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Archive for June, 2007
5 items.
So the wheels are in motion for “It’s Only Comics.” We have our first table read on Thursday, and we hope to start filming some time this weekend. Been spending a lot of late nights in Photoshop working on graphics, on MySpace setting up a profile and getting friends (the MySpace will be our defacto webpage until we get a regular one set up, and it’s at myspace/itsonlycomics) or just sitting on the couch trying to come up with things that are funny. Thankfully, I’ve surrounded myself with rather talented guys that are actually excited to collaborate on something like this. When I run into them, or talk the them on the phone, it almost always begins with “So I had this idea for the show…” No chasing people around to get things done, no heel dragging, just guys that are looking to put together the best show we can. I’m also super-triple lucky that Kenzie is as loving and supportive as she is, since we’re going to be filming and meeting in our relatively tiny apartment.
Even though I have no desire to watch wrestling anymore (although I’ve thought about giving TNA a try, since I do like the “sport” of it, it’s just that the WWE story lines just got sub-moronic), I was surprised and saddened when I read the news about Chris Benoit and his family, and it was super-double fucked-up when the facts began to come out about it. I can’t imagine someone doing something like that to their own child.
Speaking of, Allie is all packed up and off to Illinois today. They’ll be back later in the week, but it’s beginning to feel a little more real now that she’s not going to be here every other night, or maybe just pop into the store with her mom or whatever. I know she’s going to be really happy there, and above all else that’s what I want for her. I could say that it’s a bad situation, but it’s not, not really. A bad situation would be if her mom and I didn’t talk or fought all the time, or if we ended up marrying people the other one couldn’t stand or something like that. It’d be one thing if there was a choice in the matter, but there isn’t one. Maybe things will be different a year from now, or two years from now, and in three years Allie’s stepdad will get redeployed again and who knows where they’ll end up. At least they’re only five or so hours down 70. It’s not Alaska, it’s not Colorado, and thankfully it’s not Iraq (not that they whole family would go, but I don’t want to see him sent over there).
I’m not going to lie and say I’m super happy with the whole thing, but I’m putting on a brave face, focusing on the wedding and all my other little projects (and oh yes, there’s more than what I’ve put here), and doing my best to be here when she needs me and make my life flexible enough that I can go be with her at a moments notice.
And being a trillionare will help with that. ;)
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So a week after I got the request for a full, I sent it out. Hopefully, that isn’t so giant faux pas or somesuch, but the 5 hours I spent editing last monday, and the about 2 to 3 hours every night until Friday made it a better book, I think. A lot of just reading and formatting changes, like making the ellipsis space period space period space period and not just one weird character that looked like three periods mashed together. Anyone who has read my shit knows I love the ellipsis, so that’s a lot right there. Of course, my love borders on obsession, so some were dropped in favor of commas, reformatted to just not be there at all, or replaced with a “–” when someone is interrupted. I can thank Greg Rucka for that one, as I was reading a thing he wrote a while back how one of his pet peeves is when people misuse the ellipsis, specifically when people fail to interpret it as a pause. Thanks, Greg. So there was that and making sure all the italics were now underlines. Oh, and the usual tweaks you make when you read something and go “Well, that could be better.” I also managed to cleave about 4,000 words out as well, making it a lean 94,000. No scenes cut, but trimming out unnescessary “he said, she said” (which I always hate writing anyway. One of the things that fascinates me about Charlie Huston’s writing is that he uses no quotes, no he said/she said and no description of voice. And it works. I wish I were that brave.)
We had our first show meeting for “It’s Only Comics!” and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. Now we’re just waiting for a working camera to arrive, and then we go into production. We’ll see how that goes. You may see some site changes around here, as I’m thinking of making my ego even better and converting this to a “Demonweasel Productions” site. Content still mostly the same, but DWP will be one of the names on IOC.
Kenzie and Allie and I went to go see FF2 yesterday fro my Father’s Day present. It was fun, light years ahead of the first movie. Of course, with Galactus and the Silver Surfer in it it could have been so much more, but it wasn’t a waste of time. Jessica Alba looked weird the whole damn time, and Julian McMahon’s Dr. Doom (which they made a lot of questionable choices with) was kind of sub-par, as McMahon’s acting “evil” is just rolling his shoulders back and playing with his man-jewelry. Any other spoiler related discussion we’ll leave for the comments. Of which there still kind of are none. Which is sad.
More and more news rolls on about Antioch. I’m glad that the interview period is over, although I’m admittedly shocked at how much mainstream media attention it’s getting. If I thought anyone there had it together enough to do it, I’d suspect that they already had a way out of this and were staging the whole “we’re closing” for publicity. It looks like it’s turned into a “Well, yeah, we said we’d reopen, but we need your help. We’ll be passing the hat at reunion, a million per person should do us just fine.” I look forward to having a lot of interesting conversations with Antiochians this coming week. I’m actually off this Saturday, as Kenzie and I are going to Portsmouth to meet with the pastor that will marry us. A lot of folks, knowing I’m still in Yellow Springs, write me and ask what the word on the street is, and honestly, I can’t tell you much. After I left in 2004 I went on campus maybe three times, and every time I did it seemed that something was different, like burning down Norment or dismantling Presidents. After almost a decade of being on campus almost every day, I needed a break. A lot of folks were just there for a few years, I was there for almost exactly ten, student to staff. I have way more experiences as a staff person than I do as a student, so it’s almost just a place I used to work, but then again, it’s the place I was at the most in my entire life. It’s weird when you think of something like that. The only place I stayed longer was Montclair, and that’s fast becoming a distant memory now that my folks don’t live there anymore and I don’t really have a reason to go back.
