Me After Three Hours of Shoveling Snow

Ten Bits of Advice Writers Should Stop Giving Aspiring Writers

All writers (not just the aspiring ones) should read this post by Nick Mamatas.

Moonbase Gingrich

I’ve seen liberal and conservative politicians make pie-in-the-sky promises in the past, but this one comes the closest to actually being pie-in-the-sky. It’s already stupifying that Gingrich would promise to have a permanent American base on the moon by the end of his second (!) term. Yet, the real kicker is that he goes on to say that once the base has about 13,000 permanent inhabitants, we could make the moon the 51st State.

I keep waiting for him to say something like, “Oh come on! Can’t you folks take a joke?”

But I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Well, perhaps not. And I actually don’t assume that the use of crosshairs, or other similar symbols, automatically means you want the competition to get shot. Still, whoever is doing this in Missouri needs a time out.

Romneycare Seems To Be Working Out

Too bad the man can’t be publicly proud of what might be one of his more impressive accomplishments.

Countdown to Facebook Timeline

Facebook announced recently that its new(ish) Timeline format would become mandatory for all users over the next few weeks. Predictably, there’s been lots of vitriol and arm waving from users who aren’t fond of the format.

I’ve stated publicly that I like Timeline, though I understand that I may be in the minority. Regardless, once they pull the trigger on your profile, you’ll have seven days to trim out all the posts, images, and other data that you don’t want on your timeline.

The thing to keep in mind is that Timeline doesn’t reveal information that wasn’t available before. But, it does make it much easier for your Facebook friends to access older posts, images, and other data.

My recommendation is to make the switch before mandated, so that you can review old posts during the seven days of your choosing. I’ll be honest, if you post a lot then it can be a bit time consuming.

Access Timeline Here.

Google Throws Itself on the Grenade: A New Privacy Policy

As angry as folk are about Facebook Timeline being mandatory, Google was nice enough to announce a new privacy policy that drew a lot of media attention away from Facebook. That was nice of them.

In a nutshell, Google will combine the privacy policy and settings for 60 of its services (YouTube, Gmail, Reader, Voice, etc.) into one comprehensive policy. The fear is that if your privacy settings are more conservative on YouTube as opposed to Google+, then this new consolidation may reveal that you like cute kitten videos a little too much.

I have yet to delve very deeply into this, but this Washington Post article seems to present a good guide for getting a handle on your privacy options in the Google-verse.

Winter Finally Arrived … Now It Can Go Away Again

We’ve had a VERY mild winter here in RI, but Saturday a week ago we got a hair under a foot of snow here in East Greenwich. Shoveling out the museum (and other weather-related endeavors) took about three hours. As you can tell from the picture above, I was less than thrilled with our winter wonder land.

Postings have been sparse …

… because my Dad (who is 84) fell down a few weeks ago and broke his hip. He had a hip replacement but is still in the hospital. That’s taking up the vast majority of my time.

So, bloggery and other online endeavors have been sparse.

Toodles,
John

Anyone who’s looking for greater productivity / organization in 2012 may want to take a gander at these tools. I used to use Basecamp.com for project management, but frankly I found it to be a bit overpriced for what you get.

Asana.com

This is a very robust to-do-list-oriented project management tool. You can utilize it for free with up to 30 team members. You can create multiple project work spaces. I first heard about this on the Founders Talk Podcast #27 interview with Ryan Carson, who now uses Asana to manage his new online education project, Treehouse. They also offer a Mac app as well as a web-based interface for all other platforms.

Right now, it’s almost too robust for me. If I’m ever in a position where I’m running a project with multiple team members (designers, programmers, etc.), then I’ll probably revisit Asana.

Asana.com

Rememberthemilk.com

This is what I’m using right now. It’s a very simple, clean (and free) web-based application that handles multiple to-do list, deadlines, and priorities. It’s perfect for a single user, but tasks can also be shared with others. This site offers both an Mac and Android app, both of which are pretty slick.

Rememberthemilk.com

OmniFocus

I’ve never used OmniFocus because I’m not a Mac guy, but I keep hearing how good this product is from people who work exclusively on Mac platforms. It’s not free ($80), but I’ve heard it’s worth it. The Omni Group offers several other productivity tools for Mac users.

OmniFocus

Dan Benjamin

Like a lot of folk, I’ve made New Year’s resolutions that … ultimately … amounted to nothing.

One of the podcasts that I really enjoy listening to is the 5by5 Network’s “Back to Work” show featuring Dan Benjamin and Merlin Mann. The podcast focuses on “productivity, communication, work, barriers, constraints, tools, and more.”

