C.B. Murphy's Blog, page 7

Resurrection in the US vs The Returned in France

 

I just started Resurrection (it’s on my dvr) but I couldn’t help but think what a strange and interesting job it is to adapt a foreign piece for US tv (“Les Revenants”). First they make a black cop the main character. Ok, we can go with that. Of course the cop has an asian woman partner. Covered all the race bases. Ok, whatever, it’s tv. The kid wakes up in China, 32 years after he died in MO. (These aren’t spoilers really you get this all in the first few minutes).  I’m curious about the 32 years instead of 10? Whoa– everyone would be way way older (or dead). And how does a kid know how to use a writing app on a cell phone that didn’t exist when he died? Oh, well. But I’m trying to stay open minded. Does it sound like I am?

 

[Addendum: My son Lucas just informed me (duh) that one isn't based on the other. I can think what I want anyway! There is a book called The Returned that was adapted into ABC's Resurrection…AND the French movie called "They Came Back" which was released as "The Returned" in America and then adapted into a French TV show "Les Revenants"…. OK let me get my head around this]

Missing In Action: imagery in museums

 

 

It’s always interesting to find a big article on something “small” and moderately culty that you’re involved in. I had that feeling today seeing a piece in the Wall Street Journal about hand painted movie posters from Ghana.

 From where I’m sitting in my studio I’m looking at one of my several hand-painted movie posters from Ghana. This one is “Missing in Action” featuring “Chuck Norris.”

Here’s a close-up of Chuck.

I guess that’s the world the internet has delivered to us. Nothing “special and secret” lasts as a separate entity for long. Still, it’s different reading about something that doing anything about it. I find these movie posters an amazing inspiration for the simple act of creating imagery, something somewhat lost in our sophisticated world of fine art.

I recently visited the Walker Art Center’s show “Nine Artists.” I enjoyed the show but at the same time its level of sophistication pushes it into the theoretical world of (for example) gender politics and what it means to be “invisible” in modern society. Interesting, yes, but far from the simple world of images such as one finds in Outsider Art and world art like these Ghanaian movie posters. It’s almost like the world of fine art had morphed into something more closely akin to academia (politicized academia at that) as if simple imagery is no longer enough somehow. Yes, this is somewhat of a lowbrow attack but I don’t find this kind of intellectual “discussion” offered in shows line Nine Artists to be stimulative of creating things.

What I find much more interesting is something like this book recently out on Amazon, called “Mexican Pulp Art.”

here’s one of my works-in-progress

Bardo Zsa Zsa Cover Contest!

Zoographico Press has hired Dani Melin (Danimelindesign.com) to come up with some cover ideas for Bardo Zsa Zsa. We’re thinking of running a contest–what do people think of that?

At the risk of prejudicing people, I’m going to give my comments up front because my webmaster is bugging me to blog!

I like this first one perhaps the best because its the most “classic” science fiction one. Over the top, mildly exploitive, in-your-face. All the elements are there, though now that I think of it, it leans too much on the Queen of Outer Space which is only one of the two movies our heroes get thrown into. There is a “catwoman” there on the lower right, but see my comments on the next one.

Without giving away any specific spoilers, this one leans into the “Glen or Glenda?” (Ed Wood) aspect of Bardo Zsa Zsa. Fluidity of gender identity is a key plot element. 

I like this one too, but there is a danger of looking too much like “early Star Wars” (a poster that took itself seriously). Does harking back to that time communicate we are working in parody but not merely parody? Does a “serious” Star Warsian design get too close to “serious” contemporary fantasy designs? We wouldn’t want to be mistaken for fantasy. We’re speculative fiction!

Same issue here.. maybe more so. It’s a bit too serious. A friend suggested whatever image we use, we ought to show the edge of it peeling up or being burned off to show there is something underneath the over-the-top content.

