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.
Movies

Star Wars…nothing but Staaarr Waaarsss…

It’s just about here and we’re way beyond fever pitch.  In a few short days, the latest Star Wars film is released and I…

…Well, I’ll pretty much ignore it.

Don’t get me wrong: If you love Star Wars and are rabid to see this latest film, then by all means do so (yeah, like you need my permission!).

And when you do, I sincerely hope you have an absolute blast.  In this life, one needs to get their pleasures as they come and if Star Wars scratches that itch, then more power (and fun!) to you.

If you’re new to this blog and haven’t read some of my posts regarding the phenomena that is Star Wars, the above should clue you in on the fact that no, I’m not a fan of Star Wars.

I stumbled upon this article by Todd Leopold for CNN and it contains many of the same feelings I have regarding the movie, though Mr. Leopold goes one step too far in condemning the whole franchise:

Please, Stop Forcing Star Wars On Me

A couple of points regarding that article:

I think Mr. Leopold was acting like a big jerk way back when he yelled out Spoilers to the crowds waiting for the next showing of the just released The Empire Strikes Back.  First, its just plain rude.  Secondly, if he didn’t care for the franchise to begin with, why did he bother to go see the sequel?

Like Mr. Leopold, I was of the right age (I was 11, he 12) at the time of the original release of Star Wars and, like him, the film simply didn’t turn me on like it did so many others.  However, unlike Mr. Leopold I was so unimpressed with Star Wars that I skipped The Empire Strikes Back when it was released to theaters and only saw it years afterwards when it aired on TV.

But, again: While Star Wars and the films that followed it didn’t particularly rock my boat, at this point in my life I don’t feel the need to berate people who do love this work.  After all, there are things I love dearly that others wouldn’t (I’m looking at you, Supernova).

Having said all that, what does irk me about Star Wars fans and may explain -to some degree anyway- why the whole Star Wars thing never really appealed to me is explained beautifully in this very positive article by Forrest Wickman for Slate.com:

Star Wars is a Post-Modern Masterpiece

Let me be very clear here: the above article DOES NOT in any way/shape/form tear down the original 1977 Star Wars film and instead heaps praise on how the film was the ultimate pastiche, masterfully borrowing so many elements from so many different films (various westerns to Flash Gordon to The Hidden Fortress to The Dam Busters) to create its own experience.

Interestingly, this may be the very reason why I’ve been so (ahem) lukewarm to Star Wars.  It’s because even as a young child seeing the film I recognized so many of these elements (the western influences, Flash Gordon, War films) and therefore couldn’t “see” the film as being an original work.

In some ways this reminds me of my equally muted feelings towards the Kill Bill movies.  While technically these movies, like Star Wars, are very well done, they are as much a pastiche as Star Wars.  With Kill Bill, director/writer Quentin Tarantino attempts to create a Kung Fu version of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and to my mind, why would I want to see a “homage” to that superb film when I can see the original?

So too it is with the original 1977 Star Wars.  Why would I be interested in seeing this (admittedly well done) pastiche when I can watch the better, IMHO, works that it took from?

Again, this is just my subjective opinion and, again, I absolutely do not begrudge everyone’s desire to catch the latest Star Wars film (and films) when they are released to theaters.

While I may not have jumped aboard that particular cultural train, I recognize I’m among the very, very few.

Movies

The legality of posting spoilers…

As an author, if there is one thing I can appreciate is the desire to “surprise” your audience with your new work(s).  You spend considerable time coming up with your story and massaging it until it is worth releasing and the very last thing you want is someone to post spoilery information about what you’ve done and render you work pointless.

Fortunately, as an author who works alone I am a self-contained unit.  Whatever scenarios and stories I come up with reside in my head and, unless I get hacked, my computer.  Until my latest work is officially released, no one other than I know what I’m up to.  At this point, I’ve finished the second full draft of my latest novel and, apart from this one hint I offered a little while back, at least with regard to when the story takes place, you have no idea what awaits you.

Because creating a movie involves many, many people both in front of and behind the cameras, the possibility of leaks is a very real one.

