmer in 2022, and Palmer immediately got her son away from Gaiman and started proceedings to keep Gaiman out of their lives.

Another disturbing bit - that I didn't post? Gaiman doesn't like foreplay or lubricant during sex. And he told Palmer he didn't believe people could fall in love - she felt the need to convince him otherwise. She did get him to get help - a couples counselor named Mueller - who he agreed to see - this happened after the Rachel incident. He swore he would stop - it was the last time. But he kept lying to her. She begged him not to do it with the babysitter, Pavolich, who she'd taken in. ( Read more... )

Each one of the women that Gaiman went after had one thing in common, including Palmer - they were vulnerable, and easily manipulated. All were idealistic. All had at one time or another been raped, beaten, or hurt.
All were desperate when he met them, and didn't have his financial resources. Also all with the exception of maybe the caretaker, were over twenty years younger than Gaiman. Impressionable, young, women.

It's also the pattern with Scientology. Gaiman was raised partly by L Ron Hubbard and Scientology. I know more than I want to about Scientology. It's a nasty cult. My sister-in-law's cousin was raised in it - and it damaged him beyond repair, he's MAGNA, and somewhat nuts. He was forced to wear diapers until he was 10. His father had to fight the Scientologists and the mother, who was in the cult, for custody. And he escaped. Gaiman wasn't as lucky.

This is so so sad. And so painful. Gaiman isn't all bad, clearly. No one is. (But I won't be reading him or watching any of his stuff any longer. And I do believe the allegations.) He is exceedingly charming. Also, most of this is unfortunately impossible to prove. Gaiman per NPR article stating Gaiman's response to the allegations.

Other links:

* AV Club - Gaiman denies Sexual Assault Allegations (Note he's not denying he practiced BDSM, which is legal with safe words. Gaiman doesn't tend to use safe words, and ignores "no" seeing it as part of the act - according to the New York Magazine article. He's denying it was non-consensual or rape.

* Neil Gaiman Breaks Silence on Horrible Sexual Abuse Claims

* Neil Gaiman Denies Sexual Abuse Allegation per Variety

* Also Variety - Multiple Women Accuse Neil Gaiman of Sexual Assault

* Tori Amos on the Neil Gaiman allegations via The Guardian

* Rolling Stone - More Women Accuse Gaiman of Sexual Abuse

* USA Today - Gaiman responds to Sexual Assault Allegations

* The Huffington Post - Neil Gaiman Assault Accusations

* USA Today discusses the Vulture Article on Gaiman Sexual Assault Allegations

As you can see - it's gone viral now. After disappearing from the news for a bit, it popped back with a legitimate journalist writing an article about it. Which was what we were all kind of waiting for.

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No is not a Safe Word - the Neil Gaiman debacle

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 03:25:46 GMT

I stumbled upon this around 8:45 pm and spent the last hour or so engrossed in it.

Finally, as we'd hoped, someone with a bit of cred and journalistic integrity - took up the story, and in a respectable and far more widely read publication, well more so than Tortoise Media at any rate.

There Is No Safe Word How the best-selling fantasy author Neil Gaiman hid the darkest parts of himself for decades by Lila Shapiro, A Features Writer for New York Magazine

It is a fascinating read, and explains a lot of things. I'd summarize it - but it's late and I have to get to bed. Also, I'd advise reading it for yourself. It's a compelling and gripping read - but alas still falls a little within the he said/she said category - and neither Palmer nor Gaiman deign to be interviewed. Although they do speak through others - friends, therapists, and legal counsel.

( excerpt )

And...about BDSM..

( Read more... )

About sexual abuse and how it plays with the mind..
( excerpt )

Gaiman's childhood and upbringing in The Church of Scientology and how it influenced him, and most likely is the backdrop for Ocean at the End of the Lane

( excerpt )

Gaiman and Palmer

( happy years )

And not so much...

( excerpt )

Oh dear god. That's a horribly twisted and sad story. Reminds me once again of how poorly our society deals with mental illness. And how incredibly toxic fame, fortune and power truly are to the human condition. And how isolating.

