November 2002 Archives

The South Park/Firefly page that I linked to already has been updated with more images and a funny Jayne cartoon.

News: Firefly's on hiatus in January (the December episodes are still on), although they'll have three episodes produced and filmed but not yet shown. Fox was planning to move Firefly to Wednesdays at 9/8c, but the WB announced that they were moving Angel to... guess what? Wednesdays at 9/8c. In January.

Nice. Classy, even. So anyway, Fox decided to hold off, but is still moving in Firefly's replacement.

Downside: Hiatus sucks.
Upside: Fox does seem to be putting some sort of effort into chewing over where to put the show where it had a chance of success and is trying not to mess things up worse than they already are.

Displaced Wednesday series "Fastlane" will move to Friday nights at 8 p.m. starting Jan. 10. The current time slot occupant "Firefly" will go on hiatus. Fox Entertainment President Gail Berman stressed that "Firefly" has not been canceled. New episodes will continue to air throughout December and the network is considering a new time slot for the series.

Now, here's a little holiday message from Blue Sun, via Jules:

Did I explain the Blue Sun thing?

Anyone else think that the ubervamp on Buffy last night looked like the "Grr Argh" Mutant Enemy guy finally got to be on the show?

I'm waiting for Buffy to be fighting him and say "yeah yeah yeah, 'Grr Argh,' we get it."

Wednesday December 4 at 8/7c, the WB is playing a The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Return to Middle Earth special, hosted by Michael Rosenbaum of Smallville.

Sweet.

"Sweeeet..."

South Park Firefly

My favorite is Jayne with the Blue Sun shirt on.

Q&A with Mutant Enemy Prez Christopher Buchanan on the future of Firefly.

Writing screenplays is fun and easy. You can do it to!

Boy, sure have been a lot of Geeky Fanboy posts lately... must be the season.

Sat down and watched the middle two hours of the SE edition of Fellowship last night.

- The stuff they add in the birthday party is great.
- I need to watch the fight with the cave troll about fifty times.
- Get to see Arwen's purple dress from the Very Secret Diaries. Laughed and laughed.
- Sam kicks ass.
- I like the long version of entering Lothlorien better.
- Celeborn is a big fucking waste of space. It's not the movie maker's fault: he just is.
- Sam kicks ass.

Jackie and I have both seen it about five times now so unless something new was on we'd (occassionally) chat about this or that, since she's reading the books for the first time. In explaining about how such-and-such scene from the books was changed or altered or tweaked, combining two or three lesser characters into one or whatever, I've realized that I agree with every single alteration the crew of this amazing film have made. Tom Bombadil doesn't need to be there, ditto Glorfindel. In book form, sure: it lends the weight of time to the thing, the sense of history and things that are (within their realms of influence) more powerful than even the Big Bads of the world, but it doesn't necessarily help the actual story.

So, no mourning for me.

Except I would really have like to have seen the Barrow-wights, but that would have meant including Tom Bombadil to rescue them, so I understand that they had to go.

I absolutely loved seeing all the stuff that they filmed and got to add back in. Great, great stuff.

Best new scene: Frodo 'leading' the party out of Rivendell.

Only thing in the new bits that looked like it really shouldn't have been there: One of the urak-hai falls down before Legolas actually shoots him, I think. Need to watch that scene about fifty more times too.

I didn't intend to become the source of all things Firefly, but people have been asking, and if a few extra Geeky Fanboy posts help out the show, it's all good.

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - A source close to Mutant Enemy, the production company for FOX's struggling Friday-night science-fiction drama "Firefly," reports that the network has ordered two more episodes produced, keeping the series before the cameras through December.
The new episodes come from six scripts previously ordered, over and above the original order of 13 episodes.
The show's original, two-hour pilot - seen only in abbreviated form by TV critics and not at all by the public - will likely air Dec. 20.

It seems like an odd combination, but the parking lot that's shared by CompUSA, PetSmart, and The Container Store is a Very Dangerous Place for me.

