like any girl, all she really wants

[greygirlbeast]

A nice day yesterday. Utterly unremarkable in every way, and not a manuscript page in sight. Things warmed up after all, and late in the day the sun even found its way out from behind the clouds. Spooky and I dithered about the house for a couple of hours, trying to decide what to do, what not to do, what maybe to do. Finally, we went to Crystal Blue at L5P to get Mother's Day cards. We checked out the new location of Pink Flamingos (about three doors down from the old location). And then we wandered down to Arden's Garden on Euclid. Spooky had some sort of fruit smoothie (I can't recall the ingredients), and I had a Hot Shot. I love those things. We stopped by EB Games and found a copy of Crimson Skies for a mere $2.99! So, now I can play it all over again. We headed back home for a bit, and I did Wikipedia while Spooky finished playing Syberia, which she has pronounced gorgeous but possibly the dullest game she's ever played.

We had an early dinner at The Vortex, where we were seated next to three very annoying office monkeys, two female, one male. I think the male one was determined to get the two females drunk so that he might have a chance to score with them both and fulfill twenty-eight years of masturbatory fantasies. In an attempt to counter the noise they were making, Spooky and I began loudly discussing our plans to retire to the country and become cannibals. The male office monkey gave me any number of dirty looks, but his would-be frellbunnies just chattered on obliviously. Afterwards, we stopped by Videodrome and rented Gattaca (1997), because I've been wanting to see it again, and Spooky had never seen it. I really do admire this film. My only complaint is that Uma Thurman seems out of place in the subdued and under spoken world of the film, like she's holding back the entire time. Otherwise, I still maintain it's one of the best sf films of the last ten years. After Real Time with Bill Maher and the movie, I played a few minutes of Crimson Skies, before moving along to Tomb Raider: Legend (which I've almost finished). At some point, I proposed to Spooky that instead of becoming backwoods cannibals, we should open a proper Victorian brothel. I think we'd make wonderful madams, and it's really a shame there are so few civilized whorehouses left in the world. We'd serve absinthe, and there'd be chamber music, and Siamese twins and an albino and molly boys and several beautiful transsexuals. Of course, it would end badly, one way or another. These things always do.

Anyway, today I begin the 3rd pass through the Daughter of Hounds ms. I think I might be up to the task, thanks to yesterday. With luck, a little of my perspective has returned.

Great comments to the "SF movie casting game" last night. The whole thing begins to unfold in my mind's eye. The director will be Jean-Pierre Jeunet. It'll be a multi-lingual film: German, English, French, Spanish, a couple of programming languages, and a few whispered lines of an alien tongue. The screenplay will be written by William Gibson, then rewritten by Roger Avery and Neal Stephanson. The year is 1964. The Germans might have won WWII. No one's really sure. A parahuman double-agent is seeking an artefact, possibly of extraterrestrial origin, rumoured to have been found by the Nazis in Antarctica in 1937. Think The Maltese Falcon meets Cabaret meets Blade Runner meets La Cité des Enfants Perdus meets Naked Lunch. There will be zeppelins. Lots of zeppelins. We'll knock 'em dead at Cannes...

Okay. The platypus, who was quite lonely yesterday, has awakened and begun its keening wail. I must away. I wonder if the platypus even knows that I have only 17 days remaining until birthday -2? I wonder if its even bothered to take a peek at the Amazon wishlist? With platypuses, one never knows...

Comments

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

'take a peek at the Amazon wishlist'

You certainly enjoy the dinosaurs.

I would never have guessed.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

You certainly enjoy the dinosaurs.

I must admit that it is an obsession...

[sovay]

In an attempt to counter the noise they were making, Spooky and I began loudly discussing our plans to retire to the country and become cannibals.

A friend and I once (inadvertently, I must confess) cleared the nearest table at an Indian restaurant by discussing tuberculosis. The restaurant staff, however, brought us free dessert.

There will be zeppelins. Lots of zeppelins. We'll knock 'em dead at Cannes...

If it can't be filmed, perhaps it should at least be written . . .

[jlundberg.livejournal.com]

Crimson Skies is a very fun game. The Moorcockian alternate transportation timeline combined with groovy dogfighting. I like dogfight games anyway, but this one was particularly good.

And Gattaca is awesome. I totally agree that "it's one of the best sf films of the last ten years." I thought I was the only one.

[frankiemouse.livejournal.com]

no, there's a few of us out there. Gattaca is wonderful film. though i have to admit that, as with most films, shows, books, that i make reference to, hardly anyone i ever talk to has heard about it let alone seen it. it must have been the third or fourth time i saw it before i realized that the name gattaca is made up from the letters often used to represent the amino acids that make up dna. after it dawned on my i felt like an idiot for not noticing that earlier. but then no one else ever mentioned it to me either.

