Stephen McClurg's Blog, page 56
November 1, 2014
fail better: my almost movie marathon crawls to the finish line
I failed at the movie-a-day schedule. I’m okay with that.
If you’re interested, the other entries about this one-man horror film fest are here, here, and here. Also, here. Click on the titles for trailers.
The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941)
Like several others I’ve watched, his one probably is an outlier, but if the Faust myth isn’t horrorific, what is? Even the The Simpsons thought so.
In this Classic Hollywood version, Jabez Stone is a mid-1800s farmer in New England and is about to lose everything he’s worked for. Old Scratch offers him seven years of good luck and money for his soul. Jabez takes it and then hires Daniel Webster to defend him in court against The Devil. A beautiful looking film with two nice bonuses: Simone Simon and a Herrman score. Another Robert Anton Wilson recommendation.
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
The design elements in this movie are outrageous. It’s fantastic. Just watch the trailer. Vincent Price. Joseph Cotton. Yes, the same Joseph Cotton from Citizen Kane. You also get dialogue like this from bumbling detectives: “A brass unicorn has been catapulted across a London street and impaled an eminent surgeon. Words fail me, gentlemen.” Indeed.
Stake Land (2010)
Fantastic on my first viewing. I may have more criticisms when I watch it again, but I was energized watching it. A mix of The Road and The Walking Dead with vampires. I generally think of vampires in two ways: feral or sexy. These are feral with a heavy emphasis placed on them being undead. You know the score: a group attempts to survive an apocalypse.
Black Death (2010)
When I was growing up, there was a revitalization in the sword and sandal movie: Conan, Excalibur, Beastmaster, and a lot of weird Italian low budget productions. Black Death is that and a plague movie and a movie about ethics and religion. I thought the movie was great and I loved the ending.
Thus ends my month-long horror-fest. And now I must make good on a promise to attempt the first season of Gilmore Girls.
October 22, 2014
flash merry the folk in masquerade or Halloween film fest pt. 4
Beware! The Blob (aka Son of the Blob) (1972)
Hilariously awful “sequel” to the classic film. Directed by Larry “J.R. Ewing” Hagman. You’ll know within ten minutes if it’s a movie for you. The same basic plot as the original: meddling kids discover goo, no one believes them, things get real bad, a small victory, then humanity’s hubris gets the best of us.
A Bell from Hell (1973)
A surprisingly fantastic Spanish film. A story of madness and inheritance, a kind of updated gothic tale. John leaves an asylum and is harboring vengeful thoughts towards his aunt and three nieces who may have been using his fortune to keep him locked up. Will he take revenge if he needs to? A clue: The first thing he does after leaving the asylum is work at a slaughterhouse. When asked why he’s quitting, he says he’s learned enough. Creepy. Awesome. The film uses some real slaughterhouse footage. Gross, but it works. This was the director’s last film as he fell from the bell tower under construction in the movie. (Thanks to Derek for suggesting this and Possession!)
Red Dragon (2002)
I had no idea this existed. Follows Manhunter closely, but is less stylized and has a different ending. I enjoyed it, but prefer Manhunter, which I wrote about here.
Prometheus (2012)
I heard so many bad things about this one I was leery, especially after watching The Thing (2011). A crew, including a few archaeologists, are attempting to find “The Engineers” of human life. I think some viewers may not have liked the lack of aliens, but that didn’t bother me. What we see for the most part is effective. I think some folks may not have liked that the movie in no way attempts to answer all of the questions it presents. I like that, too, but it does make the plotting messy at times and did leave me indifferent to the Engineers, who were unsatisfying. The overall look and design elements of the movie are incredible, with the exception of a few bothersome CGI creature moments.
True Detective: Season One (2014)
I’m usually years behind on television shows, and honestly, I’m not one for TV drama. I’m more likely to watch Tim and Eric or Monty Python. I haven’t seen The Wire, Breaking Bad, or The Walking Dead. Well, I tried to watch those last two and I had to stop–not because the shows were bad, but because I simply couldn’t deal with the constant tension. Yeah, I know, I will purposely put myself in front of something like that aforementioned Blob movie, but I can’t watch some of the best shows in this “New Golden Age” of television.
