I Didn't Write That!
10 September 2017
When The Wind Blows (Murakami/Briggs, 1986)
___________________
Become a Patron!
___________________
Become a Patron!
Labels: 1980s, animation, film, nuclear, UK
¶ Sunday, September 10, 2017 0 Comments
09 September 2017
TWIN PEAKS THE RETURN: Left With a Few Questions
...to put it mildly. But here are some I made notes on.
As far as the conclusion, I've come to like this suggestion that the two last episodes have to be watched simultaneously to understand, because they loop back into each other. Watch this below and see.
Read more »
...to put it mildly. But here are some I made notes on.
 |
| by Scott Abbott |
Hey wait.— John L. Roberson (@jlr_1969) September 6, 2017
I thought the true love of Cooper's life had been Windom Earle's wife. @mfrost11 @DavidLynchHub #TwinPeaksFinale pic.twitter.com/uzUZ0GFgDL
As far as the conclusion, I've come to like this suggestion that the two last episodes have to be watched simultaneously to understand, because they loop back into each other. Watch this below and see.
Read more »
Labels: 2010s, David Lynch, TV, Twin Peaks
¶ Saturday, September 09, 2017 0 Comments
LULU In Progress: Chapter 5 p.83-84 - Pencils and a Bit of Inks and More at Patreon
Now that SUZY SPREADWELL #1 is finished and published, it's LULU's turn. Here's some work done already on chapter 5, pencils and inks on one page and fresh pencils on the next, finished tonight. Click each to embiggen.
(If you need to catch up: LULU Book 1, and Chapter 4 in THIS SICKNESS #8, both can be got at Comixology, Google Play and Amazon.)
Finished lettered and greyed pages will be available months ahead of publication(I don't even serialize till a whole chapter is "in the can," to avoid lateness or interruption) for a measly pledge at Patreon. But I'll also be publicly posting the pages there in progress at most stages prior to finish. So be sure to follow!
In addition to finished work posted as it's finished, I've also posted downloads of a number of my banned works like STORY OF OH and MARTHA for patrons only(since Amazon won't let you buy it anymore), and a single tiny membership pittance of $5 gives you access to all! And also helps make this and other stuff of mine possible!
Become a Patron!
Now that SUZY SPREADWELL #1 is finished and published, it's LULU's turn. Here's some work done already on chapter 5, pencils and inks on one page and fresh pencils on the next, finished tonight. Click each to embiggen.
(If you need to catch up: LULU Book 1, and Chapter 4 in THIS SICKNESS #8, both can be got at Comixology, Google Play and Amazon.)
Finished lettered and greyed pages will be available months ahead of publication(I don't even serialize till a whole chapter is "in the can," to avoid lateness or interruption) for a measly pledge at Patreon. But I'll also be publicly posting the pages there in progress at most stages prior to finish. So be sure to follow!
In addition to finished work posted as it's finished, I've also posted downloads of a number of my banned works like STORY OF OH and MARTHA for patrons only(since Amazon won't let you buy it anymore), and a single tiny membership pittance of $5 gives you access to all! And also helps make this and other stuff of mine possible!
Become a Patron!
Labels: frank wedekind, in progress, lulu, my comics, theatre, this sickness
¶ Saturday, September 09, 2017 0 Comments
04 September 2017
The Rabbit Hole of Reboot
I AM SICK OF TIME TRAVEL, TIMELINES, AND PARALLEL WORLDS IN POPULAR FICTION AND DRAMA.
Sick to fucking death of it. It ate mainstream comics and trapped both Marvel and DC in a cycle that will never end, and has made its way into TV too. Twin Peaks, the Flash, more.
Why are we attracted to this idea?
It's a reflection of a wish to avoid making choices, to avoid getting truly invested, that everything has an undo. It reinforces a destructive illusion in the backs of all our heads that everything is fine and can be fixed. That there is some still center that is always clean we can return to when a bad choice happens. When we make it.
It's a result of a denial of how horrible things truly are necessary for us to function. And yet the cracks in our sanity are getting bigger.
