Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 108
January 26, 2016
Sacrilege!
Edited to add: There has been a correction made to this news. They are not rebooting Labyrinth. Hurrah! I'm not sure how I feel about a sequel, though, without David Bowie.
Believe it or not, Hollywood is planning to reboot Labyrinth! Reboot Labyrinth???? Are you kidding me? There are some movies that should never, ever be remade and this is one of them.
Is it a perfect movie? Unfortunately, no. There's a cheesiness to it in parts that I like to pretend don't exist, but it also has a charm that can't be replicated. I think David Bowie had a lot to do with that and that no other actor will be able to replace him, no matter who is cast in the role. I love Johnny Depp to pieces, but he couldn't replace Gene Wilder in the Charlie/Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movies. The original 1971 movie was charming, the reboot was just creepy.
But back to Labyrinth. I'm not the only one unhappy about this reboot. I spotted this article because of a post on Facebook. There were thousands of less-than-excited commenters. The only way this reboot could possibly work was if they'd done it 25 years ago with Bowie and Jennifer Connelly reprising their roles. Without that, forget it.
Which brings me to Hollywood and their ridiculous propensity for rebooting everything. I know there are plenty of screenwriters with brilliant and original ideas. Why the hell can't Hollywood make one of them instead of taking the "safe" route of Rocky 23 and rebooting every movie ever made. I mean, seriously, they remade Red Dawn FFS and that movie wasn't that good.
Personally, I am so sick of superhero movies, I could just puke. I'm also tired of seeing all those remakes of other movies. Some of them don't matter--remake Red Dawn if you must even if it is a total head-scratcher--but other movies are sacrosanct. Like Labyrinth and The Princess Bride. They're not rebooting Princess Bride yet (at least as far as I know), but can that be far behind?
Believe it or not, Hollywood is planning to reboot Labyrinth! Reboot Labyrinth???? Are you kidding me? There are some movies that should never, ever be remade and this is one of them.
Is it a perfect movie? Unfortunately, no. There's a cheesiness to it in parts that I like to pretend don't exist, but it also has a charm that can't be replicated. I think David Bowie had a lot to do with that and that no other actor will be able to replace him, no matter who is cast in the role. I love Johnny Depp to pieces, but he couldn't replace Gene Wilder in the Charlie/Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movies. The original 1971 movie was charming, the reboot was just creepy.
But back to Labyrinth. I'm not the only one unhappy about this reboot. I spotted this article because of a post on Facebook. There were thousands of less-than-excited commenters. The only way this reboot could possibly work was if they'd done it 25 years ago with Bowie and Jennifer Connelly reprising their roles. Without that, forget it.
Which brings me to Hollywood and their ridiculous propensity for rebooting everything. I know there are plenty of screenwriters with brilliant and original ideas. Why the hell can't Hollywood make one of them instead of taking the "safe" route of Rocky 23 and rebooting every movie ever made. I mean, seriously, they remade Red Dawn FFS and that movie wasn't that good.
Personally, I am so sick of superhero movies, I could just puke. I'm also tired of seeing all those remakes of other movies. Some of them don't matter--remake Red Dawn if you must even if it is a total head-scratcher--but other movies are sacrosanct. Like Labyrinth and The Princess Bride. They're not rebooting Princess Bride yet (at least as far as I know), but can that be far behind?
January 24, 2016
How Satellites Track You
With four satellites, they can even figure out your altitude.
January 21, 2016
Score Another One For Geico
Recently, I gave some faint praise to Geico's advertising agency for their Peter Pan TV commercial because the concept was clever. Now, I have to give them full praise and it kind of hurts. I've hated their ads for so long... Ah, well, I'll get over it.
FYI, for those of you who don't know it, I graduated from college with a degree in advertising copywriting, so I have a strong interest in this topic. I also tend to watch ads in a different way than normal people do. Even when I hate an ad, I can see the tactics behind it and judge the success based on that. I've said more than once that the Geico ads are very effective--I just don't like them. Until this latest spot.
The ad I love is called "Spy: It's What You Do" and it features a spy fighting off bad guys while he talks to his mom on the phone about squirrels in the attic.
I'm not sure why this tickles me so much, but it does. I love that the guy won't just hang up on his mom even given the situation he's in. It's sweet and it's the kind of thing a romance hero would do, at least some of them would. :-)
Of course, I enjoy the action/adventure part of the commercial and I think the actors did a fine job pulling off the concept. For me, it's a lot of fun. I also love the fact that the father won't hire an exterminator to get the squirrels because "this time it's personal." Heh!