I started reading The King In Yellow, not knowing the connection to True Detective. When I did some reading about Chambers, the author, I came across his influence on the show and decided to check it out. I mainlined it. I loved the setting, the acting, the story, pretty much everything about it. I might get this book, too. I’ve recently read some articles critical of the finale and I concur. What’s interesting is that the writers say that they love the show, but feel unsatisfied with the last episode. Still, I’d watch the entire first season again.
October 20, 2014
the assurance of the mask or Halloween movie fest pt. 3
Not too much news, but I will have a few installments of my first fright film fest this week. Click on the titles for trailers.
X —The Unknown (1956)
Fun sci-fi horror that is basically The Blob before The Blob. A Hammer production, originally meant to be a Quartermass movie, X—The Unknown takes me back to late nights as a kid watching old movies. There are some fun effects in the film, including a melting man. I tried to research why the camerawork is so strange. The camera moves a lot, but there are a lot of jumps and the background is warped. Maybe it was an experimental lens or something. Several years ago, I attempted to watch the film list in Stephen King’s Danse Macabre, but I couldn’t find all of the entries, including this one. That’s changed a lot now. I watched it on YouTube.
Nightmare City (1980) (A trailer not for the squeamish!)
The only repeat so far in this personal film fest. This one is pure exploitation silliness. Irradiated “zombies” burst from the belly of a plane and begin killing and drinking blood. I call this an example of the Continental zombie (as opposed to the Pittsburgh zombie), one in a series of fast moving zombie films before 28 Days Later. These zombies aren’t afraid of hand-to-hand combat, even with fully-armed soldiers. And that’s just in the first ten minutes.
Possession (1981)
I don’t know where to start with this one. I don’t even know if I like it or not. At times, it reminds me of a bulky Repulsion mixed with the strangest moments of Lynch. A part of me wants to dismiss the madness and marriage plot—part of the possession of the title—as mere whining. I wanted to tell the main characters to get over themselves! But that tentacled-doppelganger-sex-beast–What?! A weird one, for sure.
The Thing (2011)
The Thing (1982) is one of my favorites, so I think this prequel was probably doomed from the start for me. I watched with excitement as the filmmakers took seriously the recreation of the doomed Norwegian camp from the 1982 film. And while I liked some of the elements, the movie felt too much like a video game for me to really enjoy. Much of the existential horror of Carpenter’s vision is gutted here, not only because we know the outcome, but also because of variations on the alien and settings that, like I said, seemed designed to sell a video game rather than scare on audience.
The Sacrament (2013)
Probably my favorite Ti West film that I’ve seen. The casting and acting are great and the narrative begins interestingly enough. I love that even as a found footage film, West rarely resorts to shaky-cam shots. I’ve never liked that aspect of the genre. As always, though, the found footage concept runs its course before the film is over. My only real complaint is that once I realized the movie was a nod to the Jonestown Massacre, I was disappointed, only because it felt so similar. If a viewer were new to the nonfictional events that the film is based on, then I think they would have a different experience. I wonder how many folks caught the disturbing allusion to another real event that made it into the film?
Gene Jones is fantastic as “Father” in The Sacrament. He manages to pull off helpless and menacing at the same time.
Has anyone seen my tambourine?: The Worst Watch?
Not too much news, but I will have a few installments of my first fright film fest this week. Click on the titles for trailers.
X —The Unknown (1956)
Fun sci-fi horror that is basically The Blob before The Blob. A Hammer production, originally meant to be a Quartermass movie, X—The Unknown takes me back to late nights as a kid watching old movies. There are some fun effects in the film, including a melting man. I tried to research why the camerawork is so strange. The camera moves a lot, but there are a lot of jumps and the background is warped. Maybe it was an experimental lens or something. Several years ago, I attempted to watch the film list in Stephen King’s Danse Macabre, but I couldn’t find all of the entries, including this one. That’s changed a lot now. I watched it on YouTube.
Nightmare City (1980) (A trailer not for the squeamish!)
The only repeat so far in this personal film fest. This one is pure exploitation silliness. Irradiated “zombies” burst from the belly of a plane and begin killing and drinking blood. I call this an example of the Continental zombie (as opposed to the Pittsburgh zombie), one in a series of fast moving zombie films before 28 Days Later. These zombies aren’t afraid of hand-to-hand combat, even with fully-armed soldiers. And that’s just in the first ten minutes.
