FRIDAY + I’M TRYING THIS AGAIN
Posted December 16th, 2011 in , , Comics, Animation, Comedy, mystery, family, books, art, TV, Disney, robots, Culture, entertainment, writing, movie, insomnia, mulling, holiday, Twitter, Eureka, Chuck
Alas, you missed last night’s blog post. I miss it even more than you as wordpress managed somehow to make the darn thing disappear. So I’ll give it another go. This time, the usual two sentences a topic. Let’s see how I do.
I don’t even remember Chuck is on on Fridays anymore. Although we did have a watch a fun Thanksgiving episode craving on Thanksgiving but we’d loaned the DVDs to a friend.
Hart of Dixie had a double header this week: fun. Cast is excellent, I’ve always liked Tim Matheson, it’s good to see him play someone with an edge.
Good Luck Charlie Christmas road movie was loud; want to watch it again and have a second opinion. Had some serious moments and a runaway story that might save a scared individual someday.
Arthur Christmas was full of Christmas fun and wonder, Aardman scores again. Solid story, excellent animation as always and great voice talent, especially Bill Nighy, who keeps popping up on my radar.
Eureka Christmas Special — oh yeah. They managed a great episode, included Taggart, left out Zane, gave a shout out to every animation style and animated Christmas special you can think of and had a bonus (and funny) Jim Parsons voice cameo.
Have been picking up Archie Comic Double Digests on visits to the comic book store. Lots o’ fun + comics for $3.99; Jughead’s edition my favorite so far.
There was a Joan Jett haiku but I’ll deal with that at a later date.
Did you see Joan Jett and The Foo Fighters on
| Letterman? Pretty intense, they all looked like they were having a great time and crushing “Bad Reputation” on their guitars was all they ever wanted to do in the world.
And the two sentence limit takes a pause: Being in that zone is an amazing thing. Trying to get there with a new project — iApocalypso — and adding a new collaborator to the mix. So far, it’s a project of mystery kind of thing, although I am working on a logo* and there is a Tumblr account. Between the Mayan apocalypse and the upcoming political one, I figure there’s going to be no way to avoid to the wave of mention/interest, so why not try to use it as fuel. So if you have a favorite apocalypse scenario or related reading material, drop a mention in the comments or @ me. Twitter is where all the conversations happen. My favorite people on Twitter are the ones who play along with Blink Kitty Love, the crazy crushing cartoon band that is as much a work in progress as I am. Experimented with having a guest stop by for an interview on the band blog, @TravisErwin, fun and funny author of The Feedstore Chronicles. Sent him half a dozen (half of them goofy) questions (the band is the snacks, music and goofing off parts of my personality), happy with how it turned out. Might look for a few more people to ask questions. Could be you. Here’s a sample: Top a burger or build a sandwich for us so we can decide if we want to stop by for a snack. I am a near complete carnivore so for me burgers and sandwiches are all about the meat, and nothing green, will ever taint my meat. Bacon, cheese, layers of other meats. That is the ONLY kind of toppers for me. I also do a lot of blends for the backyard bashes I throw. Grinding, say ham and beef together to create my own hamburger patties. Feedstore Chronicles: how funny is it (aka is it safe to drink snortable fluids while reading)? And who should we buy it for? I hope it’s damned funny. I hope it is Exorcist-like in that fluids shoot with great force from those crazy enough to drink while reading.I know it still makes me laugh and I’ve read, edited and re read the stories dozens if not hundreds of times. The reviews have been great. Well, all except for the guy who was kind of ticked he’d given the book to his nearly 80 year old mother. Apparently it was a bit risque for her taste. So I’ll say it’s for anyone with a sense of humor and a tolerance for lewd comedies. Check out the rest of the interview here.
