Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Glynis Whiting/ The Timekeeper/ living in your head


This is from www.badcb.blogspot.ca

May 25 Glynis Whiting: I was reading the book reviews section in the Edmonton Journal.  The #1 best seller for Edmonton Fiction is A Nose for Death by Glynis Whiting.  I know that name.  It's the same name who was the Super Channel reader who read my The Vertex Fighter script in 2009 and gave me notes on it.  Back then it was called The Fighter.

I then looked her up and her credits on her website.  I then emailed her and asked if she worked for Super Channel before.

http://www.glyniswhiting.com/page6/index.html

Legacy magazine: I have mentioned this before, it's an Alberta magazine.  I wrote about a couple of articles I read.  I read this issue in 2007.  It's a good magazine where it discusses: arts, poems, music, home, architecture, ballet, book reviews, YWCA, food/ recipe, environment, religion, and the Sun and Moon Visionaries Aboriginal Artisan Society (they create art).

There are profiles and interviews of people.  There is good writing, and very Albertan.  The ads are museum ads and mostly for Alberta.

I Google it and it turned out this magazine folded back in 2009 after 14 yrs.  It's not for financial reasons, but because they think they've done it for a long enough time.

http://www.mastheadonline.com/news/2009/20091118891.shtml

Blog is a cloud: I was reading a Betty comic in the newspaper and it was about how Betty is trying to comprehend what a computing cloud is.  Here's a sample of the comic:

http://www.gocomics.com/betty/

On Wikipedia: "a Computing Cloud - is a colloquial expression used to describe a variety of different computing concepts that involve a large number of computers that are connected through a real-time communication network (typically the Internet)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

I think my blog is like a cloud.  I was reading the newspaper how we have "digital memoirs" like blogs and social media where we document our lives.

Amnesia: I have a question.  If you have amnesia, will your tastes change?  You won't remember who you are, but your likes and dislikes may be the same.

The Timekeeper: The other day I was checking what's on TV and I see the TV movie The Timekeeper.  It stars Craig Olejnik (the star of The Listener) as the lead so I had to watch it.  I saw the last 50min of it.

On imdb: "After his father's death, innocent Martin Bishop is left with nothing financially. He is however left with his father's belief that "if a man loses everything but still chooses to do what's right, then he's lost nothing at all", a belief to which Martin clings. He decides to head north to take a job on one of the Great Slave Railroad's remote construction crews, working as its timekeeper, the person who keeps the records of hours worked for payroll."

I think it was average because I didn't see all of it.  Olejnik was good in it.  There was good drama and writing.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1087872/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

May 26 Emails: I have 600 emails in my inbox.  Most of them is from Daily Silly.  After I write about the joke in my weekly email/ blog post, I then put them in a folder to say I have written about them.  Now I created a folder for all those unwritten jokes that I haven't put in my blog posts.  I have 200 emails in my inbox and 22 folders.

1984: Right now I'm reading the book 1984 by George Orwell.  My brother had the book for school.  I have read his book Animal Farm back in gr. 9 language arts/ social studies class.  This book 1984 is kind of dark and sad.  I think I will read this book in small doses.

After work, my free time is put first with watching TV, reading the newspapers, and writing my blog.  Then I will read this book.  I'm like 30 pages in right now.

June 1 Top 8 mistakes: I got this article "The Top 8 Mistakes New Authors Make" from Direct Contact.  They emailed me to see if I would post their article.  Here it is:
http://badcb.blogspot.ca/2013/06/the-top-8-mistakes-new-authors-make.html

It's a good article if you think you want to write a book and do some self-publishing.

Tips for authors: Ginny Grimsley sent me this article about self-publishing.  Here are some more tips like hiring an editor and knowing your audience.

http://badcb.blogspot.ca/2013/06/article-tips-for-authors.html

Jun. 3 Living in your head: I've been planning to write this for a long time.  I feel like when you write fictional things, you are living in your head and not in real life. 

In Nov. 10, 2012, there was a book review in the National Post called "George Bowering on being 15 and happy" by Phillip Marchand.  The book/ memoir was called Pinboy by George Bowering about being 16 and setting up pins in a bowling alley as his job.

He talks about reading a lot: "I spent most of my time inside my head.  I had two different lives going, the one in Oliver, British Columbia, and the one in books and magazines.  I wondered increasingly how people could choose not to read books.  How could they setting for living just one life?"

About his memoir and what's real: "I am not recreating any of this stuff.  In offering the dialogue I am trying to remember and present the spirit of the events."