I feel deeply sorry for everyone in the story. Even Gaiman. Although it does explain his art...and Palmer's for that matter. It also explains what I've been seeing in Palmer's Patreon posts.

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Elvis (film review) & Sandman Episode 11

Sun, 21 Aug 2022 16:57:55 GMT

1. Elvis directed and written by Baz Luhrmann (an Australian Director) starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks.

This was the film that Tom Hanks was making in Australia when he caught COVID, I think. It is entirely filmed in Australia and Queensland, Australia (doubling for Vegas).

I was pleasantly surprised by it. I don't tend to like bio-pics. But this is by far the best bio-pic that I've seen, possibly next to Rocket Man and Walk the Line.

Mainly because it's not told like a straight bio-pic, and has a central focus. The problem with most bio-pic's - is they decide to give you some sort of shortened summarized history of a singer's or actor's or politician's life - and often focus on things like their addiction, their marriages, their kids,ie. personal life, but not on what they did for a living, which is the whole reason there is a bio-pic to begin with and really the only thing the biographer can tell with any authority or knowledge whatsoever. You can't tell what someone does in their personal life and you can't really judge it. Everyone remembers it differently. It gets embellished. Exaggerated. People make stuff up to make it more interesting - because let's face it people's personal lives are rather boring. ["I got up, I made food, I read the paper, I drank coffee, I played with kids, I had sex with my wife, I played music, I watched sports, I went to bed..." Or ..."I got up, I ate at restaurant, I went to work, I came home, went to gym, watched tv, ate dinner, watched tv, called someone, went to bed..." With all sorts of variations. Bored now.]

So there's two ways of approaching it...

1. Give people the dirt - or the soap opera. (Most famous people have a lot of soap opera, because how can you not? Fame is kind of toxic in of itself.)

Or

2. Focus on what they did, how they became famous, and what killed them.

Lurhmann wisely (in my opinion) chooses the latter. Wisely - because everyone else has already done the former. Kurt Russel played Elvis in a 1979 movie shortly after Elvis' death which dug deep into the former, as did numerous others. There's been a mini-series in there somewhere. Elvis has been picked apart, judged, scrutinized, and ruminated over since he died, if not before.

Here, Elvis isn't the person being scrutinized, but rather his manager, Colonel Parker is - and it becomes relatively apparent somewhere in the middle of the film - that no one has a clue who Parker really is.

Parker was a gambler and a con-man - who ran a carnival act. It had two low-tier family favorite country singers on tour, neither memorable in their own right. One day, people on his little tour are playing the radio - and across the air-waves comes Elvis' song "That's Alright Mama" which was released in 1954. People are loving it. Parker assumes it's a Black man singing it (actually the word he uses is "Negro"), and is astonished it's a white man, and his face lights up with an idea.

The film is for the most part told through Parker's perspective (although he comes across, as played by Hanks, as a big of a slug or leech or vampire, old, ugly as sin, overweight, sluggish, and with a heavily accented voice). And Parker is constantly justifying his actions towards Elvis, and deflecting the blame onto the audience who loved him. Or rather Elvis' addiction to that "love" and "applause".
( Spoilers...although most of this is already known.. )

2. The Sandman - Episode 11 : A Dream of A Thousand Cats, and Calliope

This episode contains as separately contained stories in their own rights two of The Sandman comics series "stand-a-alone" issues or "short tales", where Dream is a supporting player, not the focus or lead. [Actually this is true of most of Gaiman's works - his heroes are often not the focus of the story, but a means of meeting and telling the stories of other characters or in some regards a catalyst for them.] By separately contained - I mean they are told as two separate stories, the only connection between them is Dream.

"Sandman" is a notable series in that it was among the first truly literary stories to enter the comic book medium. The English Literature Canon is notoriously snooty and classicist. It frowns on other genres and deems them unworthy. Sandman kind of laughed at that - and pushed open that door a bit. It blended genres and commented on literary canon with a touch of sarcastic glee.

A Dream of a Thousand Cats

I was pleasantly surprised by this adaptation. The animation is quite good, and the cats really do look like cats. The vocal talents worked in some respects better than the audio - I preferred Sandra Oh to Bebe Neuwirth.

