All posts by ERTorre

E. R. Torre is a writer/artist whose first major work, the mystery graphic novel The Dark Fringe, was optioned for motion picture production by Platinum Studios (Men In Black, Cowboys vs. Aliens). At DC Comics, his work appeared in role-playing game books and the 9-11 Tribute book. This later piece was eventually displayed, along with others from the 9-11 tribute books, at The Library of Congress. More recently he released Shadows at Dawn (a collection of short stories), Haze (a murder mystery novel with supernatural elements), and Cold Hemispheres (a mystery novel set in the world of The Dark Fringe). He is currently hard at work on his latest science fiction/suspense series, Corrosive Knights, which features the novels Mechanic, The Last Flight of the Argus, and Chameleon.
General

About those smartwatches…

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This article, written by Darren Pauli for The Register, reports on the fact that some very cheap smartwatches send out information to an “unknown” Chinese IP address:

Chinese Backdoor Found In Popular $17 Ebay Sold Smartwatch

When I was younger (get off my lawn!) and professors in English class talked about the frightening scenario presented in George Orwell’s 1984, little did we -or Mr. Orwell!- know just how much technology would create “stealth” means in which people/corporations could glean information on people.

The information transmitted via these Smartwatches to China can’t help but have you wonder what exactly that information is.

But it goes beyond that, doesn’t it?

I’m not embarrassed to say I really like Amazon.com.  To begin, it offers me a great venue to sell my books and I couldn’t be happier for that alone.  Of course, it does a lot more.  It allows me to purchase music and books, movies and all manner of materials which are sometimes hard to come by (the other day, for example, I ordered -of all things- a Tim Horton’s French Vanilla powdered coffee as the one I bought in Canada ran out and I wanted more).

Having said that, I’m all too aware that Amazon has amassed considerable information on me and uses that to try to push other products I may buy my way.  When I go to Amazon’s homepage, there are several listings for things I might be interested in.  Many of them I am indeed interested in and may purchase, but even more eerie is to see listings of things I already own but had not purchased through Amazon (ie, they didn’t know I already had them)…which means Amazon’s algorithms regarding my shopping patterns are eerily on target.

I also love Costco but just know they too have a damn good idea of my shopping patterns as everything I buy I pay while presenting my Costco membership card.  In the flick of a button they can pull up all the things I’ve bought and create a nice profile of not only the things I’m interested in but of the things everyone who shops at my local Costco are interested in.  This information surely allows them to buy certain products with at least a theoretical assurance people in my area will likely buy them.

And that cell phone you carry?  The one that essentially records where you are at every moment of the day?  Don’t tell me that information wouldn’t be interesting to marketers as well!

Don’t forget video game makers and banks and car dealers and…smartwatch makers.

For good or ill, we live in a world where personal information is highly -even aggressively- sought by companies and, quite often, is all too easily gleaned from your own movements and habits.

If he were alive today, what indeed would George Orwell think?

General

Yet a little more on those self-driving cars…

A couple of days ago news was made that a Google self-driving car got into an accident with a bus…and the Google car was at fault (you can read an article concerning this crash here).

Rather than note how incredible it is that Google self-driving cars have been in operation (on a limited area basis) for years now and have driven, according to Google’s latest monthly self-driving report (you can read the February 2016 PDF report here), some 1,452,177 miles autonomously and this is appears to be the first actual accident caused by a Google self-driving car.  It was a minor fender bender yet already some are questioning the future of self-driving vehicles.

People such as Samuel Anthony English who offers the following essay for Slate…

The Trollable Self-Driving Car

I can’t argue all his points but I think he makes one critical mistake in his essay: He assumes that in the future there will be a mix of self-driving cars and human driving cars and I believe we will very quickly move into a world where the self-driving vehicles will rule the roads and there will be fewer and fewer and, eventually, no cars being driven exclusively by people.

The fact is the accident caused by the Google car involved the vehicle not anticipating what the other (human) driver was about to do.  While the programmers at Google no doubt will offer fixes to their self-driving software I have little doubt that future driverless cars vs. human driver car crashes are possible…some of which will be the fault of the Google car.

But if all vehicles are automated I equally suspect they’ll also be able to “interact” with each other to some degree so any situation where a car can move -or allow another to go ahead- will be dealt with and no accident can or will occur.

I strongly believe that when given a choice, people will accept the freedom of a self-driving car versus the drudgery of driving oneself to and from your destinations.

If as I suspect will happen, then the amount of cars with actual human drivers in them will diminish and, perhaps, one day even disappear.

