Read this on loan from a friend. This was something I would not have normally found. Part of the reason I enjoy things like the read harder challenge is finding things that don’t fit my ‘normal’ reading patterns.
I enjoyed this. It was a nice story. I’m super glad there was a positive message and a positive message in here.
I’m not a fan of ‘come to the pay web site to get more story’ bits built into the comic panels, but creators need to make money. It didn’t detract too much, but it did detract for me.
Yes, it’s my birthday. Yes, I am
totally cheating and setting this up to post when it is NOT actually
my birthday (computers and schedules and technology helping me out on
this one).
I’m not going with the posts you see
from so many about how birthdays don’t feel all that different, etc.
but instead will say this one DOES in fact feel different. This year
is a weird one. It’s close to a big birthday, but not quite there.
I’ve started to feel like I’m just getting started on so many things
and that certain aspects of my life are really starting to take off.
Other parts of my life I wonder what the hell I;m doing and why
things I truly enjoy are floundering and waiting and taking so much
time with no clear results.
The world clearly doesn’t particularly
care that it’s my birthday. It’s Monday and I’ll be at the office as
usual. I don’t tell folks there when my birthday is nor do I expect
them to celebrate in any fashion. A quiet and productive day would be
enough.
I look forward to seeing some close friends and having a good dinner for my birthday. I’ve gotten a couple of fantastic gifts so far – and I’m very thankful for them. I haven’t asked for anything – it’s all from people who thought it would be nice to give me something. I have fantastic family and friends. That makes any day better, but birthdays in particular.
I wonder if next year will be better or weirder or just different? Guess I’ll just have to forge ahead and see what this year brings!
This is actually more of a 3.5 stars than a flat 3. I’ve seen Mr. Rollins perform his spoken word tour a couple of times now. I like his way of telling a story. I got this book at one of those shows and he was kind enough to sign it for me.
I dove into this hoping it was going to be like reading a story in his voice. That was NOT the case at all. This book was a list. An exhaustive, extensive and might I add LONG list of names, dates, places and music.
I forged my way through this book in much the same way I feel that Mr. Rollins seems to charge into whatever he’s working on. It’s work. It’s about moving forward. There’s always anger and repetitive things. I fell into this rhythm of going along with whatever mood he was writing about and just moving from entry to entry with no goal and no answers. Perhaps that is what he was going for? I’m not sure. It’s a long book that essentially describes that he travels, he listens to music, he is angry, he takes pictures, he walks the streets whenever and wherever he can and is a ferocious workaholic.
There are tidbits of good stuff in this book, but his spoken word is sincerely much better. I was hoping for a conclusion, a summary of some kind but I didn’t get it. I will close this review with the same words he closed the book with. Fuck it.
As I wrote the post title I was struck
by the number. The 53rd convention from BSFS. I know I’m
the “new guy” to many, having only really started at Balticon 27
but this convention has always seemed like my ‘home con’ if that
could even be such a thing (that’s 26 years for those that don’t want
to ‘math’). I’m not joking about the ‘new guy’ thing either. I know
at least one person that has gone to every Balticon. Part of my
recounting of number of visits to the convention stems from how many
people I didn’t see there this year. I came up with a dozen folks off
the top of my head that, through various circumstances or choices,
simply didn’t make it to the con this year. It felt oddly empty.
Logically it wasn’t, but it felt that way.
I will say that I was very impressed
with the con team this year. Registration *always* has problems with
my wife and daughter. I don’t know why – but the mistress of
registration remembered me and it was much smoother this year than in
years past. The con added a ribbon option this year for people that
wanted to have a clear definition of what pronoun they prefer. I
think this was an excellent option for those that were interested in
having one or felt they needed it. While I did not use one myself
(moving rapidly toward the land of the dinosaur) I did find it useful
from time to time. Thankfully I didn’t see anyone abusing it. The art
show was bigger than I’ve seen it in some time. There was a lot of
great work on display there – and I ended up coming home with two
new pieces. Programming was very strong. They got information out
early, had the schedule posted ahead of their normal time and were
quite active at the con itself… more on that in a minute.
It was an adventure to get to the
hotel. The interstate we take to get there was shut down and all
traffic diverted off to side roads. We managed to avoid the worst of
the traffic, but it sent us off into the wilderness for a while. A
longer ride there than normal.
I started the weekend off with 3 panels
on Friday night. I felt like the panels were decent and that I
contributed without being super awkward or out of place. Writing
military campaigns was my weakest of the day. Genre in the age of
binge watching was decent, but uneven. Bad movie adaptations could
have been better (I’m not a fan of throwing it to the audience right
away). On the upside I was told one of my statements / arguments
actually inspired a panel for next year.
