Charles Martin's Blog, page 30

My Phat Status – Romance

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Existential Comedian

 

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Pets: The Print Edition

You guys! I just came up with the marketing pitch for my next novel, Pets, which will be hitting shelves in the next couple weeks! Check it:

PETS
If Cormac McCarthy and Nick Hornby c0wrote Sharknado!
Coming October, 2014!!!

Sometimes I am good at my job. Sometimes I am great at my job.

Digging a Hole and Thinking on Loneliness

She won’t be coming out today with a glass of lemonade to step gingerly over the pile of Oklahoma red clay, bend down just low enough to kiss me, careful not to get any grime on her. She’s not going to say “You work so hard for us, baby.”

Nope. I’m in this hole alone.

I dreamt about her the other night. For the first time in over a year and a half. It was sudden and awkward, like trying to hold someone’s hand either way too early or way too late.

I don’t miss her. I don’t really miss any of them, to be honest. It’s just the void that bothers me. The chill of their long shadows.

A family of squirrels is pestering my dogs. They are running along the ivy-covered chain link fence while my big white dog tracks them and my brown dog yaps encouragements. One of the squirrels perches on a high vine, crouches, fluffy tail wiggling, then leaps to a bowing branch of my oak tree. The branch dips like a bungee and  my big white dog snaps up at the bastard. The squirrel knows it’s in the clear and, once it climbs into the guts of the tree, it chatters back down to the dogs—taunting.

The game goes on for hours.

And I dig.

A buddy drops by. He works hard while we talk a little about everything, but mostly about my long shadows. Or at least it feels that way to me. The subject is like a stone rolling down hill. It carries me and batters me. I don’t know why I do it to myself.

Yes I do.

Because it’s all my fault. Well, probably it isn’t. I’m too hard on myself is what people say. This one lady told me that I don’t have as much baggage as I think I do. We tried dating. It didn’t take.

I’m such an oaf—good intentions, but always wrecking everything.

Made it 26 feet and my buddy is gone now, but the squirrels are still at it. I unearthed another joint where water is seeping out of the pipe and my tree’s thirsty roots are tangled all around the PVC. The tree is strong, but I got a hatchet in my hand that says I’m stronger.

Gonna need a new line, it turns out. The real problem is underneath the oak tree. The beautiful, proud oak tree. Rather than fighting all those roots, my plumber says to go around. Somehow. I don’t really know how this works, but I know it’s gonna entail more digging. Probably several more days worth and she still won’t be coming outside with that glass of lemonade.

T-Rex and Building a Better Film Scene

If you’ve never been on a movie set, then you have no idea how hard that shit is. Hours and hours and hours of set up, lighting, soundchecks, flubbed lines, missed cues, all leading up to a flash of brilliance that lasts for only a few minutes in the film once the hours and hours and hours of editing is finished. Moviemaking is tedious, which is why the stamina of Fall Films is so inspiring. This Oklahoma-based production company produces 2-3 movies a year, and not just ridiculous B-Movie throwaways, but challenging projects with ambitious goals despite their micro-budgets. They skip the extensive promotional tours through film festivals across the country, haggling with distributors, and begging for investors. Instead, they just make art. Mickey Reece and his crew of true believers are also getting better with each film, their collaborative skills sharpening, and their fan base growing.

Their next film is entitled T-Rex and it premieres Saturday, September 27 at 8 pm at the Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center located at 3000 General Pershing Blvd in Oklahoma City. The movie was co-written by Reece and John Selvidge, who is also contributing to Issue 4 of Literati Presents.

There are tons of filmmakers in Oklahoma. Some are producing slick and Hollywood-ready pieces like The Posthuman Project, others are making resume pieces in the hopes of transitioning into a career in the industry, but there are many more who just own a nice camera and have a grand vision for their breakthrough film that they will write, direct, and star in once the money comes along. Reece’s vision of pure filmmaking is find a camera, scout some locations, grab some talented friends, pound out an idea and get to work. It is teaching the next generation of filmmakers that producing is better than talking and that big things can still be done with few resources. Oklahoma City can’t develop a legitimate film community unless our community is actually producing film. Fall Films isn’t the only game in town, but they are the most prolific, which is is important to show the next generation of filmmakers that if you want a film community to exist in Oklahoma, you have to be willing to create it yourself.