In which case a crash like the one above will probably no longer be an issue.

General

Enough with the Politics!

Ok, maybe not quite yet.  On this “Super Tuesday”, I found this fascinating article by William Saletan which, in my opinion, presents probably the clearest description yet of the strange (to my eyes anyway) anti-Obamaism going on in the Republican Party and why it may have helped in the creation of a Donald Trump, “serious” candidate:

Ross Douthat says Obama Created Trump.  That’s Nuts.

A great article and, again, one that I feel goes a long way in explaining the strange (to many pundits) rise of Donald Trump.

One element I believe was lacking from the article was this: Say what you will but Donald Trump -and there are plenty of negatives to say about him- he nonetheless has a fiery energy about him that none of the other Republican candidates are able to match.  Understand, I’m not advocating Donald Trump for President (indeed, should he become president I fear for this country), but let’s face facts here: As childish, bigoted, and churlish as he is, he’s run laps around many of the other candidates in terms of energy and fevered emotion.

He took down Jeb! Bush without breaking a sweat and now Marco Rubio appears to be trying to fight Trump on his own level…a big mistake.

The way it looks from here and now, it appears we’ll have a Trump vs. Hillary Clinton race (barring any unforeseen events).  What’s most curious and coincidental about this whole election is that as “good” as Mr. Trump has been within this Republican nomination process, arguably he’s faced his absolute roughest times against strong women (whether journalists or candidates) and wouldn’t you know it, if he does become the Republican Presidential Candidate, who might he go up against?

A very strong woman.

If that’s the case, then my prediction is that Hillary Clinton will become the first female President of the United States.

But we’ve still got a long way to go…

Movies, TV

George Kennedy, RIP

While growing up, there were plenty of actors out there that had my attention.  Some were “stars” and carried whatever movie/TV show they were in.  Sometimes, like in the case of Humphrey Bogart or James Dean they took over the feature they were in, sometimes to the detriment of others around them, so charismatic were they.

There is one actor, though, that seemed to always appear here and there, both in movies and television, and always seemed to be good in whatever role he was playing.  At first, these roles were predominantly the “heavy”…and he brought a growling menace to whatever bad-guy role he played.

And then something changed, most likely his bad-guy turned good role in Cool Hand Luke (a role that won him an Oscar) and, suddenly, he became equally good -perhaps even better!- in roles in which he played an at times exasperated good-guy.  He would go on to play the same role in all four Airport movies, that of Joe Patroni, mechanic and trouble solver.

And then, when you think you have him pegged, he broke out as Ed Hocken in the hilarious -and supremely silly- Naked Gun movies.

Of course I’m talking about George Kennedy.  Today’s audiences, especially those without much knowledge of movies or tv shows from ten years before, may not recognize him, but here he is in Cool Hand Luke:

And here he is in, I’m guessing, Airport 79, the last -and silliest- of the Airport films:

And of course, here he is in one of may favorite clips from The Naked Gun films, this one from the second feature.  The clip is a little long because it first sets up the George Kennedy joke to come.  Though Mr. Kennedy arrives at the 1:30 mark, its worth seeing the entire clip:

When I told my wife yesterday Mr. Kennedy had died and even though she doesn’t have the same trivia-filled mind like mine, she nonetheless instantly said: “I’m just John Q. Public now,” the line Mr. Kennedy states in the clip above, and we both laughed at the memory.

George Kennedy may not have ever risen to the ranks of a Humphrey Bogart or James Dean or Marlon Brando, but he always seemed to give it his all and, even when the film around him might have been complete shit (I’m looking at you, Airport 79), you could count on his professionalism.

Rest in peace, big fellow.  You’ve given me countless hours of wonderful entertainment.

Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights, a 2/29/16 Update

I’m not very religious or spiritual.  Nonetheless, there is something incredibly satisfying about having good timing regarding just about…everything.  Usually, my timing is terrible, but not so on this occasion.

Back in November of last year (you can read the post here) I offered the hope that I would be done with my latest Corrosive Knights novel, #6, by February.

Corrosive Knights

Alas, this is not to be.

However, I just now finished the 6th Draft of the 6th Novel on the 29th of February of 2016, a February date that only comes around once every four years.

Mind you, I wasn’t “shooting” for finishing this draft on this date.  Indeed, when I start up a new draft of any novel it is impossible to accurately predict how long it will take me to get through it.  There might be unseen circumstances (illness, trips, get-togethers) that may slow me down.  On the other hand, there may be days you’re moving like lightning and accomplish more than you thought you would…on that day.

