L is for Lions for Lambs (#382)

You know you've done something wrong when even your target audience rebels against your film.  Hollywood has a fairly conservative policy in filmmaking, but is mostly run by liberal-minded people.  When a film like Lions for Lambs (2007) comes around, it shouldn't come by surprise, but this one bends almost every rule by being, essentially, a talking points drama that it ended up baffling not only its intended audience, those who theoretically were already primed to hear the War on Terror discussed into a moral quagmire, but didn't even start a conversation.  Granted, audiences very quickly proved aversed to watching movies that took critical stances on current events, so it's no surprise that Lions for Lambs joined the garbage heap with little fanfare, but it was such a unique experiment, like The Vagina Monologues for the pundit set that you might have thought the reaction might have been a little different.  It just goes to show that the name "Robert Redford" doesn't mean what it used to.  Other big names attached include Meryl Streep (apparently a few years too early for all the ridiculous gushing praise for a career that has gotten full of itself and has now led to a historic three Best Actress honors at the Oscars) and Tom Cruise (waaay too early at this point for anyone to start admitting they still liked him), while Andrew Garfield, Derek Luke, and Michael Pena add some fresh voices to the mix.  To me, this was instantly one of the more important experiments, another classic viewpoint that could be interpreted either way you want it to (and that's probably what infuriated those who wanted it only one way, close- rather than open-ended).  So I've been looking to extend awareness of this curiosity.

Star Trek bonus!

L is for Locarno, Nicholas
(from Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Easily one of the more fascinating characters on Voyager was Tom Paris, who never quite had the ability to have the full arc of his story explored, given that his past was something he was trying to live down and his future would never really be resolved until the crew got home.  Played by Robert Duncan McNeill, Paris became an instant surrogate for anyone who remembered "The First Duty," which featured Nicholas Locarno, who was also played by McNeill and had a similar incident that was for most people the defining moment of an inglorious Starfleet career.  Paris wasn't Locarno, it should be stressed (though it'd be easier if there had ever been a definitive account of just how Paris ended up in that penal colony), but he was still one of the more intriguing characters in Star Trek, a rebel who played by his own rules and occasionally got burned because of it.  Locarno was just a self-serving jerk, who expected everyone to hide the truth of a mistake that ended in tragedy, and was disappointed when it didn't work.  Yeah, it would have been nice to see if anything ever came of him, but Paris quickly proved to be a more interesting variant, especially given his connection to Captain Janeway and the fact that his father was a Starfleet admiral.  Circumstances helped Paris stand out, his odd association with another character played by the same actor.  But don't make the mistake assuming that you know everything about him just because you saw "The First Duty."  Tom Paris is not Nicholas Locarno.

A-to-Z Challenge!

K is for Kalifornia (#381)

Kalifornia (1993) is a fascinating sociological study, first and foremost, a look at the impact of our continuing obsession with "true crime" and the clash of cultures it represents.  David Duchovny, an actor who had to wait until The X-Files to truly be noticed (and who quickly sank back into semi-obscurity once it concluded) stars, teaming up with Michelle Forbes (another actor who never really got their due, mostly because she ran from her biggest role, as Ensign Ro in Star Trek) as photojournalists touring grizzly crime scenes.  Things become interesting when they agree to let a couple of rednecks tag along, including the predictably unpredictable Juliette Lewis and Brad Pitt in one of his I'm-not-just-a-pretty-face roles (probably one of the more colorful performances in that regard).  Morbid curiosity in violence tends to overlook the underlying causes, which probably ought to be the real goal, so that in studying it you actually enable it (goes for all those crime TV shows, too!), and that's exactly what ends up happening to the lead characters.  Yes, Lewis and Pitt are horrid caricatures of white trash in this movie, but that's exactly what they need to be, because Duchovny and Forbes are unsuspecting yuppie trash, and they have no idea.  White trash and yuppie trash never have any idea what they actually are.  Stick them in the same room and you've got nothing but trouble.  Maybe a movie like Kalifornia is intended to make that clear.

Star Trek bonus!

K is for Kirk, James Tiberius
(From Star Trek)
The new J.J. Abrams movies are ensuring that Kirk becomes the cultural icon that Star Trek fans always believed him to be, taking him out from the shadow of William Shatner and allowing Chris Pine to define him in a more universal light as the adventuring, analytical, ladies man he was always meant to be.  Fearless in the face of danger and fully confident of his abilities, Kirk also became known, thanks to Shatner for believing in his own judgment sometimes to excess, ignoring the opinions of others sometimes to his own detriment, whether he realized it or not.  That was made clear as a trait in Pine's first go-around, and adds new dimensions to his relationship with Spock, who is arguably the more instantly iconic character from the original set of Star Trek characters.

A-to-Z Challenge!

#380. Fan Companion, Wasteland, Zetar

Over at Fan Companion, I'm continuing my look at individual episodes of Star Trek: Voyager, now moving on to its sixth season, which has traditionally been viewed in a somewhat negative light (and is arguably one of the main reasons the whole franchise went into hibernation and eventual transmutation).  I happy to like the season, so it'll be fun writing about it.

I've written commentaries for two additional paperback collections of Wasteland at Comics Reader.  I'll be finished up with the existing collections by next week, and will be writing about Neil Gaiman's Sandman, as represented by the first annotated collection, released earlier this year.

At Sigild, I'm continuing my "Star Trek '12" fiction project, exploring every century of recorded franchise history, one significant event at a time.  This time we hark back to "The Lights of Zetar," from the original series.

J is for Jackie Brown (#379)

Jackie Brown (1997) tends to get the least amount of attention from among Quentin Tarantino's fans, or film fans in general.  Everyone knows how Tarantino took the movie world by storm with Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, and later with Death Proof (his contribution to Grindhouse), Kill Bill, and Inglourious Basterds, but for me, the proof in the pudding of Tarantino's incomparable love for film is Jackie Brown, which on the surface is an homage to classic blaxploitation flicks, starring a queen of the genre, no less, in Pam Grier, and if that's how you want to appreciate it, fine.  You can also enjoy it as a fairly traditional Tarantino adventure with Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Tucker, and Bridget Fonda.  There's also a subdued Robert De Niro to enjoy.  But for me, the real star and attraction is Max Cherry, bail bondsman, played by perennially undervalued Robert Forster (who had the honor of being featured in the season of Heroes everyone decided the series had definitely lost its mojo, and was even in last year's The Descendants, but you'd hardly know it).  Forster is the picture of cool maturity, and the calm center of Jackie Brown, and it's his chemistry with Grier that gives any meaning to her performance, which is purposefully minimalist.  If you want to know what Tarantino is like underneath all the posturing, Jackie Brown is your best bet.  He's brilliant all the way through.

Star Trek bonus!

J is for Janeway, Kathryn
(from Star Trek: Voyager)
Sometimes it seems like general appreciation for the presence of Captain Janeway stops at the fact that she was the first female lead in a Star Trek.  Most of the rest from the fanboys is bitching and moaning about her command decisions, a thinly-veiled and often-disputed reaction against the right of a woman to sit in the boy's rightful place at the center of the bridge.  Janeway was often conflicted and frequently made controversial decisions, as best represented by the central premise of Voyager, stranding a Starfleet crew on the other side of the galaxy and choosing to incorporate rebels into essential ship functions.  Kate Mulgrew, who was admittedly a good match for Hollywood legend Katharine Hepburn, was a strong figure with enough heart to play Janeway with all the range she demanded.  Janeway became one of the most complex and rewarding captains on any Star Trek.

A-to-Z Challenge!

#378. Wasteland, A Distant Mirror, Black Elk Speaks

Today I continued my look at Oni's Wasteland at Comics Reader, examining the second trade paperback collection and its developments for the superb comic book series.

I also put some updates at Hub City, tracking my Reading List.  I've just concluded Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror, and have begun Black Elk Speaks, which happens to also be one of several subjects breached in my manuscript for Ecce Homo, the book that tracks a realistic approach to Adam & Eve, and also some special looks at other religious experiences and their unlikely participants.  (This is a plug for a book that is not published.  Yes, it is gratuitous, but on oddly humble terms.)

Be sure to check in at Epistles from the New Fade, where new poems are written for your near-daily amusement.  Today's featured a take-off on the one written by my former bookstore colleague Philip Kroagmeier, who posted a poem referencing cherry blossoms at Sword of the Ancients.  Having studied Japanese poetry in college, I'm fully aware that cherry blossoms are a traditional subject of inspiration.  So that's how these things sometimes happen.

