Month: April 2008

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Uncategorized

Flubbage

Sorry about the title. It’s not a reference to Flubber honest. It’s sort of inspired by “phlebotinum” mixed with a desperate desire not to entitle this “Random Musings #23916753″[1]

It’s also an attempt to not let a week go by without posting. A week would be tomorrow, but well there’s a rare event – Paul leaves the house for other than work or shopping – happening tomorrow and so I probably won’t be blogging then.

Actually I almost blogged at the weekend, until I realised that I was about to unload a load of personal angst on you all. Which is fine and everything (it IS my blog) but I sort of decided I was going to keep the ratio of personal to interesting low didn’t I? Then I thought I’d review something, but the only ‘something’ I could really review would have been Doctor Who and that was exactly the wrong kind of terrible to write about (bad but not enough to inspire me to be rude or funny). Still, recalling Dr Kermode’s wise words (3rd para) maybe I should make the effort anyway. Here goes:

It was crap. Brain in hand, looked a little too much like other small pink moist organ in hand. It was vaguely sexual in a not very pleasant way. Plot had enough holes to upset even me. Moral dilemma really forced. Nice music. Nice scenery (snowy bits). Nice, though pointless, chase scene.

That’s all I can force myself to say, Kermode or no Kermode.

Anyhow. The remaining 23% of this flubbage is that I have at least re-visited my neglected LoveFilm DVD rental queue and added a few new releases and upcoming movies. Also added The Nines as suggested by friend of the blog lethebashar. Hopefully there’s something in that little lot that I can get my reviewing teeth into.

Oh and I got a package in the post today. I haven’t opened it yet, but it’s from my sister and is probably related to going-out-event (see above). It looks suspiciously like a book/books, which makes me think

a) I really ought to finish at least one of the three books she gave me for Christmas.[2]

b) Maybe the occasional book review wouldn’t hurt.

Anywhat, [3] I haven’t done any actual writing since last week’s moment of clarity, but then I have been working on something else. A rather ambitious project to do with resisting the passage of time. Seems not to be working, the final proof will come in a few hours I suspect.

Sorry if this seems a bit fillery but flubbage can be like that. Flubb, flubb, flubb.

See you next time.

[1]Even though, now that I look at it, that sort of looks like a better title. Oh well.

[2]At my suggestion, I asked for books because this crazy idea that I was going to write and reading’s important and…

[3]Makes a change from ‘anyhow’ don’t you think?

Categories
reviews

Studio 60 – a guilty pleasure that shouldn’t be

Three posts in one night is probably too much (especially if I end up not posting for a month or something) but I thought of this earlier and anyway I’d like to have something a visitor to the blog could relate to.

I’ve just watched an episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip – which is what Aaron Sorkin did next after The West Wing. It’s a TV show about a TV show (a Saturday Night Live type sketch show) and it never really found enough of an audience to stay on the air. They let it play out the season meaning that if you watch the whole thing you get a sense of closure but clearly in many ways it was a flop.

I love it. And the title of this post is kind of unfair since there’s a lot there to love. It’s as well written as West Wing, more consistently probably in my view. And I think the reasons it never got the ratings probably aren’t what I would think of as its weaknesses. So why am I calling it a ‘guilty pleasure’ – a term usually used when something’s not great but you like it anyway?

Studio 60 is like The West Wing, very like The West Wing. So much so that it could be the West Wing does a TV show. Obviously the writing has the same tone and humour, given its from the same writer, but its not just that. It tackles many of the same themes – there’s a lot of politics in there, ostensibly because political sketches on the show with the show, but mostly, you feel, because that’s what Sorkin likes to write about. One of the stars is Bradley Whitford, Josh from TWW. It often has a slightly preachy, pompous tone. The episode I watched tonight had one the comedians take his parents on a tour of the theatre they use (the eponymous Studio 60) and tell them the history of place, and the history of broadcast TV in a very tour-guide kind of way. In a word, it’s often a bit too worthy. Which would be fine, except, an overly earnest tone, a sense of “this is real serious and important stuff” is understandable and forgiveable in a show about the government of the USA. That tone in a show about TV comedy is a little over the top.

