Not Making the Cut

Getting writing advice is a tricky thing. I hired a freelance editor to go over my fairy version of The War of the Worlds, tentatively called Fairy War. She gave a lot of interesting advice. Of course, it’s up to me to decide what to accept or decline.

Fairy War mainly takes place in the London area, but I had some side chapters take place in Seattle. The freelance editor thought my story was too long, so she advised me to cut the Seattle chapters.

public domain

I did so, keeping the Seattle chapters in a separate file. After that, I made other cuts that shortened the story by about 10,000 words. But then one of my beta readers said it dragged in the middle. That was where my Seattle chapters had been the most dramatic. Also, a former agent who gives online advice I really trust says agents and editors expect fantasy to be a little longer than I had thought. (The addition of fairies makes my story more on the fantasy side.) Although beginning writers should not push the limits, I’ve decided to add the Seattle chapters back in.

However, when going over these chapters I realized there were too many minor characters. I’ll have to eliminate one of them. So it turns out a pixie named Mona will not make the cut. Here’s the scene where she’s introduced.

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Wycliffe was about to inquire what more he could do to help when a barmaid came over, smelling of rose water, holding a tankard they hadn’t ordered.

She set it down gently. “I apologize for interrupting.”

They stared at her in curiosity. Then Portia reached out and glided her hand down the barmaid’s arm. “Fellow pixie.”

“I heard what you’re planning. They’ll probably attack tomorrow, right? I want to help.”

Tingo looked at her skeptically. “I don’t know what fighting skill you have. And it’s not clear what us women will do. Perhaps you should stay here.”

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Now we’ll never know what Mona would have done. So sad.

Mostly Harmless at the Mall

Last Saturday I went to Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood, north of Seattle. I was shocked to find the restaurants still open in the food court, but with no place to sit down. All the tables had chairs stacked on top of them, with yellow tape sealing them off. Some metal tables and chairs were outside, but they were all taken.

So I sat down on a rock. This was not as arduous as it sounds; a number of large rocks are carved as horizontal monoliths so people can walk or sit on them. As I was eating, I noticed a seagull just sitting on the grass. It looked right at me as I took a picture.

It turned its head ever farther, as if deciding this human holding an object wasn’t a threat. Then it flew off. I don’t think it was cause and effect; I just happened to get a picture at almost the last second. 

I Voted

 

Pacific Northwest Writers Conference

As advertised, I attended a great writers conference. The Pacific Northwest Writers Conference normally meets in SeaTac (yes, the city thought that would be a great name for a place between Seattle and Tacoma), but it was virtual this year. I paid $175 for just the Saturday sessions. Was it worth it? Yes it was.

Easily the best session was by Nicole Persun. She’s comparatively young, but she is a great writing coach. Think of going to a gym and finding out a trainer there is young but has a lot of experience. Nicole gave a very detailed presentation on editing at both the macro level and the micro level.

Nicole J. Persun 

 Photo used by permission

I’m going to go over my manuscripts the way she said to.

Not to be ignored was Pam Binder. a very experienced writer who gave tips to energize the middle of a novel, which often sags.

A fascinating session was “Cop Talk and Procedures.” Officers from a number of different agencies shared their experiences. As everyone knows, police officers in New York City are visibly present and highly respected. In Seattle, they try not to be visible and are shown much less respect, though they have high standards for behavior. An important background feature for contemporary stories is the different levels of visibility of and respect for police in different cities.

Most realistic shows on police: The Wire is good for corruption and ethics, Southland has realistic characters, Barney Miller has realistic relationships, Breaking Bad has realistic cases, End of Watch gets the banter right. Hill Street Blues was also recommended for realistic relationships, but I know that commentators said they were consistently bad on how the law works.

I wondered if it was worth it to watch the awards ceremony, but when I tuned in, that was clearly the right choice. Aspiring writers had submitted their manuscripts in categories like science fiction/fantasy, suspense, memoir, etc. The looks on the faces of the winners, some of whom have presumably been more or less quarantined for a while, made it a joyous event.