I is for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (#377)

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) was, for most people, that unfinished film Heath Ledger was working on when he died, months before the release of The Dark Knight, which was to cement his place in Hollywood history.  Never mind that it's also a film by Terry Gilliam, which has its own notorious connotations. The fact is, it's both a film by Terry Gilliam and Heath Ledger's last movie, and is worth noting for both of these elements, and better than whatever connotations they may usher.  Most critics found a hard time appreciating Ledger throughout his career, and so did audiences.  His Joker was an aberration,  at least to them.  I knew he was something special from the moment I saw the pilot of Roar, and eagerly followed his career.  Aside from Brokeback Mountain, Ledger fell into relative obscurity, a B-level star who happened to be seated at the A-level.  The same can be said for Gilliam, best known as a member of Monty Python, and for delivering overachievers that only occasionally found mainstream success (The Fisher King, Twelve Monkeys).  Yet both Ledger and Gilliam were to me consistently brilliant, and Imaginarium is a remarkable confluence (they'd previously worked together on Brothers Grimm).  Ledger's ability to be a credible lead actor could sometimes be sabotaged by his youthful looks (no surprise, because he was on the younger side when he broke through).  Imaginarium is the first time he seems to be mature enough to truly deliver a commanding presence (over this summer's new Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield, no less).  It beggars so many questions about where he might have gone from there.  Famously, his performance was completed by Colin Farrell, Johnny Depp, and Jude Law, each of whom appear as pure versions of themselves in said Imaginarium, which is run by Christopher Plummer, who turns out to be the real lead character, striking a bargain with the Devil for the soul of his daughter.  The results are beyond brilliant.  Perhaps the attention caused by circumstances was a mixed blessing, but for anyone who does see the film, there are all the more layers to enjoy about Gilliam's biggest triumph of, well, imagination.  No one else could have made this film, and a quirk of fate pushed a greater emphasis on the very themes it had already set out to explore.  Ledger's legacy is solidified.

Star Trek bonus!

I is for Ishka
(from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
Otherwise known by her son Rom as Moogie, Ishka was the polar opposite of her other offspring, Quark.  Then again, they weren't as different as they might have thought.  Quark never really played by the rules, either.  He was as much of an outsider as his mother, who bucked all the rules of Ferengi society in pursuit of prophet.  In the end, Ishka got the last laugh, but really, Quark got exactly what he wanted, too.  Go back and watch Deep Space Nine and tell me differently.

A-to-Z Challenge!

H is for Hancock (#376)

Hancock (2008), if you haven't actually seen it, probably looks a lot like some other Will Smith movies you actually have seen, an obnoxious hero of some variety battling the forces of evil.  Yet that's only half the movie. I happen to really enjoy Smith as an actor (even if a lot of his movies do tend to follow that pattern, i.e. Independence Day, Men in Black, Wild Wild West, I Robot, I Legend, Hitch, even his TV show Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), and his serious actor mode follows the somber example of Robin Williams.  (Well, now it just sounds like I'm burying him!)  Let me start over.  There's a whole second level to Hancock that its previews ignored entirely.  For instance, if you haven't seen it, you don't even know that Charlize Theron co-stars.  Her half of the movie, how her character becomes involved in the story of Hancock, is what pushes the movie to heights rarely seen in superhero movies.  The sad part is, I had an idea very similar to this six years before this film was released.  Let this be a lesson to you: ideas that float in the creative ether will eventually be caught by someone else.  Anyway, the concept eventually expands magnificently, and you will be rewarded tremendously (a lot of people who have seen it misinterpret this curveball; don't make that mistake).  Hancock departs from the Will Smith mold, just as Smith himself was transforming his ambitions at the time into films that really began to explore his potential.  Later that same year, he released his best film, Seven Pounds.  So that makes it a shame that he subsequently took a break, because now we've had to wait to see what comes next.  I'm game for another round of Agent J, because I love those movies, too, but he was on a roll, and there really was no telling what he could have done next.

Star Trek bonus!

H is for Hansen, Annika
(from Star Trek: Voyager)
Otherwise known as Seven of Nine, the Borg bombshell played by Jeri Ryan, so beloved that the actress became one of the few Star Trek alum to enjoy a thriving career on the scree after hanging up the (skin-tight) space suit.  Seven was a fascinating character, and much like Hancock was easy to make a lot of assumptions about, and you would've been wrong in just about every one of them.  Hr relationships with Janeway and The Doctor enriched both of them, but Seven herself, who was born a human and struggled to rediscover what that meant once her connection to the Collective was severed, didn't jump back into her humanity, nor did she retain every element of her former Drone personality.  Like Spock and Data and even Odo before her, Seven blended the two conflicting elements of her nature for a fascinating portrait of what it means to define the self in the face of contradiction, or otherwise, what it means to be human.

A-to-Z Challenge!

#375. excerpt from Yoshimi

This is an excerpt from my most recent manuscript, Yoshimi, about an orphan who discovers the truth behind the death of her parents and is compelled to act on it.  In this scene, she has just completed one of her stages of training:

We both knew he was referring to the way the five fights had been won.  Bill was conspicuously absent.  “I want to thank you for taking the time to teach me.  I got to talking to Jenny and Kit and they seem to believe that it’s out of character for you to accept strays like this, even at recommendation.”
     “Perhaps it’s time I change my policy,” he said.  “I once believed that only those I have personally selected, who have already demonstrated to me that they meet my standards, actually can.  You’ve done more than that.  You’ve exceeded them.  For that you should be proud.”
     “I wish I could explain how I do it,” I said.
     “Sometimes it’s not for us to know such things,” Jim said.  “You should instead be proud that others have noticed, and that you have a chance to use your gifts, even if it took a lot of misery to reach this point.”
     “Thank you for saying so,” I said, bowing.
     “You don’t need to bow to me, Yoshimi,” he said.  “I never liked it in my students.  Perhaps that’s something else I can change.”
     “Don’t be so quick to initiate reforms that aren’t strictly necessary,” I said.
     “It’s not for you to judge such things,” he said.  “All the same, I wish you luck.  The Assassins Guild is a menace I will be very happy to see eliminated.  I saved Bernard and Gisberto from a life serving under it.  I believe I did the same for Bill.  Before you came here, Bill was the only student I thought I had truly reached.  It was an intervention he said he needed, but like you, I saw him benefiting me more than I ever could him.  I’m not sure he knows this.  You’re good for him.  He needed to step out from that little club of his in New York, embrace the world again.  He brought you here so he could remind himself, I think.  It killed him to sit there and watch all this time.  I suspect you’ll have a hard time keeping up with him in the coming weeks.”

G is for Gladiator (#374)

Gladiator (2000) won the Best Picture at the Oscars, but seems to have struggled to retain that level of respect ever since, and I'm not really sure why.  Maybe it's because the swords-and-sandals revival (or historical epic) that it inspired did not lead to results critics were proud to have more or less chamioned, or maybe critics are just fickle.  I know that star Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott also had a somewhat rough time of it in the years that followed.  Crowe starred in another est Picture winner the following year (A Beautiful Mind), and then couldn't seem to do anything right, even though he continued to do brilliant work.  Scott hasn't really caught a break with anyone until this year's hotly-anticipated Prometheus, even though he's done exceptional work in the meantime on such films as Kingdom of Heaven, American Gangster, Body of Lies, and Robin Hood (working with Crowe on nearly all subsequent projects, actually).  Gladiator is a work of subtle beauty, and is filled with strong performances, including the perennially underrated Joaquin Phoenix (best known recently for the identity crisis I'm Not Here, which should be no wonder), a study of motivations of the limits of the human spirit, both in triumph and ego.  I suspect some people soured on it because it challenged their appreciation of Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus, almost as if admitting love for Gladiator meant that they couldn't love Kirk Douglas as a more individually iconic figure.  But Gladiator, no matter the accomplishments of Kubrick elsewhere, represents better work from Scott.  Great work does not need immediately identifiable material; great work creates its own attention.  Gladiator did it once.  It can do it again.

Star Trek bonus!

G is for Garak
(from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
Was he a spy, a former spy, a manipulator, an opportunist?  Or was he "plain, simple" Garak, a tailor operating a shop on the sprawling Promenade on Deep Space Nine?  Probably a mix of everything.  That was the strength of this character, a Cardassian who gave a good name to Cardassians, a multidimensional individual who may have done things he was not proud of in the past, who lived the life of an exile, but knew well enough when he met a new friend (Julian Bashir) who would encourage his better instincts.  There were plenty of bumps in the road ahead of him, but Garak proved to be one of the more fascinating characters of Deep Space Nine because you wanted to be sitting there right beside him at Quark's, enjoying a fine drink, good book, and some of the best conversation you'll ever experience.  As embodied by Andrew Robinson, Garak is a quintessential Star Trek character, an outsized personality not often represented on film, who can bring life to a scene simply for being there and enjoying being there.   Usually actors of this variety are confined to the stage.  When there's a Star Trek on, you can be sure to find them on the screen, too.

A-to-Z Challenge!