Another group of @blinkkittylove buddies are Kristyn Burtt, Sandra Payne and Jennifer Bobiwash, all of whom once worked on the excellent The Web Files, which I’ve mentioned before and which just got nominated for IAWTV (International Academy of Web Television) awards in three categories. Check out Burtt’s blog for details. Congratulations. Glad to see all of their hard work get recognized. Enjoy your holiday season. Hope whatever it is you want, you find yourself in that neighborhood. With parking available ; ) *Logo in progress, this is the second take:
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WE START WITH MOVIES
Posted February 20th, 2011 in Comedy, mystery, books, Culture, entertainment, movie, poetry, Reading, acting, performance, Twitter, Nick, Chuck
Movie watching update: Social Network had great performances from Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield, Brenda Song got one of the better female parts in the movie, women not really represented as people, just something that comes with the liquor and money, and I thought the ending too dramatically neat/Hollywood. Still haven’t seen the movie that I’ve thought was “the complete package.” Not interested in The Kids Are All Right, hoping to catch The Fighter at the local theatre this week, put Winter’s Bone next on the Netqueue, no interest in Toy Story 3, hmmmm…would rather read the book True Grit is based on, after the rush hour traffic of Social Network thought Inception looked better than I remembered. Big Inception ad push in The Hollywood Reporter for two weeks, half the pictures chosen reminded me that the movie is about people sleeping, not sure that’s a good thing to remind the Academy.
What’s on my “I’m rooting for” list (may change): Natalie Portman, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter (surprised me, not generally a fan), Jesse Eisenberg, How To Train Your Dragon (although I wanted Tangled to get a nomination), “I See the Light” (Tangled) and Inception for Cinematography.
Weekend reading: Plays Well With Others by Allan Gurganus on the recommendation of @KikiBergen. Finding the light, charming and confident way Gurganus uses words cheers me up about writing. Although the story has darker undertones (AIDS, 80’s, death — I had somehow briefly forgotten), the narrator is having a conversation you want to be a part of.
Anything else new? House of Anubis finished off well. I really liked the characters and a well plotted mystery sans blood/gore on television is a find. Catch the reruns if you want a little teen detective fun. #yesImissNancyDrew
Chuck: Chuck has been back on form. Taking down Volkoff was full of tension, surprises, cards well played, excellent moments, humor + all those things that can make an episode of Chuck great. Follow that up with the return of John Laroquette and you have a Chuck double feature full of win. The C.A.T. squad episode was too predictable but still has its fun moments.
Oh, and Hellcats…I really don’t know what to think about Hellcats. Great cast and the characters spend as much time talking about ethics as I do. Biggest flaw: The cheerleading coach’s fiancé is more of an obstacle than a character.
Ashley Tisdale’s character goes from tearful prayer to the throwing of a toga party. The religious aspect of the show is so serious and so threaded through that no one seems to notice or blink at it. I never expected to like Heather Hemmens’ Alice and yet I do. Aly Michalka finally has a part she can do something with. All this brings me back every week to Hellcats, a truly odd mix of a show. And it works, I think. I just have to keep watching to figure out why.
Want new media Oscar coverage? Kristyn Burtt is covering the Academy Awards for Mingle Media TV. It’s been fun following along with her Oscar journey. I recommend it.
Haikus:
Friday Evening Early
Twilight blends bright blues
Winter electric, dark drops
Stars wink a way through
It’s The fault of @SPWrite
Whisper of wind shifts
My only divination
Whether storm or sun
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WEEKENDS
Posted January 18th, 2011 in Comedy, mystery, family, TV, Disney, entertainment, movie, acting, performance, Nick
I think I’m two weekends behind. And today, Monday has seemed like a week long event. So, quick reviews it is.
Nickelodeon TV:
Two new episodes of Victorious tonight, all about the perils of showbiz. First one funnier, where the group becomes a one day kids singing group. They do turn out the catchy musical numbers on Victorious.
House of Anubis: fun, Egyptian themed mystery. Nicely plotted, solid acting, villians are clunky and institutional, but I think that’s the point. Some of the teen mischief bit parts are overdone, but overall a solid and interesting new show.
Disney:
Wizards of Waverly Place: Max is a girl now. Wizards succeeds when it leans toward the crazy chaotic side of wizardry (or Harper). Not so sure about the Dark Angel identity for Justin they’ve started plugging.