CompUSA:
Dear lord I'd like this. Anyone want to buy my color m130? with all the hardware? Cheap? Dead serious here: you could get a deal.

Messed around with the devil for awhile and boy those titanium powerbooks are put together nice, but came back to the Tungsten. Itsa ver' ver' sweet.

Container Store:
Get thee behind me, Eagle Creek. God I love this stuff. Still trying to find the perfect container for my phone/palm (and ideally the palm keyboard) that isn't a purse.

PetSmart
Got a fetching ball so cool that even Jake played with it for a half-hour. Go me.

“We were at Gerschon’s for over a day -- you couldn’t have taken a shower and washed your clothes?”
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” Vikous said, taking another draw from his cigar.
Calliope raised her eyebrows. “What?” She looked over his rumpled, stained clothing. “Please don’t tell me that you melt if you come in contact with water or something, because that would be really stupid.”

Stacy kicks ass.

That is all.

I should be breaking through the 25k barrier on the story's word count today (probably before 5pm). Here's a recent snippet that made me chuckle:

Calliope did some quick calculation. "You're the most powerful... thing that I've seen since I've gotten involved in this mess."
"Oh, how you talk," Faegos said and smiled, tipping his oversized head bashfully as though receiving a compliment. He blinked his bulbous eyes. "Really, I am surprised. I was led to believe you were quite... coarse at times."
"I'm just trying to sort everything out," Calliope said. "See, if I eventually have something you want, and you want to bargain for it now, then it's probably dangerous to you."
The diminutive old man's smile vanished. "Go on."
Calliope turned her eyes toward the ceiling, musing. "What's to keep me from telling you to go fuck yourself, then waiting to find whatever you think I'm going to find and hunting you down like any other rat bastard?"
Faegos' face was grim. "I see I was not entirely misinformed as to your personality."
Calliope shrugged.

I'm officially foregoing Harry Potter tonight so i can stay home and watch Firefly instead. Jackie and Justin are still going -- the shows are sold out for the whole night.

Seems like something similar happened with the first HP movie -- everyone went, then I went later. Whatever. First one didn't do much for me that the book hadn't already done.

Geeky Trivia: The producer's assistant that keeps a blog on the firefly website has a cameo in tonight's episode.

Here's a scary thought:

Firefly could get cancelled.
Birds of Prey could keep going, maybe for years.

That's the world we live in.

Sometimes I understand not wanting to have kids. I mean... whoa.

My current favorite Firefly line:

River: The human body can be drained of blood in 8.2 seconds with the proper vacuuming equipment.
Mal: See, now, morbid and creepifying I've got no problem with, but don't let her scare the cattle.

And speaking of morbid and creepifying, how about last night's Buffy?

*deep shudder*

Yeah, me too. Jeez, that was some of the creepiest stuff I've ever seen them do, and they had something eating Willow alive a few weeks ago.

--

Okay, onward: here's a few quotes from Joss Whedon from a very recent interview:

I'm hating what I have to write tonight. I have a fear of commitment.

There comes a point at which suspense becomes frustration; instead of keeping the best parts hidden, you're just frustrating the audience. But once you've given up enough of the story to the audience, you risk losing the best parts of it: is the moster ever as scary once you've actually seen it in full frame on the screen? Obviously, no.

This is the point I'm at: some of the curtain has to draw back -- I know this because of the main character: by god, if she doesn't find some stuff out right now, she's going to fuckin' walk out. I can't ignore her anymore, but I still hate this part.

Up to this point, the mind of the reader does a lot of my work for me: whatever I don't say they fill in for themselves with the most delicious terrors and boogeymen in their own head. Now I have to shine a light in there and say "here's the boogeymen that I see". Some people will see it and say "that's what I figured" and some others are going to say "eh, I'll deal with that", and the rest will just lose interest.

At least that's how it plays out in my head. I love the suspense, the shadowy zones of undefined space, but if I leave it that way for too long I'll get to the end of the story and everyone will be writing me to ask what the hell they just read.

