Joseph Mallozzi's Blog, page 132

April 9, 2022: Stock Research > Writing

Guy downstairs has been renovating, drilling. ALL DAY.
I'm heading out to buy a basketball. Thinking I might practice my dribbling later tonight.

— Joseph Mallozzi (@BaronDestructo) April 9, 2022

Gotta practice for that big Riverdance audition next week! https://t.co/p462J7q8M7 pic.twitter.com/8t6uZojbca

— Joseph Mallozzi (@BaronDestructo) April 9, 2022

I mean, today would have been the perfect day to get started on watching one of the shows listed in yesterday’s blog entry (Thanks for all the input by the way).  And that was the plan.  But I got distracted and ended up researching U.S. small value stocks.  And, while I’d like to say I’ll probably start tomorrow, chances are I’ll more likely be researching international small value stocks instead.

I think I need to be more realistic with myself about my to-do list and, more importantly, my to-when list.  Take that feature script that’s been rattling around in my brain for going on two years now.  I actually broke the story, got my scenes down, and fully intended to write it during lockdown in 2020.  Except I wasn’t all that motivated to do much writing (or reading) during lockdown, so the script got pushed.  To top of 2021 when I decided I would finally sit down and write it.  BUT, 2021 came and went and so did my plans for that script.  Now, here we are deep into 2022, and while I do think about writing that script, my interest has waned.  As has my enthusiasm for writing pilots or, really, writing in general.  I’ve come to the point where I”m deriving more satisfaction from stock research than from making up worlds and characters, truth be told.  On the one hand, theoretically sad I suppose in that this industry has leeched every bit of enjoyment I once enjoyed from plying my craft, but at this point I don’t really miss it so I can’t really argue it’s all that sad.  On the other hand, I’m having a lot of fun doing something else, something completely different that has been a whole new learning experience for me over these past couple of years.

That’s not to say I won’t start writing again at some point.  Who knows?  Maybe, one of these days, I’ll be struck by inspiration and spend weeks hammering out a new pilot.  Or, even crazier, one of the various shows I’ve developed over the course of these past few years finds a home and I’ll be drawn back into production –

Or maybe I wake up one morning and actually start writing that feature.

Or not.  And if I don’t?  Meh.

P.S. $AMCX, $COOP, $GEF, $LPX, $PRDO, and $SMP have all made my short list.

Today’s Yes/No…

Breakfast Croissant Pizza? Yes/Nohttps://t.co/OEn8fRP9Vm

— Joseph Mallozzi (@BaronDestructo) April 9, 2022

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What should I watch? Advise me.

I’m considering doing something I haven’t done in ages: watch a show.  Despite the foreboding prospect of making a 10, maybe 13 episode commitment, I think I might do it.  The following 10 shows have landed on my potential-viewing radar.  Please talk me into OR out of watching any of the following…

EUPHORIA

MOON KNIGHT

ONLY ,MURDERS IN THE BUILDING

OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH

RAISED BY WOLVES

SEVERANCE

SUCCESSION

TED LASSO

THE WHITE LOTUS

YELLOWJACKETS

The only stipulations – I don’t want to be bored.  I don’t want to be patronized.  And I want the story to make sense and its characters to act/react in a logical manner.  No coincidences, contrivances, or conveniences.

Have at it!

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April 7, 2022: The rare culinary double-header!

With our friends Yael and Tanavi in town, Akemi and I joined Dr. Blackjack for a couple of meals.

First, lunch at Shook –

Stuffed smoked dates, mushroom kibbeh, wild mushroom couscous.  Not pictured: the best hummus in town.

Then, dinner at Antler –

The charcuterie board (the boar belly was sublime).  The Elk Tartare.  The duck hearts yakitori.

My cocktail.  The main ingredient = duck fat-washed whiskey!

The Game Burger (bison, venison, and wild boar)

Smoked chocolate mousse and maple cake.

Not surprisingly, I was NOT hungry for lunch today.

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April 6, 2022: Amazing Covers!

A few that caught my eye this week…

Black Widow #15 – cover art by Kaare Andrews

Strange #2 – cover art by Bjorn Barends

Strange #2 – cover art by Dan Panosian

Batman #122 – cover art by Gabriele Dell’Otto

Mister Miracle: The Source of Freedom – cover art by Yanick Paquette

Alice Ever After #1 – cover art by J. Scott Campbell

The Joneses #1 – cover art by Mike Deodato Jr.

So, which were YOUR favorites?

 

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April 5, 2022: Meccha Tired!