F is for The Fall (#373)

Tarsem Singh is recently known for last year's Immortals and the first of this year's Snow White films, Mirror, Mirror, as well as historically known for The Cell, but his best film, his masterpiece, is The Fall (2008), a grand study of the power of redemption, an utterly breathtaking experience.  Anyone who's seen it raves about it, and it's the reason why he's suddenly released two films in two years, far above his average, which means Hollywood has definitely seen it.  Yes, Hollywood can recognize talent, too.  Think of this one as one of the most brilliant superhero movies ever made, or the modern swashbuckler, the new Princess Bride (without the jokes but with all of the heart), League of Extraordinary Gentlemen the way Alan Moore might have approved.  Whatever you have to tell yourself, just watch it.  The Fall is worthy of its legend.  You'll see why.

Star Trek bonus!

F is for Future Guy
(from Star Trek: Enterprise)
The shadowy figure at the heart of the heart of the Temporal Cold War, Future Guy manipulated Silik and the Suliban in the same way the Sphere-Builders did the Xindi in the magnificent third season of Enterprise.  A recurring plot during the four seasons of the show, the TCW was another element that frustrated the fans who bothered to watch, and was blown off in the two-part opener of the final season.  Yet this was the biggest missed opportunity of the early cancellation, since it was the most ambitious and consistently rewarding element of the show, demonstrating that the prequel concept had room to look far beyond anything we'd seen before.  Who exactly Future Guy was remained a mystery, which now stands as a testament to the work and the puzzle the series can now be considered.  (And as I said, augments that third season's significance.)

A-to-Z Challenge!

E is for Elizabethtown (#372)

Elizabethtown is one of Cameron Crowe's portraits of a man in transition.  It was released in 2005 and is probably best known for its soundtrack, since its profile did not match the popularity of, say, Jerry Maguire or Almost Famous.  For me, its appeal rests in stars Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst, both of whom display their magnetic appeal.  Bloom is still known in 2012 for his work in the Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of the Rings films, mostly because efforts to star in other films have largely been glossed over by the same audiences who saw him be a part of those epics.  Watching him in Elizabethtown is a revelation on par with discovering that Robert Pattinson is more than just a glittery vampire.  Dunst, meanwhile, may not have a more appealing performance.  She's the original Zooey Deschanel, and this is the role that proves it.  Anyway, this is a favorite of mine that I wish more people would give a chance.  (Then again, that's a description of a lot of my favorites.)

Star Trek bonus!

E is for Evansville
(from Star Trek: Voyager)
From the episode "The 37's," Evansville is a descendant of the humans, including Amelia Earhart, kidnapped in the early 20th century, unwittingly giving birth to descendants who fought off the alien abductors and creating a society that would one day give a wicked temptation to the lost Starfleet crew trying to make it way back home.  Evansville just happens to have an awesome name.  It's the episode that I think is more notable, one of the more elaborate entries in the early seasons of Voyager.

A-to-Z Challenge!

#371. Cobra and Wasteland

I've got some new commentaries up at Comics Reader, for IDW's Cobra and Oni's Wasteland, two comic books that've been among my favorites for the last few years now.  I keep expecting that their popularity will expand, but it hasn't happened yet.  Cobra helped launch the "Cobra Civil War" crossover in IDW's G.I. Joe comics; Wasteland has recently gotten back into regular publishing after ironing out some issues with the art, marking 2012 a great year to jump into both of them.  (Combined with Cartoon's RASL, they're what I'd recommend to anyone looking beyond The Walking Dead for comic books worth reading that don't feature superheroes, and in that regard, I'd recommend anything written by Geoff Johns or Grant Morrison.)

I've been touring some of my fellow A-to-Z Challenge, trying to find anyone who blogs like me, but I'm having difficulties, folks.  A lot of those who signed up seem to be aspiring writers (not surprising, in some regards, considering the people running the challenge), and a lot of the others invested in nonfiction blogging one form or another, focusing on hobbies.  I've discovered a lot of the blogs with awesome titles don't have awesome content (please disregard this opinion if you identify yourself as one of those), which is a huge disappointment.  But we're still early.  There may be surprises yet to be discovered.  I know the point of the exercise is networking, but I'm just wondering how many of the participants will really find me, much less each other, all that intriguing.  Common bonds here may begin and end with participation, other than those who already know each other.

D is for The Departed (#370)

The Departed won Marty Scorsese a well-earned chunk of Oscars, but the won it most deserved was Best Actor.  Simply put, this was Leonardo DiCaprio's best performance.  He's been working on this for a long time, being the rare child actor to amount to a respectable adult career, for the same reasons he was able to do it in the first place, because he's comfortable in front of the camera and knows how to convey the depth of the characters he inhabits.  He's got more depth in The Departed than in any other movie he's done, because in Billy he's got someone so thoroughly locked into their own bad situation he doesn't know how to deal with it (hence the periodic, inexplicable flashes of violence), trapped by an impossible goal he knows he won't come out of alive, but too committed to escape.  This is DiCaprio's breakout performance, where he truly matures as an artist.  It's every bit his On the Waterfront, where we meet the Leo capable of living up to the specter of Marlon Brando, a giant of the medium very few have approached (to the point where Brando was such an anomaly most critics began taking him for granted, enveloping his later career in a quagmire of disrespect, something he obviously understood).  The whole cast of The Departed is electric, actually, but this is a clear-cut case of coming for the show and staying for the main attraction.  You know Marty's good pal Robert De Niro?  Well, there's a reason why Leo was his successor.  This is it.

Star Trek bonus!

D is for Dax
(from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
Dax is a slug, a symbiont indigenous to the Trill homeworld, requiring a host body for interaction with the outside world.  Three hosts played a key role for Benjamin Sisko, the first being Curzon, who had remarkable dealings with Klingons and became the young Sisko's mentor, and was affectionately known as "Old Man."  Remarkably, Sisko got to work with the next host, too, Jadzia, once he took command of Deep Space Nine.  He called her "Old Man," too, but she wasn't.  Finally, circumstances also found Sisko working with Jadzia's successor, after Jadzia herself was murdered by the crazed Cardassian Dukat.  Ezri was a pixie who inadvertently provided closure for most of the people who knew Jadzia, and was the first host since Curzon able to pass on Klingon dishes.  A special ceremony actually allowed us to meet all of Dax's previous hosts.  Some of them were more impressive than others.  Odo probably found Curzon the most impressive.

A-to-Z Challenge!

#369. Blog Updates

Some regularly scheduled activities around the Scouring blogs:

New poem at Epistles from the New Fade, my ongoing project (until I once again hit 100).

More episodes from the fourth season of Star Trek: Voyager at Fan Companion, including thoughts on "Living Witness," which I call essential viewing.  I've also got thoughts on Sunday's WrestleMania.

I got a new entry in the "Star Trek '12" project at Sigild, focusing on the Jem'Hadar from Deep Space Nine, putting their story in some context.

The final "Quarter Bin" column for some time is also up at Comics Reader, featuring thoughts on Sandman Mystery Theatre, Brightest Day, and some other discoveries in the back issue bins at Heroes & Dragons in Colorado Springs.  I'll next be writing about Oni's exceptional Wasteland, covering each of its trade paperback collections.

C is for Citizen Kane (#368)

A classic both defies and clarifies context.  That's what Citizen Kane did for the movies, what the genius of Orson Welles helped give the budding creative medium, the ability to look past limitations and truly give birth to an artform.  Most film critics today acknowledge it as a masterpiece, yet Welles became mired in one of the most famous career tailspins in American history since Herman Melville after an inexplicable backlash marginalized his talent and downplayed his continued contributions to film.  Please take note: reward those who merit it, because even if you don't, they'll still win.  Reward those who don't deserve it, and you end up with Charles Foster Kane.  Fair enough?  If you've never seen Citizen Kane, you owe it to yourself to correct this error.

Star Trek bonus!

C is for Chakotay
(from Star Trek: Voyager)
The definition of a stoic first officer, Chakotay left Starfleet to fight for his ideals, joining the rebels known as the Maquis until fate intervened and he once more found himself serving aboard a Starfleet vessel.  Portrayed by Robert Beltram, who exuded calm charisma, Chakotay was a major player in the early seasons of Voyager, but faded more into the background the less he was needed to provide the example a stranded crew on the other side of the universe needed to figure things out.  It's probably no surprise that he was also at the center of the worst developments still to unfold from their prior lives, when the traitorous Seska defected to the first enemies to come across our intrepid crew. 

A-to-Z Challenge!

B is for Batman Begins (#367)

Batman Begins was released in 2005, and now stands as a testament to Christopher Nolan's expanding creative abilities.  At the time of its release, Nolan was known for the superb Memento, though he'd also made Insomnia and Following, the movie that launched his career.  I would have seen it simply for being a Batman fan, and as a huge fan of Nolan's even at that point.  I didn't expect it to be the kind of movie it actually was.  Although heavily steeped in character, his vision of the Dark Knight (years before the untouchable Dark Knight) was not what I'd expected from Nolan, seeming a little too polished in the typical Hollywood veneer, a little too traditional, a little safe.  I struggled with this impression for years, actually.  I think I'm coming around.  In many ways, its resemblance to the comic book The Long Halloween had dulled the Nolan mystique (Insomnia was adapted from someone else's material, too, but I hadn't seen the original movie, so there was no reference, only creepy Robin Williams and very sleepy Al Pacino), or so I believed.  But then he made The Prestige, and The Dark Knight, and Inception.  Taking myself out of my own way, I think my opinion of Batman Begins will only grow in estimation.  It strength is the thing that was always obvious, that Nolan focused first on Bruce Wayne and then built everything else around him.  That's what a Batman story should be about, until Batman truly emerges.  In Batman Begins, we're simply not there yet.  In any Christopher Nolan movie, expect to discover the main character through the unique circumstances of their life.  That's what he does here.

