10 Minute Rule

I first mentioned Banshee back in February of 2013. Openly categorized as soft porn with an edge of violence, the show fit the mold of a new wave of ‘skinemax’ work. Even I deemed the piece to be largely about shock and awe. I don’t feel that is the entire story.

The show is a visual mindscrew. It is beautifully shot and sexual and extremely violent, pushing those two extremes together in a manner that still surprises me. The sex is expected. The violence is sudden, original, and far more meaningful than the requisite sexual encounters. In truth it is the violence that unites this wonderfully rich and complex band of characters and the sex that serves to shove them apart.

Obviously a fair bit of it is contrived to make the connections easier and the sex available. New characters that arrive are rarely new and more often cut out of the backstory and rewoven into the schema in a way that reminds us that everyone and everything is connected.

The show also tries very hard to remind us of the message at its core: We are all in flux, moving towards or away from the best version of ourselves and changing direction as a direct result of our reactions to life. In other words, we were all someone else yesterday and will be someone else tomorrow.

That last part matters and it separates the show from the normal drivel I watch. I’ll keep watching so long as ‘skin’ keeps on serving it up.

Some Thoughts:

1. Sticking with the civil war, 1865 was the year Robert E. Lee was named de facto leader of the confederate forces. See now why that damnable orange car is so subversive? On the one hand it made us forget–if only consciously–that Lee was on the wrong side of the war. On the other hand, both sides are still us and still ought to be respected and remembered with reverence. Brother vs. Brother–orange car or not.

One of those nights where it is fought to string together the coherent. There’s always so many thoughts I can share though. Here are a few…

 

Some Thoughts:

1. So Sharknado 3 is happening…
2. Are you not entertained? Consider this: The Splash Bros of Golden State aren’t even the reason that the series is locked at two. In fact, they won’t be the reason if the Warriors win the series. The secret, as explained by San Antonio, is to use the 3 position to wear down James and force everyone else to step up.
3. After having just finished Love Minus Eighty I’ve moved on to The Fold. I’ll be making a run on the (6) new Shadowrun books shortly…
4. The kids’ basketball season gets underway in the morning. This sport that is the staple of nearly every inner city I’ve touched gets almost no treatment in the suburbs. We are limited to a 5 week season in the heat of summer where the level of competition is reflective of the limited time spent in training. Kids aren’t learning the game the right way and as a result end up passing as much as Carmelo. No surprise then that all of my teams are called The Knicks.
5. Stewart’s run on the Daily Show is near and end. He makes number three, following Leno and Letterman. What I realize about that is we are living in a period of transition between eras and legacies. This means we are at the end of something and the beginning of something else. What I wonder is what era I belong to…

Turns out I have a lot of things to sort out. On the surface this is a basic organizational deformity, but on a deeper level it is about letting things pile up and then having to find the strength to dig out from under them. I’ve been playing with the idea of calling that habit Quicksand. Now that I’m in a state of mind to really see the big picture and how I’ve set up my life and habits I am aware of certain patterns.

If you look around my home there are pockets of stuff. A great deal of this stuff is useless and kept around as an example of things that were going to happen or were amazing for a half-second before realization of the time commitment kicked in. What made me the most cognizant of this whole situation was the moment I noticed a pile of legos that belong to my mid-kid. We’re talking legos from Christmas that he hungered to put together, put down, and never touched again. These things are in plain site–if you bother to look outside of the normal walking paths. In fact the boy walks by them often on a daily basis. He doesn’t bother to pick them up and finish the job. I’m afraid he might get that from me.

Don’t get me wrong. This is not the way I live my life in general, but I do tend to start more projects than is reasonable for a human and dump the detritus of what won’t get done into a pile somewhere so that I don’t get mired in the quicksand of too many tasks. The problem is that there is a whole lot of quicksand now.

This blog often becomes a catharsis–a way to make sense of the jumble of information squatting in my head; an exorcism for all of the guilt, angst, rage, and glee tumbling around in there like a clothing in a dryer (mental note: do laundry). So this post is a way for me to share and maybe take a deeper look at the realization. I need to get better at getting things done.

Some Thoughts:

1. Some nights I have things to say. Some nights not. Writing is like that.
2. I don’t know how much longer I care to carry on this historical fact of the night business. Last night wasn’t the end game, because I have something minor to share about 1863. It was the year in the American Civil War that the Confederate States officially adopted the confederate flag. I bring this up because although the ‘real’ flag now flies in all the states, many of the south have continued the tradition of the other flag. I grew up with the confederate flag in the most subversive way. I watched the Dukes of Hazard and cheered the so-called ‘national flag’ every time the General Lee (also subversive) hopped over a pile of dirt and soared skyward to escape the cops.

