E.R. Torre's Blog, page 21

William Shatner At 90…

Absolutely fascinating interview with actor/director/writer William Shatner by Hadley Freeman and presented on theguardian.com:

“Take it easy, nothing matters in the end”: William Shatner at 90 on love, loss, and Leonard Nimoy

There are few actors alive today who I can say have been a big part of my awareness from pretty much the moment I first got into film/TV shows back in the very, very early 1970’s and through today.

William Shatner is one of them, certainly, and its always fascinating to read interviews with him.

Of course, Mr. Shatner, the man, has an equally long history, sometimes not so good. Cast members of his biggest hit, the original Star Trek and the subsequent movies made with them, have been at times very harsh toward Mr. Shatner. Several of them felt slighted by Mr. Shatner and accusations of being a diva on set while demanding the spotlight are a near constant accusation.

I suppose it could be much worse but, then again, I never worked with him so I don’t know how accurate these stories are… though their consistency lends a certain credence to these stories.

Regarding this interview, Mr. Shatner sure does come across as one expects: He’s at times flamboyant, humorous, and nonsensical… and yet at other times offers profound statements as befitting someone who has lived as long as he has.

Regarding Leonard Nimoy -and at the risk of spoiling the interview- Mr. Shatner seems sad that their relationship, toward the end of Mr. Nimoy’s life, was at a low ebb and confused as to how it got there.

I wonder, though, how much of this is due to Mr. Shatner’s lack of self-awareness.

I’ve noted before elsewhere that Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, considered by almost everyone the worst of the original cast Star Trek films, is also the only one of the Star Trek films Mr. Shatner directed. Many point their fingers at Mr. Shatner and his direction for the film’s failure, but the reality is that he didn’t do a bad job, IMHO, directing. What led to the film’s failure was a studio that kept cutting the film’s budget -the shoddy effects in that film are easily the nadir of Star Trek features- and the story, also by Mr. Shatner, was perhaps a little too ambitious and needed more polishing.

However, if there is one really big failure William Shatner, director, had with Star Trek V it was, again IMHO, in not getting any sort of decent performance out of Leonard Nimoy as Spock. In fact, it felt to me like that was the worst performance Mr. Nimoy ever gave of his beloved Spock character.

Why is that?

In part, one has to remember that at that time –Star Trek V was released in 1989- Leonard Nimoy was on a roll as a director himself.

Thanks to the shocking ending and stunning success of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the studios were forced to offer Leonard Nimoy more to return to the franchise. One of the lures was that he be allowed to direct the next Star Trek film.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Leonard Nimoy’s directing debut, was a success and Mr. Nimoy then directed its follow up, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. That film turned out to be perhaps the biggest critical success of the franchise, mixing humor and suspense and delivering a delightful experience to fans of the franchise as well as those who knew little to nothing about it.

So successful was Mr. Nimoy that he would go on to direct Three Men and a Baby, a non-Trek comedy, and it too was a HUGE success. Quite suddenly, Mr. Nimoy was in high demand as a director.

However, Mr. Shatner, seeing how Mr. Nimoy was able to get to direct, also used his clout to get a clause in his contract which would allow him to direct Star Trek V and he came to do just that… just as Mr. Nimoy was enjoying all his considerable successes.

I can’t help but wonder, given how poor Mr. Nimoy’s performance -again IMHO!- in Star Trek V was, whether his poor acting in that film was due to petulance, disinterest, or just plain unhappiness about working under Mr. Shatner.

Worth noting is that the next Star Trek film, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the last featuring the original cast, would feature a story where Nimoy’s Spock and Shatner’s Kirk were kept apart for the bulk of the film.

Was this done on purpose? Was Nimoy essentially done with Shatner by that point and no longer cared to engage with him?

I don’t know though its hard to read the above interview and subscribe entirely to Shatner’s view that their friendship had simply cooled down with Shatner having no clear idea why.

I recall William Shatner was interviewed not too long after Mr. Nimoy’s passing in 2015 on the Howard Stern radio show and he was asked if he attended the man’s funeral. Mr. Shatner said he didn’t and I got the impression that he didn’t really want to be there, either. If memory serves, Mr. Stern then noted that just because people were close in their film/TV appearances, it didn’t mean they were equally close in real life.

