E.R. Torre's Blog, page 123

“Lost” movie by silent film pioneer unearthed…

Fascinating article found on the Guardian notes that George Melies’ Match de Prestidigitation, a film he created in 1904 and thought lost, has been found in the Czech Film Archive…

“Lost” Movie by Silent Film Pioneer Unearthed at Czech Film Archive

Those who are unfamiliar with George Melies, at least by name, likely know him for Le Voyage Dans La Lune, a 1902 (!) short which is considered the very first science fiction film ever made…

The human race is doomed…part deux

The following photograph has been trending of late:

As you can see, this individual has taken the cliched bathroom mirror selfie picture using his smartphone with one very non-cliche difference: He did this while giving himself a “high five”.

Wow, many have said.

What goes up must come down, I say.  It may seem obvious, but…

The Hot New Selfie Trend is a Great Way to Destroy Your Phone

Please, please, please…use your brains, people.

Microsoft Word

Yesterday, while roaming around the internet, I found this article by Heather Schwedel for Slate magazine:

Microsoft Word is the only word processor for people serious about words

The web title for the article is “Microsoft Word haters have it all wrong” and the first sentence of the article states the following:

The normal way to feel about Microsoft Word, I’ve gathered, is somewhere on a spectrum from muted tolerance to outright hatred.

Ms. Schwedel goes on to note she really likes Word, despite some “general consensus” which views the program negatively.

I guess I’ve been in a cave all this time.

As an author and someone who uses Microsoft Word on a near daily basis, I agree with Ms. Schwedel.  Mind you, as an author I’m pretty much always on the lookout for other word processing programs.  In my lifetime I’ve tried many, many word processing programs, hoping they might prove to be better than Word.  I’ve tried Scrivener, Word Perfect, Works, Screenwriter, Open Office, etc. etc. etc.

And I’ve always come back to Word.

This is my personal favorite word processing program yet I can understand if others don’t like it.  It’s about what you like and what works for you, of course.

But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t surprised to hear the general public doesn’t like it.

Why would that be?

The comments section of the article provides some peoples’ opinions of why they prefer other programs but, as I said before, to each their own.

Word simply “works” for me the best and perhaps familiarity is part of the reason, but while I’ll still keep my eyes open for other word processors, I’ve come to believe Word will stay with me until up to my last novel.

One of the bigger worldwide failures…?

Let’s face it, this world is all about Smartphones.  Everyone has one.  Everyone is on one, seemingly, at all hours of the day.

We use them to communicate (duh) with others, to search for restaurants, hotels, etc. etc., we use them to order things, to take photographs…you name it.

The two big smartphone companies, of course, are Apple and Samsung.

As most of you know, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was their big new release of the year…

The phone was released and had incredibly good reviews.  It sold well.

And then, of course, came the problems…

For those who live under a rock, it turned out the phone had a very real, and very scary problem: It could overheat to the point where it caught fire.  Several reports came to light of this danger, including one report of a man whose Samsung phone exploded while in his pants and allegedly badly burned him.

The reports built and built and Samsung was slow to deal with the issue.  They eventually told people to return their phones for a replacement, but the replacement phones’ release wasn’t specified, irritating clients who wanted a “safe” version of the phone.  Further, there was confusion between the various cell phone companies and Samsung regarding the specifics of the return/replace policy.

Then the replacement phones showed up and things looked to turn, at least a little bit.for the better.

Until, that is, reports surfaced that a few of the replacement phones also burned up.

Now, Samsung has officially killed off the Note 7…

Samsung ends production of Galaxy Note 7 smartphone

According to the above article, by Charles Riley and K. J. Kwon and presented on CNNmoney, the company stands to lose a bundle because of this (I bolded the mind-boggling profit loses):

Giving up on the Note 7 will be costly. Analysts at Nomura estimate the total hit could reach $9.5 billion in lost sales and wipe out $5.1 billion of profit.

