E.R. Torre's Blog, page 137

What goes around…

Again with the politics (to some degree), so ignore this if it’s not your thing…

Over at salon.com I found the following article written by Eric Boehlert:

Rush Limbaugh hit where it hurts: World’s greatest troll faces steep pay cut

Salon.com tends to skew to the left, politically, so therefore one must excuse the “take that!” nature of the headline/link.

Like many liberals, I have no use for Rush Limbaugh and can proudly state that I’ve listened to no more than 1/2 hour of his show over all the years its been broadcast in my area.  The bits and pieces I’ve heard here and there amount to less than that time and after listening to a few seconds (or perhaps a minute), realized he simply was not for me.

Regardless and as much as one may wish to, it is impossible to dismiss Rush Limbaugh as a political force.  In my opinion he not only rode the conservative wave which gained its first popularity with Ronald Reagan’s presidency, I feel he was one of the primary forces behind keeping that wave strong.

But like many things in life, the moment appears to have passed to some degree.  The ratings are quite as high and, it appears, the conservative movement focuses on an increasingly elderly audience.

I found this quote from the article particularly interesting:

…the conservative talk radio format has morphed into the Classic Rock of talk; super-serving the same aging demo for the last twenty-plus years.

Of course, the conservative movement is far from “dead” but I do agree with the article that Mr. Limbaugh’s radio misfortunes could be viewed as a window into the popularity of conservative politics as a whole.

Some ten or more years ago I had a conversation with my wife’s cousin, a very charismatic young man who also happens to be gay, and the topic of conservative politics reared its head.  He despaired at what he viewed as the power of this movement and the way it affected him personally.

Even though it was many years ago, I urged him not to despair.  Like so many things, I had a feeling the conservative movement at that time had already reached its peak and there was evidence the pendulum had shifted and was moving the other way.  Back then, a conservative candidate could fluster a liberal rival simply by calling them a “liberal” and saying it as if it was some dirty word.  Liberal candidates, to their eternal discredit, never could adequately fight back.  Instead, they re-labeled themselves “progressive” to try to remove the “stigma” of the word liberal.

But things changed and the fight returned to them.

Today, I get the feeling young people view the word “conservative” in much the same way conservatives tried to get people to look at the word liberal.  That’s not to say, obviously, there aren’t any conservative youths out there.  But the days of conservative superpower appear to be receding.  Yes, conservatives still hold power in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, but their grip appears to weaken as their politics take them further and further into areas many disagree with.

Who would have thought, ten or so years ago when I had that conversation with my wife’s cousin, that gay marriage would be legal?  And though it isn’t perfect, we now have a form of universal health care and, despite so many years and so much effort in discrediting it, there are even Republicans who are thankful for this.  With the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia, we’re finally getting a peek into what a Supreme Court may look like without as strong a conservative presence within that body.  At least for me, the difference is incredible and the future, should we elect a Democratic President, certainly looks brighter.

And that’s the key, isn’t it?  Things can obviously change and, depending on this election, things can move the opposite way.  While I feel either Hillary Clinton (the likely Democratic candidate, at least as of today) or Bernie Sanders would wipe the floor of either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz, this isn’t by any means a foregone conclusion.

Unlike years past, however, there appears to be reason for optimism.

As the pendulum swings the opposite direction, we may indeed see a more liberal government in the coming years and it is my hope it features more tolerance toward others as well as a devotion to the protection of our resources.

As with all dreams, this requires hard work.

Stairway to Heaven plagiarism…?

For the most part and with very few exceptions, I love the music of Led Zeppelin.  Their first six albums, from Led Zeppelin (or Led Zeppelin 1) through Physical Graffiti are, IMHO, stone cold classics and the three final albums that followed, Presence, In Through the Out Door, and the “bits and pieces” present in Coda are pretty damn good as well even if they aren’t, IMHO, quite as great as the songs in that first batch of albums.

Having said that, Led Zeppelin, unlike many other bands, has had its share of controversy regarding their music.  More specifically, the group has been sued numerous times for allegedly “stealing” others’ music while making their own.  In fact, if you do a simple search through youtube for Led Zeppelin musical “thefts” or “plagiarism” you’ll find stuff like this…

and this, which features several Led Zeppelin songs which, according to the video’s description, became the subject of court action with the judgment resulting in favor of those suing Led Zeppelin…

One of the last examples of Led Zeppelin plagiarism as presented in the above video concerns Stairway to Heaven, arguably Led Zeppelin’s most famous song, and its similarities to the band Spirit’s 1968 song Taurus.  The below video focuses on those similarities…

Frankly, its hard to not hear the similarities between the compositions.  Apparently, a judge hearing the case against Led Zeppelin brought forth by Michael Skidmore, a trustee for the late Randy Wolfe, aka Randy California, who was Spirit’s guitarist and the composer of Taurus, found enough similarities between the two songs to allow a copyright trial to go forward…

Led Zeppelin Stars Face Stairway to Heaven Copyright Trial

I have to admit, things like this depress me.