( spoilers )

Calliope

This also surprised me. I did not like the audio version and don't remember if I ever read the comic version.

The story is about a writer who tricks a muse into servicing his needs, until she basically refuses to help any longer, and he gives her to another writer. Calliope is the daughter of Zeus, and a thousand year old muse, who a writer, Eramus, has found a way to trap under the laws. She is basically his hostage until he frees her, instead he gifts her to another "frustrated" writer.

Arthur Darvill plays Mardoc, the "Frustrated" writer, while Derek Jacobi is the one who gifts the muse to him. Melissanthi Mahut plays the muse.

The television adaptation resolved some of the issues I'd had with it -( spoilers )

All in all, I've preferred the television adaptation to the comics. The violence against women is no longer shown. And in some cases understated or removed. In the comics - there was a lot of sexual violence, there's almost none here or if, present, it is just subtly alluded to. (A huge change from 1980s and 2022. Also shows how Neil Gaiman has evolved as a writer - since he's deeply involved in the adaptation.) In fact, I'd say for the most part the violence is down-played, they suggest but don't show it - going with less is more in most instances.

I was pleasantly surprised by this episode. And find that I want more of the series - and am hoping for a Season 2. (Hard to know with Netflix - Sandman is currently number 1 in the world - but it doesn't mean it will make it to a S2.)

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Initial Sandman Review (up to Epsidoe 7)

Sun, 07 Aug 2022 17:51:49 GMT

Watching The Sandman on Netflix and loving it.

The casting is for the most part spot-on. I'm admittedly on the fence about Lucifer - I'd have liked a little more of David Bowie. Gwen Christie is not quite slim enough, and Lucifer comes across to me as kind of slim and ethereal in the comics and more androgynous. Christie is almost too feminine for the role. (Should probably mention that Michael Sheen is cast as Lucifer in the audio-book version.) But, Gaiman picked her - so, what do I know? Also Lucifer is hardly a lead.

Tom Sturridge is spot-on for Dream, he's perfect casting. I don't see how they could have done better. He is actually far better than James McAvoy who did the audio book.

Death, and the others also all work rather well. Jenna Coleman's take on Constantine works rather well for me. And I'm actually glad they did the gender flip.

I've been re-reading the comics and listening to the audio book - so
I can see where they made the changes, and surprisingly enough, they all work. Some kind of fix issues I had with the comics. Also, I was rather surprised by what they kept in the series. I'd have taken out the Will Shakespeare bit.

The major changes or alterations between the comics and the television series so far are:
( spoilers for both the comics and the television series )
**

I'm only up to episode 7. Episode 6 : The Sound of Her Wings - is a truly lovely meditation on death. And unique. I was rather impressed with it, and the casting for everyone is more or less spot on. (I would have traded the actor who plays Desire with the one who plays Lucifer, I honestly think that actor fits it more. I wish they'd gone with a non-binary actor for Lucifer - Gwen Christie isn't non-binary. On the other hand - the actor playing Desire is kind of perfect in the role - and a bigger role.)

The casting of Dream is perfect though. And so is everyone else. Charles Dance as Roderick Burgess is very well done. As is David Thewilis in the role of John Dee.

The production is spot on, and so is the writing.

Right now, my only real quibble is Netflix won't let me watch the end credit sequences. (It chops them off and takes you to the next episode immediately - which is nice, unless they create cool end credits.)

I actually think it's an improvement on the comics and audio book, altering some of the things that I'd had issues with in the original versions.

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Sandman

Sun, 31 Jul 2022 03:47:13 GMT

I've been re-reading the Sandman comics, and listening to the audiobook, prior to seeing the series on August 5 - when all eleven episodes begin streaming on Netflix.

From the Guardian article on Neil Gaiman:
( taken from the Guardian article )

Rest of article can be found HERE. He lucked out. A woman wouldn't have been able to do it. There were almost no women writers of comics in the 1980s and 90s, oh there were a few, but it was a tough biz to get into back then.

The Sandman Creator Explains Why He Tears Down Online Trolls.