Possession (1981)
I don’t know where to start with this one. I don’t even know if I like it or not. At times, it reminds me of a bulky Repulsion mixed with the strangest moments of Lynch. A part of me wants to dismiss the madness and marriage plot—part of the possession of the title—as mere whining. I wanted to tell the main characters to get over themselves! But that tentacled-doppelganger-sex-beast–What?! A weird one, for sure.
The Thing (2011)
The Thing (1982) is one of my favorites, so I think this prequel was probably doomed from the start for me. I watched with excitement as the filmmakers took seriously the recreation of the doomed Norwegian camp from the 1982 film. And while I liked some of the elements, the movie felt too much like a video game for me to really enjoy. Much of the existential horror of Carpenter’s vision is gutted here, not only because we know the outcome, but also because of variations on the alien and settings that, like I said, seemed designed to sell a video game rather than scare on audience.
The Sacrament (2013)
Probably my favorite Ti West film that I’ve seen. The casting and acting are great and the narrative begins interestingly enough. I love that even as a found footage film, West rarely resorts to shaky-cam shots. I’ve never liked that aspect of the genre. As always, though, the found footage concept runs its course before the film is over. My only real complaint is that once I realized the movie was a nod to the Jonestown Massacre, I was disappointed, only because it felt so similar. If a viewer were new to the nonfictional events that the film is based on, then I think they would have a different experience. I wonder how many folks caught the disturbing allusion to another real event that made it into the film?
Gene Jones is fantastic as “Father” in The Sacrament. He manages to pull off helpless and menacing at the same time.
October 9, 2014
still raving, still demon
Besides end-of-the-grading-period insanity this week has included respiratory illness! Multiple flat tires! Root canals! Homecoming week!
Not only are the Ghoulanoids toys going fast, but Derek’s Cartoonshow #2 is also in the Best American Comics 2014 anthology as one of the “Notable Comics” of the year. Tasty!
With all of this going on, I’ve kept up with the horror movie marathon I mentioned previously. This week I realized that I have been watching horror films for over three decades. Yikes. A recap:
A Page of Madness (1926)
A Japanese experimental silent movie that reminds me mostly of films by Kenneth Anger and Maya Deren made decades later. There’s maybe some Murnau and Wiene influences, as well as Leger. Yeah, Leger’s Ballet Mecanique seems like a definite influence. Eisenstein? Takes place in an institution. Not traditional horror (then again, what was at the time?), but on the margins. I could watch films like this all day and, honestly, I’ve never seen anything quite like it. You can watch the entire movie below.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) [Click the titles for trailers.]
O, Classic Hollywood! Of all people, Robert Anton Wilson led me to this one. Wilson liked Eastwood’s films and the connection here would be the meditation on a moral dilemma. Here we have eternal youth and beauty traded for heart and soul. Worth watching for George Sanders’s performance as Lord Henry, the beautiful cinematography, and a young Angela Lansbury. A classic, but certainly not what younger folks would consider a horror film. Hurd Hatfield’s performance as Gray is robotic at best, but I’ve read that he was directed to perform this way.
The Sadistic Baron von Klaus (1962)
Here’s Jess Franco working with classic elements of Gothic horror: the ghost story, the castle, the skeletons, the damaged aristocratic family, the swamp (instead of a moor). Franco’s films are always flawed–many cite money as a reason–well, maybe. It takes a particular kind of viewer to deal with the expectations and letdowns that any Franco film has with it. While you feel that he’s stretching material at times, you also get some interesting camerawork and spectacular music and sometimes thrillingly brilliant imagery. Franco was a musician himself and I’ve often enjoyed his musical sensibility. With Franco I’ve often felt he’s always on the verge of doing something incredible, but doesn’t. Like I said, this is for those peculiar masochistic viewers who know what to expect with Franco or are film junkies.
Let my (sado-masochistic) love open the door to your heart (and/or sado-masochistic love/torture dungeon).
Kill, Baby…Kill! (1966)
Another in a long line of awesomely but inappropriately named Italian horror films. This one was directed by one of the Godfathers: Mario Bava. (I just found this doc!) This movie had a bizarre color palette and I couldn’t figure out if it was on purpose or not. Other than that, this is another Gothic film that is not too far from The Ring or The Grudge, albeit decades before those books or movies. This would be a good movie to watch with the kids when they decide they want to watch scary movies, but they’re not sure how they’ll handle them. Lots of midnight movie mood.