Merlin Mann

Episode 47, titled “Utter Failure & Hotel Steak”, focuses on “fresh starts and modest changes rather than rehearsing for sucking. You don’t need a calendar to tell you to change. Whether you want to give up nail biting, onanism, or drinking a gallon of vodka a day, you need a plan and a tolerance for failure.”

This episode’s take on the arbitrary emptiness of New Year’s resolutions meshes with my own opinions on the subject and puts it to words with great humor and clarity. Give it a whirl. If you like it, then check out 5by5′s other podcasts. If you’re a Mac / Apple enthusiast, then you’ll find a lot of relevant content.

Regarding “Back to Work,” be aware that Benjamin and Mann typically start their show with about 10 to 30 minutes of friendly/funny banter, some of which will seem extraneous to first-time listeners who are impatient for the hosts to get to the show’s core subject. It’s just part of the show’s personality and pacing.

Click Here: Back to Work #47: Utter Failure & Hotel Steak

Back To Work Podcast

… is about to end. This site will become active again in the near-ish future.

Cheers,
John

In the opening scene of Cowboys & Aliens, outlaw Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) snaps to consciousness in the arid Arizona desert beaten, wounded, dirty, with no memory, and a futuristic bracelet locked on his forearm. Savor this scene … because it’s the first and only intriguing part of the entire movie.

Based on the 100-page Platinum Studios 2006 graphic novel created by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg and written by Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley, Cowboys & Aliens takes us to the wild west in 1873, where Lonergan enters the small town of Absolution to piece together the mystery of who he is and where he got RoboCop’s bracelet. Along the way, he runs afoul of Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), a wealthy, cranky, mean-spirited cattle farmer and Civil War veteran who (like most everyone in Absolution) wants to see Lonergan dead.

But this bit of decorative drama comes to a quick end when marauding space creatures zoom out of the night sky in spaceships to abduct townspeople in the most stupidly dangerous, destructive, and inefficient way possible. With many loved ones now in the hands of the aliens, Lonergan and Dolarhyde form a shaky alliance and put together a posse to track the aliens to their home base somewhere in the desert.

Along for the ride is mild-mannered saloon owner Doc (a woefully underutilized Sam Rockwell), Preacher Meachum (Clancy Brown), Native-American guide Nat Colorado (Adam Beach), and beautiful and mysterious Ella (Olivia Wilde), who has a secret … a really stupid secret. They also bring a cute dog and a very young boy (Noah Ringer) on this very dangerous trip solely to be put in multiple scenes of contrived peril. Along the way, they encounter outlaws, Indians, and (of course) aliens in varying degrees of mayhem.

Listen, as an all-around nerd, a movie with this title, source material, and acting talent should pull me in like a moth to a bright light. Instead, what we get is an overproduced, overwritten (nine writers have their names on this film) mess of a film where the missed potential exists in quantities that can only be measured in the same way that geologists measure the passage of time.

The fatal flaw is that director Jon Favreau (Iron Man) treated the story far too seriously. In fact, more seriously than the graphic novel on which it’s based. The entire mash-up concept of aliens and cowboys doing battle is, at its core, wacky and ridiculous. Had this story been approached with a more gonzo, tongue-in-cheek feel then it could have been incredibly entertaining and fun. Instead, there’s little-to-no humor and more than a few scenes loaded with heavy-handed, insincere melodrama. Adding to that, the CGI for the aliens and their technology is good, but not great. And the action scenes are similarly adequate but completely lack any instances where you think to yourself “Okay, that was pretty cool.”

The actors also seem to sense that they’re in a movie that amounts to little more than a hyped summer clunker. Daniel Craig looks great in Western garb and I hope he gets another shot in the genre. Based solely on his demeanor and cold stare, he could be an easy successor to Clint Eastwood in the Sergio Leone films. But in Cowboys & Aliens, he does little more than look good. Ford snarls and grumbles through the entire movie without bringing much more to the mix. And everyone else is, well, just there.

The only audience that I can see really enjoying this film would be young boys who (rightfully) care little about most of the critical aspects discussed above. They just want tough guys, guns, and explosions … God love ‘em. For anyone else, I recommend taking a pass on seeing it in the theater. For some, it may squeak by as a rental you don’t entirely regret.

