Night Of The Living Pack

Whoever said that you get better with each successive wave of packing preceding a move completely failed to take into my account my own idiocy. I think as I get older and live more and more in my head with my stories–or live in my fingers with my video games–I lose more touch with reality and exactly how it operates.

Case in the point:

The wife stopped me as I absentmindedly ran our beloved coffee machine under the tap when she asked me to clean it up before we packed it away for the new apartment. For some reason when she said “clean” my brain went into autopilot and equated that with “Dishes. Clean in similar fashion to” and so I got out the scrubber and the soap, and got the water going and did a bang up job of getting all that stained coffee and detritus off the machine until I heard her asking me exactly what the hell was I doing with the coffee maker. To which I responded, “Washing it.”

In other randomness, I also came across the house keys for my old home back in Canada. For whatever reason, they were sealed away in a tiny bag, and that bag itself was greasy with some kind of liquid whose presence I am at a complete loss to explain. It’s like the keys suddenly decided to bleed to death.

Also, Uno, the cat we rescued lo those many years ago, is exhausting herself by claiming every new box that appears, going through a meticulous process of rubbing her face against it, and then sitting on it while glaring at us. This lasts exactly long enough for her to A) notice a new box and move over to repeat the process B) Piss either me or the Wife off until we attempt to kick at her and moves away in that resentful, pudgy way she has about her.

Anyway, back to packing…

Waiting For Ace

There is still packing, and calling up utility companies and telling them to cancel, and calling up the Ministry of Manpower and asking them why a medical check up is suddenly necessary, and calling couriers and telling them to pick up a package. But there is also the usual, try-not-to-think-about-it-much wait as my agent has written in to tell me that The Pale Summer is now in the hands of Anne Sowards, the editor of Ace Science Fiction & Fantasy. They’re another one of the major publishers of the genre in the USA, and have handled the likes of William Gibson and Frank Herbert, so it’s not bad company to keep if you rate. That’s a big IF, of course. They’re also owned by Penguin who most people think of as printing “quality” books that real, intelligent people read, so if by some miracle Ace were to pick me up, I could always tell people “Hey, I’m being published by Penguin!” (Which is, ultimately, when you follow the the pyramid to the top, true) and get instant street cred with the literati. At least until they see the book with some stupid, giant magic tree on the cover and realize what a scam I’ve pulled…

It’s going to take a while before any word comes through, probably a month or two–though it would make a nice Christmas present to see an e-mail pop up saying, “Congratulations, you’re a novelist!”–so in the mean time, I think I’ll just try and concentrate on the other things that need doing, like the imminent move and starting on that children’s book.

Bleah. Two months of waiting. Oh well…

Yet Another Busy Week

Although this time it isn’t a big crash to get everything in under deadline, it’s just that lots o’ stuff is happening.

First, we are moving on Friday. There’s also a wedding we’re going to on Saturday, and the fact that we still have a lot of furniture that we need to sell and/or give away, but heck, let’s not think about that last bit…

There are the video game articles. Now that I’m averaging 3-4 a week regularly thanks to a new arrangement at GameAxis, this is feeling a heck of a lot more like a regular job, since I always know I’ve got those articles looming in every week. Nope, I haven’t finished a single one, although all of them have been at least started, and one is on the verge of being finished.

The animated series, has taken a turn for the positive. The first script was handed in and more or less approved. I sat down for the notes on how to tweak it for draft two, and then was asked if I wanted to do the treatments and scripts for five more scripts, to which I said “Yes.” So that’ll keep me busy for a while as well.

There is also this business of renewing my employment pass as well as completing the application for the Wife’s Canadian Permanent Residency, and somewhere in there, I really, really should start writing a new novel, as it’s been a couple of months, and I’m feeling kind of antsy about wanting to get down to it…

Creative Control

After digesting the extras of both Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, I am starting to seriously believe that a huge budget that can bring your vision to life and no peers with the authority to comment freely on your work are probably two of the biggest obstacles to creating a really compelling story.

