Fever Dreams

Last night I got home from work at 10:30.

My last class in English was smooth, but something was not quite right. I felt like I was out of my body and that I was not in control. I felt my forehead and discovered the cause: fever.

At first I thought it was exhaustion, as I have been using myself too freely with my lifestyle of up late at night, up early in the morning (a recipe for a coronary thrombosis). I took a shower and no matter how hot the water was, it was not warming me up internally. I also felt like I was drunk and , again, not myself. It was surreal.

Fever produces interesting effects on the mind, as if the brain was wrapped up in a wet cotton towel. The sense function properly, but there is a separation and lag between reality and the perception of that reality.

I hit the hay early with a temperature of 38.2 degrees Celsius (100.76 in Fahrenheit). But then came what I call the fever dreams. It is like a video stream on an annoying loop. I had to get up to go to the bathroom a couple of times and my mind felt liberated. But once back in bed with the eyes closed, it was back to the torment of unending, inane dreams. If they were interesting, that would be something, but usually my visions are trivial. If there is a hell, that is it on a mental plane.

I have heard that recovery from sickness makes one stronger. I can't attest to that, but it does get one focused spiritually. An end to the torment in a non-fatal kind of way is always beseeched of higher powers that be, promises are made to change, plans are made should recovery prove successful and a change of character is toyed with.

Too bad, no one lives up to those changes and promises afterwards. If everyone did, sickness could be viewed as a kind of magic, a transformative experience that does more good than bad.

Too bad, indeed...




Carpe diem.

Eat Pray Love... A review

Today I saw Julia Robert's movie that by all means was poised in my brain pan to get her the second Oscar. But that thought was dashed when I saw the movie.

The relationship with the husband seemingly was rocky, but it was never clear why. Perhaps the director chalked it up to interpretation by the audience, but that would have been a risky gamble and poor artistic choice. Such a moment needed to be clear cut.

The end troubled me, too. It was not satisfying. Had I written the flick (maybe they will consult me next time), would have been as follows (warning-- end of movie revelation; stop reading if you haven't seen the movie but plan to):

Elizabeth is faced with the inner dilemma of losing herself and her self-absorption to the Brazilian that she denies herself feelings for.

All through the movie, she was on the quest, like the Arthurian quest for the Grail (so that aspect of the movie greatly appealed to me). She had experienced what she had needed to to maintain the balance. But she is unbalanced by her selfish ways which she perceives as balance and can not see that.

She consults and bids farewell to her spiritual mentor in Bali who gives her an intellectual kick in the backside and she hoofs it to the dock to go riding off into the sunset with the guy.

I am a sucker for romantic, happy endings, so I do not disagree with the outcome.

However, I would have had her meditate over her dilemma. In the beginning, she consults the Christian God for advice, but gets none. I would have had her do the same, but through meditation. Instead of the narrative which describes the "physics of the quest", show it through clips of her journey and let her discover that all of her coincidences, characters that she met up with, all were her guides leading her to the final moment of balance. She can realize that with teary eyes and her big Julia Robert's smile. The Brazilian could find the note at his doorstep in the morning, go to the dock and life is happy in the end.

My suggested ending would have been an improvement (for me, at least), in that she solves the problems by herself. What was the point of her journey if some toothless old wise dude just gives her the answer on a plate.

So, change the ending, make the relationships and their problems clear and the Oscar would go to...

Inspirations and Influences 3: Robin Hood

Robin Hood

It would be difficult to say exactly when Robin Hood first came into my life.

I imagine that the Disney cartoon with the fox was my first exposure, followed by Erol Flynn's version on TV, which really started the appreciation of that legendary character.

The idea of a vigilante out to balance the score in the name of social justice against oppressors suited my Libran sensibilities to a tee--and still does.

At the time, the costuming didn't bother me with the tights and colorful outfits (though in actuality, it was more historically accurate than later versions). I appreciated Flynn doing his own stunts and the acting from the other actors was excellent. Claude Raines was perfect as Prince John.