The buzz on this is good. Gaiman executive produced and writes the first episode and is involved with all the episodes. He also was involved in the casting and production design. And he runs a very safe and kind set.

"I know the rule is you’re meant to ignore the trolls and not feed the trolls,” Gaiman admitted. "But I would look at people sounding off on Sandman who were obviously not Sandman fans. What I would watch would be 60,000 Sandman fans going, 'Of course you’re doing it this way. Of course you have a non-binary Desire, Desire was always non-binary, that’s brilliant casting.' Or 'Gwendoline as Lucifer, what amazing casting.' And then you’d get five or six people trying to make a lot of fuss who never read Sandman in the first place. And I mostly decided I was done with it."

Gaiman went on to say that while he sometimes feels he should ease up on his retorts, he thinks his general response is warranted given how hard the cast and crew has worked on the show. "Occasionally I do feel like I’m taking an enormous sledgehammer to squash the tiniest ants, and you really shouldn’t," he said. "But then again, they can be really irritating sometimes, and I’m proud of what we made."

He's kind of funny about it. He squashed the one whinging about his casting choices not being reflective of the artist's renditions or versions in the comics, and the artist not getting a say - by simply stating, well actually he did. I consulted him and he agreed with me.

Or the people whinging about Lucifer not being a hunky guy - aka Tom Ellis, and he said, "not my problem" and "actually my Lucifer looked more like an androgynous David Bowie. (He's absolutely right his does. So does Mike Carey's - which Ellis's series is based on. In Carey's Lucifer comics - Lucifer doesn't have any genitalia - he's non-binary. In other words - a they not a he. Angels are "They" not she/he, they are not binary creatures in Gaiman's verse or Carey's.

If you read the comics - you'll pick up on it pretty quickly. I've read both Carey and Gaiman's. In fact, Ellis' Lucifer series doesn't fit the comics much at all - it's one of the reasons that I gave up on it. I found it jarring. I liked the comics better. Lucifer is interesting in the comics, in the "Lucifer" television series he's a 12 year old putz in an adult male body. Which was fine for a bit - until it got annoying.

On another note - no we didn't win the megamillions, someone in Illinois got it.

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Television and other things but mostly television..

Mon, 13 Jun 2022 01:51:53 GMT

I got bored of archiving finally - although did make it up through 2009.

Me: We saw a ton of movies between 2004-2009.
Wales: Did we? What movies?
Me: Weirdly I can't remember them or the names, will have to look them up again. I swear my brain is a sieve...ah, Waitress, Notes on a Scandel, the Pervert's Guide to Cinema (yes that's actually a movie).
Wales: Ah, I used to be alive. I used to do things. Thanks for reminding me.( Read more... )

[There's now a lot, maybe too many, movie reviews in my archive now. I think they may out do the Buffy meta...which is saying something. Although most folks are reading and liking the unedited fanfic that I wrote. This is why I stopped caring what people think of my writing. It's all subjective anyhow.]

As you can see I'm in a snarky mood of late. Also a touch depressed. It's gloomy, although the sun did peak out once or twice this weekend, and we saw a touch of blue, and a few pretty sunsets. I don't expect to see one tonight - but you never know. Humid, but otherwise mild - all things considered.

Niece sent me photos of the Canary Islands. (It looks like a California Beach, specifically one in San Diego, with a lot of sand, not much in the way of foliage, although a lot in the mountains. Also reminds me a little of Turkey. I liked Costa Rica and Hilton Head better, to be honest. This is good - I should be discouraged from wanting to visit the Canary Islands.)
Bro made it safely to Milan - and now has to take two trains (with luggage) to get to Florence. I do not feel sorry for him - that's just poor planning on his part. I'd have plotted to stay one night in Milan, get past the jet-lag, and then jump to Florence, mother and I assumed that was what he was doing - mainly because how we travel. My brother, not so much.

***

Enuf of the boring stuff ...television:

1. Obiwan Kenobi aka Ben and Leia:

This feels like a kids show.
( Read more... )

4. Stranger Things S4 - this actually works without having a clear memory of the former seasons. I wasn't sure at first, but it does. They do a good job of catching us up a bit. It was filmed over a year ago. Biggest take away from the first episode - was whoa, the kids sprouted up and have grown big time. Also, while the girls look more or less the same, the boys look entirely different, except for Jonathan and Steve, who were older to begin with.