My experience: As a kid and teenager, I wasn't really mobile.  I go to school and go home.  The other places I go to are the mall and sometimes Calgary for summer vacation.  I like reading The Baby-Sitter Club books because they get to do all these cool stuff like travel to New York, California, Europe, sleep-away camp, and go on a winter vacation.  They also solve mysteries.  I did read some Nancy Drew books.

As a teenager, I was more into TV like watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Is there anyone here who can ever experience slaying vampires and demons and watching all these cool fight scenes?  By reading and watching TV and movies, I was experiencing things that I would never experience. 

I do learn stuff from TV.  Ex. From watching the TV show Dark Angel, I learned that Type O blood is the universal donor. 

As a teenager and someone in my early 20s, I don't get to do cool stuff like cage- fighting in my The Vertex Fighter script.  In all my fictional writing, there is a piece of me in it, like I do incorporate real-life conversations into the script or a real life situation and then I might change it a bit to make it more interesting.

Blogging:
Then comes the blogging.  I live my life and I write about it.  Most of the experiences are mainly job interviews and job experiences.  There are also job articles and my comments on it.

AB magazines:
I finally read some more of that Alberta magazines pamphlet I got back in 2007.  I'm sure all of you guys are like: "What's taking you so long to read that?"  If you look at my blog, you can see I was too busy with my job search than to actually read that.  lol.

I don't know, magazines are closing down.  They do keep their webpage up.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Storm War/ music videos/ Man of Tai Chi

This is from www.badcb.blogspot.ca:

May 20 Storm War:

Actors: I saw this TV movie a few months ago.  I only watched it because Wes Brown was in it.  If you type into the search engine on my blog, I wrote about him quite a bit.

On imdb.com, that's the title.  When I watched it on the Space Channel, it was called Weather Wars.  It also stars Stacy Keach (the jail boss on Prison Break), Jason London (Party of Five) and Erin Hill (from the short-lived show Free Ride.)

Indigo was also in it.  She played Rona in Buffy season 7.  She was a slayer-in-training, the black girl with the dreadlocks.  I didn't recognize her in this TV movie until I looked her up.

Story:
It kind of reminded me of the movie 2012 where there is a mass destruction of things.  I think there was a good story because of climate change in the news, and it was interesting because of a conspiracy and on-the-run storyline.

It starts off with a 1999 flashback of news footage.  Senator Aldrich (Lance E. Nichols) is this 50s year old African-American guy.  He bumps into a homeless guy Marcus (Stacy Keach) and seems to recognize him from somewhere.  Marcus presses a button on a cell phone and a storm occurs.  It starts raining red water.  Good graphic.

The cop David (Jason London) enters his apartment and finds his brother Jacob (Wes Brown) there.  They are estranged from each other.  David quit science to be a cop and Jacob thought he quit to get their dad mad.

They show Samantha (Erin Hill) who calls the FBI about the cause of the storm.
Later Samantha then tells David and Jacob about their dad Marcus Grange: "I know your dad.  I was a lab assistant for him.  When they pulled his funding for his project, he swore he would get revenge."  Now there's motive.

Marcus gets the lights to go and off at the Pentagon when Senator Aldrich is there.  Lightening strikes the Pentagon and there are fires there.

David, Jacob, and Samantha all think it's Marcus.  The lights flash a morse code message of fear.

Samantha: This mas was killed and capsized by the water.  Another scientist was murdered when the temperature decreased so much he froze to death.

They are at the church and finds Marcus.  They then have to find Senator Aldrich before he goes to give a speech because he's a target.

The FBI stops the three, and they're all running in a parking garage.  There is action and suspense as they run and hide.

Throw in some comedy with Bledsoe (Roger J. Timber) who is David's cop friend.  He is an overweight black guy in three scenes.  All three scenes have him holding a donut in his hand, even when he's at the gym.  lol.  There is also a little comedy with the security guard talking to his wife on the phone, as he is working at the energy company.

David calls Bledsoe to create a distraction for him to stop the FBI from chasing them.

Marcus gets on TV and says to Alrdich: "You put the dollar ahead of my experiment.  If you didn't cut the funding, you could do what I could do to control the weather."

Alrdich and his daughter Chloe (Indigo) the recognize the homeless guy and finds a bug in their suitcase.  The Washington monument is destroyed due to the storm.