It’s hard to explain how great the conference was. It was a relief, after so many things have been shut down.

New Printer—Part 2: Tricky Bit of Tech

 So I set my printer up with a USB cord, but how to make it work? The printer’s program on my computer demanded a PIN number. Why? I wasn’t signing on to some secret portal. It would be “on the printer.” The only numbers were on the back, and neither of them were labeled as a PIN.

Numbers blurry on purpose

So I entered the first one, and it was rejected. Then I was distracted by the printer screen, which had changed. It was displaying the PIN number. 

Screen blank on purpose

Who thought of this?! In what sense was this “on the printer”?

Okay, so it prints fine. Also, I tried the copy function.

Copy on the right

Some personal info hidden

As the saying goes, the copy is better than the original.

So, my gentle readers, you’ve been very patient (or you just skipped these two posts). On to the writers conference.

New Printer—Part 1

My old printer died. It was about twenty years old. It used the old 45 black ink, which places like OfficeDepot don’t even carry anymore. There had been an ominous sign: Earlier this year, it stopped printing pdf files. What came out was a line of machine language at the top of a page, then it rapidly grabbed the next piece of paper and did the same thing. It might have done that for dozens of sheets of paper if I hadn’t deleted the print buffer. Then it just stopped working last Saturday, when I was trying to print out my copy of the order of worship for my church. (I guess they don’t want someone at the door handing out the orders of worship, since that would be some form of contact.)

The old printer was an HP. After some research, I decided on a new printer, which would also be an HP. I’m not wedded to that brand; they make good printers.

When I opened the box, there seemed to be filler in one of the Styrofoam forms.

 

 

When I lifted one out of curiosity, they turned out to be the ink cartridges! I understand the need to be compact, but I might have just ignored them.

There weren’t any instructions—just pictograms that were like hieroglyphics. They were too crammed to be clear. I can imagine some executive demanding they all fit in one sheet of paper. If they had just allowed themselves two sheets, I’m sure there would be a lot less complaints and one-star ratings. But no, that executive must be patting the flunkees on their heads for cramming it all into one sheet.

And why are there no words with the pictograms? I paid over two hundred dollars for this. They can’t afford to have one set with English instructions, one with Spanish, and one with French? 

So after watching other people struggle with it on Youtube, I have it set up.

  

  

This is an HP ENVY Photo 7855. It is sleek. It is stylish. It if it comes in some other color than black, I don’t care.

One eccentric feature is the output tray. In this picture, which was taken from the left of where the previous one was taken, notice the black rectangle protruding from the right, which is the front of the printer. That thing juts out when printing, to be the output tray. That is not included in the official dimensions of the 7855, so take that into account. It can be gently slid back in. 

 

So anyway, it just printed the one calibration sheet. I can’t get the Bluetooth to work. I don’t have WiFi set up. So I did an express order for a USB 2.0 cord. I’m fine with using a cord. But they didn’t include one. Did I mention how much I paid for it?

Stay tuned for the sequel. And after that, I should have a fascinating post about a writing conference.

Book Purge / Star Trek

So it was time to pack up some books that I either won’t need anymore or decided weren’t that interesting. Holding the box in front of the used bookstore, I was surprised by a sign that stated they were now buying books by appointment. Still standing there in front of the windows, I called the number on the sign. They weren’t taking any appointments at the moment since they were all booked up for August. Later I made an appointment for September.

Notice I put the Star Trek Encyclopedia prominently on top. Am I not interested in Star Trek anymore? No. It’s just that such printed reference guides for the shows and movies are obsolete. The online guides are more complete because they can be constantly updated.

Anyway, we are supposedly getting a new series, called Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. This might be good for your truly, since a long time ago Star Trek had a series of contests for amateur writers to submit short stories. I finally had a story accepted in the fifth year of the contest. And what was that series of books called? Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. People may get confused and buy the books (hopefully the fifth one), thinking they are related to the new series.