Considering I was barely aware that this would be a “leap year” and February would have 29 days when I began the 6th draft of my latest novel, it is nonetheless a wonderful bit of timing to get it done on this particular day.

And I couldn’t be happier.

The sixth draft of this book brings me that much closer to finishing the novel, the closest I’ve been yet.

Book #6 (pardon me for keeping the title my own little secret still) runs, at this point, 96,138 words.  There are still some things I have to deal with, particularly one major character reveal, but otherwise it reads pretty damn good and I believe -though I can’t absolutely promise- I might be only three or so drafts away from finishing it up.

Later today I print the book and tomorrow I begin the re-reading.

Draft #7 is officially a go!

Movies

Now that the Oscars have been handed out…

…time to reflect on who was robbed!

First up, Katherine Trendacosta offers her opinion that…

Mad Max: Fury Road Won All The Oscars, Except the Ones It Really Deserved

I’m the last person in the world to go to with regard to opinions about the Oscars.

These were the films nominated for Best Picture:

Spotlight
The Martian
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Big Short
The Revenant
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Room

Of these, I saw a grand total of…wait…let me recount to make sure…just a second… aaaaand…

I saw exactly one of them: Mad Max: Fury Road (I have The Martian sitting next to my BluRay player and will get to that film, hopefully, tonight).

In my review of Mad Max: Fury Road (you can read it here) I overall liked the film but I have to say I didn’t come away as enraptured by the experience as so many others, including Ms. Trendacosta, did.

Understand, I’m a Mad Max fanatic.  If pressed, I’d say 1981’s The Road Warrior, the second Mad Max film made, is my all time favorite action/adventure film ever made.  I still recall the chills I felt in the theater when I went to see it.  The film was rated “R” and I was in High School and too young to go into the film “unattended” yet managed to sneak in not once but twice to see it, a rarity for me to see films multiple times while they’re still in theaters.  (The third time I tried, alas, I was turned away).

I was absolutely blown away by it each time.

I’ve seen the film so many times since and so much of it resonates still.  It’s very difficult for me to watch the concluding/climactic car chase sequence because, dammit, I wound up caring so much for so many of the characters who SPOILERS FOR A THIRTY FIVE YEAR OLD FILM met their end (especially the noble Warrior Woman).

The Road Warrior was a film that was relentless and could be mean, but that was because the world it was depicting was mean.  Good people were preyed upon and the focus of the story was on a once noble person (Max) and his journey back to nobility after losing his way.

God, I love that film.

Mad Max: Fury Road, while a good film, also confounded me.  The main element of my confusion -and the thing that wound up irking me the most- was the fact that Max wasn’t the main character.  But it was even more than that.  Not only was he not the main character (despite the movie’s title) but the more I thought about it the more I realized the film would probably have been better if it had done away with the Max character entirely and focused exclusively on Furiosa’s journey.

She’s a great character and deserved to be front and center instead of having to make room for Max.

Thought I’m going to engage in a little “mind reading” here, I can’t help but think Director/Co-Writer George Miller started this project as a full fledged Mad Max film but, over time and as the screenplay was worked on, realized there was more meat to Furiosa’s story and therefore shifted the focus more and more towards her story.

As an author, I know how this goes: You begin a project thinking you’ll go a certain way but somewhere along the line realize there are more interesting paths to follow than you originally considered.

If I’m clever enough, I spot the movement and realize I have to make the changes necessary to improve the overall work.  In my latest novel, for example, I spent some 30,000 words (quite a bit considering my novels usually clock in around 90,000-110,000 words) on elements I ultimately discarded.

Unfortunately, Director George Miller and company were clearly committed to making another “Mad Max” film and even as their story moved away from the character of Max they kept him in.  Even as his purpose within the work proved minimal, they nonetheless kept him in.

Even when the film might have been better without him, as I stated above, they nonetheless kept him in.

Anyway, here’s another article, this time by Germain Lussier and (back for seconds!) Katherine Trendacosta first posted in January following the initial listing of Oscar nominees.  In this posting, the authors discuss…

The Biggest Oscar Snubs of 2016

Can’t disagree with many of the choices listed.

Now, getting to the meat of the matter: Was this song really worthy of winning the Oscar?

I thought the song the producers of Spectre commissioned but ultimately rejected, Radiohead’s Spectre, was better!

Ah well.

General

Once more into the breach…

I’ve noted before I don’t like to talk politics.  Often, no good comes of it.  Those who disagree will disagree, those who agree will agree and lines will be drawn…

This election cycle feels so different from others, though.  There is so much anger that’s been fostered for so very long and for so very little, IMHO.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m most certainly a liberal in most of my ideology, so those who are conservative will likely discount everything I have to say from this point onwards.