Not only that but they sometimes re-use ideas and even lines from TWW. In an earlier ep, Whitford’s Danny Trip, Exec Producer, tells a roomful of writers that “This isn’t TV camp, it’s not important to us that everyone gets to play.” Replace “TV camp” with “government camp” and you have a line from a WW ep. Also, in tonight’s show, there’s a rather sentimental sub-plot about a mysterious old man who’s caught trying to steal a photo. Clearly not really a threat, they investigate and find out that he was a blacklisted writer from the 50s who got a single sketch on the show before his career was ended. The episode ends with Matt (current head writer) and Danny magnanimously not only offering him the photo, but allowing him to sit in the writers’ room and tell stories of the past.

Whilst not identical, this bears remarkable similarities to the WW episode where an old French lady “freaks out” on a tour when passing a particular painting in the Whitehouse. Turns out it was painted by her father, stolen by the Nazis and ended up as a gift to the US President. That show ends with the painting being made a gift to the old lady. It may not be precisely the same, but it hits all the same notes.

Add to this that there are a large number of references that parallel stuff in Sorkin’s own life. From the head writer who writes the show virtually single-handed (something he did in the WW’s early years), the relationship Matt has with the conservative evangelical Christian Harriet (again it mirrors a real relationship), drug problems and of course, one assumes, all the politics of the day to day dealings between the TV network and the show.

So, to put all this together, it is incredibly self-indulgent. It’s like he’s sharing his favourite in-jokes and re-writing his favourite parts of the West Wing. So why, after all this, do I still love it?

(Oh and I nearly forgot to mention that the show within the show, is awful. Not funny. It’s just not Sorkin’s type of humour at all, and that really shows.)

I love it because it’s warm-hearted. Everyone, upto and including the scary big network boss and bilionaire tycoon owner, is ultimately a good and decent person. Whilst this should be annoying it’s actually quite pleasant. You enjoy being with these people because you root for them.

I love it because the humour on the show itself (not the show within the show) is great. It’s all that great dialogue that Sorkin does so well.

I love it because the comedic chemistry between Whitford and Matthew Perry, who plays Matt, is just superb. They just work really well together, you totally believe this is a creative partnership responsible for some smart, clever movies and TV shows.

I love it because of Matthew Perry’s acting. I could describe how good it is in a number of ways. The most concise would be that I defy anyone to watch him for more than a couple of minutes and still remember who Chandler Bing is. And yet Matt Albie is just as perfectly formed a comic character.

I love it because the stuff that works, really works and it all gels together into this warm, funny, sometimes slighty too serious, sometimes slightly too sentimental, clever show.

Categories
writing

I’m only happy when I’m writing

Which is blatantly untrue but it’s a riff on a song and it’s a title and I have a hard time coming up with titles. And it’s sorta, kinda true.

So this will be shorter than it could’ve been because I’ve already told you half of it and I’ve certainly already told you I shouldn’t be focussing on personal stuff.

I’ve discovered, slightly to my own surprise, that I like to write. My new year’s resolution of the new writing regime lasted until nearly the end of Feb. This may not sound great but given I’m usually chomping down on whatever tasty treat I’ve officially given up by lunchtime Jan 2 it was huge. Also, as I said, I am lazy. So I exceeded my own expectations and that’s always nice.

And I did so in both the amount of time I lasted, and in the fact that I actually finished stuff. Three, or was it four short stories, actually got to the point of ‘the end’. True they mostly sucked beyond belief, even after editting, but they were complete. Not outlines, not opening and closing paragraphs with a bit of dialogue, but actual ideas carried through to execution.

