~As I write this line it is 04/21/19 and the flash fiction blog has just edged out the movie review blog fro 50,000 words. As some of the stories may not make it into the book, and I have it in my mind (and will probably insist on it, unless my brain truly dries up with potential story ideas) pushing it at least past 60k, there is still some work to do.
~As a side note, I’m writing this line on 04/29/19, and it appears that the movie blog book is now at 49K and change. All of that written in just over six months. Imagine what I could do with my life if I didn’t feel the need to blog…
~So, Endgame happened. Obviously, the death of (REDACTED) left me a little underwhelmed, while the death of (ALSO REDACTED) may have me careening toward the beginnings of what will eventually be my mid-life crisis. The time travel doesn’t make sense when looked at it through a macro lens (especially when the fate of (REDACTED ONCE MORE) comes into play. And the unpacking of time travel tropes is probably objectively fun, it only served to send me careening into a full-blown panic attack, as it is trucking in the same lane of a project I currently have in development.
~Speaking of which, the scripts for all six episodes of The Fourth Wall, Season 2 are at a point where I can start showing them to some people. Weird that I’ve even made it this far on this, although there is still much to do. The script book looks to be hovering right around 96,000 words (before any other ancillary material might be added in), so that’s definitely the longest thing I ever wrote.
~With all of that above, I’m a little unmoored as far as writing projects are at the moment. Things will obviously speed up again as I get closer to being in production on the new season. Get back to getting The Once And Future Orson Welles ready for public eyes? Maybe, but I think I’d like a little more uninterrupted writing time runway before I truly, finally pivot in that direction. Keep writing flash and get that catalogue to a point where I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’ll have enough to move forward on a volume of the stories? Seems more likely. Finally break down and just play some video games for once? Feels incredibly tempting.
~Aaaaaaaaaand the movie blog just—with my review of Thor (2011)—hit 50,000 words as well. Odds are it will lap the flash blog, and then only continue to grow. Means the average entry is 505 words. Also means that if the numbers hold up, I watch about 132 films per year (not counting several of the films that appear in the blog that I’ve watched on repeat). Not sure if I should be bummed or proud of that.
~Also on that note, I didn’t think my 100th movie review would be for Shazam (2019), but here we are.
~Speaking of movies I did a review of that I’ll probably watch a couple of times, I had the unique opportunity to see Batman (1989) in a theater. As many times I had seen the film, I had never seen it on the big screen. The theater was about a quarter-filled with people who looked exactly like me. I wondered quietly if all of our lives had gone along a similar path, only to bring us to this time and place. The film—as I had quietly suspected for a while—is a different experience in the theater, and was probably meant more for that venue. Danny Elfman’s score rattles the one when it isn’t coming out of the puny speakers of a television. I may be hearing things, but I think for the 4K release—for which these screenings were intended as a promotion—they’ve tinkered with the sound design. Films of the 70s and 80s had this wonderful sound when guns are shot. It had nothing to o with what I would imagine is the reality of bullets, but more akin to a bell ringing. This film was once filled with that strange twang. Now? The bullets sound like bullets. I’m not sure if I like that, but then again, I didn’t really expect to have them ask me about it. Might just need to isolate that sound and use it more in The Fourth Wall this season and keep the dream alive.
~I don’t know how much I should talk about this next bit, but sufficed it to say things are happening here at Party Now, Apocalypse Later Industries. This space and the things I’m involved in may look quite a bit different a year from now, or at least I hope it will. It’s nice to have that hope again. It feels like it’s been a while.