Not my fault.

Harry Potter vs. the Monsters Dream

I think it’s important for writers to write down their dreams. Here’s one I had on the night of July 4^th.

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Three of the Harry Potter characters were leading a group of children through a forested realm thick with monsters. Each monster was at least two to three times the size of a human being and were mostly bony on the outside, often with spikes.

Harry, Hermione, and Nigel paused on a knoll that was clear of trees. A hologram appeared of General Patton (who looked like George C. Scott). He congratulated them on making it this far. He ordered them to proceed to their destination as fast as possible, killing as many monsters as they could along the way.

The three agreed amongst themselves that the order was contradictory: If they killed as many monsters as they could, they would not travel at best speed, and they would not survive. (It’s possible they had lost some children along the way—the tone was quite dark.)

Harry led the way. They did not fly, but a couple of times as he held Hermione’s hand and she held Nigel’s hand, Hermione’s and Nigel’s feet left the ground.

photo by DavidDjJohnson 

They arrived at their destination without losing any more children. The three of them went into some kind of control tower. There, they toppled something as thick as a telephone pole onto one of the monsters, crushing it.

Harry read an instruction sheet that stated they were to wait until 2:00 am for everyone to arrive (they had arrived around midnight).

An adult sponsor appeared and asked Harry if he had read the instructions. When Harry said yes, the sponsor said the sheet indicated they were to wait until 12:30 am. Harry, Hermione, and Nigel realized they could not trust this sponsor.

The control tower turned into the cockpit of an airliner holding the three of them. Another hologram (not of Patton) congratulated them for arriving. Obviously, this was how the children would be evacuated. Hermione sat in the pilot’s seat and put a headset on.

photo by Zaheer12a

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As an afterwards, I can’t say I’m a Harry Potter fan. But this is the second vivid, detailed dream I’ve had of the characters. The first one was posted here.

Grant Imahara Passed Away

So the news came in that Grant Imahara of Mythbusters fame passed away. He was only 49. He had a brain aneurysm.

I thought he was the smartest guy on the show. He was on what was called the “B Team,” but they tended to do the more inventive things. He was a pretty modest guy on the show, but as an electrical engineer, he built the robotics—such as a robot arm that swung with such force, they had to have a decapitation warning. He might be most famous for his robot cat, which was completely unconvincing, except for the dogs it was designed to fool.

photo by Gage Skidmore 

I knew he had early fame from designing Deadblow, a winning robot in the Battlebots competition. But I didn’t know he designed the arms of the Energizer Bunny. And he also updated the R2-D2 robots? He lived quite a life.

Christopher Tolkien Dream

I believe it’s important for writers to write down their dreams. Unfortunately I just have a stub of my most recent one. Everything else faded.

I made a phone call to the Tolkien Estate. To my surprise, Christopher Tolkien, the son of J.R.R. Tolkien, answered. He pronounced his name tol-ken, instead of tol-keen. Rather stupidly, I asked him if that was how the name was pronounced. He said yes and repeated himself.

That’s all I remember of the dream. I undoubtedly had it because of all the buzz about The Silmarillion. But it so affected me that while I was sitting at work I thought about how the name was pronounced tol-ken, then I realized it was just a dream.

So I was thinking at work about how J.R.R. Tolkien made charts of the phases of the moon for The Lord of the Rings. He remarked that he could not have Aragorn look up and see a full moon one night, then have Gimli see a full moon a couple nights later. He also kept charts of how fast Shadowfax, Gandalf’s horse, could run.

I’ve developed a spreadsheet for my novel manuscript Fairy War, a retelling of The War of the Worlds. Cylinders from Mars are landing in different major cities of the world, and this is how I kept track. Learn for the best.

Book Review: The Girl Who Sees

Sasha Urban is an illusionist—a stage magician. After doing her card tricks in restaurants, she finally gets her break to do her act on a TV talk show. Although nervous, Sasha manages to guess the card the host is thinking of, and a sealed envelope reveals her prediction of the day’s headline. All this is normal stage magician stuff. After all, Sasha knows the supernatural does not exist.

