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October 12, 2005
Day 37-39: Back on the Beat
Author Boy, back from a fabulously restorative holiday with Michelle, got straight back to work this past Monday. Not exactly breaking any productivity records, but all the same banging the flippers with gusto, revising and adding to the material I had before we went away, improving things as I go. Right now the manuscript for UMBRA is up to 41,600 words, and I'm as happy as I'm likely to get, this side of finishing the thing. Beleaguered Protagonist has become aware that the bad guys opposing him are much nastier and more powerful than he suspected, and has just had to have his brainstem rebuilt (he's kind of agog at this idea) after it melted down following the revelation about his true background.
* * *
I did take a few photos while we were in Mandurah, but as fate would have it, Michelle has the camera with her at work right now. You'll just have to take my word for it that, when it was sunny, life was good. It was sometimes unsettled, and here and there downright all grey and cold and pouring with rain. On such occasions we huddled in one of numerous cafes, consumed excellent coffee and other nibbles, and played lots of a new boardgame we like called Carcassonne (Michelle beat me several games to one--dang!).
I also spent rather too many hours after Michelle went to sleep each night playing Metroid Fusion on my Game Boy Advance SP. It's the first game for the GBA that I've liked this much, and I find I'm spending hours and hours at it. Also helped that the game itself only cost $20 retail, since it's a few years old now and was heavily marked down from its normal recommended retail of $70.
* * *
We also went to see SERENITY, the new movie based on the cancelled FIREFLY series. I'd seen a few episodes of FIREFLY and wasn't real impressed. But earlier this year I started to hear enormous buzz regarding a trailer for the forthcoming movie, and went to download it. The trailer surprised me by suggesting the movie was somehow going to be much more interesting than the series had been. Then another trailer came along, and that was even more tantalising. At this point I realised I was actually interested in seeing this movie--and could scarcely have been more surprised. Then, last week, on Tight-Arse Tuesday, when most movie theatres charge half-price for tickets, we went along.
And we had a brilliant time of it. The movie stands alone, requiring no previous familiarity with the series. It was gripping, affecting, intense, funny, and terribly sad. All the things you want in a movie experience, or at least that I want in a movie experience. It's one of the best sf movies I've seen--though, in all truth, the actual sf content is fairly light, and not exactly rigourous (a solar system with scores of terraformed planets--um, what?). What makes up for that is the writing: smart dialogue, vivid characters, brisk pacing, and, of course, marvellous effects work (also some truly huge guns). We came out of the movie all excited, and didn't stop chattering about it to each other for hours afterwards. It reminded me very much of the feeling I had after seeing the very first Star Wars movie, back in 1978--and how bitterly disappointing Lucas' most recent efforts have been, despite the vast financial and technical resources available to him.
How much did this one film change our thinking about FIREFLY? We are now hunting for the DVDs. It's amazing how much my mind has been changed on this. Those few episodes I saw struck me as hokey, dull and kind of lame. I have no idea if they were shown in or out of sequence or whatever, and I hear that in its US release the actual pilot episode wasn't shown until much later. After we enjoyed BUFFY and ANGEL so much, it was surprising to see Joss Whedon and his minions produce what seemed like such a dud. Now I see we were greatly mistaken.
If I was a movie scoring sort of person, I'd give it a strong 8/10.
The outrageous gouging of the snack department at the theatre, on the other hand, deserves a rant for another time. Good freaking God!
Posted by adrian at October 12, 2005 07:14 PM
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Comments
i loved/hated the movie. i hated it only because of the sad things. what they did with the show in the u.s. was shitty. they aired them out of order and pre-empted them, didn't give them any advertising...that kind of thing. and honestly, the series is really good, but might take a few eps to warm up. but i think you are past the warm up stage and should enjoy them all this time around. especially, the ep with nathan's fine ass. oh wait, michelle and i will just enjoy that. ;)
Posted by: river selkie at October 13, 2005 02:34 PM
Hiya, Adrian! Glad you both had a wonderful time, and it's nice to see you slip right back into the book with aplomb.
I reviewed Serenity for my column, and couldn't agree with you more. I made sure to point out that I felt the space battle was as good as anything in a Star Wars movie. In fact, better in that it was comprehensible. Much as I like Star Wars, sometimes I think Lucas goes too far with such scenes, making them too overwhelming and disorienting to enjoy. And yes, snacks are way overpriced here too.
Posted by: Charlie at October 13, 2005 01:13 AM
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