Mabfan's Musings

Two years ago, Smart Pop Books published Webslinger: SF and Comic Writers on Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man edited by Gerry Conway, and I was pleased to have an essay in the book. I grew up in Forest Hills, the same neighborhood of Spider-Man's secret identity, Peter Parker, and as a result I always took a greater interest in the character than I might have otherwise. It didn't hurt that I, like many others, identified with Peter and the difficulties he faced in his regular life. So when I had the chance to contribute to the book, I plumbed my own personal life and wrote an essay about the real Forest Hills, as opposed to the one in the Marvel universe. I explored what Peter's life might have been like had he grown up in the neighborhood of my childhood, noting the actual stores, schools, and sites he would have woven into his background.

Smart Pop Books is promoting their line by running whole essays from their books, and for this week only my essay is available. So if you never picked up the book, but would like to see what I said about Spider-Man (and about my own childhood, come to think of it), check it out here:

"The Friendly Neighborhood of Peter Parker"

My review of the new Harry Potter movie is now up at http://sfscope.com/2009/07/young-wizards-in-lovea-review.html

ckd linked to this story last night, which he found via Consumerist. It's the kind of news story that brings tears to my eyes as I read it. So I share it with you.

Pixar grants girl's dying wish with home viewing of 'Up' (Orange County Register)

My review of Terminator Salvation can be found here:

http://sfscope.com/2009/05/insert-your-own-ill-be-back-jo.html

My review of the new "Star Trek" film is now available on SF Scope at The Future Returns – a review of Star Trek.

Short version: "This isn't just a great Star Trek film; it's a great film, period."

For those interested, my review of the upcoming film Alien Trespass has been posted on SF Scope:

The Ghota Are Coming! – a review of Alien Trespass

"Delightful and charming, Alien Trespass is the best new film of the 1950s."

On Monday night, thanks to the help of a friend whom I shall refer to as D., Nomi and I had a chance to see a preview of the film Watchmen, which opens tomorrow. Because I had a chance to see the movie early, I ended up writing a review for SF Scope, one of the premier websites for news of the speculative fiction fields. (SF Scope is run by my friend Ian Randal Strock, and has an RSS feed on LiveJournal at sf_scope.)

My review is posted as Contemplating Watchmen for anyone who wishes to read it.

New Scientist magazine has posted the articles from their New Scientist Science Fiction Special: The Future of a Genre. All the articles will be appearing in their 15 November issue as well.

The articles include the responses from six writers to the question "Is science fiction dying?"; a series of book reviews, including a list of other great books to read that includes I Remember the Future; and the results of their poll of people's favorite science fiction movies and novels. The winners: Blade Runner and Dune.

I read in the Globe this morning that the Circle Cinema movie theatre, located at the border between Brookline and Boston at the end of the Green Line C, will be closing next month (cf. Curtain will close on two cinemas).

I'm saddened by the news. It's not as if I grew up with the Circle, since I grew up in New York City, but ever since I began living in Brookline the Circle has been a comfort. Nomi and I have gone there to see many movies, and we have some very good memories of the theatre. For example, in December 2001 we caught "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" on opening night at the Circle, and then we made a point of going to the exact same timed show for the two other "Lord of the Rings" films in 2002 and 2003. My memory also tells me that Nomi and I saw "Star Trek VI" there in 1991, although I could be mistaken.

With the Circle gone, our options for moviegoing will become fewer. It's true that in recent years we've gone to the Boston Common or the Fenway more often, but that's been more due to the selection of films at those theatres and less due to location. The Circle's location made it a much easier theatre for us to reach.

I've dealt with this sort of thing before. The Nickelodeon, where I saw "School Ties," closed years ago, as did the Cheri, where I saw "The Hunt for Red October" and "Groundhog Day." And it's not like the closing of a movie theatre is such a major tragedy. (National Amusements said that they'll try to find other jobs for their employees affected by the closings, which is good of them. I hope they follow through.)

And, of course, I've talked about the closing of some favorite bookstores, like Wordsworth and Coliseum Books. Perhaps it's not the loss of the theatre that bothers me, but the erosion of my past...

So, next year I'm up for re-election for Town Meeting.

I got an email today noting that as part of the festivities for the opening of the new New England Comics in New Bedford (that's three "new"s), Batman and Spider-Man will be appearing at the store on Sunday.

