Friday, July 30, 2010
The Man Who Never Missed - The Continuing Story
Memento Mori
It was an attempt to put life in perspective.
Not a job I'd want, telling the guy who owned me he was gonna die whenever he got cocky. I suspect here was always an element of killing the messenger of bad news going on ...
The crowd is cheering, you are top of the world, and your slave leans in and says, "Hey, don't forget, you are gonna die, man."
You might be tempted to smite the fellow right then and there.
One of the reasons that people kept skulls on their desks, another reminder.
HAMLET:
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow
of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath
borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how
abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at
it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know
not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your
gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment,
that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one
now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen?
Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let
her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must
come; make her laugh at that.
But in our society, we tend to gloss over such things, and now and then, a reminder of the Big Sleep can help you remember what is important and what isn't. You can spend your life sweating the small stuff, and it's like the old saw: How many people on their death bed say they wish they'd spent more time at the office?
Life is short. You get to be dead a long time.
In a discussion of such things on Rory's blog -- link in the sidebar down and to the right -- I was reminded of the Hearse Song, one of those nasty little children's ditties we sang as kids without really understanding what it meant. Every version I've heard is slightly different but most of them start with something like:
Did you ever think when a hearse goes by, you might be the next one to die?
Goes gruesomely on from there, and the last verse of the version I recall is:
The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, the worms play pinochle on your snout/
they eat your eyes, they eat your nose, they eat the jelly between your toes/
they spread it on a piece of bread -- and that's what happens after you're dead.
Done to the tune of "Spooks on Parade," with a chorus of dead, dead, dead, dead/dead, dead, dead, dead/ sung in the background over the verses ...
There. Now that I've brightened your morning, have a nice day. Make the most of each moment.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Thew Boy
- Conan the Fearless Tor 1986
- Conan the Defiant Tor 1987
- Conan the Indomitable Tor 1989
- Conan the Free Lance Tor 1990
- Conan the Formidable Tor 1990
Hey, Sir Paul
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Art
Got a link to a site by Jim Pinkoski, which features art by John Berkey.
Kindle-ry
Finally managed to get Bristlecone up as a Kindle title on Amazon.com. Dunno why it took as long as it did, but those of you who might want to get it there, well, here you go.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
John Callahan
Music Vids - Part Two - Canon
Or on this instrument:
Like a little island, mon?
Classical Gas - Music Vids Part One
Monday, July 26, 2010
The Aliens Have Landed
Copyright Changes
You can also break DVD security protections to copy and embed short clips for non-commercial educational or critical purposes, if you are a student or reviewer.
But here's the good one: you can bypass a dongle if it no longer works or can't be replaced.
I was doing pretty good until I got to that one, then it sounded like an old Chuck Berry song.
Baby, won't you play with my dongle ... ?
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Saber Rattling
Police Misadventures in London
Friday, July 23, 2010
High Tech from the East
Behold, the Indian prototype for Sakshat, a somewhat obscene-in-English-sounding name that means, I gather, "Before your eyes."
From Geek.com: "The device was unveiled by India’s Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal. It is expected to become available in India next year targeting students. To begin with it will cost $30 and be manufactured elsewhere, but the aim is to get the price down to $10 and have all manufacturing done in India.
The device itself has a 10″ touchscreen 2GB of RAM, a USB port, and Wi-Fi built-in. It runs a Linux-based OS and bundled software includes OpenOffice, a PDF reader, web browser, media player, and video conferencing app. Power will partially come from solar panels mounted to the case."
Watch out, Apple -- Shiva is coming up behind you ...
Daniel Schorr
More Comic Stuff
PAGE FOUR
(4 Panels)
Page 4, panel 1: Large panel, maybe half the page. Guri, flashback scene, stands amidst the sprawl of half a dozen men and aliens, a very dramatic angle, fists clenched, splashed with blood. The downed are all her handiwork.
CAPTION: IF YOU ARE UNLUCKY, THE PATH TO
REDEMPTION MIGHT BE EXCEEDINGLY
LONG, LITTERED WITH MEMORY. AND . . .
OBSTACLES . . .
(Note: panels #2, #3 & #4 should be about the same size and all still in flashback mode.)
Page 4, panel 2: This one shows XIZOR, before his death in Shadows. Cruel smile. Sketchy b.g., if any.
Page 4, panel 3: A four-shot: Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Chewbacca and LANDO CALRISSIAN. Again, b.g. not important.
After some discussion, we decided to make this into one panel, called a "splash page," or sometimes just "splash." It incorporates the characters and settings more dramatically. I don't recall if it was the artist or my editor who suggested it, but I liked the idea.
To show you what it looks like, first the inked drawing -- I don't have the pencils -- then the colored version. Credits here: I wrote it, Ron Randall pencilled it; Tom Simmons was the inker. Steve Dutro was the letterer; Dave Nestelle did the colors. Scott Tice designed the book, and Duncan Fegredo was the cover artist for this issue. The editor was Bob Cooper, and Mike Richardson, the publisher. Special Thanks went to Lucy Autrey Wilson and Allan Kausch, at Lucas Licensing.
