Teel – Page 184 – Teel McClanahan

A long night

Within the next thirty minutes I will leave this place and head down to the “DC”… one of the locations where the Arizona Republic is assembled every night by newspaper carriers. My father and sister are carriers, and in addition to helping them with assembly of tonight’s seven part paper, I will be doing additional assembly for other carriers. These other carriers will pay me, well, to help them get their papers together in time. With the papers so large, without help many carriers would simply be unable to finish their delivery in time, which would mean they lose their jobs. So, it’s worth a fair price to them to get help. Normally there are a few people who are always available to help, but for Thanksgiving, there is never enough help. So we’re all going down, my brother and I doing freelance assembly, and my father and sister doing their own routes. It’ll be a fun part of Thanksgiving as a family.

Now, this is somewhat like a tradition with us. When I was young, the Arizona Republic had special promotional papers go out on Thanksgiving. Basically paid for by the half-ton of advertisements in each paper, they would deliver a newspaper to every deliverable residence in GMPhoenix. Paying customers first, before 6AM (theoretically), and everyone else … later, as carriers could get it done. So for years the whole family would get up early on Thanksgiving morning and assemble papers for dad to deliver all morning to all the people he hadn’t already delivered to. It sure is nice to have traditions.

And then, when I get home, probably a while before my dad finishes his delivery, I get to put the turkey (pre-prepared) into the oven and try not to pass out to quickly. Because the other sister (her family in tow) is scheduled to arrive between 11 and 11:30AM. Seriously, I hope I catch a nap between 7 and 11, but … that might not happen. We’ll see how far the caffeine takes me. Hopefully it takes me through to the Trip to Phan I have planned for tomorrow afternoon.

Oh, and then on Friday morning we all get to go up to Pine for a day of construction!!! If all goes well, we’ll get all the walls of the new room for Heath assembled and in place, insulated, and maybe even paneled! With luck, we’ll get some work done on the new bathroom, too! Wheee! Of course, the bathroom won’t be operational until after the new septic system goes in, but that should be any time now, depending on permits. But still, long night tonight (perhaps through to tomorrow afternoon/evening) followed by a hard day Friday.

But I’ve only got about seven thousand words left to write for my novel before the end of Sunday. And I have a couple of ideas that may take up at least five thousand of that. Maybe I can think of something else, too, and I’ll win no problem. Wheee!

Oh, and I think that as soon as I have my rough draft typed into a computer that I’ll make it available for purchase via BitPass for a reasonable fee… something like $5, since I’ll want to charge $10 for the final draft … whenever THAT comes out.

Anyway, I’m off to take some pain pills and get my shoes on, it’s almost time to go play with papers! Wheeee!

Twelve thousand words left

So, I don’t know … The utter devastation of America didn’t take as long as I thought it would, and now I have twelve thousand words to fill convincing the dragons they shouldn’t finish the job, covering their motivations for doing it, and then … maybe … working to fix what their fiery reign has wrought.

I don’t know how it’s going to go, frankly. What if I get to the end of my story and it’s only 45,000 words long? Do I write 5,000 words “About the Author”?

Sigh.

I better get to work, I guess. No doubt there will be little time for typing amidst the eating and familial … family-stuff tomorrow.

The Cat In the Hat – movie review

I loved it. I knew going in it was short, I knew coming out it was short, but not once during the 74 minutes of the film did I feel like it was a short movie. Considering it’s so short, I wondered why so many people, adults and children alike, didn’t seem to like it. Then it occurred to me that they had all probably read the book, and right before seeing the movie.

This is not Harry Potter.

You will not find a careful, line-by-line conversion from book to screen here, and if you look for one, you will be disappointed.

What you will find is a movie where “you can have as much fun as you want to, and not get in trouble.” SO, if you want to have fun watching this movie, you won’t get in any trouble for it. It’s in the contract. So go, see the movie (on DVD, if that’s your preference) and enjoy it. Try to remember that despite the title and characters and general theme of a cat wreaking mayhem with two children, it is onlyinspired by that book. Not actually based on it.

In town a bit

I’m in Phoenix tonight through Thanksgiving. Depending on things, I may try to head out to Tempe to say hi on Tuesday or Wednesday. Brought my typewriter and the pages I need to fill, and hope to get some work done, here or elsewhere or whatever.

If you want to say hi, give me a ring. If you want to do it in person, we’ll try to work something out. While I’m busy in the middle of the night before Thanksgiving, I believe I’ll be free the night of Thanksgiving… you know, after supper.

Anyway. I’m going to bed soon-ish. See y’all tomorrow.