Hannah Montana: It’s over. And Lily and Miley ended up continuing their friendship by attending college together. One of the better recent episodes. Found myself liking the actress playing Sienna, especially after the musical interludes in the Miley chooses to reveal her identity episode. Flash seemed happy.
Movies:
Tron: Legacy: Impressed with Garret Hedlund and Olivia Wilde’s acting. Jeff Bridges had some nice moments. Loved the action sequences but movie bogged down at the end by not really having a decent plot or anything original for the villain to do. Perhaps Klu should have swirled a pixel moustache as he tied Quorra to the light rail tracks.
Black Swan: On the Natalie Portman for the Oscar train. Didn’t like some of the visual/angle/editing choices Aronofsky made, but all the actors turned in incredible performances. Portman’s Nina watched everyone so closely, every minute, starting with herself. And the transformation: terrifying. I won’t forget the look in Portman’s eyes any time soon, it stopped everything as her whole being became an arrow of aggression, striding to seize what she wanted.
And good night.
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TUESDAY CHECK IN
Posted November 16th, 2010 in Comics, mystery, books, art, TV, music, Disney, Culture, entertainment, movie, Reading, Twitter, meandering, photos, t-shirts
Ok, time for a quick two sentence (or so) tour of what I’ve been up to.
Friday: Avalon High. Pretty good, solid cast, different from the book as described as Wikipedia but I think they picked the right actor to play King Arthur. Gorgeous tangled trees for the actors to talk under, lots of action.
Saturday: Baltimore Museum of Art for a photo sculpture safari. They have an excellent sculptor collection, lots of Rodin and an Isamu Noguchi in the sculpture garden. Flickr photo set here.
Sunday: skip read the last 2/3 of the green Nancy Drew trilogy. The modern trilogy takes the suspense and action of an original Nancy Drew novel, pads it w/ unnecessary details + teen trauma and turns it into 3 mediocre, poorly edited books(between book 1 + 2, editors couldn’t remember if George or Bess wins the trip to Costa Rica.) Boo.
More success reading Elizabeth Moon’s Deeds of Paksenarrion trilogy. Great character, well written, gripping plot, good pace, handled violence + the dangers of evil well. Had read before, but benefited from the revisit.
Great graphic novel find at the library: Four Letter Worlds. A solid collection of sixteen stories (four each on Love, Hate, Fear and Fate.) Worth a read. I may actually track down a copy to buy.
My first Tilteed blog post is up; check it out. Do the RSS thing. Fun t-shirt reviews and stories coming up.
Fun package arrived in the mail this morning, my For Glory hoodie from Seventh Ink. Love the 300 inspired art; I’m a big fan of the Frank Miller comic book, as well as his Sin City series. Miller’s art is always striking and vivid; Seventh Ink’s version vividly reinterprets the Spartan ethos.
Quintessential + GREAT Joan Jett cameo in The Eyeliners Destroy video. Watch it; it’s fun. Thanks to @KikiBergen for the link.
Happy Tuesday. I finally ordered The Runaways DVD and it just arrived. So I’m taking the rest of the day off. Cheers.
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WATCH IT IN THE DARK
Posted October 22nd, 2010 in Animation, mystery, music, entertainment, poetry, Current Events
My Werewolf Haiku animation is finished and just in time for the full moon. Enjoy.
Werewolf Haiku from Michelle Denise Norton on Vimeo.
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B + B’S ARE DANGEROUS
Posted May 21st, 2009 in mystery, books, TV, rant, music, entertainment, Smallville, insomnia, Twitter, meandering
The thing that cheered me up today, from @chandlerisms: “It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained-glass window.”
I was skipping through the entirety of my withoutabox blog, which I had e-mailed to myself(long story for a not so late night), and realized that I often mentioned the mark of a true lonelypond blog entry is a mention of insomnia, Shakespeare and/or Lois Lane. And I never mention Ms. Lane anymore (this is the brunette part of B + B, in case you haven’t figured that out yet).