Then a zombie attacks her onstage—an actual zombie. The security people tear it apart as if they do this all the time. After being stared into a trance, Sasha is carried back to her apartment. She has a dream of another couple of zombies getting sicced on her. When this comes true, a friendly neighbor named Vlad destroys those two. Vlad doesn’t need to eat, and he doesn’t seem to age, so he’s a …

The Girl Who Sees by Dima Zales is a fun novel. Sasha keeps seeing impossible things, but because she gets put into a trance, and the people around her downplay what she sees, it’s a while before she knows for sure that the supernatural is real. As a stage magician who knows that magic is not real, this rocks her worldview.

This is written in first person, which is common enough for urban fantasy. But it’s also written in present tense, which I didn’t notice while I was reading it. First person present tense is best for a character who does not know what is going on, and that fits Sasha.

We also get an insight into how certain stage magic tricks are done. For me, this doesn’t ruin those performances—it shows the immense preparation that goes into them. And Sasha uses her mentalist abilities to try to get some clue as to what is happening around her.

Also, it is peppered with pop culture references--everything from The Matrix to Batman to Alice in Wonderland. And okay, Sasha Urban is a marketing kind of name for a character. But it works. Fellow writers should not be jealous.

Inception - Sources of the Movie

Inception - Sources of the Movie

(Originally posted 8/14/10.)

Alice: I should sue for royalties. Too bad I'm not real.

The movie Inception is very pretty, but very boring, so while I was watching the movie I took the time to crack the code on where the characters came from.

Come on, you should know this. The characters are: A madman, a prim young woman, an authoritative person who hacks a lot, a nervous person who leads others on a chase, someone who smiles and changes appearances, an odd person who seems a little druggy, and a minor character who gets hauled off to punishment. As a hint, these characters are going down into a strange

realm where our laws of reality do not apply.

Let's start with the main character, Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. He's constantly at the point of going mad over his children and his dead wife, his hair is one big cowlick, and he has this wild idea of delving into different levels of dreams, with time running differently on each level

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Yes, he's derived from The Mad Hatter. It might seem somewhat comical to compare Cobb's hair to the hat, but the resemblance is there. And The Hatter spoke in riddles about time, and said that time could be sped up or made to stay at the same point indefinitely. What can throw the viewing audience off is that it's some equivalent of The Hatter who is the main character, rather than --

Ariadne (played by Ellen Page). She is a comparatively proper young woman, who disapproves of the madness she sees around her. As the naive character, she needs things explained to her. Also, she uses a pawn chess piece as her link to reality.

She is obviously Alice, the young woman who constantly reproves the odd people she sees in Wonderland. And, of course, the odd characters she meets explain themselves and the surroundings to her, often in nonsensical terms. When she goes Through the Looking Glass, she starts out as a pawn and eventually becomes queen on a chessboard. And when you think of someone like Alice, you think of someone like --

Arthur, a very nervous character who warns Cobb his plans might not work. In a show-stopping part of the movie, he leads some characters in "a merry chase" through a rather claustrophobic hallway, then helps his friends in an elevator shaft.

This is none other than the White Rabbit. He is constantly nervous and tends to be a dis approving sort. He, of course, is famous for leading Alice down the rabbit hole.

The other characters in the movie have their tell-tale roles. Saito is the arrogant, high-ranking Japanese businessman who constantly hacks and coughs after being shot. He corresponds to the Duchess, who is very arrogant, and who sneezes a lot. Eames is the character with the smug smile who changes appearances. He's derived from the Cheshire cat, known for his smile and his ability to disappear and appear. Yusuf is the druggy-looking guy who fixes them up with the chemicals that allow them to descend to different levels. He's obviously the Caterpillar, who smokes a hookah and who tells Alice how to use a mushroom to increase or decrease her size. And the minor character of Nash who sells out Cobb and gets hauled off is the Knave of Hearts, who stole some tarts, and who is brought to trial.

