Answer is, locked away in a storage compartment on the lazy train. That’s right. I’ve been nowhere, except on a relaxing holiday break following a problem-free finals week.

Lots been going on, though. Ready some really kickass stuff over my break, including Josh Bazell’s very, very, very good Beat the Reaper.  Also waltzed through Charlie Huston’s latest (and last, right?) Joe Pitt novel, My Dead Body. Not quite as ecstatic about this one as I am over the first three books in the saga, but I’m not saying it’s not damn good, either.

Yes, I saw Avatar. There’ll be more on that during a later post, once I figure out exactly why in the hell I enjoyed that movie so goddamn much. (And no, it wasn’t just the IMAX 3D.)

There’ll be a new look to the blog in the next couple of days. I feel the need to shake shit up because I don’t have a real New Year’s resolution.

Lastly, I feel the need to spread the word about something. The editor of the e-zine that I work on, Plots With Guns, has a book on sale at Amazon that you really should have fuckin’ read by now but if you haven’t now is your chance. It’s called Hogdoggin,’ and it’s the second novel in the saga of Billy Lafitte. If you haven’t already read Yellow Medicine, then…I don’t know. I can’t help you.

Like I said, more later, but until then, “Welcome back, me.”

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-TPF

A young lady working as a hostess at a local restaurant (whom I do not know) has given me reason to be wary of Where the Wild Things Are. Am I that easily convinced these days? If so, maybe sad, maybe not. I never thought my opinion could be so easily influenced, but maybe I was looking for a reason to doubt this movie’s amazingness in the first place. Put my fears to rest (or try to): are the monsters, as I’ve been told, “whiny?”

Halloween movie-watching was a fucking blast. Filled in a lot of the missing pieces in a genre that I’ve been interested in since way-way back. Watched Herschell Gordon Lewis’s Blood Feast. Painfully awful, but interesting enough to make me happy about it all in retrospect. Also had the misfortune of seeing Drag Me to Hell, of which I enjoyed maybe a collective 30 fucking seconds. Seriously, unless it’s a Spider Man movie, I don’t think Raimi should be given much of a budget. Old-school make-up and gore effects were thrown out the window in favor of unbelievably lame computer-generated crap. While this might have warranted the movie’s PG-13 rating, it left a bad taste in my mouth. A little too much of a “remember how I made horror funny in Evil Dead II?” feeling pushed at me. Blaaaah.

Filled in a few more blanks with the original Black Christmas (which I enjoyed a hell of a lot), Vincent Price-ified House on Haunted Hill (which I still don’t know how I feel about), Phantasm (FASCINATED with the concept behind this movie, if not so much the execution), and Hellraiser (actually the first time I’ve seen the movie through, start-to-finish, surprisingly.)

Been working on a screenplay for a class of mine, and while I’ve been damned pleased with how it’s turning out (also, my sustained interest in the fucking thing), I kind of get that it’s been a distraction from my short-story output, which has seriously declined over the past few months. Not cool, Tom, not cool at all. This weekend, I started two new ones, and started looking for homes for a few others. Gotta make up for lost time, or something.

-TPF

Saw Zombieland last weekend. It wasn’t a masterpiece, but I didn’t walk into the theater (which smelled terrible, by the way, here in Vermillion, SD) expecting anything more than an hour and a half of fun, which it absolutely was. In fact, it’s probably the closest thing to worthwhile horror-comedy since Shaun of the Dead (keeping in mind that I haven’t seen Drag Me to Hell, yet.)  I’d read some words that describe Woody Harrelson’s role as being similar to Bruce Campbell’s Ash from the Evil Dead flicks, which I’d have to disagree with. Nonetheless, the outrageous violence he inflicts upon the mobs of living dead in Zombieland makes his character a joy to watch. The rest of the cast (Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and…what-the-fuck…Abigail Breslin?) all manage to hold their own. If you haven’t heard, there’s a fuckin’ GREAT celebrity cameo that many people are spoiling. I refuse to. Go see for yourself.

TV spots for Paranormal Activity have me a little skeptical, but Stephen Graham Jones, currently one of my favorite writers of fiction, got a review of it up over at PopMatters (follow the trail… ) that has me rethinking how much I’m going to buy into the movie’s “we’ve-scared-this-many-people-look-at-them-scream-at-our-special-private-screening” marketing strategy.