Master and Commander – The Far Side of the World – movie review

First, I’d like to start by saying that I have not read the books, so for you … enthusiasts of the books the movie is based on, my review probably won’t speak to you. Really, you should all go speak amongst yourselves; you are probably of common mind.

Next, I’d like to say that I walked in with practically no expectations for this movie. Normally before I see a movie, whether I want to or not, I’ll know who all the actors are, the writer(s), director, producers, budget, on-set problems, financial expectations, oh, and the entire storyline, often with complex understandings of the characters and sometimes even with the ‘twists’ which are supposed to shock and surprise me. This time, it was just the first seven, which for those of you too lazy to count, means I had no idea what the movie’s story was, or whether it really even deigned to have a story. The only descriptions I’d had of the movie were about how very much like actually being on a ship it was. No mention of story or character (aside from some people looking too far and seeing homosexuality where even my keen eye so no real evidence), just technical details.

So, as I said, I didn’t know what to expect from the movie. Actually, this was my primary motivation against seeing the movie; I had no way to judge whether I would like it or not. Technical accuracy aside, without a carefully crafted story and believable characters (likeable or not), an epic period piece like this is doomed. For instance, I know I’ll enjoy Hidalgo, and having learned the actual story of The Last Samurai (not from the in-theatre-trailers, mind you, but from people who have seen the film or read the book), I believe I may enjoy that as well. So, I tried to go with an open mind, looking for entertainment.

And boy did I find it, now and again. Almost immediately, we are drawn into an excellently executed and edited battle sequence, and I just loved it. It was fast paced and violent and accurate to naval tactics at the time (based on some other reading I have done) and really did well to introduce the feeling of such a battle at sea. It really drew me into the film. They say that a viewer decides in the first ten minutes whether they will like a film or not, and despite the next two hours and ten minutes being somewhat patchy at times, the first ten minutes may have set my mind onto enjoying the film overall.

It has a little story: an older model of ship of the English Royal Navy is chasing (or is it being chased by) a brand new make of ship fighting for Napoleon’s Navy. The old tactics are fairly ineffective against the new type of ship, and the english captain is fairly crazy in his pursuit of it, well beyond his orders. The cat and mouse game they play is the line across which the characters dance in this peice, and it is played out excellently for the most part.

There are several battle sequences in the film, and after the first one, there are … well, the way I tend to judge complicated action sequences is by whether or not I am able to follow what is going on. In the second big battle, only 1/3 of the way in or so, I found myself lost. It wasn’t jargon I didn’t know, because I have somehow picked up most of it already. It may have been characters I didn’t recognize; the ship’s crew at the start of the film is nearly 200, and I swear I’m meant to be able to recognize a full quarter of them to tell what’s going on. Perhaps easy in a book, but more difficult on screen in such a short time. Then again, it could have simply been poor writing or editing that lost me somewhere amidships without a clue to who was winning or losing, who was alive or dead, and what I might be able to do to help.

And as soon as they were out of that battle, I regained my sea legs and was able to follow the characters around the ship again, but … it kept happening, usually in particularly intense sequences. Now, multiple viewings (which may occur, I feel I prefer this film and performance by Russel Crowe to that in Gladiator, which I already own on DVD, so if Master and Commander joins it, I shall not be surprised) may make these sequences more clear, as hind-sight always does, but I feel it is a director’s job, and the editor behind him, to ensure that the story is told in a way that the average viewer does not feel out of place in their seat.

Luckily, the last two reels of the film were practically without this problem (the only confusion I had at all was with a character or two I didn’t recognize, but in watching them die, realized I was meant to), including the final exchange between the ships, which was exciting and powerful, and quite fun to experience. All the characters I did manage to get to know during the course of the film were played out in exciting and interesting ways, growing and changing as characters, through the course of the film gradually, but also very quickly in the crux of battle, in ways that made sense for the characters. Excellent.

The biggest problem I had with the whole thing was a little bit about a stick-bug. A little too obvious, a little too telling… I mean, you really don’t need to hit me so hard in the face with foreshadowing.

But they did draw me in. Bellamy’s performance was the best I’ve seen from him, and I considered him the highlight of all the other films I’ve seen him in. The young players were particularly impressive in their acting, and Billy Boyd stood out as he had little chance to in the LotR trilogy. Truly, the technical details were astounding and accurate, and they really did well to give the feeling of being on a ship as best one can in two dimensions and two hours. Overall, I highly recommend it. And if you can follow the battle sequences better than I, there will be very little wrong with it in your experience.

Enjoy.