Before we grudged or let the right one in.
October 5, 2014
probably the only marathon I will attempt, but not the only one I will fail
The end of the grading period and the end of some kind of respiratory funk have taken my energy. I missed three great shows this weekend, two of which featured old friends. Hopefully next time I’ll be there.
Lots of grading and congestion didn’t leave room for much else, but I did begin my first Halloween Horror Movie Marathon. I’ve always loved horror movies, but I’ve never managed one of the October nightly fright film fests. I’m guessing I won’t make the movie-a-day schedule, but this is a part of my life for which failure is an option. With young kids in the house, I haven’t watched a lot of horror in a few years, so it will be all in fun to fill in some of those viewing gaps over the month.
My viewing so far (click on the titles for trailers):
Audrey Rose (1977)
Audrey Rose keeps with both ’70s themes of possession (unlike The Exorcist, this movie deals with possession in the form of reincarnation) and “what’s happened to our kids?” Grieving Elliot Hoover believes that the Templeton’s daughter, Ivy, is the reincarnation of his daughter Audrey Rose, who perished in a car accident. Ivy acts peculiar around her birthday and when she develops burns on her hands while touching a cold window during one of her spells, the Templeton’s ears start perking up. I’m sure there’s some critical work out there on the period and what seems to me to be an interesting generation gap before parents left adulthood behind and decided they wanted to be friends with their kids or stay hip forever. Maybe it’s in line with the disintegration of the nuclear family. Anyway, it’s interesting to see a psychological horror film directed at adults. By the ’80s, and especially today, most movies feel like they are written for teens and tweens. Probably too slow for today’s generation, but good enough for horror completists or fans of late-’70s fashions and New York. The movie does have an unexpected ending and then concludes with a quote from the Bhagavad-Gita! Namaste, indeed!
Fright Night (1985)
So here’s one that was on HBO all the time when I was growing up and I still missed it. Fright Night is a trade-off of sorts. You get mostly competent acting, decent effects, and a self-aware storyline before Scream. Is it as fun as something like Street Trash or The Stuff? No way. There’s a horrible ’80s club scene. And Evil Ed, the main character’s friend (I think–it’s hard to tell), is one of the most obnoxious characters ever put on screen. It’s been a while, but if you wanted some ’80s vampire action, I would watch Near Dark before this one.
Manhunter (1986)
A version of Red Dragon, the first Hannibal Lecter novel, and the first time the character was portrayed on screen. Directed by Miami Vice‘s Michael Mann and an odd visual treat. Not perfect, but underrated, I’d say. Mann has no problem going over the top with color palettes or visuals and I like that. Now that I think about it, this film is like a Hollywood Argento production: fewer gross-outs, better acting, better writing.
Hannibal (2001)
Disappointing if considered a continuation of the previous films. Surprisingly gruesome, but lacking the suspense of the other movies. Lecter is like Freddy or Jason here. You know he’s going to get away with whatever he sets his mind to and you grotesquely root for him to do so because every one else is as much an aberration as he is, with exception, of course, for Clarice Starling. We wanted to see more Lecter after Lambs, but it plays out like the ends of monster movies where you see too much of the monster and it loses some of its threat and mystery, e.g. Alien, Jaws, etc.
Maniac (2013)
I put off watching this for a long time. I just figured it was going to be the same rehashed, re-packaged version of another film I remember watching as a teenager late on Friday or Saturday nights after everyone had gone to bed. This is a remake of an ’80s slasher pic of the same name, and one that featured effects by Tom Savini (always a good sign) and even featured Savini’s own head getting exploded by a shotgun.
One of the things that made this movie surprisingly fun was that it was made by horror fans and you could tell. They take the hackneyed psychological angle that so many slasher and giallo movies have used and make it work about as much as it can. They sell that angle by filming almost the entirety of the film from the perspective of Wood’s maniac. Again, that mostly works, but they take the story seriously. I believe an early kill in this version is a tribute to Argento’s Opera. A victim puts on Buffalo Bill’s favorite track “Goodbye Horses.” Some of the sets are reminiscent of an old creepy film called Tourist Trap. There are other little Easter eggs for horror fans.
I was amused to see a few reviews say that it was too gory. It’s a slasher film that’s a remake of a slasher film. Definitely not for everybody, but I thought it was a fun throwback without the smarm and tongue-in-cheek irony of many recent horror productions or the nihilism of torture porn.