What neatly ties this together is that Ariadne falls through some structures in the climactic scene of Inception as if they were a pack of cards, which is part of the jolt that kicks her team back to reality. And Alice in Wonderland ends with Alice upsetting the jury box and causing the card characters to fly through the air at her, at which point she wakes up.

(It's possible that Mal, the dead wife, is the Queen of Hearts, since Mal enjoys killing people off. And Fischer, the young heir they are trying to swindle, and who is so fond of a childhood picture of himself, may correspond to the real life Lewis Carroll. His real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, and besides writing the Alice tales, he gained some fame for himself by taking childrens' photos. But these last two match-ups are more tenuous.)

Having said all that, I'm not maintaining that Inception is simply a retelling of Alice in Wonderland. Inception certainly is a different story. I'm saying that the characters were derived from Alice.

My work here is done.

Dolly the Vampire Slayer

Or this could be called “Slay Belle.” So this is the convergence between Dolly Parton, country music star, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Dolly Parton rocketed to fame with her hit song “9 to 5,” which was the centerpiece of the 1980 movie of the same name. She became famous not only as a country singer, but as a symbol of what nowadays is called female empowerment.

Then there is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This is the TV series that jumpstarted the subgenre knows as urban fantasy. Were there some urban fantasy novels before Buffy? Sure. But it was the Buffy series that made urban fantasy an overwhelming subgenre in novels, movies, and TV shows.

So how did that happen? It turns out Dolly Parton was an uncredited producer of the original movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That’s right. And Dolly’s company financed the TV series. It was Dolly Parton behind it all the time!

photo by Eva Rinaldi

But what if Dolly hadn’t done that? See my post What if Buffy had Never Been? to see how life as we know it would be different. Meanwhile, you can see every season opening for Buffy below, including the musical episode.

Then you’ll definitely want to see my post Buffy the Vinyl Slayer.

Parkplace Destroyed

No, not the second most expensive property on the Monopoly boards that a lot of you are undoubtedly using. Parkplace was the first high rise in Kirkland, a suburb of Seattle. I remember eating at a Japanese restaurant there a few times. The new name for the area is Kirkland Urban, with a couple buildings of equal size built next door to Parkplace. Now that construction work has been allowed to resume, Parkplace has been torn down. 

All that was left of it this past Wednesday was a pile of rubble. I took a picture, but it was too blurry to use. It reminds me of how the old Totem Lake shopping mall was torn down. 

All is not lost. See what one of the new features of Kirkland Urban is:

Buddhist Science Fiction—Movie Review

A few hundred years ago, Siyama is a small village in feudal Siam. They are about to be attacked by thousands of warriors who kill everyone in their way.

After the local Buddhist monk performs a prayer ceremony, three young people show up, dressed strangely and traveling in a metal vehicle. They say they are from the future and do not know how they got there. The Buddhist monk assures them to not be concerned about the future. He forecasts they will return to the future during an upcoming moonless night.

The three young people have unusual skills and tools, and they decide to help the village in the days they have left. Can they possibly make a difference?

Siyama: Village of Warriors is a movie that keeps one’s attention, partly because of the historical panorama, partly from the compelling story of three young people trying to help in what seems to be a hopeless struggle. Ana is a female doctor and an Olympic-level archer. Gift is a female history major who knows martial arts. Boat is a male student who is . . . got no idea.

These three students do things that seem puzzling to the villagers but make sense to us, the viewers: Ana wants hard liquor to disinfect wounds and needs needle and thread to sew them up. Gift looks at the cliffs towering over a narrow path to the village and wants lots of gunpowder. Boat tries to solder together parts from the car to make amazing weapons. We end up really rooting for them.

The movie has some disadvantages. Neither the students nor the villagers are that surprised at their arrival. Most of the battles take place at night, so it is often hard to tell who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. And the special effects for the final climax are kind of embarrassing.

