#288. Examiner

#288.

I've been writing movies reviews for Examiner for the past month, which has been interesting. Just thought I'd make a note of that here. It's also been adding to my links list on the right.

#287. Reading List: Fan-Tan

#287.

Currently on the Reading List:

Fan-Tan by Marlon Brando and Donald Cammell. Okay, seriously?!? Yes, a book by Marlon Brando. A work of fiction. Released only a few years ago, Fan-Tan is the product of a long-simmering collaboration between Brando and filmmaker Cammell (both are now deceased), originally intended to be the kind of movie Brando hoped to make, which is plainly evident in the book itself, its character. It's larger than life, just like Brando was, in life and in the pictures. Naturally, as he himself didn't get much of in later years, Fan-Tan didn't get a lot of respect when it was finally released. Call it nonsense, the response, because it really is magic, just like the actor was, just like his acting. I'm not suggesting that he could do no wrong. But this is just another example of his ability to do very, very right. If it stays in print, or in memory, it'll become a classic in its own right. And I can't wait to meet the actor who will finally get it made.

#286. Villainy, Yoshimi

#286.

That's the cover for Villainy, the new anthology from Hall Bros. Entertainment. It's being released on June 9th. This is relevant because I've got a short story included, "Last Ride Out of Liberation," a sort of hard-boiled noir, which should be fun to read. And when I say "short" story, I really do mean "short." But still, should be fun.

The other bit of relevance is that HBE and I have just signed a contract for Yoshimi, a book that will be released next summer. It's the story of a girl thrust into the world of maturity, with samurai swords, a tale of vengeance, a mad dash around the world, and a love story, too. But it does not have robots. Yet.

#285. Blogger Maintenance

#285.

If Blogger hadn't gone done with the maintenance bug yesterday, I would've had some juicy things for you all to read. But I will now make you wait until next Thursday. But rest assured, I won't disappoint.

Unless you don't like cheese.

#284. Reading List: The Book of Samson

#284.

Next on the Navy SEAL-approved Reading List:

The Book of Samson, another book by David Maine, which is really awesome, considering how much I ended up liking Monster, 1959. I had the opportunity to read most of that one on Monday, and so finished another book on the list pretty quickly. Maine has affirmed himself as one of today's most relevant voices, writing in a contemporary, distinctive style, with relevant things to say about yesterday and today, something every writer should take into consideration. I'm only more baffled that he remains mostly undiscovered, and it's probably because his first three books, including Samson, The Preservationist, and Fallen (the link providing you with a sweet example of the used selections available on the Borders website) are all biblical in nature. If the writing this good, this unique, this relevant, then there's no reason to discriminate. If more writers, more people were as cogent of critical thought as Maine, we'd all be better off.

#283. Reading List: Monster 1959, Boogers Are My Beat

#283.
The historic Reading List continues: Monster, 1959 by David Maine is an ode to 50s monster movies, from another of my favorite undiscovered writers. This is actually the first time I've read him, but his are the kid of books I knew would interest me, from the first time I heard about him. This is convenient, that I really do like him, because I've got another of his books lined up on the list right after this one. I don't know how other people choose what to read (mostly by whatever is most convenient, it sometimes seems), but I like to look for the truly original literary voices. Maine is definitely one of them.

I read in a matter of days the previous Reading List selection:

Boogers Are My Beat by Dave Barry, a collection of humor columns that also include his 9/11 essays. One of my favorite writers by far, and with a couple other books on the list, so I get to revisit him again and again!

#282. Reading List: The Third Policeman

#282.

Next on the internationally acclaimed Reading List:

The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien, which I, along with no doubt thousands other, purchased because of its rumored significance to Lost (well, maybe the last season, a little, as it turns out). Awesome enough so far that I've since bought a copy of The Dalkey Archive, which eventually became the basis for an entire publishing company (alas, a link that did not factor in its rejection of Finnegan).

Speaking of Finnegan, I'm revising the opening chapter (which is a process wholly unrelated to revising the final chapter of Ecce Homo, and by "revising" I mean totally rewriting), so that should be interesting.