Today I had a conversation with a fellow writer about the need to write every day. I’ll be honest, short of these ten minutes I don’t always write every day. That used to be okay. I used to have the mental focus and acuity to pick up a story, write a bit, put it down for a week, and then start right back up again. That no longer feels realistic. Another friend helped me to relate that sensation to the idea of working out my body. See, both are systems that become harder to train and need to be trained more regularly over time. The muscles struggle with age and specified disuse. The mind gets cluttered with life’s daily distractions and the responsibilities that form every hour.

Somehow recognizing that the carefree kid I used to be isn’t necessary expected to be the mature writer I am today helped me to understand that the way I approach writing needs to mature with me. It is such a simple and small lesson, but a pivotal one.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. In 1862 the Revenue act of 1861 took effect, which led to ten years of taxation which eventually turned into a flat tax rate as of 1894—an act that was eventually repealed, sadly. I think we could benefit from a flat tax. Unfortunately, the courts at that time found such a thing to be unconstitutional.

In 1861 James Naismith was born. His legacy includes the great game of basketball. Today, 154 years later, Lebron James’ near triple-double powered the Cavs to an unlikely game three win over the heavily favored Warriors. Lets consider the facts: The Cavs are missing two starters, both lost in the playoffs. Not just random starters but all stars–two of the big three. Fortunately the last man standing is James, and that seems to be enough thus far.

Who knows if the Warriors can stop what suddenly appears to be an unstoppable force bent on bringing Cleveland their first bit of goodness in a very long time.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. After long and careful consideration I have decided to keep cable–at least briefly. Its the football and well ESPN. There are a handful of services I am not yet willing to sacrifice. They can mostly be gained through private means such as Apple TV. It has become a much bigger deal than it should be. It feels like cutting the cord should be easier than this. Still, as my Direct TV agent always says, it’s hard to lose a long time customer…
2. Loot Crate is the first of number of services I stumbled upon that provide small boxes of fan material for subscription-based consumption. Hero Box is my latest favorite–given my recent game loft design project. Worth checking out…

Back in 1860 Then candidate Abraham Lincoln gave perhaps his most powerful speech; the speech that purportedly launched him into the presidency. The Cooper Union speech was not full of one liners, zingers, or memorable quotes. It was a powerful argument built on the core aristotelian principles of essay and argument and presented a logical combination attack to all of those who felt that slavery remained in the best interests of the Republican party and America. That speech is on my mind as of late because it isn’t the one Lincoln is remembered for. Sometimes the best we do isn’t what people remember of us. Instead they remember the things they reflect on and connect to.

Recently I’ve been considering that in my own life and my own writings. In terms of life I’m a man who separated from his wife and as such I’m not remembered by her family as the guy who always helped and was always good to the people around him. I’m remembered as the one who left. In my writing I perhaps still see myself as the guy who is going to write an epic fantasy series on the scale of Jordan or Martin. I am,  however, best known for writing Shadowrun stories.

There is often a vast wasteland between what we believe defines us and what defines us in the eyes of others. We have little control over the beliefs and definitions of others but maintain absolute control over how we define ourselves. I’ve been learning how to define myself all over again and what the best version of that self looks like and what he does. This has no bearing on how anyone else sees me, and maybe that is for the best. After all, sooner or later we all have to decide which definition is more important–ours or theirs.

There is something about a project done that raises a smile to my cheeks. As I’ve noted over the past few weeks, I’ve been working on the home. I finally got around to mounting the downstairs TV, which puts me a step closer to figuring out what sort of cabinet and such is needed in that space. The task would’ve been simple work for someone skilled in such things. I am not such a person. One stripped screw and one hour later the work was done and I, ever the fan boy, enjoyed Game of Thrones on a wall mounted screen.

I call this a small victory. It wasn’t the wounded cavs edging the Warriors in game 2, or the Rangers coming back time and again to force a game 7, but it was a small victory. I’m learning to cherish these small victories. Too much of my life has been wasted waiting for the big win and overlooking the small but meaningful ones. When I coach I constantly remind my players that they can only ever control their attitude and their effort and to have full control of both–to push both to the limits of what is possible. Now in the purest form of hypocrisy, I often look too far into the future and through such means lose control of both attitude and effort. Knowing this now allows me to get better at practicing what I preach.

Some Thoughts:

1. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the year Dickens first published his classic A Tale of Two Cities.

