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greygirlbeastComment, kittens.
It seems that, in the past twenty-one hours or so, I have suffered a massive reversal of fortune. Suddenly, I am no longer debt poor (though a few publishers still owe smaller advances, some of which are horrendously late), our guild was able to transfer to Faeblight (Riftspeak, ignore), and Spooky is off retrieving the automobile from the team of gorillas who have been holding it hostage! (She just returned, and we had a belated "breakfast").
So, um...better now. My agent made me promise to buy another coolerator. I considered naming it after her – Merrilee – but think, instead, I'll named it Astor, as Writers House is in one of his old banks. Anyway, suddenly life sucks a lot less, and bills can be paid, and cats can go to the vet, and I can get my office in better order, and all manner of things have been made good again.
If you've not yet ordered Two Worlds and In Between, do so!
Yesterday, I sat here in the heat (I did not adjourn to either middle parlour or bedroom – the two coolish rooms – as I am a fool) and wrote 1,117 words on "The Granting Cabinet," which I began back before Readercon 22. They were 1,117 words written mostly in a fever, I think. But then, clouds came, and there was rain, and the temperature Outside plunged ten degrees in about half an hour, and a sweet, cool breeze blew in through my office window.
---
I forgot, yesterday, to mention two movies we watched during the con (while hiding in the room between programming obligations). The first, Jonathan Liebesman's Battle Los Angeles is an oddly forgettable film. We rather enjoyed it while we were watching it. Good SFX, a serviceable script, Michelle Rodriguez, halfway decent cinematography, and so forth. A good summer B-grade flick. But the next day, my memories of it made Battle Los Angeles seem, at best, only half as good as it had seemed as we watched. This same thing happened when I saw Sin City (2005), and it's happened with other films. There's a magic, for me, while I'm watching, that appears to fade upon reflection. Anyway, I'd still say it's worth a rental or free streaming. If you like blow-'em-up marines versus extraterrestrial invaders films (and I generally do), you could do worse.
But the next film we watched was pure celluloid shit. Unless no one uses celluloid anymore, in which case it was shit of some other sort. Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood. Of course, this is the woman who made the screen adaptation of Twilight, so I was hardly surprised. It's sort of hard to explain how perfectly awful this film is. Even Gary Oldman didn't help. He just looked bored and trapped and recited his lines like a sleepwalker. Though set in some vaguely Medieval village, the costumes all looked like they'd come straight from a ren-fair. You could tell sewing machines were involved, and colors that would not possibly have been available were everywhere. Shiloh Fernandez (Peter) is a dead-ringer for Edward Cullen, right down to the hair gel and the terminally blank expression. Massively uneven art direction. The only thing that didn't stink of the fecal matter of aardvarks was the werewolf, which was a case of very creepy, effective CGI. But it couldn't save this turkey. Avoid it like the plague. Had I paid to see this film, I actually would have walked out halfway through and asked for a refund. I could have written a long and insightful review of this film, but it's just not worth the time and effort.
---
In the first paragraph of Sunday's blog entry I typed self when I meant to type shelf, which has to be indicative of some unconscious glitch.
---
My thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cucumberseed for a truly superb mix CD. Also, thanks to readingthedark for going far above and beyond to help me and Spooky retain our sanity during Readercon.
---
I've played this round, I've played your lover.
I've played it out and to the hilt.
You're coming on with something so fast, so numb
That you can't even feel.
You love it.
You hate it.
But you want to re-create it.
Now this is here. This is me.
This is what I wanted
You to see.
That was then. That was that.
That is gone. That is what
I wanted you to feel. -- R.E.M.
To the hilt,
Aunt Beast
It seems that, in the past twenty-one hours or so, I have suffered a massive reversal of fortune. Suddenly, I am no longer debt poor (though a few publishers still owe smaller advances, some of which are horrendously late), our guild was able to transfer to Faeblight (Riftspeak, ignore), and Spooky is off retrieving the automobile from the team of gorillas who have been holding it hostage! (She just returned, and we had a belated "breakfast").
So, um...better now. My agent made me promise to buy another coolerator. I considered naming it after her – Merrilee – but think, instead, I'll named it Astor, as Writers House is in one of his old banks. Anyway, suddenly life sucks a lot less, and bills can be paid, and cats can go to the vet, and I can get my office in better order, and all manner of things have been made good again.
If you've not yet ordered Two Worlds and In Between, do so!
Yesterday, I sat here in the heat (I did not adjourn to either middle parlour or bedroom – the two coolish rooms – as I am a fool) and wrote 1,117 words on "The Granting Cabinet," which I began back before Readercon 22. They were 1,117 words written mostly in a fever, I think. But then, clouds came, and there was rain, and the temperature Outside plunged ten degrees in about half an hour, and a sweet, cool breeze blew in through my office window.
