Buds and Spuds

Justified is a well written and acted show that is fun to watch.  It is no small feat to pull off the story and character beats the show has over the past four seasons. For all its dramatic acumen it is not a show that stays with me.

It is also one of the more over-praised shows on TV right now.

With each successive season the show's shortcomings become more and more apparent. Beyond Raylan Given's boss Art we still know very little of the rest of the Marshall office's staff.  Tim and Rachael have been given little to do.  Justified also proves that a protagonist is only as good as their antagonist.  Season 2 brought us Mags Bennett and her boys and the tension through that season has yet to be attained or surpassed since then.  Seasons 3 and 4 have had their moments but the villains presented since then have been of lessor stature.

The show is shackled on two fronts.  First,  keeping Boyd Crowder as an ongoing character hobbles every confrontation he and Raylan have.  Which is a shame because these two men are so alike but on different sides of the law.  The show would be better for having a final confrontation between them and moving on.  It would also solve the aforementioned problem of freeing up precious screen time to flesh out the other Marshalls.

Secondly, Raylan Givens is not a sympathetic character.  So any empathy we are supposed to feel on his father's death has to come from our feelings about our fathers because the show has never shown us any positive moments between the two.  Raylan is a chip off his father's shoulder even though he would vehemently deny it.  Empathy for Raylan is a hard commodity to come by because the very things that make him a good cop are the very things that prevent him from living a normal life.

Sorry Raylan but you reap what you sow.

~~~

White Collar is one of those ubiquitous USA network shows that is breezy, fun, and yet ever so slight.  If Justified flitters away from thought shortly after it airs, White Collar is gone from mind even before the end credits roll.  USA prides itself on shows with characters and White Collar certainly has those.  I started watching the show because of Matt Bomer - who was on Chuck and Tim DeKay from the criminally cancelled in midstep HBO series - Carnivale.

The two leads have great chemistry but the blue skies mentality behind USA shows means that the basic configuration of the show is never going to change even when the characters have grown to a point where the original premise is showing signs of strain.  This strain has been compounded by the show that sets up game changing finales as season ending cliff hangers only to restore everyone back to their original state an episode or two into the next season.  Factor in a series which has no overarching storyline and the rinse and repeat nature of the stories has diluted my enjoyment of the show to the point that I am no longer interested in watching it.  Interestingly enough the same thing happened for me with Burn Notice.

~~~

Stomping Tom Connors passed away at the age of 77.  A Canadian icon he eschewed any thoughts of seeking his fortune outside of Canada and berated the Junos - the Canadian version of the Grammys - for honoring Canadians who had attained their fame outside the country.  A northern version of Johnny Cash, Stomping Tom was a one man act who performed without a dedicated back up band.

His songs such as An Okie From Muskokie and Bud the Spud captured the Canuck spirit so very well.  His, 'Good Ol' Hockey Game,' was the Canadian equivalent of the American, 'Take Me Out To The Ballgame.'  It became a standard ritual for the rink crowd to sing along to Tom's hockey game song.

So long Tom!  You were one of a kind.

Of War, Walking Dead, & Wizards

Finally got around to seeing Inglourious Basterds.  Tarratino's alternate WWII history is a great mix of intertwining storylines and superlative acting.  I really enjoyed this quite a bit.  Christoph Waltz as Col. Hans Landa was just brilliant and played the bad guy with much relish. Polished, refined, charming, and able to speak several languages including English, French, and Italian; Landa is very much a coiled snake that lulls his victims so they lower their defenses and then he strikes with lightning, brutal violence.  Brilliant!

~~~

The Walking Dead works so much better when the cast is pared down to minimum numbers.  For the first time in awhile the danger of the zombies felt palpable again.  Also a much overdue episode for some quality screen time for Micchone. I really liked how the show used Carl to give us a glimpse into her character - though how she got the picture out of the cafe begs question.

I place this one with the season premiere as my favorite episodes of this season.

~~~

Finished Dresden Files: Blood Rites, the 6th book in the series, by Jim Butcher.  Man, Butcher really puts Harry through the ringer.  Dresden showed more power as a wizard than ever before but the cost of that was a permanent(?) physical infirmity and the discovery that his newly found power is tapping into a source of dubious nature.  We learned more about Harry's family background and the discovery he has a half brother, who just happens to be a vampire.  Harry finds upon his body a sigil mark of a talisman he believe securely locked away. He also learns his mentor, Ebenezar McCoy, is the Wizard's clean up man, who gets to break all the rules that he taught Harry should never be broken, and all other Wizards live by.  Powerful stuff.

All that and the slow teasing that the feelings between him and his long time police contact, Karrin Murphy, maybe moving beyond friendship and heading towards something more.  Given Harry's track record that would be a dangerously bad idea.

Oh and Harry ended up with a dog too.  Of course it is no ordinary dog.