Unlike many others, I’ve had the opportunity to see first hand most (not all) political systems.  I was born in a Soviet era communist country and my parents fled this.  We landed in a European socialist style country.  We then moved to what was a right winger’s “wet dream” of a country (very few regulations, almost no taxes, and a strong Catholic leaning), before moving permanently to the U.S., which I’ve felt works because it tended to find middle ground between politics and policy.

Of the systems I’ve seen first hand, clearly the worst was the communist style country, at least when it was that (With the fall of the Soviet Union, it gained its independence).  The second worst, easily, is the right wing “wet dream” country.  While its nice to not have to pay taxes to any great degree, it is most troublesome to experience: Large numbers of beggars (many of whom are nothing more than children) on the street.  Wild dogs running wild (no taxes=no animal services).  Shitty roads (no taxes=very little public works).  Military often used for police (no taxes=very little public works).  Spotty fire service (did I mention no taxes=very little public works?!).

Yet that seems to be where a sizable contingent of the conservative thought process wants to take us.

And the election of Barack Obama (twice!) has fanned flames of hatred that, at least to me, are hard to understand.

Especially given the fact that not all that long ago -and as I’ve mentioned several times before- Barack Obama would have been looked upon as a moderate Republican.

Which brings me back to this election cycle.  One of the previous Republican candidates, Lindsey Graham, appeared at a roast yesterday and made some “humorous” comments regarding politics and his own party:

Lindsey Graham Jokes About How To Get Away With Murdering Ted Cruz

I’ve always felt the problem with Mr. Graham, and the reason he didn’t get anywhere near the nomination for president, was that he was too bland and didn’t appear to have much of a spine.

In this roast, however, he let almost all hang out.  Not only did he jokingly state “If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you,” but he also noted his party had gone “batshit crazy”.

While I believe joking about murdering someone, even someone you may not like at all, is in questionable taste, I agree with him regarding the later statement.

However, Mr. Graham, like all the other Republicans in his party who may feel the same as it now appears -of all people- Donald Trump might just be the Republican Presidential Candidate, bear great responsibility for the mess they’re in.

I suspect people are tired of the constant bickering and one-upsmanship many in the Republican party have engaged in in the recent past and this may be in part why Donald Trump looks to be on the verge of getting the nomination while “establishment” Republicans are having so much trouble doing the same.

Recently, when Supreme Court Judge Antonin Scalia passed away, was it really necessary for the Majority Leader of the Senate Mitch McConnell to, less than an hour after the official announcement of Scalia’s passing was made, to publicly state that as far as he and his fellow Republicans in the Senate were concerned President Barack Obama had no say in choosing his successor?

Considering Mr. Obama has almost a full year left of his term in office (11 months at that point) and was elected to do exactly that (ie pick Supreme Court judges which the Senate then has to approve), the statement appeared both absurd and, frankly, nasty.  At that point and, indeed, even now, Mr. Obama has yet to nominate anyone to the bench and McConnell’s already stating this person will have no chance at all?

I know there will be those who say “well, if the shoe were on the other foot…” and, you know what?, you’re probably right.

Yet I don’t see the Democratic party doing something this…out there.

Lindsey Graham wonders why his party is acting so “batshit crazy”…maybe they’re finally reaping what they’ve sown.

TV

What has HBO done for me lately?!

In these times, where entertainment comes in all forms and at times feels on the verge (if not well past the point) of over-saturation, a once formidable company can suddenly find its fortunes turning.  In the below article, written by Kim Masters and appearing on The Hollywood Reporter, Ms. Masters notes that while HBO still possesses and releases Game of Thrones, one of the most popular shows on TV, the network is dealing with difficulties regarding other quite costly shows, one already released (but not doing all that well) and a few others experiencing pre-production/production woes:

HBO’s High-Class Problems: $100 Mil ‘Vinyl’ Disappoints, ‘Westworld’, David Fincher Woes

I linked up to the article, in particular, to point out the troubles with Jonathan Nolan’s Westworld.  Mr. Nolan is not only the brains behind the wonderful Person of Interest, but he’s also the brother (and at times script writer) of mega-director Christopher (The Dark Knight, The Prestige, Inception, etc.) Nolan.  This new series, based on one of my favorite Michael Crichton works, the 1973 film of the same name which was clearly reworked with dinosaurs for his later Jurassic Park books…

…had recently shut production after it was deemed some early episodes needed “tweaking”.  While the people behind the show were trying to put a positive spin on this hiatus in filming/production (“it gives us time to work out the kinks”!), to me it suggested what’s been filmed so far was probably not very good.  According to the article (I don’t mean to steal Ms. Masters’ thunder here) HBO brought in two more producers and two more writers to “help” Mr. Nolan get the project back on track.