Current listening:
Lots of synthy stuff like Goblin, Fabio Frizzi, Morricone/Carpenter (The Thing OST) and Zombi.
September 26, 2014
Ghoulanoids: Available for Pre-Order!
I’ve been so busy I almost forgot to mention that the first wave of Ghoulanoids madness is available for pre-order! This has been a blast to work on and it was nice to be in contact with the inimitable Ballard Bros. again. (You can read more about their work in a previous post.)
This is a short book, in stature and length, and as a book that deals with a multiverse or interdimensionality, a lot was worked out that got cut. That’s not a big problem in that we could turn this into a series if the demand calls for it. (About 400% of the ideas were snipped away to meet the demands of this book!)
This episode deals with Vel(lamo) Briar, mortuary owner, and what you could say is her call to action. If you guessed that that call involves some creatures called Ghoulanoids, then you would be most correct.
As I said on Twitter, some of the obvious inspiration for this came from movies like Phantasm and Critters. Unexpectedly, folks like Guido Crepax, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Joseph Campbell, and the movie Die Hard became touchstones for certain elements after the first few drafts.
For process nerds: Derek and I will be revising and editing up to the time the final artwork is sent in for production. I’ll need to cut and add here and there. Derek may have questions or concerns about cutting or adding elements. I’m writing and revising bits and pieces daily. I have one more major element to draft.
In other words, there’s never enough time. You have to do the best you can and eventually turn these things over to get them out there.
And it all started with Daniel’s toy sculpts. I’m not sure if the toys will have to be purchased separately or not. I’ve seen the new glow-in-the-dark ones and a few new designs. They are killer. And we have some special ideas for those as well…
Lately, I’ve been ending these things with current listening. I haven’t been doing any focused listening, but every now and then I’ve been listening to early Killing Joke and Budgie albums. While I’ve never heard a full album, I loved this Kate Bush doc. And I don’t care what anyone says, Glenn Danzig has written some great songs and has a killer book collection.
Ciao!
August 22, 2014
The Writing Process Blog Tour
I’ve been tagged for The Writing Process Blog Tour by John King. John hosts the writing podcast The Drunken Odyssey and I’ve written elsewhere about what the show and its mercurial host have meant to my writing life. I am now tasked to answer questions about my writing process and then tag three other writers to do the same. More on that below.
Kingly John
My answers:
What are you working on?
I’m working on:
1) cartoons—series and shorts
2) Ghoulanoids—a comic with toys
3) another comic book
4) a poetry collection or chapbook(s)
5) Little Billboards
Derek Ballard and I have built a backlog of possible animated material, but haven’t sold anything yet. If we do and someone trusts us, we’ve got some good, interesting ideas for shorts and series that I would love to see happen. Honestly, the two of us could write cartoons for the rest of our lives if someone would let us.
Ghoulanoids will be a comic packaged with toys and published by Sacred Prism this fall. We’re early in the process, but our inspiration is most obviously from ‘80s toy lines and films like Critters and Phantasm. We hope to do something unique and fun with those flavors. That “we” is Daniel and Derek Ballard and me. I know the creators and the publisher are excited, I hope our readers will be. Did I mention that Daniel makes puppets and works with Heather Henson sometimes? Yeah, of THAT Henson family. Did I mention that Derek has his own comic book series and works on Adventure Time?
Rumor has it that a peek at the cover may happen soon.
I’m not sure how much I can say about the other comic book project except it will be 24 pages and also include a toy. A draft of the story has been written, but we need to revisit it before continuing with the project, in part because it was originally a cartoon script that got accepted for publication. We need to rethink some of the ideas.
One summer, not long from now, I will have some extra pocket change and will begin submitting my poetry manuscript(s) to contests. This is generally how things work in the poetry world. I simply haven’t had the coin to send these out.
Little Billboards is a project I do for Eunoia Solstice. It began as contemporary haiku and has slowly evolved into a haiku/found poetry/humument hybrid. This project forces me to think and work in new ways and that is why I keep moving forward with it. It started with more traditional haiku and morphed into seventeen syllable humuments and now it just is what it is. I think I’m still working in the same spirit in which I started the project, I’m just letting it organically become what it is.