The difference in mindset is amazing. At Lucasfilm and ILM, when you listen to the commentary, or watch the documentary, the liturgy is an endless reptition of “To serve George’s vision,” “To bring George’s idea to life,” “I make sure George gets what he wants.” Over and over again, there is a clear line of service dedicated to George Lucas with not a single, dissenting voice anymore, which, for George, was his goal all along after getting fed up with the interference he received on Star Wars. George didn’t want anyone to tell him what to do. George didn’t want anything to be impossible to achieve if that was what was in his mind. The end result is a bloated work that is neither lean, nor polished, and kind of stumbles along on some woefully inadequate legs just trying to reach the finish line.

Now you compare this with R & D productions, the company that produces Battlestar Galactica, and is actually just a partnership of the two executive producers Ronald Moore (Who is also the Creator and Writer) and David Eick. Listening to the commentaries and seeing the extras, you see an amazing collaboration at work. Ron writes this stuff, he puts it out there, and people tell him “THIS SUCKS!” or “THIS IS GREAT!” or, occasionally, “YOU’VE LOST YOUR MIND!” but the channel is open for people to challenge him on his notions, and he accepts it. I sat there in amazement listening to him confess to a COMPLETELY different ending for the first season, and my respect for him jumped up an entire order of magnitude when he said he ran it past some trusted peers, they told him, “You’re pushing it too far. You don’t need to go this far. It feels forced now, a shock for it’s own sake,” and he realized they were right and scaled it back down to something no less shocking, but far more “reasonable” than walking into a black void, hearing Jimmy Hendrix playing, having Baltar (A Galactican, remember, someone with no exposure to earth culture) recognize the Hendrix tune, and then having DIRK BENEDICT (The original Starbuck in the 70′s series) appear and say “Hi, I’m God.”

Someone had the guts to tell Moore he was insane, and he had the guts to accept it. In contrast, we have George who muses to himself hypothetically, while the gears of ILM scramble on full alert to get the CG pre-viz for him in an hour and make sure the schedule for another reshoot with actors is in motion.

In another example, Moore is shooting Battlestar Galactica in Vancouver. Sometimes metropolitan Vancouver doubles as the ruins of a nuked Caprica (A human homeworld) and so because they don’t have the budget to constantly green screen everything, they’re forced to do things like shoot only from high or low angles, which consequently adds a ton of mood/claustrophobia to a scene and make it more emotionall effective. It’s amazing to me how many times seeming limitations in the production have forced Moore and his crew to come up with an idea or alternative that is often superior to what they would have done if the budget had been there.

If George doesn’t want something, he simply digitally removes it. Or digitally inserts something if he suddenly gets an idea. He gets what he imagines, and is never forced to have to innovate.

There are some very important lessons to be learned here. I’m not taking notes or anything, but it’s all handy to keep in mind.

Man, I love Battlestar Galactica…

Being Address Challenged In Singapore

It’s hard to be a homeless person on this island if you don’t speak Chinese or Malay. Or “Singlish” for that matter, as the locals call it. If you’re like me (That is to say, Asian in appearance but speaking English with a 100% legit Canadian accent) then communication tends to consist of 1) Speak, 2) Wait for shock to pass as listener fails to compute 3) Repeat. Slowly.

Which is why I spent part of the afternoon today wandering around the neighborhood scavenging for boxes and failing to acquire any.

Usually people who are hard up and want things like boxes don’t speak the way I do, although it’s not unusual at all for them to look like me (ie, bedraggled bass player that has recently escaped from his hotel gig) and so the communication problems were compounded by a clash between audio and video presentation, further complicated by the fact that once they actually realized what I was asking for, they (The many shopowners in and around our neighborhood) universally answered with something along the lines of “It’s Sunday, we didn’t get any stock in, so there are no boxes to throw away. Try again tomorrow.”

So, having failed at that in spectacular fashion, I instead ended up going with the Wife to Siglap (Mentioned in a previous post as being–according to the government–a “A haven for Singapore’s Bohemian community”, though from what I’ve see, it only ever seems to have a Bohemian population of two, and that’s only when the Wife and I are there…) where we failed once again to secure boxes. BUT, we did manage to buy soap and other necessities for the new apartment, rent a couple of movies (In a continuation of further no-brainers, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) eat some good Japanese food, and buy a cat… thingy…

I call it a cat thingy, because it seems to consist of nothing but a bunch of furred up boards of wood attached by other, cylindrical pieces of wood wrapped in tough rope, forming a series of platforms, boxes, and holes that cats can hop on or hide in. We got it for the cats in a fit of pity since we’re not bringing the couch with us–or any other soft surface to sit on–and we don’t let them into the bedroom, so this will be the ONLY soft surface available to them in the entire apartment once we move.

