TV

My wife and son are watching THE THREE STOOGES

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I’m a very lucky man.

The problem with giving up TV is that you don’t have TV anymore.

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So, I told my wife I needed to do some scanning tonight so I could mail back my galleys tomorrow. Fine, fine, she answered. We had dinner and the boy made me play the Lego Indiana Jones levels he created.

After that, they started putting on their jackets.

“We’re going to the pub on the corner to watch the Olympics.”

“What? You’re leaving?”

“I’m having a milkshake!”

“Well, I don’t know if they have milkshakes there–”

“Mom, they do!”

“But we’re going to watch the opening ceremonies. I don’t know how long we’ll stay.”

They put on their jackets. The boy refused–three times–to change from his shorts into long pants. My wife shrugged, apologized, and said “This will give you a chance to work.” Then they left.

So I’m sitting here in this empty apartment. It’s quiet. Jesus, it’s never quiet around here. I should be relaxing and enjoying the solitude. I love solitude. But the truth is that I already miss them.

“None of this is secret.”

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Rachel Maddow on hypocrisy in the GOP: Naming names.

This is why I despair for my country.

Randomness for 2/7

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1) Anthony Bourdain schooled by 10-year-old.

2) MANBABIES!! I had nightmares because of that site, so you should, too.

3) Available at Booksellers Everywhere Except Amazon. Macmillan takes out a full page ad in the NY Times.

4) A defense of Elizabeth Gilbert. I loved reading this. I’m not someone looking to read Gilbert’s books, but I’m also not all that keen to hear her being held to a different standard than male authors, or to be cut down because she decided she was going to live a different sort of life.

5) The differences between indie authors and indie musicians. Related: The difference between the music industry and trade publishing.

6) Stop motion with shadow art. I’m torn between my admiration for the artistry and the cheesy anime subject matter. Also, did they have to countdown the filenames?

7) Jerry Pournelle remembers those who lost their lives in the Challenger disaster. I almost wish I read his books, so I could swear never again. Almost.

Randomness for 2/2

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1) Darth Vader – James Earl Jones = David Prowse in a plastic mask reading Vader’s lines on set. I can’t help but laugh when I hear him say “I want those plans!” via Keith Calder

2) An officer shoots and kills a criminal, in the officer’s own words.

3) Every news report must be structured like this. via madrobins

4) Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist posts a promotional excerpt of a new GRRM story in an upcoming anthology, and the comments explode with butt-hurt Song of Ice and Fire fans complaining about the delay in the latest book. Normally I suggest skipping comments, but here the comments are delicious. I’m sure someone out there has already made a ASOIAF/DOWNFALL spoof, yeah?

5) The Scale of the Universe. It’s beautiful. It’s like church for atheists.

6) “Will they follow in the lusty steps of their forebears, the Golden Girls?” The nuttiest conservative Christian rant on gays I’ve seen in a while. The author, who apparently has a slight problem with gays who won’t read the articles he emails to them, thinks The Golden Girls sitcom turned a generation of young men into homosexuals, and it’s so wacky (and quotable! “Personally, I do not look forward to the day when we’re having moral debates about robot sex, gay jetpacks or houseplant marriage”) that there were points where I was sure it was satire. Or irrational hate. Or maybe satire again. No, that’s just more hate. Then I saw the link at the bottom to The Dark Underside of America’s Obsession with Cat Ownership and I swear I have no idea what to think (except: “Gay jetpacks?? I’ll take two!”) via Jay Lake.

7) More Macmillan vs. Amazon.com, discussed on Absolute Write. It’s an 8-page thread as of the time of this posting, but very informative. It’s also pretty easy to tell who are the knowledgeable voices and who aren’t. You even get to see an example of mansplaining with the wild (which is so incredibly rare, I know).

First, a great video

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Mightygodking just posted this, saying it’s a couple years old but awesome for those who haven’t seen it before. That includes me, and maybe you:

Some strong language in there, mixed with the whoa!.

Second thing: You know those people at parties who don’t have a TV and make sure they tell as many people as possible? Well, that’s me now. I’ve mentioned this in comments once or twice, but never in an actual post: We can’t watch TV anymore.

It wasn’t planned and we didn’t renounce it in a big dramatic way. My wife rearranged the living room and suddenly the cable didn’t reach. This was… end of October? We were supposed to be upgrading to digital cable (broadcast TV in Seattle is a disaster) but I never bothered to get the box. So we didn’t have anything to watch except the occasional DVD from the library.