There are other projects in states of array and disarray. I’ve co-written a children’s book that we are almost ready to shop around to agents. We’ve worked on the manuscript for several years, so it’s not like we’re just tossing something out there. We’ve taken it as seriously as anything we’ve ever written. I’ve written a script for a comic that is associated with a TV show in which one of two major companies have given it the ok. Waiting to hear on the second. At the end of the month, I’ll find out if I’ll be working on the rebirth of an old toy line via comic book. I’ve written a treatment for a film that was optioned and then turned down, but might still be made. The script is partially done. I’ve also committed to an anthology film and have done editing and revising work on the screenplay.
How does this work differ from others of its genre?
I could either say it’s different because I’m working on it, and I work from equal parts Dickinson and King, Henson and Beckett, but, it’s probably better left for others to interpret how it’s different or not. The critic part of my brain—“Little Hitler” as I call it—can be tremendously cruel, so I try not to inflict it on myself until I get enough work done to not totally crush my soul.
It’s very easy to dissuade oneself from doing this work or denigrate it before it even has a chance to breathe or be good in any way.
Why do you write what you do?
I wish I had the answer. I can’t not do it. I’ve been writing since high school for pleasure or for publication or both. I either write from images that possess me or I write in collaborations with artists I like and are willing to work with me. I recently found an Italo Calvino quote that finally said what I’ve been trying to say for years: “I start with a small, single image and then I enlarge it.” It all starts from being haunted, in a way, by images.
How does your writing process work?
John’s answer is so good and true to my experience you should read that.
During the summer, I can organize an hour or two at the beginning or ending of each day, but during school I just have to grab the time when I can, which means when the kids actually take naps. I wrote part of this laying across the front seat of my car in the parking lot of the library. The library was closed. I didn’t know that, but I didn’t want to waste my writing time. I live in Alabama, so it wasn’t the most comfortable writing station. (It’s summertime, dingus!) You got to do what you got to do.
Ideally, I write or mentally work through an idea or image every day.
I write one or two drafts on paper, then I do a typed version, sometimes from scratch. I may type another using all of my rough drafts. Then I print a copy and mercilessly cut toward the goals of the piece. I love cutting 800 words to 500. Depending on deadlines, I will go through that process for a few days. For me, it’s normal to write more than ten pages for a piece that ends up three or five pages.
Maybe it’s because I enjoy collaborations, but the few times I’ve been able to work with passionate and dedicated editors, I’ve had extremely positive experiences. They’ve made my work better.
Of course, we’ve all suffered from the castigations of overworked and inconsiderate editors. Sometimes they just don’t get it, and that’s ok. If the piece is good, it will find a place. It takes time.
Well, if you made it this far and want more you can check out my last blog tour entry or check out me mucking up Jason’s fabulous podcast.
If you are a writer and want to participate in this blog tour, send me a message or leave a comment. Everyone I contacted had either already done this, was blogless, or wasn’t interested.
August 19, 2014
THE TURN DOWN FOR WHAT BLOG TOUR
This is a blog tour that’s meant to get you past that humpday enervation. In part, it’s supposed to be LOUD. I don’t understand the cat meme thing so my medicine has partially been 1978ish recordings and videos of Blondie.
TURN DOWN FOR WHAT is the brainchild of two contemporary writers that totally outclass me—so much so, it feels like a mistake I got invited to the party.
Those two writers are Emma Bolden* and Chantel Acevedo. They are killin’ it. Read their books! They’re the real deal and, again, I feel lucky to be invited.
Here are the original questions. Each writer tagged picks two to answer.
1) We know getting your work out is all about hard work, perseverance, & talent, but there’s always a dash of luck involved. So, name the luckiest publishing-related thing that has ever happened to you.
2) Your book has been optioned by Oprah. Who’s the star?
3) If your hometown threw a parade to celebrate your book, what kind of parade would it be?
4) Writing is sometimes a miserable experience. How do you drown your sorrows?
5) If you could be a box of cereal, what kind of cereal would you be and why?
6) Team Dickinson or Team Whitman?
7) Arthur Quilling-Couch said that in writing, one often has to ruthlessly cut what one loves most — in other words, “Murder your darlings.” What was your hardest darling to murder?
8) What’s the weirdest thing someone has said when you told them you are a writer?
9) If you could rewrite/adapt/rework any story by anybody, what would it be and what would you do with it?