That was longer than I thought it was going to be. I guess I’m not *really* done talking about it yet.
So yeah, Antioch College is no more. Very weird. Even weirder, last night I had a series of really vivid dreams about being back in college and trying to get my living situation in the dorm straightened out. Very strange. They say that they’re going to re-open in 2012 with a brand new plan and all that, but there’s a part of me that’s kind of skeptical. I found out when a guy from the Dayton Daily News came in to get reactions from people about “the news.” Later, a woman from the Columbus Dispatch came in for a quote also. It’ll be interesting to what of the stuff I babbled about they’ll put in the paper. I’ve done so many interviews in the past few years…it’s weird.
I’ve made my peace with the Sopranos finale. I’m not super-thrilled, but I respect it, and retract the whole “It could be the Matrix Revolutions.” It’s not. However, speaking of schools, the school AJ picks his girlfriend up at is indeed Montclair High. I recognized it just from the doors, but I rewound it and they do go by the sign.
Oh, the editing, it never ends.
Oh, tumescence, where have you gone.
The first full work week back from vacation and I felt practically flattened. Everything that could go wrong with getting ready for street fair did, from the phones melting down to the AC going on the fritz the day before. Both problems were dealt with and managed to not be a problem on the day of, but getting them fixed took out whatever extra bump of getting ready energy I had. It wasn’t until the evening before the sale started that I remembered that I hadn’t made any signs.
So yeah, good times.
Sarcasm aside, things did manage to pick up, as we broke another sales record (although not as high as I wanted, and not as big as FCBD, but I think I learned a lot about sales in general) and did it without feeling like we were pushed to the brink of exhaustion (although I wouldn’t mind being pushed to that brink for the Icarus-esque goals I had). Time for a little rest and relaxation this week as we regroup and break-down the day and plan strategery for the rest of the month.
Most buoying was that the night before the street fair I got a reply from the agency that was looking at the partial I had sent of the book, and they “really liked” what they saw and wanted to see more. Can you guess what I’ll be doing tomorrow? Yes, giving it yet another once over to change a word here, there, hopefully not everywhere. I can’t help it, it’s just how I am. Especially after that whole “that sentence didn’t have a period” fiasco. Despite being the last minute cowboy that I usually am, I did convert the whole thing over to a more professional manuscript format last week, and that’s going to cut down on the time spent futzing tomorrow.
Of course, I joked to Kenzie that it’s lousy timing, as I went to Gamestop last monday and, surprise, they were having a buy two, get one free on used stuff sale and I bought 6 video games (Fight Night Round 3, Resident Evil 4, NBA Live 06 and Gran Turismo 4 for PS2 and True Crime: Streets of NY and Zelda: Twilight Princess for GameCube). I did get ridiculous amounts of playing done today, although most of it was disappointing. Thankfully, I got most of it out of my system, so I’ll be ready to just watch some morning TV (DVR’d Family Guy, maybe a movie) and then get down to the tacks made of brass.
Watched the Sopranos finale. Seriously, what the fuck? It’s either brilliant or it’s Matrix: Revolutions. I can’t tell yet. I may watch it again just to be sure, but I will saw I love how they keep putting AJ in very Tony like situations and demeanor. But there was Journey, and that was nice. I think one of the main themes this season is that no one ever sees it coming, so that’s a check in the “genius” column. I have my own theory, but I’ll leave off on that. If you’d like to hear more, let’s chat in the comments.
The empty, empty comments.
No surprise, vacation was just what I needed. It seemed pretty short, which it always does, and the drive wasn’t bad. The ride home, as always, was the worst as we hit rush hour Columbus traffic. Thankfully, I was driving during this part, so Kenzie could relax a little.
Played a lot of poker, actually. Miriam, Chris’ lady, is a big Texas Hold ‘em fan, and it was nice to actually learn to play it in a non-stressful environment with people that really know what they’re doing and are patient teachers. Kenzie, it turns out, is very good at it. I’m maybe okay, but I’d like to find a way to play more down here. We’ll see how that goes.
Saw Shrek & Pirates. It’s funny, it was the first time seeing a movie from either of those franchises in the theater. Shrek was pretty funny, and Pirates was alright, although the first half was impenetrable. So many I’m doing this but I really mean to do this and all of this other jazz. I didn’t think they’d be able to top rolling wheel fight from the second one, but they did and it was great fun, albeit the very definition of “fantasy violence.” I kept waiting for the Road Runner to show up.
The cats survived without us, and in fact managed to hold off doing serious damage to each other until we got home. Our first morning home I was in the kitchen and I noticed some red on the chair near their food. And then up on the wall. And the water was pink. And there was red by the window near the sofa. It was very weird because all three cars looked and acted fine, but this was blood. Yesterday we finally discovered that Fiver had a cut on her nose, which doesn’t look all that bad but must’ve bled like crazy. Maybe someday there’ll be peace in the middle east.
Jumped right back into the thick of things at work, but now I’m actually able to handle things, which is always a plus. It’s time to get back into the game when it comes to writing and querying. I did fail to mention that right before we left I got my first personalized rejection letter from an agent who had requested a partial. They rejected it on the basis that they felt the book was Young adult, which it isn’t, but they had nice things to say about my writing and I’m not going to argue. Someone who doesn’t know me told me my writing is good. It’s worth it. So back into the thick of it.
Our web-show idea keeps getting pushed back because the camera we’re going to use keeps breaking, so here we are having ideas and no way to film them. Everyone is excited, which I think is good. Better than folks shrugging their shoulder and going “Yeah, I guess I’ll do it.”
These are good times, and we should all be at Defcon One with excitement.
PS Google Street Maps is *fascinating.* I spent maybe a half hour last night scrolling through the streets of NYC.