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Not the Lateshift

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02:21 / 06.12.07

I almost prefer writing under the guise of childrens/YA stuff, just 'cause you can do the wackiest most absurd situations and it's somehow acceptable, whereas, you do that in an adult work, and well, might as well throw your credentials out the window! The Matrix would have run out of narrative twists and awe-making-moments in about half an episode of a decent Saturday morning cartoon.

02:25 / 06.12.07

Ah, "Young Adult." I thought that's what it meant, now I feel stupid for asking.

It sounds like a lot of fun.

So animation doesn't count as union work?

02:32 / 06.12.07

It's one of the things under negotiation. Right now, though, it's not under the WGA, though, no. Which is really weird, but the whole breakdown of the WGA, the Dramatist and like PEN, genre guilds... it's all kinda weird and highly arbitrary.

So, for now, I'm in the clear with it. And because I need the money, I kinda hope that only changes for the better - that is, in ways that allow me to keep working and getting money.

02:42 / 06.12.07

just 'cause you can do the wackiest most absurd situations and it's somehow acceptable, whereas, you do that in an adult work, and well, might as well throw your credentials out the window

I recently read Cory Doctorow's Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, it has a lot of absurd elements that can be jarring at first (the main character is the offspring of a mountain and a washing machine. No, seriously.)

02:43 / 06.12.07

I'd never make a good Union Rep, just 'cause I'd be consistently sticking my nose where it didn't contractually belong. Like a vicar crashing a bunch of monk's making a mandala and advising them on how to better distribute that shade right there and bring out the contrasts. I understand the existence of the breakdowns, but the whys defy me.

02:47 / 06.12.07

Ah, my favorite Doctorow! So much better than that other one.

Perhaps the secret is to be literary and absurd. Worked for Burroughs, anyway. (And the Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town bit reminds me of Finnegans Wake, in that that's the love story of a mountain and a river.)

02:49 / 06.12.07

Wow. I think the most absurdist thing I've read is my Ikea instructions.

I should get back to writting; heck I took enough writting courses in college. They should be put to use.

02:52 / 06.12.07

As long as you take the time to write new posts, too.

Actually, I'd love to see some Venger prose.

02:52 / 06.12.07

Cool! I thought I was the only one who's read Doctorow. What's the "other one"?

I haven't read Finnegan's Wake yet, though I believe I might have a copy of it lying around the apartment. People are always unloading their old paperbacks on me, resulting in me having more books than I'll probably read in my lifetime.

02:53 / 06.12.07

"Actually, I'd love to see some Venger prose. "

Um, I can email you some stuff I wrote back in college. Horrid cyberpunk fic. Ah those were the days.

02:57 / 06.12.07

Yay! I want some horrid cyberpunk fic too!

02:59 / 06.12.07

The Wake's good for picking up randomly and putting down the same way.

Anyhow, the other Doctorow would be E.L. Doctorow, author of Ragtime and Billy Bathgate amongst other things. He is, in my unhumble opinion, only enjoyable to audience's of a certain background, culturally and financially. Like Judd Apatow films (with a fair bit more pretentiousness), basically. The assumptions of a certain social set and financial accordance given as default PoV. They do hit their mark well with that audience, though, regardless of how I feel about them.

They may or not be related, the two Doctorows. Stories go both ways.

03:05 / 06.12.07

I really love his short story "Anda's Game." It was made into a comic, but I wasn't impressed with the interior artwork. The cover was by Sam Kieth, so I had high hopes when I saw it.

03:10 / 06.12.07

I've never seen any Judd Apatow films (except for Superbad, which was pretty funny in a Super Troopers sort of way), the premises just seemed so banal and preachy to me.

03:10 / 06.12.07

Who did the insides? Sam Kieth seems like he'd be a really good fit with Doctorow, but perhaps not for that story. I'd like to see Laurenn McCubbin take a crack at Anda's actually.

03:16 / 06.12.07

Knocked Up could have been funny, but I was too caught up trying to work out why no one on the protagonist's end has to work for their money, without us ever being told it comes from anywhere else. Sure, the housing in run down and the pool's icky, but it's all big houses with pools in the Valley, right? That's costing, even run down, and they don't do anything. It's like something scripted by someone who's forgotten what it's like to have to pay for things moment to moment. And the men all annoy the piss out of me for being boring, idiot, vindictive losers, while the women are designed like emotionally-needy, super-immature Stepford sexbots whose conversations, when the men are gone, turn to talking about men, sex, how men annoy them, and um, men.