The imagery and pageantry of the production got me hooked on Robin Hood.

In Boy Scouts, I went to summer camp and had opportunities at archery. We made our own bow string and arrows. That summer, I brought both home and in my parents back yard, I often shot at a target (though I should have done it more).

In hte '80s, a BBC production of Robin Hood made it to public TV. I watched most every episode. The soundtrack by Clannad became one of my first CDs. The show had Robin in a semi-fantasy setting involving magic (not over-the-top magic like Harry Potter, but more low key psychological magic).

Every time I went into the woods, I imagined that I was Robin Hood. It was a cool feeling, embracing the character spiritually as I did. And there were plenty of woods in Minnesota.

In high school, I got into Green Arrow, the comic form of Robin Hood. I really liked the Oliver Queen character, and the later, darker view of him was interesting as well (by the way, Kevin Smith, if you are reading this, please do a Green Arrow movie... thanks... preferably without the changing of costuming and appearance like so many adaptations are prone to do these days).

Then came Costner's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. I liked it a lot. It was a rejuvenating force for my interested in Hood. Almost simultaneously, a lower budget, did-not-hit-theaters version of Robin Hood came out staring Patrick Bergen and Uma Thurman. I enjoyed that version very much. The elements which I had come to know as Robin Hood were all there, but perhaps grounded more in reality. Robin Hood: Men in Tights suffered, though. I am one for satire, but Mel Brooks is hit and miss. He missed big with that one.

Time passed, I started the rough draft of a Robin Hood story (which I hope to see in print within three years). All of those years of inspiration lead me to it. I don't wish to share much about it, as it is not complete yet, but the story is completely plotted and 1/2 written. It has been put on the back burner until my current project is complete. But it is in hommage to one of my heroes.

Then came a new BBC release of a Robin Hood series. At first the younger cast put me off, but it grew on me quickly. I enjoyed the series and will probably get it on DVD (to join my other Robin Hood collection). It tried to tie into modern troubles, which I appreciated, and the acting was good.

I have yet to see Russel Crowe's version (as it is tough to get a babysitter), but I will rent that on DVD when it is available in Japan. I anticipate that I will love it.

Robin Hood is a figure who is ties up in historical mystery. The whole idea of Marion, Friar Tuck, etc., may have been dramatic additions to the tale, but I find Robin Hood to be a good role model for youth to encourage them to do what is right for all, even at the expense of self.

Rent the movies and read books about Robin Hood.

Carpe diem.

Suggestions:

Books:

Green Arrow

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle

Robin Hood by J.C. Holt (a history book)

Movies/TV

Robin Hood (Erol Flynn)

Robin Hood Prince of Thieves

Robin Hood (Patrick Bergen)

Princess of Thieves

Robin Hood (BBC TV 1980's and 21st century)

Video Games

Legend of Sherwood

Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown

Age of Empires 2 (you can build maps create scenarios and use his character)

Influences 2: Fantasy

Fantasy

My big plunge into the fantasy realm occured in fourth grade.

A friend of mine that I met during summer school introduced me to Dungeons and Dragons. I was hooked. The artwork sent my mind soaring. I can still remember the knight in chainmail armor aiming his crossbow at a dragon that was sitting on a hoard. It was in pencil, I believe, but way cool.

So, I invested in books and dice and soon my opther friends and I were playing. I always was partial to wizards. Perhaps the lure of power beyond comprehension, despite their weak frames. Thieves were also a favorite (the pirate influences was far reaching). The game was incredible, making us use our imaginations and wits to build our character (something that should be rediscovered in this video game age). Imagination is a powerful tool.

On my Texas Instruments home computer, there were a couple of fantasy games. There was a role playing game which allowed me up to four characters to go through a ten level dungeon, killing beasts, gaining experience and gold. It was very basxic, by todays standards, but provided hours of fun.

I really started to love fantasy art. My parents gave me a Tim Hildebrandt Dungeons and Dragons calendar for x-mas one year. I loved it. I recommend his art, as well as Boris Vallejo's and Frank Frazetta's.

