J.H. Bogran's Blog, page 18

The Wrath of Titans and Gemma's continuous on-screen deaths.

After some debate, we settled to see Wrath of Titans in 2D. However, I conceded the point it'd be the version dubbed in Spanish to please my children.

Dark times are coming; the Gods are dying because people have stopped praying to them. The now widower Perseus has open road to woo fighting Queen Andromeda. Of course, he must first rescue his father from the prison in the underworld, save his son from certain death at the hands of Ares, and destroy his grandfather Kronos. I suppose Ancient Greeks really know how to hold a grudge and keep it all in the family.

However, the Wrath of Titans offers no memorable scenes. The action scenes aren't as annoying as the ones in Transformers. But a lot of them happen in dark places that, combined with the close-angle of the camera, make it really hard to keep track of who is winning.

Not all is bad, hidden under the special effects is a tale of forgiveness and redemption. Also, it ends with the possibility of a third installment. Liam Neeson is superb as Zeus, as with any role he plays. Ralph Fiennes plays a good Hades, this time looking less like Voldemort with a nose. Sam Worthington looks weird with long hair, but makes a decent job.

All in all, it is an entertaining movie.

Oh, and before I forget, the metallic Bubo makes another cameo, this time even longer than the first time.

The title of the post refers to Gemma Arterton's characters. I know she's made plenty of other movies, but if we notice the most prominent ones we find a pattern to be worried about. In Quantum of Solace, agent Strawberry Fields tries to bring rogue agent James Bond back into the saddle, only to suffer a terrible death: asphyxiation by oil. In Prince of Persia, Queen Tamina falls into a pit. Thankfully the sands of time work in her favor and she gets a reprieve. In Clash of Titans, Io dies at the hands of Calibos while Perseus watches in impotence. Thank God—literally—Zeus felt pity for his son and brought back Io to accompany Perseus. I was looking forward to watching her again, but I only got a glimpse at her gravestone; which, by the way, was written in English instead of ancient Greek.

At least, the absence of Gemma Arterton did not ruin the movie as much as Rachel Weiss' absence from The Mummy franchise did.

Trivia Bit: Andromeda is now played by Rosamund Pike, another former Bond-girl. So that makes two of them becoming female leads in the Titan's franchise.

The Assassin's Mistress

I'm proud to announce today the release of a short store through Kindle and Smashwords.

The main character is an anti-hero, a professional hitman. An assassin second to none, but no, he's not the man with the Golden Gun.

James Bond reference aside, the tale of Robert I Prescott is a sad one until he met Chantal while vacationing in a ski resort. It's a random encounter that led to deception, passion, and murder.

Now check the cover:

The Little Ebook Cover Factory did this for this one.

Now, to celebrate this launch, Jenny Milchman invited me to her blog to share a very special moment on her series Made it Moment. At first it was hard to come up with a moment that I could say "Yes, I made it!" But then when I thought of my previous releases a moment in particular came forward.

Here are the direct links:

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007BOC0OW

Smashwords

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/134997

Revisiting Episode 1, except this time wearing glasses

Last night I took my youngest kid to see Star Wars Episode 1. Or should I say I used him as an excuse to see the movie again, but in 3D. Well, it was the first time he saw it in a movie theater.

The oldest boys have already grown out of the franchise and the youngest is only one who still likes it. When he was four or five years old, I set "starwars" as the password for my sons' Windows account. Since he wasn't exactly reading then, every time he wanted to play with the computer, he'd bring the DVD box to see the title and then type the password matching the letters one by one. Needles to say, it was a big event for him.

I remember the movie garnered really bad reviews when it was first released in 1999, hardcore fans in particular were really disappointed. Now it is different and people has gotten used to it. The new generation even likes it.

Now about this 3D version, for a change, George Lucas refrained himself from adding, expanding and/or changing the movie. I was afraid he'd digitally superimpose Hayden Christensen's face over Jake Lloyd.

So, the movie was pretty much as I remember it, although the pod race scene felt a bit longer. Maybe George did play a little bit with it, after all.

On the other hand, I think the flick has aged really well. The story is still entertaining even if it kills a few sacred cows (what's with the midi-chlorians?) and introduced some of the most hateful characters (Jar Jar Binks stubbornly survived all 3 episodes, go figure.)

Getting re-acquainted with Qui-Gon Jinn was nice treat. He's my favorite old-republic Jedi. It was a shame he didn't last more than this entry, although by Episode 3 were learn he discovered a way back even if we couldn't seen him.