Jacob, David, and Samantha go to the energy company and they manage to get the pressure to go up with their high frequency transmitter.  The Guard sees them on cameras and points gun at Jacob and Samantha.  David points gun at the guard.  Samantha throws transmitter at Guard.  They run to car and drive away as Jacob opens the transmitter to analyze it.

David calls Blesdoe again to help find where Aldrich is.  Cut to Marcus in a nice suit and the Security checks his old camera.  He enters the White House.  Marcus takes the camera into pieces.  He presses a button and it's a bomb.

David, Jacob, and Samantha run into the building.

David: This isn't justice.  This is murder.

Lightening strikes Chloe and falls down and dies.  The FBI arrest them.  Aldrich researches them and they all talk in this undisclosed military location.  Aldrich trusts them.  There is a montage of them working and researching.

Jacob then types in his diary: "I can convince dad to give himself up.  If FBI gets him, I will never see him again."  (This reveals character.)

David and Samantha bond.
David: Dad tried to mold me into him, but Jacob wanted to be like him.
Samantha says she met Marcus through summer internship.
David: Jacob likes you.
Samantha: He's not my type.

Jacob sees David leaves Samantha's room. 

A hail storm is occurring.  There is a little subplot of a reporter and camera guy stuck in the storm.  Jacob finds Marcus and drives away to get him.  David notices he's gone.  The military triangulates Jacob's sim card.

They work on an electromagnetic pulse to absorb the energy surge.

Jacob finds Marcus and calls David to tell him where he is.
Marcus points gun at Jacob and hangs up.

The storm freezes everything.  Special helicopters can fly to the power plant.

Marcus: I thought your brother was the one, but I was wrong.  I'm sorry.

The military shoots the rocket missile into the sky.

Marcus: We can rule the world and sky as father and son.
He gives his hand to Jacob.
Jacob takes it.
They shake hands and then Marcus falls.
Jacob grabs his hand and holds onto him and loses his grip.  Marcus falls down.

Cut to Camera Guy filming Reporter as they're stuck in the van.  They escape and enter the sewer and pull the lid cover over them.

The storm's receding.
Aldrich: Now let's get that bastard Marcus.

David and Samantha are back on the computer.
Military boss: His brother is in there!
The guards pull David and Samantha off.

The power plant is falling apart.
Samantha: The energy is lowering.
The military lets them go.
They manage to get a visual on the plant to see if Jacob and Marcus have made it out.

The news reporter interviews Aldrich: "Marcus has been located and neutralized.  Jacob went missing.

6 months later, Samantha and David are dating.  They are at the grave yard and the grave stones are for Jacob and Marcus.

Jacob is alive and looks on.

Music videos:

"Mirrors" by Justin Timberlake: I finally saw the 8  min 21 sec video.  I thought the song was okay, but the video was good.  It had this movie feel to it.  You can see the story of an old woman alone in her room, and her dead husband watching her.  There are flashbacks of how they met and are at a fun house full or mirrors.  In the last 3 min. of the video, JT finally appears in it and he's dancing with this room full of mirrors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuZE_IRwLNI

"Suit and Tie" by Justin Timberlake: I saw the last half of this on TV.  Today I saw the 5 min 31 sec video.  I like the song.  The video was in black and white, and it had this 1920s feel to it with the clothes and the setting.  I like the choreographed dancing to it.  I also like the dancing in the puddle of water because the water splashes makes the dancing look more captivating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsUsVbTj2AY

May 22 Man of Tai Chi: I was reading the Globe and Mail yesterday and there was an article about Keanu Reeves making his directorial debut in this movie.  It's based loosely on stuntman Tiger Chen whom Reeves met when filming The Matrix trilogy.  Reeves spent 5 yrs developing this script.

"He said the main character, played by Chen, is a stuntman and martial- arts expert, struggling to maintain his traditional values and beliefs against the pressures of modern society.  Reeves also acts in the film, playing the villain who lures him into underground fighting and the promises of money, glamour and power."

Reeves: "I loved the responsibility of telling a story.  I hope I get the chance to do it again."

 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2016940/?ref_=sr_1

Fight genre: Me: I was like: "No, that's my movie!"  It's like The Vertex Fighter.  Wait a minute, this happened a few times before.  When I saw the Never Back Down trailer, I thought it was like my movie, but when I saw it, I see that it's different because it was sent in high school.

Then I saw the Fighting trailer starring Channing Tatum, but then I saw the movie.  It was different because it was regular fist fighting and not MMA.

Tai Chi is different because the lead character is Asian and a stuntman.  These movies are in the fight genre.