I don’t recall Mr. Shatner dispelling that notion in the interview, but I could be mis-remembering.

Regardless, the above interview is a fascinating one and the title of the interview, in particular, really hits home for me as the years pass:

Take it easy, nothing matters in the end.

It’s a particularly heady statement, one that resonates and saddens me because of how true it is. But, it’s not the full quote. Here it is:

I’m glad I didn’t know because what you know at 90 is: take it easy, nothing matters in the end, what goes up must come down. If I’d known that at 20, I wouldn’t have done anything!

An interesting notion and a paradox of sorts. While its true that we have only so many years to “make our mark”, and its equally true that in perhaps a hundred years whatever we have done with our lives may not “matter” as Mr. Shatner puts it, we nonetheless must feel like it does matter or else we “wouldn’t have done anything.”

Fascinating stuff.

The New 2021 Novel UPdate #2

I’ve begun the process of putting the revisions I wrote in red ink on the first draft of my new novel and, so far, things are going pretty well.

As somewhat expected, I’ve begun to think of things to add to the book and, while I’m still in the opening act (page 18 of the single spaced, 10 point writing) I’ve already added one new segment and am about to add another.

It works, I feel, to help explain things that come later on in the book.

Of course, I’m being deliberately vague here and, who knows, maybe as I get into future drafts I cut down on some of that stuff because I figure out a better way of presenting it or get it presented later in the book without needing to elaborate at the beginning.

Am I making any sense?

I’ve grappled with metaphors to explain the writing process and the one that feels most apt is that writing a book is like doing an oil painting.

You start with some rough image you create on your canvas, perhaps in charcoal, then you add the broad brushstrokes to delineate the colors you’ll feature in your piece.

With oil, you can paint over an area, again and again, and merge colors to your heart’s content.

What starts out as a very rough work over time becomes refined and elaborate. Toward the end, you’re adding in those last flourishes/details.

I’m at the beginning still, but feel like I have a solid foundation to build up from.

We’ll see how it goes!

Finally…

I mentioned this before but I’ve been incredibly busy for something like 2 months now.

Over the past weekend, though, I’ve finally –finally– finished up the last of the things that have kept me so damn busy.

It started with a trip to Texas to deal with some issues regarding my eldest daughter and her car. She moved there a while before COVID-19 truly hit and the car she took was under my name. I needed to transfer the title to her name and get a new Texas license plate issued to the car but the wonderful pandemic pretty much halted all that for a year’s time.

It was difficult bordering on impossible to get to a title agency (for a while, one had to do appointments via the internet and months in advance) and even when I made my trip there close to two months ago I was unsure if I’d just made that trip for nothing… that’s how unsure I was as to whether I could get this done.

This is something about me that is bothersome: I worry. A lot. When I have something hanging over me, like getting the car issues settled, it gnaws at me and it was gnawing at me for a very long time.

Luckily, we figured out the tag/title quite literally the day I flew to Texas, though it might not have happened had I not asked the DMV people -who were not taking walk-ins!- if there was some place I could go that didn’t need appointments to get what I needed done.

The guy -so very unhelpful- first told me he couldn’t help me. I needed an appointment to get what I needed done through them and that appointment would be over the internet and, you guessed it, the first opening was well past when I would be gone.

The idea of wasting my time and money flying to Texas, and having to do this all over yet again to try to resolve these issues was like having a 100 pound weight on my shoulders.

So I told the guy my situation and practically begged him to tell me if there was some kind of alternate way to do this which did not involve getting some appointment over the internet for a month plus down the road.

And the guy, perhaps feeling a little sympathy, told me about a tag/title agency -which was pretty far away and which I didn’t know about- that allowed walk ups.

My head just about burst. I alternately wanted to profusely thank the DMV man while also wanting to strangle him.

Why couldn’t he just say this to begin with?! Why did I have to plead to get some alternate means to get what needed to be done?

