LONELYPOND PRESENTS

Starbucks has posted a new menu for the Fall and the green tea latte is not on it. Currently, our favorite Starbucks still has green tea powder and will make it for me, but soon, very soon, I fear I am going to have to start packing my own matcha.

Have been going to the library more, which is great. I like reading moods. Finished The Genius In All Of Us yesterday, a good clear quick read revising the accepted view of how genes and environment interact and what circumstances create genius/talent. Today, I skipread through The Best Time Travel Stories of The 20th Century. Connie Willis’s “Fire Watch” reminded me of how excellent and moving her time travel stories are. All I could think after reading it is people (and cats and/or other furry creatures) and your relationship with them are really the only things that matter. Willis’s The Doomsday Book is both one of the scariest books I have ever read and one of the best. And then you pick up To Say Nothing of the Dog, a lighthearted time travel romp using the same time travel apparatus/suspects as The Doomsday Book. Her Bellwether has nothing to do with time travel, but everything to do why we behave the way we do and is the book I recommend to everyone (yes, that means you.) And, checking her website for titles, I discover she has a new time travel book Blackout. Its companion All Clear will be coming out in October. Found a cool interview with Ms. Willis about why she wrote Blackout and All Clear, as well as her next project.

Terry Pratchett also has a new book, I Shall Wear Midnight (GREAT title) coming out next month, revisiting the world of Tiffany Aching and the Wee Free Men. The three previous books have been some of his best work, less rambling than he tends to get when he visits Ankh-Morpork in his “adult” books. So Tiffany in Ankh-Morpork should be fascinating.

I have been reading many blog posts from i09 recently, about must read science fiction and Warehouse 13 reviews. We still seem to agree on most Warehouse 13 points. The last episode, Vendetta, was uneven; the plotting of the Russian angle seemed shaky. Always good to see H.G. Wells and it was great how as soon as she was announced as a fully reinstated agent, you realized that could NEVER work. Even before Artie flipped out.

Weekend plans, I know you’re always interested in these. Well, if you missed it, it’s Camp Rock 2 weekend and I have a Disney, Jonas Brothers loving cat. So we’ll be watching that. Gayle requested I bump Casablanca to the top of the Netflix queue so we’ll pause a moment while I do that. It should arrive Saturday.

Last Netflix DVD we watched was The Bannen Way. Didn’t finish it. Liked the Jaguar, but I always like a snazzy car. Came to the conclusion today that even morally grey heroes care about something — the next whiskey, the current client and her nicely hourglass figure, the partner, a code, the money…something. The characters in The Bannen Way didn’t even care enough to qualify for nonchalance in a strung together collection of mob movie/heist cliches boosted with large doses of titillation.

My favorite web series continue to be Odd Jobs(well written and acted, care is obviously taken by creator Jeremy Redleaf), The Web Files(good behind the scenes and on the spot coverage of what’s happening in the web world, hosted by Kristyn Burtt), Space Hospital(yes, I’m a sucker for robots, special effects and bad 70’s spoofing), Movies You May Have Missed(which I don’t get to watch often enough because the episodes are 20-25 minutes and the movies sometime involve zombies, although they do try for unusual zombies), The Guild I am still enjoying in comic book form, and sometime I plan to catch the goofiness that is Safety Geeks: SVI, especially now that they’re working in 3-D. Oh, and sometime I need to catch up with Chick too (sucker for superheroes) which also brings up the dancing heroes of The LXD And no news on new B.J. Fletcher episodes. I would love new B.J. Fletcher episodes. NOW. Or sooner.

Doing some research/doodling for new projects. I’ve put Blink Kitty Love on hiatus for awhile and changed my Twitter handle to @mdnightmaverick. The Prometheus Film Festival was fun. We enjoyed Pure Imagination, a short documentary about comics creation + creativity that talked to creators like Kyle Baker and Joe Staton (E-Man is one of my favorite comics ever) Gayle, Calvin and I got to see Jabberwocky and Skate Street on a big screen. Jabberwocky looked much better than I expected (I’ve been grumping about the camera but I seem to owe it an apology.) And I feel like I got to check off an accomplishment, having my fellow Lonely Pond Production adventurers be able to see their hard work in a public venue. So now I’m trying to focus on things I want to do as an individual.