The book previous to Third Policeman on the list, Tristram Shandy was also interesting. Laurence Sterne, methinks, is probably the apex of classical education. His whole book is about regurgitating his favorite bits of learnage (though it has also inspired me to pursue a little more Jonathan Swift, in the form of Tale of a Tub, one of many literary works Sterne continually references, though draws no particular inspiration from). I look forward to watching the Steve Coogan film. Seems at least one of the reviewers I've checked didn't understand the source material in the slightest. Always funny to call fibs on a critic's so-called authoritative statement. How very shandean!

#281. WrestleMania 27

#281.

Is it Thursday and I haven't mentioned WrestleMania 27 yet? Well, as is traditional, I won't officially have seen it until the DVD release, but from what I've read, sounds like it was a pretty interesting evening. I'll be starting the Jabroni Companion in a few weeks, and I've got all the topics lined up, including a rundown of all 27 WrestleMania main eventts and my top 25 favorite wrestling matches, plus some features on my favorite wrestlers and a variety of other topics.

I should also mention that I've got some exciting fiction news, but I'm going to wait a little bit before saying much more.

Also, still reading Tristram Shandy.

#280. Film Fan, Fan Companion, Star Trek, Jabroni Companion

#280.

The Film Fan is, technically, complete, which is pretty amazing, because I've been working on that particular version of my favorite films list for about a year. The document even with a number of really miniscule write-ups for some of the films comes in at almost ninety pages. I wonder how absurd it would be to write a whole book on my ideas about film. The Fan Companion blog itself was born of an equally absurd idea last year (it began with a series of commentaries on Star Trek that I simultaneously posted at Lower Decks (hence the star backdrop), when I thought I might literally interest Pocket Books with a, well Fan Companion, akin to the official companions it had put out for nearly every Star Trek series (Enterprise got sacrificed both to the diminishing interest in the franchise, and the idea that the Internet would actually replace printed media in the immediate future). I had attempted to solicit several of the writers of those companions, but I only went so far as Facebook, and didn't get very far. I had figured, if I could interest those guys, I could possibly interest Pocket Books. But even Pocket Books couldn't interest anyone in its most recent version of its encyclopedia, Star Trek 101, which was released about a year before the 2009 movie revival, before anyone could be sure they should be interested in the franchise again. I figured it would be neat to have a book that covered a fan's perspective, and not the angry fan who hated and/or nitpicked the franchise to near death by 2005, but someone who genuinely enjoyed Star Trek.

Anyway, following the conclusion of the Film Fan, I'll be entering Slobberknocker Fan territory, the first time I'll have dedicated a whole blog to pro wrestling. Should be interesting...

#279. Fan Companion, Comics Reader, Sigild V, Hall Bros, Ecce Homo

#279.

Figured I should also mention a little of what I've been doing in my family of blogs. Every Thursday I update the Fan Companion (where I've been counting down my 500 hundred film favorites since last fall) and Comics Reader (where I've gotten [forty-five] creator Andi Ewington to sign up as my first official Blogger follower thanks to my hearty recommendation of his graphic novel in the 2010 QB50). I've been steadily working at Sigild V, writing and posting new stories about as regularly as I did with the poetry cycles I've done from 2007-2010. I've been hard at work at a sequence called Lost Convoy for the past few weeks now, posting new installments as the story has blossomed, and it continues to do exactly that. I've got a second act planned that will expand the story, and still not even get us to the point where our lost survivors are reunited with the rest of the fleet, not to mention barely mentioning much of the apocalyptic context!

But beyond that I've just posted a handful of short stories ("Bound by Blood," "The Insomniac's Dream," and "Monkey Palm") I wrote last year, several of which were rejected by my pal A.C. Hall for one of his Hall Bros. anthologies, though not too many sour grapes, since I got a story called "Last Ride Out of Liberation" included in the upcoming Villainy anthology, and even selected as Ace's editor's pick, which I'm terrifically proud of.

Have I even mentioned that I finished writing Ecce Homo in the final hours of last Friday? I'm also really happy about that. And so begins the long process of getting the darned thing published. Hey, Ecce Homo, have you met Finnegan, your brother in that struggle? But seriously, I worked on that sucker from October to last month, and while I spent long periods of time not actually writing, it was another revealing experience at what it takes for me to write a novel, and I'm probably more proud of this one than either of the other two (but I like those, too). Hopefully the world really will get a chance to judge for itself.