Still, if you want to see some Buddhist science fiction, Siyama: Village of Warriors is a nice change of pace.

Wascally Wabbit—Not

In the past few years, the Seattle area has seen explosive growth in the rabbit population. I happened to walk by one on the lawn of the condominiums where I live. When I went inside and came back out with a camera, a couple of other guys were moving stuff in to a unit, kind of noisy. I was surprised it was still sitting there, eating grass placidly.

It didn’t care that a human was pointing an object at it. I didn’t want to spend too much time near it, because I don’t want it to get more used to humans than it already is.

Arrested for Walking—The Pedestrian

A solitary man walks on streets through neighborhoods for the simple pleasure of it. A police car accosts him and wants to know why he is walking.

Ray Bradbury wrote The Pedestrian in 1951. He set it a century forward from when he wrote it, but it feels eerily true today. I strongly suggest you look it up online or find it in a collection of his short stories. It is so short, it almost qualifies as flash fiction.

photo by Hitesh reddy allu 

The incident is referred to briefly in his famous novel Fahrenheit 451.

Movie Review: Emma

Emma (Anya Taylor-Joy) is a twenty year-old child of privilege. Having successfully arranged a match for her beloved governess, she now proceeds confidently as an expert in matches. She definitely wants what is best for her friend Harriet (Mia Goth), who is a person of low circumstances. When Harriet receives a proposal from a farmer whom she loves, Emma steers her away from him. She wants Harriet to marry up from her situation.

Mr. Knightley (Johnny Flynn), Emma’s brother-in-law, looks askance at Emma’s presumption. He lectures her more than once that she is being arrogant, and even has prejudices (in a positive way) about some son of privilege whom they have never met, but who is due to visit.

Emma and Mr. Knightley keep locking horns. Is Emma doing the right thing for Harriet? How will this turn out?

This is the third version of Emma that I’ve seen. (Yes, Clueless starring Alicia Silverstone is a reimagining of Emma, but it doesn’t count.) My favorite has been a 1996 version starring Kate Beckinsale. Readers familiar with the book by Jane Austen say this is the most accurate version, and besides, I think Kate Beckinsale is the loveliest woman in Hollywood. I saw a different 1996 version with Gwyneth Paltrow, but hardly remember anything about it. The one with Kate Beckinsale has the lowest production values, but it was filmed inside real stately manors, with all the darkness and cramped camera angles that implies. It feels authentic.

I wasn’t going to see this year’s Emma because I was put off by the opulence of it. Jane Austen occupied the lowest rung of the upper class, and the Kate Beckinsale version stays faithful to that. The new version with Anya Taylor-Joy is set in a much higher level of Regency society, which put me off.

But I saw it anyway. Yes, this is a higher strata of society. The incredible wealth of the mansions is hard to feature. The actions of the menservants as they obey every whim of Emma’s father look comical. And this was the first movie I’ve seen that shows what it looks like for the nobles to have their servants dress and undress them. (A couple of rear end scenes were brief.)

Somehow, this year’s version won me over. Emma is usually portrayed as an incredibly vain, arrogant woman who only changes when her folly comes crashing down on her. In this version, there is an underlying sweetness to her that grows, especially in her unending friendship with Harriet. In all three versions, the dance scenes at the ball are the emotional nexus of the story. I have to say that this year’s version had the best dance scenes I’ve seen in any Jane Austen movie. I mean it. The best. Even better than in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. (Yes, that counts as a Jane Austen movie.)

So whether you’re a Jane Austen fan or not, I recommend this most recent version.

P.S. Emma is shown playing a small piano and singing. I was pleasantly surprised to see in the end credits that it really was Anya Taylor-Joy.

Coronavirus Did not Shut Us Down

Some moron on NBC said that Seattle is a “ghost town” because of fear of the coronavirus. A lot of us are going online to disprove that. On Saturday, I went to the Bellevue Square mall. (Bellevue is the most populous suburb of Seattle.)