[moonwiggle.livejournal.com]

The whole thing begins to unfold in my mind's eye. The director will be Jean-Pierre Jeunet. It'll be a multi-lingual film: German, English, French, Spanish, a couple of programming languages, and a few whispered lines of an alien tongue. The screenplay will be written by William Gibson, then rewritten by Roger Avery and Neal Stephanson. The year is 1964. The Germans might have won WWII. No one's really sure. A parahuman double-agent is seeking an artefact, possibly of extraterrestrial origin, rumoured to have been found by the Nazis in Antarctica in 1937. Think The Maltese Falcon meets Cabaret meets Blade Runner meets La Cité des Enfants Perdus meets Naked Lunch. There will be zeppelins. Lots of zeppelins. We'll knock 'em dead at Cannes...

Exactly the sort of movie that I would love to see and then bully all my friends to go to see as well. And then I would buy the DVD and hold it close to my bosom every night.

[shinysayyadina.livejournal.com]

"we should open a proper Victorian brothel. I think we'd make wonderful madams, and it's really a shame there are so few civilized whorehouses left in the world. We'd serve absinthe, and there'd be chamber music, and Siamese twins and an albino and molly boys and several beautiful transsexuals."

I like this plan (and if you need workers...well, it can't be any worse than my current tech writing!)

[mb2u]

I'd send you my resume. And a healthy bribe of absinthe and fey Asian boys who look good in mascara...

Oh wait, that's my obsession.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

There will be zeppelins. Lots of zeppelins. We'll knock 'em dead at Cannes...

Zeppelins are a radioactive-like decay product of splitting timelines, which is why all alternate histories have them. This is the principal manifestation of Hindenberg's Uncertainty Principle.

I also think Alex Cox should be involved in some way, though in Death and the Compass mode, Repo Man would be too easy and predictable. Or maybe David Blair - have you seen Wax, or the Discovery of Televison among the Bees ?

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

have you seen Wax, or the Discovery of Televison among the Bees ?

I haven't, actually.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

It's deeply surreal in a way I envision as similar to the project we all have been playing with here; I saw it at a midnight showing in UNC Chapel Hill summer of 1993, and it took a fair bit of external evidence to convince me I'd not dreamed it. It has, oh, bees, weapons designers, trying to see the dead among the living, William Burroughs as the protagonist's grandfather, gratuitous Clyde Tombaugh... good stuff. Probably the only genuine cool thing I ever came across via Mondo 2000.

[stsisyphus.livejournal.com]

At some point, I proposed to Spooky that instead of becoming backwoods cannibals, we should open a proper Victorian brothel....Of course, it would end badly, one way or another.

One would presume that the syphilis would have something to do with that, being a proper Victorian brothel. Then again, you could do both brothel and backwoods cannibals...elegant & sexy backwoods cannibals.

The director will be Jean-Pierre Jeunet. It'll be a multi-lingual film: German, English, French, Spanish, a couple of programming languages, and a few whispered lines of an alien tongue. The screenplay will be written by William Gibson, then rewritten by Roger Avery and Neal Stephanson.

Could we get Voltaire to do some stop-motion for one of the surrealo-hallucinatory sequences?

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Then again, you could do both brothel and backwoods cannibals...elegant & sexy backwoods cannibals.

Oooooooh.


Could we get Voltaire to do some stop-motion for one of the surrealo-hallucinatory sequences?

No doubt.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Well if that's the case then Rasputina would be best suited for the sound track, with Voltaire on backing, and maniacal laughter.

[mb2u]

And perhaps some Dresden Dolls, too?

[setsuled.livejournal.com]

I think the male one was determined to get the two females drunk so that he might have a chance to score with them both and fulfill twenty-eight years of masturbatory fantasies.

Times like that make it difficult to ignore the undeniable beauty of the human story.

Otherwise, I still maintain it's one of the best sf films of the last ten years.

I haven't seen Gattaca since it was in theatres, but I remember enjoying it. I love Science Fiction that unabashedly employs 1930s-1940s aesthetics in portraying the future. And it amuses me mightily when critics object to this.

After Real Time with Bill Maher

Did you see Rep. Barney Frank and Ian McKellen on last week's show? I still kind of like Barney Frank, even though he seemed pretty obtuse when he was on The Colbert Report.

Did you notice that Bradley Whitford, in this latest Bill Maher, had a paragraph written on his hand in purple? It bugged the dren out of me, trying to figure out what was written. Since Whitford seemed to be doing some mild grandstanding, I wondered if he'd written down lines for himself.

[tagplazen.livejournal.com]

I think you should do a backwoods Victorian brothel and convince David Eugene Edwards to form the house band.

Pantaloons, slide guitar and banjo would be a great mix, but only if you had the insane raging preacher who'd stand on the front lawn calling destruction down upon your heads.