Star Trek bonus!

B is for Bashir, Julian
(from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
The good doctor of the space station located at the "edge of the final frontier" was the heart and soul of the development that took Deep Space Nine from its early rough edges to the grandiosity that it attained over seven seasons.  He grew up more literally than Sisko's kid, and never is that more apparent than in the metamorphosis of his relationships with Miles O'Brien and Garak, the "plain, simple" Cardassian tailor.  Portrayed by Alexander Siddig, who has gone off to a well-deserved career in the movies, Bashir is one of the great characters of Star Trek.

A-to-Z Challenge!

A is for Alexander (#366)

Alexander is my favorite movie.  It's from director Oliver Stone and stars Colin Farrell, who is my favorite actor.  Released in 2004, it was generally panned by critics and received a lukewarm reception from audiences (except on the international scene).  Some of Farrell's brilliant co-stars include Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer, Sir Anthony Hopkins, and Rosario Dawson.  One of the reasons I love the movie so much is that its cast in impeccable.  I also love it for its grand sweep, its deep understanding of character and motivation, and the score by Vangelis.  I love everything about it.  Another cut was released in 2005, to try and make it easier to follow, and then a third in 2007, which is probably the most comprehensive and best one available.  Despite its general reputation, I have maintained Alexander as my favorite film since my first viewing.  I don't expect this to change, even though I've seen many great films since.

Star Trek bonus!

A is for Archer, Jonathan
(from Star Trek: Enterprise)
Jonathan Archer was the captain of the Enterprise, and was portrayed by Scott Bakula, who was sometimes accused of overacting (but that's a tradition that began with Shatner, so don't sweat it).  His father helped further develop the warp engine created by Zephram Cochrane, but Jonathan was the one to see the dream become reality.  He often struggled with Vulcans, but it was his diplomatic abilities despite his worst tendencies that helped form the foundation of the United Federation of Planets.

A-to-Z Challenge!

#365. Survivor: One World thoughts

It's perhaps not a well-documented fact here at Scouring Monk, but I've been watching Survivor since Rich Hatch and me both agreed in the first episode that he was going to win.

My sister shares my obsession, and we've been watching previous seasons in our typical marathon sessions.  That's helped me get my groove back in trying to figure out who has the best odds to win.  That being said, Survivor: One World is now officially Troyzan and Kim's season to lose.  If they don't win, then we'll probably learn in the next few episodes who will be able to dethrone them (next week's preview suggests some of that will be attempted soon).

But I really don't think it'll work.  Again, this season of Survivor will be won by either Troyzan or Kim.  Only so often do the people who find hidden immunity idols bungle their good fortune.  These two won't pull a James.  The fact that they both have one only serves to testify the strength of their game.  Some people stumble into these things.  These two know exactly what they're doing.

#364. Blog Updates, Bluewater, Yoshimi

#364.

I've got a new poem up at Epistles from the New Fade as well as a bonus "Quarter Bin" column at Comics Reader, focusing on Robin, which I took the measure of sharing on Facebook, hoping for a little extra readership, y'know, to justify writing this kind of stuff on the Interweb when there doesn't otherwise seem much purpose without, y'know, significant readership.

But sanity is not defined by the perception of others.

I should also note that I've delivered a second comic book script to Bluewater Studios, publisher of the Wrath of the Titans comics that helped inspire the second Clash of the Titans film.  Bluewater is a company I've tried getting published with in the past, with a short story accepted in an in-limbo Legend of Isis anthology.  Thanks to financial concerns in the modern economy, a lot of things changed from the time it was accepted to the present.  Bluewater started focusing its attention on pop biographies, for one thing, to help stand out from the pack.  That's what I've been submitting to them, one on Neil Gaiman and the new one on Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov.  If these get published, they might be the foot in the door I've been looking for.

Examiner.com keeps asking me to contribute more material, but there's so little readership, or interest in what I write for them, that there's very little point to "gaining experience" with them unless I truly feel motivated.  Last year I was in a somewhat better position to go see movies and write reviews for them, but I can't justify the same thing in 2012.  So if you wanted an explanation for my lack of activity, Examiner, that's it.

I'm still waiting to hear back from Hall Bros. Entertainment on the Yoshimi manuscript.  I have to admit that I'm a little concerned that A.C. Hall has once again done a soft revolution on me, and decided against continuing commitments to his extrapersonal literary endeavors, just like what happened with Dead Letter Quarterly nearly five years ago.  When I keep reading Facebook updates about how busy and fulfilled he feels at work, and what he's doing with his own projects (and it's scary enough that 75% of all the things HBE has published is either by A.C or his brother), rather than how he's finally getting through all the Untold Tales of the Past submissions that the brothers were deluged with last fall, I can't help but wonder.  The catch this time is that he's got a contract with me that states if we don't play, he still has to pay.  I don't know if I'm just being paranoid, but this is my literary future, and I'm justified in being a little paranoid.  A lot of things have fallen apart on me.  I would really like this to not be one of them.

Yeah, we'll see.

#363. Poems, Star Trek, Comics

#363.

Once again, I've got my weekly activity across the blogs...

Epistles from the New Fade continues to feature new poems daily, all attempting to elucidate my perspective of the modern world.

Fan Companion continues its look at the fourth season of Star Trek: Voyager, with looks at five more episodes, including "The Killing Game" and "Vis a Vis."

Comics Reader has a new "Quarter Bin" column up, looking at more work from Jeph Loeb, Grant Morrison, and Geoff Johns, as well as a review of Green Lantern #7, also from Johns.

Finally, Sigild has another "Star Trek '12" entry, this time looking at Klingons and Kahless the Unforgettable, as well as the conclusion to "Warship."

Hope something therein is worth reading!

#362. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

#362.

I'm doing the A-Z Challenge in April with movies (which may not surprise those who've visited Fan Companion).  Just thought you'd like to know, picked the line-up from my personal DVD collection, repeating the first four letters at the end of the month.

I picked up David Fincher's Girl with the Dragon Tattoo today, one of the movies from the end of 2011 that I didn't get a chance to see in theaters, and the one I most regretted missing.  I think Stieg Larrson's Millennium Trilogy is one of the more important cultural touchstones of, well, the new millennium, whose impact is only beginning.  You can take your Hunger Games.  I'll take my Lisbeth Salander.

#361. Poetry

#361.

Poets hate each other.

I don't know how else to say that.  (Please continue reading my regular entries at Epistles from the New Fade.)  The truth is, that's the only conclusion I can reach.

When I attended the University of Maine, I didn't start out as someone who was all that interested in poetry.  I had attended one year at Mercyhurst College, and started a poetry project after a field trip to Boston (which was ironic, because heading up to Eric, PA was the first time I'd left the New England area, and here I took a trip to...New England), but hadn't really considered any further association with the literary form.  Yet one thing led to another, and this English major (eventual hugely beneficial holder of a degree) and I took one poetry class, and then another, and I sort of became a member of the poetry scene on campus.  (Emphasis on "sort of.")

The New Writing Series launched on campus around this point (you can do the research on that if you'd like), and very curiously, seemed receptive to just about everyone the director of the program could reach except the two major, active poets who were actually members of the faculty.  I didn't really consider how weird that was at the time, possibly because one of them was good friends and collaborator with the director.

In hindsight, after he sorted of skirted any real effort in helping me get a foot in the door of the wider scene upon my graduation, I guess it was kind of appropriate.  When I say I was a part of the scene, and when I say "sort of," I mean that the "scene" disintegrated at the first stiff breeze.  I didn't expect that.  I thought that it was going to last longer than a season.  But it didn't.

And so that helps me reach my conclusion.  Poets don't like each other, not in the modern age, anyway.  I've been doing this blog for a long time, and have now launched five poetry blogs.  Most people don't read other people's blogs anyway, not unless they think they can somehow benefit from it.  But it's a little weird to keep running into that.  I just assumed after many years of writing poems there would be a smidgen of interest, and yet, there isn't.  And so, I conclude, with mock sincerity, that poets don't like each other.  They hate each other, in fact.

How else to put it?  There is no poetry scene because no modern poet is remotely interested in actually saying anything, or acknowledging that anyone might actually have something to say.  There has been such an extreme reaction, like rock music, to the expected and trying to do anything but (while many, many poets do exactly that) that everyone suffers when no one wants to try and reach out...