Here we are:

I didn’t focus in any farther to avoid showing people’s faces. Plenty of people milling around, shopping, eating in the restaurants. 

I will say the janitors were visible, wiping down the handrails and other commonly touched areas. The mall has no reason to desire bad publicity. Here’s one of their major tenants:

As I’ve noted before, they’ve achieved a slacker kind of cool vibe. Perhaps I should have said hipster.

And their big rival is there.

They have the work hard, play hard feel.  

So, not a ghost town.

Watch out for that Tree

Last Sunday I noticed that one of the tall trees on our church property looked like it had been split in two. It came to an abrupt end where fresh wood was showing. That part of the ground was blocked from my angle as I approached the building, but I could see the tips of some branches sticking up. I hoped it hadn’t hit the building.

Then from inside, it looked like this:

click to enlarge 

That wasn’t even the half of it. Did I mention it was a tall tree? It was mostly on the roof.

I was amused when a couple young girls ran up in the parking lot, then were stopped by the yellow tape on their side. Then I was told the tree had fallen just an hour before. If it had fallen sometime later, families would have been walking on that sidewalk to get to church.

If you can’t think of something to pray to be thankful for at a moment like that, something’s wrong.

I watched as men on the roof chainsawed off huge chunks and threw branches down.

Thank You, Captain Obvious

This was on a table of snacks. One woman said if you can’t figure that out, you deserve what effects they have on you.

In other news, water is wet, and vacuums suck.

The following picture is kind of the opposite of obvious. Notice how the Revival Sermons of Jonathan Edwards is displayed between the females from the Batman series and Wonder Woman.

Click to enlarge

Jonathan Edwards is famous for his sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” 

They did this because . . . not sure.

Dawson’s Creek Dream

I think it’s important for writers to write down their dreams. I had this one Monday night.

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In my dream, I was in the TV series Dawson’s Creek. I and another guy saw Dawson standing on a short stool. A rope led from his mouth to a doorknob several feet in front of him.

He said he had a toothache, and this was how he was going to pull the tooth out. But he became hesitant about going through with it.

Joey was there. I said, “Joey, grab his feet. I and this other guy will tackle him at his shoulders.”

She bent down and moved forward to grab his feet. Dawson didn’t like the idea, so he waved us off.

Dawson jumped backwards off the stool. The rope pulled his tooth out.

He showed it to us. It was a large molar with faint black streaks on the back. He said that showed where the cavity was inside.

Later, Joey and I went to a dance we had organized. Couples were dancing in a large, dark room in formal styles, holding hands as they went through practiced moves.

Joey asked me to dance. She said it in a non-romantic way—just something to do instead of standing around.

We danced without holding hands. The room around us was black now. I think Cindy Lauper’s song “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” was playing. I tried to imitate Joey’s moves, saying I wasn’t familiar with this form of dance. She said I was doing it perfectly.

public domain

Imagine her younger, with long hair

Sources of the dream:

I wasn’t a fan of Dawson’s Creek, but I watched part of the first season. I thought Katie Holmes was pretty, just like Shiri Appleby in Roswell.

My current workplace has Muzak from the 80s. That’s probably where the song came from.

I went to the dentist on Monday. A tooth might have a tiny crack in it too small for their X-rays to pick up. I may need to get a crown.

Change Space Force Command to Starfleet Command

Have you seen the logo for the newly created Space Force?

Remind you of something? Look at the logo on Spock’s chest.

(I can’t use the actual Starfleet Command logo. But Star Trek did some black & white publicity photos that they never copyrighted.)

Here’s our chance to change things. At We the People, the site where the White House can be petitioned, I have created the page:

Change the name of Space Force Command to Starfleet Command

To sign the petition, you have to take a moment to create an account. When 150 signatures have been gathered, it will appear publicly on the We the People site. Then signatures could really start steamrolling.

Please let people know about this—Star Trek fans, people who want to throw a monkey wrench into government, friends with too much sitting-around time. Right now, we have to use the link above, but this could go viral. And who knows what will happen?  