---
I forgot, yesterday, to mention two movies we watched during the con (while hiding in the room between programming obligations). The first, Jonathan Liebesman's Battle Los Angeles is an oddly forgettable film. We rather enjoyed it while we were watching it. Good SFX, a serviceable script, Michelle Rodriguez, halfway decent cinematography, and so forth. A good summer B-grade flick. But the next day, my memories of it made Battle Los Angeles seem, at best, only half as good as it had seemed as we watched. This same thing happened when I saw Sin City (2005), and it's happened with other films. There's a magic, for me, while I'm watching, that appears to fade upon reflection. Anyway, I'd still say it's worth a rental or free streaming. If you like blow-'em-up marines versus extraterrestrial invaders films (and I generally do), you could do worse.
But the next film we watched was pure celluloid shit. Unless no one uses celluloid anymore, in which case it was shit of some other sort. Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood. Of course, this is the woman who made the screen adaptation of Twilight, so I was hardly surprised. It's sort of hard to explain how perfectly awful this film is. Even Gary Oldman didn't help. He just looked bored and trapped and recited his lines like a sleepwalker. Though set in some vaguely Medieval village, the costumes all looked like they'd come straight from a ren-fair. You could tell sewing machines were involved, and colors that would not possibly have been available were everywhere. Shiloh Fernandez (Peter) is a dead-ringer for Edward Cullen, right down to the hair gel and the terminally blank expression. Massively uneven art direction. The only thing that didn't stink of the fecal matter of aardvarks was the werewolf, which was a case of very creepy, effective CGI. But it couldn't save this turkey. Avoid it like the plague. Had I paid to see this film, I actually would have walked out halfway through and asked for a refund. I could have written a long and insightful review of this film, but it's just not worth the time and effort.
---
In the first paragraph of Sunday's blog entry I typed self when I meant to type shelf, which has to be indicative of some unconscious glitch.
---
My thanks to
cucumberseed for a truly superb mix CD. Also, thanks to readingthedark for going far above and beyond to help me and Spooky retain our sanity during Readercon.---
I've played this round, I've played your lover.
I've played it out and to the hilt.
You're coming on with something so fast, so numb
That you can't even feel.
You love it.
You hate it.
But you want to re-create it.
Now this is here. This is me.
This is what I wanted
You to see.
That was then. That was that.
That is gone. That is what
I wanted you to feel. -- R.E.M.
To the hilt,
Aunt Beast
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 06:32 pm (UTC)I might have access to an air conditioner, window unit, courtesy of my mom. I need to check to see if she still has it, but I was planning on giving her a call and I live close enough that arrangements would not be impossible to make for delivery or transfer.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 06:43 pm (UTC)I'm glad you liked the CD!
It's quite awesome.
I need to check to see if she still has it, but I was planning on giving her a call and I live close enough that arrangements would not be impossible to make for delivery or transfer.
A kind offer, but it's best we get something that's going to be just the right size for my oddly sized office windows.
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 06:34 pm (UTC)Someday I'm going to be drunk and masochistic enough to watch Red Riding Hood. When I'm rocking and keening afterward, I'll remember that I should have listened to you.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 06:44 pm (UTC)Someday I'm going to be drunk and masochistic enough to watch Red Riding Hood.
Gonna take a lot of masochism.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 06:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 06:48 pm (UTC)Thanks.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 06:40 pm (UTC)(Re Mamma Mia!, Colin Firth is the reason I am only a silver-star lesbian. I'm sorry. I really am.)
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 06:46 pm (UTC)The red, red, red cloak in the Medieval Village
Admittedly, it was necessary to any telling of the story, and it was stroking against the snow. The first 100 times we were shown long, loving shots of various incarnations of the damned thing.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 06:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 06:47 pm (UTC)You might be more twisted even than me. This movie was too awful even to redeem itself with its awfulness.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 06:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 06:47 pm (UTC)Yes! I saw!
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 06:44 pm (UTC)Ended up mocking that movie mercilessly with
Looking forward to something the roommate passed us, The Troll Hunters, which has been billed as a fantastic Norwegian Blair Witch Project.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 06:48 pm (UTC)Ended up mocking that movie mercilessly
It was too bad too even have fun mocking.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 07:29 pm (UTC)Because they apparently refuse to stock you (I've asked).
They usually stock the Roc stuff, but not the subpress books.
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 07:11 pm (UTC)I knew Red Riding Hood would be awful, but I want to see it anyway, because it has some people I like and I have an unfortunate obsession with 'fairy tales done different.' Maybe I can turn it into a drinking game?
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 07:30 pm (UTC)I knew Red Riding Hood would be awful, but I want to see it anyway, because it has some people I like and I have an unfortunate obsession with 'fairy tales done different.' Maybe I can turn it into a drinking game?