Saturday brought all kinds of weird
with it. At loose ends with no panels for the entire day I could do
as I pleased. I took some time to wander the con and check things
out. I got to spend a lot of time in the art show. I checked out the
vendor tables. I got to sit and chat with my friend Jay and get
started on an upcoming project (totally a secret for right now).
While we were sitting and working, Jay needed to go and be on a
panel. I decided I would be supportive and headed to the panel with
him.
I’m not going to recount all the
details here, but that particular panel was not good. Jay told me I
was ‘not contractually obligated’ to stay, but I felt as if I was
abandoning him to a terrible fate. It devolved so quickly that I
bailed out after about 15-20 minutes. Apparently my fears were not
unfounded. I was told it got worse after I left.
This is the part where I explain how
the programming team was active during the convention. I was
approached later in the day by the head of programming (after being
pointed out by the con safety team and flagged down). I gave my view
of the events of the panel. The head of the convention was called
over. I was asked to recount my view of things again. The problematic
individual was subsequently pulled from all panels for the remainder
of the weekend. I’m not going to call that person out. I was a
witness and not directly involved with the event in question. I gave
my view on matters and that was enough for the incident in question.
I’m certain there were lots of hurt feelings over the whole thing. I
hope the person in question gives the whole thing some thought and
uses it as a learning experience rather than fuel for some kind of
grudge.
Quick tips from my point of view about
convention panels:
1: Being the moderator of a panel does NOT
mean you’re the primary speaker
2: The audience is there for ALL the
panelists generally, and sometimes for ONE in particular – and that
might not be you
3: There are panelists that know more
than you and people that have different experiences than you – let
them speak ( please note that the gender of said individual plays no
part in that statement)
4: Stay as focused as you can
(difficult, I know) on the actual topic of the panel and the stated
level of expertise it’s aimed at
5: Panelists are volunteering their
time. Being angry at them, talking them down, demanding they defer to
the moderator is generally the path to a really bad experience
That list is not all inclusive, but
relevant to the past weekend.
Saturday night featured a riot in the
streets of Baltimore – in front of the convention hotel. No, I’m
not joking. Thankfully I was able to avoid any issues with that, but
a handful of other con goers were not so fortunate. To my knowledge,
everyone came out the other side OK and relatively unscathed.
My Sunday at the con featured two more
panels. I got to talk about traumatizing your characters in your
writing (and why you don’t necessarily need to) AND I got to talk
about the future of energy. The trauma panel was really interesting
and I’m glad I got to be part of it. It was really well moderated and
the discussion was far ranging with many different opinions and story
telling tidbits.
The future of energy panel was an up
and down thing for me. I’m going to do a separate write up for the
actual content from my point of view because it was far more
interesting than I initially thought it might be. I’m also going to
see if I can use some of the notes from my fellow panelist Jim. He
had some great points and information. I hope the audience enjoyed
the panel as much as I did.
There was also shopping, chatting with
friends that were there, games in the game room and a fantastic
dinner out with amazing ice cream immediately following.
I had a nice, relaxing weekend. The
convention itself felt a little like things might be shifting or
changing, but that’s something to think about for next year. This was
a really good con.
I recently posted about a small moment
in the juggernaut movie that is “Endgame” that my daughter
related to.
I was not the only one that noticed
this scene. Others were not impressed but did not have the same
perspective I did. While
my post has one specific spoiler moment, these posts have many. In my
last post I was not trying to claim victory for the MCU. They’re a
business (stupidly successful) and will do what makes money. IF
they’re as smart as this long movie arc says they are, you’ll see
more and better.
Given
how politics have played out recently, I know we need more attention
to this sort of thing. We MUST do better. I think we will. For my
daughter’s sake, I hope we do.
I frequently joke that I eat stress for breakfast.
There is some truth to me living with what most people would
call extremely stressful conditions on and off over the past 15 years or so. Well,
lately ‘breakfast’ has not been agreeing with me. I have had a lot of stress
over the past couple of weeks (a lot even for me) and it has impacted a lot of
things. It’s taking a physical toll as well as killing my creativity and my
ability to work on other projects.
The literally 7 things that broke or broke down around my house (needed to get a new dryer, you know, little things like that) are now in hand (so’s the door handle to the back door, but that’s going to be fixed soon too). The building project at my house is six weeks behind schedule, but my contractor has assured me they’ve got things worked out with the township regarding our building permit and that we’ll get back underway this week. Hopefully they’ll be able to work around the pool the weather has created for us.