They've also made the teen D&D players to be a bit on the creepy side - while they weren't as kids.

Joyce, aka Winona Ryder's character, is starting to annoy me. Hopefully this is a first episode thing?

Oh, and guess who is back? Yep Mathew Modine and Paul Glazer.

5. The Offer - dramatization of the Making of the Godfather. Watching this thing makes me wonder how the Godfather ever got made. Seriously it had more obstacles in its way. For one thing the Italians hated the book and were actively boycotting the movie. Okay, the Italians in my opinion are a bit on the sensitive side. The mafia, comically - I might add, goes ape shit over the film - going so far as to threaten the film makers. Bob Evans gets a dead rat put in his hotel bed. Al Ruddy has his car window shot out (while he's in it) and is taken in a car for a meeting. Sinatra shuts down their efforts to get Vic Damone to play Johnny Fontana (the Sinatra stand in). Sinatra also took the book personally.
( Read more... )

6. Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore...

I tried to watch this..

Mother: How is it?
ME: I'm pretty much lost and close to giving up. I can't remember the first two films at all. And am thinking I may have to re-watch them.

It's also an overly dark film - so hard to watch unless, it's night and all the lights are off.
( Read more... )

***

Coming soon...

Tonight Dark Winds adapted from the Tony Hillerman Detective Joe Leaphorn Series (the Navajho detectives). This has George RR Martin, Robert Redford, and Hillerman's Daughter behind it, although someone else is show-running and writing. It has been adapted previously for a PBS series, and a couple of movies (none of which were stellar, although I liked the PBS series).

The two people I know that would love this the most - are either dead, or demented. So it's somewhat painful. I told mother about it, but I'm not sure she can watch - since her mother and my father loved the mysteries.

It's on at 9pm on AMC. Between airings of Die Hard with a Vengeance.

August 5 on Netflix ---Neil Gaiman's Sandman - which according to Gaiman goes up to Dollhouse in the comics. Or that's how far they filmed for the first season.

I'm looking forward to this - the creator was hands on in regards to casting, production and to some lesser degree writing. He was more hands on than he was with American Gods. Actually his involvement was kind of similar to how he was involved with Good Omens.

If you don't like Gaiman - you'll probably skip. But must viewing for Gaiman fans. (I have a love/hate relationship with Gaiman - I actually prefer his comics and graphic novels to his written novels, with the exception of Ocean at the End of the Lane - which is just brilliant.)

***

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Stuff I found ...

Wed, 02 Feb 2022 03:52:19 GMT

Neil Gaiman interviews Art Spiegelman (Wrote MAUS0

"As a result, we ended up in a world where we're all in the spin room being spun as opposed to being taken back to see what is being done to us." [He's discussing giving into the cynicism seen in later incarnations of Mad Magazine, and not believing in anything greater than ourselves and power and control and greed. See Rudy Giuliani.)

This is a fascinating video about creating comics and the art form. It's also an amazing conversation about MAUS, comics, Mad Magazine, perception, and the Holocaust. It's worth listening to.

***
Hmm...in a related event, Whoopie got suspended from the View.

ABC Suspends Whoopie Goldberg from the View

Whoa. Not that I care about the View.
( the Whoopie fiasco )

Words matter - if you have a platform. Not if you are just talking to yourself in your own apartment. Well they do, but you're the only one who will care - and possibly the walls, and maybe any ghosts listening in.

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Sandman Casting, Neil Gaiman and Disclaimer

Tue, 08 Jun 2021 02:13:44 GMT

1. Ah, found it...I read on londonkds's post about Neil Gaiman losing his temper over a bunch of alt-right nitwits whining about the Sandman casting. (Which I personally find interesting. But I've also read the Sandman comics. And have read Gaiman. And understand that art in a comic is a free-flowing sort of thing, and open to interpretation. It's kind of like novels, most novels, the good ones, are open to interpretation regarding how a character "looks". So..)