Oh, and worst shirt.woot derby (Cryptozoology Redux) so far for me. Didn’t end up voting for any of the shirts in the fog. And last week’s Double Take Derby and subsequent Editor’s Choices ignored the one design I wanted, a very cool map in the shape of a dragon. Which might be good because I’m broke but isn’t really fun. Couple of cool Tilteed shirts wandered by but I was holding out for the dragon map so now suffering t-shirt withdrawal.

Rest of weekend plans? Read, clean up, enjoy the weather once it gets COOL again, find some cool new things to cook (I need new breakfast options). Entertainment Weekly suggested the Reiner Knizia’s Samurai game/app in this week’s The Must List so I might try that instead of Civilization Revolution. May also sneak out to a $2 movie or the new Justin Long/Drew Barrymore comedy.

And I think I’m rambling. Enjoy your holiday weekend. Suggest books, web series, strategy games in the comments or @ me on Twitter. Good night!

Ok, I’m waiting for #merven the movie to export + I forgot I can’t work on my Halloween haiku short short short so we’ll try some quick comments instead.

Jabberwocky and Skate Street are in a local film festival this weekend. The inaugural Prometheus Film Festival is being hosted by York Little Theatre. Jabberwocky plays in a comedy/short film block Saturday afternoon. Skate Street is looping with the music videos for the two days of the festival. I’m excited that the Lonely Pond Productions crew will get to see their work on a larger screen than a computer. I’m a little worried about myself. I figure the experience will either inspire a better movie or cure me of live action projects. Love working with actors, but the techy stuff is a bit daunting*

*what this actually means is I’m having the buy a new camera urge for no real reason except that I don’t think Jabberwocky looks as good from a lighting perspective as LONELY POND MONSTER (looking for love) did. Would need to study up on lighting before undertaking another shoot. I have both live action and animated projects I’m considering. Right now though, I’m stalled on a script that can’t decide if it’s a play or a movie and H.G. Wells zinging through the air with a grappling hook + rescuing damsels in distress is giving me the write the In The Bleak December sequel urge.

And now we segue to Warehouse 13. Yes, tonight’s episode(”Merge With Caution”) was missing Wells, but it was also missing the snap of better writing. Actors did an excellent job + were quite funny, but it seemed a filler episode and meant to drive home the don’t expect the Myka/H.G. chemistry to go anywhere point. Which is fine, but this seemed like an awkward + sudden jump from where they left both Pete and Myka last episode**.

One of my favorite things about this season is watching Claudia try to figure out boys. Last year, I liked her cockiness but that being replaced by enough security to show how awkward she feels works. This whole season has been about plot + character development and “Merge With Caution” felt more like a stunt.

Eureka is back, not as whimsical, but definitely back. In the last episode (”Stoned”), Carter finally kissed Allison with intent(and yes, I was the person yelling “Kiss her you moron” at the screen. I occasionally verge on the almost sentimental; I may have mentioned that before.) And the identity of the person Grant met at the diner was a HUGE payoff to those who’ve been watching from the beginning. Everything just got much more interesting.

Impressed with Hannah Montana Forever’s willingness to spend its last season still being goofy. Whatever Miley’s future intent, she’s keeping the comedy in Hannah and I’m glad. It’s so much better than the let’s have women fight over Joe/no real people in Hollywood but us overdramatic mess Jonas LA is priding itself on becoming. I am sorry that my nieces are watching it in its current state; they’ve taken two cool girl characters and made them all about the guy. Bah.

Caught Despicable Me and laughed at many things. Excellent fun. Lots of great little moments where the characters just did things because they were funny. I loved it when Gru had to parallel park after a frustrating conversation with his mother and just slammed back and forth between the cars on either side, crushing them. Some days, it’s good to be a villain. And the minions were amazingly cute, funny and expressive. Good, solid fun.