Disclaimer: Believe me, Geico is not paying me anything for my opinions on their advertising. :-) As critical as I usually am of their stuff, they'd probably prefer I never blog about them again.
FYI, for those of you who don't know it, I graduated from college with a degree in advertising copywriting, so I have a strong interest in this topic. I also tend to watch ads in a different way than normal people do. Even when I hate an ad, I can see the tactics behind it and judge the success based on that. I've said more than once that the Geico ads are very effective--I just don't like them. Until this latest spot.
The ad I love is called "Spy: It's What You Do" and it features a spy fighting off bad guys while he talks to his mom on the phone about squirrels in the attic.
I'm not sure why this tickles me so much, but it does. I love that the guy won't just hang up on his mom even given the situation he's in. It's sweet and it's the kind of thing a romance hero would do, at least some of them would. :-)
Of course, I enjoy the action/adventure part of the commercial and I think the actors did a fine job pulling off the concept. For me, it's a lot of fun. I also love the fact that the father won't hire an exterminator to get the squirrels because "this time it's personal." Heh!
Disclaimer: Believe me, Geico is not paying me anything for my opinions on their advertising. :-) As critical as I usually am of their stuff, they'd probably prefer I never blog about them again.
January 19, 2016
A Funny Writing Thing
The other day, someone asked me how many stories I'd had published. Answering the question turned out to be harder than I expected. Oh, it was easy enough to come up with the eight full-length books, but trying to figure out the novellas...
It's hard to believe that I couldn't come up with an answer immediately. I took a wild stab and said, "and maybe seven or eight novellas." As it turns out I was right. The answer was eight.
I suppose if I'd had more time to think about it, I could have come up with the answer by running through my couples. Of course I remember Troll and Lia, Nic and Kimi, and the others--I've spent months with them and they're old friends. I've just kind of lost track of the number of my old friends over time. This kind of surprised me.
Shortly after I was published, someone asked another writer I knew a question about one of her books. This is an author who'd been published for more than ten years at that point. This author wasn't able to answer. She couldn't remember and this stunned me.
Now, I kind of get it. The scrapbook of past couples is pretty full then there's the stories that I worked up proposals on, but never sold. All those characters are in my head, too. Then there's the stories I've started, but haven't actually reached a point where they can be submitted and the characters that I haven't written yet, but are hanging around anyway. That's a lot of people and yes, it takes me a little time to figure out which of my h/h have been published and which ones haven't. But I know the answer now.
How many stories have I published? Sixteen. Eight novels and eight novellas.
It's hard to believe that I couldn't come up with an answer immediately. I took a wild stab and said, "and maybe seven or eight novellas." As it turns out I was right. The answer was eight.
I suppose if I'd had more time to think about it, I could have come up with the answer by running through my couples. Of course I remember Troll and Lia, Nic and Kimi, and the others--I've spent months with them and they're old friends. I've just kind of lost track of the number of my old friends over time. This kind of surprised me.
Shortly after I was published, someone asked another writer I knew a question about one of her books. This is an author who'd been published for more than ten years at that point. This author wasn't able to answer. She couldn't remember and this stunned me.
Now, I kind of get it. The scrapbook of past couples is pretty full then there's the stories that I worked up proposals on, but never sold. All those characters are in my head, too. Then there's the stories I've started, but haven't actually reached a point where they can be submitted and the characters that I haven't written yet, but are hanging around anyway. That's a lot of people and yes, it takes me a little time to figure out which of my h/h have been published and which ones haven't. But I know the answer now.
How many stories have I published? Sixteen. Eight novels and eight novellas.
January 17, 2016
Top Ten Historical Coincidences
Some of these are really odd.
January 14, 2016
Word Is Out
A few weeks back I mentioned the kitty who showed up at my house. I've been feeding her--I still think it's a girl--and while I've gotten her to come in the house, she freaks when the door is closed. I was leaving the door open for her while she visited, but when a giant (and I do mean GIANT) moth flew in the house, that ended my open door policy. So she comes in, eats her canned food and then wants out. I've started putting her dry food outside so she can keep eating, then taking it in at night to avoid unwanted visitors.
I thought I had it covered and that my visiting kitty was the only one eating it. As it turns out, maybe not.
I fed that cat in the morning on one of my days off from work, put the dry food outside for her, and thought nothing of it. Hours later, while I'm sitting on the couch, I see a cat headed for the food only this cat seems wrong. I turn around and it's a long-haired cat. My kitty is a short-haired tawny-colored cat.