Anyhow..here's the article explaining what happened...on Twitter. (Of course it was on Twitter - all the fights happen on Twitter. Honestly, I think all the fan trolls flocked en mass to Twitter.)

( Excerpt )

Gaiman says in a separate post that the actress playing Death - fit the role perfectly in his head, after he saw her on The Good Place.

Oh...this is amusing.. Neil comments on it on Tumblr

And I found the tweet Neil Gaiman's response to nitwit

I find Neil Gaiman interesting - he's very charming and rarely gets railed up about anything. But every once and a while, he will lose his temper.
Because it's so rare - it's interesting. He lost his temper once in regards to fans of GRR Martin driving everyone nuts about their whining for another book. "The author is not your bitch," said Gaiman succinctly.

Fans are weird about adaptations of things they happen to love. IF the adaptation is not exactly as it appears in their heads - they get nasty about it. Truth is - it's unlikely to be, because the individual making the adaptation isn't the fan. I personally find adaptations interesting, because its a different take on the source work. Sometimes it works for me, sometimes it doesn't.

It's been so long since I've read the Sandman comics - that I don't remember what the characters look like, I barely remember them at all. I know I read a lot of them - but I've no memory of it. I do know the characters were quirky and different, and from my memory of it - the casting works very very well. There's no one better to cast an adaptation of their own work than the writer or author of it - because you get to see how they envisioned it.

ETA: I'm still entertained by this..

"Peter Sagal
petersagal
Replying to
neilhimself
I'd be very interested in how you managed to win those battles, given the existence of the movie "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen."

I restrained myself from responding..."Uhm, hello? Alan Moore??"

Oh look someone else said it - but differently: "Sense Fracture
sense_fracture -
Alan Moore was never really interested in the movies, so he never actually battled. It was almost always DC who sold the rights."

ME: Eh, no. Because it's Alan Moore - and no one is going to help Alan Moore. Because hello? Alan Moore.

Gaiman's reaction? "I cared. I had allies. And it's always easier not to make a movie than to make it."

ME: You're also not an asshole like Alan Moore. Seriously Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Warren Ellis are the assholes of the comic book industry. So is Scott Allie. ]

IT is a hilarious thread. Honestly, fans fighting with writers about what they should write, who they should cast, and that they don't understand their own work is ....LOL.

Also proof that art is like a child, it grows, and leaves you...and becomes something else after interacting with the world - when it returns to you, it's not quite yours any longer, no matter how much you wish it were.

2. Also found THIS on Twitter. It's a disclaimer for well any post you could possibly come up with.... I got distracted by it while looking for the Neil Gaiman post.

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100 Best Fantasy Books via Time Magazine's Panel

Fri, 23 Oct 2020 03:03:34 GMT

So, Time released it's list of The 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time, which it selected with the assistance a panel of leading fantasy authors—N.K. Jemisin, Neil Gaiman, Sabaa Tahir, Tomi Adeyemi, Diana Gabaldon, George R.R. Martin, Cassandra Clare and Marlon James

Below is the list and a meme. Bold the ones, you've read and state if you recommend them, found it memorable, or disliked it and it was skippable, and god knows why it's there. Italicize the ones you own and have been meaning to read. Underline anything of interest and you want more information or a recommendation/review on.
( 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time )
So, of the books above, which have you read, and which if any do you recommend?

[As an aside, there's a lot of books by the same writers, and a lot by the panelists - who allegedly were not permitted to vote on or nominate their own novels. Which is interesting. Also they left a lot of Hugo winners off that list - such as The Goblin Emperor - which I actually liked better than some of the other selections. These things are terribly subjective, aren't they? Maybe we should all come up with our own list?]

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Day #63 of Self-Isolation in Epidemic Central

Tue, 19 May 2020 23:11:57 GMT

Decided to stay inside today, after yesterday's two hour excursion. I think it was two hours...let's see I left at 4:30 or thereabouts and returned at 6 something. So about two hours? I ached a little afterwards, and my shoulders and back are bothering me today. Possibly the arthritis, connected to the weather. I took two tynenol and have cold on my back, heat on my shoulders and drinking a spiked lime seltzer - calling it a day.