The things we do for our stupid cats…

Doom: The Movie

Ended up surprising me a little.

Although it’s not saying much, I think that for the moment–considering its alumni are the likes of Streetfighter, Tomb Raider and Super Mario Brothers–this may be the reigning king of movies based on video games. Except for the one bit about the monsters being the result of genetic experimentation (Rather than actual inhabitants of hell unleashed on Earth as is the original game idea) the rest of the movie remained remarkably true to the Doom mythos in terms of history, and more importantly, feel. That last one, however, may attributed to the fact that the feel of Doom is essentially relentless action, cheap scares, and lots of ammunition spent shooting the hell out of anything that moves.

In this regard, Doom delivered all the goods.

What caught me off guard however, was that there was a moment in the movie where I felt like I was watching a real movie. I mean, it had character conflict, and acting and real dramatic tension and everything! Sadly, the moment only lasted a couple of minutes, and then it was back to more ludicrous plot advancement, but the fact it was in there at all and I found myself actually giving a damn about the situation and characters–even if momentarily–was something I was not expecting in the least. The Wife actually said afterwards that that particular moment felt to her like something I would try to write into a film if I were tasked with pumping out a relentless, no-brainer, actioner, but couldn’t resist trying to stick in at least one angsty, conflicted moment.

And then of course, there is the descent into the first person shooter realm where the movie suddenly cuts exclusively to the point of view of “Reaper” (Karl “Eomer” Urban) and we see what an FPS looks like when it’s done for real. Well, okay, pseudo-real. There were some obvious CG elements in the sequence, but I’m still convinced that this movie has unintentionally created a training video for future game developers at Id, Valve and other houses that develop FPS games, because, after all, the environments were REAL, so for the first time, software developers now have a video that shows them EXACTLY what an FPS looks like when grounded in the real world. Rather than watching photos or movies that are in third person and trying to imagine it in FPS terms, Doom has just gone and given it to them.

That doesn’t change the fact that it was Super Cheese, though.

I admit it, I got a big ol’ goofy grin on my face when the moment came up. I was like, “Oh man, HERE IT IS! WOW, HOW LAME!!” and I couldn’t stop grinning. It was engaging, it was entertaining, it was unforgettable, for all the wrong reasons and in unintentional ways. I know it was done as a thank you to the fans, to make them feel like they were really being considered during the creation of the film, but as a device within the movie itself, it completely jarred, and was impossible to take seriously.

Still, on the whole, it was a fun movie. Definitely not a painful or unpleasant experience, and the Wife actually wouldn’t mind owning it on DVD, something that surprised me nearly as much as her curiosity to watch the movie, since I figured I’d have to watch it with my fellow geek friends.

As a video game based movie: 9/10 (Minus one point for ditching the whole “The monsters are actually demons from hell” thing. Other than that one glaring omission, a nearly picture perfect rendition of the game, and gamers really can’t ask for too much more excep maybe seeing hell itself)

As an actual movie: 7/10 (Nothing intrinsically bad about it. A by the numbers SF/Action film that never stumbled but never really innovated either, with at least one surprising moment of genuine conflict, drama and, dare I say it? ACTING!)

The Pedestrian Day

Nothing but house keeping of sorts today. All of it terribly pedestrian and average and very much the “We’re a couple now” sort of thing.

I had to get my passport stamped with a Visa to extend my stay in Singapore. This was really kind of a formality, since my Employment Pass was already in the process of being renewed. It just so happened that my current one expired while the new one is being processed, so they needed to give me another two weeks until I finally get the approval letter (Which they told me had already been mailed) and then I can get my green card again.

We also went down to the new apartment to pick up the keys. The new apartment is smaller and much cozier than our current apartment and seems to be quite at odds with the design of the one we’re living in now. For example, the actual look of our current apartment is actually kind of… naff. However, there’s no denying the actual quality of the construction. Especially considering it still looks new after being up for nearly 10 years. The new apartment on the other hand is very snazzy looking, kind of designer-y, but is already falling apart due to shoddy construction. Still we’re going to be living there for less than a year, so it’s not a real big issue.