What’s even more eye opening is what comes in the very next paragraph of that same story:

But Samsung, which has a market value of about $194 billion and annual sales of $179 billion, should be big and profitable enough to weather the loss of one model.

So…I guess it’s all good?!

Why did I get into writing when I could have gotten into making smartphones?!?

Corrosive Knights, a 10/10/16 update

Yesterday, after much delays (thanks, Hurricane Matthew), I finally finished up the revisions for draft 11b of my latest Corrosive Knights novel.

Last update I noted that I thought everything was good and that after that draft was done I’d probably do one more full draft and be done with the novel.

Not so fast.

As I’m writing the revisions into my Word file, I’m essentially doing another revision of the novel as I go along.  Things were humming really nicely until I got to the last chapters of the book and realized there was some stuff that needed further clarification.

Now, for those eager to get their hands on the book -I know you’re out there, right?!- don’t despair: The problems I found amounted to only 3 chapters of the book’s nearly 80 chapters and a total of 8 pages, single spaced.

I strongly suspect I’ll get through these revisions, which I’ll label draft 11c, in the next few days and then its off to the full, and final, draft.

So we’re dealing with at best a minor hiccup here.

Stay tuned!

The Nice Guys (2016) a (mildly) belated review

When the 2016 Summer Movies started coming out, like all movie fans I checked up on them to see which ones I would catch, whether it be in theaters (given my limited spare time, a hard thing to accomplish) or on home video.

Many of the films released in the summertime and by the studios tend to be big budgeted, effects heavy works aimed at almost all audiences.  It isn’t often a “big” summer release has anything more than a PG-13 rating.

Anyway, while looking over the upcoming films, the R-rated The Nice Guys got my attention.  First and foremost, the film was directed and co-written by , the man who wrote many of the better action/buddy comedies of recent memory, including the original Lethal Weapon, and The Long Kiss Goodnight and who returned to the genre with the excellent Kiss  Kiss Bang Bang (2005) before more recently directing Iron Man 3.

Naturally I was intrigued.  When I saw the red band trailer (NSFW!) for the film, I was downright fascinated…

Which makes what I have to say next so agonizing: The movie turned out to be a disappointment.

Don’t get me wrong: There are plenty of laughs to be had, though though to be very honest the biggest ones are already spoiled by the above trailer.

Going beyond that, the movie had several problems which kept me from grading it much more than just above average.

To start with, the mystery the characters are trying to solve is never all that engaging.  When all is said and done, it proves to be rather silly, as it involves a porn film that exposes dirty dealings in the car industry (!).

The next big problem, again to me, was that the film skewed too far in the direction of comedy.  Lethal Weapon and The Long Kiss Goodnight worked because despite their comedic elements -more of which were present in the former than the later- there was always a sense that our heroes were in danger.  This is never the case in The Nice Guys.  While people are shot and killed, I never felt our heroes faced any real danger.  Add to that the fact that the villains presented are mostly bland henchmen, and not particularly fearsome ones at that, and any sustained suspense is dissipated.

What also hurt the movie’s overall sense of suspense was the fact that Ryan Gosling’s character had a daughter, played by , who winds up being one of those young children who are far too wise for their own good and, more importantly, gets put into the middle of the investigation and thrown into the movie’s bigger actions scenes which further dissipate the danger our heroes face.

Why is that?  Because I just knew Mr. Shane -and I’m certain the studios/investors- didn’t have the guts to put a 13 year old character in danger of getting hurt, much less killed.  So when she’s in the movie’s biggest action sequences, I never felt the characters, and her, were in any danger and that dulled whatever excitement Mr. Black was trying to present.

Having said all that, I again will reiterate: The film made me laugh at various points and I’d be lying if I said it was a complete bust.  As I noted before, the film was a little above average and, if I were to rate it based on 1 to 4 stars, I’d give it 2 and 1/2 stars.

The NIce Guys was watchable, certainly, and at times very amusing.  I just wish it had excited me much more.

To those in the path of Hurricane Matthew…

Fellow Floridian here.