It's the thing you've eventually got to do, hoping that most everyone says "well, now that I can see the rest of ride, I'd say it looks fun and I'm staying on". That's what you hope. Here's hoping.

Well, I really can't recommend it any more than I have. I really enjoy Firefly, and I want keep it on the air. There's a Fan Movement to support the show, and if you're into it, check it out. Right now, they're working on a postcard campaign for the Sweeps month of November and are auctioning off script books signed by the authors to raise money for a full-page ad in Variety.

Happy Thoughts, Happy Thoughts...

Sol said (in comments): "How do you do it?

Well, Zelazny's method works very well for some: every time you flip over to the screen where you're writing, you have to promise yourself that you'll write at least three more sentences before you leave that screen, basically.

For me, that probably wouldn't be enough... somewhere in there, something has to kick off and make something more of itself. What I do is commit to getting 500 words out every time I start writing -- by the third time I write that day, I'm getting close to the 1800 I want, per day. Here's a few other bits...

- Never edit: If you want to spellcheck, that's good, but the next run is for editting -- people get hung up trying to make one page perfect (rearranging sentences and scenes) instead of writing more imperfect pages. It will never, ever be perfect, so write like crazy and edit later. One of the best things keeping the word count going is that you have to force yourself to accept what goes down on the paper as your first draft, good or bad, and move on.

- Embrace productivity, not perfection: it doesn't matter if what you're getting down is crap, it's your crap, and by god there's a story there somewhere. Eventually you'll find it, but for now just write write write. Nobody writes a perfect book, certainly not the first time. Stephen King writes 60k words a month so that after he does his second draft he's still got 54k.

- Take lots of showers: Seriously. Something about those water drops hitting your head make ideas come.

- Never write everything: Finish each writing session with something you still haven't had a chance to write lingering in your head. Let that small bit you haven't done sit there and fester germinate. By the time you get around to writing that part, it'll have lots of little word buddies that are waiting for you to write them as well.

- If you don't know what comes next, move: You've got lots of characters (and if you don't, add some, or make your main character schizo, or something). When you're stuck on what happens next to character A, move to character B: someone else that you DO have an idea about. Readers will think you're building suspense and heightening anticipation -- they're dead wrong, but who are you to correct them?

There are lots of people who know more about this than I do -- these are just tricks for getting the words out there. Everything after that is gravy, so wallow around in the keyboard and just push. :)

Update:
Chris Baty's suggestion: "Keep those guilt levels high and stay away from that delete key."

Can't remember where I ran across this little pearl of wisdom -- it was sometime last year -- but I can't argue the accuracy.

1) A glass of wine seems like a good idea. It's not.
2) A bottle of beer doesn't seem like a good idea. It is.

Appropos of nothing -- just felt like sharing.

Hidden Things, Nov. 8 snippet that I liked:

At the security desk Vikous paused, his hands jammed in his coat pockets, the cigar leaking a thin line of smoke into the air from the corner of his mouth. The guard eyed them both suspiciously.
“Business?” he asked.
“Top floor. The party.” Vikous looked bored.
“Invitation,” the guard said, leaning forward with a hand extended. Vikous just looked at him. The guard settled back in his seat, his eyes hooded. “How do you know there’s a party if you don’t have an invitation?”
Vikous’ shiny black eyes watched the guard without moving. With slow deliberation, he pulled his right hand out of his pocket and laid it on the desk counter, leaning on it toward the guard as he said “Well, there would have to be a party, wouldn’t there?”
Calliope couldn’t see his face clearly from that angle but something in the guard’s face seemed to give way for just a moment, leaving his eyes showing white all the way around as he looked at Vikous.
“Second elevator on the right,” he said, his voice barely audible.

If you're interested in reading it as it comes out, go here.

