Reading: The Sanctuary
Music: Allman Bros.
TV/Movie: Almost Famous
Link o' the Day: Publick Nuisance

A busy day of work--and I got a lot done. the SFWA Bulletin is hours from being sent to the printer. I'm just waiting on one last minute lookover by the editor. The first proof of the medical journal is done as soon as I find myself a copy of Excel. I think Pretty Maggie's desktop has a copy. Then it's Baby Peggy until the mail arrives tomorrow.

I did a bit of writing for an upcoming online project, and jotted down some rough paragraphs to a story I'm developing. And I filled another page on the sketchbook and am well on my way to memorizing "Ashoken's Farewell." So it's not all work. I'm stretching all my mental and creative muscles. (And other muscles as I get some household chores done as well.)

Really, the only hassle today was I burned by raspberry bread a little on the top.

Here are some capsule reviews of movies I've seen over the past week. I have some others coming up as well. Good week for movies.

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Almost Famous. Not bad. The soundtrack was one of the best parts, although there were moments when I didn't think it synched up well with what was happening on-screen. It also had a pretty dang good cast: Billy Crudup, Jason Lee, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson, and Philip Seynour Hoffman (shout-outs to Jimmy Fallon's appearance as well). Patrick Fugit did a great job in the lead role. I'm surprised he hasn't done more movies. Lots of TV, but not as many movies. Storywise it wasn't bad--fairly straightforward and predictable, it's strength lay more in the music, direction, and acting. If you're a fan of music from the 60s and 70s, this is a good movie for you.

House of 1,000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects. Better than I expected them to be. I usually lower the bar a bit with slasher flicks, but it wasn't really necessary in this case. I'm not saying they were great, but for slasher flicks, they were pretty darn good. And I can't really say which of the two was the stronger and which was weaker. House was a bit too reminiscent of A Texas Chainsaw Massacre, much of it didn't strike me as original, but there were some bits that were pretty delightful--pretty much anything with Sid Haig as the maniacal clown Captain Spaulding. The other characters--were okay. I thought the Dr. Satan story should have been carried over into Rejects, but that wasn't the case. However the development of William Forsythe's Sheriff Wydell character made up for it. The oddest part of Rejects was how I felt about the characters at the very end. The Firefly family are probably the most maniacally evil family ever portrayed on film, but Rob Zombie kept putting me, as the viewer, into the position of seeing them as victims rather than just predators. Weird. Do I recommend them? Sure, if you like slasher flicks and have a strong stomach. If you're like me who can take them or leave them--try not to pay much money.

Batman Forever sucks. Hard.

Being There. I mentioned this movie a few days ago. I hadn't seen it in probably 20 years, but had read the script a numbe4r of times and consider it one of the very best scripts ever. I was curious how it played on screen against my dim memories. I'd say it was successful. It plays very well on screen. The pacing varied a bit from what I had in my head, but it still worked quite well. Peter Sellers as Chance the gardener is a sweet character, a simple soul. There's something almost Buddhist about him. Never was there a man more at peace with the world. And of course hardly anyone else gets it. I highly recommned this movie to one and all.

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Today's link goes to Publick Nuisance, the livejournal page of one Jackson Publick, the brains behind The Venture Bros. and my first stop when looking for the latest news regarding one of my favorite shows. Granted, not much news lately. No word on the Season 3 DVD, but we know that Season 4 is already in the works, so it's worth it for Venture fans to check in at now and then.

Cheers!