40,000 Word Mark

November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, so I've been pounding away at trying to finish my 50,000 word novel by this coming Wednesday at midnight.  This is my third attempt, and by far the closest I've come to actually completing this thing.

The Thanksgiving weekend put an abrupt halt on my efforts, and now I find myself with 10,000 words left and three days to write them in.  I have to crank out at least 3,400 words a day to finish, but I don't think that it's going to be too difficult.

The story in the novel might not be finished by the 50,000 word mark, but the goal is 50,000 words.  After that, pushing myself to keep going until the end of the story won't seem nearly so hard.

Almost there.

Why Was I Watching Gossip Girl?

What's wrong with me?  Why would I watch a soap opera aimed at teenage girls?  Is it because I'm secretly a teenage girl at heart?

No, it's because my wife sold some Audrey Hepburn pillows to the set designer of Gossip Girl and they were in the episode that aired on Nov. 21st.

My wife and I watched the entire show, scouring each shot to see where her pillows were used.

It was a blink and you'd miss it moment, which was excruciating, since the pillows were always just obstructed enough to not be clearly seen.  I was able to pull two screenshots of them from the show:

You can see one of them on the couch.

And here it is again, just under Blake Lively's arm.

I think we both hoped that they'd be displayed more prominently, but I'm super proud of my wife.

She sells her handmade pillows on etsy and can be found here: Regan's Brain

Maybe someday they'll show up in a show that we're big fans of ... I'm looking at you Mad Men.

23,000 Words and 27,000 More To Go

I was behind in the count, I took a day off, which soon became three days.  Two days ago I decided to play catch up.  I wrote 9,000 words in two days.  My head hurt, my eyes were sore, and best of all, I discovered some really great things.  New aspects jumped out, several characters introduced themselves, and grabbed me by the shirt and pulled me into dark tunnels where secrets lie.

It's only been fourteen days, sixteen more to go.  This NaNoWriMo attempt is on schedule with 23,431 words and counting.  Wish me luck.

Comic Book Day

In the last year, I've really been turned on to the possibilities of the graphic novel.  I got pulled in by a nice little series called Echoes by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Locke and Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez, and since then there have been a few others series that have grabbed me.  The comic or the graphic novel is almost a combination of screenplay and storyboard, with the movie laid out right in front of you.
That being said I've never been a fan of superheroes, so most of the things I read are not the big legacy comics.

This week I picked up two series I follow, and a third book on a whim.

The Unwritten is a fantastic series that plays with the idea of what would happen if literary characters came to life in our world.  It's written by Mike Carey and Peter Gross.

PIGS is something new that a friend got me into.  It's only on its third issue, but it's intriguing as hell.  What if a Soviet sleeper cell had lain dormant in the US for forty years and was suddenly activated?

The third book that I grabbed is called Operation Broken Wings, 1936 by Herik Hanna.  It's set during World War II and just looked interesting.  We'll see if it's any good.

What Comics do other people follow?  I'd love to hear.

9,000 Words In

I've been working on a story for a graphic novel collaboration.  The idea is there, but it's the execution that I've been having trouble with.  I've written screenplays before, but a script for a graphic novel is a little different.  There are panels involved, and as a first time comic writer, it's a little daunting.

So NaNoWriMo came along, and I jumped in head first.  I used the comic idea for the novel as a way to explore and brainstorm the story and the world in which it takes place.  Working in a structured way, and putting down words daily, has gotten me exploring dynamics in my story that I wouldn't normally have gotten into.  I'm now over 9,000 words in, and the whole thing is opening up to me in an amazing way.

I'm excited about where it's going, and hope that eventually I'll have something amazing to show you.

NaNoWriMo time

Every year I think about doing the National Novel Writing Month challenge.  I've even tried it twice before, as the two partial novels on my hard drive can attest to, but I've never actually finished the challenge.  This year is going to be different.  I'm lacking something in my life right now.  Some kind creative spark that I need to sustain me through the doldrums of another Minnesota winter.  I find myself bored by work, frustrated by a lack of creative outlets, and ready for something to energize me in a way that I desperately need.  When I'm writing, I'm happy.  When I'm not, I'm crabby and tightly wound.

I got an email from NaNoWriMo today, and I jumped on it.  So far I've written 5,250 words.  I need to average 1,667 to finish the 50,000 word challenge by the end of the month.  This is the year I do it.

Will the Talented Gallagher Brother Please Stand Up

Since the break up of Oasis, both brothers Noel and Liam have put out new albums.  Let's take a look, dig into each one, and figure out who the real talent of the Gallagher family is.