So...

Would it be a good idea or a bad idea for me to go the New Bedford store, get a photo of myself with Batman, and use his endorsement in my 2009 campaign?

As 530nm330hz suggests, maybe I should toss a coin...

Nomi and I went to Readercon this past weekend, and we saw a lot of friends and had a good time. I showed off the Advance Reading Copy of my book, and people seemed impressed. I myself am still trying to wrap my brain around it.

I was blown away by "The Dark Knight."

Josh and family have arrived safely in Eugene, Oregon, and I've got plenty more pictures in the gallery I devoted to their trip.

I'm very much enjoying my last two publishing classes. The best part of my class in book marketing and publicity is that it became an independent study, so the instructor is making my homework assignments practical. For example, my current assignment is to create the press kit for my own book. Given that I was going to need to do this anyway, I'm killing two birds with one stone, as the old saying has it.

I continue to enjoy working with Apex Publications. They're a breeze to work with, and have given me a bigger window into the process of publishing my collection than any other company would have.

I've gotten two blurbs for my book already, and I'm humbled and delighted by what Stanley Schmidt and Robert J. Sawyer have said about me and my work. I'll share them later.

I'm hoping to sell more pre-ordered copies of the hardcover, and would welcome any thoughts on how to encourage more sales.

My publishing classes are keeping me busy every night this week, and I suspect I'll be very busy over the weekend as well.

Sleep? I remember sleep. It would be nice to experience it again one day.

As Nomi has mentioned already in her journal, we're off to Readercon this weekend. And since they now feature Thursday night programming, our weekend is starting a day early.

I posted my programming schedule a few days ago, and I snuck in one particular listing. I'm surprised that no one commented on it. Either no one is reading my posts anymore unless they feature my younger brother driving across the country, or people skip convention schedules when they're not planning to be there.

So, let me post that one line once more time:

Friday 12:01 AM: “The Dark Knight” at the AMC Loews Burlington 10

That's right. For the first time in my life that I can recall, I'm going to a midnight movie.

We may be starting out the convention weekend exhausted, but it'll be worth it.

See you all on the flip side.

I spoke to Josh today and mentioned that I was thinking of blogging their trip across the country. For some reason I can't fathom, he was very excited about the idea, so here goes.

Today Josh and Rachel drove from Richmond, Virginia, to Charleston, West Virginia. I was actually in Charleston once to visit a college roommate, so I keep thinking of all the things they could be doing as tourists...but the timing probably won't work out. They've got three kids and three cats in tow.

Anyway, Josh sent me a few photos from day one, so here they are. Here's Rachel driving the car:

Rachel Driving 07-10-2008

Josh made sure to purchase a copy of the New York Times at a Starbucks in Virginia, in case I had a letter in it. He tells me he plans to stop at a Starbucks every day so he can keep up with the Times:

New York Times From Waynesboro, VA 07-10-2008

This was the first sight that greeted them as they crossed the border from Virginia to West Virginia:

First Sight in West Virginia 07-10-2008

And here's a sign from the first rest area/tourist spot they stopped at:

Rest Stop in West Virginia 07-10-2008

Finally, Josh asked me to pass along a request.

Rachel is an X-Files fan. I mean, a major X-Files fan. She is such a big X-Files fan that she already has a ticket to the new movie "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" for the 10 pm showing on the night of Friday July 25 at the Eugene Valley River Center movie theater. Note that is only one ticket, not two, as Josh isn't interested in seeing the film. So Rachel is looking for a group of people with which to see the film.

In short, if you're in the Eugene, Oregon area and would like to go see the new X-Files movie with my sister-in-law, let me know. I'll pass the message along.

Yesterday I got the CD of music from the movie Juno. I've already praised the movie, and part of what made the movie the best one of 2007 was the soundtrack. The songs fit the mood of the movie's scenes perfectly, and apparently part of the reason was because Ellen Page, the film's star, decided that her character would most logically listen to the music of the Moldy Peaches, a band that includes singer Kimya Dawson, who performs many of the songs on the album.