I also went through the process of beginning to fill out the Wife’s application for Permanent Residency in Canada. At this point, I’m wondering why they even bother calling it an immigration form since so far they seem far more interested in the Sponsor; ie, ME. So far for her, all they’ve wanted is her name, birthdate and mailing address. From me, they’ve wanted to know what my job is, where I’ve worked the last five years, where I’ve lived the last five years, how much I made at each job, whether or not my relatives and friends have met the Wife, what my plans are for going back to Canada, and do I have proof that I actually am going back like a contract for a job, or a rental agreement or something else to that effect…

So far it seems to be the exact opposite of Singapore where if you want to migrate here, they’re far more interested in who you are, then who is sponsoring you…

George Lucas Raped My Childhood

That one’s for Allan.

Anyway, today we finally took the plunge and I walked into one of our usual DVD stores, ponied up a card with all of our purchases stamped on it, all filled out–thus entitling us to a $20 discount–and we got ourselves Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith on DVD.

I watched this in the theaters a few weeks after it came out, with a couple of curious friends. The Wife did not even want to do that, so watching it later tonight will be her first experience of the movie.

I am saddened by this film.

I pretty much agree with Trey Stone and Matt Parker. They echoed my sentiments that sometimes you need someone to tell you when something doesn’t work, whether it’s Southpark, or Star Wars. George Lucas no longer has that. Whether he realized it or not, the constraints he had when he was starting his career–and his lack of participation in The Empire Strikes Back–created a relevant, modern mythology for a media drunk generation of children. Star Wars was myth that we could relate to. It was a pure, unadulterated adventure with likeable characters, classic storytelling elements and–on a more technical level–good acting, pacing and direction. That is why Star Wars went on to become part of our cultural lexicon, why people know what you mean when you talk about the Force, and why everyone seems to know who Darth Vader is, even if they’ve never even seen the movies.

Episode III however is none of those things. And while I understand the reasons for why it’s that way, I’m nonetheless saddened by the fact that George had the opportunity in his grasp to create something great again, and deliberately, consciously chose to pass it up. Maybe he didn’t want that responsibility again. Maybe he thought once was enough. Whatever the case, he not only decided not to create Star Wars for a new generation (Instead passing the torch to Peter Jackson, who MORE than made up for it with the amazing Lord of the Rings trilogy) he was too lazy to even just try and make a good MOVIE. So okay, fine, you don’t want to make another pop culture icon, fair enough, but man, couldn’t you have at least made a decent POPCORN FLICK? Star Wars, once the hallmark of a good time that would engage the imagination and provide a romp of fancy and adventure instead got beaten out by a rich guy who’s parents got shot and consequently forced him to dress up as a bat and beat the crap out of people. Better acting, better pacing, better writing, better characterization and a sense that there was a genuine desire to entertain beat out a much more expensive affair that felt like one long extended promotional video for the toys, video games and other merchandising that followed in Episode III’s wake.

But here I am, with a new DVD. George got the money, because I needed my closure. I have every other DVD, I needed to get this one. I know I won’t watch it with the frequency of the original trilogy (Those feel like fairy tales, this feels like a commercial) but it’s kind of an interesting sort of cautionary tale for me. Whenever I start thinking to myself that I’ve got it all figured out, and I don’t need anyone to tell me how to write a story, I’ll pop in Episode III, watch it, and remind myself “George thinks exactly the same thing.”

If that doesn’t humble you and make you eager to hear other people’s opinions again, nothing will.

The Real Frakkin’ Deal





























I’m so into the new Battlestar Galactica series.

I may be one of the few people on the island to have legitmately watched every single episode without having to download it off the internet, thanks to the fact that one of my wedding presents was the season 1 compilation on DVD. It was worth the wait though, resisting the urge to watch the entire run, because seeing it properly on a decent TV with decent sound rather than the horribly pixelated look I would have had to content myself with on a bitorrent run would have killed much of the effect of the visuals. Although, to be fair, it’s not the visuals that are real star of this show.

No, by God, it’s the story and characters.