Hoowee!  Received an email from my agent last night informing me that he was putting me up for a new genre show and requested a writing sample for a “sci-fi show that tends towards horror”.  The series is an adaptation of novel – which I happened to have read, so I knew the perfect sample script to put forward: Stargate: SG-1’s “Revisions”.  The only problem – I no longer had a copy of the script.  Fortunately, I had access to a dropbox database of all of my old Stargate scripts.  UNFORTUNATELY, that old dropbox account got deleted due to age and inactivity.  So what to do?  Search my old hard drives of course.  The result?  Nada.  And so, left with no other recourse, I resorted to desperate measures – reverse-engineering my script from episode transcripts.  Which took me almost all of today, from an 8:00 a.m. start to a 7:00 p.m. script delivery.

Now watch me not even get an offer.

I did find time for a few breaks in between all of the rewriting and reformatting – two Suji walks, a workout, and lunch with my old friend Simon who was in town, visiting from Vancouver…

Pictured here with the Pike’s Place Espresso Chocolate Bar he gifted me.

We enjoyed Dan Dan Noodles at Mogouyan Hand-Pulled Noodles (He treated!), followed by Vietnamese coffee mochi donuts from Isabella’s Mochi Donut Boutique.

Great to catch up with Simon who is one of the biggest foodies I know.

Another round of meals-with-friends tomorrow when my buddies Yael and Tana roll into town.  Dr. Blackjack has done the honors, lining up rare culinary double-feature lunch AND dinner.

I leave you with today’s Yes/No…

Grass Jelly Drink? Yes/No pic.twitter.com/hlUU1BK701

— Joseph Mallozzi (@BaronDestructo) April 5, 2022

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April 4, 2022: Baron’s Book Club Blab Blog!

Work has eaten into my once torrid reading pace, but I did read two books last week…

The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan (January 4, 2022 release)

Frida Liu is struggling. She doesn’t have a career worthy of her Chinese immigrant parents’ sacrifices. What’s worse is she can’t persuade her husband, Gust, to give up his wellness-obsessed younger mistress. Only with their angelic daughter Harriet does Frida finally feel she’s attained the perfection expected of her. Harriet may be all she has, but she’s just enough.

Until Frida has a horrible day.

The state has its eyes on mothers like Frida — ones who check their phones while their kids are on the playground; who let their children walk home alone; in other words, mothers who only have one lapse of judgement. Now, a host of government officials will determine if Frida is a candidate for a Big Brother-like institution that measures the success or failure of a mother’s devotion. Faced with the possibility of losing Harriet, Frida must prove that she can live up to the standards set for mothers — that she can learn to be good.

My thoughts: It’s the Handmaid’s Tale meets Orange is the New Black by way of Black Mirror.  After running afoul of near-future social services, a young mother is sent off for “re-education” at a prison-like institute.  There she will have to prove her competence as a mom if she is ever to be reunited with her daughter.

At the beginning of this book, I had mixed feelings about our protagonist.  On the one hand, I did feel sorry for her in the face of an unforgiving dystopian system.  On the other hand, she DID leave her infant child unattended for several hours, completely forgetting about her as she went about her work.  I mean, I get it.  She was exhausted.  And everyone makes mistakes.  Still, it was difficult to totally get on board with Frida-as-victim at first.  But, as the story unfolds, one can’t but sympathize with this desperate mother.

Although the novel is clearly speculative fiction, imagining an oppressive world not too far removed from our own, it’s nevertheless very grounded – until about a third of the way in when the mothers are presented with, essentially, robot children to nurture for the duration of their one year stay/sentence.  At this point, we veer into science fiction and, while I love science fiction, it a jarring development.  And, to be honest, I didn’t love it.  It all works in the end, eventually, but it does take a couple of chapters to adjust to the shift.

Overall, an impressive and provocative novel that, at times, feels like it bites off more than it can chew when it comes to the myriad social issues it seeks to address.

***

The Broken Room  by Peter Clines

Hector was the best of the best. A government operative who could bring armies to a halt and nations to their knees. But when his own country betrayed him, he dropped off the grid and picked up the first of many bottles.

Natalie can’t remember much of her life before her family brought her to the US, but she remembers the cages. And getting taken away to the Project with dozens of other young children to become part of their nightmarish experiments. That’s how she ended up with the ghost of a dead secret agent stuck in her head.

And Hector owes Natalie’s ghost a big favor.

Now Hector and Natalie are on the run from an army of killers sent to retrieve her. Because the people behind the Project are willing to risk almost anything to get Natalie back and complete their experiments.