Although the part of the still very small smallville season finale I did watch had her and Tess rolling around on a desk (oh, come on, just put them in jello and don’t pretend you write plots that are any good anymore — note that I am not advocating jello wrestling(yes, I really need to sleep; that might cut down on these tangents) or watching actresses on the still very smallville wrestle in said jello(that would only make it tinyville) — where was I –oh, Lois rolling into the future with a ring and The Legion…maybe Erica Durance and the LSH will come back next year with some writers who have a sense of humor, a sense of style and want to once again have the best music on TV since Buffy. Besides, “what kind of TV show kills off Jimmy Olsen” — I’m quoting Gayle. Sigh. smallstill.
Oh, right, and still not sleeping and thinking I should go down and pull a Peter Cheyney book off the shelf; he’s a British writer of the hard boiled detective school. I discovered his works, oddly enough, in a bookstore in O’Hare Airport and have treasured them ever since. You can probably guess why from the titles: Dangerous Curves, It Couldn’t Matter Less, Sorry You’ve Been Troubled, You Can’t Keep The Change, and Dames Don’t Care (don’t have that one and no, you can’t borrow the rest.)
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CREATIVITY + CHARACTERS (+ minor rant + touch of tequila)
Posted April 27th, 2009 in Comedy, mystery, family, books, art, rant, writing, Lonely Pond Productions, Inc., Financial Times reference, Adventure, movie, poetry, economy, acting, gay, mulling, theatre, Shakespeare, Moliere
I have been reading Nicola Griffith’s blog with some frequency recently, partly in gratitude for her getting me back to reading and the library and partly because we seem to dislike the same books. A recent answer about where she gets her characters’ names reminded me of interviewing Tamora Pierce. How to come up with names and characters is one of the things Pierce gets asked most often in Q + A sessions.
So this got me thinking about creativity and characters and how they take over whatever you’re working on and everything you’re thinking about…even when I’m directing a play as it seems exposure to weeks of The Miser aka L’Avare (and the impending interruption of my Financial Times subscription — newspaper vs. car payment, car wins) is making me grumpy about money and cynical about marriage (and I’m almost sentimental usually) — nearly every character is suggesting writing widowhood/widower status after three months or so into the wedding contract. So there’s the draft of a post titled “WHY THE ECONOMY HAS ALWAYS SUCKED FOR ARTISTS” sitting in a folder, but I really do prefer not to dwell on that sort of thing as I am happy with the active choices I’ve made to direct the plays I choose, film the movies I want and follow the characters that come to me (as well as have time for tea with Gayle when her insane work and sleep schedule allows). So instead of that rant, I’m channelling my energy into other posts (this and the previous and the haiku).
Back to characters, the flow of creativity and naming after that much briefer rant:
Jane and Sally at one point just took over In The Bleak December…I remember a couple of frustrating nights where Sally just insisted on behaving like herself and it was nothing at all like I had planned. That was extremely educational. Sally was inspired by an actual person so I kept her first name; Jane just seemed to go along with it. And Jane’s last name is lifted from a cool science fiction adventurer type I used to try to fit into something — Mycroft Holloway (first name after Sherlock Holmes smarter brother but the character was a girl). I find the naming process very exciting as I take time with the names and discovering the personalities that they connect to…
In the mystery I was recently working on — before the Muse that is comedy took over again — I have a completed first draft with a cool collection of four different narrators. Rereading it led me to the conclusion that the narrator I started with had to be excised and a character who only popped in a couple of times but brought so much energy with him needed to take over a third of the book and drive the sequel. Before the draft really took off, I had to sit down and connect a bunch of family and sibling dots.
I do family trees as a tool…I remember one of the grand fantasy narratives I wrote as a teenager involved complicated and intense family trees for both the human and horse characters.