Spartacus - Bloody Chess Match & Fiction Frission

Spartacus S03E05 - Blood Brothers: much like last season's 5th episode - was brilliance.  Spartacus and the Roman Military Leader Crassus have been engaged in a mental chess game match all season.  In this one Spartacus made all the right moves and yet was still out manuveured by Crassus. On the action front this show continues to set the high bar on action sequences with swordtacular battle scenes. Again and again.

And like last season's show shifting 5th episode which saw the gladiators leave the arena and their slavery behind forever, Spartacus has lost the city.  Just as he was poised to draw out and divide Crassus's forces.  To the hills they must flee! 

Crassus has gained the upper hand in battle while at the same time the rift between he and his son, Tiberius, has now become permanently irrepairable.

The foreshadowing irony of Caesar stabbing Spartacus in the back was most delicious indeed.

Brilliant, brilliant writing.

~~~

I've taken stabs at fiction writing here and there but never have I experienced that AHA! moment when unrelated items have coalesced into a new and unique idea that other writers talk about.  Part of my problem is that I have read so many takes on how to write the process has become overwhelming plus my own unintentionally created roadblock of wanting to write something big and epic so that it will move people.  A bittersweet story much like Frodo sailing off to the Grey Havens after saving Middle Earth.

That's a tall order for any writer.  Especially one starting out.  

So I've refocused my direction and am now directing my energies to smaller pieces.  I mentioned in a previous post that I had sent off a piece for a 200 word micro-fiction contest. That's about as small as one can get!

Genre fiction is where I wish to write in be it SF, Fantasy, or Horror.  I have seen it said countless times that genre fiction is about the characters.  Take a character and put them in unusual circumstances.  Such circumstances arise when you take two previously unrelated ideas and put them together in a brand new way to push your characters.

Well I have achieved that AHA! epiphany.  The catalyst for my moment of insight was a lovely piece of writing over at Flash Fiction Online - “Beholder” by Sarah Grey.  This is a small story about technology versus man that elicits, for me, a big emotional response.

That's the kind of story I want to write and Beholder gave me the spark to put two disparate ideas together. So I am working a piece that takes something I do often - walk our dog and a concept from a TV show.  I have it all mapped out in my head.  I know the whole story and how it will end.  

How well putting those two ideas together works is throttled only by my skill as a writer to tell it.  Exciting!  And scary.

2013 Book Readings

1) Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

2) Shadows & Tall Trees - Volume 4 - edited by Michael Kelly

3) The Twelve by Justin Cronin - partial - finished the last quarter.

My thoughts on the book from 2012:

"Only made it 3/4s of the way through this one before I had to return it to the library. I'll have to reborrow to finish it but with an upcoming Christmas vacation that likely won't happen till next year.The shifting timeline that occurred in the first book is back this time to even more annoying affect. At least in the first book it was in chronological order. In the second, it jumps back again with characters whose fates we know and don't care about. The first book left us with a certain group of characters and then when the second picks up with them it is some time after the first book ended. Rather off putting and a momentum killer. 300 pages plus in and it was only then the book felt like it was gathering steam. On the plus side I really do like Cronin's way with characters.


Completing the book reinforced my previous points. I found the book's jumbled timeline a real momentum killer but Cronin's craft with creating characters I care about is such that I was quite emotional during the final few chapters.

If it wasn't for that, I would not read the third book. And I fear a long revisit into the past in the third book maybe in order to flesh out Zero. Another annoying trend was Cronin taking the story up to moments of conflict that had been well setup only to jump forward and then tell what happened after the fact. Not a fan of that style of story telling.

This series had the scope and potential to become the next big thing Apocolyptic novel but as of this point in the story, this series will not supplant The Stand for me.

Curious as to what the general reception for The Twelve has been and Cronin's reaction/book sales have been.

For me, The Twelve is definitely a disappointment."

Completing the book reinforced my previous points. I found the book's jumbled timeline a real momentum killer but Cronin's craft with creating characters I care about is such that I was quite emotional during the final few chapters. 

If it wasn't for that, I would not read the third book. And I fear a long revisit into the past in the third book maybe in order to flesh out Zero. Another annoying trend was Cronin taking the story up to moments of conflict that had been well setup only to jump forward and then tell what happened after the fact. Not a fan of that style of story telling. 

This series had the scope and potential to become the next big thing Apocolyptic novel but as of this point in the story, this series will not supplant The Stand for me. 

Curious as to what the general reception for The Twelve has been and Cronin's reaction/book sales have been.

For me, The Twelve is definitely a disappointment."

I Swear By Jupiter's Cock!

I've been reading my first Ramsey Campbell book - Creatures Of The Pool - and after hearing so much praise for him my initial impressions are decidely mixed.  I'm a third of the way into the book and an overwhelming majority of it has been a history and geography lesson of Liverpool.  I'm a big believer in setting but this is going overboard. At this point, very little has been revealed about any of the characters and beyond the story noting how damp everything is, very little of the story itself has yet to be revealed.   I'm probably making a fool of myself at this point with my initial reaction given Campbell's reputation.  Or maybe I just chose the wrong book to start with.