I believe Led Zeppelin was/is a great band.  Further, I can see how some might defend the band by arguing there are only so many notes and cord progressions and that some songs can and will sound like others but that doesn’t mean there was an active attempt to steal anything, etc. etc. and etc.

But, come on, the examples above are more than just a case of “coincidental” creativity.  In some cases, the band clearly took lyrics and the general sound of songs and made it their own.

Mind you, they did this brilliantly in many cases and subsequently created classic music…

…BUT, they did this by using something someone else created beforehand.

A great analysis of the legal issues behind this possible song theft can be found in this article by Oliver Herzfeld and presented on Forbes.com:

Spirit v. Led Zeppelin: Analysis of the Stairway to Heaven Infringement Suit

Setting aside many of the legal issues, one question that needs to be answered in a case involving theft of creative material is: Can it be determined the accused (in this case the band members of Led Zeppelin) had access or knew about the Spirit song before writing Stairway to Heaven?

In this case, the evidence is more than clear.  From the article:

…there is ample evidence of access (to the Spirit song) since it is well-documented that the two groups performed together the day after Christmas 1968 and four additional times in 1969, all at concerts and festivals where Spirit played “Taurus.”

Ouch.

Anyway, I can’t help but feel Led Zeppelin is going to lose this one.  Again, I love the band and I love their music and, yes, I absolutely love Stairway to Heaven and consider it a great song…

But the reality is to my ears elements of that song were directly lifted -or if you want to be mean about it, stolen– from Spirit’s Taurus and, that being the case, credit -and whatever monetary settlement- should be made to the original artist.

In some ways this diminishes my feelings about Led Zeppelin.  Someone commented, based on these examples of song theft, if it is appropriate to consider Led Zeppelin a great “cover” band.

It’s a shame, really.  I’ll still love Led Zeppelin’s work, but clearly their creativity at times involved lifting the works of others.

Corrosive Knights, a look back and forward

Yesterday I presented the cover to what will be Book #6 in the Corrosive Knights series.  I’m still doing revisions on the book but feel we are quickly approaching its eventual release.

With that in mind, I wanted to re-present a post I originally wrote on November 5, 2015 regarding the Corrosive Knights series in general (you can read the original post here).

As this is a re-presentation, I’ve taken the liberty of going over it and cleaning it up a bit.  I suppose this could serve as a FAQ of sorts and maybe I’ll post it as such on my ertorre.com website.

******

The scope of the story in the Corrosive Knights series is incredibly large, taking place over the course of some 20,000 plus years.  Readers are offered individual and for the most part contained stories which, nonetheless, eventually form a march larger story.

While there have been plenty of stories out there featuring flashbacks and flash-forwards, I think its safe to say no book series -at least none that I’m aware of!- features entire novels that take place in sometimes vastly different times, past and the future, while (hopefully!) logically building up to that larger tale.

The five Corrosive Knights books plus the one I’m currently working on have been/will be released -and ideally should be read- in this order:

I say “ideally” but I’m not being entirely honest: The the first three books of the series,Mechanic, The Last Flight of the Argus, and Chameleon could be read in any order.  They feature unique characters and take place in vastly different times while presenting a very complete story and therefore one could read them in any order they choose.

However, by the time you reach Nox, Ghost of the Argus, and the still unnamed Book #6, the continuity established in these first three novels kicks in and, while I think the later books could be enjoyed on their own, I HIGHLY recommend you read books 1, 2, and 3 before venturing into the ones that follow.

Now, if I were to tell the Corrosive Knights story in chronological order, i.e. each book’s main story occurring “one after the other” (and ignoring whatever flashback elements are presented within said novels), the story order would go like this:

That’s right: The book I’m currently working on, #6 of the Corrosive Knights series, actually takes place before the events of The Last Flight of the Argus and Ghost of the Argus.  In fact, they take place a few hundred years before those books!  Yet I would absolutely NOT recommend anyone read that book when it is released in a few short months before already reading the rest of the series and, in particular, The Last Flight of the Argus and Ghost of the Argus.