Looks like my area is going to dodge this particular bullet as we’re under a Tropical Storm watch and the latest models suggest the worst part of the storm will not come near enough to us to cause any real damage.

That’s not the case further up north.

I lived three wonderful years in Jacksonville, Florida and attended High School there in the very early to mid-1980’s.  I love the large yet small town atmosphere and, maybe one day, I might return.

What I have noticed in the years since living in Jacksonville is that apart from south Florida, most of the middle to upper east coast of Florida, including Jacksonville, haven’t experienced a hurricane, much less one a category 3/borderline Category 4, since well before I went to High School in those parts over thirty years ago.

I worry the amount of time between dangerous Hurricanes may make people less concerned about what’s to come.  Based on some of the things my daughter has heard from others, I fear there are some (hopefully not many) up there in Jacksonville who are either blase or simply unaware/ignorant of the dangers a hurricane of this magnitude represent.

In my lifetime I’ve experienced several hurricanes, the worst of which were Hurricane Andrew (1992) and Hurricane Wilma (2005).  I also experienced the eye of a much weaker Hurricane Katrina (also 2005), then a category 1 storm, as it went over our house before eventually going on its way to destroy New Orleans.

Each and every experience proved terrifying and I’ll be extremely blunt here: Hurricanes are nothing to fuck with.

Even a category 1 storm has the potential to mess up your property and, especially if you’re foolish enough to be outside when it hits, your life.

Heed the warnings of local and state officials.  Do not take this storm lightly or as a curiosity.

And please, please, please, stay safe.

The human race is doomed…

Found this article written by John R. Platt over at takepart.com.

The title is self-explanatory:

The Marijuana Boom is contributing to the Climate Crisis

A quick synopsis (but please, go read the article!):

Now that marijuana is legal in Colorado and Washington, a new study has found that…

The electricity needed to illuminate, dehumidify, and air-condition large (marijuana) growing operations may soon rival the expenditures from big data centers, which themselves emit an estimated 100 million metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year.

Yikes.

Beware…politics…and Beatles music?

I’m deeply invested in politics as the people who will run our government represent the future of this country.  Yet I also feel political opinions are too easily spread out there and it is best sometimes to listen rather than “talk”.

This is why I’m always hesitant to get into political topics here.  Considering all the things I’ve expressed opinions on these last few years, I shouldn’t be, but political options, and politics in general, have a different impact than my opinion on, say, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Which isn’t to say I don’t dip my toe into this topic from time to time, which is what I intend to do now.  So, if you’re not interested in “talking” politics, turn away.  There’s plenty of other good stuff to read around these parts…

Anyway, yesterday the Vice Presidential candidates took to the stage to have a debate and, from what I’ve heard (you couldn’t pay me to watch this one), Republican VP candidate Mike Pence acquitted himself far better than Donald Trump did in his disastrous debate against Hillary Clinton.

And the Donald, from reports out there, wasn’t all that happy:

Report: Donald Trump mad at Pence for being better than him at debate

While I suppose it should surprise me, it doesn’t.  Mr. Trump has always struck me as a classic narcissist and woe be to anyone/anything that takes away from his limelight.

Yet on the other hand, and again based on what I heard, it appeared Mr. Pence didn’t exactly go to bat for his candidate, so there could be more complex emotions going on here.

What I find the most fascinating so far with this race is that apart from being a narcissist, Mr. Trump constantly engages in what psychologists have called “projection”, which is defined as:

The unconscious transfer of one’s own desires or emotions to another person.

Many years ago and shortly after the disbanding of The Beatles, John Lennon and Paul McCartney (and George Harrison to a lesser degree) took shots at each other via their songs.  Paul McCartney’s “Too Many People”, for example, is widely considered a song which takes aim at Mr. Lennon:

Included in the song are these lines:

You took your lucky break and broke it in two.

Now what can be done for you?

You broke it in two.