Comics are very much a team effort, though sometimes one person will do several things -- I know writers who draw their own, and sometime ink or color, too.
Adventures in Comic Book Land
Came across a posting on a site I frequent wherein somebody was lamenting the fact he'd just read a comic book and seemed disappointed by how few words were on some of the pages. I offered that a good writer working in that medium should be able to mostly tell the story in pictures, and that if s/he was able to tell a good story, there might be pages wherein there would be no dialog and minimal captions, SFX, etc.
To see how I did it, I dug up an old script for one of the Shadows miniseries I did for Dark Horse many moons ago. The format is off because of how it posts on the blog, but the layout of how I did it -- copied, I recall, from how Neil Gaiman's scripts were formatted -- shows the general way a writer scripts a comic. Here are four pages. Note how little dialog and few captions there are.
Shadows of the Empire: Evolution Dark Horse
A five-issue miniseries: Feb.-June, ‘98:
1) After the Fall
2) The Journey of a Thousand Light Years
3) Dark Fires of a Black Sun
4) Metamorphosis
5) Reincarnation
CHAPTER TWO: JOURNEY
PAGE 1
(5 panels)
Page 1, panel 1: One of two top-tier panels, exterior from space, long shot of the tropical planet Murninkam, (as seen in Issue #1, page 21, panel 4: A lot of green, with several large oceans.)
CAPTION: MURNINKAM, A SPARSELY-SETTLED
TROPICAL WORLD FAR FROM MOST
SPACE LANES . . .
Page 1, panel 2: Top-tier, medium angle on Murninkam, close enough to see a lot of jungle greenery, maybe the curve of the planet, some atmosphere. Moving in closer toward orbit.
CAPTION: FEW HAVE REASON TO TRAVEL HERE.
FEWER STILL DARE . . .
Page 1, panel 3: Large panel, middle of the page. Here is Spinda Caveel’s laboratory/palace. This should should be vaguely Middle Eastern, (or maybe looking something like the Kremlin) a central phallic tower with a minaret or somesuch, smaller outbuildings in the same style around the base. White marble or the local equivalent. A high-angle, far enough away to see it rising from a cleared spot on a tropical island situated in a large lake or perhaps a small sea. Might be some floating mats of seaweed, bright sun glistening from the buildings and water. Not a place you can sneak up on easily. And even if you could, you couldn’t get past the FORCE FIELD that shimmers around it . . .
CAPTION: FOR THE INFAMOUS ROGUE SCIENTIST
SPINDA CAVEEL IS MOST JEALOUS OF HIS
PRIVACY.
Page 1, panel 4: Bottom tier, left part the page. Sitting or leaning against a wall, the twin Pikkell SISTERS, (Issue #1, page 21, panel 3, wearing the same sexy clothes) ZAN and ZU. The impress ion here is of two well-fed cats, lazy, sleepy, but not far from being able to snap awake and take your head off. They both look offstage to the right at:
Page 1, panel 5: Bottom tier, right part of the page. The droid DOC (Issue #1, page 21, panels 1&2,) stands on his base looking at SPINDA CAVEEL. Caveel is human or human-stock, big, stout, thick hair, wearing the Star Wars equivalent of a lab coat and a wicked smile. (Think John Goodman.) He stares at Doc.
CAVEEL: WELCOME TO MY HUMBLE LABORATORY,
AOI-C . . . OR SHALL I CALL YOU “DOC?”
CAVEEL: I JUST KNOW WE ARE GOING TO GET ALONG
FAMOUSLY.
PAGE TWO
(2 Panels)
Page 2, panel 1: Full page. Interior, Caveel’s main lab. High-tech bio-gear lining the walls, on tables, etc. In the f.g. are Zan, Zu , Doc and Caveel; in the b.g., along with all the biotech stuff, a number of DROID blanks, i.e., bodies that are as yet unanimated, kind of like empty slates, waiting to be imprinted. Can either be hung from the walls or lined up on a long table, inside clear, coffin-like biocabinets. (These blanks need to be military-looking, i.e., large and macho.)
FX: hummmmmmmm
Page 2, panel 2: Insert, lower right, two-shot, big enough to show most of Doc and Caveel.
DOC: THEFT OF A CLASS-ONE DROID IS A FELONY
PUNISHABLE BY UP TO TEN YEARS IN
PRISON.
CAVEEL: SO IT IS, SO IT IS.
CAVEEL: LET’S GET STARTED, SHALL WE?
PAGE THREE
(4 Panels)
Page 3, panel 1: Smallish, exterior Guri’s ship, The Stinger, moves through space.
Page 3, panel 2: Medium panel, interior Guri’s ship, medium flangle on Guri. She’s in tights, as seen at the end of Issue #1. Cool, blond, deadpan emotionless.
CAPTION: IT ISN’T EASY IF YOU DECIDE YOU WANT TO
QUIT BEING THE GALAXY’S ONLY HUMAN
REPLICA DROID PROGRAMMED AS AN
ASSASSIN . . .
Page 3, panel 3: Medium panel, close up, Guri’s face. Cool. Cold. Icy.
CAPTION: THE PATH TO REDEMPTION IS CROOKED AND SOMETIMES VERY NARROW . . .