 

 

Albert Brooks’ “2030″ Book Review – the war between the young and old

Albert Brooks “2030” review

I was very excited about this book until about half way through. The issues it raises are relevant, inventive and ominous. The characters are basically solid. I had read about the book some time ago and “filed it” but recently I’ve been thinking about the possibility of generation conflicts arising (in the real world) from the deprivation of the upcoming generations and I remembered the odd fact that a famous actor/comedian had written a book about this.

In Brooks’ world of 2030, due to advances in science (cure for cancer among other things) the “olds” are living at least twenty years longer. Like today (only worse) their medical and income entitlements have eaten up the entire budget of the United States. The first Jewish President, a character in the book, has to deal with the problems of running an indebted nation exacerbated by a massive earthquake in Los Angeles. Turning to China for a loan, the U.S. finds there is a demand for serious collateral. The anger of the young (which we see up close in several characters) begins to break out into spontaneous acts of violence against the olds, and it evolves into a budding terrorist organization. We follow one character’s radicalization which is realistic if a bit slow vis a vis the plot.

The book is ambitious not only in its themes and plot but it takes on a wide range of characters to follow, from the high to the low, not unlike “The Wire.”  It’s hard to put my finger on exactly why the book disappoints. I began to notice how much time was “wasted” (in my opinion) on closeups of the mundane love affairs of several of the main characters. While well done, I kept thinking the author was perhaps falling on the more familiar plot of relationship shenanigans rather than orchestrate the geopolitical machinery he had set in motion.

The frightening (and perhaps prophetic) “war” between youth and age gets lost in the President’s failing marriage and the evolving terrorist’s pursuit of an oddly dull woman who longs to be a real estate agent. We begin to meet Chinese characters who seem intelligent and competent beyond any normal humans and their stories seem forced. Inexplicably, the entire population seems enamored of the Chinese as well, even to the point of giving them Los Angeles with no resistance. Certainly someone might have objected.

I kept waiting for the book to hunker down with its core issues (like the recent film “The East” which follows a Patty Hearst conversion of a federal agent). Aside from the bumbling proto-terrorists the closest thing we have to a ‘bad guy’ is the super-powerful AARP. Now with 150 million members, every legislator needs to bow to its whims. The AARP is run by networking young gay men for reasons I never understood.

Sometimes being a writer makes reading a book tough. You hear about it, read about it, and sometimes imagine it quite differently than the words on the page you eventually read. I had same experience with Donna Tartt’s “The Secret History” which isn’t a bad book it just turned out not to be the one I was thinking it might be when I read the reviews. Despite my own issues with novels I want to rewrite, I still think “2030” fails to rise to the task it took on. The culminating “aha” seemed minor and rather predictable versus the places it could have gone. I had this image of the author going to a “important place” by he takes the subway and becomes fascinated by the characters and ultimately distracted from ever getting to his destination. Still, for a celebrity to write a real book is significantly preferable than watching them spout off on the news about how they think they world should be.

Book Review of Brooks’ “2030″ the war between the young and old

Albert Brooks “2030” review

I was very excited about this book until about half way through. The issues it raises are relevant, inventive and ominous. The characters are basically solid. I had read about the book some time ago and “filed it” but recently I’ve been thinking about the possibility of generation conflicts arising (in the real world) from the deprivation of the upcoming generations and I remembered the odd fact that a famous actor/comedian had written a book about this.

In Brooks’ world of 2030, due to advances in science (cure for cancer among other things) the “olds” are living at least twenty years longer. Like today (only worse) their medical and income entitlements have eaten up the entire budget of the United States. The first Jewish President, a character in the book, has to deal with the problems of running an indebted nation exacerbated by a massive earthquake in Los Angeles. Turning to China for a loan, the U.S. finds there is a demand for serious collateral. The anger of the young (which we see up close in several characters) begins to break out into spontaneous acts of violence against the olds, and it evolves into a budding terrorist organization. We follow one character’s radicalization which is realistic if a bit slow vis a vis the plot.

