Posts Tagged Arts

Editor Cat Image by Dylan via Flickr

This week at the office has resembled a slightly more chaotic version of Bedlam. Uncooperative computers, demanding clients, phones ringing off the hook, and third-party people failing to get things we needed to us until the absolute last minute.  I’ve spent every moment I’ve had at the office rushing about, only to generally collapse as soon as I got home.

So I’ve not had the energy to write or blog very much this week, and the universes of characters living inside my brain have been protesting mightily. FEED US, they say. WRITE!

But, but, but, I say….there’s not enough TIME. And I’m so very tired.

And then my friend @pikestaff over on Twitter started talking about Script Frenzy.

I’ve never written a script for anything. I’ve always been much more given to a narrative style that I wouldn’t think adapted itself very well to scripts, cinema, comic books, or otherwise.  But @pikestaff’s enthusiasm is contagious, and as I’ve successfully completed NaNoWriMo three years out of the last four, after some hedging I decided I might as well give it a try.

The challenge, of course, is to write a 100 page script in 30 days. Now, I have no idea how one goes about formatting a script, what scriptwriting entails, anything of that sort. So this is definitely a step outside my comfort zone. Fortunately, the Script Frenzy site has a lovely tutorial on formatting as well as some suggestions of software to use to make it a little easier.

I’ve decided to give Scripped a try for my primary app. It’s rather like the Google Docs of scriptwriting, and I do love Google Docs because it gives me access to what I’m writing wherever I might be, without having to bother with synchronizing versions across the three computers I primarily work on. Plus, you don’t have to download anything.

I’ve also downloaded the portable version of Celtx, an opensource and freeware scriptwriting app that works very similar to Scripped, both of which make the unfamiliar formatting much, much easier to adapt to.

As for the story, well, I’d been working on plotting and outlining a space-western in novel form for a while, and decided it would probably adapt well to a more visual and action-oriented approach. So far, it’s come pretty easily. I got 4 pages done yesterday on the first day, and am well into my 8th page today.

I’m both excited and a wee bit worried and frightened to be venturing into a format and medium that is almost entirely foreign to me, but it should prove to be an interesting challenge.

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• Are You Ready to Write a Screenplay? (slog.thestranger.com)
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When it took me three tries to type the word “seven” this morning in an item for work, I came to the conclusion that a real blog post probably isn’t happening today, as my brain seems to moving at about the pace of really cold molasses.

So, you get linkspam of the funny, thought provoking, or just general mind-boggling things I’ve come across this week:

• Realms of Fantasy has announced an upcoming “Women in Fantasy” themed issue, and is looking for submissions.
• Apparently Science Fiction is created by the devil, and is an evil that is eroding the nation’s moral fiber. (Oh well, not the first time I’ve been told I’m going to hell.)
• While game companies seem to be a bit slow to embrace the idea that girls are gamers, there are a few women out there making strides in the industry, and Kontaku has their list of the Ten Most Influential Women in the Game Industry of the Past Decade up.
• 100 Game Themed Cupcakes, can you guess them all? – I’m a sucker for cute confectionery….
• You all must know by now just how much I love Neil Gaiman. Well, Coraline is up for a People’s Choice award. Go vote for it!

That’s it for now. I’m working on putting together the website for my pending webserial, and am planning to release the first entry next Wednesday.

A new year always makes me think about what I want to get accomplished in the coming months. This blog was one of those projects last year. This year, I’m considering starting a webserial.

I’m feeling so inspired by fellow writers such as Heidi Cautrell, Nancy Brauer, Vanessa Brooks, and others who are offering excellent, original, serialized webfiction all over the place these days.

I’m still sorting through a handful of ideas and haven’t finalized anything yet, but my fiction tends to be somewhere between sci-fi and fantasy, not just one or the other.  I tend to subscribe to Arthur C. Clarke‘s idea that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” and a lot of what I write tends to have an element of that philosophy within it.

I’m probably looking at posting once a week, perhaps more as I’ve got the time, but once a week will be my goal.  I am hoping to have the website, introduction, and first “chapter” up by sometime next week. (That is, if I can choose between the three ideas I’m batting around.)