Page 3, panel 4: Large panel, Guri in the low f.g., flashback sequence behind and above her. (Whatever style we used to show flashbacks before.) A montage: Guri faces LUKE SKYWALKER in Xizor’s castle, Luke holds his light saber at the ready. Another image, Guri, seated in a hotel room, PRINCESS LEIA seated across from her, CHEWBACCA off to one side, watching the two. And another image, XIZOR stands next to Guri, his long-nailed hand on her shoulder.
CAPTION: IF YOU ARE LUCKY, THE PATH MIGHT
BE SHORT . . .
PAGE FOUR
(4 Panels)
Page 4, panel 1: Large panel, maybe half the page. Guri, flashback scene, stands amidst the sprawl of half a dozen men and aliens, a very dramatic angle, fists clenched, splashed with blood. The downed are all her handiwork.
CAPTION: IF YOU ARE UNLUCKY, THE PATH TO
REDEMPTION MIGHT BE EXCEEDINGLY
LONG, LITTERED WITH MEMORY. AND . . .
OBSTACLES . . .
(Note: panels #2, #3 & #4 should be about the same size and all still in flashback mode.)
Page 4, panel 2: This one shows XIZOR, before his death in Shadows. Cruel smile. Sketchy b.g., if any.
Page 4, panel 3: A four-shot: Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Chewbacca and LANDO CALRISSIAN. Again, b.g. not important.
Page 4, panel 4: Interior Thrumble’s Cantina, MASSAD THRUMBLE seated at his private table across from the BIMBO from Issue #1 (Page 19, panel 2), both of them looking up at somebody who has approached their table but is OOV.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Celebrity
In the pantheon of celebrity, I am a minor and dim star you need a telescope to find. I've written some stuff, signed some autographs, given the odd speech here and there, and am happy with the level of recognition I have achieved. I don't want to be recognized in a restaurant bathroom and asked to sign something whilst I am taking a leak. I have met famous folk who've had that experience, and whatever privacy we still have is lost, if you are well-known by sight in our society. Be like living in an eternal fishbowl. No, thanks. (One of the good things about being a writer is that you can be famous and unknown. Outside of Stephen King and maybe Tom Clancy, most writers walk about unrecognized almost everywhere. Like being a radio personality who won't do TV -- you are safe until you open your mouth.)
Basic Knife Notions
Maha Guru Plinck taught a knife seminar a while back in Colorado, and Resonant Video was onhand, and put together a short vid.
Just under half an hour, it touches on subjects that students of the blade might find interesting.
Chapters
• Introduction
• Gripping the Knife
• 4 Quadrants of Attack
• Reverse Grip Defense vs Common Grip
• Check, don't Block a Knife
• Positioning your Feet for Knife Fighting
• Reverse Grip Defense vs Common Grip #2
• How to use Checking in Knife Training
• "Give and Take" Drill
• Ending the "Give and Take" Drill with Takedown
• Countering within the "Give and Take" Drill
• Drill Progression: "I Win, You Win"
• Options for Interrupting the Drill
• Hand Transfers Within the Drill
• Reverse Grip Structure
• Flowing with "Give and Take" Drill
• Options for Closing the Gap with Knives
• Knife Elements & Ranges
Running Time: 29 mins
Now, this isn't going to turn you into a knifefighter. And it is really basic material; however, if you are curious about Sera, this offers an introduction to some of the building blocks.
You can get it here.
Blade is Defeated
Wesley Snipes is looking at a three-year sentence for tax problems, and he's close to being sent to the joint.
The feds like high-profile cases as examples when they can win one, which tends to be infrequently. For every Martha Stewart, there are a lot of rich folks with good lawyers who skate completely or cut deals to avoid going to the big house.
Snipes did beat the fraud and conspiracy charges, but got nailed on three failure-to-file-returns, which are misdemeanors, but worth a maximum of a year each. The appeals court just upheld the three-year sentence. Unless Snipes' lawyers have an ace up their sleeve, he's got a room in the graybar hotel in his future.
As I understand it, Snipes made thirty-eight million dollars during that three-year period. He got hooked up with one of those you-don't-gotta-pay-taxes organizations and liked what they were telling him. Big mistake, compounded by trying to collect a big refund on taxes he had paid but that was based on, um, less than forthright information.
The deal goes something like this: Dude, you don't have to pay taxes, don't have to file returns, it's voluntary. They won't come after you, and even if they should, all you have to do is say you got bad tax advice and blame your tax guys. Pay a fine, you are gold.
Alas, the IRS holds the taxpayer responsible even if he makes an honest mistake based on what they tell him if he asks -- "I called the IRS, they told me to do this, I did, and now they want blood!" -- this happens all the time. In Snipes' case, the feds felt he was trying to pull a fast one, and while they couldn't make the fraud and conspiracy stuff stick, they could ramp up the sentence on the stuff they could get him on.
Is there an element of racism here? I don't know. But it's hard to feel sorry for somebody who made thirty-eight million dollars and decided he didn't have to give Uncle his cut. I don't like paying my taxes, either, but I do it. Cost of living in the republic.