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The Wrong Eyed Concept

I’m not one to throw stones, but this is too unsettling to let fly under the radar. For those in the industry of design and film, namely film titles, you’ll know that Digital Kitchen (a place I once worked) has racked up more Emmy’s than most can boast to have. Six Feet Under, Dexter, Ghost Whisperer (that’s another story entirely), and so on.

And now Digital Kitchen has been solicited by Alan Ball to create the titles for his latest television series, True Blood, due this fall on HBO.

Which is fine, I wish them the best. But when the best their creative director can do is come up with a thin concept which relies largely on the imagery and compositions already put out by a documentary, “Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus,” I have to raise my hand in protest. Have a look at the following image comparisons, then watch the two respective clips, and decide for yourself.

The ole’ abandoned vehicle in the woods trick. I get it.

At least they chose baptists instead of evangelicals.

Props for using the Friday Night Lights art direction (red key, string lights in background.)

UPDATE. This one is actually ripped from a Chris Cunningham video. Undercranked nude contortionists tightly cropped. Wow.

I don’t know how this is even remotely permissible. Is it that hard to come up with your own idea?

View Original.

View Copy.
Addicted to Writing

Until this post, I’ve shown and not told. Meaning, I have always presented my posts as substantive things, rather than frivolous posts about what I did this weekend, or what I think of the economy. But I wanted to share with you a past time I have taken to ever since a fishing trip to Canada two years ago.

And that past time is writing.

I started ambitiously, conjuring up an idea for a fantasy novel where a moth colony performs a ritual in which one of them passes through “the light” every cycle, until one gets through and shatters its world into a billion fireflies, forming our stars. From there, I’ve concepted, drafted, or completed about 45 stories, some short, some flash, and some novels. Most of them are fantasy, sci-fi, or horror, though I have written a couple memoirs, and some standard fiction stories.

Below is a complete running list of the stories that have made their way out of my head, in one form or another. I share this with you as a demonstration of my addiction to writing, and my goal to become published some time in the future. All-in-all I have submitted about seven of these stories to about 20 or so publishers, all of them (so far) receiving rejections (though I have about 5 submissions in the ether at the time of this posting).

My stories thus far . . .

SYNOPSES

01. The Adventures of Bullseye Barracks (series)
02. Cabinet of Curiosities
03. Cloud People
04. The Coal Train
05. The Cowboy and His Elephant
06. Demons of Devgiri
07. Man on the Lake
09. Stalin’s Engine
10. Twin Flames
11. Before There Were Cavemen
12. Nebbish Pecksniffian (series)
13. Orphans
14. The Second Plague

PARTIAL DRAFTS

01. Birthday Wish
02. Blue Sky Curse
03. Cloud Ship’s Bow
04. Diamond Tree
05. The Dragon Ships
06. Gunnysack
07. Honeypaw
08. Kingwood
09. Owl’s Breath
10. Trouble With Badgers
11. Want and Will
12. When the Wolves Come
13. The Accidental Camper
14. Death of a Dwarf Planet
15. The Diesels Are Coming
16. The Dryland Fisher
17. Forgotten Steps
18. A Future Self
19. Landscape With Librarian
20. The Last Branch
21. Shiny White Things
22. The Silent Nightingale
23. View With a Room
24. Wharren

NOVELS IN PROGRESS

01. The Lost Lantern (62,000 words)
02. The Traffic Seas (30,000 words)
03. Sunny Ridge Lane Memoirs (5,500 words)

COMPLETED STORIES

01. Asparagus
02. Beneath His Rubber Boots
03. Crossbow
04. Secret Hiding Spot
Bad Word Pairs #014

“Button Fly”

Not only do I not wear them, I just dislike the use of “fly” to describe where my zipper should be. At least in the marketing sense. Button flies are too much work, inefficient, and not as fun as zipping a zipper, let’s be honest. Buttoning something could lead to risk of carpal tunnel syndrome in extreme cases. That’s not technically proven, but I’m guessing.
Quote of the Week #014

“Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when it’s the only one we have.” -Émile Chartier
Light Bodies

The art of Dean Chamberlain.
Grace Says “Is the Mac Ready Yet?”
Made of Waves

The art of Mark Landwehr.
A Rose is a Rose

The art of Michael Brown.
Fragments, Flora & Fauna

The art of Josh Keyes.
Flower Power, Devour!

