Anything Good: Entertainment (movies, TV, sports, reading)

You are what you eat—literally. And in a similar fashion what entertainment you choose to indulge in can tell a lot about you as well. Here’s a sampling of what I’ve been consuming lately.

Movies

I don’t go to movies a lot. The number one reason is that movies quite often disappoint me. I watch trailers and get excited only to find out the best parts were shown in the trailer. Or, I read and liked the book, so I’m interested in the movie but it turns out that someone interpreted it differently; I mean they decided to change the story significantly. I hate that. Or the absolute worst is when a movie feels like it’s packed full of fabulous effects and enticing action sequences but there is no plot, no story. All of this makes me skeptical of movies in general.

So far this year I’ve seen two movies: John Carter and Red Tails. I had completely different experiences with each of them.

John Carter

I saw John Carter last week. I’ve been excited to see it for a while now, mostly based on the trailers ;-). Hi I’m Scott and I fall for this kind of thing often. Curse you Hollywood! Besides the impressively cool trailer, sci-fi and fantasy are my favorite genres. How can you go wrong mixing them together? And one more thing, this movie was my choice, not my wife’s.

Overall I liked it. It was worth the price of admission including the 3d tax. The pictures on the screen were beautiful. The 3d detail was impressive. I found myself staring at the Tharks’ skin textures more than once. The story was good, even though it was a bit predictable. I liked how John Carter learned to use his special abilities on Mars. And I thought the inclusion of Edgar Rice Burroughs as a character in the movie was a nice touch.

There were a couple of times, however, when I was scratching my head about how easily John got out of difficult predicaments. And John Carter’s backstory, how his wife and child were brutally murdered while he was away at war could have been handled better. But of course that would have taken time away from the pretty pictures. Anyway I didn’t buy that as motivation for his selfishness, although it’s clear that’s what they were trying to sell me. This trope has been used before, most recently in Cowboys vs Aliens, Jake Lonergan and in the TV show Hell on Wheels Cullen Bohannon, both of which deal with it in more believable ways.

In summary I had high expectations for John Carter. And while I did like it, I really wanted to like it more. It just didn’t live up to my expectations.

Red Tails

I’m sure I saw a trailer for Red Tails, but I honestly don’t remember it. When my wife suggested we see it I had to go to flixster to figure out what it was about. Two things got me into the theater that night back in January. One, there wasn’t anything else playing I wanted to see. And two, my wife chose it and I was hoping to win points for going along with her. I had nothing against it; it’s just that when I think of a fun time at the movies, war films don’t jump to the top of my list. I was thinking it was going to be closer to a history lesson than entertainment.

When I’m wrong sometimes I’ll admit it. This is one of those times—I was WRONG. Please mark this down so I get credit. Red Tails was packed full of engaging action, relatable characters, a compelling story and yes, even some history too.

Red Tails made me want to fly in one of those shiny P-51 Mustangs, or at least to build a model of one. I was pumped up with emotion along with the characters in the scene where they prayed on the runway right before they went on their big mission. I liked the characters before, but after that I couldn’t help but root for them.

I related most to Joe “Lightning” Little. My natural instinct is to fight injustice head on without really thinking it through—usually in much smaller ways. I should be more like Martin “Easy” Julian though and think about the best way to achieve my goals. Sometimes that means enduring is more important than fighting, especially when fighting commonly makes us ineffective by taking us out of the game.

When I’m in a leadership position I am like Easy. I often second guess myself and/or beat myself up and feel like quitting when I make a wrong decision. There was a great scene when Easy tried to give up his command but the admiral wouldn’t let him. Easy learned to accept himself as the leader, even though he sometimes made bad decisions. Leader or not moving on in life, despite the fact that I make wrong decisions sometimes, is an important lesson to learn.

I liked the WWII part of the movie more than I thought I would. But why the military leaders couldn’t convince all the pilots that protecting the bombers was more important than shooting down enemy planes is a disappointing message about their own abilities to lead. If I were a WWII pilot I think I might be tempted by the impulse to rack up hits. But, if it were explained that our side was losing bombing crews, and potentially losing the war because of it, I hope I would have done the right thing and not just what I wanted to do. That made the other pilots seem petty and selfish in comparison.

I kept thinking about Red Tails, long after I saw it. I had low expectations to begin with and it blew them away in the end. I walked away from Red Tails feeling good inside.

The rest of this movie year holds great potential. The ones I’m looking forward to most are: Hunger Games, The Hobbit, Dark Knight Rises, Avengers, Amazing Spider-Man and Brave. I hope I’ll have something good to say about a few of these too.

TV

I probably watch more TV than I should. I justify it by calling it creative research for my writing. Anyway, you know a show is good when you can’t wait for the next episode. So then it’s a bonus to actually find the time to sit down and watch them. Lately a few stand out over the rest: Walking Dead, Being Human, Justified, Hell on Wheels, Grimm and Once Upon a Time.

Walking Dead makes me cringe and then I come back for more. They’re not afraid to kill off major characters and I want to know how the ones who remain alive are going to survive.