"Hey!" I yell and leap off the couch. My parents have crap everywhere in my living room, and have to detour into the kitchen to get to the door to the patio. "Hey!" I yell again. "This isn't for you."
There's my kitty, sitting on the box that holds the cushions for the lounge chair and some dark, long-haired cat is up in the trees at the back of my yard watching me. I told him the food was for this kitty and not all the neighborhood cats. I told him to find his own home to hang out at, that this one was taken.
I know, but I don't want to feed every stray cat in the neighborhood. One is enough. I don't know if this other cat was a stray, too, or a neighbor's cat who decided to swing by for an afternoon snack, but either way, I wanted to put a stop to it.
BTW, I think I'm calling my stray cat Monkee because I was singing the theme song from The Monkees and she jumped up and put both her front paws on my leg. Maybe she was trying to get me to stop singing because I am so not a good singer, but since she sort of answered to it, I decided it was as good a name as any.
I thought I had it covered and that my visiting kitty was the only one eating it. As it turns out, maybe not.
I fed that cat in the morning on one of my days off from work, put the dry food outside for her, and thought nothing of it. Hours later, while I'm sitting on the couch, I see a cat headed for the food only this cat seems wrong. I turn around and it's a long-haired cat. My kitty is a short-haired tawny-colored cat.
"Hey!" I yell and leap off the couch. My parents have crap everywhere in my living room, and have to detour into the kitchen to get to the door to the patio. "Hey!" I yell again. "This isn't for you."
There's my kitty, sitting on the box that holds the cushions for the lounge chair and some dark, long-haired cat is up in the trees at the back of my yard watching me. I told him the food was for this kitty and not all the neighborhood cats. I told him to find his own home to hang out at, that this one was taken.
I know, but I don't want to feed every stray cat in the neighborhood. One is enough. I don't know if this other cat was a stray, too, or a neighbor's cat who decided to swing by for an afternoon snack, but either way, I wanted to put a stop to it.
BTW, I think I'm calling my stray cat Monkee because I was singing the theme song from The Monkees and she jumped up and put both her front paws on my leg. Maybe she was trying to get me to stop singing because I am so not a good singer, but since she sort of answered to it, I decided it was as good a name as any.
January 12, 2016
Put One In the Plus Column
I'm not a fan of the Geico advertising campaigns. I find most of them obnoxious, but I also know they're effective for brand recognition. I didn't know who Geico was before they began their TV ads years and years ago, but I doubt there's anyone who doesn't know who they are and what they do now.
But to give the company and its advertising agency credit, they actually came up with a creative concept. It's still on the obnoxious side and I still don't really like it, but the theme? Tremendously clever.
Which ad is it? The one where Peter Pan goes to his 30th high school reunion.
Most of the "That's what you do" ads have been horrible, IMO, but this one? The premise is so awesome. Peter Pan, the boy that never grows up, is juxtaposed with his older-appearing graduating class. Seriously, I'd love to have watched the brainstorming session that pulled "What if Peter Pan went to his high school reunion?" out of thin air. How do you even get there?
This is seriously the first and only Geico commercial that I think is clever. (At least so far. Maybe they'll surprise me again.) I still don't like it. I know why I find the ad obnoxious--because Peter Pan is obnoxious--but he has to be because he's the boy that never grew up. Not only in size, but also in attitude.
And I like the song they chose for the ad--Frank Sinatra and "You Make Me Feel so Young." I find myself singing those lines from the ad at odd times. :-/
But to give the company and its advertising agency credit, they actually came up with a creative concept. It's still on the obnoxious side and I still don't really like it, but the theme? Tremendously clever.
Which ad is it? The one where Peter Pan goes to his 30th high school reunion.
Most of the "That's what you do" ads have been horrible, IMO, but this one? The premise is so awesome. Peter Pan, the boy that never grows up, is juxtaposed with his older-appearing graduating class. Seriously, I'd love to have watched the brainstorming session that pulled "What if Peter Pan went to his high school reunion?" out of thin air. How do you even get there?
This is seriously the first and only Geico commercial that I think is clever. (At least so far. Maybe they'll surprise me again.) I still don't like it. I know why I find the ad obnoxious--because Peter Pan is obnoxious--but he has to be because he's the boy that never grew up. Not only in size, but also in attitude.
And I like the song they chose for the ad--Frank Sinatra and "You Make Me Feel so Young." I find myself singing those lines from the ad at odd times. :-/
January 10, 2016
January 7, 2016
Quiet, Please
I am not a morning person and one of my little quirks is that I like absolute silence. Before I go to bed each night, I turn the TV to Weatherscan which shows the local weather over and over and over and I lower the sound to 0. That way, when I get up, I can get the weather forecast without any noise.