Just a happy little TGIF gift, an excerpt from the last batch of stuff for Hidden Things:

"What's with the open window?"
“You smell like the parts of the coastline where birds have died.”
He shrugged. “Not a lot of bathing opportunities in my simple life.” He pulled out a mangled but mostly intact cigar from an inner pocket and pointed at a passing road sign. “Turn here. Mind if I smoke since we’re gonna die of pneumonia anyway?”
“Could you just shoot yourself in the chest instead?” she said without rancor, taking the exit he’d indicated. “I can tear your trachea out with my bare hands and rub asphalt on your tongue afterwards if that would help you get the buzz. Maybe I could leave your body lying on a pile of burning tires.”
He simply stared at her, then tucked the cigar away. “You have issues. You know this?”
“It’s been mentioned before,” she muttered.

Awhile ago, I asked for people to send me music.

Yeah. I pretty much scored on that one. I wanted to thank the people that sent me stuff:

• ***Dave wins the "First Music Donation" award, though he sorta cheated, what with not having to mail them and all.
  
• Stacy wins the "Person with whom I could swap musical tastes and no one would notice" award. 20+ songs of kick-assedness.
  
• Meera wins the "A funky surprise in every box" award for sending me a great mix of stuff I would never have expected from her :)
  
• Mike (whom I didn't know was sending me stuff at all) dredged up two CD's of stuff I used to listen to all the time but despaired of ever getting MP3's for. When I heard Temple of the Dog leading off the first CD, I smiled and kept smiling.
  
• Brian wins the "My God It's So... Big" award. (19 CD's. Nine. Teen. Cripes.)

Huge thanks -- you guys rock. Now, I do too :)

So, the Garbage/No Doubt concert. Where to begin?

How about the bad?
There wasn't much bad.

But...
Well okay, the bad was pretty Bad, you're right. Let's see, the opening band was the Distillers. Here's a few thoughts:

• Obviously rebelling against the poseurs who know all three chords, their style was one chord plus feedback, then scream.
  
• How did they get this gig? Does Shirley Manson has esteem issues?
  
• Forget just throwing the picks into the crowd, just give up your whole instrument -- please.
  
• Following their 'act', the road crew didn't merely move their gear - there were ritual cleansings of whatever they'd touched.

Comment from Randy: "They didn't suck donkey because no self respecting donkey..."

Their drummer was really good. In ten years, this band might not embarass him, or they'll be dead and he'll be with another group. I'm good either way.

Garbage
I used ear plugs during the opening act (and went outside the auditorium, and prayed for lightning to strike the stage), but with Garbage, I occassionally felt the need to hear what Shirley was saying between songs -- the woman has a lot on her mind. I gather their most recent visit to Denver was a bad experience, but the crowd last night was awsome, and Garbage responded. Everyone knows how the band started out as a haphazard group of studio artists that sort of tripped and fell into popularity; how their humble beginnings meant they didn't know how to act when they started touring.

Ladies and gentlemen, they're over that. I enjoyed their set immensely.

Then No Doubt came out.

Actually, they came up. Through the floor of the underlit catwalk, to be exact. (Even the drummer, with a secondary set of drums. He stayed out in front on the catwalk for the first three or four songs.)

What to say about No Doubt?

• Jesus, Gwen Stefani's in shape: vocally, physically, mentally. The rest of the group is probably ready to run a 10k, just to keep up with her.
  
• The drummer wore only a kilt and a pair of sneakers. Kick ass.
  
• At one point, Gwen said "the best part of being me right now is that I've got all of you," while making a gesture somewhere between a group hug and scooping in the adoration -- she wasn't exaggerating -- I've been to several good concerts and at least one I would consider great. I have never seen a singer own the crowd like Gwen did last night.
  
• Shirley was comfortable on the stage during her set, but after seeing Stefani move around Manson seemed clumsy and unsure, and the girl from the Distillers looked like someone possessed by a spastic poltergeist (actually, it didn't take Gwen's performance to cast her in that light, but oh well).

Bottom line: someone told me yesterday that they'd heard that No Doubt wasn't very good in concert.