I'd never heard of Dawson before, probably because I'm not too up on indie rock or the anti-folk movement. But I can understand why her songs are appealing to me. I'm probably not the best person to try to describe her music, but what the hey. Her lyrics are somewhat surreal, her style is acoustic, and her voice is real. There's an idiosyncratic feel to what she's doing, and as I listen to her songs I feel like I'm enjoying an orthogonal view of the world around me. I think it's because the music is filled with bouncing rhythms and catchy tunes, while the lyrics range from simple, sweet observations of life to the mocking of those very same observations.

Okay, that didn't make any sense. But the music is still cool. And if you're in Boston, there's a great opportunity coming up.

I looked up Dawson on the Internet and found, much to my surprise, that she'll be performing locally next Thursday night, January 17, at Newbury Comics. So if there's anyone else out there who was as enchanted by her music as I was, let me know. Maybe we can get a small group together.

(For my friends in NYC: she's in Brooklyn next Tuesday.)

I originally hadn't planned to discuss my thoughts on the "One Day More" story line that just concluded in Amazing Spider-Man 545 a few weeks ago, for two reasons. First of all, I didn't think anyone would be interested in my opinion. And secondly, I presumed that there would be so much discussion in the blogosphere that any of the points I might make would have been made already.

As it happens, though, I've actually been asked for my opinion, since I'm not just a reader of Spider-Man, but someone who grew up in Forest Hills, just like Peter did (cf. my essay "The Friendly Neighborhood of Peter Parker" in the book Webslinger). And as I ruminated over the story, I realized that my thoughts on the story go deeper and further than just this one story itself, into the realm of general thoughts on serialized fiction.

So even if you don't read comic books, or don't care about the adventures of Spider-Man, I think you might find something interesting in here about the writing of franchised characters and the writing of fiction in general. Because I also bring into the discussion Stephen King, William Goldman, and the TV shows Lost and Gilmore Girls. Read on, or just cut to the end, which is a good bit and has Marvin in it. (Well, to be honest, Marvin doesn't appear at the end. But I do reveal if I plan to keep reading Spider-Man.)

( What Would You Do If You Only Had One More Day? )

Finally, for those of you who didn't read through all my pondering, the answer to your question is yes, I will continue to read Amazing Spider-Man for the foreseeable future. I may not be happy about this current development, but I still want to keep up with the life of Peter Parker.

There's an old saying: once is heresy, twice is tradition, three times is sacred tradition. With that thought in mind, welcome to my list of the top ten movies of 2007!

As you can remind yourself by clicking on the above links, Nomi and I don't usually manage to see a lot of new movies in the theatre in any given calendar year. In 2005, we saw only thirteen films, and in 2006, we only caught ten. And yet, I revel in the absurdity of making a top ten list based on such a small sample. So the magic number for 2007 was again thirteen, and out of those thirteen, here are what I consider the top ten films of the year.

[Warning: There might be minor spoilers in the discussion. If you want to be safe, just read the titles, which are in boldface.]

( Michael A. Burstein's Top Ten Movies of 2007 )

And the three that didn't make the list? Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third, and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Hm. The three movies that didn't make the list are all the second sequels to a previous film. Hollywood, I bet there's a lesson in there for you.

(ETA: I completely forgot that I went to see Transformers this year, sans Nomi. I frequently joked that it was the greatest movie ever made, but if I even forgot to mention it when I first posted this... well, I guess that tells us something about the impact that movie made.)

Nomi and I plan to see the new movie National Treasure: Book of Secrets sometime this weekend.

I took a look at the review of the film in the New York Times. The reviewer, Matt Zoller Seitz, understands that it's supposed to be a hokey movie, filled with cheese, although he does criticize it even within that genre (he points out that compared to films like the Indiana Jones series and "North By Northwest" it is lacking).

The best part of the review, however, is when Seitz attempts to lay out the plot. He begins with a rather straightforward recounting of what happened with a Gates family ancestor and John Wilkes Booth:

"Booth just happened to shoot Lincoln on the same night that he and a co-conspirator pressured Thomas Gates into translating a diary page that disclosed the location of Cibola, the fabled lost city of gold. To clear the Gates family name, the good guys must prove the existence of Cibola by finding the long-dispersed fragments of a map, one of which is hidden in a compendium of secrets handed down from president to president."

And then we get this little gem:

"To acquire the cleverly named Book of Secrets, Ben plots to kidnap the current president (Bruce Greenwood) and blah, blah, blah purple monkey dishwasher."