Am I being a little drastic here?  Probably.  But drastic is good.  Drastic is passion.  Poetry ought to have passion.  If it doesn't, what can possibly be the point?  Just to detail every little expected part of human experience?  Poetry ought to be about the unexpected, everything everyone knows but can't put into words.  Not just the exact way the sunlight hits the windowsill...

Okay, I'm done.  Please read my poems.  Or not.  Probably not.  But it'll still be there.

#360. Free Looks at Comics

#360.

Since I started writing about comic books starting in 2006 at Paperback Reader (now definitively departed), I've had the occasional opportunity to read material I have not needed to buy.  (Among the early ones were Drew Melbourne's ArchEnemies and Night Trippers, which remains the only physical work that has been sent to me.)

Happily, I discovered that my Comics Reader blog has allowed me to continue this, which is a fair bit beyond what I expected from this venture.  Last year I was able to review Dear Creature, which I later saw stocked at Barnes & Noble, and now I've had a look at Sensory Distortion thanks to my adventures on Facebook.  Anyone who has visited Comics Reader knows that I typically read superhero comics, but I can appreciate good storytelling no matter how it's told (cheap plug for Hub City, here), and Sensory Distortion is good visual storytelling.

Did I mention how cool it is to get free looks at stuff?

#359. Poems, Star Trek, Reading List, Comics

#359.

More new content!

New poem at Epistles from the New Fade, for those interested.  Small little nugget of a thought, in as close to what most people think of when they think of poetry as I usually get.

Thoughts on five more episodes from Star Trek: Voyager's fourth season at Fan Companion, with notables including "Mortal Coil" and "Message in a Bottle."

New "Star Trek '12" entry up at Sigild, with a look at elements from the Original Series episode "Arena" (the one with the Gorn), which featured another of those god-like species that seemed to appear in every other episode.  This story features my interpretation of the Metrons.

I've also got updates on my Reading List at Hub City, including thoughts on the book I just finished and the one I just started.

Be sure also to check out the latest "Quarter Bin" at Comics Reader, where I talk about Superman/Batman, the Challengers of the Unknown, Cerebus, and some obscure property known as Star Trek.

#358. Epistles from the New Fade

#358.

I just launched my fifth poem blog cycle, Epistles from the New Fade, continuing the web idylls I've been working on since 2007.  The concept is simple enough: to write a new poem as close to one a day as possible until I reach a hundred.  This will be the first time that I attempt each one to fit a single theme, which is the New Fade.

The New Fade, you ask?  It's a concept I've worked on for almost a decade (I've helpfully tagged in each of the previous four blogs, Terror of Knowing, We'll See, Fall In Their Place, and Modern Woe, poems that have "New Fade" in the title, though it's referenced in others as well, and obviously ones that are not publicly available, including the first one).

The idea is that we live in times that are in a constant state of flux, but the results are more a quagmire than a revelation, so that to understand it at all, and very few people do, you need to examine it in ways that might not seem obvious (but then, the critical eye is what I believe poetry is for).

Poetry itself is in a curious state.  It used to be huge.  It isn't anymore.  In many ways, poetry itself is a fascinating subject for the New Fade, since like almost everything else it's fallen victim to the strange mix of perfect socialism we enjoy that is nonetheless subject to some of the most insidious totalitarianism that history has ever known.  If you can understand that statement, you might understand the New Fade already.

But for everyone else, that's what I'll be trying to write about.

#357. Comics, Fan Companion, Star Trek '12

#357.

I've got an onslaught of material over at Comics Reader, so here's your guide:

First, a new Quarter Bin column, my regular look at older comics, this time dealing with Martian Manhunter and work from creators Jim Krueger and Mark Waid, only one of whom should wish that I was talking about comics they did with Alex Ross.

Then I've got a ton of reviews for new comics: RASL, Aquaman, Demon Knights, Quatermain, Justice League, The Twelve, Nightwing, Shinku, and The Stand, plus a look at a few preview books I got my hands on from Heroes and Dragons, but that one's on top, so if you just visit Comics Reader, already, you'll see that one just fine.

I've also got five more episodes analyses for the fourth season of Star Trek: Voyager up at Fan Companion, so definitely check that out.

Finally, I've got more Star Trek at Sigild.  With the latest entry in the "Star Trek '12" project, I try to put a little perspective on one of the most sensational elements of Voyager, the Vidiians, who famously suffered the horendous Phage and attacked the crew on multiple occasions.  Perspective is what "Star Trek '12" is all about.  Hopefully that's coming across.

#356. John Carter

#356.

I've got a review of John Carter up at Examiner.  It's one of those movies I was compelled to go see even though I had no particular interest in it, and found out there was good reason: not only is it a good movie, but an incredibly intellectually relevant one, too.

The last time that happened was Source Code.  I'm sensing a pattern.

I don't mention in the review, but another good reason to see John Carter is the fact that it seems like a direct extension of the Star Wars prequels, like the next logical step in the movie-going experience, especially if you're one of those older Star Wars fans who couldn't bring yourself to like them.  There are knowing nods to Avatar and Dune, but clearly it's Star Wars, and especially the prequels, that is the most relevant experience, beyond Source Code, The Adjustment Bureau, and the Matrix trilogy.  You'll notice that with the latter films, it becomes a lot harder to find an appreciative audience the more thought is put into the story.

It's one of those movies that kind of changes everything, makes you a fan of something that has long existed but you weren't really aware of, had no idea why you should appreciate it.  I guess I'm not surprised that it's underperforming at the box office, but as I suggest in the review, I hope it finds the audience it deserves, eventually.

I also want to mention how it also brings up an interesting parallel with Superman, with the Fortress of Solitude, an element of the Man of Steel's mythology that has had an inordinate presence in the movies as compared to its overall significance in the comics.  When will a writer figure out how to make it as important to Superman and Krypton's legacy as what can be seen in John Carter?

#355. Honesty

#355.

Honesty begins in the classroom.

Unfortunately, I believe that honesty is the last thing you learn in the classroom.  I'm talking here about intellectual honesty, the stuff that's not measured by how well you do on a test, or how well you can remember specific points in a book that you are then directed to write about.  Intellectual honesty leads to critical thinking ability.  And I'm not sure how much of that we've got going on.

You can read any random movie review, and from an objective standout notice almost immediately that the thing the movie critic is reacting against is almost never the movie itself, but whatever the critic had been thinking about, irregardless of the experience they actually had watching the movie.  It's because they're reacting to elements that don't necessarily combine to the movie experience.  They harp on general observations, but cannot for the life of them tell you what a movie is actually worth.  Critical consensus has no business being so different from the typical audience reaction.

The same goes for how people read, how people write, and the disparity of good literature and good writers being shunned in favor of the easy fix, like reading is a drug.  I'm not sure that critical thinking is taken into account in this equation.  If it makes you think, then it had better have a lot of whiz bang elements, too, but it can't make you think too much!  I don't know.  That's just some of what I've been thinking...

#354. Sigild, Publishers

#354.

I just posted a new story at Sigild, my latest effort to try and do a Star Wars (the way I write Star Trek) as I think is actually worthwhile, writing from the perspective of what we know, rather than dumping irrelevant trivial adventures that don't mean anything to the powerful story we already know (because anything else, what does it matter to Star Wars that couldn't have been done in someone else's creation?).

And I've been thinking at how ridiculous an age we live in.  Reading is at such a curious phase right now.  Bookstores are struggling to remain relevant, partly because there are people who are absolutely convinced that everything digital is not only the future, but our present.  This means not only that there are people reading existing literature digitally, but that a lot of aspiring writers are writing to that market, convinced that this is their best way at exposure and success.

Except it seems to me that many of those writers are only reading other writers like them who are getting their things published (the new Internet boom, I suppose) in this manner, so that they're only reading what should at best be considered highly questionable literary material, and I don't say this to demean these writers, but at my basic experience that 99% of writers are not good writers, who write because they like writing and not because they should actually be writing.

Traditional publishers know this.  They know this so well that they've actually taken to sabotaging themselves, because they have no idea how to handle the volume of submissions they receive in a reasonable manner.  There are a great many more books published each year than there are films released.  (And that's just one reason why the average film is better than the average book, because film is the dominant medium of the storyteller in the 21st century.)  This would be fine if publishers knew how to market their products, but they don't, and critics who believe their opinions actually matter apparently don't realize that the majority of existing readers prefer the easiest possibles reads, mostly because they're the easiest possible selections.  They don't have to dig into the mass tangle of reviews that only sometimes crescendo on a single book, and even then mass audiences only really come together when someone other than a critic recommends one.

So this means that all those writers writing for the digital forum who read each other, believing that they're supporting the medium and boasting about their success are only hurting themselves and the medium they're trying to support.  The more they read mediocre work the more they write mediocre work, because they cannot differentiate between their unreasonable expectations and the best possible uses of literature.  Again, I do not advocate censuring popular literature so much as support the idea that the best of all possible worlds celebrate real merit over ambition and easy sales.