Also, on the advice of my former editor and anime advisor, Mel, finally watched Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoon (the first disc had been the current on top of the TV Netflix envelope occupant for at least a couple of weeks.) Beau (little brother) was out and had recently become a convert after our nephews trashed the movie because the TV show was better. So Beau filled me in on future plots + characters and I will be catching more episodes. It’s fun and I really like the martial arts foundation for the various forms of element bending. And because the characters are so young, it doesn’t get into the darker places where some anime wander.

Read “Talking to Girls About Duran Duran,” chock full o’ lots of 80’s music flashbacks + commentaries on Irish + Catholic families and sisters. Pleasant enough, though not terribly exciting. Gave me the urge to write a better series of essays. And aggravated me a little about Duran Duran. I don’t remember anyone (besides my mom who loved Simon Le Bon and no, we are not discussing that) being a huge fan. Then again, I don’t remember talking to girls about music. I talked to my brothers about music — or Joseph lectured me about it and decided which concerts he wanted to go to. Left to my own devices, it’s Meatloaf with the 20 foot inflatable woman (not my fault), Indigo Girls (not really a fan but there was this one song and I had Saturday nights very free), Roberta Peters (yes, opera), my buddies’ bands…right now, my I might see them list is Rodrigio y Gabriella, Girl in A Coma, Gomez, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (yes, I may have a minor crush on the conductor), Joan Jett (yes, I may have a…) The #merven soundtrack (which included “California Gurls”) has left me with the realization I like Katy Perry’s current incarnation as I hum the tune to “Teenage Dream.” Have been watching more music videos, especially this past weekend. Been doing VMA research for the band and I am most impressed with Usher’s resurgence and the chock full o’ dance moves/nods “OMG”

Mood: poetry seems to be striking (as you might have been able to tell from the previous haiku) as well as mood: heroic adventure (I wonder what mood: monkey would be?) so I’m tempted to get Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf translation out of the library next (or The Faerie Queen). Or Lorna Doone, which I mentioned to a friend and remember loving and reading multiple times, but not recently so I wonder if my memory is accurate. I inscribed and gave away my copy to a bandit long ago; maybe it’s time to acquire another.

**Have been searching for the very cool songs they’ve been playing over H.G. Wells moments and finally found them: from the end of the first episode Portishead’s “Sour Times (link to a song embedded in MP3 TV, a music + TV blog)” and from “For The Team,” “Chocolate” by one eskimO.

Good night. Read a book or write one, darn it.

1:10 suddenly
Truth: Frustrated weary sad
No good choices there.

Can’t blame the moon, won’t
Crowding inside, pushing out
No cause yet no calm.

Vortex + Dark merge
Too full for echoes or rest
2:10 suddenly

New episode w/ cheeseburgers, t-shirts and some surprise furry visitors.

Well, shall we discuss the lack of chemistry Scott Pilgrim vs. The World had with the general moviegoing public (note to studios + distributors: never bet against Stallone) or the chemistry H.G. Wells has with EVERYONE she interacts with onscreen in Warehouse 13, but especially Myka, who has been pulling my attention all season as the character to watch. Tonight’s episode, “For The Team”, keeps me (and H.G. Wells it seems) on that trail.

{#merven was a success and I have several thoughts about it in a more analytical fashion, which I may eventually share, including comedy is better if you take the serious parts very seriously. The more it seemed like Shylock would get his pound of flesh, the more vibrantly funny the teasing of the faithless gentleman at the end of Act 5 became. The script and the actors were both working out the tension that had built up. And the audience was ready for the relief. So I have learned to pay attention to the grimmer parts of the comedies (and there always are) which should set me up well for dealing with the Hero/Claudio nexus in Much Ado About Nothing. But tonight, you get reviews.}

Back to Warehouse 13, which is giving us solid mysteries, engaging character development and great guest stars (the ones mentioned everywhere — by that I mean Twitter — from tonight’s were Lindsay Wagner — great to see her — and recurring guest star Paula Garcés, who is doing a good job as the town vet and Pete’s love interest. Jaime Murray doesn’t get mentioned much as a guest star but her H.G. Wells is a welcome sight, adding a nice mix of what the heck is going to happen next to her relationship with the Warehouse. What I expected and what happened split immediately after Claudia and Myka discovered her at the scene of a suspected artifact. The Wells storyline has some major twists left, I think, as well as a few personal ones for Myka.