I will, of course, need some handy volunteers as beta readers and critics, and I’m certainly happy to return the favor.

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• SF in OED, December 2009 (jeffprucher.com)
• A charming history of Science Fiction and Fandom: Frederik Pohl’s The Way the Future Was (tor.com)
• Sci-Fi Author Writing Not One, Not Two, But Three Games For Electronic Arts [Ea] (kotaku.com)
• One Step Into the Future, Fantastic and Scary (dcrblogs.com)

(Click Here for the Photo Gallery of the Con!)

Overall, the Con was just as awesome as it always is, though we saw fewer panels (we really only attended two) and attended fewer events.  There were fewer elaborate costumes this year, likely as a result of the economy, but those that were were some of the most amazing I’ve seen to date.  (Did everyone get  a chance to see that amazing Big Daddy Costume that won the Masquerade?)

BioShock Big Daddy and Little Sisters costume at DragonCon

The only really big disappointment of the Con was the photo-op with Bill Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, which had been the thing we were most looking forward to.  We found out afterwards that the stars themselves were upset about the way the photo op had been run – it was fairly clear that the photographer, Froggy-Photos, had over-booked to make more money and it was rather more like being herded vaguely and forcefully past the actors rather than actually getting to meet them, much less thank them for all that they have done and been to us.  Considering how much we paid for that photo, we most certainly didn’t get our money’s worth, and then to add to the annoyance and disappointment of it all, the photographer lost our photo, and those of several other people.  They re-printed them, but at that point we were disgusted enough that we’d almost have rather had a refund than our photo.  Not only did we have the expense of the photo, we had actually taken off work a day ahead of what we’d intended (losing pay for that day) and taken a hotel room for an extra night just so we could make it to that photo-op which, rather than being a wonderful experience, turned out to just be infuriating and disappointing.

Needless to say, we will not be wasting our money on any Froggy-Photo run photo-ops in the future, and I would suggest the same to others, no matter who the stars are. It’s not an opportunity to actually get to meet the stars, you’ll just get to walk behind them and don’t even have a chance to compose yourself before the flash and you’re herded off.

Dirk Benedict, Bryant, and Me at DragonCon

But before I get too ranty about that, the remainder of the Con, after that inauspicious start, was great.  Thanks to an additional Digital TV channel that got added this year, playing mostly tv shows from the 80′s, we’ve been watching a lot of the A-Team lately.  So we went to the A-Team panel that Friday with Dwight Schultz and Dirk Benedict, which was fun and really unexpectedly touching.  From there, we headed to the Walk of Fame, where we met Dirk Benedict and talked with him for a good long while about his books, one of which we bought and had autographed, and had our picture taken with him. As far as celebrities go, meeting him was the unexpected highlight of the convention.

The unexpected good things continued Friday night as we headed up to Nicholai’s Roof for what was undoubtedly the best meal I have ever put in my mouth.  Neither Bryant nor I had had foie gras before – we may be foodies, but we’re not exactly wealthy foodies – and neither of us like liver, so it was with some trepidation that we headed into the flavors that, for us, were experimental.  There was not one morsel I put in my mouth that was not absolutely heavenly.  If ever there was orgasm inducing food, that was it.

DragonCon Parade Banner

The parade was the next day, and as I said, the costumes were no where near as numerous or as elaborate as they have been in years past, which is understandable as everyone is tightening their belts this year.  Nonetheless, the parade is always fun to attend, and the people we ended up watching it around this year were pretty awesome folks.  We lined up well ahead of the event and had a chance to sit and talk with them for a long time.

We then headed to get in line for the Adam Savage panel.  To be honest, I didn’t expect the line to form as early as it did, but I’m glad I listened to B and we headed on over there.  We managed to be close to the front of the line.  The Sheraton employees proved to be just as rude and obnoxious as last year, but fortunately the DragonCon officials were having none of it.  (Seriously, you guys are my heroes!)  DragonCon continues to be one of those rare places where waiting in a queue for hours can actually be fun and interesting.