On the flip side, when I want a fun and quick read I find myself turning to Jim Butcher's - Dresden Files series.  The book series came to my attention after the short lived TV series. Butcher writes the Dresden books in engagingly dry manner that harkens back to those old hard boiled detective noir style stories and has mixed it with wizardry, magic, and the supernatural.  Harry Dresden is a very sympathetic character who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders and never seems to get a break.  Harry has a great sense of humor which leavens up the grist mill of obstacles and tribulations Butcher puts his poor protagonist through.

If the title of this post rings a bell for you then chances are you too are a viewer of the StarZ series - Spartacus.  The show is in its last season and has followed the story of Spartacus's capture into Roman slavery, his rise in the gladiatorial arena, and the Slave Revolt he has led against the Romans.  In the final season, which is four episodes in, Julius Caesar himself has been summoned to deal with the ever growing rebellion.



After a first season shaky start in the first four episodes - exacerbated by the show's signature battle scenes that are very reminiscent of the 300 movie's slomo bloodfests - the series has crafted a complex and intricately plotted story that constantly presents characters with life and death decisions from which very few walk away alive.  The body count is high and favored characters fall with a degree of regularity that tops that of The Walking Dead.  The difference between Spartacus and The Walking Dead is that with Spartacus, character deaths consistently illicit emotional responses from both sides of the spectrum depending on where your character loyalties lie.

This is a very adult show.  Blood, limbs, heads - cloven whole or in half, and gore flow freely.  So does wine and bodily fluids.  Spartacus is an equal opportunity show - full female and male nudity, yes including that of the frontal variety - are often on display in all the possible configurations and gender pairings possible.  These were violent times and Spartacus captures it all whether it be in the arena, on the battleground, or behind closed doors of a master's estate. 

Further props have to be given to the cast who undergo a rigorous physical regime to maintain and project the musculature of warriors.  These actors, in very physical roles, then must master many weapon types with swords the most common choice.  The physical aspects of the show are then married with modern technology to create battle scenes that, for my money, surpass most things seen on the much more lauded Game of Thrones.  Another show which I enjoy watching.

Spartacus is a great show that deserves far more acclaim than it has garnered to date.  This is a harsh, gritty world where the characters live and die hard. Check it out. Highly recommended.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On a writing front I put together a piece of micro fiction and sent it off today.  The deadline is mid-March so it was great to get that one under my belt. Especially since it is my first dribble of fiction writing in ages.

...OverComing Mulder and Mayans...

pssst!  Between you and me let's pretend it hasn't been ages since I last posted here.

Agreed?

....

Thanks!


What to say?  Well, as with most of us no doubt, the last year has seen a lot of change.  Especially for our family.  Because of the job crunch in Ontario, I ended up taking a job out west.  At first it looked like we were heading to Calgary but then the opportunities our consulting firm had lined up there fell through so it was off to Edmonton instead.  For my family the switch made little difference as they had stayed back in Ontario while I spent six months working in Calgary, getting familiar with the area, and going out with a real estate agent to the various sections of town to scout out a location to move to.

All of that planning went up in smoke when I was reassigned to Edmonton.

What's that saying again?  Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans or some such thing...

So in mid-February of 2012 I was plopped down into a downtown Edmonton hotel scrambling to understand the needs of a new client and find a place for us to move to ASAP as each day I spent in the hotel ate into our moving budget.

All things have worked out rather well.  I found a little town nestled on the north edge of Edmonton, St. Albert, which is a lovely community that you can drive across in 10 minutes.  It is a scenic place with with a lovely variety of elevations ie not all flat plainsland, and a river that meanders through the centre of town. The educational and recreational facilities are fantastic.  The amount of them available per capita is rather stunning.  Most importantly, our son who just turned 13 but was 12 when we moved loves the Junior High School and his marks have improved dramatically as a reflection of that.  He misses his old friends back east but through the wonders of modern technology keeps in touch with them through his X-Box.

It is quieter out here.  You get out of St. Albert and Edmonton proper and the amount of elbow room one can feel out here - if you have been a long time resident of Southern Ontario - is rather stunning.  The local joke here is that Edmonton is 4 hrs from everywhere - Calgary, the Rockies, and Toronto - by plane.

We survived the forecasted world end of December 22, 2012 - Mulder and Mayans be damned - flew back east for Christmas and a week in Jamaica.  The nice thing when we flew back west was this time we were heading home.  The previous time, especially for my wife and son, the feeling of that flight was one of leaving home. This last trip closed the circle for all of us.

We are home.

2012 Books Read Thread

1. Flashback by Dan Simmons: 

A sobering look at the near future.  Ostensibly a murder/mystery, Simmons uses it as a story engine to postulate a very frightening, potentially real future especially given the recent economic and political climates around the world.