And it’s been better. My son falls to sleep easier at night. We all do more reading. I go to bed earlier. It’s surprising how comfortable it is to do without it. Also, I do not make sure to mention it to everyone I meet.

For now, at least. At some point I figure we’ll sign up for satellite TV or something. Until then, we have this DVD-player and Wii screen on the other side of the room, and things are much quieter around here.

Not a rant

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In the “This is freaking annoying” category, the increasingly out of touch Wall Street Journal tries to cover The Death of the Slush Pile. Never mind that the author trots out the same old chestnuts about bestsellers being rejected and Pultizer-winners being plucked from the slush, she adds a dose of “Wasn’t the internet supposed to fix this?” and “Connections still matter!” then goes straight to confusing book publishing slush with film/TV script slush. Grrr.

Here’s an instructive experiment: try sending an unsolicited filmscript query to a Hollywood film agency. One that represents writers.

It’s a waste of time and trees. If you want to be in movies or TV, you ought to be making connections. You ought to be making friends who are trying to break in, too. Help them with their projects. They help you with yours. Meet people. Don’t be crazy. Get an entry-level job or gig.

Publishing isn’t like that. You can write a letter from anywhere and mail it in. A certain percentage of agents will reject you, and the same is true of publishers. Probably, it’ll be a large percentage. That’s not something to worry about; you just need to find the right person to put your book in front of readers.

But this is an article that wraps up by calculating the odds of selling a story to a magazine by comparing the number of stories published with the number of stories submitted, so it’s pretty clear this is a ignorant mish-mash.

How good the world is now

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Years and years ago, I saw an animated version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL that impressed the hell out of me. The ghosts looked like ghosts and some care was taken at the start of the show to establish that this was a haunted story.

Plus, it had the scariest Jacob Marley ever.

Of course, this was back in the pre-information days, when I’d have no idea which “A Christmas Carol” it was, or when it would air again. There were several years when I spent the weeks before the holiday studying the TV Guide, searching for half-hour versions of the show in case I could fine The One.

I did, once. It aired on The Family Channel (the only time I ever watched that channel) and there was Jacob Marley, speaking out of his gaping, unmoving mouth. There was the ever-shifting Ghost of Christmas Past. There was Ignorance and Want, depicted as though they were already dead.

Then I couldn’t find it again.

Of course, now we’re living in the information age, and an obscure supernatural cartoon is content. Can the internet resist content? I think not:

Facebook users click this link.

Chuck Jones produced it. Alistair Sim is the voice of Scrooge, and he plays him differently than most actors do–less gruff and hostile, more weak and aggrieved. And of course there are the ghosts.

Hey, I realize the holiday is pretty much over, and being Christmas most of you are probably sick of it. But if you like really well done ghosts, check this one out.

Randomness for Christmas Eve!

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Let’s go with a theme today:

1) Christmas gift warning! HP Computers: Racist? via mightygodking, who called this a FAIL, and I have to agree.

2) Give yourself a gift! The writer’s bible for Batman: The Animated Series. And here’s some analysis by Chris Sims.

3) Have some glad tidings! How Earth 2 Will Save Publishing.

4) Why does “A Christmas Carol” have to play every year? “Evocriticism” or Evolutionary literary criticism–an evolutionary explanation for the appearance of art.

5) More gifts! And prOn! It’s book pr0n. via James Macdonald on the Absolute Write forums.

6) Norad Santa Tracker. ‘Nuff said.

Randomness for 12/22

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1) Five Facebook Status updates by Star Wars characters.

2) It’s a Wonderful Night of the Living Dead! In 1992, when IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE was still in the public domain, the director of 976 EVIL 2 used it in a dream sequence, where one of the leading ladies mixes IAWL up with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, with cheesy and hilarious results. via Bill Martell at sex in a sub.

3) Parkour Santa! Warning, kids: Do not try this at home!

4) An amusing story of Christmas “murder.”

5) The Jeff Dunham Show is the Worst Thing in the Entire World.

6) And here’s the runner-up for the second-worst thing: Um, yeah. That’s “I’m Gonna Spend My Christmas With a Dalek”. It’s one of those YouTube videos with the song playing under a static album cover image and, as bad as you think it’s going to be, it’s actually much much worse.