Deliveries
________

Me: You have permission to laugh at me.
Mother: Okay..
Me: I now have enough toilet paper to last until 2021.
Mother laughs.
Me: It's three packs of eight rolls, equaling 33 rolls each since the rolls are thick. It was impossible to get less than that, and I gave up. Quilted Northern.
Mother: Well, I guess you could just stack them one on top of each other in your closet?
ME: Oh, I got them into the closet, I just put them on top of the rest. I also have enough paper towels to last into 2021. Which is good because they are impossible to find in the grocery stores - and I got tired of hunting for them. What I'm about to run low on is disinfectant...
( Read more... )__

Mono vs. COVID-19

Oh, my niece's test results came back. She has mono. We're all relieved. Yes, I know, it's odd that we're all relieved that it is mono. But we know what "mono" is and that it will eventually go away. COVID, not so much. You know life has gotten weird, when you're relieved that a beloved family member has mono.

She's been told to take it easy for the next few months, get plenty of rest, and not do anything. Since she can't really do anything anyhow - this isn't going to be a problem, also she's tired a lot.

_______

Crazy Workplace

Keeps telling me that testing for COVID is available.( Read more... )

Shoulders

Hurts like hell. ( Read more... )

New York vs. the Corona Virus and the Federal Government (mostly the stupid Federal Government and MAGA idiots)
( kind of ranty )

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Celebrity Gossip
Update on celebrity gossip...apparently Neil Gaiman felt the need to set the record straight on his split with Amanda Palmer - on "Good Reads" of all places. I'd forgotten about the whole thing.

I honestly don't care that much about writers or singers personal lives. But I do wish they'd stop reminding me of how rich they are and privileged. ( Read more... )

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Book Review...and well books in general

Wed, 28 Aug 2019 01:49:37 GMT

Got suckered by SmartBitches into purchasing A Curious Beginning (Veronica Speedwell Mysteries #1) by Deanna Rayburn which is on sale for .99 cents at Amazon Kindle.

After burying her spinster aunt, orphaned Veronica Speedwell is free to resume her world travels in pursuit of scientific inquiry—and the occasional romantic dalliance. As familiar with hunting butterflies as with fending off admirers, Veronica intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime.

But fate has other plans when Veronica thwarts her own attempted abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron, who offers her sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker, a reclusive and bad-tempered natural historian. But before the baron can reveal what he knows of the plot against her, he is found murdered—leaving Veronica and Stoker on the run from an elusive assailant as wary partners in search of the villainous truth.

I can use my credits -- for the items I've returned. I returned "In Her Defense by Juliana Keyes" today after giving up on it, I'd made it through three-four chapters or approximately forty pages, when I realized, I hate this book. Good bye.
So back it went. You can do this with Amazon -- but alas, you have to be quick about it. They will not allow you to return books that you've had for several weeks. Or over a week or several days. So, I can't return the Twitty book, although I may go back to it at some point. I didn't hate that book -- just wasn't in the mood.

(In Her Defense is the book I was whinging about in last night's post.)

In other book news, I just finished the Neil Gaiman/Colleen Doran graphic novel Snow, Glass, Apples -- which is graphic novel adaptation of Gaiman's chapbook short story retelling of the Snow White fairy tale. The art takes center stage in this one and it is brilliant, also Gaiman's tale is haunting and horrifying/witty in Gaiman's signature style.

In this version, the Queen is the hero, Snow White is the monster -- although the book raises many unanswered questions at the end. What I found rather innovative and also, when I thought about it - of course, that makes total sense, why hasn't anyone else come up with this? ( spoiler )

The narrative is completely in the Queen's point of view. And it is just a narrative, no dialogue.

Illustrator and comic book artist Colleen Doran's art is beautiful and different. She applies the techniques of Harry Clark.

( interview with Colleen Doran )

Artists influence each other, as my brother used to tell me, art is in the interaction with the material and what others bring to it and take away from it. The biggest compliment you can pay any artist is when you borrow their techniques, or characters or world to play with on your own -- it means on some level they hit you at your core.

I'm very visual -- I think in pictures. ( Read more... )

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