It takes me a while to be able to tolerate sound, and as much as I love riding the van pool to work, the one thing that makes me insane is the need in the morning to have the radio on. By the time I reach the van, I could handle music, but that's not what any of the morning drivers play. No, they have to have the AM station that does all the talking, and if not that station, it's some other station that talks nonstop in the morning. Why?
In December, when I boarded the van, the driver had a station on that was playing Christmas music. That's awesome--I love Christmas music. I leaned my head back on the seat, closed my eyes, and as we're driving, he suddenly changes the station to...one of the talky stations. ::Sobs::
I carry my iPod with me on the van because of the love of the yappy morning stations, so I pulled it out of my bag and put on instrumental music. See? I hate talking so much in the morning that I don't even want to listen to music that has words.
That said, I do love the van pool. I sleep on my way in to work every morning--nothing could be better than that. For the ride home, I have people to talk with and that shortens the commute.
But in the morning? Silence, please.
It takes me a while to be able to tolerate sound, and as much as I love riding the van pool to work, the one thing that makes me insane is the need in the morning to have the radio on. By the time I reach the van, I could handle music, but that's not what any of the morning drivers play. No, they have to have the AM station that does all the talking, and if not that station, it's some other station that talks nonstop in the morning. Why?
In December, when I boarded the van, the driver had a station on that was playing Christmas music. That's awesome--I love Christmas music. I leaned my head back on the seat, closed my eyes, and as we're driving, he suddenly changes the station to...one of the talky stations. ::Sobs::
I carry my iPod with me on the van because of the love of the yappy morning stations, so I pulled it out of my bag and put on instrumental music. See? I hate talking so much in the morning that I don't even want to listen to music that has words.
That said, I do love the van pool. I sleep on my way in to work every morning--nothing could be better than that. For the ride home, I have people to talk with and that shortens the commute.
But in the morning? Silence, please.
January 5, 2016
A Very 80s Christmas
Over Christmas, I had a chance to watch the original Die Hard movie. I know some people consider this movie a holiday tradition, but I'm not sure when I saw it last. It's been a long time. I have to say it was an interesting experience to see it again after all this time.
The first thing that struck me was all the smoking. I could be wrong because I'm not a huge movie watcher, but I don't think current-day films show the sheer amount of smoking that this film did. Was smoking this prevalent in 1988 (the year Die Hard was released)? I swear that I started coughing in sympathy for Bruce Willis's lungs. And the terrorists could have found him by cigarette smoke alone...if they weren't lighting up themselves.
Shoulder pads. OMG, I can't believe how huge the shoulder pads were that Holly McClane was wearing in the movie. She looked like a linebacker.
The film's plot seemed to hold up, and while it was a bit larger than life, it wasn't completely over the top cartoony the way that Live Free or Die Hard, the fourth movie in the franchise, was. I swear all I did was say "Yeah, right" while I watched that one.
The suspense held up as well. I had a fair memory of what happened the movie, but I was still on the edge of my seat. Then there was John McClane having to deal with the idiot deputy chief of the LAPD and the FBI guys. Fortunately, the uniform officer Sgt Al Powell was there with common sense.
It was kind of fun to revisit Die Hard after all this time, but I don't think I'll make it a holiday tradition or go out of my way to see it again. I think I'm set for a while now.
The first thing that struck me was all the smoking. I could be wrong because I'm not a huge movie watcher, but I don't think current-day films show the sheer amount of smoking that this film did. Was smoking this prevalent in 1988 (the year Die Hard was released)? I swear that I started coughing in sympathy for Bruce Willis's lungs. And the terrorists could have found him by cigarette smoke alone...if they weren't lighting up themselves.
Shoulder pads. OMG, I can't believe how huge the shoulder pads were that Holly McClane was wearing in the movie. She looked like a linebacker.
The film's plot seemed to hold up, and while it was a bit larger than life, it wasn't completely over the top cartoony the way that Live Free or Die Hard, the fourth movie in the franchise, was. I swear all I did was say "Yeah, right" while I watched that one.
The suspense held up as well. I had a fair memory of what happened the movie, but I was still on the edge of my seat. Then there was John McClane having to deal with the idiot deputy chief of the LAPD and the FBI guys. Fortunately, the uniform officer Sgt Al Powell was there with common sense.
It was kind of fun to revisit Die Hard after all this time, but I don't think I'll make it a holiday tradition or go out of my way to see it again. I think I'm set for a while now.