My thoughts: I’m an absolute sucker for the symbolic ne’er-do-well father – precocious daughter relationship at the heart of this novel.  It, on its own, is worth the price of admission.  But, as an added bonus, you also get a compelling story chock full o’ cool sci-fi elements, action, surprising turns, and a couple of very memorable, very colorful mercenaries.  This book is at it’s best when it focuses on the heartening, often  humorous relationship at it’s core, the growing bond between a battle-hardened agent and his young charge.  Some of the novel’s more fantastical elements didn’t work as well for me however (ie. Nathalie’s “sickness” manifesting supernatural projectile-vomiting), and while the climax sets up nicely, it does seem to wrap up in all too convenient fashion.  Still, the journey there is a very memorable one.

***

So, what have YOU been reading?

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April 3, 2022: Suji Sunday!

Impatient for spring to get here.

Planning dinner.

Ready to rock and roll.

Flower Princess.

Poor eyesight but great appetite…

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Hi. I'm Sujiすじ子 (@newoldpugsuji)

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April 2, 2022: Stargate Saturday!

Check out the replay of my latest chat with David Read for Dial the Gate.  We talk SGU’s first season…

And from the Stargate vault…

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April 1, 2022: J-Town!

Today, Akemi’s and I visited J-Town, aka Japan-Town, aka the land of soy milk and honey-matcha mochi.

It’s located about 90 minutes from our place by public transportation, but I accompanied Akemi because that’s what husband’s do – especially after being guilted for not being more enthusiastic about a rare couples excursion.

Enroute

So, we walked from our place to the bus stop.  From the bus stop to the subway.  To the subway to the other bus stop.  And from the bus stop to J-Town mall which, to be frank, is less a mall and more a tiny strip mall of a half dozen tiny shops selling Japanese goods.  BUT Akemi was thrilled nonetheless.

The ArrivalThe Arrival Part 2

We started with a preliminary walk-thru, a scouting session of sorts to give us a a lay of the land – and potential purchases – prior to really getting down to it.

But before commencing our official shopping, we decided to grab lunch first.  Being J-Town, you would imagine they’d have a plethora of fine Japanese eateries to choose from – but that assumption would be incorrect.  The two big izakayas are only open for dinner.  And a couple of the other sit-down spots seemed to be still nursing their pandemic hangovers and remained closed.  So we opted for a couple of onigirazu, open-faced seaweed-wrapped rice balls stuffed with beef and chicken and ate outside where we could enjoy the just-above-freezing winter chill.

Hiru-gohan

Then, it was off to Yuzu no Ki Cafe, perhaps the only place open for sit-down service, where we enjoyed a cream chouquette and matcha opera cake, both delicious.

Dezato. Totemo oishikatta desu!

Fortified by beef and cream, we then put Operation Kaimono (shopping)!

(P.S. I know be regret not buy-in that couch with the reclining cat}

Akemi grabbed the basic necessities – rice, soy, tofu, miso, yuzu kosho, shisho, sakura ebi, more rice, and snacks in addition to the elusive mirin she’s been on the look-out for since…forever.  I, meanwhile, focused on the proteins: four different types of burger, two types of tongue, one cheek, and some monkfish liver.

The elusive mirin!

Rather than hazard the 90 minute trek back using public transportation, we elected to grab an uber which was, admittedly more expensive but undoubtedly easier on the arms given the two 15 lb rice bags Akemi had me carrying.

Owarimashita!

Akemi’s haul….

Tanoshikatta!

J-Town

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March 31, 2022: BB.Q Chicken!

I’m about to lapse into a fried chicken coma following a wondrous lunch at BB.Q Chicken – a Korean franchise featured in the K-Drama Crash Landing On You about a soldier from South Korean who, as a result of a paragliding accident, ends up north of the DMZ where she falls in love with a North Korean soldier.

No political intrigue or romance on this visit, but lots of delicious chicken. We were three so we were only able to sample a fraction of the offerings…

The eight piece Golden Fried chicken.   Classic.  Crispy on the outside.  Juicy and tender on the inside.

Honey Garlic Wings.  John Stead’s favorite.

Gangman Style Wings – sweet and spicy with garlic.  Ivon’s favorite.

Cheesling Wings – dusted with cheddar and mascarpone powder.  My favorite.

Sides included cole slaw and corn salad.  Service was excellent.

I have to go back to check out the flavors I missed on this outing: Hot Spicy, Soy Garlic, Ganjeong, Mala Hot, Galbi Q, Red Chak-Chak, Black Pepper, and Secret Sauce.

I made need back-up.   Who’s with me?!

BBQ Chicken Toronto Instagram 

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