Anyway, we resolved the issue and I got to enjoy the time with my daughter (only 3 days or so) before returning home.

The second big thing on my head was my other daughter’s apartment in Jacksonville.

With the lease set to expire this month and her formal studies done at college (though it was unnecessary for her to be up there because courses were given online this past year), we had to pack up the apartment, clean it up, and turn in the keys.

She lived there for some 4 years and had accumulated a lot of stuff.

It took us some 4 trips over the past month plus and immediately after taking care of the car issue. The last trip was done this past weekend and during all this time we slowly got everything, including furniture, beds, bedding, clothing, books, etc. etc. etc. out of there.

Yeah, taking care of this was weighing on my head as well.

We drove up there this past Friday -a nearly 5 hour trip by car- and were lucky to just miss the worst of the rush hour traffic heading north.

When we got up there we got some food and got to the apartment, which had almost no furniture at all left and plenty of cleaning material and a vacuum cleaner/Swiffer mop/broom/cleaning liquids.

The wife and I -my youngest daughter, who used the apartment, was unable to come on this trip and help us out as she is now doing her internship and had a session on Saturday- spent that day finishing the apartment off, cleaning it while grabbing what little was left there and transferring it to our car.

By around 4 PM, with the front office closing at 5 PM (deadlines…! More pressure!) we got it all done and turned the key in. Luckily for us, we checked the front office hours and realized they weren’t open on Sunday so we had to finish everything off on Saturday.

We then spent a lovely 5 or so hours driving back home but were content with the knowledge that we were done.

I slept so damn heavily Saturday night and last night and today, Monday, I realize that next weekend, the first weekend in a very, very long time, I won’t have to do anything.

It’s a beautiful thing.

Coronavirus Diaries 35… This Is Big… Or A Big Problem?

A few days ago I wrote about the fact that the Centers For Disease Control released new guidance that those who are fully vaccinated and have are 3 or so weeks post final vaccine are able to go outdoors and indoors without masks. It was still recommended that one use masks in public transportation, but essentially it was their feeling that for many activities, those who are vaccinated can now go around without masks in many public activities.

While I felt the news incredibly positive, it also felt like they were being quite specific about who can go around without masks and where.

But some critics feel like the CDC wasn’t clear enough and have created problems.

Over on CNN.com, Christina Maxouris writes:

Coronavirus Experts are warning against unintended consequences of the CDC mask guidance

Quoting CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen:

“We’ve seen governors and mayors and business owners drop mask mandates, and as a result of that we’ve now made life much less safe for people who are unvaccinated, for immuno-compromised individuals and for young children who cannot yet be vaccinated.”

While I disagree that the CDC was vague or it was troublesome what they said -again, if you read their guidelines they’re pretty clear that they are ok with vaccinated people going maskless, not everyone– I do agree that some have taken the new guidelines and run with them much further than they should.

I genuinely hate to get political but I feel like once again we have people -often the ones on the right- who are using these new guidelines to go way above and beyond the recommendations offered.

Where I live, in Florida, we have a Governor who is very much a Trump acolyte, a deeply -IMHO- mistaken individual who has near constantly put down anything/everything regarding the dangers of COVID-19. If local politicians mandated mask wearing and tried to enforce it with fines, he was quick to nix any such rules, effectively overruling most and perhaps all (again IMHO) wise mask mandates from way at the beginning of this pandemic.

Ah well.

Regardless, now that children from 16 up are permitted to be vaccinated, I’m hopeful we’ll see the percentages of those vaccinated climb.

Locally, I was in a supermarket yesterday and found that there were only a few people waiting to get their COVID vaccine, which is both encouraging -hopefully it means that people in/around my area are mostly vaccinated- and somewhat worrying –are most of the people in/around my area mostly vaccinated?

I’ve stated this before: I’m fully vaccinated. Have been for a couple of months now and jumped on the very first opportunity to get vaccinated.

I had no major side-effects to either vaccine, other than perhaps some tiredness the day after the first shot and some pain in my shoulder where the injection was delivered.

Even the worst side-effects to the vaccine I’ve read about are nothing compared to what could happen should one get the worst of COVID-19.