To be fair, I did not watch the whole thing. Couldn't watch the whole thing. So maybe it redeemed itself and Forty-Year-Old Virgin was the best thing since the invention of the orgasm, but, yeah, I somehow doubt it.

03:19 / 06.12.07

I've seen neither Knocked Up or Superbad. Im a bad memeber of society.

03:24 / 06.12.07

"Who did the insides?"

I didn't recognize the name (I'm looking it up right now)

The art was serviceable, I suppose, If somewhat generic. Examples can be found here.

03:31 / 06.12.07

Liza's kinda severely drawn off-model, isn't she? That'd grate on me, 'cause I am that kind of continuity geek.

Quick look over at the story on Salon...

Yep. She was solid, like a brick wall, her hair bobbed bluntly at her shoulders. She dressed in a black jumper over loose dungarees with giant, goth boots with steel toes that looked like something you'd see in an in-game shop. And, Podgy.

03:37 / 06.12.07

I guess the thing that bothered me the most about the art was the fact that the computer game world was drawn in the exact same style as the protagonist's real life world. I think the artist missed a real creative opportunity there.

It would have been cool, for example, if the Game World were done in a computer-generated 3D style, resembling actual videogame stills.

However, the stories are under some kind of Creative Commons License, so maybe some talented amateur will come along and make an improved version.

03:39 / 06.12.07

Yeah, the thing about Liza bothered me too, but I suppose one does get used to that sort of thing when dealing with adaptations. All female characters must be "sexed-up" for the masses, or so the "market" decrees.

03:42 / 06.12.07

Sudden flash of the fantasy movie the main characters watch halfway through Steam Detectives, where the characters onscreen (as it were) are basically closer-to-photorealistic (though not really), hyper action movie Hollywoody versions of the characters watching it. More muscles, more sticking out of larger chest, better hair...

Even the coloring seems the same between worlds, in the preview pages. Very much a missed opportunity.

03:45 / 06.12.07

Well folks, Im going to relax in front ot the tv with a beer before bed. G'night all
\

03:46 / 06.12.07

Night, Veng.

03:47 / 06.12.07

Goodnight Veng!

03:52 / 06.12.07

Yeah, I should probably be going to bed myself. I want to be well-rested for when I go under the knife.

Good night DD, and any other shifters lurking out there.

04:14 / 06.12.07

Night, LN.

I think I'll just have another coffee & whisky and keep plugging along.

Anyone else out there?

01:23 / 07.12.07

Hi world.

Jot Evil Rules During Weddings

03:42 / 07.12.07

Is there anyone here tonight?

04:35 / 07.12.07

Anybody 'round? I am returned and mildly in my cups.

Jot Evil Rules During Weddings

04:46 / 07.12.07

yeah I am here after along abscence

04:51 / 07.12.07

Yo! How's life been, then?

I did the IMAX preview of the new Bat-flick, tonight (after standing in line for about an hour for it) and then got free drinks before sitting through Enchanted, which wasn't nearly as bad as it could've been and involved a princess stabbing something, so I'm doing relatively well.

Jot Evil Rules During Weddings

04:53 / 07.12.07

LIfe has been really shitty for me but hopefully at some point it will get better.

That sounds like an exciting night. I mostly sat by myself tonight doing nothing. I guess it was relaxing.

05:00 / 07.12.07

As you say, yourself, hopefully things will pick up for you.

I haven't seen a new release in a theater in a while, and no IMAX since about '04, so that was kinda nice. I'd forgotten what non-midnight-movie screenings were like. Kids and families and less yelling back the screen. And total strangers giving me their numbers, which does wonders for my poor little ego.

Jot Evil Rules During Weddings

05:05 / 07.12.07

Yeah I have not gone to see a movie in theaters in a long time. The movie theater that is closest to where I live is really kind of low-class, which is both a good and a bad thing. It does have it's own kind of charachter, especially if you are going to see an African American themed movie, which is a great experience as a white person. Then again there was a stabbing outside the movie theater

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