The zombies just as ubiquitous in movies and TV, something I'm sick of as well, arise from the same sense you're slowly being consumed and overwhelmed by something.
See how edgier our moods are.
___________________
¶ Monday, September 04, 2017 0 Comments
I AM SICK OF TIME TRAVEL, TIMELINES, AND PARALLEL WORLDS IN POPULAR FICTION AND DRAMA.
Sick to fucking death of it. It ate mainstream comics and trapped both Marvel and DC in a cycle that will never end, and has made its way into TV too. Twin Peaks, the Flash, more.
Why are we attracted to this idea?
It's a reflection of a wish to avoid making choices, to avoid getting truly invested, that everything has an undo. It reinforces a destructive illusion in the backs of all our heads that everything is fine and can be fixed. That there is some still center that is always clean we can return to when a bad choice happens. When we make it.
It's a result of a denial of how horrible things truly are necessary for us to function. And yet the cracks in our sanity are getting bigger.
The zombies just as ubiquitous in movies and TV, something I'm sick of as well, arise from the same sense you're slowly being consumed and overwhelmed by something.
See how edgier our moods are.
___________________
TWIN PEAKS: It Feels Like Something Wasted
I'm gonna get blasphemous here.
I call shenanigans on the resolution to the new TWIN PEAKS.
I love Lynch. I am used to Lynch. I am used to abstruse and like it. And if everything had been properly resolved I guess it wouldn't feel like Lynch so there's really no way to win. But do NOT respond to this with a "you just don't get Lynch"--oh yes I fucking do. He's a foundation stone of inspiration for my own work. Nor say "you must be used to Hollywood plotting"--I fucking hate Hollywood plotting. I avoid most mainstream product. I have watched Lynch since I was 12 and the Elephant Man came out. I'm in the cult, of the cult.
But.
If every single character is a plot device, why did we even pretend there was a plot?
Literally this is the case. Whether they were overtly "manufactured for a purpose," or like the Green Glove, whose whole personality was his backstory of why he ended up there with that glove, we are left with this idea that all of reality distorted itself just to protect Cooper in time for him to...
What? To do what? To even fail to do what, and why?
Except when he does movies, this is clearer. We don't have a bunch of dumb TV plot stuff thrown in(which was far worse in the old show) that starts necessitating resolution.
And there is resolution. But it's mostly of a "done with this now" quality. It's "we're at 17 hours, it's time to kill BadCoop." A lot of the resolutions are so sudden and pat that they make you wonder why you cared about that story till then--and the thing is, you had.
And I won't even go into how little I liked seeing the "go back in time and fix everything" trope show up for the umpteenth time on TV in the last few years, a concept I already got tired of when THE FLASH abused it to death. Then again, none of us like the world we're in; it makes sense we keep returning to that wish. But it has led to plots having no stakes and a feeling you never have to be invested in the end, that nothing really has to touch or change you. And this one most of all.
Was I unsatisfied till now? NO. He had me engaged. And then it's like he throws away everything he engaged me with. What happened with Audrey for instance, was just cruel.
I also think in the end that having Lynch himself as a main character was a detriment. Distracting.
It's like watching someone else play a video game, including when they go away to the bathroom. And sometimes in those long pauses, the characters have been said to seem to hang unnaturally, like avatars, especially Chrysta Bell. Much of the plotting would make sense in a video game context. Levels, things to acquire and unlock, characters getting touched by something and generating evil doubles...the dim reflection of Cooper's face over everything in the 17th episode...
Maybe...
If you have cherry pie, you acquire the gangsters, who will become good.
If you touch the rock at these coordinates you will be fried.
You have ruined your spike.
I could name many more examples that sound like this. But it's just a thought, nothing firm.
I feel like I did after INLAND EMPIRE, a feeling that Lynch was just coasting and fucking around. And then, later, more of a feeling of looking at something brilliant in scenes, but broken overall. Of course I want Lynch to do what Lynch does. And I want to like this. And perhaps over time I'll see something I'm not now. (Then again, I still don't like INLAND EMPIRE even after giving it more than ten tries) But right now, I see a lovely mess. And a lot of interesting things reduced to meaningless in the end. 16 hours I loved. And a final two hours I'm...admittedly still not sure about. This is a hot take.