Fairy Tales and Zombies

“If you seek the truth about humanity, you can always find it in a fairy tale.”

-Guillermo del Toro

I started the new novel and fairy tale for our time, The Girl With All the Gifts, not knowing that the narrative was based on the worn-out trope of a zombie apocalypse. I’m glad I didn’t know. I’m as tired of zombies as everyone else. Perhaps we’re weary of zombie stories for the same reason we were initially fascinated by them- the blank eyes and open mouths of zombies terrifies us because within those features, we see something uncomfortably familiar- a numb monster, always consuming, unable to connect meaningfully with others or to create.  We’re ready for a horror that resembles us less closely. Thankfully, this author had things to do with zombies that have not yet been done. He made zombies more human.

In the novel, the virus that transforms humans into zombies has affected a certain subset of children very differently than adults. They still hunger for human flesh like the rest of the mindless zombies, but these children retain their ability to learn, speak and adapt. One little girl, called Melanie and nicknamed “our genius” for her high IQ, demonstrates love and empathy. She even exhibits terror at her growing suspicion about what she is and for what her human predators are doing to her zombie kind. Her fears are justified on all counts. In order to learn more about the virus and its adaptations, these children have been locked away in a military bunker where they can be closely examined, tested and studied over time. They aren’t like the zombies outside the fence, but they’re not human either. And in this post-apocalyptic world, no one has to worry about rights or moral implications when dealing with such creatures.

One of the draws of a horror story is that good and evil are usually clearly defined. The audience knows who to root for. This book never gives us that satisfaction for long. Every character is driven by violent impulses that, at times, seem justified. A despised character may be redeemed in the next chapter. The reader is left to wonder and worry, like one of the characters in the story: Who’s really the monster? How should we define “human”?  Although our world is very different from the one created in the book, I think the same rule applies: Empathy is what keeps us from becoming monsters. Empathy is what prevents us from looking at our fellow humans and seeing monsters.

Reading this book brought to mind those accused of terrorism and imprisoned in Guantanamo, the Steubenville high school rape, the murder of Michael Brown and the subsequent protests in Ferguson, Missouri.  We make humans into monsters for many reasons, but the process often starts with fear.

“We watch horror movies subconsciously knowing the monster is carrying out our secret, unspeakable desires. He must be defeated for the human race to carry on, so the monster’s death is a cathartic experience.” -Guillermo del Toro

The author denies this cathartic experience from the reader at the end of The Girl With All The Gifts in a brilliant way, a cautionary way. It’s as though the author is saying, “This is what happens when you trade in your empathy for fear.”

The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey, 6/2014

Cabinet of Curiosities: My Notebooks, Collections and Other Obsessions by Guillermo del Toro 10/2013

the little red tent – Sneak Preview #3

I asked Harold Neal to produce some paintings to go along with an excellent horror short story written by Mer Whinery for Literati Presents #4 (due out in October). In response, Harold produced haunting and lush images that perfectly captured the tone of chilling story about a killer descending on a campground. In LP#4, you will see the grayscale versions of the paintings, but we also wanted to release the original color versions because they are simply terrific. Here is the third of three.

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Drag Queens + God = Amazing

Drag queens and mimosas. This is a thing. Rather than enduring another dreary sermon in the long, slow trudge toward the rapture, consider spending your Sundays downing pitchers of mimosas and listening to drag queens riff on everything from our state’s insane sociopolitical landscape to that embarrassing sweater your friend keeps wearing even though he should goddamn know better. It’s called The Sunday Gospel Brunch, a long-running staple of The Boom at 2218 NW 39th in Oklahoma City’s gay district. Despite existing in the center of  one of the most socially conservative states in the union, the very buckle of the Bible Belt, hosts Kitty and Norma lead communion at noon and 1:30 pm every week to satirize the kitsch and camp of southern-fried religion.