No. Not even a drinking game. Anyway, you've been warned.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 07:12 pm (UTC)http://spins.it/vc2a6y
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 07:21 pm (UTC)Should we talk about:
(a) the weather
(b) the government
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 07:30 pm (UTC)POP!
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 07:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 07:31 pm (UTC)I was left with a dull, speechless feeling.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 07:27 pm (UTC)Angela Bettis is in it and she gives the third best performance, which is no slight on her work here but rather an indication of the very high acting caliber in this film. Usually she's top. Here she graciously gives the floor to others.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 07:32 pm (UTC)AS we are huge fans of the director and actress in question, we WILL see it. Release date?
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 07:37 pm (UTC)Very glad to hear that the cats can get the attention that they need to get, and that you might be suffering slightly less during the writing process.
Glad you all could transfer the guild over. I'm just hoping transfers are still open by the time I get home.
Battle: Los Angeles is an oddly forgettable film.
Yeah, I kinda saw it as a rather simple gung-ho military-porn flick. Certainly not really sci-fi, and the movie is without the epic scope of historical war films. This felt like a movie pretty much made for the current generation of American military personnel. It's as if they wanted to make a "kick ass modern war movie about Our Boys", but without the political baggage of being about Afghanistan or Iraq. In fact, it didn't want any baggage at all - other than the Burdens of Leadership. Basically it was the movie about soldiers for soldiers.
Eh. It might have made a decent survival horror movie if they had wanted to play that up, but yeah, no. They went Michael Bay.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 07:45 pm (UTC)Glad you all could transfer the guild over. I'm just hoping transfers are still open by the time I get home.
It was a great relief, and yes, I hope so, too!
This felt like a movie pretty much made for the current generation of American military personnel.
Agreed. It could almost have been a recruitment film.
Glad you got paid some
Date: 2011-07-19 07:45 pm (UTC)Thank you for the warning about the movie. I will take it off my list. I like fairy tales gone awry, and everything I've seen with Gary Oldman, but it sounds too bad to enjoy. Maybe, like I say about some people, Gary Oldman wanted to do a movie that kids could see, and that was the reasoning behind agreeing to do it. Or he wanted a paycheck.
Re: Glad you got paid some
Date: 2011-07-20 02:03 am (UTC)Or he wanted a paycheck.
Bingo!
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 10:03 pm (UTC)Likewise, thank you for the Red Riding heads-up; I was considering it, but I think I will just put on The Company of Wolves instead.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 02:04 am (UTC)but I think I will just put on The Company of Wolves instead.
Wise move.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 10:22 pm (UTC)Also, it was nice to see you at Readercon over the weekend. Loved the bit from The Drowning Girl: A Memoir that you read; can't wait for the book.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 02:05 am (UTC)Loved the bit from The Drowning Girl: A Memoir that you read; can't wait for the book.
This please me.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 10:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 02:05 am (UTC)The cats are quite ecstatic.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 11:02 pm (UTC)I think Dorothy Parker was the one who said, "The two most beautiful words in the English language-- Check Enclosed."
no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 02:06 am (UTC)"The two most beautiful words in the English language-- Check Enclosed."
Fucking A.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 11:03 pm (UTC)My agent made me promise to buy another coolerator.
I'll recommend getting it as soon as possible - out here in Minnesota we're in the middle of a huge heat wave (today had a heat index of 115F! In Minnesota!), and they're projecting it will be moving east at the end of the week. No AC here either (it's Minnesota, after all) so I can sympathize...
no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 02:07 am (UTC)I'll recommend getting it as soon as possible
Just as soon as Check #2 arrives (next day or two).
no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 12:26 am (UTC)But CoA was just abysmal, and it had even Iggy Pop in it. I still get chills watching the trailer when, for about 5 seconds, all-grown-up Sarah is painting the face of the latest goth-zombie-clown-avenger of her acquaintance.
But oh man, did that movie disappoint. Trust me... Wicked Prayer and Salvation are not worth the time either. Let's not even bring up the TV show that was shot almost exclusively during daylight.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 02:08 am (UTC)I will confess, I didn't hate The Crow: City of Angels. I thought it had its moments, even if, in the end, it missed the mark. But I wouldn't go anywhere near the third or fourth films, and I pretend there never was a TV series.
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 12:38 am (UTC)Mazel tov!
(That last feels like the real miracle.)
no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 02:08 am (UTC)(That last feels like the real miracle.)
I find the money more miraculous.
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 01:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 02:09 am (UTC)It's bad, and only going to get worse.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 03:04 am (UTC)Happy to hear of your good/relieving times lately. I heard that included happy hugs that happened at ReaderCon. Hugs, after all, are important.
I'm still waiting to feel ready to order Two Worlds and In Between. If you don't mind me quoting Wayne's World, "It will be mine. Oh, yes. It will be mine."
no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 03:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 04:08 am (UTC)