#278. Reading List: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

#278.

Next on my Reading List:

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Stern, a wacky little book written some time ago, perhaps made a little more famous for modern readers with the Steve Coogan movie. I'm excited about this one, but the introduction in my version (which wasn't listed on the Borders website, something of a recent anomaly) is just brutal, enough to make me wish I were reading anything else. Usually intros aren't this bad. Why oh why, [insert name here]? But I remain undeterred...

4/21/11 edit: Turns out that intro wasn't as bad as I thought, since I did go back and have another look. But it's also exactly as bad as I thought. Dude did not really contextualize at all. That's what you do with intros. Instead it was as rambling as Tristram himself. Wait a minute...

#277. Jerome Charyn, Chris Jericho

#277.

Before I get to the latest Reading List book, I thought I'd take some time talking about a couple of books I recently finished, including the last selection, Jerome Charyn's Raised by Wolves.

Now, as I noted when I wrote up the listing last week, I fell into this weird confluence of Charyn and Quentin Tarantino before I became a big fan of Charyn's writing, from Johnny One-Eye, one of his most recent novels. But Charyn cast a long shadow before that one, a fact I helped acquaint myself with over the last few years, having recently added The Tar Baby and The Green Lantern to my collection (you can imagine, Theoretical Reader, knowing my affinity for the DC hero about to get his own movie, that the title alone of that last one intrigued me; alas, of course, no relation).

Anyway, I noticed a pattern the deeper I went into Charyn's backlog, and that's that Jerome likes to revisit historical figures in whimsical ways (a little of what drives Peter Ackroyd, who preceded with two books Raised by Wolves on the List, remember). Reading Wolves was like seeing an entirely different facet of him. Of course, he does present himself as both a deep scholar of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, but less so of Jackie Brown and Kill Bill (the book was published before Grindhouse or Inglourious Basterds, so cannot comment on them), and he instead falls back on a more relaxed attitude concerning their worth, is considerably, lightly, hostile toward them, in fact. It ends up making Charyn seem less discerning and more interested in following popular trends, falling into others footsteps, as it were.

This is mildly troubling, since I'd begun viewing him as something of a kindred spirit, something that in my experience is few and far between. I had hoped he might better analyze than the norm the bulk of Tarantino's career (since that's about as much as the book amounts to), so was disappointed to read that he doesn't offer the same scrutiny to movies that are less universally loved.

I am aware of the fact that different opinions do in fact exist, and that he is free to believe whatever he wants, but to have written a book about someone might have implied that he has a more abiding interest in the subject than the average person. That simply wasn't the case, and as a result, I feel a little more alienated from an individual that I have been otherwise proud of "discovering."

Okay, so that's that. I've also recently completed Chris Jericho's latest book, Undisputed. I loved his first book (available in stores now), and I loved this one, too, but again, it was a little disturbing to learn a little too much about his general psyche. In it he reiterates his displeasure with Bill Goldberg, the WCW phenomenon only WWE could kill (he said in jest, because it was in fact WCW that thoroughly decimated him). Back in 1998, it seems, when Goldberg was in the midst of his championship run, he refused to work a straight program with Jericho, which was one of his primary motivations to eventually leave the company and sign with WWE. What Jericho has refused to acknowledge all these years is that tiny fact, that Goldberg was in fact world champion at that time. Jericho had never even sniffed the main event level at that time, and had only been with the company for two years.

It gets more and more interesting. One of Jericho's biggest idols, I'll remind you, was Shawn Michaels. HBK's singles push with WWE began roughly in 1992. He didn't become world champion until 1996, four years later. I just want to maybe suggest to Jericho (besides, be light on your feet!) that he could have been a little smarter about that situation. Okay, so I'm pleased it delivered him to WWE a year later, but if he'd smartened up then, he might have saved himself a world of trouble. He recounts his reign as undisputed champion as something of a huge failure, that one of the few bright spots was when he finally won, however briefly, the respect of Vince McMahon by, well, acting like a champion. Here's where I further suggest, given the context I've reiterated about Goldberg, that maybe Jericho might have understood why his dream push against the champion didn't happen, and he got the attitude he did...because, hell, he's really froot.