Why?

Because the events of those two books in particular fill in story concepts which have a big payoff in Book #6 and propels the reader into the Corrosive Knights series finale, which will be Book #7.

Fear not, thought.  There will be an epilogue to the series, a Book #8, which will wrap certain things up that weren’t/aren’t wrapped up in Book #7.  Book #8 will also offer what I hope is a great long view of the heroes we’ve followed for so long while focusing on one in particular.  To further screw with your head, I’ve already finished the first draft of Book #8 but only have a chapter or so written (along with a general idea of the story) of Book #7.

Not only is my series presented in a quirky temporal way, so too it would appear is my creative output!

*******

So there you have it.  I thank you for your patience in waiting for the release of each new book in this series.  If I could somehow magically speed up time and get them done faster, trust me I would.

But the books have a habit of taking their time in getting done, not unlike a slow cooked meal.  I refuse to “hurry” things up to the point where I’m releasing a work I know I could “do better” with.

Book #6 in the series is close to being done and when it is, you’ll be the first to know.

 

Never before published photos reveal clues David Bowie left before his death…

An interesting article regarding the above written by Priscilla Frank and found on Huffington Post regarding the above, an examination of photographs taken of Mr. Bowie in 1974 and how Mr. Bowie brought back certain ideas -and clothing!- from that moment in time for his last music video, Lazarus:

Never before Published Photos Reveal Clues David Bowie Left Before His Death

They mention one particular photograph which was eventually used on the Station to Station album but isn’t included in the article itself.  This is the photograph:

The clothes Mr. Bowie is wearing there are the ones he re-used (or had very similar ones) in the Lazarus video.  I’ve embedded the entire video below and he appears in the clothing at the two minute mark…

I have to say, as a really big fan of David Bowie it hurts to watch this, his final video, and realize he likely intended it to be that.  When the video was first released he hadn’t passed yet and the images, morbid though they were, didn’t resonate as much as they did after the sad announcement of his passing.

I find it fascinating he went back to the clothing and invoked the ideas he was interested in (Kabbala) from so very long ago here with this video.

While I don’t think the revelations are necessarily “earth shattering” it does show how Mr. Bowie’s interests remained throughout most of his life.  Though he often stated he wasn’t religious, he did appear to grapple with the idea of spirituality, something an atheist like myself can understand.

A fascinating man and a fascinating artist.  It still hurts to realize he’s gone.

Corrosive Knights, a 4/11/16 update…BAM!

And there you go…

Unless I change my mind (a possibility, as is the possibility I do a few minor changes to it between now and the book’s release), this is going to be the cover to Book #6 in the Corrosive Knights series.

As you -hopefully!- can tell, I’m keeping the book’s title a mystery a little longer.  The rectangular color-vomit at the bottom of the page, I assure you, will not be present in the completed work.

For perspective, these are the book covers to this point:

Now, to finish that damn book!

Corrosive Knights, a 4/8/16 update

Yesterday I finished the 7th draft of my latest Corrosive Knights novel.

As you can tell by the multitude of updates regarding this book and appearing of late, I’m making good progress on the end stages of the novel.  As I may have mentioned before, the novel as it sits at this moment is almost complete.  I’d say a good 2/3rd to 3/4th of it is just a grammatical/spelling draft away from being done while the other 1/3 to 1/4th requires perhaps a couple more passes to clarify and compress information.

This novel, like all the ones that came before it, has been a great challenge to write.  To me, writing a novel is like creating an intricate jigsaw puzzle piece by piece and without the idea of what the ultimate “picture” will look like.  You create each piece page by page, paragraph by paragraph and word by word and often you’re feeling your way and linking scenes as you move along.

I’m expecting to finish the read-through of draft #8 in a week’s time -or thereabouts- and, depending on how much cleaning up is required, maybe another couple of weeks to do the corrections on the computer.

I’ll provide updates as they come!

Florida Governor Rick Scott wild Starbucks adventure…

I live in Florida.  I loathe Governor Rick Scott.  Therefore, I couldn’t help but smile when he walked into a Starbucks and was confronted by one Cara Jennings…

Found the article with the video here:

Florida Governor Rick Scott Can’t Even Get a Cup of Coffee at a Local Starbucks

Look, I’m all for polite political discourse but there are people out there like Mr. Scott who are so entrenched in their horrid beliefs that they simply cannot and will not accept any reason.

Want an example?  How about this: He’s the Governor of Florida and not only does he (along with so many “conservative” politicians) not believe in Global Warming, which may well result in most of “his” state being underwater in the near future, but actively banned any mention of the term by state agencies!