So my question is, does Lynch subvert plot, or does he just mask a bunch of elements he can't make cohere with a veneer of ambiguity?
I don't like writing this. I'm sure I'll change my mind as this settles and I watch a few more times.
Except that would mean sitting through the Dougie plot again...
___________________
I'm gonna get blasphemous here.
I call shenanigans on the resolution to the new TWIN PEAKS.
I love Lynch. I am used to Lynch. I am used to abstruse and like it. And if everything had been properly resolved I guess it wouldn't feel like Lynch so there's really no way to win. But do NOT respond to this with a "you just don't get Lynch"--oh yes I fucking do. He's a foundation stone of inspiration for my own work. Nor say "you must be used to Hollywood plotting"--I fucking hate Hollywood plotting. I avoid most mainstream product. I have watched Lynch since I was 12 and the Elephant Man came out. I'm in the cult, of the cult.
But.
If every single character is a plot device, why did we even pretend there was a plot?
Literally this is the case. Whether they were overtly "manufactured for a purpose," or like the Green Glove, whose whole personality was his backstory of why he ended up there with that glove, we are left with this idea that all of reality distorted itself just to protect Cooper in time for him to...
What? To do what? To even fail to do what, and why?
Except when he does movies, this is clearer. We don't have a bunch of dumb TV plot stuff thrown in(which was far worse in the old show) that starts necessitating resolution.
And there is resolution. But it's mostly of a "done with this now" quality. It's "we're at 17 hours, it's time to kill BadCoop." A lot of the resolutions are so sudden and pat that they make you wonder why you cared about that story till then--and the thing is, you had.
And I won't even go into how little I liked seeing the "go back in time and fix everything" trope show up for the umpteenth time on TV in the last few years, a concept I already got tired of when THE FLASH abused it to death. Then again, none of us like the world we're in; it makes sense we keep returning to that wish. But it has led to plots having no stakes and a feeling you never have to be invested in the end, that nothing really has to touch or change you. And this one most of all.
Was I unsatisfied till now? NO. He had me engaged. And then it's like he throws away everything he engaged me with. What happened with Audrey for instance, was just cruel.
I also think in the end that having Lynch himself as a main character was a detriment. Distracting.
It's like watching someone else play a video game, including when they go away to the bathroom. And sometimes in those long pauses, the characters have been said to seem to hang unnaturally, like avatars, especially Chrysta Bell. Much of the plotting would make sense in a video game context. Levels, things to acquire and unlock, characters getting touched by something and generating evil doubles...the dim reflection of Cooper's face over everything in the 17th episode...
Maybe...
If you have cherry pie, you acquire the gangsters, who will become good.
If you touch the rock at these coordinates you will be fried.
You have ruined your spike.
I could name many more examples that sound like this. But it's just a thought, nothing firm.
I feel like I did after INLAND EMPIRE, a feeling that Lynch was just coasting and fucking around. And then, later, more of a feeling of looking at something brilliant in scenes, but broken overall. Of course I want Lynch to do what Lynch does. And I want to like this. And perhaps over time I'll see something I'm not now. (Then again, I still don't like INLAND EMPIRE even after giving it more than ten tries) But right now, I see a lovely mess. And a lot of interesting things reduced to meaningless in the end. 16 hours I loved. And a final two hours I'm...admittedly still not sure about. This is a hot take.
So my question is, does Lynch subvert plot, or does he just mask a bunch of elements he can't make cohere with a veneer of ambiguity?
I don't like writing this. I'm sure I'll change my mind as this settles and I watch a few more times.
Except that would mean sitting through the Dougie plot again...
___________________
Labels: 2010s, David Lynch, TV, Twin Peaks
¶ Monday, September 04, 2017 0 Comments
03 September 2017
The deal Trump wanted with Russia - The Washington Post
The deal Trump wanted with Russia - The Washington Post
___________________
¶ Sunday, September 03, 2017 0 Comments
___________________
