I Are a Writer, and So Can You!

From jimvanpelt: I Are a Writer, and So Can You!

"This wise male vampire has deep-set violet eyes with pupils shaped like crosses, and that can extend on stalks. His thick, wavy, night-black hair is neck-length and is worn in a dignified style. He is inhumanly tall and has a graceful build. He has an elegant nose and large hands. He can turn into a cloud of dust. He has the standard vampiric disabilities. He feeds on human ecstacy."

-The Gneech

The Weekend

Spent this weekend with lythandra's family, wishing mom-in-law happy Mother's Day and generally being good relations. Alas, that means that we didn't get to see Speed Racer or Forbidden Kingdom, making the possibility of seeing the latter while it's still in the theaters very shaky. But I'd still like to if we can arrange it.

I'll rant about summer movies sometime. In a nutshell, they always show up in a six-week period during which I'm usually way too busy to see them! And they're usually the ones I most want to see, too, the bastards. STAY IN THE THEATERS FOR HALF A MINUTE, DAMN YOU!

*ahem* Sorry about that. Anyway, moving on.

One thing we did see was Mister Bean's Holiday, which I quite enjoyed. :) Mister Bean can be an iffy thing for me, sometimes wading too far into gross-out or mean-spiritedness, but fortunately this particular outing was mostly free of both. It really felt like simply a longer, bigger-budgeted version of one of the good episodes from the TV series, which I mean in the best way possible. Prior Mister Bean experience is not necessary, although it might make some of the gags a shade deeper. It was definitely better than Bean, which I found very disappointing. Still not as good as Black Adder, but you can't have everything.

And, speaking of Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis, on a recent Barnes & Noble binge I picked up the screenplay of Four Weddings and a Funeral, which I've been reading over the past week and finished on the trip. Reading screenplays is not usually worth the effort per se -- after all they tend to be very short and be almost nothing but lines + minimal stage direction. But for films I really like, I enjoy reading them for the occasional bits of insight I can glean from the character descriptions and/or character dialog that I just can't make out from the soundtrack, as well as any writers' commentary that may be added to thicken the book up. In this particular case there is an intro by Richard Curtis in which he talks about the screenwriting process, as well as an appendix containing scenes that got cut before filming, trailers that were written but never produced, and a discussion of changes title went through and alternate "less-sweary, more acceptable to the American television audience" versions of various scenes. (FWIW, I've never seen these alternate scenes, but then I only ever watched the movie on "Bugger! Bugger! Bugger!"-filled DVD.)

We also listened to an audiobook version of Jeeves and the Tie That Binds, narrated by a nasty, supercilious-sounding reader whose name escapes me but who made just about everybody sound like Igor from Count Duckula in his sneerier moments. Ugh. Good book, bad reader. Alas!

When we got home, we chilled out with grilled cheese sandwiches and Zatoichi vs. Yojimbo, which was very interesting, if a bit hard to follow, but had Toshiro Mifune who is always worth the price of admission.

So, in all, not a bad weekend. But now I've got a lot of work ahead of me in the week to come! So goodnight, everyone, and have an awesome tomorrow.

-The Gneech