Anyhoo. I really do respect Y2J, wish him the best of luck (light on your feet!), hope he wasn't cast to be the first one voted out (again!). He just needed a little seasoning. And he got it. The book covers his WWE tenure only between 1999-2005. He would enjoy far greater success in his 2007-2010 run, becoming a legitimate world champion and main event presence. But you don't have to take my word for it.

Also, reading this one finally made me take Fozzy seriously. They're froot!

#276. Reading List: Raised by Wolves

#276.

Next up on the Reading List:

Raised by Wolves by Jerome Charyn, one of those awesome pieces of synergy I was absolutely not going for at the time. I became a huge Charyn fan some time after picking this book up either in late 2006 or early 2007, so this book was bought based on my interest in Quentin Tarantino, which itself has only increased (see: Inglourious Basterds). So to finally get around to reading this one might give you a sense of how this list works. (I should also note that I'm always reading several books at once; this list is only representative of my "most serious" interests, which is to say not the ones that I will randomly read simultaneously.)

#275. Borders, The Rock, Mr. Anderson, Ecce Homo, Seven Thunders

#275.

Gotta mention the Borders news from this week. While the store I work at is perfectly safe at the moment, the one I opened in Burlington, MA back in 2006 has closed, so that is what I am sad about. Also, there's one in Erie, PA that closed, too, and I went to college in that town.

Other big news from the week: The Rock! Finally...The Rock has come back...! This is such huge news in wrestling that it's beyond obvious. Very excited. I would cynically say he came back because he finally realized he would never be fully embraced by movie audiences as much as he has by the movies themselves. He's by far the msot successful wrestler to ever appear on the big screen, but...c'mon, The Rock is first and foremost the most entertaining (electrifying) wrestler there has ever been, not just a gimmick but one of the most complete presences ever possible. I secretly hope he fights Undertaker at WrestleMania XXVII (it's too obvious a shot at the one person truly capable of selling the Deadman's first defeat at the event), even though I know there are three other opponents currently lined up for Taker (Wade Barrett, Sting, or Triple H, and out of those I'd ideally like Sting, and can only imagine the promos). Anyway, he's back!

Also, Mr. Anderson did lose the TNA world title at Against All Odds, but that speaks more to Jeff Hardy's legitimacy as champion than Anderson's. Ken has plenty more chances to win it back, now that he's finally done it the first time.

...Also, still working on Ecce Homo. When I actually write, it works really, really well! Very close to finishing, and have so much mapped out, it's really just a matter of writing. This has been a very interesting process. On a side note, I swapped the order of the next two books I'll be writing, since the War of 1812 book I finished recently helped me map out a little more of Seven Thunders, which has technically been my passion project since 1998...

#274. Reading List: Lambs of London

#274.

The latest book on my Reading List:

Lambs of London by Peter Ackroyd. The Clerkenwell Tales, by the way, was as awesome as I could have wanted. Because I found myself with enough time, I read the last hundred pages in a day, and I don't often read, even with all the time possible, that much like that, only when really motivated usually (though strangely I never really did that for school). Ackroyd truly is a literary treasure, something I don't mind reiterating. This particular book concerns a real-life brother and sister team who ends up fabricating a "lost" Shakespeare play.

#273. 2011 Royal Rumble, Sigild V, Ecce Homo

#273.

I gotta say, last Sunday's Royal Rumble, and I'm talking the rumble itself, was probably among the best overall rumbles WWE has ever done. I would say it was technically brilliant, not only playing to all of the major storylines and strengths of the current roster, but even pulling a few tricks out of the bag. I mean, even Chris Masters had a spot! And speaking of spots, I know I'm a John Morrison partisan, but if it hadn't been designed otherwise, 2011 would have been a perfect year for him to win, at least with that guardrail spot of his! But the Nexus/Corre was used to perfection, John Cena, even the Great Khali. I mean, seriously, pound for pound, so much thought was put into this one, you might call it, already, a serious match of the year candidate.