10) Agatha Christie, as the story goes, created many of her stories while eating apples in the bathtub. How do you spark the story-or-poem-making part of your brain?
Here are my answers:
6) Team Dickinson or Team Whitman?
A New England night. A hillside overlooking a cemetery. Low fog and a full moon. A woman, shimmering in a white dress, walks slowly to the top of the hill. She carries a basket of gingerbread arranged around a skull.
A man seems to incorporate from the woods surrounding the cemetery. He swaggers up the hill and rakishly stands with hand on hip, a hat askew on his head. He grabs his hat and sends it sailing into the graveyard. It lands on the tip of a concrete angel’s wing. He rips his shirt open, baring his chest to the night, the moon, the glowing woman on the hill. He rips a tuft of grayish hair from his chest and sounds a barbaric yawp over the hillside.
The top of her head comes off, but being immortal she stands, skull regenerating. She vomits a torrent of black flies. They devour the man’s flesh. He sings as his body dissolves into the flies and the earth.
She walks down into the graveyard and takes the skull out of her basket and places it on a grave marked “Emerson.” She walks back up the hill.
She walks toward the remains of the man from the woods. What’s left of him crunches under her boot-soles and she places his skull in her basket.
She walks down the hill into the fog.
9) If you could rewrite/adapt/rework any story by anybody, what would it be and what would you do with it?
“The Most Dangerous Game.” I think.
I’m obsessed with a variation of chase/stalker films that include monsters. Predator, Jaws, Duel, Alien, The Terminator, The Thing, etc. Part of it is the mystery, whether it’s the shark in Jaws (the thing from the deep) or the alien in The Thing (the enigma of identity). This mystery always points back at the inscrutable and monstrous within us all, but I like the effect much more than the product of similar genres like slasher films.
I have the kernel of an idea set in 19th Century America, maybe even as a reversal of Moby Dick in which the white whale, the open cipher of fear, is pursuing a mix of Americans, including a runaway Civil War soldier. It would be set in the forest, so it would not feature a literal whale. Maybe one character sees a wendigo and maybe not.
I’ve tagged writer and writing coach Amanda Page. One of her recent projects documented a demolished Ohio building a day for a month. As someone who doesn’t generally think about place, I found the project had profound effects that haven’t worn off months later.
*An Internet cat fanatic like no other. Actually, she’s the houseguest of two famous cats herself–Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas! (Now you wish you would have thought of that!) Last year for Halloween my oldest daughter was the feline Gertrude, rage and all.
July 30, 2014
Mongrel Hearts
We received Lucy’s ashes yesterday. Unsure at first what to do with them, we’ve kept them since they are in a nameplated urn. She was part of our daily lives for eleven years and there’s unusual silence in the house.
She served as a muse at times, odd as that sounds. I thought I’d share some of the poems she inspired.
And Wait
When I should be at the desk, the cold calls to the dog. We fill the space between the margins of this midtown fence. The best time is after the murmur of rush hour: the light when the sun is soon overcome and the peace that comes in the crack of each autumn step. We gnaw each new branch until it’s time to go back to the warm level places, water in bowls, the dull finish of a desk. We sit listening for something beyond these white walls—maybe attic rats or squirrels, maybe choirs or promises made during card games played in the dark.
(Published in Project for a New Mythology.)
The Essential If
She writes to me. Usually on windows with a wet nose. Something else to clean up until one day I had wiped away everything but the last whorls. I paused. I thought it was Hebrew. I knew it was Hebrew. She had written “if”—the essential if. The rest was rubbed away, but I saw the same mark a week later. Does Sue-Sue know Hebrew? Where would she have learned it? “If you hear-hear (if you obey-obey).” I had seen some in my books about tarot cards, but I’m pretty sure she can’t read. “Sue-Sue” is short for “Super Susannah the Brown Noodle Bandit.” This is what happens when you have a child name things like pets and grandparents. I refused to write “Super Susannah the Brown Noodle Bandit” on all those vet forms, so we compromised with “Sue-Sue.” I think I won there. But now she’s given me the essential impossible conditional. In Hebrew? Or is it Arabic? Egyptian Arabic? That’s different, I think. The essential impossible conditional. She chews a pig’s ear. She licks and I wait for the next metaphysical smear, the next barking of angels.
(Published in the 2014 Slash Pine Press Festival Anthology.)