I collected fantasy figures made of pewter, colorful plastic action figures, Dragon magazines (for their art and game information) and books. I loved the Dungeons and Dragons choose your own adventure series. Quite fun.

When my friends and I were in junior high school, we made an 8mm movie called DICE, a fantasy story that I came up with. I played the Dungeon Master and Evil Wizard. It was fun to make. That was the time when I decided I wanted to get into movies.

Fantasy movies and books kept fueling the fire. I rmemeber early fantasy flicks that influenced me like The Sword and the Sorcerer, Sinbad, Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Destroyer, Legend and Willow. I loved them all, and I still thoroughly enjoy fantasy stories. Mine will hopefully come out in 2011.

Pick up a fantasy book and let your mind wander.

Carpe Diem.

Suggestions:

Books

The Hobbit

Lord of the Rings trilogy

Conan saga

Dragonlance series

Wizard of Earthsea saga

Movies

Lord of the Rings

The Hobbit

Conan the Barbarian/Destroyer

Fire and Ice

Willow

Legend

Dragonheart

Dragonslayer

Video games

Lord of the Rings

Warcraft

Immortal Throne

Inspirations and influences: Pirates

Yo Ho Ho Ho, a pirate's life for me.

My interest in pirates came at a young age and probably was the main reason for my love of history in general.

I was in fourth grade and my family had taken a trip by car from Minnesota to Florida (a long road trip, to be sure). As I was quite young, I do not recall many details. I just remember images of going on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney World. I was amazed beyond words.

My parents got me a hook and a pirate hat, which I had (and religiously worn in private) for many years. It was my safety blanket. Aside from the trinkets, my family visited the oldest European city in the United States which was St. Augustine. There was an old fort, and I remember people dressed up and played parts to give it a historical flavor. It was like some renaissance festival.

We visited the fort which still had old cannon on it and from the ramparts overloking the ocean, I envisioned pirates battling it out from their ships against the fort.

My mind swum in pirates. I got back to school a while later and proceeded to systematicall check out every book on pirates in the library. Some I read, some I let my imagination roll with the pics.

Movie-wise I saw Treasure Island with Robert Newton playing Long John Silver as if the role was written just for him after the Florida experience and Robert Shaw's Swashbuckler (which upon later viewing, is a bit more tongue-and-cheek (the bane of many pirate movies). I was completely hooked thanks to them.

In elementary school, my family had a Texas Instruments Home computer and it used Basic and extended Basic (which I learned to program in... too bad I didn't stick with it). No discs were used. Cassette tape transferred information. We had a text-based adventure game based on Treasure Island, so I donned my cap proudly and tried to finish the adventure.

Later in elementary school, Legos were the toys of choice. There were no Pirate Legos (they came out when I was in High school- unfortunately). But my imagination suficed and I created a ship and had some Lego astronauts play out my pirate adventures. They usually involved swashbuckling, derring-do and a beautiful woman (the astronaut in white).

Time rolled on and other influenes were hitting me as well, but musically I was introduced to music from Adam and the Ants (another Blog entry) and they put me into the pirate mood pretty heavily.

I saw Roman Polanski's Pirates and loved it. Mel Gibson's the Bounty and loved it. Piracy was flowing. My Halloween costumes were usually pirates.

Come high scool and university, my interest waned a bit. Perhaps not enough media. Maybe I was growing up and realizing that the romance of piracy was simply that. Through my studies of history, I learned that they were criminals who were despised by every country and some were brutal killers. I did not want to associate my mind with that. It is like being enamoured of the Mafia or Yakuza.

I did have (and still do) a keen fascination with pirate movies from the 1940s-1970s. Erol Flynn rocked and Maureen O'Hara was my pirate queen.

But something about pirates always intrigued me and still does today. Perhaps it was there sense of adventure. Perhaps it was the freedom they shared when they broke form society and created their own rules.