Liam's band Beady Eye put out an album first, so we'll start there.

Beady Eye - Different Gear, Still Speeding (Feb. 28, 2011)

Liam is the little brother who sang for the band Oasis, while Noel wrote the songs.  Since he wasn't the one creating the music, it seemed like he had something to prove, and always wore the sneer of a kid who just shit in your pudding.  So when Oasis broke up, he took the rest of the band with him and formed Beady Eye, his chance to shit in Noel's pudding.

Different Gear, Still Speeding is a 13 song, 52 minute album, which would be great if it were packed with solid hooks and beautiful melodies, but it's not.  The album is filled with forgettable songs with vapid lyrics.

The first five songs drift by without standing out in any way.  Four Letter Word is clearly aimed at Noel, The Roller rips off the melody of Instant Karma, and Beatles and the Stones takes the cake.  He compares himself to the legacy of these two great bands, and waxes about how he'll be remembered and canonized like them once he's gone.  I know, I threw up a little also.

Things change once Bring the Light arrives.  It has some nice piano work, is actually a catchy song, but has one little problem.  It suffers from a McCartneyesque refusal to end.  Instead it drags on way past the point it should.  Look down there kids, you'll see Paul kicking a dead horse.  The same problem appears later in the album, when Wigwam tacks an unneeded 3 minutes on.

The album isn't all crap.  For Anyone, is actually a really catchy song, and one of only two songs on the album that I could actually say are good.  It's just too bad you have to slog through 20 minutes of mediocre music to get to this little glimmer of hope.  Sadly, it doesn't keep up, and it's almost another 20 minutes until we get to another good song.  The Beat Goes On, may be the best song on the album.  It's catchy with a nice little Farfisa bit in the background.

The problem with Different Gear, Still Speeding is that you have to dig through 45 minutes of shit to find these two little nuggets of gold.  It's not worth the money.  Catch these two songs on spotify without having to listen to the rest of the garbage the album is packed with.  If this is Oasis without Noel, he's better off without them.

Noel Gallagher - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds (Oct. 17, 2011)

Noel was the song generator and the backbone of Oasis, but now that he's left the group and jettisoned his hanger on brother, he has a chance to show us how good he really is.

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds is a 10 song, 42 minute album without any of the filler stuffed into Beady Eye's album.  High Flying Birds is packed with low key pop songs with catchy hooks, interesting imagery, and let's be honest, far better songwriting than little brother Liam could ever muster.

The album comes out of the gate strong with Everybody's on the Run and continues at top quality all the way through.  The second song, Dream On, could be a hit if it could ever reach the airwaves here in the states.  If I Had a Gun, is a somewhat love song, without the downfall of resorting to all of the cheesy metaphors that go with it.  The Death of You and Me is one of the better songs on the album, and clearly aimed at Liam.  Is he "the storm cloud sucking up my sun"?  It would seem so.

Four songs into this album, and the imagery becomes a clear thread of new starts, fresh outlooks, closing the door on the past, and distancing yourself or escaping from things that bring you down.  There's an optimism that runs through the songs, as if Noel's excited by the new path he's traveling down.

Aka ... Broken Arrow is a standout song, whose guitar work is balanced out by organ and what sounds like a theramin.  Stranded on the Wrong Beach follows with more images of falling, sinking, or drowning, and being on a journey into the unknown.

It's a shame that he didn't do most of the singing in Oasis.  He has a strong voice that's a lot clearer than the whining that seems to be Liam's trademark.  If people are expecting an Oasis style rocking album, they'll be disappointed, but if you appreciate a good pop song, then this album is for you.

Not many people know this, but Noel and Liam had an older brother who goes by the moniker of Gallagher, and is also a performer.  Gallagher left his home in Manchester to become a comedic sensation in the United States in the 70's and 80's.  He's known for his trademark newsboy cap, crazy skullett (bald mullett), and the large mallet that he uses to smash watermelons to the delight of people of all ages.  He became America's top comic for a time.

Sadly around the same time his younger brothers entered into the spotlight, the elder Gallagher was in decline.  People had grown tired of watching a grown man smash perfectly good watermelons.  But it was the allegations of racism and homophobia that eventually sidelined his career.

Now sadly living on the dole back in the house he grew up in Manchester, Gallagher feigns disinterest in the musical trajectory of his younger brothers.  When asked what he thinks, he just mumbles under his breathe, watching reruns of Are You Being Served while his watermelon mallet sits forlornly in the corner gathering dust.