But what do I know?

#353. Tim Sale & Jeph Loeb, Star Trek '12, Seven Thunders

#353.

Some new material up at both Comics Reader and Sigild.

The former has a new "Quarter Bin" column, exploring some thoughts on the dynamic duo of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale via some of their Marvel work together, specifically Daredevil: Yellow, Hulk: Gray, and Spider-Man: Blue.  I've written about them at the comics blog before, mostly obsessing over their forgotten first masterpiece, The Challengers of the Unknown Must Die!, so yeah, they're another recurring feature, along with my continuing thoughts on Grant Morrison, among other favorites.  I've got another five weeks of "Quarter Bin," and then I'll be spending some time on Oni's excellent Wasteland, covering each of its trade paperback collections, and also IDW's Cobra, another buried treasure of the modern comics landscape.

The latter includes a new "Star Trek '12" entry as well as the first installment of a new project, "new" in the sense that I've rarely made public material I've been working on for two decades (since middle school!), that happens to tie in with Seven Thunders, the next book I'll be writing and the one I've worked on since 1998.  You can understand that it means a great deal to me.  This particular, initial installment references "an ancient institution whose origins were shrouded in legend," among other things, which is actually a cryptic reference to the only other public material for this sci-fi epic, which I published on a previous web presence.  (If you scour the archives of Scouring Monk, you could find it!)

#352. Star Trek Fan Companion Returns

#352.

I'm now reclaiming Fan Companion as an active member of my blog family, digging back into Star Trek.

More specifically, I'm writing some individual commentaries for episodes of seasons that readers previously indicated were more provocative from the early summaries of my franchise thoughts back in 2010 (as indicated by level of actual readership).  My whole purpose for the Fan Companion in the first place was to try and suggest that it's not as hard as some fans like to suggest to like Star Trek in all of its forms.  Some fans, for instance, suggest that Voyager, for instance, or Enterprise, or even the critically-beloved Deep Space Nine, is by definition inferior to the original series or Next Generation.  Their main ammunition was the diminishing returns in viewership from the peak of the franchise (circa 1994), which they took to prove that later shows and films just weren't as good as earlier ones.

Of course, in 2012 you could make the argument that no Star Trek was really popular until the 2009 film.  That's beside the point!

I'm simply trying to make the whole process less ambiguous.  With the new episode commentaries, I'm trying to discuss the success rate by four categories:

1) Franchise, or if you need to be a fan of Star Trek in general to enjoy it;

2) Series, or if you need to be a fan of that particular series;

3) Essential, or if you can enjoy it above and beyond specific loyalties;

4) Character, or if the episode centers on someone who helps it succeed just on that level.

An episode can win distinction with any one category, or several, or best of all, all four.  My humble opinion is that any episode that accomplishes that is worth watching whether or not you're skeptical about my opinions.

#351. Honest Feedback

#351.

I was going to write this from the perspective of employment, but I think it's a good rule of thumb for anyone.  Always, always, always welcome feedback.  Honest feedback is the first sign of an open dialogue, and I believe that open dialogue is the first rule of civil society.

I want to stress this, because I believe that feedback is the last thing that most people in authority are interested in.  They believe in their authority, and believe that authority itself is enough of a reason that they do not need to consider the role of feedback, open dialogue, in the order of things.  They believe in the concept of Darwinism, which has been bastardized as the most simple interpretation of "survival of the fittest," in that those who have the tools to influence others are the most worthy of reaping the rewards of society.

In the wild, yes, animals capable of and willing to kill other animals definitely fit that concept, "survival of the fittest."  Yet the human animal is unique, otherwise you wouldn't have the chance to read this perspective.  We have the ability to think critically, and to react to our environment in ways that do not directly reflect our basic survival.  The fact is that the true 1% is the segment of the population that produces the basic ingredients of what we eat.  The 99% is the population that needs to find other ways to make a living, because we've determined that everyone must appear to be productive.

I say, "must appear to be," because clearly most of that 99% is not needed to do anything remotely productive to eating and sleeping, the only things a living being really needs to accomplish.  Everything else is dictated by the rules of society, and most of those rules have to do with the dispensing of resources, or to be more accurate, the control of dispensation.  Those who are able to put themselves in a position of control believe that they are in the best position and should therefore be compensated accordingly.

That may be, but the fact is that they could not control if there were no one to control, and the idea of control is that there are many other people actually doing the thing than those who are standing over them expecting them to do it.

Now, is it really a smart thing to give total control to those in such a position?  My theory is that those under control should have the right to dictate the means of control.  I suppose this is where unions come from.  But what I mean is that no condition that favors those in the position of control over those who are controlled should be tolerated.  This is the basic idea of feedback.  This is, like I said, the first rule of civilized society.

If we are to consider ourselves enlightened, should we not demand equality?  Someone in the position to direct the flow of things should not, in fact, be in control.  That's not what they should be doing.  This is not to advocate chaos, but to ensure that there is a balance.

I do not blame those who benefit from inequality.  That is the structure we have all supported for millennia, whether actively or passively, even today, partly because traditionally those who are in control have had the power to dictate terms, and we still live in times where old systems live on, even if it's very difficult to admit.

It's not about a significant contribution to society.  It's about admitting that a spade is a spade.  We're all human.  When an accident happens, you don't get to survive just because you have a lot of money.  This is not, "You can't take it with you."  It's about, from an objective view, can you be respected for your decisions?

Maybe it's because it's not encouraged to consider things objectively.  Or to consider things critically.  I believe independent thought should be encouraged, celebrated.

Not told you're worthless and should just do as you're told.  If you need to resort to any definition of a threat, maybe you should consider whether you're benefiting everyone, or just your own selfish interests.

These are some of the thoughts available in honest feedback.

#350. Comics Reader, Star Trek '12 (Again)

#350.

Got some new reading material at both Comics Reader and Sigild.  Worth your time?

Depends.  At Comics Reader, it's another Quarter Bin column, looking at another random assortment of comics that all end up reflecting the theme of things not always living up to expectations, which isn't terribly radical, but maybe in the comics I look at and what I say about them, it might be worth checking out.

With Sigild, I'm continuing the "Star Trek '12" series, visiting another century with another pretty short entry, which may or may not be the last pretty short entry for a while.  We'll see.  This time the perspective is a little different, looking from the future rather than directly at the past.  Versatility!

The point may be with that one, though, that brevity can sometimes be the soul of wit, which is a philosophy I'm not sure is widely held in literature today.  I know that lots of writers are writing what's called flash fiction these days, but the dominant interest in publishing remains the kind of writing that prizes excessively detailed narration on every action and detail of a story, rather than inner monologues and commentaries that to my mind are more interesting.  But who am I against the tide?

#349. Hub City TLC

#349.

I've giving Hub City some TLC, catching up with the work I've done across my other blogs, gathering archives for the three main facets of my book blog: "Scouring Books," where I write about the contents of my personal library; "Reading List," which is an extension of what I started doing here a few years back and was the main reason I started this particular spin-off in the first place, detailing the books I'm currently reading; and "Thoughts On," which is itself a spin-off of the Reading List, where I started writing, well, my thoughts on the books I just finished reading.

So not only did I do that, but I just posted new "Thoughts On" and "Reading List" entries (go have a look a look at Hub City!).  I felt like having a blog like that would be a good example, should anyone stumble onto it, for my belief that there's a lot more interesting stuff to read than I typically experience people exhibiting.  Most of the time, readers tend to stick to one particular genre, or steer toward safe picks like bestsellers, and otherwise avoid trying to find what I find to be a vast assortment of fascinating material, because school left them so scarred about reading that for most people, it's enough to repeat the platitude that reading is important (and that attitude that reading is intellectually better than watching), but mostly avoid actually doing it.

Everyday I kind of kid myself into believing that any day now hundreds if not thousands of readers will spontaneously discover my blogs, any one of them, and it won't seem to ridiculously indulgent and nonsensical to be so much of it.  Hub City is the blog I've had the hardest time finding even tens of people to stumble upon, but I'm still proud of the work I've done and will continue to do for it.  Oftentimes people associate "work" with what you're paid or otherwise have to do, when work can and should be what you want to do.  Those same people give lip service to the idea of the American Dream that suggests anyone can achieve that with enough, ahem, hard work, but the fact is, those same people are busy securing their own success at the direct expense of anyone else trying to do the same.  That's not capitalism, that's not reactionalism, that's the American Reality.  I'm currently working a job Stanley Milgrim would have recognized (and that's all I'm going to say about that), and that's the American Reality, that it's incredibly convenient for the expectation for most Americans to be that they either obey or find themselves jobless, and woe be their own shortcomings.

Anyway, enough ranting...

#348. WrestleMania XXVIII

#348.

And now to talk about the infinitely popular (and recurring Scouring Monk subject) of professional wrestling!