Finally got around to reading Neuromancer by William Gibson (had to wait for it to be assigned to me in a class). It’s got my eyes open to the cyberpunk genre of fiction, which I’m pretty much naive to. Any recommendations for further reading? (Besides more Gibson.)

In the spirit of Halloween — which is more than likely to be even more tame than last year, for most — I’m filling my Netflix insta-queue with all manner of gory goodness. It’s not enough, though, so I’m asking for recommendations. It can be campy, stellar, gory, whatever. If you think I should be enjoying it this Halloween, let me know.

TPF

This little-bit will mostly be about me and my new job. If that’s not something you’re interested in reading about, then please wait for Ms. Clark to finish her song before you proceed to the end of my post and click ‘play’ on the conveniently imbedded MUSE-ic video. It’s from their newest album. Even if you don’t like the music (which you should, shame on you) the evil bears at the end are worth the wait.

So, teaching. What about it? Is it the most involving goddamn thing I’ve ever done for money? Hell yes. Is it worth it? Yes, though, minus the Hell. Still undecided about how exuberant I am, mostly because I just haven’t had time to process everything that’s happened. Hopefully, that’s what the weekend will be for. A year ago, I had no idea that I would be where I am right now. Even though I’m undecided as to how exactly I feel about this whole thing, I am really fucking glad I’m here.

…Aside from the mid-September heat, which is making me miserable. Only thing I’ll bitch about today. Promise. There’s a promise of mid-60′s highs next week and maybe, just maybe an overnight freeze. Fingers are crossed and I am hoping.

Don’t know why I haven’t seen District 9, yet. Last I checked it was in the post to happen this week, or this weekend, but with the workload I’m left with I just don’t see it happening. Here’s to hoping that I’ll manage to see it before it sneaks out of local theaters.

And that’s it. I holding back on most of my response to stuff I’ve read for class. Read The Crying of Lot 49 by Pynchon. A little disappointed. Got what he was doing, didn’t care much for the story. Reading City of Glass by Paul Auster right now, and I’m getting into that much more. That is all.

As promised, I give you (thanks to Youtube) Muse.

Have a great evening, all.

-TPF

EDIT – If you didn’t catch the MUSEic video, too late, so sorry. Gone from youtube, so gone from here.

Honestly…a little bit of everything. I don’t like to jaw-jack about my own life too much, because  it’s not that interesting. I will, however, plug myself in here and there when I’ve witnessed something particularly awesome, fucked up, etc.

I watch a lot of movies, and I read a lot of stories. This means you’ll be reading about them (and how I weigh in on them) more than you’ll be reading about me. Also, music. Occasionally, I’ll talk about music.

I’m a writer myself, which, until it becomes a more successful venture, you won’t read much about. But there is this really bitching-good online noir fiction journal that I work on called Plots With Guns. We get a new issue up every few months, and they’re all worth looking at. Extensively.

FINALLY saw Inglourious Basterds last weekend, and it was almost everything I hoped it would be. As usual, QT’s writing is top-notch. I was expecting nothing less. The story is great (great big “fuck-off” to those that disagree on the basis of how much QT messes with “history”). The casting was surprisingly good, too. Brad Pitt was all right; much more fun of a part than I’ve seen him in recently. Christoph Waltz — who I’d never heard of/seen before this — was incredibly fun to watch. Lots of critics have been predicting a “Best Supporting” nomination for him, and I’d have to agree. Probably my only casting complaint lies in Eli Roth. While his character, Donny Donowitz, was great, I never quite believed Roth. The marketing campaign attached to this movie had me questioning what exactly I was going to be watching; will it be an action flick, like the trailers are telling me, or a QT movie? Turned out to be much more of the latter, with splotches of action here and there to keep the pacing explosive. While the false-marketing will probably help ticket sales, I can’t help but wonder how many people are going to go to the movie and come away asking, “What the fuck did I just see?” It’s a win for the Weinsteins, a win for people who like QT movies, but people who come for an action flick might not like it.

…And that’s all I’ve got in terms of housewarming. More to come, later, and probably even more about Basterds. When I see such a good movie, it tends to live in me for a while afterwards.

-TPF