Cowboys & Aliens

Given the glut of disappointing superhero movies in recent years, Captain America: The First Avenger is a refreshing, though by no means groundbreaking, diversion into a more nostalgic take on superheroes. This movie also deserves credit for its ability to stand alone, even though it is one of a series of “prequels” to the summer 2012 The Avengers uber-event movie. While it’s true that this movie is bookended by scenes that help set up The Avengers film, everything in between works well all by itself.

Directed by Joe Johnston (Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, The Rocketeer, and Jurassic Park III ), Captain America takes us back to 1942 where a gutsy-but-puny Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) tries repeatedly to enlist in the US Army to join the battle against Hitler’s Axis forces. Despite weighing only 90 pounds, Rogers refuses to give up and relays a charming “aw shucks” patriotic determination that captures the flavor of the original comic books started in 1940 by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.

Rogers’ pluck gets him noticed by genius scientist Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci), a German scientist who defected to the Allies after refusing to hand over his secrets to the Nazis. He believes that Steve, despite a laundry list of ailments, has the moral fiber that makes him the right choice to become the first biochemically-enhanced super soldier— pitting him against Tommy Lee Jones’s Colonel Phillips, who wants a he-man soldier in the experiment. Also included in the mix is British agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), who puts in a good performance but is obviously spackled in to the script as a romantic interest.

And why does the US want to create a super-soldier? To do battle with a rogue Nazi maniac named Schmidt (Hugo Weaving), aka the Red Skull, who wants to take over the world by way of a diabolical plot that he explains in great detail in the tradition of countless chatty super villains. Weaving nails the Red Skull character perfectly and chews the scenery only enough to satisfy.

The movie looks great. The production design by the Rick Heinrichs is bold and interesting, the period-specific monochromatic palette complements the storyline and mood perfectly, and the shooting style evokes World War II newsreels. This is NOT a dark, gritty, bleak superhero movie a la Christian Bale in the Batman franchise. One of the most impressive special effects is the least noticeable. During the first part of the movie, Chris Evan’s head is digitally attached to a scrawny actors body to simulate his per-transformation self. It’s really quite amazing for its seamlessness.

As mentioned previously, the storyline is nothing we haven’t seen before, but it’s got a lot of fun built into it and moves along at a good clip. While we don’t get really deep into any of the characters, there’s enough development for us to care during the more poignant, quieter scenes. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely did a nice job with the script, and it should be noted that Joss Whedon performed an uncredited polish. Like the story overall, the action scenes are fun and engaging, but far from groundbreaking. I saw the movie while sitting next to a group of (well-behaved) young boys, and the action seemed to keep them focused and non-fidgety. So, I’ll call that a success.

Ultimately, I’d give Captain America: The First Avenger a solid B grade, perhaps even a B+. The movie knows its audience and does right by them, while being enjoyed independent of its Avengers franchise. If you’re looking for a fun, feel-good action film, then this is a pretty good pick.

Oh … and as it is with all of these movies, wait until after the credits at the end of the film. There’s bonus footage from The Avengers.

Captain America: The First Avenger

My movie review of the geriatric action-adventure film, RED, is now online at Cinema Knife Fight. Just click here to give it a read.

My movie review of THE TOWN (both starring and directed by Ben Affleck) went live at Cinemaknifefight.com last night at midnight. Just click here to give it a read.

Check out friend, author, critic, and fellow aging punk’s writing class at Grub Street in Boston, MA.

Noted fiction editor, Stoker and International Horror Guild Award-winner, crime and SF writer Michael Marano will be offering a new class this fall on “Writing the Smart Page-Turner” at Grub Street, Inc., a non-profit creative writing center dedicated to nurturing writers and connecting readers with the wealth of writing talent in the Boston area. The class is geared for writers who work in all kinds of genres, from SF/Fantasy to Romance to Suspense/Thrillers to just about any other genre you can name, and is designed to help authors find their own distinct literary voice while working within those genres. Classes, which will meet over 10 Thursday nights from 7 – 10 PM in downtown Boston, will also be dedicated to practical concerns, like finding the right publishing venues to send your work, and how to work with editors and agents. An overview of the course topics and readings can be found here. For more information, contact Marano directly at profmike AT mindspring DOT com

“Mike knows what makes a great story. In his classes, he shares selections from his enormous library of references – novels of all types, TV shows, movie scripts – to showcase powerful writing techniques. He gives detailed, perceptive feedback to student writing. He holds us to the integrity of our stories, to say what we mean to say.”–Carolyn R., former student.

My review of the action/thriller SALT (starring Angelina Jolie) is now online at Cinema Knife Fight.  Just click here.

I was unkind …