Adam was wonderful, as, of course, he would be.  I never did guess what his costume was at the Con (a chewbacca outfit that we must’ve walked past a dozen times and never recognized as him).  He proved to be yet another of those examples where it seems like the stars have just as much fun at the convention as the fans – something that seems to set DragonCon apart from other conventions of its kind.  He talked at length about how Mythbusters became so successful as an educational show rather by accident.  They had set out to entertain, and found out that the scientific method was simply the best way to do what they were setting out to do, and that it gave the show a natural narrative flow.

Saturday night, we went to the DragonCon at the Aquarium event, which was amazing and relaxing.  It was nice to get away from the congestion and the noise, and to sit and watch the whale sharks and mantas seeming to fly across in front of us was absolutely wonderful.

Most of the rest of the weekend was spent people-watching and relaxing and just generally being on vacation.  All in all, we had a wonderful time, and the things that we enjoyed turned out to be the unexpected things.

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I’ve had a number of people ask me about podcasts lately.  It’s an odd enough subject that I was a bit surprised to have several people ask me about them in fairly quick succession, so I thought I’d do a little list of my recommended podcasts.

If you don’t know what a podcast is, well, it’s like a radio show that you can play on an MP3 player (any MP3 player, it doesn’t have to be an ipod) or your computer.  I’m one of those odd people who concentrates better when I’m listening to something, so I listen to a lot of podcasts at work.  I’ve tried, discarded, and become a devoted listener to quite a few.  Naturally, thanks to my interests, they are all suitably geeky in nature.

For the Book / Writing / Grammar Geek:

• Grammar Girl: Quick and dirty tips for those persistent grammar-related questions, done with a sense of humor.
• The Writer’s Almanac: A short little daily show from public radio regarding what’s going on in writing on this day, what has occurred in writing history, and always ending with a selected poem.

For the History Geek:

• Hardcore History: This is my favorite of all of the podcasts, and seems to be one that even non-history geeks might enjoy just because of the way it’s presented.  Dan Carlin goes beyond the pages of the history book and guides you through imagining what things were actually like for the people who lived them.

For the Gamer Geek:

• Analog Hole Gaming: This podcast is definitely not for ginger ears, but it’s the best general-gaming podcast that I’ve come across that, more often than not, leaves me chuckling.
• Game-Specific Podcasts:
  • World of Warcast: This is possibly the oldest continuing WoW podcast, and is a lot of fun. The hosts, Starman and Renata, are both older gamers with Jobs, Families, and Mortgages, so it’s nice to get a more grown-up point of view on gaming.
  • The Instance: The instance is the most popular of the WoW podcasts, it tends to focus on news and strategy discussions with more of a raider point-of-view.

For the Whedonverse Geek:

• The Signal: You can’t stop the signal. This podcast definitely deserves the awards it’s won, and the hosts are well on their way to becoming “celebrity fans” in their own right. They have interviews with whedonverse stars, a radio melodrama based on the Serenity/Firefly universe, and good music.  What’s not to love?

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The goal that the producers of Repo the Genetic Opera claim to have is to create a new rock opera cult hit on the order of Rocky Horror Picture Show.

As far as creating a rock opera masterpiece, they were absolutely successful.  The music blew me away, and considering the number of wonderful musical artists involved, I really shouldn’t be surprised.

The story and setting itself is an interesting mix of dystopian post-apocalyptic horror and science fiction that, in light of the current controversy over health-care and the business end of it, actually provides a great deal of food for thought.  I’m not sure the writers realized, upon setting on the idea, just how much it would fit the feel of the current times.

As horrific as the basic premise of the movie is, it doesn’t seem all that far-fetched, these days.

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The simple fact of the matter is . . . not much.  It’s really hard to set out to create something and not step somewhere that someone else has already been before, no matter what you’re trying to create.  Music builds and improves on the sounds of music past, borrowing and changing and remixing what has been done before.  Artists begin honing their skills through imitation, whether it’s imitation of the world around them or of another artist’s work.  Writers, well, writers may just write the same story another storyteller has told somewhere before.

Even Shakespeare was a plagiarist.  The success of the artist or writer comes not from being completely original, but from doing what has been done in a new and more interesting way.  Putting a new spin on something, taking something that was old and dreary and giving it new life.

