Saturday, December 18, 2004
I did a very satisfying 1,105 words on Chapter One of Daughter of Hounds yesterday. All it took was realizing that the book did not begin with Emmie on a school bus, but, rather, with Deacon and Emmie sitting together inside Kingston Station, waiting on the train that will take Emmie to Manhattan to visit Sadie. Once I realized that I was trying to start the book in the wrong place, the words came in a veritable flood. This chapter has a bit of a different voice than what I'm accustomed to seeing from myself. My work these last few years has seen a gradual shift away from the more baroque style that characterized, oh, say Silk and Tales of Pain and Wonder. But the language yesterday was even simpler, very straightfoward, and I think a lot of this is because of Emmie. Spooky likes it a great deal. We'll see how it goes. Regardless, I am relieved, and I now undedrstand where Chapter One is headed.
As we near frelling Xmas, my weekend dial-up connection gets increasingly lousy. All the Idiots charging shit on credit that they'll still be paying off next Xmas, for fear of not being part of the pack. Okay, maybe "idiot" is too strong a word. Then again, maybe it's not. It took me forever this morning just to read the new installment of The Adventures of Boschen and Nesuko. Screw you, Santa Claus, and the reindeer you rode in on.
A good enough Kid Night last night, though. We watached I, Robot, which I resisted seeing at the theatre, even though Alex Proyas has long been one of my favorite directors. Now I see that I had the right instinct. This was no more an Alex Proyas film than it was an adaptationn of Isaac Asimov's novel. The film does a complete three-sixty from the message of Asimov's I, Robot, declaring that we would be perfectly justified to fear the "rise of the machines." In truth, I, Robot, the movie, is a Will Smith action film, and that's really all it is. And that's not all bad. He's still sexy and charming as hell and occassionally funny and, less occassionally, effective in dramatic moments. The film's futuristic visuals are pretty and dazzling, but not nearly as effective as, say, the futuristic visuals of far better recent films, such as Minority Report and A.I.. As an adaptation of Asimov, the film fails utterly. As an Alex Proyas film, it baffles. As a another excuse for Will Smith to say, "Oh, hell no! it's pretty good. I laughed. Why this doesn't anger me the way SFC's adaptation of LeGuin's Earthsea books does, I'm not sure. Maybe it's because I can tell that Proyas at least tried, and since Asimov is no longer with us, I know he can't personally be offended at how someone could so entirely pervert what he was trying to say. Anyway, second feature was the utterly laughable Dracula 3000, featuring Coolio as a goofy pothead vampire. This movie is so incredibly awful it just suddenly stops. It doesn't end, it just stops. I'm not sure if they ran out of money or just figured they should stop before it got any stupider. Basically, Dracula in space. More I will not say. It's too dumb to repeat. But not so awful as some of our previous Kid-Night selections, such unwatchable fare as The Fangleys and Leeches. Had we been stoned, it might have been harmless dumb fun, instead of just dumb. After the movies, Spooky played a little Otogi 2, which is her thing right now, and then I played Halo 2, but made myself go to bed at 2:30 a.m. So, I'm a little more awake today.
It's weird that I've almost stopped going to the theatre. Partly, it's the way audiences have gotten. Partly, it's the absurdity of ticket prices. Partly, it's fear of communicable disease. And partly, it's the realization that I enjoy most films more on DVD at home. But I am being sorely tempted by a few at the moment: Blade: Trinity, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, and The Aviator are all trying to lure me out into the aforementioned crowds of shopping idiots. In the old days, when I was seeing two or three movies a week, I'd have paid full-price for all three by now.
I neglected to mention that Thursday was Jennifer's birthday. I made a huge lasagna, and we had chocolate cake.
Ah, I see I just got kicked for the umpteenth frelling time this morning. Somewhere, a MasterCard was just declined.
1:57 PM
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