Writer Drew Z. Greenberg wrote this episode (as well as last season’s standout “Claudia”). Greenberg also wrote one of my favorite hours of television ever, Buffy’s “The Killer in Me,” where Willow goes out with the insistent Kennedy and things go very wrong and then almost exactly right. This is my favorite stand alone Buffy episode, but if we were having the favorite Buffy episode conversation, I don’t count this one in the running as it seems a tangent to the usually Buffy centric universe. My all time favorite Buffy moment is when Giles walks in the door at the end of Season 6, with everything ending for Willow and the universe and you go, hey, I forgot about Giles, he’s here, maybe they’ll get out of this. And there is a feeling akin to joy.

And how did we get on Buffy? Time for a Buffy marathon weekend. I think I’m avoiding discussing Scott Pilgrim.

I don’t think you should blame Michael Cera or Mary Elizabeth Winstead for not attracting moviegoers. I think you should blame (and next, I utter blasphemy): Edgar Wright. Yes, Edgar Wright. The man who stayed faithful to Bryan Lee O’Malley’s brilliantly wild, inventive and full of strange but complex, interesting characters Scott Pilgrim graphic novels through Vol. 1 + 2, took a wrong turn at Brandon my CGI hair is funnier than I am Routh and then totally EVISCERATED Ramona’s character by sending her back to Gideon and having her say she has no control over herself. And then Knives and Scott fought Gideon on her behalf. In the book, she and Scott take Gideon down TOGETHER. And she spent her time away with NEITHER Gideon nor Scott. Those facts make a HUGE difference. So I believe Winstead was cast exactly right for a kick ass Ramona Wright didn’t have the imagination or guts or respect for women to put on the screen.

Not to mention all of you who are saying, Wallace Wells, COOL gay roommate (props to Kieron Culkin for an excellent performance), Wright turned him into a threesome in the bed slut for cheap laughs. That’s not cool gay character for me. Now when you read the books (and you need to read the books), you’ll see cool gay character when Stephen Stills’ boyfriend walks up to him and kisses him in front of Scott (who handles it like Scott — big eyes + “So Julie turned you gay.”)

Right, more a rant than a review. Part of the reason I think it didn’t attract a bigger audience is the emphasis on Lucas Lee kicking Scott’s ass in the commercials. Yes, Chris Evans was their most bankable star and impressed me, but there should have been several angles to attract moviegoers. But I think Wright left those parts out of the movie — the romantic parts, the cool girls parts, most of the story intricacies that let you care about the characters. And the robots. He left out the robots. Tsk. Tsk.

Going to go read the rest of Volume 2 now. Working my way through them again because Scott Pilgrim the Graphic Novels are game changers. Scott Pilgrim the movie can’t even manage to land a seat in the bleachers.

Best Gayle comment: she thought Sex Bob-omb sounded exactly like she’d imagined they would. And she was very impressed with the Envy Adams/Clash At Demonhead song.

The Merchant of Venice aka #merven was a success. Had to cancel one night due to oppressive heat and had to walk a part another night, throwing the show off kilter, but everyone sparked the performance after so that was amazing to watch. I will probably get analytical about the #merven experience at some point, but right now, I am just grateful for all the effort and talent the actors + crew put into my ambitious vision. I learned a few things about relationships on stage and I’m still happily listening to the #merven soundtrack. So, go Team #merven. I’m a happy and mostly exhausted director.

Still haven’t seen another movie, although Despicable Me is next on the list and The Kids Are All Right is actually in town.

Starting to like Eureka again. This time the setting them adrift in an alternate timeline works. Guess it had to fail once. Jo is becoming a stronger character with better stories, which is LONG overdue. And Allison is still a really scarily bad parent, which is always interesting. Carter seems on the outside this season, but this is giving other characters more opportunities. Miss the original Sheriff Andy now that they’ve “reskinned” him. It’s hard to do golly gee earnestness effectively.

