I've been hearing about Twitter for a while now and decided to look into it. Now, I'm looking away. Is this the future of writing? A professor of mine in Literature seems to think so, which sent me hyperventilating. It was tough enough trying to compress a well-crafted story into 750 words or less, and now I'm looking at 140 characters as a potential benchmark? It drove me insane for a good, well, 140 characters.
Giving twitter another look, it's actually handy if you're into the kind who needs to be in touch all the time. It's actually the mass broadcast version of SMS messaging, which isn't new. My question really is: do we really want to be that public? It seems like tweeting removes the need to filter anything. Instead, we place anything into the internet, what we're eating, how our pants feel, why we're eating at Mc Donald's, etc. Do we really have that much content to write? Do we have that much content in us worth reading? The pressure to update with Twitter seems to lead people to place whatever's in their head at the moment. Also, because Twitter can't give you context in any clear way, everything's abbreviated. Again, that saves time, at the expense of quality or substance.
Twitter as an application is cool, it's a handy way of keeping in touch, sure. But is it going to be the future of writing? Only if we turn into 3 year olds, with that kind of attention span. Or we turn into people who are just so bored and desperate for connection that we read mundanities from anyone, just so there is that feeling of connection. It's fun, I guess, if you have a few spare seconds anywhere, to tell everyone what's happening with your life in the past 5 seconds. But you can't reflect in 140 characters, nor can you express yourself well.
I can't agree that Twitter-sized packets will become the future of writing. Maybe it'll stay, and soon I'll be twittering away in some blog somewhere. But I won't really be writing, I'll be twitting.
I'm still for writing as a deliberate, planned, carefully crafted process. If you notice, this isn't 140 characters long. That is, if you're still here...
I've long since written about how much I've enjoyed Battlestar Galactica. I've also written in other places about my fears concerning its ending, particularly the episodes leading up to the ending. Those episodes meandered a bit, the series suddenly felt as if it ran a marathon and suddenly decided that a stroll would be nice as it neared the finish line. It was worrying me, to say the least. So, I wasn't exactly thrilled when the episode started. I was sure that it would go horribly wrong, that those meandering episodes took too much time away from the plot. Images of flying motorcycles were forming at the back of my mind. (Watch the failed 1980's movie if this is a "huh" moment.) Looking at the episodes now, I think that they took a stroll because they could. The ending was set, long ago (really long ago), and they could take time out to show some things about the characters we've never really seen.
In the end, I was floored. It was an ending I both expected and was surprised by, capped by wonderful closures for everyone. The rescue mission was everything I would have wanted, exciting, visually beautiful, tense. I forget how good the visuals are until they're shown in that way, and suddenly I'm a child again, seeing the grand battlestar for the first time on TV. Except it never looked that good then.
The climax was also typically Galactica in that it heads in one direction and then, using a moment I all but forgot, twists things again. Yes, I get played each and every time, but in this case, I just don't care.
But it was the final part, the sunny, green, wonderfully sad final part, that really got me. It was the light that Galactica, as a series, sought. It was a wonderful break, finally getting over the whole rollercoaster of the past four seasons to get to, well, what looked like paradise. The series needed the sunlight, and the grief. I was surprised at how happy I was looking at it, ignoring all the obvious signs of what was to come (the map gave it away for me). It brought me to a point where I too smiled into the green vistas and thought it was time to move on. As dark as the series got, it was, in the end, true to itself in that the series was also all about hope. It's nice to see that win in the end.
Spirituality was always part of the series and it was nice to see it in full play at the end. Yes, some of it smacked of cop-out, but heck, I honestly don't care. It was a good ending. I can't really ask for more than that.
And I loved the irony (and Ron Moore's cameo) at the very end, as two celestial beings debate mankind once again (and I agree with what some of you wrote - yes, the red dress makes sense now.) even as that song plays and images of robots fill the screen. Will it happen again? That's really up to us cylons, isn't it?
Sunday, March 1, 2009
I get it.
I wasn't all too sure what the fuss was about when Jeph Loeb began his run on Hulk, except that he made a Red Hulk (now called Rulk, he he) and seemed to be playing a whodunit-type of plot, with a lot of violence and a lot of tongue-in-cheek humor. What I saw a lot of were comments from a lot of fans upset with the new approach, that it was lousy, sloppy, and below par when it came to the Hulk franchise.
Really? I like it.
It's actually a brilliant break from all the brooding, epic, semi-tragic plotlines we often get with the Hulk. Most see the Hulk as a character that's supposed to suffer, that the Hulk is supposed to be this perpetually persecuted character hobbled by idiocy and a conscience that literally is a separate entity. What I think Loeb is trying to do is inject some of the classic fun that comic books used to represent before everything got all dark and broody. The cute cartoons at the back reinforce that. They're poking fun at the hulk while at the same time paying tribute.
I've read the first 10 issues and it's actually quite fun to watch the action unfold. The whodunits, the humor, the art (which is wonderful), gives this book a look that insists that it is not Bill Bixby's hulk. Everything's too bright and well lit for it to be dramatic.
I think one of the reasons for the whole feeling of being let down was this Hulk seems to have gone back to the "hulk smash" hulk, which is just so, well, three decades ago. The Worldbreaker of Planet Hulk and World War Hulk was more like it, a grumpy monster with a mind of his own (interestingly, the Worldbreaker was also in some sort of agreement with Banner). But, with these later issues, it's clear Loeb is fully aware that there are several Hulks out there, and it seems like he's intersested in using every single one. Again, this sounds like fun to me.
The humor and hijinks of the first 10 issues are beginnings. Loeb obviously has some big idea brewing in the background. He actually reminds me of another author who turned the hulk into something different during his run. That hulk then was fun and funny. The name Peter David ring any bells?