Johnny Depp revitalized a bit of the romanticism with his Jack Sparrow-- a role I would love to have played (but maybe I was more suited towards Gibbs).

I don't think I could ever been a pirate in actuality, but I think the costume suits me.

Maybe in a past life...

Anyhow, smooth sailing to ye shipmates, and Carpe diem.

Some media recommendations:

Books

Treasure Island

Captain Blood

Under the Black Flag

A General History of Pyrates

The Buccaneers of America

The Only Life that Mattered

Movies

Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy (saga soon)

Pirates

Buccaneer

Captain Blood

Black Swan

Spanish Main

Against All Flags

Sea Hawks

Treasure Island

Cutthroat Island

Video Games

Pirates of the Burning Sea (MMORPG)

Syd Meyer's Pirates!

Sea Dogs

Pirates of the Caribbean (Sea Dogs 2)

Port Royal

Pirate Hunter

Book review

Louis L'Amour's Ride the River (1983)

Every so often, I like to don the mental cowboy boots, pretend I have a six-shooter at my hip, hear the jingle of spurs with my strides to my teaching job and crack open a western on the train.

This time, I read the ever prolific Louis L'Amour. I have read two other books by him. The first was 12 years ago when I was workign on a ship. It was predicatble and a shoot 'em up and I was not so thrilled.

I then read High Lonesome (which I have in my book collection from a used book store) and I was a little more engaged. The plot was simple, but entertaining.

Ride the River (which I had also acquired at a used bookstore) finally called to me and got my attention, and I realized that I have not given L'Amour enough credit for his efforts. It was well written.

The story is about a girl named Echo Sackett, a mountian girl who goes to the big city to claim a sizeable inheritance. Shifty lawyer and a couple of thieves look to relieve her of her money which she needs to improve her way of life back home. The chase her down and try to get the money. Little do the scoundrels know, that little lady can take care of herself and can shoot the nose off of a squirrel at 100 yards.

The viewpoint that he used was first person ,though in the story he (by necessity, I suppose) switched to third person to get into other characters perspective. The language of Echo Sackett, as some mountain girl of 16 was genuine and authentic sounding. I praise L'Amour for finding a believeable voice (with particular vernacular and cadence) and maintaining it consistently throughout. He did his research well, too, in that the locales had names which I could probably find on Wikipedia (or if not, he convinced me of their existences).

His characters were engaging, both the protagonists and atagonists. I only hoped more would have been given about the antagonists.

The ending was ok, but could have been better with higher tension raised. The whole book sucked me in and had me follow along with the characters who are being stalked by thieves.

I am looking forward to getting some more L'Amour. I would recommend Ride the River.

Click the image to learn more about the book.

Eragon: A movie review

This weekend I watched the movie version of the popular book Eragon. Admittedly, I have never read it and since it had been turned into a series of several books, I do not doubt the popularity of the book.

The movie translation lacked many elements to make it a good fantasy movie.

It did have Jeremy Irons in it (who can play interesting, rough, sympathetic characters) and John Malkovich (who is articulately intense). So two big stars and the guy who was the African gladiator in the movie Gladiator. The kid who played Eragon (seemingly with British royal blood flowing through his veins) did a decent job. He looked like Heath Ledgers brother, or cousin at least.

But the acting (though a bit lackluster and diminished at times) despite having some heavy hitters did not dazzle me.

The computer graphic Dragon Safira was well done. She blended in with the background well and did not look too CG and interacted with the real actors without any troubles.

Something was missing. Perhaps it was story. I could imagine (as with most book adaptations) that swaths of story whipped by and my writer's brain tried to fill in the blanks. Only important scenes were used to move the plot. But there were elements which raised questions in my mind that perhaps would not have been raised if I had read the book. Several logical problems:

1) How did the King a mortal (albeit possessing some ability of magic) have such a fearful hold over an undead creature?

2) Why did the King (a former dragon rider) have such a huge army? How could he have afforded it? Did he have an heir?