Allow me to retort: HA hahahah hahah ahaha aha aha ah aha h ahaha ahhhaaaaaaaa HEEEEEE... *wheeze*.

Last night's Buffy was hit-and-miss at best, vacillating between hilarious, uncomfortable, lame, and crapfest. Ahh well, they can't all be gems.

But the music was fun. Here's the ones I could identify:

[1] Theme From A Summer Place (particularly funny if you remember how Oz describes his perfect woman).
[2] The Shins - "New Slang"
[3] The Breeders - "Little Fury"
[4] The Breeders - "Son Of Three"
[5] Coldplay - "Warning Sign" (I really should get some more of their stuff.)

Substance to this post? Not at all. Just felt like displaying the geek plummage for all to see.

Today, we learn how to deal with an assailant, with an example from the heroine of Hidden Things:

Calliope pointed at the lighted office window. Her heart hammered in her chest. “There's an armed policeman sitting right in there," she said. "You might want to call him for help.”

...and then the ass-kicking began. *curtsey*

As of right now I'm exactly on track for my word count but I'm sure to be behind come midnight tonight, since instead of being a good little boy and writing when I get home I'm going to the No Doubt/Garbage coliseum tour show.

For those of you that are curious, here's the order that the Firefly episodes that have been filmed so far were meant to be aired in:

0) The legendary unaired pilot, "Serenity".
1) The Train Job
2) Bushwhacked
3) Shindig
4) Safe
5) Our Mrs. Reynolds
6) Jayne's Town
7) Out of Gas
8) Ariel
9) War Stories
10) Heart of Gold

Here's the order they have aired:

1) The Train Job
2) Bushwhacked
5) Our Mrs. Reynolds
6) Jayne's Town
7) Out of Gas
3) Shindig

"Safe" is next week, which means that for better or worse we've seen seven of the first 8 shows.

Shindig was fun. My only real annoyance is that I've read the script for the unaired pilot (I'll email it to anyone who wants to check it out) and knowing that, I know how much more I would have liked Shindig if I'd seen the pilot episode: the pilot takes place on the same planet with several of the same characters involved. The ties between this episode and the pilot are pretty strong, and it's a real shame we don't get to share that.

Anyway. Back to the wordmill.

So, the name of the story is Hidden Things:

She smiled in the darkness and pushed herself further underneath the comforter with the phone. “Hey you. I thought you’d be home and asleep by now. How was the trip?”
There was a short pause, the strange hiccuped silence of an interrupted cell connection. “A few things came up; I’m still out on the road, actually.”
“Oh cripes, really?” The bed frame creaked slightly at movement on the other side from Calliope. She half-glanced that direction and started to pull herself out of bed. “When... hang on, I’m switching phones.” She padded to opposite side of the room, found a cordless handset and turned it on as she hung the first phone up. “When do you think you’re going to get back?” As she spoke she headed for the door to the bedroom, grabbing a robe on the way.
“I’m... I’m not really sure. Everything’s pretty complicated.”
“Complicated how?” Yawning and still half-asleep, Calliope shuffled into the kitchen and pulled open the refrigerator door. “Espain pees.”
“Can’t. It’s too late to get into any of it, anyway. You going to be all right?”
She shrugged, still staring blankly into the refrigerator, “I’ll be fine; I’m in my own house, not bored out of my mind and crank-calling my friends at two a.m.”
She should hear him smile just a bit on the other end of the line. “You’re cranky. You should take a shower and wake up.”
She shook her head in mock denial, pushing hair out of her face. “See, this’s the main confusion in the conversation. I don’t want to wake up. I wasn’t actually laying in bed thinking ‘oh, I wish someone would call and give me a reason to get out of this nice warm bed, because I’m so bored’. I wasn’t thinking that or anything else. I wasn’t bored. I was asleep. It was good and I was enjoying it. I’d like to get back to it sometime tonight if possible.”
“So...” she could hear the smile broaden in his voice. “No shower?”

There's another snippet at WiD. If you want to read the thing while I write it, find my name on the right side of that page and click on "story".