Movie Review: A Silent Voice

This is the first time I've reviewed a movie on Netflix. 

Shoko is a new girl in an elementary school. She is deaf. Instead of everyone being friendly to her, a number of students bully her, to the extent that they destroy her hearing aids. Shoya, a tough kid, is the meanest. But when Shoya is confronted by the school, he rats out his friends.

Ostracized in junior high, Shoya withdraws. He doesn’t try to make friends in high school. Seriously depressed, he seeks out Shoko in her school. She’s so scared of him, she runs off.

He wants to make amends, but doesn’t know how. What will happen with these two damaged people?

A Silent Voice is a beautiful movie. The way the characters move—whether children, teenagers, or adults—is completely realistic. And in typical Japanese style, there are some static scenes that show flowers or trees. It is up to you to figure out if there is anything symbolic about Shoya extending his arm for some yellow blooms that are beyond his reach.

Be warned, this movie is an emotional roller coaster. It would be nice to say that Shoya simply outgrows being a bully, but that wouldn’t be true. He had to go through his own torturous time. And it would be nice to say that Shoko stays a cheerful person, but she is just as emotionally damaged as he is. And the school doesn’t seem equipped to deal with bullying. There are no simple solutions here; just individuals not knowing how to put their lives back together from bullying and depression.

The movie does have some flaws. The names Shoya and Shoko sound too much alike. The early parts of the story are shown in a disjointed manner, which can be confusing. The use of a blue X on a person’s face to show that Shoya is not making eye contact gets tiresome. And the movie feels like it’s a little too long. However, it’s realistic in that getting over that much emotional damage would not happen instantly.

I’ve never been to Japan, but here are a few notes to explain some curiosities in the movie:

Q. What’s with all the hair colors?

A. Some anime show people all with dark hair. In this case, the animators chose very different hair colors so we can easily tell the characters apart.

Q. Why does Shoya’s mother always cook meals on what looks like a large hot plate in the middle of their equivalent of a dining table?

A. That’s normal in Japan.

Q. How much is a yen worth?

A. Less than a penny.

Q. What are the hand motions Shoya’s mother makes towards him while he is in their car?

A. In the West, we beckon with one finger up. In Japan, it’s four fingers down. So at first she beckons to him with four fingers down, then changes her mind and splays her hand at him, telling him to stay.

Q. Why do Shoko and her mother suddenly dress in kimonos?

A. For some festivals, women and teenage girls still dress in kimonos.

I know that some purists will wish to see the subtitled version, but with some characters speaking at the same time, the dubbed version will be easier to understand.

Movie Review: 1917

During World War I, Lance Corporal Tom Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) is told that his brother’s battalions is about to walk into a trap set by the Germans. They will be massacred. Because the phone lines are cut, he and his friend Lance Corporal Will Schofield (George MacKay) are ordered to cross no-man’s land to warn them.

The Germans have withdrawn as a way of setting the trap. The two friends set out, making their way through the gruesome and corpse-strewn no-man’s land, though other soldiers warn them they have no chance of surviving. Will it be safe to use the German trenches? How can two lone soldiers hope to make their way through enemy-occupied territory to warn the other battalion?

1917 is the most immersive war movie I have ever seen. We are right there with them with seemingly impossible close-ups as they make their way through mud, rats, water-filled craters, claustrophobic trenches, and mutilated corpses. At no point was I aware that anyone was acting. They simply were the soldiers going through hazard after hazard, thinking they will be shot at any moment. The film is done in a continuous style, so the movie gives the impression it was done in two or three shots—no shifting to other viewpoints or convenient scene cuts.

This goes right up there with Saving Private Ryan and We Were Soldiers as the most realistic war movies. Some of you have sat through the horrifying first twenty minutes or so of Saving Private Ryan, but I have to warn you, the state of the corpses shown makes Saving Private Ryan look like a coming-out party. Hours later, I still feel stunned.

As long as you know what you’re in for, I recommend 1917.