Mud is getting deep…
I am slowly getting back on track, but I almost feel like I’ve
got a hangover ~ without all the fun parts leading up to that. Creativity for
me does require some amount of “mood” and inspiration. I think I’m going to
have to work out a new story where stress becomes a literal monster… maybe I’ll
be back on track sooner than I thought?
There are a lot of reviews out there for Endgame. There are vast numbers of opinions about the movie. I’m not going to dig into plot holes. I’m not interested in dissecting the merits of this giant movie on the basis of critical storytelling or decry a movie that will clearly crush all records.
This was more than a movie. This was an event. This lands in the same place as Harry Potter premiers. It was more than that even – the last time I genuinely recall people clapping and cheering and openly weeping in a theater like this was WAY back when I went to see Rocky IV in the theater. There were huge lines and nobody was arguing or pushing or being rude – we were all desperate to see the story. Where were we going? Who was going along for the ride? We sat in the aisles and nobody cared, it was just about packing in everyone to see the event.
I WILL PUT SPOILER MATERIAL IN HERE – TURN AWAY NOW IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE IT.
What I am going to talk about is something very specific. During the huge battle between Thanos with all his forces and the Avengers with all the people they “snapped” back into existence – there is one particular scene where a large number (all?) of the female characters on the Avengers side of the battle stepping up into the heroic line up pose – you know the one, where they’re all shoulder to shoulder with the wind blowing their hair while they look fierce – they pose, they say something to the effect of, “she won’t be alone” and then they go and kick ass.
It’s a super contrived moment. It actively pulled me out of the battle scene. I found it startling that they would do something so completely… I want to call it pandering. I do. That’s a strong word, but I’m not feeling too generous right now. That bit stands out to me as a blatant money grubbing, make people happy because we think this is what they want kind of nonsense that turns me off to films.
BUT
You know who that moment wasn’t for? It wasn’t for me. Just like when I talked about Black Panther not being a film that was directed at me. I am not the demographic they’re looking for. The big Jedi mind trick right here. This is not the moment you were looking for… It was NOT for me.
Who was it for? It was for my 14 year old daughter. My amazing, wonderful, fierce daughter who has not spent years being jaded by shabby story telling or dissecting plot lines looking for weakness. Guess what happened when she saw that scene? She clapped and cheered and whooped like I have not seen her do before. THAT was the target demographic. She was the one meant to see that scene, just like thousands and thousands of other amazing young women out there that have somebody on screen that is like them. They have heros now. I believe this will be a film, and a particular scene that will stay with my daughter for a very long time and that alone makes the entire thing worth while. She is going to have so many worlds filled with imagination and stunning stories to take with her as she grows and ventures out into the world.
I hope she keeps that moment. I hope it gets stuck in her head and gives her a place to go when the world becomes its shitty self and I can’t shelter her. I hope she has some joy and tears and fun that was the event of going to see Endgame.
That would make it all worth it.
Just to avoid ending on a completely serious note – there was one other thing about this movie that I am really happy about. One blonde wig, one pair of sunglasses and one bathrobe and I can totally cosplay Thor now.
One of my stories that I put out for consideration is close to finding a home! I have some work to do and some edits to make, but it could be a success.
Along those lines – the publisher is running a Kickstarter campaign. I had all kinds of things to say about supporting it and other thoughts. I scheduled this post to go up trying to time things out to get more attention over time… and it funded already! I had to come back here and do some quick edits!
So ~ stretch goals. If you are so inclined, head on over and see about supporting some fantastic work!
I read this book once back in the 90s and wanted to bring it to one of my book groups for discussion. Thankfully they were more accepting of my choice than I have been of my own choice.
The first time I read this it stuck with me enough to make me want to read it again. This time through I can’t tell if it’s the fact that I’ve grown or changed in my tastes or if political times have changed and the things I thought were ‘cool’ at the time seem less so now.
There’s a lot of really interesting stuff in this future noir story. The main character might be considered trans… but might not be. I’m not sure. He is certainly broken and living in a gray area. There are animals that have been elevated to become a servant class – smart enough to work and understand things, but not enough to become full first class citizens. There is constant drug use and abuse (although this might be a remnant of the 1980s). There are babyheads, and I’m not sure what the hell or why. I’m really not.
This is also a dystopian story. It is a society where asking questions is frowned upon. Watch your color screen with soothing music and be happy. If you’re not happy, take more drugs and stop asking questions.
As much as I might have enjoyed this once upon a time, something has changed. There is a lot to discuss in this story so I definitely recommend it for that. If noir / odd is your thing, this book is for you.