The art of Andy Kehoe.
Bad Word Pairs #013

“Tropical Depression”

I guess it’s the irony of this phrase that bugs me. I know it’s a technical weather term for a low pressure system occurring in tropical regions of the world, but what a crappy way to phrase it.

The term makes me think of group therapy sessions where islanders talk about how being isolated from the rest of the world has turned them into them manic depressives.
Peasants of the Pavements

The art of Cherri Wood.
Little Zoo

The art of Elisa Dudnikova.
Still-Life with Face

The art of Levi van Veluw.
Grace Says “Tee Hee!”
TOP 5 LONGEST NAMES

(THAT I’VE RESEARCHED, AT LEAST)

Letter Count: 28 letters
This is the longest word in the English dictionary, even though you could add prefixes and suffixes to other names to make longer ones. It made the list because some of these other words below are translations, requiring more letters in English than they would in their own language.

Letter Count: 54 letters
This monstrocity is a chemical used for pain relief of tooth aches. It’s technically a medicinal word, allowing it to add and morph as many elements as needed to articulate their point. This one comes with a lot of caveats it seems.

Letter Count: 58 letters
Believe it or not, there is a place in Wales with this name. Good luck telling your cabbie to get you there, though.

Letter Count: 165 letters
I’m not kidding when I tell you that the jumble of letters above is also an actual location in Thailand. What were these guys thinking? I’d be winded just telling someone where I was going.

Letter Count: 179 letters
Once upon a time, there was an Indian chief who lived his days in Wisconsin. He died in 1866, but left as his legacy, the longest name in history, clocking in at a whopping 179 letters.
Quote of the Week #013

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” -Winston Churchill
Teddy Bears, Inside-Out

The art of Kent Rogowski.
Gaze

The art of Desiree Dolron.
No Wonders In Me

The art of Nik Christensen.
Nike Sportswear, For the Cools

Nike has finally found a name for their product not directly targeted for on-the-field activity. But Nike Sportswear is something more, it rises above the Nike Town, Sportsmart classification, and is the limited, higher end niche they’ve carved from their established stock-and-trade. Whether reissues or new releases, the collection is looking pretty sharp.

And if you’re interested in spending over $200 for your hoodie, I highly recommend finding the Loopwheeler collection of tops. There’s a nice video giving you a glimpse into the Loopwheeler Factory, further proof that you still need thread and a loom to make a sweatshirt.
Bad Word Pairs #012

“Pregnant Chad”

In this election year, I was reminded of the debacle a couple elections back, where some of the votes were confusing due to holes not punched all the way through the voters’ cards. Fortunately most of that has been resolved with digital/computerized voting systems (which likely present their own fun set of issues).

Nonetheless, the term “pregnant chad” emerged from that whole quandary. And I have to say, I wanted to punch something every time I heard a smug reporter using the phrase with a snide grin, since it was a funny thing to say. My ire has since abated, but let’s hope nothing lame like that emerges this year come voting time.
Grace Says “Hold Still, Shadow!”
Why Don’t I Live Here?

(HUF HAUS)

Prefab’s never looked so good. You can’t get these beauties in the states, but if you could, I just might have to start saving up. More info on the program on the HUF site.
Rainbow Warrior

The art of Adrian Johnson.
Subaqueous Sabotage

The art of John Hendrix.
Quote of the Week #012

“Well begun is half done.” –Aristotle (and Mary Poppins)
30 Years Later . . .

It took them 30 years to get back together and make an album, and here it is: Everything That Happens Will Happen Today is available to stream on their site (the entire album), there’s a free download, and the album is about ten bucks. I’m more of an Eno man than a Byrne fanatic, but this album sounds lovely.
Skybirds and Boomerangs

The art of Thomas Hilly.
Bad Word Pairs #012

“Jiffy Lube”

This word pair is fine, until you actually stop and think about it. The connotation with lube in this day and age is probably different than it was 20 or 30 years ago, but still. I don’t want anything lubed, let alone anything lubed in a jiffy.