Way to confront a possible reality, Rick!

Yes sir, I’m so proud of the people of Florida for (barely) electing him…Can’t wait ’til he’s long gone.

I haven’t gone away…

Just a quick update for those curious (there are one or two of you out there, right?!): I’m still around and working hard.

I believe I noted before this week was going to be a difficult one for me as I have to stretch myself out a little thinner than usual and cover people who are actually off (enjoy yourselves!).

I’m still working extra hard -at any available moment!- on my latest novel and should finish the 7th draft by Friday.  Then it’s off to draft #8.

The novel is coming along nicely although I’m thinking after the next full draft I may focus on some 30 or so pages in the climax and give them a little extra attention.  This is a very ambitious book and features, I believe, some really wild stuff but I need to be careful that what’s in my mind is accurately presented on the page.

Onwards!

Corrosive Knights, a 4/1/16 update

I could go full “April Fool’s Day” and joke about my latest novel, #6 in the Corrosive Knights series, being all ready to go…but I won’t.

I will say this: I’m at roughly 3/4ths of the way through the “corrections” stage of the latest draft and am furiously working on some of the bigger story reveals which occur in this part of the book.

With a book that is suspenseful (albeit in a sci-fi setting) one of the things one has to work the hardest on is making these big reveals not only sensible in the context of the book but also -if you’ve done your job right!- they should be like a mind-bending body blow to the readers.

Two days ago I tackled the novel’s first really big reveal and felt I did a damn good job cleaning it up.  In that case, I wrote two such reveals in previous drafts and merged them into one this time around.  This happens more than I’d like when I write my novels.  I may write a certain revelatory scene and then, later in the book, realize it may make more sense at that point and, sometimes even without realizing it, I may write the reveal/scene again but make it work in the new context/placement.  I usually catch these repeated passages when I’m deep into the rewriting/polishing stages of the book.

Yesterday I hit another point in the novel wherein I realized I needed to add some logical explanation to something and, just like that, a new surprise/reveal came to me.  Whenever this happens, I can’t help but shake my head and smile.  It’s like this new “revelation” should have been there all along but, as it happens, I didn’t even consider it until the later stages of cleaning the novel up.

Still, better late than never!

Now for the (somewhat) bad news: I was really, really hoping that by today I’d be done with the latest revisions and moving on to printing this revised draft and going into the next reading/revising stage.  Obviously I’m not there yet and a combination of factors “helped” in this delay.

I don’t want to dwell on excuses but the reality is life has a frustrating habit of throwing curve balls and sometimes you just don’t have the time you wish to work.  Beyond that and as should be obvious by what I’ve written above, I’m in an especially delicate point of the book that requires a great deal of focus and thought.  When I’m at the “reveal” stages which are especially crucial in a novel, I tend to ssssllllloooooowwww down to make certain everything “works”.

It is my fervent hope that by next week I’ll finish this current draft and start up the next one.  Will it be the last?  While I hope so I think I’ll still need one more beyond that next one.  This upcoming draft will likely be focused on making sure any lingering story issues are resolved and the next one will make sure all grammatical/spelling issues are fixed.

Will the book be available by May?  Again, I really hope so.  I’m getting to that point I always reach with my novels where I want to “get it over with” and move on to a new book.

Regardless, even if I can’t quite get this novel out by May, it will be damned close to being ready and released.  If I can’t have it completed by May, then it will probably/likely be June.  It certainly will not be released much later than that!

Keep your fingers crossed!

O….kay?!

This has to easily be one of the most…uh…peculiar articles I’ve ever read:

Man reported to police for “revenge fart” after woman refused to have sex with him

Have to say, I’m shaking my head thinking about every angle of this story.

The man: His actions were gross and disgusting but obviously not criminal.

The woman: Too sensitive.  Even if the man with considerable malice aforethought “farted” lewdly into her flat, so what?  Open a window and tell the fucker you never want to see him again.

The police: They actually investigated this call?  Really?!?!.

On a much more serious note, I can’t help but wonder if there’s more to this story than what is presented in the article.  Perhaps this man is a serial harasser/borderline stalker and has been bothering this woman for quite some time and she finally reacted her limits with his latest lewd action.  She might well be at her wit’s end and called in the police because she fears what he’ll do next rather than the action he just did.

If (big IF) this is the case, then a laughable story becomes one that should be taken seriously.

Then again, all I have to go on is the article.  And by going with these elements, I must say: The human race is doomed.

DOOMED I tell you!!!