For LONELY POND MONSTER (looking for love)…the process started with me being a preparation fiend and wanting to shoot a short before the big Shakespeare tangented project we were all excited about…so one friend said, “well, the place I’m staying at has a pond and we can film there” which turned into me ripping out a story about a Lonely Pond Monster who wanted to make friends by joining in activities and a Spinning Girl who was trying to fit in by changing her wardrobe…and there would be no dialogue because as it was my first movie and much as I love our sound and sound effects guru, he often has the same effect on me that tequila used to (there’s the book Jill Shaffer and I were going to write where each chapter started with “and then I took another shot of tequila” complete with the real time authors’ experience of the same — my poetry phases are always interesting) so I decided silent film with music, let’s emphasize my skill with directing physical comedy. And then LONELY POND MONSTER (looking for love) turned into two of my favorite weekends, a really cool story and a love for the process of movie making. And the Shakespeare tangent movie– well, that’s a story for daylight hours.
So basically, imagining characters, naming them and following them where they lead is one the best and craziest adventures there can be so enjoy it. They’ll thank you for it.
And now, I’m going to read part of a novel for at least six minutes. Good night all; dream well.
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PATIENCE CREATIVITY GRUMPINESS AND IGNORING THE SUCCESS OF OTHERS
Posted March 28th, 2009 in Animation, mystery, family, books, rant, how-to, Culture, writing, Reading, gay, Blink Kitty Love, Twitter
And if I didn’t have a problem with it, I would have said something sensible, noble and touchy-feely like being true to myself or the journey or…
So here I am in a ferment…I hate them when I’m in them, but often something positive comes out once I’ve churned my way through so I have learned to be a little patient with them — or at least not let them totally unnerve me.
I also feel like I should be walking but this is one of those topple over in a strong wind days so I’m channelling energy through the finger and forearm muscles. And should is a verb I’ve outlawed…
Patience, patience was supposed to be a launching point for a segue involving my friend@LisaMurray , Friday’s Awesome Optimist on the Awesome Optimist youTube channel. This week’s episode: Patience. Lisa wanted to know what stopped and frustrated you. So I started thinking about that.
And then there was Gomez, in Lancaster when we were videotaping Red Sea Radio in Harrisburg for Jeremy. So I started a Twitter conversation with them and, bless them, they started a twitter conversation with @blinkkittylove which was exciting and fun and distracted me from not feeling well but also started me thinking more about Blink Kitty Love.
And then there was @nicolaz who tweeted a new blog post and I decided to read and it was about the pleasures of reading which led me to thinking about the pleasures, many and sundry of writing.
And also, the lack of gay characters in what I do…although, that’s not strictly true. It’s just something I throw at myself when I’m trying to continue creative purgatory instead of finding something to laugh at or do. “The Mystery” has a gay character at its center, should (there we go) I ever rewrite it (and as I have a really cool sequel I WANT (the word we actually need) to write), “The M” needs to happen. But I also have been stewing about Blink Kitty Love, because TK was stuck in the androgynous zone(male? female? I didn’t know) and I was so hoping either or both TK or Tinker would turn out gay but TK’s skewing guy, Tinker’s still got her crush and Tammy’s putting old school kd lang songs into my head. And yes, if you’ve ever written anything, you’ll know that characters do occasionally make up their own minds. When I was writing In The Bleak December, Sally wouldn’t listen to me at all. And that was a good thing.
So, where am I? Not writing, not walking, feeling a bit better now and I should probably stop ranting and grab the last bit of sun. Tallyho.
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LOOKING FOR NANCY
Posted February 20th, 2009 in mystery, rant, writing, insomnia, Reading
Drew, Nancy Drew…The classic Nancy Drew is apparently too cool and composed and competent and collected and well, cool to take if you are the editor/publisher of the modern version of the girl detective. They had to make her less of a gem. In the newer novels, Nancy is (horror!) disheveled and the kind of girl who runs out of gas and gets rescued by the guy with the tow truck and nagged by Bess, now a master mechanic. Obviously, the traditional Nancy, alpha female of all time, is not a suitable role model for young girls. The Papercutz graphic novels do a bit better and allow Nancy to be stylish, but the new Hardy Boys novels where Frank and Joe are members of ATAC (American Teens Against Crime) and go on secret missions, alternating narrators by chapter, is a much better update than the Nancy Drew novels where action and competence seem to be traded for no, of course I’m not perfect and yes, I do have a rival, just like other girls. Combine Nancy and the Hardy Boys and it gets a little better, but still not enough.