The book is ambitious not only in its themes and plot but it takes on a wide range of characters to follow, from the high to the low, not unlike “The Wire.”  It’s hard to put my finger on exactly why the book disappoints. I began to notice how much time was “wasted” (in my opinion) on closeups of the mundane love affairs of several of the main characters. While well done, I kept thinking the author was perhaps falling on the more familiar plot of relationship shenanigans rather than orchestrate the geopolitical machinery he had set in motion.

The frightening (and perhaps prophetic) “war” between youth and age gets lost in the President’s failing marriage and the evolving terrorist’s pursuit of an oddly dull woman who longs to be a real estate agent. We begin to meet Chinese characters who seem intelligent and competent beyond any normal humans and their stories seem forced. Inexplicably, the entire population seems enamored of the Chinese as well, even to the point of giving them Los Angeles with no resistance. Certainly someone might have objected.

I kept waiting for the book to hunker down with its core issues (like the recent film “The East” which follows a Patty Hearst conversion of a federal agent). Aside from the bumbling proto-terrorists the closest thing we have to a ‘bad guy’ is the super-powerful AARP. Now with 150 million members, every legislator needs to bow to its whims. The AARP is run by networking young gay men for reasons I never understood.

Sometimes being a writer makes reading a book tough. You hear about it, read about it, and sometimes imagine it quite differently than the words on the page you eventually read. I had same experience with Donna Tartt’s “The Secret History” which isn’t a bad book it just turned out not to be the one I was thinking it might be when I read the reviews. Despite my own issues with novels I want to rewrite, I still think “2030” fails to rise to the task it took on. The culminating “aha” seemed minor and rather predictable versus the places it could have gone. I had this image of the author going to a “important place” by he takes the subway and becomes fascinated by the characters and ultimately distracted from ever getting to his destination. Still, for a celebrity to write a real book is significantly preferable than watching them spout off on the news about how they think they world should be.

Martin’s UFO Blog (first post from Bardo Zsa Zsa)

Dear Fellow Earthlings,

What I am going to tell you is a fantastic story, almost too hard to believe. But I swear to you that it is true! I have included as a kind of proof some of my drawings and paintings about my experience. Now, I grant you that these may not appear much “different” from pictures made by others of their experiences with aliens. Not to take anything away from other “abductees” and so forth, I would bet good money that I have spent way more time (way more!) on an actual UFO, interacting with actual aliens than any of these abductees. That said, the hero of our tale, Russell Johnson (who is not me) did in fact start off as a garden variety abductee.

Some of you know me from my previous life as a member of the Heaven’s Gate group (we don’t call it a cult obviously). To see me here, alive on earth again, many of you may think I have somehow committed a hoax. You see, I “died” (or as some say “committed suicide” though we say “dropped our husk”) in 1997. What I am going to tell you next is true; there is no way to make is sound easier to understand. My body was re-grown on an alien craft and then (as a result of negotiations too complex to mention here) I was allowed to return, but in the present. If I had been buried and anyone wanted to dig up my corpse, they would find a seven year old decaying body of one Martin Andrews. Since my “old husk” was cremated it makes it kind of tougher to verify that I indeed “died.” (Of course it can be done, but not cheaply. My DNA is in those ashes and perhaps when I raise the cash I can verify that part of my story for the skeptics.)

I think since today I am merely introducing myself, I will limit my story to explaining the society “up there in the sky,” the Watchers, the Overlords or as we once naively called them our Space Brothers.

This creature is a Grol. Notice the similarity to the “standard” big-headed ‘grey’ style aliens who have been visiting our planets for millennia. These are the “worker bees” on the ship, mostly friendly, but you never know.

The Zwat (unclear if they are a different species altogether form the Grol or a pupae style stage) are meaner, kind of “the enforcers.” They were rudimentary clothes (what are they hiding?) and often wield “weapon sticks” for lack of a better description. We rarely ran into them and don’t want to.

This drawing is titled ReGrow Room as that is where we all were birthed from onto the UFO. For some reason (possibly comic) the aliens reconstructed our environment from things they viewed (or stole) from earth. The ReGrow Room resembles a Chinese bath with showerheads on moveable metal cables and low stools.