Being Human is about a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost who simply want to live “normal” lives. Unfortunately for them their monster-ish selves always seem to get in the way. I’m not a vampire, a werewolf, nor a ghost but I can relate to their desires for the “ordinary.” I quite often feel like a monster when I don’t measure up to my own lofty expectations, when I make mistakes.

On Justified Raylan Givens is a rogue U.S. Marshal who does what he thinks is the right thing even when he knows it will get him in trouble. His flaws are obvious and it’s a miracle he’s not dead yet given his propensity for walking headlong into fire. But he’s a guy I enjoy rooting for; and sometimes I wish I could get away with cutting to the chase the way Raylan does.

Hell on Wheels is a western. The setting is the American West post-Civil War, the railroad expansion in particular. The images on the screen, from the scenery to the clothing, are incredibly beautiful. The story is good too. It’s between seasons right now. But I’ll be right there when they start back up towards the end of 2012.

Grimm and Once Upon a Time are similar in that they explore fairy tales. But each does it in a very different way. Each comes with its own plusses and minuses. But I’m still watching both of them.

That sounds like a lot. I know. But we wouldn’t be able to keep up without TiVo. My wife and I typically watch one of the recorded episodes after we put our kids to bed. It’s something we enjoy doing together. It helps us wind down after an action packed day of work and plenty of kid stuff.

Sports

We’re in the middle of March Madness and I still haven’t fully committed to basketball this year. The NBA lockout really soured me. Luckily I’m still riding high remembering how my favorite football team, the San Francisco 49ers turned things around this year. And even though they could have made it to the Super Bowl I’m proud to be a fan. I’ve been a fan since the beginning of the season that ended with Joe Montana and Dwight Clark hooking up for “The Catch” to nudge the 9ers past the Cowboys and into the Super Bowl.

All I can say is Jim Harbaugh is the man. It was impressive to watch him turn essentially the same team as last year around in such a convincing manor. I’ll admit, the last few years have been more down than up. It’s been tough to see my team go through it. But this past season made it all worth it. It gives me hope for the future. That’s what I love about sports. Seasons come and seasons go, but the beginning of a new season is filled with tremendous amounts of hope—next season might be the one.

Something New?

Have you heard about Coliloquy? On their website they describe themselves as “a digital publisher of active fiction, specializing in reader engagement and serial storytelling.”

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how traditional publishing might change using technology to create something new and interesting. That’s how the programmer in me thinks. I’m not sure if Coliloquy is going as far as I thought possible, but I’m excited they’re willing to do something to push forward into the future.

I haven’t been able to sample any of their dynamic content just yet because, as of now, it is only available on Kindle devices other than the Kindle Fire. I have an iPad and my wife has a Kindle Fire. So for now I’m sitting on the sidelines waiting for their next step, which is rumored to include not only the Kindle Fire but iOS options as well. Please hurry up Coliloquy.

I am definitely keeping my eyes on them to see what they can do. Have any of you read titles from Coliloquy? If so, please let me know what you think of them.

Reading

I recently started two interesting books. One is Wolf Mark by Joseph Bruchac and the other is Here, There Be Dragons by James A. Owen. Every night I can’t wait to pick one of them up and read further.

In comics I’m looking forward to Avengers vs X-Men (AvX) coming out in a few weeks. I’ve liked the X-Men for a long time. The Avengers are less familiar so I’m learning about them by reading New Avengers, Secret Avengers, Avengers: X-Sanction and Avenging Spider-Man.

Summary

I’m not exactly sure what all this means, other than it looks like I spend a boatload of time consuming all different kinds of media. So when do I find time to write? Well actually, writing is my top priority. It pushes all this other stuff aside. But all this “other stuff” is necessary to reinvigorate my creative juices. And some of this other stuff is how I stay in contact with my family, especially my wife. We do most of it together.

One thing that stands out about what I choose to watch is that I like strong characters who try to do the right thing even though they end up making lots of mistakes along the way. And I just might like watching characters do things I wish I had the opportunity and/or courage to do. As I have written all this down it’s interesting to find out that I seem to gravitate towards characters who have some admirable qualities, and who are striving to be better no matter what position they find themselves in. Me too.

Oh, and one more thing. I learned that I should trust my wife’s movie choices more often.

Anything Good: Back to Comics

I mentioned in my last post that I started reading comic books again. This has been an interesting journey. It started several years ago when we took my third son to Islands of Adventure in Florida for his 10-year-old trip. We loved Marvel Super Hero Island and just couldn’t pass up a visit to the comic book store there. We met a friendly member of the staff who made a few suggestions. I ended up buying a couple of Spider-Man trade paperbacks*. I read and enjoyed them but that was it.

Occasionally, in the subsequent years, I thought I’d like to read more. But I always felt weird, maybe even a little intimidated, about going to places where I could purchase more. So this past summer, when my daughter chose to go to Islands of Adventure for her 10-year-old trip, I was excited about the possibility of getting some more comics. Unfortunately, when we visited the exact same comic store, browsed for a while, even tried making conspicuous glances at the staff, I eventually left, disappointed. I just couldn’t bring myself to ask for help and the staff didn’t feel like offering, so the impasse left me empty handed. I’ll never be selected as ambassador to alien nations—I hate making first contact.

