January's uberlisting
Seven things completed, at least one in progress. Not bad for the first month if'n I say so m'self.
1. Read a book - Jan
I've read the first two Wild Cards books and most of the most recent ones - this one completes the recent "reboot" trilogy which resumed the series after a number of years. I'd picked up these books in lieu of A Song of Ice & Fire figuring that they'd be a less complex undertaking, and couldn't have been more wrong, since there are more of them and they're not all readily available. (And of course, I have in fact read some of A Song of Ice and Fire.)
The stories take place in a world where an alien virus has killed many it has infected - a tenth of its victims find themselves undergoing profound, often bizarre physical transformations. And a tenth of those people get superpowers.
Though Wild Cards has followed its own alternate history, cleverly changing familiar historical events as they'd transpire alongside the effects of the Wild Card virus, this recent trilogy offers a harrowing look at some painful and tragic current events. A new group of Aces and Jokers has found itself at play in a number of conflicts in the Middle East, and in Suicide Kings these characters are brought into the current brutal conflict in the Congo. The child soldiers drafted in that region have made headlines, and the horror of their situation and the violence in their wake is addressed head on. It's a tribute to the strengths of Martin and the Wild Cards Trust that they don't trivialize the situation by throwing super powers into the mix; indeed, the humanity of these characters is always front and center, particularly as they realize that they're powerless to make any kind of real difference. A moving piece of pulp fiction, as fanciful and funny as any of the other series' entries (and a significant improvement on the previous book, BUSTED FLUSH, which didn't quite come together so effectively), but firmly rooted in contemporary reality. (And I've read that at least one favorite character from this trilogy will wind up in Jokertown for the next book in the series, LOWBALL.)
13. Read a play - Jan
Had put off reading Steven Berkoff's adaptation of Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, but I wound up plundering it for ideas on my own forthcoming theatre project (details below). It makes for difficult reading as the spoken text is run alongside a physical text - Berkoff's productions tend to be physically exacting, and it was fascinating to see his blocking rendered in such detail. But it took some patience and time to cut from the parallel texts to get a complete mental picture.
25. Read a film book
A bit of a cheat (since they're slim volumes) but I did clear the backlog a bit by reading the BFI Modern Classics volume (by Peter Kramer) on Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey. It's an exemplar of what makes the series great: it offers a detailed history of the making of the film, focusing mainly on the back and forth between Kubrick and author Arthur C. Clarke, a thoughtful analysis of the plot and visuals, and a rather bracing overview of the film's reception. Contrary to popular belief, it was actually a significant mainstream success - Kramer patiently collects counterculture and mainstream raves about the movie, and offers some lovely testimony, culled from letters to Kubrick, of everyday people on the movie's power, ambiguity, and optimism.
33. See a Shakespeare/classical theatre
Our young friends in Do It Live Productions put together a beautifully physical production of The Tempest, which I caught on its closing night at Thick House, a beautiful space in Potrero Hill I'd never been to. Co-founder Will Hand's time at European seminars on physical theatre manifested in the central design, a tall narrow mountain and climbing rope used by many of the actors in entirely effective ways. A gorgeous and moving piece.
46. House of Sparrows entry - Jan
Only one piece, but I was happy to be able to write a fairly detailed rave about Rob Zombie's last movie, The Lords of Salem. Funnily enough, the 2001 book above helped open a door on it, and I cite one of its main points (uncredited, 'cause I'm a hack) in the Lords piece.
58. The Shelf entry - Jan
Started writing for the Shelf Space, a media blog put together by asluk as a means of clearing our backlogged media. I don't think I'm quite managing to play by his rules - it's now the fourth blog I'm writing for, and sometimes it's hard to figure what is best where (the words on SUICIDE KINGS above, for example, could surely be expanded for the Shelf). But I did manage to put out some words by a backlogged graphic novel (DOCTOR STRANGE & DOCTOR DOOM: TRIUMPH & TORMENT) that even got an RT or two. More there to come, of course - probably a lengthy piece on the ABC Warriors.
93. [Redacted]
Yet complete.
In Progress:
31. Write a shorter piece
32. Write a full-length piece
Writing a piece to submit to the SF Fringe Festival - it's thirteen scenes, probably about an hour long. So which of these numbers will be fulfilled when the script is done? Damned if I know. But crucially, I'm having a ball pulling it together.
So that's where I am - tell me where you are!