Mark L. Van Name's Blog, page 285

Josh Ritter

We went to see him in concert tonight, which was about the last thing I should have been doing on a frantically busy work day.

It was the right choice. The show was awesome.

The opening act was Dawn Landes, who along with a drummer and a bass player delivered one great song after another. She was good enough that I'd be happy to see a show with her as the headliner, and I will definitely buy some of her CDs. (Later, Ritter mentioned that they were married.)

Setting up for Ritter and his ban...

My story for The Wild Side

is something I've become rather excited about. Its title is "The Long, Dark Night of Diego Chan," and I intend it to work both as a standalone piece and ultimately as part of the first novel in a series featuring Chan. Of course, I have no clue when I'll get around to writing those books, but I've given Publisher Toni the two-sentence version of the series, and she agrees that the concept is cool. So, one day I will try to write those novels.

In the meantime, I'll finish this story and la...

UFC 113: How Kyle and I fared

We did fairly well with last night's fights in Montreal, but there were definitely some surprises.

First, the undercard, most of which we didn't get to see.

Jason MacDonald vs. John Salter

Kyle chose MacDonald, while I opted for Salter. Going strictly by the result, I was right, because Salter won, but I don't feel good about the way I did. The reason is that MacDonald hurt his ankle, maybe broke it, in the first round, so Salter won by TKO.

Yoshiyuki Yoshida vs. Mike Guymon

We both selected...

Tonight's UFC 113: Kyle and I pick 'em again

The UFC is holding another pay-per-view event tonight, this time in Montreal, so of course Kyle and I have to weigh in with our picks.

As always, we start with the undercard.

Jason MacDonald vs. John Salter

Mark: Nothing warms up a crowd like a hometown boy winning the first fight. David Loiseau was supposed to be that boy, but the Quebec Athletic Commission killed that deal (and for no good reason). Jason MacDonald is from another part of Canada, but, hey, he's Canadian, so he got the chanc...

Iron Man 2

We went to see this film today, and I had a grand time. The simplest summary is this: If you liked the first Iron Man, you'll like this one--but not as much.

For one thing, this one has more of everything than its predecessor: more important characters, more special effects, more chewing the scenery, more explosions, more action, more exotic locales. So, you'll enjoy a lot of that--but you'll also probably feel that at times more was just too much.

The plot structure is also weaker, as yo...

A moment of perfect potential

I was talking to a friend a while ago and mentioned my theory of moments of perfect potential and how much I value them. He asked me to explain, which caused me to realize that not everyone thinks about these things (well, about most things) the way I do. So, I thought I'd illustrate this concept with one of my favorite examples.

Saturday night, nine o'clock or so. Paris. Stand about twenty yards in front of Notre Dame facing the Left Bank.

You can stay still and enjoy the amazing cathedral, ...

What am I doing now?

A few folks have asked me what I'm doing now that I've finished Children No More, so I thought I'd give a quick run-down of the various projects on my non-day-job plate.

Children No More: Yes, I finished writing it, but now I'm reviewing the proof pages. That does take time.

Wake Up Horny, Wake Up Angry: I'm doing the premiere of this spoken word/stand-up comedy show at one minute past midnight late on Saturday night/early on Sunday morning at Balticon. If you're in the area, you should d...

Holden strikes again

The other night, we decided to have fruit salad for dessert. We picked up a couple of small loaves of angel food cake to add that all-important starchy/fatty goodness that dessert so frequently requires--but without adding too much of either. The first loaf actually went to us.

The second was not so lucky.

We'd taken a thin slice from it, wrapped it in its original plastic, and put it on the back of the counter, near the bread box. The next day, it was gone.

We puzzled about its disappearance fo...

Mad Men

I'm only four episodes into the first season of this show--I watch TV shows almost exclusively when they appear on DVD--so I will have more to say about it later, but I can already recommend it. I can't recall another show that has made me feel so uncomfortable--but in a good way. Its depiction of the era is scary and, I hope, over the top, but it also rings true. The writing operates effectively on multiple levels all the time, managing to be both too broad and quite subtle in the same sc...

How To Train Your Dragon

When I saw the first trailer for this movie, I figured it wasn't for me. It looked too young and too simple to keep me entertained. After receiving recommendations from several folks, however, I decided I had to check it out. Last night, a group of us headed to our local atomic megaplex to see it.

I'm glad we did. I enjoyed it quite a bit, though I did not love it the way my recommending friends did.

The basic story was familiar but felt richer and more layered than most like it: young...