3) With that shade of his, why did the king not know where the hideout was of the Waguns (or whatever the people were called)? They were in a mountain. Surely the king would have found out, especially as he easily found out where a boy was.

4) Why did the king not destroy the last dragon egg when he had it in his possession instead of obsessing about its loss?

So the logistical plot questions were distracting. Another factor which did not leave me with a sense of being satisfied was the feel of the movie.

They tried to create a new world, using the existing one. Fair enough. They found mountainous locales. But it did not feel different and I did not feel connected. There is a huge gap between this and Lord of the Rings. The latter used some sweeping scenery shots, but did not get hung up on them. I felt there may have been too many for Eragon (especially since they were basically the same thing). There was no point for showing the space for it created a distance between me (the audience member) and the characters and story.

The costuming was not particularly special either. The bad guys were a left-over from Braveheart mixed with orcs. And with all the big to do about the Kings army, their armor was hardly shown and was obviously ineffective as they were slaughtered easily by a ragtag band of desperate fugitives.

The lines (though I don't know if they were all from the book) were a bit dry and used some cliches, which surprised me.

It was supposed to he a heroic epic which inspires. But I felt no connection between any of the characters except Eragon, the dragon and Jeremy Iron's character. Even the kid of the traitor mentioned seemed arbitrarily thrown in, though he might have had a more intense role in the book.

I am glad I watched the movie, though, despite all of my criticism. It did help me see what I could, and perhaps should, do with my teen protagonist in my young adult novel that will hopefully come out next year.

Fantasy movies are hard to pull off well these days. Lord of the Rings raised the bar very high. It seems that the only truly new world created in flicks recently has been Avatar (which could have been a wonderful setting for a fantasy movie if there were no humans or higher technology involved (similar logistic questions plague me with that movie, too). I had high hopes for movies like Dungeons and Dragons when it came out, as it could have been great in theory, but it was simply a heaping bowl of Mac and Cheese. I would love to see an excellent treatment of the Dragon Lance series done in movies. I would need to produce it and or direct it to ensure that it is made well so the audience will feel with the characters as I did throughout the book series.

I hope that future fantasy movies can engage and grip the audience more than Eragon does. That is the point of stories: to make one think, feel, and emote.

Click here to learn more about the movie.

The student: A scene

THE ENGLISH STUDENT

by
Chris Pelletier
copyright 2009


The English school’s glass door flew open, and Noie strolled in wearing a cream-colored winter jacket with white, faux fur trim. The staff of the school chimed out a chorus of friendly salutations, but the fifteen-year-old girl neither looked at them nor responded.

She marched passed the reception counter, but stopped mid-stride in the lobby; she noticed that her room was occupied. An audible sigh wheezed out as she realized that she was confined to the round, wobbly wooden table nearby.
The black no-name bag that hung from her shoulder hit the table with a thud! She then ripped down the zipper of her jacket, revealing an off-white shirt with an outline of a dog on it with a Japanese-English slogan on the front saying “Snoopy are nice DOG”.

After rifling through the bag, her black eyebrows rose, and she took out a vinyl Harry Potter folder, placing it on the table with gentle care. Her slender fingers ran through her shoulder-length dark brown hair. She released a small sigh and opened it up. Slowly she removed a red poster with members from the Japanese boy band Arashi. A smile unfurled from her full lips, stretching the slim scar just to the right of her lower lip.

Several minutes passed before her trance was broken. She shook her head, put the poster back into the folder, and took out a thick geology book from her bag. A groan slipped through her lips and her round face grimaced. Opening the book, she gazed at a page; her eyes closed and again she shook her head.

A vibration came from her bag. She shoved her hand in, pulled out her white cell phone, flicked it open and scanned with her dark Asian eyes. At first, her face was lit up with happiness, but as moments passed, her expression went sullen. Her short fingers clicked like mad on the number pad, like she was playing a video game. She closed the lid of her phone with a slam, groaned again and put buried her face in her arms on the table.