A while back a very early draft of the script to Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie, The Hateful 8, was leaked to the internet and Mr. Tarantino, overcome with anger, stated he would abandon the film entirely.  He eventually changed his mind and the film will be released this December, but I totally get where he’s coming from.

Again: When you create a story, you want viewers/readers/what-have-you coming into your story knowing the bare minimum.  You want to surprise, shock, amuse, etc. them with what goes on.  How can you do that if they already know what they’re in for?

Unfortunately, because of the internet and the ability to instantly “talk” to the world at large, spoilers are becoming a big problem in the movie industry.  I recall when The Dark Knight Rises was in the process of being filmed and, when exterior shots were taken, people on the streets who happened to be close by produced videos of what was going on.  On the very day scenes involving Batman fighting Bane or Catwoman riding around on a Bat-Cycle were shot, the world at large was able to see what was going on.

Let me repeat and emphasize this: The world got to see scenes from a movie many months away from being released, much less finished, the same day they were being filmed!!!

Which brings us to the latest bit of spoilery territory.

Perhaps the most anticipated film of December (maybe even of this year) is the latest Star Wars feature.  Director J. J. Abrams and company have been extra careful in trying to keep the movie’s plot under wraps and, to my eyes, have been for the most part successful.

But spoilers come in all shapes and forms and someone at a Walmart in Iowa accidentally displayed for sale some Star Wars action figures tied to this film.  These figures, including that of the female character Rey, had potentially spoilery information.  A photograph of the toy was taken and released on the internet and…

Couple Takes Pics of Star Wars Figure They Bought, Gets DMCA Notice From Lucasfilm

Yikes.

For those who don’t know, big stores like Walmart, Target, Costco, etc. etc. receive merchandise sometimes a week or two before its “official” release date.  They hold this material and, on the date said merchandise is to be released, it is pulled out of their warehouse section and put up for sale.

As you can see from the article above, sometimes errors are made.

I’ve experienced the early release of materials before, though nothing quite as “exciting” as this.

A few years back (try to contain your excitement when you read this awe-inspiring story) I wandered into my local Costco and found the first BluRay release copy of the classic Bruce Lee film Enter The Dragon for sale.  I wound up buying it and smiled while I did, knowing that the BluRay edition wasn’t scheduled to be released until the following week and someone at Costco had mistakenly put it on sale early.

I’ll give you a few minutes to catch your breath after reading such an earth shattering story.

All jokes aside, I can’t fault Disney/Lucasfilms for being upset that a potential spoiler has found its way into general release before the film.  But neither can I fault those who posted pictures of the toy on the internet -they did legally buy the items, though it was mistakenly put on sale too early- nor the staff of the Walmart, who probably committed what was ultimately a very innocent mistake.

Just goes to show…there are many, many ways to spoil a story.

Video Games

Feeling frustrated…?

Then play…

Slap Kirk

Ok, not the ‘deepest’ of games available (for free!) on the internet, but a clever stress reliever anyway.

Just don’t hurt Capt. Kirk too bad, ok?

Sports

Football

I stumbled upon this article for Salon.com and by Steve Almond regarding the professional (and extremely popular) sport of football:

Let’s Have A War On Football: Greed, Brain Damage, Tax Breaks to Billionaires and the Debate We Need to Have About the NFL

The article follows some inflammatory statements ex-Quarterback Danny Kanell made in response to an editorial published in the New York Times by Dr. Bennett Omalu, a forensic pathologist who first identified chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in many ex-football players:

The war on football is real. Not sure source but concussion alarmists are loving it. Liberal media loves it. Doesn’t matter. It’s real.

“Concussion alarmists”.

It’s an interesting choice of words and echoes the same (to me) ridiculous arguments against the validity of climate change.

Look, I’ll be the first to admit it: I really like watching football.  I wish my team (the lackluster Miami Dolphins) were in contention.

Having said that, Mr. Omalu’s studies (which are the subject of the upcoming Will Smith movie Concussion), I believe, point out something that by now should be obvious to anyone: Football is an extremely violent sport that breaks down its participants’ brains and bodies and, in many cases, leaves them with a future of pain…and worse.

