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Words Words Words 2014
Feb. 21st, 2014 12:23 pmThis week seems to have just screamed by, seriously, more so than usual. Of course, finding out about impending dental surgery didn't help. Then, on Tuesday, I was confronted with evidence that I've been spending an absolutely ridiculous amount of money on Amazon, so I had to dip into my savings and cancel my account. On Thursday, meanwhile, I once again missed my vocal lesson, which was annoying on two levels, in that A) I was looking forward to it and B) I now have to pay for it. Actually, I think I'm probably going to have to cancel for the next semester, because I'm not sure we can afford the extra expense, especially if this keeps happening (which it might, because I'm obviously a fucking moron).
OTOH, I'm well stuck into the Hallowe'en-themed anthology fill now. Maybe 2,500 words out of a potential 4,000. It's also set in Overdeere and involves one of the Redcappies, a Siddestanes-with-no-money sort of offshoot of the Druirs, which is fun. I had a few moments there where I wondered whether I should spend a whole lot of time explaining Fae mythology, especially after I tried to describe We Will All Go Down Together to my dentist only to have him go: "Changeling? I've never heard of that!," but I think I'll probably just breeze past it with a brief pre-Hallowe'en warning from the protagonist's grandmother.
In other news, I'm almost through the Lymond Chronicles (I'm on Checkmate, though I'll likely go back and re-read that and The Ringed Castle once I'm done, which has been my pattern thus far--once for sense, once for enjoyment), and I'm watching Shane Carruth's Upstream Color in segments of about 20 minutes each, here and there. Carruth is the guy who did Primer, so his films are famously narratively abstract and oblique but visually sumptuous, to the point where he reminds me most of a mumblecore Tarkovsky. Seriously, watching his stuff, I usually end up thinking what a shame it is that he doesn't live somewhere where the government would just hand him money and let him do whatever he wants, since I really do believe it's the fact that he lives in America and is forced to defend his process to financiers which explains why he's only made two films in the last eleven years. (Rian Johnson gave him "thanks" on Looper, but I'm betting that didn't translate to any particular share of the profits.)
Anyhow. I'm going to save the review on Upstream Color until I'm done, but I will say that I totally understand why people find it so immersive yet frustrating. There's a whole lot of information coming at you, most of it completely unstated--it's a bit like you're forced to talk yourself through the film out loud, which must have made seeing it in the theatre a treat. Still, that's what they made DVDs for.
Tonight I'm taking Cal to Mom's after I pick him up, where Steve will meet us. We're going to have dinner, stick him in bed, then watch as much True Detective as she can stand off her TiVo. So I better get clocking those words.
OTOH, I'm well stuck into the Hallowe'en-themed anthology fill now. Maybe 2,500 words out of a potential 4,000. It's also set in Overdeere and involves one of the Redcappies, a Siddestanes-with-no-money sort of offshoot of the Druirs, which is fun. I had a few moments there where I wondered whether I should spend a whole lot of time explaining Fae mythology, especially after I tried to describe We Will All Go Down Together to my dentist only to have him go: "Changeling? I've never heard of that!," but I think I'll probably just breeze past it with a brief pre-Hallowe'en warning from the protagonist's grandmother.
In other news, I'm almost through the Lymond Chronicles (I'm on Checkmate, though I'll likely go back and re-read that and The Ringed Castle once I'm done, which has been my pattern thus far--once for sense, once for enjoyment), and I'm watching Shane Carruth's Upstream Color in segments of about 20 minutes each, here and there. Carruth is the guy who did Primer, so his films are famously narratively abstract and oblique but visually sumptuous, to the point where he reminds me most of a mumblecore Tarkovsky. Seriously, watching his stuff, I usually end up thinking what a shame it is that he doesn't live somewhere where the government would just hand him money and let him do whatever he wants, since I really do believe it's the fact that he lives in America and is forced to defend his process to financiers which explains why he's only made two films in the last eleven years. (Rian Johnson gave him "thanks" on Looper, but I'm betting that didn't translate to any particular share of the profits.)
Anyhow. I'm going to save the review on Upstream Color until I'm done, but I will say that I totally understand why people find it so immersive yet frustrating. There's a whole lot of information coming at you, most of it completely unstated--it's a bit like you're forced to talk yourself through the film out loud, which must have made seeing it in the theatre a treat. Still, that's what they made DVDs for.
Tonight I'm taking Cal to Mom's after I pick him up, where Steve will meet us. We're going to have dinner, stick him in bed, then watch as much True Detective as she can stand off her TiVo. So I better get clocking those words.