Specifically, how this year's WrestleMania is shaping up.  Technically, this is a process that's been ongoing since last year.  Everyone who cares knows the main event is John Cena vs. The Rock.

Quite frankly, this one's probably going to be the best ever.  Based on the announced and easily-speculated matches, the problem is going to be how exactly they're going to work in just what we know already without skirting audience fatigue, assuming a reasonable amount of time for each one.

Triple H vs. Undertaker will be a showstopper, and it looks like they're really trying to make this one special, relevant to both icons' careers (if not the final one for one of them) in a huge way, building on the momentum Shawn Michaels kicked off with Ric Flair in 2008 (which led to his matches with Undertaker, which led to last year's gamechanger).

CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho is the bid for as pure a wrestling contest as you can expect, from two guys who should really be able to deliver.  This one's especially awesome, since Punk deserves a breakout match at WrestleMania, not the least for having a terrific 2011.

Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus is the match that was supposed to happen last year, and so that's just awesome and weird and awesome that they're getting a second chance, this time over the world title.  Clearly Sheamus cannot be the main event guy that Royal Rumble winners usually are, but there are just so many big matches already on the card, does it really matter?  This one's practically one giant main event, which is what WrestleMania ought to be, but rarely actually is.  This one, like I said, looks like it will come the closest.

Big Show vs. Cody Rhodes is probable, and a good thing for Rhodes, who has been the most consistent member of the midcard for the past year, even though he'll probably lose to Show here.

I'll decline to speculate on other possibilities at this point, but five strong matches is already pretty good.

#347. 2012 Oscars, Fringe

#347.

I've written another article for Examiner, this time on tomorrow's Oscars, which was something that didn't occur to me to do until a few days ago.  I started writing for the site at the start of the summer movie season last year, and had a good time of it, but a combination of policies and the fact that I ran into unemployment curtailed my activities for months, and so I stopped posting there for what seemed almost like a permanent basis.  Then, of course, I finally started up again, and so it occurred to me that giving my thoughts on the Academy Awards really made sense.

***

Anyway, I'm wondering if Rick Berman and Brannon Braga were watching Fringe last night and wondered what the Temporal Cold War and Daniels were suddenly doing on the show.  I know, I know, the enigmatic Observer and his pals have been appearing on Fringe since the start of the series, but last night we finally found out exactly who they actually are, and it's a little difficult now to avoid comparisons with what Star Trek: Enterprise was doing for four years with one of its own subplots, periodically revisiting the time-traveling Daniels, who couldn't seem to avoid telling Captain Archer that it was a huge honor to meet, essentially, the founder of the Federation.  Like our friend last night, Daniels died prematurely in the final season, which is another reason I'm hoping Berman and Braga don't get upset, because at the very least it's a huge honor for a critically acclaimed show to be doing anything like what the least popular Star Trek had previously done, and Fringe is a truly exceptional show struggling, just like Enterprise, to reach a fifth season.

I just thought it was worth noting the coincidence.

#346. A-to-Z Challenge Signup

#346.

Okay, so I'm not exactly sure what I've just gotten myself into, but in some of my continuing efforts to get this blog to its best possible shape I've been subscribing to a lot more blogs (which are listed somewhere along the right side of the page), and have signed up for something called a blog hop, which will be relevant come April 1 when I guess I'll be participating in the A-Z Challenge, which I'm still not sure I entirely understand, but hopefully I will by then.

It's kind of funny, because Scouring Monk itself doesn't have a lot of fascinating activity these days, because of all these spin-off blogs I've been developing (listed as Scouring Blogs on the right, for your convenience), so I'm wondering how much people would be interested in a hub that simply redirects attention elsewhere.  Oh yeah.  This is the Internet.  That's what it's all about.

Anyway, I'm hoping the blog hop will be fun...

#345. Comics, Star Trek '12, This Means War

#345.

Got a new Quarter Bin column up at Comics Reader, as well as reviews for Justice League, Action Comics, and Green Lantern.

Plus, the Star Trek '12 project continues at Sigild V.  I think I'm really going to have fun writing this one, and there's a lot more coming.

(And hey, I might even return to the DC Decades project at some point, too!)

You'll also be pleased, no doubt, to know that I did, in fact, see This Means War, and as the link suggests, write a review for it at Examiner.

#344. Archiving

#344.

I've done some work improving the archiving at Comics Reader, Sigild V, and Fan Companion, which I will very soon be rededicating exclusively to Star Trek.  Hopefully it'll help make everything that much easier to navigate and read...

#343. Percy Jackson

#343.

I've got a new "Thoughts on..." post at Hub City about the Percy Jackson books, which my sister motivated me to read.  I explain my conclusions about the series, which ends up sounding a little tortured, but on the whole, they're not that bad.  Now, hopefully I'll be able to jump back into that Reading List of mine, which got a really strong push last fall, but has slowed quite a bit in the early months of this year.

Yay!

#342. Movies Featuring Tom Hardy, Chris Pine

#342.

Finally starting to write some new content for my Examiner page, starting with some profiles for Chris Pine and Tom Hardy, who costar with Reese Witherspoon in McG's latest movie, This Means War, which if all goes to plan I'll be seeing and actually reviewing next week.

Cross your fingers!

#341. Comics, Star Trek '12 Project

#341.

Some quick blog family updates:

I've got a new Quarter Bin column up at Comics Reader, covering climactic issues for Nightwing, Impulse, and Martian Manhunter, some of my favorite superheroes.

At Sigild, I've begun Star Trek '12, my latest fiction project from the franchise.  I always seem to draw a little more readership when I'm writing Star Trek, whether at Sigild or Fan Companion.  Maybe there are some curious people out there looking to see what modern fans are thinking?  Because I know that in my old Lower Decks community (which you can probably blame for all my blogs), interest died out years ago, people grew tired of what everyone else thought, or what they might write.  The "Star Trek '12" project will mark the fourteenth year in which I've written Star Trek fiction, and so that's pretty interesting.  I'm constantly working on how to approach these stories, and it's fair to say that I've learned the most about what kind of writer I am during this period of my life, and so I'm constantly pushing myself in new directions with them, and this one will be no different.

Speaking of Fan Companion, I also have a new "Comparative (f)Analysis" column, revisiting, appropriately enough, Star Trek.

#340. Workplace Depression

#340.

I've finally gone ahead and given Scouring Monk its latest revamp (and it looks peachy!), making everything hopefully that much more navigable (and when I say everything, I mean just about everything).

Last night my sister was flipping to The Voice, and I happened to catch Adam Levine tell a contestant none of the coaches chose for their teams (thus eliminating them from the competition immediately) that they shouldn't consider this rejection to be a repudiation of their dream, or in so many words, that it was merely a setback.  Okay, so I love Adam Levine and all (Maroon 5 is more or less yet another unacknowledged modern pop giant, if you follow the critics, anyway), but the comment helped ruin my night, which might not have been so hard, given that I had a miserable end to another workday spent in purgatory.

Let me explain that a little.  After Borders went out of business last September, I spent four months looking for work, and I was finally hired the week of Christmas, and started the second week of the new year.  It's not that I'm not grateful to have a job now, but that I have once again been plunged into the reality of the workplace, and "reality" means, for most people, that it is in some form abject misery.  It doesn't help matters that I've been trying to be paid for writing since graduating from college at the end of 2003, and have had one opportunity remove itself from me after another, which has led me into the sludge of the everyday workplace, and because I have a degree in English and no other reasonable skills but a willingness to work, I've been stuck working with the public.  I don't know if you know this, but the public sucks.

Anyway, so when Levine told this girl that the show's rejection was not, in essence, personal, it just felt like a slap in the face to anyone who has to undergo this kind of treatment countless times in the continuing hope that one day it'll actually work out.  Someone like Levine, who has had various forms of success fall in his lap (to generalize), may simply not be able to appreciate the emotional toll failure can actually take (even if failure in this instance involved TV time, but then, just about anyone can be on TV these days).  The American Dream is supposed to represent the idea that hard work and dedication can prevail over any obstacle, but statistically it's impossible for everyone to achieve their dreams, especially when there are those who have who don't stop to appreciate the helping hands they got along the way.  Maybe Levine thought the girl got her helping hand just by being seen on the show, I don't know, but the point is, he was pretty heartless in that comment, whether he realized it or not.  (The girl at least paid lip service to her own belief that he was right, but then, what else was she going to say?)

All of this is to say, what Levine really achieved was making me reflect back on all my failures, and the concern that failure is all I will ever actually experience.