And why the Nancy Drew rant…well, I miss her. I’m looking at the two Nancy Drew graphic novels I picked up at the comic book store (optimistically ordered; the series is now off my pull list) and there’s no challenge, no suspense, no fright, no Nancy conquers all and rescues Ned/George/Bess/Carson Drew far more often than anyone rescues her. And the new novels are even worse. I’ve stopped trying them out at the library, although I did still pick up the latest Hardy Boys for awhile as I like the action and the Joe/Frank interaction. But the 3 part series Murder House put me off that even.
I might try the next Drew/Hardy combo, Club Dread, but only if I happen across it. Until then, I’m sticking to vintage Nancy and Chet Gecko.
Nancy Drew the movie had a nice version of Nancy but did a huge disservice to the story by taking her out of River Heights.
Back to my shelves. We had Gayle’s mom ship her copies up from Kentucky after the disappointment of the movie. Time to enjoy them again. There’s a weekend plan.
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PING + 2
Posted November 24th, 2008 in Comedy, mystery, books, music, writing, Lonely Pond Productions, Inc., Gullible and Twitchy, Twitter, Shakespeare, Moliere
Well, when I have something to tell everyone — real or imagined– in my internet universe, it involves pinging it across four services, then adding it manually to the original movie blog and linkedin, although I should be able to ping to linkedin, but I don’t want to spend that much time at either site figuring it out. That’s a lot of pinging plus –not to mention the original upload to myToons and the I should do it soon upload to YouTube…it’s an internet broadband slogfest. I’ve given up the group e-mail at least, so that’s a little less typing.
And did I have anything else to say? Thanks to one of my Twitter follows, spent the evening listening to Blondfire/Astaire and the like on last.fm. One of my favorite songs was in French; must look into a film festival in Quebec (or perhaps Cannes — they have shorts); so much of what I turn out involves no dialogue, just music and comedy, so an international film festival might be the ticket.
Had too much to do this weekend, but finished SPCA holiday auction article and posted new animation so feeling of accomplishment and money eventually due in my bank account for the article. I also sent an e-mail of resignation to my editor. I’m giving up freelancing as of the beginning of the year(yes, breaking news, you heard it here after twitter).
Not only did
1. I get an offer to direct a what I hope will be hysterical version of Moliere’s The Miser in the spring, which will push my Taming of The Shrew preparation up to February or so as now May will be presenting the Miser month, not find and dust off my small but necessary pile of Shakespeare essentials month, but
2. there’s also the completed first draft of a really cool mystery I wrote this summer while under the influence of the Hardy Boys, Chet Gecko (who is Chet Gecko? read Give My Regrets to Broadway and laugh, laugh, laugh) and the nieces and nephews. I’m disappointed that I haven’t found the time to type it into the computer — an essential part of the transformation process. I don’t feel guilty or that I’ve been procrastinating as I have had legitimate distractions, I’m just disappointed. I’d like to see how the next draft turns out, especially as I might be dumping a character — still undecided. Hence need for a newer, better version of the story…and updating my laptop so I can work without the distraction of internet access(yes, you.) And then,
3. well, I tend to obsess and put everything else on hold while doing something and freelancing is neither an effective nor lucrative use of my time — not that lucrative is a make or break point(if I had an accountant he or she would have been sobbing for years; if I had an agent, well, he or she’d probably be making a decent living — creating I can do, selling not so much).
Right, plus there’s my fiendish plan for PROJECT PYE, which I think met with Calvin approval and finishing Jabberwocky (anyone know how you say that en francais?) and the myToons and website redesign.
At the moment, I need a good book and a week off…this may just be possible; keep your fingers crossed. Immediately, I am going to dash off some quick TV reviews and then curl up with LAST Saturday’s FT weekend…or a Chet Gecko (good late night reading).