Since that disappointment I did a little searching on the Internet. Turns out there are lots to choose from—thanks for that one Internet. If you’re new to comic books, or been away for a while, it may feel like it requires a PhD in comic book history in order to know where to start—it did for me.

Undaunted, okay mostly daunted but determined to get past it, I worked up the courage to walk into a local comic/game store. Funny thing is the stereotypes matched pretty well. I played it cool looking for the comics section. Hey, I’m in my mid-forties and I want some comics. What you lookin’ at kid? Is what I might have said if confronted at that point. Luckily for everyone that didn’t happen. I was about to make a hasty retreat when I spotted them—CLEAR AT THE BACK OF THE STORE. Nothing worthwhile is easy. I think the locals smelled my fear as I walked back.

While trying to take in the hundreds of options visible on the wall—that was just the new stuff by the way—I met the most helpful shop clerk I think I’ve ever met; shout out to the DK crew. He started with the low pressure “Do you need any help?” angle.

I gave him my usual, “I’m just looking around. Thanks.”

But he didn’t walk away like 99% of the shop clerks I’ve encountered. He asked about my interests, slyly gaging my knowledge level without exposing me as a neophyte. By the time we were done I grabbed a few comics from the DC reboot (The New 52), plus found a good X-Men starting point and picked up The Walking Dead “Volume 1: Days Gone Bye.” Aren’t I so much cooler now—I’m an insider. At least I know a few key words so I’ll be able to bluff my way through a conversation next time.

A couple of months have gone by since then, now I have new problems. Picking up the next installment of each of The New 52 I’m reading has been a lot like hunting for beanie babies with my wife fifteen years ago; we had to search out stores receiving new shipments and get there early in the morning, 6:00 am or earlier, and fight off hordes of beanie baby cut throats. The hunt for new comics isn’t quite as dramatic. But if I don’t make it to the comic store early each Wednesday when new comics are released there’s a good chance I won’t be able to procure the new ones. And if I miss the new releases it’s tough to predict when I’ll be able to pick them up. My wife found a couple of shops in SLC, she’s good at stuff like this, where it’s been easier to pick up new releases. These shops seem to have a deeper inventory. The down side is that I have to drive forty minutes to get there. But it’s been a nice back up plan. Now I don’t fret too much if I miss a new issue here or there. And when I have enough of those missing issues stacked up I look for a reason to make a longer trip to SLC.

I also had the problem of how to store my comics in a way that was easily accessible. My collection was growing, almost as fast as tribbles, which means if I didn’t do something I would have been overrun, or worse my precious new possessions would be lost in a sea of new comics. And nobody wants that. IKEA to the rescue. I found a cheap new book shelf and a few magazine holders. Now I not only have my current comics organized, I have room to grow.

Once I started reading a few comics I remembered other characters or stories I’d seen on TV or read about. So my interests are expanding. Which is one of the funnest** parts about reading comics, there’s always something new. I jumped onto Avenging Spiderman from the beginning. So far it’s ok, but I love it that Marvel includes a free digital copy with the purchase of the comic book—I’d read it for that reason alone. Reading digital comics on my iPad is great, they look incredible. I wish every publisher gave away a digital copy with the hard copy. Why not?

In summary what’s good about comics?

They are playful and light. When I start taking myself too seriously, or just get bogged down while writing, comics are a good way to take a break and still keep reading and thinking about storytelling.  The stories are fun and the images*** definitely add to the enjoyment.

Comics are serial stories so they never really end. They make me look forward to Wednesdays—new comics day. I end up reading comics when I would have otherwise watched TV.

My thirteen-year-old son likes to read them too. Anything I can find to share with my son so we have something in common, something to talk about, is a good thing.

They make me wish I could draw. I wonder if there is a storytelling medium somewhere in between comic books and the regular picture-less novel? This is something I plan to give more thought to.

I’m enjoying most of what I’m reading. Some more than others, but overall it’s been enjoyable and inspirational.

Regarding my fears and admitted shyness above: In case you’re wondering, “No.” I don’t ever ask strangers for directions either. And yes I do eventually end up where I want to go. I’m nothing if not persistent. A quality I hope will serve me well on my writing journey.

*Trade paperbacks are a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, for those of you like me, who are unfamiliar with the term trade paperback. Usually buying trade paperbacks is cheaper than buying the series one at a time. The tradeoff is you have to wait a while after the last comic book in the series to be included is out before they print the trade paperbacks.

**According to MS Word I may have made up the word funnest, but it just seemed to fit, so I left it in.

***One thing to watch out for, especially when sharing comics with kids, is the comic book artist’s representation of the female body. A lot of times it’s exaggerated to emphasize the female form. It’s always best to read the comics first before sharing them with kids. That also gives you the added bonus of being able to discuss it with them too.