Add to this the embarrassing episode involving the sexually explicit casting contract and one gets the feeling this show may be spinning out of control.

As a writer, I can understand the pressures of creating a large amount of material and, especially if you’re doing it for a large company like HBO, the expectations of delivering quality and quantity.

I’m still curious to see what Mr. Nolan and company do with their version of Westworld even as a part of me, based on the delays and, more importantly, their causes, wonders if the project might eventually turn out to be not all that good.

As with so many other things, we’ll see.

General

The value of Rehab Centers

I know the following topic is really far off the beaten path of the stuff I usually write/blog about, but this article by Brian Palmer for Slate.com really fascinated me:

The Oscar-Nominated Amy Winehouse Film’s Useful Lesson About Rehab

Neither I nor anyone (that I’m aware of!) in my immediate family is a drug/alcohol abuser.  Certainly none of them have struck me as needing to go in for some kind of rehab.

However, following reading the above article I have to admit to being surprised by the author’s conclusions regarding the validity -and truly, lack thereof- of Rehab Centers.

In my past life I studied and earned a degree in Psychology and one of the things that bothered me about the profession was that some of the theories regarding psychological treatment lacked rigorous scientific proof of its validity when used on clients.

Everyone knows of the “Freudian”-type clinician who sees symbolic elements to people’s actions.  This is an intriguing concept but Freudian analysis/treatment -if memory serves- haven’t proved to be particularly effective to people suffering from various psychological ailments.

In fact -again, if memory serves- behavioral techniques have proven to be the most effective in curbing bad behaviors.  In these cases, clients are “rewarded” for doing good while “punished” (this doesn’t mean they are physically harmed!) or given a “negative reinforcement” for doing bad.

The idea is that the individual will pursue the rewards and mitigate/eliminate the punishment/negative reinforcement.

While the field of Psychology, to its credit, has pursued a more scientific/result oriented basis for treatment, I’m rather surprised that the same may not be the case with Rehab Centers and this saddens me all the more.

People who decide they need to clean their lives up should walk into a Rehab Center, any Rehab Center, thinking the people there will help them in the long and at times painful process of cleaning themselves up.

But if, in the end, we’re dealing with something that doesn’t have that scientific backing and results, then how many of these poor people are simply throwing their money away on treatment that, at best, is only theoretically good?

And what of those, like Amy Winehouse, who went to Rehab according to the article not once but twice, yet still wound up dying because of their addictions?  It is easy to blame the addict and say “they should have stuck with the rehab”, but if they went to it and it did nothing to curb their vice, could we also not at least to some degree point the finger at the rehab centers as well?

I know, I know…heavy stuff.

I’ll do better next time.

General

What was your favorite Jeb! moment?

Years from now when a dissection of the 2016 election is made, people will have to look hard at the complete flameout that was Jeb! Bush’s now-aborted campaign.

I’ve seen some truly inept campaigns in my life (Dukakis and Mondale are two that immediately come to mind) but Jeb! Bush’s campaign has to be some kind of high water mark for a campaign that started so strong and fell on its proverbial face so quickly afterwards.

Amassing an astounding 100+ million dollar war chest even before he formally announced his candidacy (he did this to avoid campaign finance laws) many thought Jeb! Bush’s representation of the Republican Party in the 2016 Presidential race was a foregone conclusion.

But from the very beginning he faced -and was unable to surmount- the wicked tongue of one Donald Trump.  If nothing else, Mr. Trump can pat himself on the back for totally destroying Jeb! Bush’s chances from the start.

Now that his campaign is no more and in “honor” of Jeb!’s astounding failure, the folks at Gawker.com asked their readers to provided commentary on the following:

What Was Your Favorite Jeb! Moment?

What was mine?

I have to go back to the whole “exclamation point” idea.  You know, putting an exclamation after the word “Jeb”.  ie Jeb!

Stephen Colbert, among others, had a field day with that…

Someone (maybe it was also Colbert?) said something to the effect that they didn’t like broccoli and that by putting an exclamation point after it (Broccoli!) didn’t make it any more appetizing.

And so it goes.

So long Jeb!…I can’t say I’ll miss you.