For the longest time I was–and am–a big fan Babylon 5 because it had done something that no other Science Fiction in television had ever done. It approached the seriousness, and epic scale of science fiction literature. The big ideas, the galactic stakes, the massive wars, all of that had been attempted with little or no success on television until B5 came along, and for that, and it’s massive 5 season arc, I will always remember it as one of the great achievements in science fiction television, and there’s no doubt in my mind that it played a part in making the coming of Battlestar Galactica possible.

But Battlestar Galactica is better.

Where B5 put science fiction’s sprawling scope and seriousness on the little screen for the first time, it still faltered in a few areas, especially by today’s standards. The visuals–the CG in particular–were in the infancy of sophisticated effects for TV, and the dialogue often needed some serious editing to keep the soap box operatics in control, but frequently didn’t get it. The characters were larger than life, as was fitting of an epic in space, and stakes were for the continued future of all life in our galaxy.

Galactica is none of this, and in a way, that’s why I’m really impressed with it.

B5 is what I’ve always read and wanted to SEE on TV. Battlestar Galactica however, is what I MYSELF have always wanted to DO in science fiction. Flawed characters, complex morality, mistakes that are made and can’t be taken back, reverberating forever. Wonderful dialogue, sex and violence, questions about politics, authority, democracy and survival. The idea of morality versus survival. And the BEST visual effects I’ve ever seen on TV. BSG currently holds the highest standards for space battles that all other shows must bow before and pay homage.

I’ve got half a mind to camp at Ronald Moore’s apartment and beg him to let me serve coffee at the writer’s meetings just so I can soak up the talent. In one season, this show has quickly gone on to become my favorite science fiction series, and it just makes all the others ones, ESPECIALLY Star Trek, look like they’re floating dead in the water. How they managed to pack so much thematic, narrative, dramatic, visual quality into a FREAKIN’ SCIENCE FICTION SHOW OF ALL THINGS… is totally beyond me. I’m so used to measuring SF TV by it’s own standards and and keep my “normal” standards of measurement of quality for “real stuff” that I was completely surprised to find I didn’t have to do that with BSG. Hell, even the music is completely different, going for more a simple, tribal beat rather than the usual legion of brass and string instruments in a giant orchestra, I’m completely blown away by how NOT “conventional” science fiction this is, and yet the more I watch, the more I realize this is the way science fiction should be going.

I love this show. I can’t wait for season 2.

I have just one thing to say to local readers.

BUY THE FRAKKIN’ DVD, FOR GODS’ SAKE…

I know a lot of you think people are idiots for buying things legally, and pat yourself on the back for your own cleverness at not getting scammed, but the people on the Galactica crew work damn hard to create this series. They deserve the money, and if they DON’T pull in the numbers, the show gets cancelled, and you hypocrites will be the FIRST ones to start bitching and whine, “Aw why’d they cancel it?!? They always cancel the good shows…. what, me? No, I never bought it, I just it watched it on the ‘net…”

Get the picture yet?

Settling

Now that most of the crazy work is done, and I am still mildly sick, I can finally slow things down a little bit. There’s still a bunch of articles for GameAxis to write, as well as helping the Wife with her exhibition by organizing more of the submissions put in by the artists, but at least the scary stuff is done.

No word on what’s happening with the final submission to the mini-series, but since they shoot on November 6th, they don’t have much time to make a lot of major changes. The script for the animated series went all right. They seem happy with what I’ve given them and they want only minor tweaking. They’ve also given me a new treatment they want me to mull over, and see whether or not I can do anything with it.

Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, the name of the series is called Nanoboy.

I am amazed by Shadow of the Colossus. It is definitely one of the more memorable games I’ve played in recent years, though I’m not completely sure if it could be said to be for everyone. It seems almost like it’s one of the games that gamers will LOVE, but that casual gamers, or even just normal people would actually enjoy more watching. Hardcore gamers will be able to blitz through it thanks to their trained agility in games, but I can how it would be frustrating for the not so “gamer-gifted” to know what they want to do, but lack the dexterity to pull it off, whereas they can just shout orders to a gamer and watch their ideas be executed, a dynamic that works perfectly between myself and the Wife when I’m busy dodging a monolithic beast, and concentrating on just staying alive while she notices, “Hey, you can climb up that pillar.”

Right. Back to work. And gaming. Oh, and recovering, of course, but I can do that while gaming…