John Lennon shot right back with “How Do You Sleep”…

What was most fascinating to me was that in the Imagine film, Mr. Lennon talks about that song and says this about it:

(How Do You Sleep) is not about Paul, it’s about me. I’m really attacking myself. But I regret the association, well, what’s to regret? He lived through it. The only thing that matters is how he and I feel about these things and not what the writer or commentator thinks about it. Him and me are okay.

By the point of this quote many years had passed and the raw/negative feelings the two had for each other subsided but I nonetheless find Mr. Lennon’s statement incredibly interesting.

Sure, on the surface of the song he was going after Paul McCartney and now regretted it.  However, I suspect Mr. Lennon was very much on to something with that quote and had realized the song, while appearing to be a full on attack on Mr. McCartney, was also more than a little self-loathing as well.

Check this song lyric from “How Do You Sleep”:

The only thing you done was yesterday

And since you’ve gone it’s just another day

Once again and on the surface it is clear Mr. Lennon is referring to the famous Beatles song “Yesterday”, which everyone who knows their Beatles trivia knows Paul McCartney composed and recorded pretty much completely on his own, and comparing it -unfavorably- to Paul McCartney’s post Beatles solo song “Another Day”…

Now, in light of John Lennon’s statement, one can (ahem) imagine he realizes much of his criticism is indeed projection and that the negative statements he makes against McCartney are about him.

John Lennon was known to be very self-critical and at times displayed levels of self-loathing.  I recall reading one interview where he dismissed the entire Beatles catalogue and said if he had to do it again, he would do every song completely differently, implying all those songs they released were not all that good.

There were also interviews where Mr. Lennon expressed equal parts admiration for and jealousy of the song “Yesterday.”  It is arguably the single best known Beatles song yet, as noted above, it is entirely Paul McCartney’s work and John Lennon had nothing at all to do with it.

The success of “Yesterday” made Mr. Lennon (and the other Beatles, of course) a ton of money yet it irritated Mr. Lennon.  A confidant of his stated:

“Yesterday drove him crazy,” veteran New York journo/broadcaster Howard Smith told MOJO. “People would say, ‘Thank you for writing Yesterday, I got married to it, what a beautiful song…’ He was always civil. But it drove him nuts.”  (The full article can be found here: John Lennon was Haunted by Yesterday)

So if we are to believe Mr. Lennon in that later interview and consider the song “How Do You Sleep” as being a projection of and ultimately about Mr. Lennon, the line “The only thing you done was yesterday” takes on a completely different meaning.

Mr. Lennon is making what amounts to an incredible self-loathing statement: “The only thing I -John Lennon- am known for is the song “Yesterday”, and I didn’t even have anything to do with it!”

Perhaps this is indeed the case and Mr. Lennon had an uncanny insight into his own psyche.

Something, sadly, I don’t think Mr. Trump is capable of.

Corrosive Knights, a 10/4/16 Update

Yesterday was a very good day.

I finished reading and writing my revisions to draft 11b of the latest Corrosive Knights novel, #6 of the series, now will turn to putting those written fixes into the computer.

The reason I labeled the draft 11b (and the previous draft 11a) was because these were not full novel revisions.  In the case of 11a, I read/revised a little over one half of the book, mostly the second half, because I felt the first half of the book was good as is.

With 11b, I was able to cut down the number of pages even more and found myself reviewing just a little under 1/2 of the book this time around.  I could have cut that page count even more but I wanted to read a “block” of the book to make sure one chapter flowed into the next.

As I was about to start draft 11b, I worried there might be a need for an 11c review.

This is where the “very good day” thing I wrote above comes into play:

After finishing up this latest draft, I’m happy to report the novel is pretty much done.

I found a few things that needed clarification/elimination but overall I feel the second half of the novel, the part that needed this extra look, is finally ready to be “locked down”.

So, what’s left to do?

After putting the corrections into the computer, I’m going to print the whole thing out and give the entire novel one more read through which will be draft #12.  Hopefully, following this read through and after correcting whatever grammatical errors are left, we’re done.

Finished.

Finito.

Not long now, friends.  Just have to get through Hurricane Matthew and we’ll be fine…