Orrin Grey's Blog: Shovel Murders & Monologues, page 62
March 3, 2011
On Writing (Again)
February was a busy month, anyway, and I was doing a lot of stuff with Monster Awareness Month. It's not like I was swimming in free time, just staring at the ceiling. But I also, very consciously, wasn't writing. (And when I say "writing" here, I again mean fiction. I was writing lots of stuff for Monster Awareness Month, and blog posts, and etc.)
I'm finally getting back into it. I've got a calender at home with pictures of posters from old-fashioned magic shows on it, and I put a black X through every day that I write more than a couple-hundred words. (250 is my current minimum.) So far I've put an X through every day in March. It's all just been fragments, things that will never even coalesce into anything. Just my attempts to get back on the bike. But I've done it every day, which, again, is a start. That's the first step.
I spent some time trying to come up with something for IFP's forthcoming Future Lovecraft anthology. I've realized that I don't have any affinity for science fiction anymore, but I think I may've finally come up with something that I'm interested in writing that still meets both criteria of being Future and also Lovecraft. Whether or not it'll actually fit the bill of what they're looking for, only time will tell.
Still, though, I'm working again. Regardless of whether it's any good or not, or going where I plan for it to. I'm doing something. And I'm making plans. Both of which are things that didn't really happen in February. February felt like sort of a fugue month, a fallow period in which, Monster Awareness Month notwithstanding, nothing really happened. March has already started to change that, which is a good feeling. And I'm making plans for the future, which is another good one. So here's to March, and to hoping!
On Writing (Again)
I didn't write any fiction for most of the month of February. I had started a regimen where I wrote every day, or most every day. I was going along pretty well. I was working on a longer project that, with hindsight, probably never would have worked out, but I was writing, at least, and that was something. Then I hit a setback. It wasn't anything big, I don't guess, in the grand scheme of things, but it took the wind out of my sails, and I stopped writing. Anything.
February was a busy month, anyway, and I was doing a lot of stuff with Monster Awareness Month. It's not like I was swimming in free time, just staring at the ceiling. But I also, very consciously, wasn't writing. (And when I say "writing" here, I again mean fiction. I was writing lots of stuff for Monster Awareness Month, and blog posts, and etc.)
I'm finally getting back into it. I've got a calender at home with pictures of posters from old-fashioned magic shows on it, and I put a black X through every day that I write more than a couple-hundred words. (250 is my current minimum.) So far I've put an X through every day in March. It's all just been fragments, things that will never even coalesce into anything. Just my attempts to get back on the bike. But I've done it every day, which, again, is a start. That's the first step.
I spent some time trying to come up with something for IFP's forthcoming Future Lovecraft anthology. I've realized that I don't have any affinity for science fiction anymore, but I think I may've finally come up with something that I'm interested in writing that still meets both criteria of being Future and also Lovecraft. Whether or not it'll actually fit the bill of what they're looking for, only time will tell.
Still, though, I'm working again. Regardless of whether it's any good or not, or going where I plan for it to. I'm doing something. And I'm making plans. Both of which are things that didn't really happen in February. February felt like sort of a fugue month, a fallow period in which, Monster Awareness Month notwithstanding, nothing really happened. March has already started to change that, which is a good feeling. And I'm making plans for the future, which is another good one. So here's to March, and to hoping!
March 1, 2011
Monster Awareness Month Wrap-up
That said, I did manage to put a bow on Monster Awareness Month in the best way possible, with the last-minute inclusion of the last piece I solicited for the event. Check out "Teratography" by none other than John Langan. I am, as you may have gathered, pretty pleased with myself.
Monster Awareness Month Wrap-up
I'm glad to see the back end of February. Not because I didn't enjoy Monster Awareness Month–in fact, I'd say it was the only thing that made February tolerable–but because, as usual, February wasn't very kind to me in any other way.
That said, I did manage to put a bow on Monster Awareness Month in the best way possible, with the last-minute inclusion of the last piece I solicited for the event. Check out "Teratography" by none other than John Langan. I am, as you may have gathered, pretty pleased with myself.
February 28, 2011
Monster Awareness Month Days 26-28
I'm hoping that this'll only be the first of many such months I get to be involved in. This February was a little tumultuous for me for various other reasons, but the monsters helped make it enjoyable. Whatever the future holds, though, I've got three more movies to write up to round out the month, so here they are:
Day 26: Pan's Labyrinth (2007)
The second movie that I wrote up for Monster Awareness Month. Check it here.