I will explain in further messages why this “book” is entitled Bardo Zsa Zsa. In time, all will be revealed.

Sam’s “eco”-Blog: Mystery of Muskrat Mounds

  (Note: Sam is the narrator of the novel Cute Eats Cute)

A lot of people have been asking me to write about ecology after my experiences with the law (etc.) So in response to popular demand I am starting my “eco”-Blog with a little experience I had on the lake this weekend

I was out walking with my dog Bean. I wanted to name him Human Being but after a while that seemed stupid so he became just Bein’ and everyone kept saying “Bean? Is that your dog’s name? Bean?” So I started to say yes and that became his name. [Megan thinks I named him after her beloved "world food" the soybean, but I don't think she'll read this so I think it's ok to say that I hate soybeans.]

Bean and I came upon a mysterious mound (ok not so “mysterious” really, I knew it was a muskrat’s mound)… But the really strange part was there was a wooden stake (painted half fluorescent orange) attached firmly to a thick wire that went into the den.

Since my Dad works for the DNR so I know about such things. The DNR (if you’re not from Minnesota stands for The Department of Natural Resources) studies stuff like muskrats so immediately I thought it might be something they were doing, like checking the winter temperature inside their lodges. I doubted if my Dad (I like to call him Jeff but that would be confusing so I’ll go with the standard “Dad” thing)  would do it and not tell me as he knew me and Bean walked out on the frozen lake.

After I saw a few more of these mysterious half-flourescent orange sticks with their attached wires, I impulsively “decided” to pull one out. I say decided in quotes as it was really more of an impulse, like “Hey, what would happen if you pulled on this” — the same sort of childish impulse that needs to suppressed if you ever got a tour of a nuclear facility and you saw like a red button and you had the impulse to push it. But here, on the lake, how bad could pulling on a wire be?

Guess what? This rat muskrat caught in a foot trapped literally “popped” out of the muskrat mound. Was he cute, someone might want to know. Yes, he was cute, but most mammals are technically “cute” I don’t know why even one that might eat you like a lion or wolf is cute. (IHyenas, I might note, are an exception). But I have to say he (or she or it) did really look more like a rat than a squirrel (and some people call them “tree rats”) and I was NOT overcome with an immediate “Awww” that I had to set it free. Now some of you might say I was “afraid of the law” if this was the DNR, but obviously they wouldn’t use leg traps so either it was a legal trapper OR a “crazy man” trapper (let’s just call him the Fluorescent Staker for now).. and if that was the case he could follow my footsteps back to our house and easily “stake” us all with a flourscent wooden stake through our hearts in a parody of vampire killing (or put leg traps on our heads which I have seen in Sam Peckinpah’s “Staw Dogs” though that was a bear trap and don’t tell my Mom I watched that.)

           So call me a chicken (brawk-brawk sound here) or whatever but Bean and I “decided” to push the muskrat back into the mound (which oddly he seemed glad to be going into) and packed the snow back with my feet. Megan would hate that I didn’t free the muskrat.

            But think about that. #1) I would have to free all the muskrats on the lake and how long would that take? #2) if it was a DNR project I’d be breaking their “human laws” as Megan would call them, but it’s still a law, #3) It could be a legal trapper who could maybe “sue” me for his losses and how would I pay that? #4) It could be the work of the Fluorescent Staker and I think I explained above why that would be scary.

              So I came home and wrote an email to the DNR about it but I didn’t tell them which lake. I’ll let you know in my next blog what happened. Stay Tuned.. as they used to say on old-fashioned television shows.

 

Sam’s “eco”-Blog (narrator of the novel Cute Eats Cute)

A lot of people have been asking me to write about ecology after my experiences with the law (etc.) So in response to popular demand I am starting my “eco”-Blog with a little experience I had on the lake this weekend

I was out walking with my dog Bean. I wanted to name him Human Being but after a while that seemed stupid so he became just Bein’ and everyone kept saying “Bean? Is that your dog’s name? Bean?” So I started to say yes and that became his name. [Megan thinks I named him after her beloved "world food" the soybean, but I don't think she'll read this so I think it's ok to say that I hate soybeans.]