How could it not?

Running back Reggie Bush stated playing through a single professional football game was akin to experiencing several car crashes and the body (and mind) needed time to recover.

This point was driven home to me when a little over a year ago, while driving with my wife, younger daughter, and her friend, we slowed and stopped at a red light and the person behind us, going no faster than 15-20 miles an hour, didn’t realize we stopped and rear ended us.

The damage to our car was minimal (we needed to replace our car’s rear bumper).  The car that rear-ended us, however, had its front end crumpled and blew out its radiator.  Given the age of the car (it was an older model Civic, if memory serves), it was probably a total loss.  The couple that rear-ended us were fine.  My wife and I, as well as my daughter’s friend, were also fine.

My daughter, however, happened to be sitting with her back against her seat and looking to her right, at her friend, when the car hit us.  Because of this, she experienced whiplash and, in the days and weeks that followed, some at times very intense headaches.  We sent her to a doctor and then to physical therapy to help her.  Fortunately, after a while -and through the therapies, which were very effective- her symptoms faded and she recovered completely.

In light of that, think about the hits that professional football players receive in the course of a full game.  Not just one “hit” like what my daughter experienced, but potentially several dozen during the course of a game.

Remember, we’re talking players who are in peak physical shape running at full speed -and colliding!- with each other.  We’re talking about hits that make the relatively minor car accident my daughter experienced look like a walk in the park.

How does the human body cope with all that trauma, only to experience it again the very next week?

For that matter, think about the hits football playing high schoolers and college students receive as well.  At least the professional player is being paid for their participation in the game.  High Schoolers and University players?  Not so much.  And very, very few of them reach the pro’s and receive a paycheck.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love watching football but I think the sport will not survive in its present form for very long.

I believe that, contrary to Mr. Kanell’s pronouncements, the medical data will eventually prove overwhelming and, as popular as the game of football is, who will want to send their kids to participate in something that slowly but surely kills you?

General

Like something out of The Twilight Zone…

Found this on CNN.com:

It seems Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Malaysia has three abandoned cargo jets parked on their lot and have posted a notice that if someone doesn’t claim them (and pay the parking fee owed) they will be sold:

Malaysia Hunts Owners of Boeing 747’s Abandoned at Airport

How…weird.  Especially the fact that no one knows who owns these aircraft and, obviously, the fact that someone would simply leave them -all three!- abandoned like that.

I’ve seen/heard of businesses abandoning products or material because they simply could no longer pay for them, but three 747 jets?!

Weird.

Music

About that David Bowie play…

Looks like they had a preview of the musical Lazarus and Chris O’Leary for Slate offers his take on it:

There’s A Showman, Waiting in the Sky

Sounds interesting.  I have to agree with Mr. O’Leary that much of David Bowie’s oeuvre does hint at his desire to have a musical, from his earliest works to his many theatrical transformations.  Now, heading into the twilight of his career, it would appear he finally has his musical show and, at least based on this review, it appears to be a culmination of all things Bowie and set on stage.

Is that a good thing?

I wonder.  I also wonder if I’ll get a chance to see it…

Movies

The Final Girls (2015) a (mildly) belated review

Can’t recall where I first heard about The Final Girls, a gentle tribute to and comedy related to the “slasher” films of the 1980’s -and more specifically Friday the 13th– but I was intrigued enough to put it on my Netflix que and yesterday finally got a chance to see it.

The Final Girls starts with our two main characters, Amanda Cartwright (Malin Akerman playing -and succeeding- in the most challenging roles in this film) angrily emerging from an audition and meeting up with her waiting daughter Max (Tarissa Farmiga) in their car.

Amanda, we find in short order, is a frustrated actress quite literally haunted/typecast by her most famous role, that of a camp counselor/victim in the “classic” Camp Bloodbath, a fictional 1980’s film which is very obviously is based on Friday the 13th.  Though bitter and knowing that her most current audition went nowhere (“He said he’d keep me in mind”), Amanda clearly doesn’t want to bring her daughter down.