So when I realised, about a month ago, that I hadn’t really written for about a month, I didn’t panic. I didn’t castigate myself for having given up and tell myself that this proves I am not a real writer. No, I just thought, well obviously I should get back to it, and I probably will, and based on recent evidence, will probably have another, longer, more productive period. After all over the past five years, I’ve gone from barely acknowledging the dream, to fitful attempts, classes and groups to this latest five month stretch of pretty consistent writing (my NYR was committing to a specific timetable, but I’d re-started writing back in October).

Unfortunately this lack of panic allowed my natural laziness to take over and I slipped back into bad old ways. Until I realised this last weekend the following, that during the earlier part of this year I was

* writing regularly

* finishing stuff

* watching less TV, but looking forward to and possibly enjoying more what I was watching

* eating better and actually cooking

* not drinking too heavily

Some of that (cooking?) may seem unrelated, but discipline breeds discipline, so someone once told me, and it seems to be true.

Anyway since stopping, and particularly since feeling relaxed about stopping, I’d

* hardly written anything, not even this blog

* gone back to watching any old crap, sometimes spending an evening surfing channels, recordings and never settling on any one thing, leaving me feeling unsatisfied

* eating junk food

* drinking too much a bit too often

So overall, despite the fact that it was hard work, I was actually happier when I was writing regularly.

Why did I stop again?

Categories
flubbage

Yeah, I had a blog once…

So last night, I came home from work inspired (sort of) to write in my blog. I was going to talk about how long it’s been since I’ve written[1] and probably I still will, but what happened was that I started reading my blog. I went back to last summer’s Harry Potter read-a-thon and read all the posts through to present from there. And you know what? it’s really inspired me.

To blog.

What I was going to (and still am intending to) blog about was how much I enjoyed writing writing. But what I realised is I really like blogging. I just like giving my opinion on stuff and you know what, on a good day, with a fair wind, I think I’m halfway decent at making it entertaining.

So if nothing else I want to re-re-re-re-RE-launch this blog. Which is to say I want to do a bunch of simple stuff to promote it (like actually having it in my sig for online stuff) and I want to try to update it more often.

Random thoughts so far on the new new new NEW Cheese Never Sleeps[2] –

* actually put it in my sig for the two places I post most online – AFO and SoF.

* post on other blogs – not in a blatant, pseudo-spam, hey-please-please-read-my-blog kind of way but I already read certain blogs on topics I’m interested in. Since I’m interested in reading about them I may well blog about them. So it’s not horribly impossible that these other bloggers might want to discuss the same types of stuff on my blog too.

* post mainly about non-personal stuff. Ruminating on my inner feelings about the lint I found in my sock this morning isn’t, it appears that fascinating to others. I’ve had over 5 years (5 YEARS!) of blogging behind me to build up a loyal following of, er, one regular reader. There is a fighting chance that people will read about stuff they’re already into – films, TV programs, books – see previous point. Maybe, once I’ve snared them, they may just become interested in what makes me tick. But until I do, I think it’s safe to say I’m just talking to M.

*so I’ll write reviews. I’ve discovered that whilst I hate some things about it, I actually do love to write. And of course I love fiction and I think/hope/dream that I’ve got some readable fiction in me. But what I really really love is writing reviews for stuff. I mean going on and on about my opinions – what’s not to love?[3]

* what’ll I review? Well anything I feel like. Probably not the Buffy re-watch thing. Not right now anyway. It’s just too huge a commitment and it’s still too close to the time that I discussed every single episode from every angle imaginable. There are always movies, books (if I ever finish any! lately that’s an issue) and other TV shows. Joss Whedon’s new one, Dollhouse, will arrive in the autumn and I’m sure I’ll want to comment. Last year, when I was pondering the last re-re-re-launch of the blog, I considered a gimmick: review everything I watch/read/view for a week or a month. I may do that for a laugh some time.

So anyway, that’s all on that for now. This is probably ridiculously long given that it basically just says the blog is back. And I’ve probably got another couple of posts in me tonight.

Now where’s the post button again…

[1]written written not written in my blog written.

[2]I think I’m keeping the name. Can’t think of a better one right now.

[3]OK, for me nothing, for the reader, lots, but I promise I’ll try to rein it in a little