My essay for Screem #23 came in at 6300 words in first draft. I’m 2/3 of the way through my first editing pass and it’s now down to 6050 words. I expect it will get tightened up a little more before I send it to the editor.
I received my galley copy of 11/22/63 last night. What a brick. 850 pages. Looking forward to tearing into it.
I will have a short story in The Mothman Files edited by Michael Knost. When I was flipping through channels this weekend, I stumbled upon a SyFy film called Mothman starring Jewel Staite of Firefly fame. It was pretty cheesy, but I watched the last hour of it anyway. Mothman takes his vengeance on people who did bad things. My favorite line from the film (but there were a lot of quotable nuggets) takes place after they’ve been battling this creature (who emerges through “shiny” surfaces) for a while. “There’s a banning ritual? Why are we just hearing about this now?”
The World Fantasy Convention web site for 2004 has the following statement: “A Convention DVD of WFC2004 will be mailed to all registered members of our convention once the production is complete. This DVD will include video and still photography from our event in October 2004 including interviews with the guests of honor and other professionals.” My copy showed up last night! I double-checked the postmark to see if it had been lost in the post for the past seven years but, no, it was just mailed a few days ago. Haven’t had a chance to look at it yet, but I look forward to doing so. That was my first WFC. I went because The Road to the Dark Tower was newly out.
We’re nearing the end of season three of Dexter. I had forgotten until this marathon that Margo Martindale (Ma Bennett from Justified) played the records clerk who was Harry Morgan’s friend and close with Dexter, too.
Provenza is always good for some funny lines on The Closer. “Not counting my divorces, I’ve been served 17 times,” he says after the lawyer/process server (hey, it’s Viola from Moonlighting) wallpapers the office. “It’s Flynn,” he says a moment later. “He’s paranoid for a living.” When Brenda realizes that Gabriel asked to be subpoenaed to avoid the appearance that he was cooperating with the plaintiff and then finds out that her husband is also being sued, she cracks up. Much chocolate and wine consumed. She spills wine on the table, pretty much on the words “with intent to kill,” and ends up with what looks like blood on her hands. Nice imagery. Lots of Cinderella joke, too, when they end up with a ruby shoe as evidence. When the pastor’s wife tried to take the blame for the killing, she said, “It’s all about me,” which must have resonated with Brenda, because she’s been telling everyone the lawsuit is all about her.
Another by-the-numbers episode of Burn Notice last week. I got a kick out of the way Sam described Fiona to the Michael Westin lookalike: a tiny little woman in a Hyundai who’s going to protect you. Fi gets her jab in later when she tells Michael he’d “stick out like Sam’s chin.”
The Wil Wheaton/Wesley Crusher effect on this week’s Eureka: Zoe comes back to town and saves the day. Funny line of the episode comes from Zack who tells Carter, “Someone hacked your girlfriend.” That’s one wicked keyfob Barlowe wielded. Glad she’s out of Allyson’s head, though we don’t know how much data she got away with.
That Mike dude on Breaking Bad is getting more awesome by the week. He withstood the machine gun onslaught of two very determined guys who strafed the Los Pollos Hermanos freezer truck (cool interior pov of the bullets coming through the door) and coolly (very coolly, given the temperature) gets up and pumps a bullet into each of them, sending them flying out the back of the truck. He then tweaks the flap of his bullet-mangled ear back into place. Walt later calls him a grunting dead-eyed cretin. He shows up later to bring back the guy who robbed Jesse of $78,000, along with the cash. Jesse stares him down. “You ain’t gonna smoke that dude. You know how I know? You went to the trouble of putting a blindfold on him. Let yourselves out.” But Mike knows Jesse is becoming a liability. After consulting with Gus, he takes him for a ride. “Gonna ask me where we’re going?” he asks his captive. “Nope,” Jesse replies.
The bit where Skyler and Walt solidify their fictional story about where they got the money to buy a car wash was interesting. Good characterization. Hank looked pretty good, too, when they came to visit. More animated than he’s been in a while. The case file must have gotten his blood flowing. Funniest moment of the episode was the karaoke DVD he showed Walt and Walt Jr. that featured the late, lamented Gale doing David Bowie. Walt almost had a heart attack. He manages to get Hank to read him into the case. Hank believes Gale was “his guy,” i.e., Heisenberg. The lab notebook is incredibly detailed, and has the mother of methamphetamine recipes mixed in with instructions on how to make vegan smores. It’s dedicated to W.W. (Woodrow Wilson? Willy Wonka? Walter White?), and Walt pulls out a Hail Mary when he finds a Walt Whitman reference in the book.
And there’s always a good scene with the sleazy lawyer, Saul. “You do have a little shit creek action happening. You know, FYI, you can buy a paddle.” By which he means hire the services of a “disappearer” and drop off the grid forever. I wonder if that will be the series endgame.