It is during the first few minutes of the film, where we see the dynamic between Mother and Daughter, that the film succeeds the most.  In those very short scenes we discover that Max is very much a realist while Amanda is a free spirit who recognizes she’s made many mistakes in her life but clings to her one very bright success: Her daughter.

Which makes what happens next all the more heartbreaking (Mild spoilers, although the trailer pretty much gives this away and it does happen within the first five or so minutes of the film): Amanda wrecks the car and we’re rapidly transported to three years later.  Amanda, we find, died in the car accident while Max survived.

Now living with her aunt, Max is a high schooler who still misses her mother greatly.  When she learns there will be a theatrical presentation/tribute to the Camp Bloodbath films, she at first doesn’t want to go.  The reasons are many and obvious:  Seeing the movie means Max sees her beloved mother in the role that typecast and ultimately stunted her career.  Further, she is a victim of the slasher killer…why would she want to see her mother die all over again?

Nonetheless, she is convinced to go to the film and, while with her friends, watches along.  When the movie comes to the scene where her mother is about to be killed by the slasher, Max needs to leave the theater.  However, just as she heads to the exit a fire breaks out and, with her friends in tow, they “escape” the theater through the projection screen…

…only to find themselves within the Camp Bloodbath film!

The Final Girls cleverly and at times hilariously explores the conventions of these slasher films.  The “real” people try their best to help out the movie characters to survive and, ultimately, kill off “Billy Murphy”, the Jason-like machete killer targeting everyone at the camp.

While the film is at times quite funny, there remains the bittersweet/sad undercurrent of Max meeting up with her mother once again, even though this time around she really isn’t her mother but rather Nancy, one of the soon-to-be victims in the Camp Bloodbath movie.

I don’t want to give too much more away but the film is a pleasant, very good comedy that falls just shy of being great.

Where does it fall short?

I think part of the problem lies in the film within a film needed to be a bit closer in its look to the actual Friday the 13th films.  By that I mean there needed to be a greater sense of darkness and foreboding, something the Friday the 13th films did even when not showing graphic violence.  Speaking of which, some have argued the film should have gone the “R” rated rather than PG-13 route, that if you’re making a “tribute” to the slasher films of the 1980’s there should be nudity and graphic violence.  Given the sadness which lies beneath the laughs, I’m not sure about that.

People might have been turned off had Amanda/Nancy actually stripped or been shown graphically murdered.  Further, once I got to know some of the other characters in the movie within a movie, I felt for them and worried about their predetermined fate(s).  I didn’t need to see them then die in very graphic ways…then again, that’s just me.

Regardless, The Final Girls is very much worth a look, especially if you are familiar with the films it most gently -and at times hilariously- skewers.

Recommended.

General

My my…

I really, really don’t like to get into politics on this site.  I mean, most authors use their blog to talk about their latest works and promote them.  I do as well, though not as much as I could.  Frankly, I prefer to do so when I have concrete news to tell you regard a new work…more specifically when it nears completion/publication.

Getting back to politics, of late I find the whole thing so damn depressing.  A few years back when George W. Bush was president and pundits were ripping him and his policies, conservative mouthpiece Charles Krauthammer stated that Bush’s opponents were suffering from “Bush derangement syndrome”.  In other words, they could not see past their hatred of the man to more reasonably look at his policies.

However, there is little doubt that many of Bush’s policies, including the disastrous (and arguably justified by outright lies) decision to invade Iraq, the pathetic response to Hurricane Katrina, and the way the economy crashed during his watch, created a sense the critics were more right than “deranged”.

When Mr. Bush left office there were very few -and that goes for today as well- who spoke kindly about his term in office.  Rather than defend him, most in the Republican Party or those who espouse conservative values, chose to ignore his time in office and, instead, focus venom on the current officeholder, Barack Obama.

And yet, if there is any case of a “derangement syndrome”, it would have to be regarding Obama’s term in office.  Say what you will about his time in office but at least we have had a continuously improving economy, health care legislation (good or bad, the fact is that we are one of the last of the first world countries to move in this direction and we should applaud this legislation even as we work to make it better), and no new (idiotic) wars.