That being said, failure is not always the end of the story.  Failure isn't even necessarily the outcome of the story.  I happen to believe that there's something to gained from every situation, no matter how it makes you feel.  Anyone incapable of that doesn't deserve my pity.  I have not succeeded in becoming a published writer, but the journey I've taken since 2003 has produced a multitude of blessings.  Sometimes, you learn something new and fruitful entirely by accident.  Just to give you an example, last week I wrote my latest Quarter Bin column for Comics Reader, and made a reference to writer Elizabeth Hand, who at the time I knew virtually nothing about.  I've been writing on the Internet for years, and have occasionally received responses from public figures who happened to stumble on what I wrote.  Hand was probably one of the quickest responses.  If she hadn't, I probably would never even have considered reading her more than I had already (a handful of comics, which isn't very representative of her career), yet now I'm working a few of her books into my reading future, and am seriously considering her to be one of my most important literary discoveries.

And just for the record, I started writing about comics because I tried breaking into comics (a process that continues to this day), so that's just another small example of what I'm talking about.

Yesterday, I ended the day on a miserable note.  Today I woke up with the ability to pick myself back up again.  I won't try and make any promises about tomorrow.

#339. Sigild V

#339.

Having promised it in the masthead since the blog's debut a year ago, I thought it was about time I started posting in earnest flash fiction at Sigild.

I should note that my family of blogs (listed on the right, along with Sigild, as Comics Reader, Hub City, and Fan Companion) are now being updated in the middle of the week once again, for those keeping score.

#338. Updates, Maine

#338.

For the record, I've got updated content throughout the core of four blogs that I've spun out from Scouring Monk, so have some fun looking around if you like (not providing links this time, because they're all there on the right side, lazy reader!).

This time next week I'll be visiting home in Maine!

#337. Blogging Updates, Yoshimi, Bluewater

#337.

Since I went back to work a few weeks ago, my blogging activity has slowed and will continue to be slowed down from what it was like the last few months of 2011.  I'm making an effort to maintain my posting at Comics Reader, plus reading updates at Hub City (which does feature that streamlined Austen Paradise store at the bottom!).  The Fan Companion seems to have lost all the momentum it struggled to maintain after the Star Trek posts of 2010 and the early film talk of last year; apparently my wrestling thoughts couldn't rouse much interest, at least in that forum.  I'm taking something of a break from that, and maybe a little time off from Sigild as well, even though I've done "relatively popular" work there with some of the stories I've written for it (again, Star Trek seems to find an audience).

I'm waiting to hear back from the Brothers Hall about Yoshimi (as well as my last submission to its latest anthology), and some work I've done for Bluewater Comics.  Fingers getting sprained from being crossed!

#336. 2011 Wrestling Review

#336.

Last year was an interesting one for professional wrestling, almost like a starting point across the board, in terms of North American promotions.  WWE's biggest move was announcing this year's main event at WrestleMania, upon Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's first real appearances with the company since 2004, but it was blessed with the unexpected ascendance of CM Punk as well, even though everyone expected Alberto Del Rio to occupy John Cena's time until the biggest match of his career.  TNA spent a great deal of time trying to figure out the best way to repackage itself, finally anointing a pair of homegrown stars as its future.  ROH gained national TV exposure.  Maybe this was not exactly the start of another wrestling boom, but all of it combined for a healthy boost in the right direction.

All in all, I think it was a pretty good year.  The Miz was WWE champion when 2011 dawned, and continued his effective work as a transitional heel presence, doing everything necessary even though anyone could easily tell by that point that he had no legitimate claim to being the company's top dog.  He made it to the main event of WrestleMania, but the machine for the next one had already begun, and The Miz was clearly not a factor in that equation.  Del Rio won the Royal Rumble, just so everyone knew just how important he would become in WWE's game plan for the year, though he was quickly buried in favor of Edge's final moments of in-ring glory.  To everyone's surprise, Christian was finally tapped as an important figure in the company, serving as one of Smackdown's main attractions and feuding over the world title with Randy Orton, who continued his uninspired performances, at least as a character, which has been a problem for a few years now.  (It's disappointing when one of WWE's featured talents so often coasts.  You can't just hide behind a lack of personality and say you're playing the face.)

Things became interesting on a day-to-day basis once Cena lost the title (which he quickly captured from Miz after one of those patented the-good-guy-was-screwed! WrestleMania finishes) to Punk in the best PPV match of the year at Money in the Bank.  Everyone took notice of Punk for the first time, after he finally took the time to look beyond himself in his promos (by ironically declaring that he had no intention of doing anything but wait for his contract to expire, and be champion when it happened).  I secretly hoped that this would somehow turn him into the next Steve Austin, but as it turns out, John Laurinaitis ("executive vice president of talent relations and interim general manager of Raw") is not Vince McMahon.  He's just the straight man.  Punk ended up solidifying his place in the top tier, but not as an audience magnet.

When Punk momentarily stepped away, Cena became champion again, and then Rey Mysterio did, too.  For reasons that fate did not allow to play out better, Mysterio couldn't stick around, and so Cena and Punk clashed again, and then Del Rio entered back into the scene, and that was the title picture for the rest of the year, until Cena just plain stopped being relevant to any PPV story that involved him in an actual match.  (He instead became distracted by a series of returning stars, including Mick Foley and Kane.)

Meanwhile on Smackdown, Mark Henry was finally given exactly the kind of push he could have been given, and was almost given, many times and many years ago.  For some reason, some fans actually got behind him for the first time.  I was interested in this in 2003, 2006, but surprisingly, not in 2011, at least not when he was battling Randy Orton or the Big Show.  It wasn't compelling.  Daniel Bryan, yes, but not what he actually did as champion, at PPVs.  (His best match was against Bryan, at the live Smackdown, in a steel cage.)

Mistico debuted as Sin Cara and nobody cared.  Okay, I did.  But everyone else didn't care.  Hey, I'm also a fan of John Morrison.

The tag team scene meant nothing but developing and/or using talent the company didn't otherwise particularly care about, but not in compelling ways or compelling combinations.  Cody Rhodes and Dolph Ziggler redeemed the concept of the midcard, and were probably the unsung heroes of the company throughout the year.  Wade Barrett and Sheamus and Jack Swagger all languished at levels that were beneath them (which makes it all the more baffling that Mark Henry apparently didn't have opponents that would actually make him interesting).  Zack Ryder inexplicably received a giant push with the same tired material that got him nowhere two years earlier, with the same limited potential and no signs of growth, except the ability to modestly perform in high pressure scenarios.  R-Truth continued to overachieve with the same basic qualities he's consistently displayed throughout his career.  "Overachieve" because he's consistently deserved better than the relatively modest programs he receives, even when billed as NWA champion.  Morrison, meanwhile, got raw deal after raw deal (on Raw!), sometimes from the suits behind the cameras, sometimes from his own body.

I may be missing an important note here or there.

In TNA, the company started the year with Jeff Hardy in the Miz position, with an incredible amount of faith to carry a program that ultimately proved to be self-destructive.  Hardy was given one too many pushes as champion, for reasons that proved irresponsible and reckless on any number of levels.  He wisely entered a program with Mr. Anderson, who finally became a world champion, but somehow ended up the winner of that feud, which pushed him into a program with Sting, who for practical reasons came out on top, and the hot potato went back to Anderson, and then back to Sting (I think) and then eventually to Kurt Angle.  Angle hadn't been champion since 2009, mind you.  Anyway, the company held this massive tournament to determine the number one contender at Bound for Glory (TNA's WrestleMania, without the hype), and for some reason Bully Ray spent most of the tournament looking like he would win, but it actually came down to Beer Money teammates James Storm and Bobby Roode, with Roode prevailing and challenging Angle at BfG.  For some reason, everyone was extremely angry when Angle won that match (Roode had never in his career been presented as a wrestler anywhere near the caliber of Kurt Angle, mind you, and had spent barely any time as a singles wrestler, at least in TNA).  Anyway, Storm actually did beat Angle, on Impact, and then Roode beat Storm, and suddenly the company actually has both these guys as viable main event players, completely altering the paradigm (they had also been members of Fortune along with other TNA talent, AJ Styles and Kazarian), actually putting things back to where they'd been in 2010, with champions known for their reliability (well, at least Styles and RVD), but with real programs waiting for them.

Oh, and Hardy actually made a comeback after an apparently devastating setback mere months earlier, got his life under control, and agreed to lose his very next championship opportunity.  That's a whole company growing up right there, folks.

ROH actually had probably one of its weaker years, all considered, talent that maybe wrestles the traditional ways but not to a level people particularly cared about.  But with national exposure alumni like Nigel McGuinness might actually help turn that around.  Who knows?  Hell, Daniel Bryan actually closed out the year as a WWE world champion!  Anything can happen!

#335. Austen Paradise, DC Decades Project, Chris Jericho

#335.

I've revamped my Amazon store, Austen Paradise (which can be found on its own or at the bottom of Hub City), just a bit of housekeeping to make it easier to use.

There's also DC50, covering DC in the 1950s, at Sigild.  Hopefully more goodies coming this week!

***

I hope I'm alone in kind of wishing it hadn't been Chris Jericho marking the big return last night.  Unless a really kickass WrestleMania program results from it...I wish CM Punk could concentrate on Dolph Ziggler for a while...But I guess we'll just have to wait and see about how things develop.