Day 27: The Mist (2007)
I've seen a lot of folks who didn't like this movie, but I think it's brilliant. Not just a great monster movie, but a great movie period, and an improvement on the source material. The big sticking point for most people is the ending. It apparently either works for you, or it doesn't. It worked for me.
On a side note, if you get the opportunity, I recommend watching the movie in the black & white version that's included in the two-disc set. It's how Frank Darabont wanted to film the movie, and it's been fully color-corrected, so it's not just the regular movie with the colors drained out. The shadows are as crisp and black as you could ask for.
Day 28: Cloverfield (2008)
The last movie of Monster Awareness Month. Another one I was going to re-watch and didn't. (I did finally re-watch Jurassic Park, and still enjoyed it.) I saw this one in theatres, but only that once. I don't recall disliking it, but I don't recall liking it all that much either. Then again, my tolerance for shaky cameras is notoriously low, and I was already spoiled by the fact that the monster wasn't going to be this one.
Monster Awareness Month Days 26-28
So, today Monster Awareness Month draws to a close. It's been a ride, and I hope everyone enjoyed it. If you've only been following along here, definitely go back and check out the Monster Awareness Month website, because there are some great pieces up there.
I'm hoping that this'll only be the first of many such months I get to be involved in. This February was a little tumultuous for me for various other reasons, but the monsters helped make it enjoyable. Whatever the future holds, though, I've got three more movies to write up to round out the month, so here they are:
Day 26: Pan's Labyrinth (2007)
The second movie that I wrote up for Monster Awareness Month. Check it here.
Day 27: The Mist (2007)
I've seen a lot of folks who didn't like this movie, but I think it's brilliant. Not just a great monster movie, but a great movie period, and an improvement on the source material. The big sticking point for most people is the ending. It apparently either works for you, or it doesn't. It worked for me.
On a side note, if you get the opportunity, I recommend watching the movie in the black & white version that's included in the two-disc set. It's how Frank Darabont wanted to film the movie, and it's been fully color-corrected, so it's not just the regular movie with the colors drained out. The shadows are as crisp and black as you could ask for.
Day 28: Cloverfield (2008)
The last movie of Monster Awareness Month. Another one I was going to re-watch and didn't. (I did finally re-watch Jurassic Park, and still enjoyed it.) I saw this one in theatres, but only that once. I don't recall disliking it, but I don't recall liking it all that much either. Then again, my tolerance for shaky cameras is notoriously low, and I was already spoiled by the fact that the monster wasn't going to be this one.
February 25, 2011
Monster Awareness Month Days 21-25
Now, on to the movies:
Day 21: Jurassic Park (1993)
Confession time: I haven't re-watched Jurassic Park for Monster Awareness Month yet. I planned to, and still plan to, but it just hasn't happened. I haven't seen Jurassic Park in years, and I mean lots of years, but it used to be a favorite movie of mine. I can still remember seeing it in theatres, before I'd seen any footage of the dinosaurs. I remember going to the theatre and getting Jurassic Park pogs, and them having a big inflatable Godzilla (which I think was supposed to stand in for a T-Rex, maybe) in the lobby.
There was a time when Jurassic Park meant a lot to me, and I could probably still recite whole sections of it to you verbatim. But as to how it holds up after all these years, I can't speak. At least, not yet.
Day 22: Dagon (2001) & Call of Cthulhu (2005)
Dagon I did re-watch for Monster Awareness Month, albeit just last night. It I had seen only the once before, and I didn't remember much besides some fish-people, some weird monster sex (it's a Stuart Gordon/Brian Yuzna movie, after all), and an exposition character whose accent and drunken slurring were so thick that I could only understand about every third word out of his mouth.
It was OK. The fish people were sometimes pretty good, but mostly what saved it, to the extent that it got saved, was the decaying seaside town in which it was set. Lots of great, dreary, damp, falling-down sets and old houses and canted alleys and such, and some of the scenes where people are pursued through the streets by the town's shambling inhabitants are pretty spectacular. Mostly, though, it just feels like a bunch of misfires, and the protagonist is super-annoying. I liked it, but it could've been better.
The silent Call of Cthulhu is a big improvement, though I didn't re-watch it, having seen it recently and being short on time. Still, it's a hell of an evocation of silent films of the time, and a good imagining of what a Lovecraft movie made when Lovecraft was alive might have been like (although given how long it's taken us to get to making Lovecraft movies that even vaguely resemble their source material, probably not).
Day 23: The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
And again, I admit to not re-watching. This is another one I saw a few years ago, when it was new, and only the once, but I remember not being impressed, and the aforementioned time crunch led to me not being interested in giving it another go.