Before you start screaming, let me say this: Is all milk and honey?  Absolutely not.  There are many things I’ve felt Mr. Obama should have done but hasn’t.  At times I feel he is too meek and wish he had (yes) George W. Bush’s backbone.

But what bugs me the most about the people who so despise Barack Obama’s presidency is the fact that they don’t realize he, like Bill Clinton before him, are most akin in policy to yesteryear’s Republicans.

Indeed, the patron saint of today’s Republicans, Ronald Reagan, would probably be derided as too leftist to these new conservatives which goes to show just how far the right in this country have moved.

Most worrisome to me is the level of hate they project.  At a family dinner, I was amused to learn, and subsequently mentioned, the news that during a Republican Jewish Coalition speech Republican Presidential contender Ben Carson (no brain surgeon…oh, wait) talked about Hamas yet referred to them, over and over again, as…Hummus.

Yikes.

When I mentioned this, my relative almost jumped down my throat, first saying something to the effect of “well, I hope they (I’m assuming Hamas?) are insulted by being called that” before realizing what Mr. Carson said was yet another boneheaded line (of which there are more) and defending him by absolutely ignoring what he said and focusing instead on just how much Obama has ruined this country.

The wide-eyed hatred spewed was, frankly, startling, as was the lack of specifics as to just how Mr. Obama had ruined the country.

Naturally, I’m not the first person to go to a family function and get involved in a political spat nor will I be the last, but I was surprised at just how much this individual bought into the conservative Obama “derangement”.

As I already mentioned, there most certainly are things to criticize about Mr. Obama’s presidency (as there are for most presidencies), but I don’t and can’t see his failures as being anything on the level of “disastrous.”

There is no moral to this story and there is no clever conclusion to offer except this quote, which I’ll reproduce here from memory and therefore may not be verbatim, regarding the current state of Republican candidates for presidency:

“I hope one day the candidates turn to face the camera and say ‘April Fools!’.”

General

This is weird…and amusing

It also seems like a Monty Python sketch:

2014 Name of the Year Regionals

I suppose we’ll be getting the 2015 nominees soon but, come on, how can you not like people with names such as…

Dr. Loki Skylizard (this is an actual name, though according to the article the man came up with it when he was 9 years old and his parents were crazy free-wheeling enough to allow their children to choose their own names).

and

(name removed at the request of the name-inee)

And I thought my name was bad…

General

December 7

As strong a memory as 9/11 is for those who witnessed the event either live or via television back in 2001, there was another equally shocking event that galvanized the nation and which occurred on December 7th.

Today marks the 74th anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day.  On this day in 1941 the Japanese attacked the U.S. military base on Hawaii in the hopes of critically injuring the U.S. fleet and therefore have free reign on the Atlantic Ocean.

The shocking attack, however, turned out to be Japan’s biggest miscalculation.

Not only did the attack formally bring the U.S. into the Second World War -there were many politicians and prominent personalities railing against joining the war up to that point- but the attack itself, as harrowing as it was, wasn’t as successful as the Japanese hoped it would be.  The U.S. fleet wasn’t crushed and, as history attests, our nation was more than able to contain and eventually defeat the Japanese advance.

Admiral Yamamoto, the architect of the attack, reportedly had second thoughts regarding the action and came to realize it was a big mistake.  One of the most famous quotes linked to him (though there is no hard evidence he said it) is that the attack on Pearl Harbor “Awoke a sleeping giant“.

Way, way back when I was in Hawaii, I made it a point to visit the Arizona Memorial.  As others have noted, there is still oil coming from the sunken ship.  But the experience, in the end, was both haunting and sad.  One immediately realized, upon arriving at the memorial, the number of people lost to this attack as well as those who were soon to be lost in the war that followed.

I haven’t been to New York since 9/11 but I suspect the same feelings must fill visitors to the site of the Twin Towers.

There are great wounds left upon the land and tributes to the same.  The wounds of December 7th and the war that followed, through the passage of time, have led to healing.  Perhaps one day the same can be said for 9/11.