Spoiler Alert (just in case there is still somebody left in the planet who has not seen it):

Near the end of the duel scene, Darth Maul has the higher ground. How come Obi-Wan was able to beat him? In Episode III when the situation is reversed, Anakin jumps up as a near-complete individual only to land a crippled. Why did the same trick worked fro Obi Wan but not for Anakin? Somehow I think the only reason is because the screenplay said so.

I leave you with this picture that is meant to be an angry Darth Vader. Why he is angry or why do I relate it to this movie is beyond me. :-)

Revisting Episode 1, except this time wearing glasses

Last night I took my youngest kid to see Star Wars Episode 1. Or should I say I used him as an excuse to see the movie again, but in 3D. Well, it was the first time he saw it in a movie theater.

The oldest boys have already grown out of the franchise and the youngest is only one who still likes it. When he was four or five years old, I set "starwars" as the password for my sons' Windows account. Since he wasn't exactly reading then, every time he wanted to play with the computer, he'd bring the DVD box to see the title and then type the password matching the letters one by one. Needles to say, it was a big event for him.

I remember the movie garnered really bad reviews when it was first released in 1999, hardcore fans in particular were really disappointed. Now it is different and people has gotten used to it. The new generation even likes it.

Now about this 3D version, for a change, George Lucas refrained himself from adding, expanding and/or changing the movie. I was afraid he'd digitally superimpose Hayden Christensen's face over Jake Lloyd.

So, the movie was pretty much as I remember it, although the pod race scene felt a bit longer. Maybe George did play a little bit with it, after all.

On the other hand, I think the flick has aged really well. The story is still entertaining even if it kills a few sacred cows (what's with the midi-chlorians?) and introduced some of the most hateful characters (Jar Jar Binks stubbornly survived all 3 episodes, go figure.)

Getting re-acquainted with Qui-Gon Jinn was nice treat. He's my favorite old-republic Jedi. It was a shame he didn't last more than this entry, although by Episode 3 were learn he discovered a way back even if we couldn't seen him.

Spoiler Alert (just in case there is still somebody left in the planet who has not seen it):

Near the end of the duel scene, Darth Maul has the higher ground. How come Obi-Wan was able to beat him? In Episode III when the situation is reversed, Anakin jumps up as a near-complete individual only to land a crippled. Why did the same trick worked fro Obi Wan but not for Anakin? Somehow I think the only reason is because the screenplay said so.

I leave you with this picture that is meant to be an angry Darth Vader. Why he is angry or why do I relate it to this movie is beyond me. :-)

Traveling memoirs, small observations and wonders

Due to my day job, I've spent 80% of the past six weeks traveling. Thank God I like my job and have a family who could stand it. Don't worry, baby. I'll be back soon.

Now, when it comes to traveling, I'm one of those peculiar people who like to plan ahead on what to pack, what to bring, etc. Since it was a business trip, the laptop was a no-brainer. I settled for the Ipad because it could serve me as back up in case the laptop failed, which it did. As a matter of fact, a virus or a miss-installation ruined the windows registry so I can't access my hard drive, copy or save anything on it, so I typed this on the only working software: Outlook. Can you believe it?

On the way here, while waiting for the plane to depart I discovered an advantage that printed book have over electronic reading devices. I was happily reading Lauren Baratz-Logstead's The Bro-Magnet when a masculine voice filled the air through the P.A. system: "This is your captain speaking, as of this moment the use of all electronic equipment is not permitted because they emit signals that interfere with our equipment. We will let you know when you can use them again."

I may be paraphrasing the little speech here, but you get the drift, the polite warning: would your risk crashing your plane because you're stubborn enough to not turn the darn thing off? Of course not!
Do you remember that plane that landed on the wrong city a couple of years ago? Jay Leno and David Letterman made jokes about the incidents for over a week. As usual with news that fades away, I don't recall the outcome of the ensuing investigation. However, I've got a feeling the guiding instruments got all out of whack because somebody failed to turn off a cell phone. Hell, maybe that is the reason we get to see so many famous people kicked out of flights nowadays, to prevent that from happening away.

So there I was, while the person sitting next to me read his paperback I had nothing to do but look at the dust specks in the air against the light coming through the small window. In short, there are two gaps of fifteen to twenty minute where you can't use your kindle or ipad during flights. A note to myself: next time bring a newspaper. During a layover I printed an office report that I had to study anyway, so no more dust specks on the second leg of my flight. Well, I'm sure specks were there, I just didn't have to concentrate on them anymore.