Bean and I came upon a mysterious mound (ok not so “mysterious” really, I knew it was a muskrat’s mound)… But the really strange part was there was a wooden stake (painted half fluorescent orange) attached firmly to a thick wire that went into the den.

Since my Dad works for the DNR so I know about such things. The DNR (if you’re not from Minnesota stands for The Department of Natural Resources) studies stuff like muskrats so immediately I thought it might be something they were doing, like checking the winter temperature inside their lodges. I doubted if my Dad (I like to call him Jeff but that would be confusing so I’ll go with the standard “Dad” thing)  would do it and not tell me as he knew me and Bean walked out on the frozen lake.

After I saw a few more of these mysterious half-flourescent orange sticks with their attached wires, I impulsively “decided” to pull one out. I say decided in quotes as it was really more of an impulse, like “Hey, what would happen if you pulled on this” — the same sort of childish impulse that needs to suppressed if you ever got a tour of a nuclear facility and you saw like a red button and you had the impulse to push it. But here, on the lake, how bad could pulling on a wire be?

Guess what? This rat muskrat caught in a foot trapped literally “popped” out of the muskrat mound. Was he cute, someone might want to know. Yes, he was cute, but most mammals are technically “cute” I don’t know why even one that might eat you like a lion or wolf is cute. (IHyenas, I might note, are an exception). But I have to say he (or she or it) did really look more like a rat than a squirrel (and some people call them “tree rats”) and I was NOT overcome with an immediate “Awww” that I had to set it free. Now some of you might say I was “afraid of the law” if this was the DNR, but obviously they wouldn’t use leg traps so either it was a legal trapper OR a “crazy man” trapper (let’s just call him the Fluorescent Staker for now).. and if that was the case he could follow my footsteps back to our house and easily “stake” us all with a flourscent wooden stake through our hearts in a parody of vampire killing (or put leg traps on our heads which I have seen in Sam Peckinpah’s “Staw Dogs” though that was a bear trap and don’t tell my Mom I watched that.)

           So call me a chicken (brawk-brawk sound here) or whatever but Bean and I “decided” to push the muskrat back into the mound (which oddly he seemed glad to be going into) and packed the snow back with my feet. Megan would hate that I didn’t free the muskrat.

            But think about that. #1) I would have to free all the muskrats on the lake and how long would that take? #2) if it was a DNR project I’d be breaking their “human laws” as Megan would call them, but it’s still a law, #3) It could be a legal trapper who could maybe “sue” me for his losses and how would I pay that? #4) It could be the work of the Fluorescent Staker and I think I explained above why that would be scary.

              So I came home and wrote an email to the DNR about it but I didn’t tell them which lake. I’ll let you know in my next blog what happened. Stay Tuned.. as they used to say on old-fashioned television shows.

 

My Google Plus “Art Homage” community

These are two of my paintings in my Magritte Homage Series.

I made a Google+ art community called Art Homage. Part of it was inspired by the work I am doing on my “Magritte Series” but also a gentleman named Tim Jenison is getting a lot of press that he’s “studying” Vermeer by recreating one.

In Europe, it’s an established “hobby” to try to paint masters. I have no idea why it never caught on in the U.S. You can also see it in

 

The art homage hobby is a central plot device in “Gods and Monsters” with Brendan Fraser and Ian McKellen.

Missing Scene from “Gravity” where Sandra hears dog howling

While she is floating in space and getting near despair Sandra Bullock’s astronaut character makes a desperate call to earth. She gets a man speaking a strange language who thinks her name is “Mayday.” She joins him in a dog howl and hears him sing a lullaby to a fussy baby, right as she drifts off into… what? (no spoilers here!)