Day 24: Hellboy (2004)
This is the first of the movies that I wrote up for Monster Awareness Month myself. Check it out.
Day 25: The Host (2006)
I didn't like The Host. There goes all my credibility, I know, but I didn't, and can't bring myself to pretend otherwise. I wrote it up for my column at Innsmouth Free Press earlier in the month, which you can find over here.
Monster Awareness Month Days 21-25
We're getting into the home stretch here. In the meantime, my From Strange & Distant Shores column on The Abominable Snowman went live and my good friend and former employer Jeff Owens wrote a long and impassioned paen to Marvel comics monsters here.
Now, on to the movies:
Day 21: Jurassic Park (1993)
Confession time: I haven't re-watched Jurassic Park for Monster Awareness Month yet. I planned to, and still plan to, but it just hasn't happened. I haven't seen Jurassic Park in years, and I mean lots of years, but it used to be a favorite movie of mine. I can still remember seeing it in theatres, before I'd seen any footage of the dinosaurs. I remember going to the theatre and getting Jurassic Park pogs, and them having a big inflatable Godzilla (which I think was supposed to stand in for a T-Rex, maybe) in the lobby.
There was a time when Jurassic Park meant a lot to me, and I could probably still recite whole sections of it to you verbatim. But as to how it holds up after all these years, I can't speak. At least, not yet.
Day 22: Dagon (2001) & Call of Cthulhu (2005)
Dagon I did re-watch for Monster Awareness Month, albeit just last night. It I had seen only the once before, and I didn't remember much besides some fish-people, some weird monster sex (it's a Stuart Gordon/Brian Yuzna movie, after all), and an exposition character whose accent and drunken slurring were so thick that I could only understand about every third word out of his mouth.
It was OK. The fish people were sometimes pretty good, but mostly what saved it, to the extent that it got saved, was the decaying seaside town in which it was set. Lots of great, dreary, damp, falling-down sets and old houses and canted alleys and such, and some of the scenes where people are pursued through the streets by the town's shambling inhabitants are pretty spectacular. Mostly, though, it just feels like a bunch of misfires, and the protagonist is super-annoying. I liked it, but it could've been better.
The silent Call of Cthulhu is a big improvement, though I didn't re-watch it, having seen it recently and being short on time. Still, it's a hell of an evocation of silent films of the time, and a good imagining of what a Lovecraft movie made when Lovecraft was alive might have been like (although given how long it's taken us to get to making Lovecraft movies that even vaguely resemble their source material, probably not).
Day 23: The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
And again, I admit to not re-watching. This is another one I saw a few years ago, when it was new, and only the once, but I remember not being impressed, and the aforementioned time crunch led to me not being interested in giving it another go.
Day 24: Hellboy (2004)
This is the first of the movies that I wrote up for Monster Awareness Month myself. Check it out.
Day 25: The Host (2006)
I didn't like The Host. There goes all my credibility, I know, but I didn't, and can't bring myself to pretend otherwise. I wrote it up for my column at Innsmouth Free Press earlier in the month, which you can find over here.
February 21, 2011
Monster Awareness Month Days 19&20
Here's another movie about which there's not much left to add, but I will say that if I were choosing Clive Barker movies to represent Monster Awareness Month, I'd likely have chosen Nightbreed instead. Not that Nightbreed is any better than Hellraiser, it just seems more monster-y.
Day 20: Tremors (1989)
OK, y'know the other day, when I was saying how I'd have trouble picking a favorite out of the movies from this month. Well, that's still true, and all those movies I mentioned would be hot contenders. But Tremors would be the dark horse candidate, for sure. Maybe my first favorite movie, I actually remember seeing Tremors in the theatre, and what's not to love about this great homage to 50s monster flicks?
Monster Awareness Month Days 19&20
Day 19: Hellraiser (1987)
Here's another movie about which there's not much left to add, but I will say that if I were choosing Clive Barker movies to represent Monster Awareness Month, I'd likely have chosen Nightbreed instead. Not that Nightbreed is any better than Hellraiser, it just seems more monster-y.
Day 20: Tremors (1989)
OK, y'know the other day, when I was saying how I'd have trouble picking a favorite out of the movies from this month. Well, that's still true, and all those movies I mentioned would be hot contenders. But Tremors would be the dark horse candidate, for sure. Maybe my first favorite movie, I actually remember seeing Tremors in the theatre, and what's not to love about this great homage to 50s monster flicks?