So, again: Get vaccinated, people.

You want to get back to normal? You want to be able to really and truly walk around maskless?

Get vaccinated.

We have a very clear path back to normalcy.

Please: Take it!

Coronavirus Diaries 34… This is BIG!

Today the Centers For Disease Control issued a proclamation that many have been waiting for:

If you have received your full vaccination (ie two shots and the time for them to take effect) you may be maskless both inside and outside.

This is HUGE news and a HUGE change and if you’d like to read more about it, check out this article by Elizabeth Cohen and John Bonifield and presented on CNN:

People vaccinated against Covid-19 can go without masks indoors and outdoors, CDC says

From the article:

People fully vaccinated against Covid-19 do not need to wear masks or practice social distancing indoors or outdoors, except under certain circumstances, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday.

What are the circumstances where one should continue wearing a mask?

Again from the article:

…people who are immune compromised should speak with their doctors before giving up their masks.

Further:

The requirement to wear masks during travel — on buses, trains, planes and public transportation — still stands

Regardless. we’re one step closer to normalcy.

Get your vaccinations, people!

The New 2021 Novel

Yesterday I finished my first read-through of the first draft of my new novel and…

…I’m pleased with what I have.

Quite pleased.

It took roughly 7 or so months to write this first draft and now do the read-through. The next step is to put the revisions I made in red ink on the pages of that first draft into the computer, print the thing out, and start the read-through/revision of Draft #2.

How much work will need to be done before this novel is ready for release?

As I noted in older posts detailing the travails of writing my novels, for a while there it took me a whopping 12 drafts to get some of my Corrosive Knights novels, especially the later books, ready.

It was an odd thing, but three or so novels in a row (I believe books 5, 6, and 7 in particular) required exactly that many drafts before I felt they were good.

That’s right, 12 drafts each, neither 11 drafts or 13!

However, my previous novel, Terminus Island (Book 8 of the Corrosive Knights series) in the end required a mere 5 drafts before I felt it was ready and released it.

It feels to me this new novel -my first novel in many years not set in the Corrosive Knights universe- is falling sorta/kinda in that same general area.

That’s not to say the book will be finished in 5 drafts (whether less or more), but at this point -and assuming I don’t stumble upon some really big problems in this book I’m not seeing- I’m certain it will not take 12 drafts to get it done.

Which, of course, means the book will be done and released sooner rather than later.

Perhaps even by the later parts of this very year!

Wouldn’t that be great?

Stay tuned!

This n’ That…

Hard to believe we’re rapidly approaching the middle of May and the middle of the year.

Time seems like its flying by of late.

I haven’t been posting as much as I’d like of late because I’ve been so damn busy. Its a combination of things, really, though much of it is related to my daughter finishing up her studies in Jacksonville and us getting her apartment -and the apartment’s furniture, which belongs to us- down here while readying the apartment for the termination of its lease.

Its involved doing multiple travels up north and we’re all but done now -thankfully!- but its been a strain.

I’ve noticed the roads are becoming a lot more congested as people seem to be settling back into their pre-pandemic patterns… perhaps earlier than they should.

Granted, there are a lot of people now vaccinated and the rates of COVID-19 transmission seem to be dropping -which one would expect would happen as the vaccinations go up- but we haven’t quite reached a level where enough people -70 to 80% of the population- have gotten vaccinated.

Will we ever get there?

I wonder.

Without naming names, I had a conversation with someone who you’d think would know better who was adamant that they weren’t going to get the vaccine, that they had COVID-19 previously (this was news to me) and they didn’t want to go through the same crap with the vaccine, as if it would replicate the bad times they had. This individual went on a further tear about wearing masks and CO2 levels and how angry he was to see someone walking their dog with full mask on and shield and how he wanted to rip it off her. Somewhere along the line they also got into how bad it was to constantly sanitize/wash your hands and how funny it was that the Flu was essentially eradicated over the past year and…

…sigh…

The kicker? This person is in the medical field.