And of course, Alberto Del Rio won it. I know this may seem a tad premature for a guy who has skirted more rivalries than he's had real matches in his WWE tenure, but the guy is the find of the new millennium for the company. He's the new Ric Flair. I'm talking 1970s Ric Flair, when the Nature Boy was originally making his name, establishing his legacy. I'm sure he wasn't beloved by everyone back then, but he was the best of the game, and he only got better, and more beloved, the more he stuck around. Ric Flair was supposed to be the consummate heel. He wasn't supposed to be liked. But he became one of the most beloved performers wrestling ever saw. Every major comeback he made, and there were quite a few of them, was thanks to the fact that the fans loved him so much.

Alberto Del Rio is not the Ric Flair you know. But Alberto Del Rio has all the tools to become that man. To become the man...Winning the Royal Rumble in 2011 is a step in that direction. Hell, winning at WrestleMania practically guarantees that he's there.

Anyway...that's some recent wrestling thoughts.

Now, somewhat obviously, I've got a new blog project, Sigild, my new short fiction forum, which I hope to expand, when I've properly established it, and make it the hub of a whole community. That's the dream.

I'm one section away from completing Ecce Homo. It's been a long haul, but the ride will have been worth it. I've been holding off putting Finnegan into the hands of other publishers, but I think I'm just about ready. It sounds a little weird, but I wanted total confidence in my third book before I could fully regain it for my second, which I've been trying to get published for the past year.

...Somewhere, talking about pro wrestling and literary fiction in the same blog post really does make sense...

#272. Reading List: The Clerkenwell Tales

#272.

Next on the internationally acclaimed Reading List:

The Clerkenwell Tales by Peter Ackroyd, an author I discovered by chance in college, after discovering the then-recently published Plato Papers, which quickly became one of my all-time favorite books. But I hadn't read another book by Ackroyd since, because, criminally, he's relatively hard to find, even though he is, like the equally semi-obscure Jerome Charyn, one of our finest living authors. But in recent years, I've managed to collect a few of his more recent books, and he's due up on the Reading List, least with the two of three currently on it (I've got his acclaimed London: The Biography, but that'll be for some future version of this already extensive list).

#271. Skippy Dies

#271.

Because I have a terrible, terrible condition, I just keep buying books, even though I've got far too many already. My most recent acquisition is Skippy Dies by Paul Murray, one of those literary pieces of literature that so many readers are petrified of. I came across it while I was shelving other books. Well, I shouldn't say I came across "it" so much as the three volume edition that's in the link. I'm a sucker for that sort of thing. I read 2666 and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in the same kind of edition, so I naturally associate only really exceptional books with the volume format. I don't know when I'll actually get around to reading it, but I figured it was worth noting.

#270. Mr. Anderson = World Champion

#270.

Can't believe I didn't make a note of this back on Monday, but very, very pleased that Mr. Anderson has finally become a world champion. On the whole, at least for the past year, I'd give TNA the edge as far as world champions go. Last year they stood behind AJ Styles, RVD, and Jeff Hardy, all wrestlers who have demonstrated real commitments as in-ring performers. Anderson just happens to be the first one in a while who can also be counted on to deliver as a personality. It's something the company really needs, and the way he became champion was brilliant. Those who got Genesis thought they were going to have another PPV headlined by a couple of guys fighting merely to become the number one contender, but instead got that and the actual championship match, and all three competitors, Hardy and Matt Morgan, have been involved in a program for the past few months at least, while Hardy and Anderson have been going at each other (and occasionally tagging together) for much of the past year. It's cohesive, and that's exactly what TNA needs, some real momentum. Like him or hate him, but Anderson as champion represents that.

Not to take anything away from WWE, but when the most exciting world champion you had in 2010 was Kane, then there was definitely not a lot of cohesion there. But it was definitely a transition year for both companies. 2011 should be interesting.

#269. Leo Five

#269.











Above are five really crude Leo Five cartoons. You can see for yourself how really, really crude they are. Why the heck am I even posting them? Well, long story short, I've been an amateur cartoonist pretty much my whole life. Recently, I picked up a couple of Penny Arcade collections, and that's pretty much why these are here. This is not to say Leo Five is inspired by or responding to Penny Arcade, just that you know who to blame directly. There's a cat named Tristan referenced in one of them because it's a nod to the indirect inspiration behind this whole debacle, an overheard and misheard set of names. There is obviously no one actually named Leo Five. Which means there should be a really, really crude cartoon strip named Leo Five.

...Obviously...