Following this link reminded me of how art is often based on life and how that cycle–even in sic-fi–can be driven from the opposite direction than what I stated yesterday. The link is to the story of the lost man, which served as the inspiration for the Colorado Kid, which served as the basis of the TV show Haven. At each stage of that cycle more and more creatives are involved and effort to change the original idea/happening more towards what their particular vision is. It therefore is a useful skill to not care too much about what happens to your work after it leaves your hands. In a real sense you are like a trainer raising the work and caring for it to send it out into the world to be loved, corrupted, and perhaps even slaughtered. We writers are like pig farmers that way.

I’ve spent some time thinking more about the idea of ideas and the role of creating a vision of the world. It is still true in my mind that writers help to create the future, but it is equally true that writing is a response to the present and the past and at times a way to reach catharsis of particular events that transpire. There are, for example, hundreds of books that deal specifically with the events of 9/11. They are not premonitory but they are reflective. Some are even highly derivative and some TV series are the same way.

What I think now more than ever is that character is at the central of all this and that we are so often as writers talking about the individuals and how they respond to these events, these mysteries, and these leaps in technology. So, while I still feel that science fiction is and should remain the driving influence of science, I also feel like I should mention that the human response to said science is something that the writing can help us tackle and form an appreciation for…

 

Some Thoughts:

1. 1858 was the first time people were charged money to see a professional baseball game. The first pay-to-watch game was the New York vs. Brooklyn, which the team that would become the hallowed Yankees won 22-18. Meanwhile today NY beat the other LA team 8-2, continuing to dominate and torture those who do not respect the Yankee way…
2. In other news, there is a Triple Crown Winner for the first time in a really long time. This ought to absorb a great deal of air time on the sports channels and give horse racing a much needed boost. Who knows what is going to happen to the horse? I suspect lots of sex in the future of that beast…

The first time I picked up Minority Report I was aware of when the story was created. I felt that same twang of the premonitory when I read 1984 and again when I slid into Neuromancer and Snow Crash. Fiction—specifically science fiction—used to be about pushing the limits of human understanding by exploring undiscovered technologies and discussing the moral and human fallout of those technologies. In a very real way this is the basis of most of the zombie fiction that has gained traction across the world. Even these stories are, at least peripherally, about the virus and how it came about. That was the message I thought was going to be central to Snowpiercer but wound up merely being a vehicle to get us inside of a train that didn’t make a ton of sense. That is also what is missing in a great deal of the science fiction I’ve been seeing come across the wire.

 

Twenty five years ago I started playing (and eventually writing for) a game called Shadowrun that mixed together magic and science fiction to launch a parallel world that explored what would happen if magic returned to a world that was slowly being superceded by corporate powers. Shadowrun has evolved ever so slowly to include new science but has not been able to make the leaps that the fiction that (I believe) initially inspired it has. Shadowrun does speak to new technologies but none of it is so far removed from the now, even in the game decade of the 2070’s, that the technology itself seems like magic or feels entirely world-reshaping. That’s the secret isn’t it? Arthur C Clarke wrote that any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic.  Nothing feels magical to me anymore. When we see magic we are almost always inclined to decipher and recreate it. We say, that tech is freaking cool and we try to make that tech. In that fashion the scientific cycle is powered by the science fiction cycle. What then is the science fiction cycle powering now?

I fear that too much science fiction is derivative of something that sold well. I know this is at least in part a result of the shaping of the book market. We market what we know people bought before and may be interested in buying again. Lee Child has been writing the same book for decades. At this point I’m not even sure its him putting the words on paper. This is not how we create something new. Instead this is how we foster stagnation and political correctness. This is why ISIL is ‘winning’ because that is the narrative we know sells and the narrative that people are willing to follow to feel, something… I get that I went off the rails just there but its true.. and its also about ten minutes so back to that another day.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. Back in 1857 a series of quakes hit California and then Japan and finally Italy. It was about that time that people started thinking these things could be connected. The science of plate tectonics was already old by then, but the power to publicize and to collate information was just coming into its global form.

Not a lot to post about this evening. I keep going over ideas in my head and find nothing of significant value. I’m drained but recharging. I’m reading Love Minus Eighty and playing Tell Tale Games. I’m surfing the web and actually learning a bit about how that is carried out. I avoid the major news nets save for sports data, because I’m learning to see them more as the flashy ‘click me’ story source vs. anything of legitimate substance. I’m still not sure where to go for substance.

Or stress reduction.

Writing isn’t quite filling that space because a part of me recognizes that I could and should be doing more with the written word than I am, thus is ashamed that I am not. It is a draining bit of self awareness tat seems to manifest during the most mundane non-writing tasks.

So, thats all I can cobble together on a slow night. I can suck up the last minute or two talking about the roots of the American Civil war and how the 1856 election of James Buchanan served as a bit of a tipping point, but I’d rather wait on a lengthy diatribe about that particular war.

I suppose I’m just going to go to bed instead.