At some point this person also mentioned that people were being “brainwashed” by the media and it occurred to me that here was another great example of what psychologists call “projection”, where people somehow attribute their flaws to others.

Without asking, I was pretty sure this individual was very much a right wing media watcher, perhaps Fox and/or any of the myriad right wing talk shows on the radio.

Is the liberal media always right?

No. They get things wrong.

But it seems like the right wing media is fixated on a) proving that COVID-19 isn’t as serious as it should be, and b) rejecting all logical means by which to control the virus.

It’s almost as if they want, through their hard headedness and a desire to “own the libs” prove that anything related to COVID 19 and any means that should function to control it (wearing masks, washing your hands, getting vaccinated, etc.) are bullshit and not only should be called out, but you should get really angry with others who are following these guidelines.

…sigh (redux)…

Its stuff like that which not only depresses me, but makes me wonder how much longer will this virus’ domination of our lives go on.

If people continue to actively resist things like vaccinations, when will we get to the level of herd immunity?

*****

A few days back Russian ransomware hackers cyberattacked and knocked out Colonial Pipeline, one of the East Coast’s biggest distributors of fuel.

Now, days later and without the Pipeline in operation -though they indicate they should have it up and running by the end of this week- there’s signs of gas shortages as people are scrambling to stock up on fuel.

I took one of our cars to the gas station this morning early to fill up -because it was low, not because of the panic!- and found there was a fairly long line to fuel up. It was a mild inconvenience at best but it did remind me of the fuel crunch of the 1970’s (…gah… I’m so old!).

For those who don’t remember those wonderful times…

This was the type of crap you’d see in/around gas stations. Cars in very long lines as people tried to fill up.

Often, you’d see limitations or, worse, signs which stated that the stations were completely out of gas.

It was something else and, I strongly suspect, it was one of the main things which helped in the downfall of President Jimmy Carter.

It was the time the OPEC nations were at their very strongest. The gas shortages back then were a result -if memory serves- of them holding the line with regard to the release of fuel to other countries, including the United States.

For oil producing countries, it was truly a golden age, where their product was highly sought and would sell for a great profit.

It wouldn’t last.

Holding the line for a while is fine, but greed eventually creeps into the picture. While all the others are holding the line and releasing only so much gas, it becomes quite tempting for a nation to say: “Hey, they’re starving for our fuel and we’re only releasing so much of it to comply with OPEC… what’s the harm in releasing a little more and making even more of a profit?”

And so it went.

Poor Jimmy Carter bore the brunt of the OPEC nations’ strength while Ronald Reagan enjoyed the moments when their greed took over and, into the 1980’s, oil producing nations went rogue and undercut the high prices. What was strength became a weakness and while gas prices continued to move up -and do so even to today- OPEC has never been quite as strong as it was in the 1970’s.

Of course, what’s happening today isn’t comparable to what went on then. A cyberattack is but the latest issue on has to deal with in an increasingly computerized world and, if we’re lucky, we will be among the last generation to deal with internal combustion/gas engines.

I hope we never see those lines again.

Elon Musk on Saturday Night Live…

So, Saturday Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, hosted Saturday Night Live and…

…it seems he did a decent if not extraordinary job.

Elon Musk as Wario on Saturday Night Live… May have to see what the heck this skit was about

Interesting how that happens when you’re not a comedian and/or actor and host the show, eh?

There was a bit of controversy surrounding his hosting because in the past he stated he was against unions (bad), and early on in the pandemic dismissing the seriousness of COVID-19 (also bad), and, of course, there are a few of those idiotic tweets he issued (IMHO overblown but, at times, cringey).

Anyway, some folks had rough words against SNL for having him host and… now that it’s over it all feels so overblown.

Look, those things I noted above do not endear me to Mr. Musk, much as I love my Model 3.

It feels like he should allow his workers to Unionize but he’s not the only CEO who works against that (looking at you, Jeff Bezos). Further to that, he’s not the only person who stated stupid things regarding COVID-19, though this was early on and he hasn’t repeated them -to my knowledge- since. Yes, he pushed to keep his factories open and yes, there was a surge in COVID cases among his workers and that’s very much on him.