I'm going to follow this because he's going somewhere with this. And while it may piss off the purists, I'm rooting for him. Because even the Hulk deserves a laugh.
I'm sure that for long-time Top Gear fans, the title of the post is enough, if they haven't already seen the YouTube video of the first "tame racing driver" of the show climbing out of what was thought to be his (or its?) watery grave. For those who are currently looking this and going, "huh," the Black Stig was the first version of the mysterious racing driver that Top Gear uses to test the high-performance cars around their track. Because his identity was kept secret (as a gimmick), he was the object of intense speculation, which ended when he was eventually discovered to be racing driver Perry McCarthy, at which point, they drove Black Stig off an aircraft carrier and into certain doom.
Or so we thought...
Black Stig was replaced by White Stig, who was a little more successful in keeping his identity hidden, though there is persistent speculation about his identity. And, in keeping with the whole "mystery driver" shtick, Top Gear has apparently released a couple of virals relating to these characters, who are favorites of fans of the show. In one of them is the aforementioned Black Stig coming out of the sea. In the other is a rare press conference, where White Stig actually reacts to something, that being the question about Black Stig...
I love this show, particularly because they aren't afraid to mess around with people's heads. Here are the videos:
I've written about Anthony Bourdain before and he remains one of my favorite people, in general. Now, with the airing of his episode of No Reservations shot in my home country of the Philippines, he's given me another reason to love him even more.
Bourdain has been an unabashed lover of pork, a meat that suffers from a bum rap, in my opinion. And, in his blog, he has placed our roast pork dish, lechon, as the best pork he's ever had. That's no small thing. He's a classically trained chef and has eaten pretty much everywhere (this time, no exaggeration. It's what he does for a living now). For him to say that this wacky collection of islands harbors something that deserves a superlative like best (in the world!) is something that makes me really proud to be a Filipino.
I'm also thrilled because I was able to actually eat that exact same lechon on a different occasion. (Thanks once more to MarketMan, who created that porky tour de force) And it was incredible, no exaggeration.
Need I say more?
Onto the episode itself...
Some have commented that the episode itself is rather dull, with a lack of the normal wackiness that accompanies Bourdain on his travels. I think it just reflects an experience that most Filipinos can identify with, that of just relaxing and letting things flow. People complain that the beaches were missing, as were the more cosmopolitan sections of the country. Yes, they're nice, but so were the parts of the Philippines they showed. If anything, we saw the Philippines that most people outside of the country don't often see. And if it's a little slow, fine, but maybe it's also a little more sincere, since we don't spend our daily lives dancing for joy on the street or traipsing around in swimsuits in front of a beautiful beach (though we do, sometimes).
The easy going episode told me something that we Filipinos should realize. We really shouldn't be trying so hard to impress people. We're impressive already, we just have to believe that we are.
I liked the episode. It was very...Filipino of them.
I've written a couple of times about comics and it is pretty obvious that I am an avid reader. I've recently started writing some, in the hopes of it being published someday. I don't want to go into self-promotion here, especially since there's still nothing finished to talk about. I just want to talk about going through the process. It's actually a lot of work, putting everything together. I have enormous respect for the sheer drive and energy comic book creators have in getting their stories out there. As someone who's just learning about it now, I am sometimes overwhelmed by the amount of things that need to be done.A comic book is a product of a hell of a lot of work. But, that said, it's also thrilling, to be creating something very different, something fun. And I guess that's part of what keeps some creators going, especially when the wall hits and you have nothing in you but a need to finish.
Hat's off to all of you out there.
Also, I just saw some of the script for Watchmen (which I've written about earlier). And, just for fun, here's the script for the first PANEL of the first page of the first issue.
Nuts, right? I used to think so until I started writing my own stuff. Sometimes, a panel will really just demand that much attention. And it helps if you're a crazy brilliant writer like Alan Moore. I'm thrilled right now because my project seems to be pushing forward. I just saw the first draft of the concept character art and I'm just so thrilled to be seeing them come to life, beyond what I see in my imagination. They'll still be tweaked, of course, but just the idea of it becoming real boggles my mind.
Keeping my fingers crossed.
By the way, the dinosaur comic on top is from www.qwantz.com. Its called...Dinosaur Comics, what, you thought it would be anything else?
Wow. That's all I can say after watching the new episode of the final season of Battlestar Galactica or BSG. Interestingly enough, it wasn't the revelation of the long hyped 5th Cylon that made my day. It was all the other stuff they decided to bring in. Are they all Cylon? It's a possibility. What happens now? In all, the six month wait was well worth it.
I was a fan of the original series, too. While it obviously took a lot of cues from Star Wars, which was a major influence, it was intriguing enough in that the main plot was fascinating. Despite the fact that it was campy as hell, I watched almost every episode of the original series, even watching the god-awful movies that were made from it. I thought the Viper designs were the coolest thing, though the disco light helmets of the viper pilots were bad, even in the days of disco. It was the premise of Galactica that made it so fascinating, though it seemed to be spiraling out of control by the time the series finally was cancelled.
Later on, the computer game Homeworld would pick up the same concept to create a game that was just as compelling as the series. More on this in another post.
I was rather skeptical of the new series when it first came out, I was expecting the same camp, outrageous outfits, the chrome-plated Cylons, the misplaced cheeriness that marked the original series. Instead, I was thrown into an intense, gritty, almost unrecognizable "re-imagining" of the series. It was written with a much more realistic point of view in mind, which made its human drama just that much more exciting. Also, with the introduction of completely humanoid Cylons, even the bad guys were given a human dimension. It was also much, much sexier. They could not have done a better job, in my opinion.
I was hooked. I still am. The new episode re-affirmed all my opinions of the series. Intense, extremely unpredictable, and dark, BSG will be a permanent part of my media collection once the run is finished.
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