I know it's been around for a while, but I think that will become my new catch phrase.

7:30 PM: Arrive at home after running evening errands. Turn on the television set to see that the NBC Nightly News, at least, is still fresh and new (although an hour old from having been recorded on the TiVo). Surf the Internet.

8:00 PM: In desperation, put on DVD of the 2005 movie The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio borrowed from library. Watch movie to fill time. Charming adaptation, with interesting choices made the screenwriter/director, but not as good as the book.

9:40 PM: Panic. TiVo is recording NBC Monday night lineup. Are the shows reruns?

9:45 PM: Begin watching Heroes. Sigh of relief as we discover the episode is brand new. Enjoy plot twists and story ramp-up.

10:25 PM: Wonder how Tim Kring will actually manage to wrap this up by December 3. Take a few steady breaths to calm down.

10:30 PM: Begin watching Journeyman. Time travel plot, as usual, bends the brain and make us forget the lateness of the hour. Wonder what would happen if Dan Vasser and Sam Beckett arrived in 1988, during the last writers' strike. Would Probe still be on today? (Wonder if I wondered this before.)

11:15 PM: Attempt to make Jon Stewart-style joke in an effort to properly satire current political situation. Fail miserably.

11:20 PM: Pick up book to read before going to sleep. Hey, writers of books aren't on strike. Make a decision to read more.

11:21 PM: Books are boring. Sleep.

Those of us who enjoy television shows and movies as more than casual entertainments are probably all aware that the Writers Guild of America has gone on strike today. The last time this happened, in 1988, the strike lasted five months and killed a lot of TV shows. (I myself bemoaned the loss of Probe, a new show that broadcast perhaps five episodes before the strike brought it to an end.)

Almost anyone who knows me is aware of the fact that I am a strong supporter of unions. I remember my father going on strike in the 1970s when I was a little kid, and how my family went for much of a year not knowing how it would turn out. But Dad stuck to his principles that the writers and editors of the Newspaper Guild deserved more than management wanted to give them. My father died in the strike offices of the Newspaper Guild seventeen years ago last Friday; it's not hard to see that I come by my support of unions honestly.

So it should not come as a surprise to anyone that I support the writers in their strike and hope that they succeed in negotiating a new, fairer contract.

However...

It may be perverse of me to say this, but in some ways I wouldn't mind seeing a long, drawn-out, protracted strike. It would give me a chance to catch up on both my reading and older entertainment options. Nomi and I have been watching old episodes of Doctor Who, and we're still in the middle of the DVD set of the series "The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr." We missed Veronica Mars during its three years of broadcast and have been meaning to catch up with it (again, via DVDs). It has not escaped my notice that the simple fact we have old TV shows and movies on DVD as an option to fill the empty hours of programming buttresses the WGA's arguments that their members deserve a share of residuals for the new media.

Of course, in the end what I hope for will have little, if any, effect on the final outcome. But if it weren't for the strike, we wouldn't have paragraphs such as this one, from the New York Times article "Screenwriters Picket as Strike Begins" by David Carr and Michael Cieply, describing the picket line outside Rockefeller Center in New York City today:

All of the trappings of a union protest were there — signs, chanting workers, an inflatable rat, and a discarded bag of wrappers and cups from Dunkin Donuts. The rat was borrowed from Local 79, an AFL-CIO laborers’ union, and commuted in from Queens.

I just wish they had published a photo of the inflatable rat.

The New York Times today ran a review of a new movie, "Helvetica," which is, believe it or not, all about the career of the Helvetica typeface.

On the film's website, the director, Gary Hustwit, does a good job of justifying why he made a film about a typeface:

Why make a film about a typeface, let alone a feature documentary film about Helvetica? Because it's all around us. You've probably already seen Helvetica several times today. It might have told you which subway platform you needed, or tried to sell you investment services or vacation getaways in the ads in your morning paper. Maybe it gave you the latest headlines on television, or let you know whether to 'push' or 'pull' to open your office door.

Given the discussions I've occasionally participated in about what font editors prefer on manuscripts, I figured that there must be some readers out there who are as intrigued by this film's premise as I am. And hey, they interview someone who was a year or two behind me in high school, so it must be good.