However, unlike Mr. Musk -who I’m guessing has reconsidered those early stupid statements, though perhaps I’m giving him more latitude than I should- there currently exists an entire “news” group that devotes their time continuing in efforts to put down the seriousness of this virus despite the overwhelming and abundant evidence of how serious it is… just look at the grim news coming out of India.

Anyway, Musk’s hosting was the topic du jour for one very hot minute and today, Monday, two days later, people are showing highlights and examining which jokes landed and which didn’t…

…and it feels like this story about Musk’s hosting of SNL was, in the end, a very minor one that will likely be forgotten before week’s end.

Its interesting, if nothing else, to see how the internet/news establishment “flames on” with what is ultimately a relatively small topic, nonetheless builds it up and, when its been used up, move on to whatever’s next.

Wonder what that will be?

Happy Mother’s Day…!

Well, belated -by a single day!- anyway.

Hope everyone out there had a good one!

Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), A (Mildly) Belated *Sorta* Review…

Well…

Spider-Man: Far From Home. The second starring Spider-Man film.

Very popular among both audiences and critics where, according to rottentomatoes.com, it boasting an incredible 90% positive for the critics and 95% positive to audiences.

Which means that a miniscule 10% of professional critics didn’t like the film and, of the audiences that showed their opinions, only 5% didn’t like it.

Man, sometimes it feels lonely being in the minority.

But before I get into that, here’s the movie’s trailer:

Now the reason this is a Sorta review is because I didn’t see the entire film.

I know, I know… how can you review it if you didn’t see the whole damn thing?

Welp, here’s the thing:

A few months ago I tried very hard to watch the film start to end and the opening 40-50 minutes were so godawful to me that I simply couldn’t watch them without shutting it off.

Multiple times.

I would watch, say, 10 minutes before it proved too much for me and off the movie went. Then, perhaps even the very next another day, I’d try again, this time going through another 10-15 minutes before -once again- shutting it off. I did this in total some three or four days more or less in a row and, to put it bluntly: That first half of the movie proved almost completely unwatchable to me so I gave up.

The plot goes like this: Peter Parker/Spider-Man’s (Tom Holland) class is going on a European field trip and Parker is hoping to express his love to “MJ” (Zendaya) while his friends and rivals and two teachers chaperoning them all have their own adventures which…

…oh my…

It was, again in my opinion, painful to watch.

Slowly, oh so very slowly, it is revealed there’s a danger in Europe and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) wants Spider-Man to look into it while he tries to advance his romantic life and “enjoy” the field trip.

Turns out there’s a new super-powered being, Quentin Beck aka Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) who claims to come from another world that was destroyed by this threat coming to Earth.

But, for those familiar with the comic book character, its pretty obvious there’s much more to him than meets the eye.

Regardless, these opening scenes were simply too much and after several attempts to get into the film, I simply gave up and thought that was that.

Not everything works for you as a viewer and, while I have absolutely nothing against the vast number of people who loved the film (good for you!), I just couldn’t do it.

Fast forward to a couple of days ago.

While flipping through the channels I found one of them showing Spider-Man: Far From Home and it was, I’m assuming, from roughly the point where Spider-Man first realizes Mysterio is actually a villain and the web-slinger has his first major fight against him.

While the sour feelings I had toward the film’s first half lingered, I nonetheless decided to watch and…

…it wasn’t bad.

Not at all!

So I kept watching, catching roughly the last 40 plus minutes of the film and found that section was pretty exciting stuff with some really great CGI effects.

Ladies and gentlemen: I really liked what I saw!

…but…

It didn’t diminish my very negative feelings toward the film’s first acts.

Though I haven’t seen the entire film (there are probably some 20 or so minutes of the middle section I have yet to see), I find myself with some really contradictory feelings about Spider-Man: Far From Home.

The first parts are and IMHO remain absolutely dreadful. The conclusion, on the other hand, is quite exciting and very much worth catching.

Perhaps this is the first review where I’ll say: If you’re like me and are interested in seeing the film and find the first parts not to your liking, then fast forward the film and watch its conclusion.

That part is quite good!