The experience isn’t just about comedy, though. There is still an aura of church. Not the moralizing and lecturing, but that galvanizing spirit that comes when humans rally around something bigger than themselves. Even as an agnostic, I still recognize the cultural resonance of Sunday mornings when the Day of Rest bids us to gather and to revere something, anything. Whether that is a bearded fellow in the sky, a collection of highly-paid athletes, or the progressive community that thrives in the unlikeliest of places, it is comforting to be among those that are invested in a common idea.

What makes the Sunday Gospel Brunch so endearing is that Kitty and Norma are beautifully melded archetypes of the brash and fearless drag queens and the fussy, gossipy, but warm church-ladies. Their hair is big, their voices are loud, their language is raw, their banter is biting and hilarious. They are the brazen holy women the gay community needs standing up to the often brutal conservative climate with a broad smile and a fist-full of eye shadow.

Like the sprawling God malls, the  small, charismatic churches, the Jewish temples, the mosques, The Boom’s Sunday brunch represents belief. There may be no central deity, but there is faith in a community that continues to face tremendous tribulation even as LGBT celebrities are increasingly embraced by the nation’s mainstream. I was raised in the Methodist church. I’ve since spent time among Episcopals, Pentecostals, Baptists, and non-denominationals, and I’ve seen how the church support structure can be a valuable comfort in difficult times. I’ve also found that same sense of community among intellectually-charged coffee groups, artist cooperatives, and even a Chinese-American basketball league. It is good for the soul to find a bit of church on Sunday, whether or not that church has anything to do with God.

Trilogy of rap albums, a comic book, and a video game herald the plight of a middle school English teacher.

A teacher by day, rapper by night discovers that a multimillion dollar video game company is zomibifying children with its runaway best-selling title, Kill Count. This ambitious, multi-media, concept project entitled Mega Ran In Language Arts is the work of Random, A.K.A. Mega Ran, a Philadelphia nerdcore rapper, singer, and producer. He will be performing this Saturday at The Music Room at 3000 North Portland in OKC, then sweeping back through Tulsa to play at The Shrine on October 13.

Megaran derived inspiration from his real life career as a middle school teacher, even using literary references in his songs including Flowers for Algernon and The Metamorphosis. He is a workaholic who writes a verse every day, released one EP every month through 2013, and put out Mega Ran In Language Arts as a five-part epic story spanning three albums, a comic book, three music videos, and a video game.

Since there are so many parts to this project, I am going to look at each individual part, then review Mega Ran In Language Arts as a whole.

Mega Ran In Language Arts Volume One is the first act of the story. It serves as an introduction to the Mega Ran character and where he’s at in his life. Most of the tracks come together and make a flowing narrative, but with an occasional break to tell a one-off story. In “The Metamorphosis”, Mega Ran raps the plot of the classic Russian novella by Franz Kafka. We also get introduced to the video game ‘Kill Count’ and the effects it has on his students via an interlude.

Volume Two is more focused on Mega Ran’s relationship issues with his girlfriend, and has a more cohesive plot. Most of the songs on this LP are more downplayed and have a serious tone. Mega Ran’s shift to a more somber tone does add depth to the story, but it’s not as memorable.

Volume Three is where the plot gets more interesting and engaging. Never sounding rushed, Volume Three covers every step needed to end the story properly and tie up any loose ends. His production level has also improved too, using a better understanding of harmony. A good example is on the song “Everything” where his lyrics and flow are at their tightest with a flawless beat behind him and a great featured spot by vocalist Tina Estes.

A limited edition comic book serves as a side story to the main plot. The story follows Mega Ran as he enters the Language Arts Tournament, a rap battle that incorporates special, mystical powers inspired by Hong Kong action movies. The art style of the comic is really colorful with an anime vibe, which adds to the embellished heroism of the story. It’s loosely based off of the first album and stands on its own very well.

For the video game, which you can play free on his website, the designers took inspiration from the classic platformer, Mega Man, and inserted Mega Ran as the protagonist. Graphics and gameplay are similar to the old 8-bit NES games. I can’t tell you much about the game because it is ridiculously hard! I can’t get past a single level no matter how hard I try.

Either that or I just suck at Mega Man… probably the latter.

The individual pieces of Mega Ran In Language Arts work on their own, but by combining the comic with the video game and the albums, Mega Ran has created something broad and rewarding which you can spend hours delving into.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Otter Erotic