The trip has extender for a couple of weeks. So spending Sunday alone in a hotel in Managua, I decided to follow my religious directives and searched for a nearby church. While I was sitting through the readings and the sermon I kind of remembered something I learned a long time ago: the Catholic Sunday mass is the same all over the world. All the priests around the world read the same Proclamation of the Gospel and the homily is basically the same, only adapted to the locals. It was a great feeling to know my wife and kids were hearing just about the same things as me as they sat through a mass in Honduras at about the same time. Dare I call it a connection made in Heaven?

Managua is a nice city. Security is okay. People keep telling me I can even walk around the hotel without fear. That's a change for good. Although I've never been to Chicago, I do think Managua can be a contender fighting for the title of "Windy City".

By the way, in the picture you can see the top of the new cathedral in the city. I understand the old one was destroyed in a massive earthquake a few years ago. And believe me, they didn't have to tell me it was new, the architecture alone shows no vestige of Spanish Colonial heritage.

Anyway, here's to Managua, the city where I spent Valentine Days.

Random (and truthful) event in the life of a night writer. *

Last night, I was plotting how to finish off the third victim of a serial killer for my current manuscript when my mobile phone began playing They tried to make me go to rehab, I said, "No, no, no." I haven't changed ringtone since Amy Winehouse's demise a few months ago.

"José, did you guys change the office locks without telling me?" It was my boss.

"No," I replied. "What happened?"

"I can't open the front door. It sounds like all the internal parts came loose inside the lock." He said.

"Really? I can be in the office in ten minutes."

"Don't worry, what need is a locksmith. But it's kind of late."

"It's no problem. I have certain experience with locked doors."

As promised, I got there as soon as I could. Okay, okay, it took me twelve to fifteen minutes.

After trying the key and a gentle shove, the door remained closed. It was time to put my money where my mouth was.

I handed my boss a flashlight and told him where to point the light beam. Can't tell you how much fun it was to boss my boss around.

Using an old laminated ID card, I pressed the spring latch between the door at the frame and within a minute, I pushed the door open. Easy as cake.

"Wow. I'm impressed, you're fast!" He said as I ran to punch in the security code.

"Well," I said coming back to the door, "there is a reason why the main character in Treasure Hunt is a thief."

So, once again, a proof that the time invested in research is time well spent.

*Night Writer has nothing to do with Knight Rider, so if you got here looking for the TV show, check your spelling and Google again. lol

Dishing it up!

Hi there.
A new interview is online, some of the questions were unexpected.
Check it out:
http://jetaylor75.blogspot.com/2011/09/dishing-it-up-with-jh-bogran.html

Go to the backspacewriters blog

I was a guest blogger at the BackSpace blog. Here is the link:
http://backspacewriters.blogspot.com/
Enjoy.
But then, come back to this one. :-)

On turning 39

Today is the first day of the last year in which I can be referred to as "a man in his late-thirties."

365 days from today, I'll hit the big four-oh.

Is the middle-age crisis showing up yet?

I'm not overly worried about that.

Maybe because I think I suffered it prematurely when I turned 30. I remember nine years ago I signed up for Karate lessons, I let my hair grow a bit longer than usual, changed jobs, bought a piano and tried to teach myself how to play it, quoted a sports car. So, no, I don't think 40 will have a greater impact. Hopefully.

I have no big plans for my 39th year except for keeping my day job—which thankfully I love—but also spending time with the family and working on a new novel that I finally plotted (yes, I'm a plotter, not a pantser).

One of my favorite movies from the 80's is "When Harry Met Sally," and not only because of the restaurant scene where the Director's mother uttered the AFI listed quote: "I'll have what she's having."

No, the other scene that stuck in my mind, because it was even in the trailer, is between Sally and Harry. Here's the exchange, courtesy of IMDB:

Sally: No, no, no, I drove him away. AND, I'm gonna be forty.
Harry: When?
Sally: Someday.
Harry: In eight years.

So, it's not eight years for me anymore, just a few months above eight. J

JET fueled Fiction

In case you missed my post in my Facebook and Twitter, today I'm a guest blogger at J.E. Taylor's blog. Just follow the link here:
http://jetaylor75.blogspot.com/2011/07/manic-monday-with-jh-bogran.html