Warehouse 13 — still knocking them out of the park. I like each episode more the second time I watch it, even when I’m not expecting to. Although the superhero episode did contain a few too many references for me. And when do we get H.G. Wells again? I think we’ve established the family vibe; now it’s time to up the stakes again.

Picked up a P.G. Wodehouse book (Barmy in Wonderland) today; looking forward to reading it. Still miss the FT, but I really think the iPad/FT app is the best solution. Now, all I need is an iPad. Oy. Will pick up an FT Weekend at least this weekend if we get up to the Wegman’s.

Spent the afternoon at the alternate office reading Henry James + Virginia Woolf. I’ve always had a vivid emotional memory of reading “The Beast in the Jungle” and I was considering it as new project. It’s more complicated a story than I remember, with less dialogue. I frequently remember the intensities of a story and drop out of memory the complicated parts that go on a bit (it’s Henry James; he goes on a bit.) Was also looking for a particular Virginia Woolf short story (”Slater’s Pins Have No Points“) but next best thing little book of essays so I enjoyed “Notes On An Elizabethan Play.” Entertaining (I like Woolf in shorter forms than novels) with interesting angles on fiction, plays + poetry, unicorns + jewellers. And all this Virginia Woolf talk reminds me of Vita Sackville-West’s Seducers In Ecuador, a tart excellent wonder of a novella that I’d love to do something with sometime. Sackville-West dedicated it to Woolf, matching Woolf’s dedication of Orlando to her. But Seducers is one of my favorite works and the sharper read. (And yes, I discovered these things when I directed Vita and Virginia, a play based on their letters and lives.)

Guess I’m slowly working my way to the current century, at least in terms of literature. What and when are you reading?

Cries Howls Echoes Rage
Restless Midnight Scrawling Words
Scattered Letters Surge

The Merchant of Venice opens on Friday so although both The Runaways DVD and Scott Pilgrim, Volume 6 are coming out this week, it’ll be a bit before I get them or get to them. My to do list includes: get stationery, write notes for characters, acquire Tarot cards (we’re using The Fool and Death for inside the silver and gold chests) and a portrait of Portia. Yesterday weather and rain moved into town so that’s stressful. I’m now watching The Weather Channel with breakfast.

Tech went well. Nice shady spots, a bit of a breeze, ran the show twice, costumes are all working out, Morocco’s fez and red umbrella make the scene, nearly everyone has their lines.

Need to reblock one scene that just isn’t working tonight. It requires more human interaction, less pacing and possibly sparkling cider. I’m sure the actors involved will be thrilled. Well, they might if actually starts to work. I’m taking responsibility for the glitches.

Talked to reporters from both papers in town and had two photographers stop by. Thursday’s entertainment news should be dominated by Theatre Under The Trees. So now, all I need to do is finish the props, reblock the beginning of 3.2, not let actor stress affect me, have a positive weather attitude, possibly walk Lorenzo (who is on vacation ’til opening — summer shows so much fun) and I’m pretty sure there’s something (or five things) else but first is lunch, tea and stretchy stuff.

Warehouse 13 still solid, lost the Hot in Cleveland track due to rehearsals, Inception was an interesting puzzle, although I think Christopher Nolan tends toward leads who leave you cold and romances straight out of noir’s well travelled shadowy sidewalks neighborhood. The Joseph Gordon Levitt versus No Gravity stuff was INCREDIBLE. Marion Cotillard grabbed you in every scene she had. Great to see a movie use physical tricks and location shooting instead of CGI and green screen. I suppose it’s a bit greedy to think it should have been as gripping/battering emotionally as Vertigo. But we must keep demanding stories with no weaknesses.

How’s your week? I’m back to green tea lattes. I did drift to decaf caffe lattes for awhile (ooohhhh, hardcore), but it was just a phase. Did I mention the setting involves a coffee counter I’m calling Shybucks in my head. And that this year, we have the excellent Andrew who built everything so it FITS in the back of my SUV. Last year, we had to drop a piece of the boardwalk a night each of the last three rehearsals and turn the Adirondack chairs over to someone else.

Ok, that’ll have to hold you. Take care!

If you were here, dear,
you’d hear this rain clear but not
hear anything near