The trick, when trying to come up with an idea for a story (or picture, or song) is not to completely avoid all of your possible influences but to take from them as if you’re borrowing a cup of sugar, with love and respect, and to give back. There are tons of common stories that have been done again, and again, and again, each time with differing levels of success. (girl meets guy; cop chases killer; knight sets off on a sacred quest; etc)  You shouldn’t get discouraged just because your story might have been told in some form before.  The trick is to take that same-old story and make it your own. Put your stamp on it, make it live and breathe as only you can do it.

It’s natural to borrow from the styles and techniques of the creators that you most admire, but in the end the story is your baby, no matter how many people have held it and fostered it before, and it’s your responsibility to nurture it to adulthood.  Do it well, and you’ve got something that people will proclaim “original”, even if at its most basic level it really isn’t.

This is why Stephen King can get away with writing the same story repeatedly (Male writer in New England finds himself in strange situation and must act the hero to get out of it) to such success, why J. K. Rowling could write a story about a boy in a magic school (which had been done many times before) and become the richest woman in England, and why Shakespeare could take common stories being told and performed in Tudor England and turn them into literary masterpieces.

They didn’t do anything totally original. They stood on the backs of what had come before and they reached higher, and did what they were doing better than their predecessors, but original, they were not.

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As I was saying before I was interrupted by the Firefox 3.5 update.

I haven’t done one of my random all-encompassing update posts in a while, though, and I don’t have any real over-arching theme for today, so here goes some randomness:

• Remember that comic artist friend of mine, Steph Sakurai (aka S. Cherrywell), that I’ve mentioned on and off here? Well, she’s found a publisher for her first print book at Slavelabor Graphics, an indy comic publisher known for dark humor, but also for their contract work on several Disney properties, including Gargoyles. Steph’s book is due out in January, so start looking for it in your comic shops then!  I’ll have more information, and possibly some cover art previews for you closer to the release date. (For Steph’s webcomics, see Intragalactic and Gorgeous Princess Creamy Beamy)
• I’ve submitted a story to the NPR/New Yorker Three-Minute Fiction contest. If you’re a writer and have something short enough to submit, you should too! It should be any piece of short fiction that can be read in three minutes or less (about 500-600 words), and the winner will be read on national NPR stations.  Once the contest is over, I’ll be putting a copy of the piece up here on my portfolio.
• The hastily declared National GLBT Month of June has passed without comment here, rather as I expected.  Pride parades never seem to make it to small town bible thumping Georgia.  It was a nice gesture on the President’s part, but nothing more than a gesture. I can see both sides of the issue here, the President not wanting to endanger other issues by coming out too heavily on the side of Gay Rights, and the people who complain that what he’s done is no where near enough.
• The costumes still aren’t started, but I have a good picture in my head now of what I want, and fortunately it won’t take nearly as much work or time as The Giant Pink Dress.  Bryant’s costume may still change, however. Looking for some more ideas.
• The cats are being cats. This morning “Brother-Mew” decided he wanted to go to work with me again and went marching out into the garage in front of me and waiting for me at the car.  I  considered asking my boss if we could possibly employ him for part time “work snuggies.”
• Finally, before I bore you all completely to death, a quick congratulations goes out to Kari of Mythbusters on the birth of her baby, Neil Gaiman for winning the Locus award, and my boss for managing to make it through a whole vacation only calling the office once a day.  A fond farewell to Blogatelle, one of the best WoW RP blogs I’ve ever seen. That site, even non-updated, will continue to be a resource that I send new roleplayers to for information for as long as it remains.

And that’s that.  I promise I’ll have, you know, an actual topic when I post again Friday.

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I don’t really have a whole lot to say about this, except the usual platitudes. I still rather sit in shock over what happened.  My thoughts are with the family, and the world has endured the loss of a wonderful talent today.  He will be missed.

We keep losing so many talented and creative minds this way. I always wonder, when I hear something like this, if there is something that fellow artists, actors, writers, and creators, can do to help prevent this sort of end coming to our peers.

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