No Faith in Hollywood Anymore

Oh boy. Star Trek "into darkness". Let me say this first: I watched Lost. JJ and Damon L did alright on that. I watched all of that show and I enjoyed it. NOW, Lost is in no way in any list of my favorite shows. Lost was on around the same time as Battlestar Galactica and the latter remains probably my number one or two favorite TV show all time. Coincidentally Ronald D. Moore who was one of the main forces behind BSG will  factor into my opinions of the JJ Abrams "take" on Star Trek.

I wasn't always into Star Trek. I want to get that out now. It wasn't until I was a sophomore at NIU around the time of the shooting in February 2008 that I began watching Trek. I started with the original series that year. What I found with Star Trek was that the episodes were written well which was contrary to my belief that the show was just nerdy. I realized many of the episodes have less to do with weird Sci-Fi story lines and more with human relationships. Some of my favorite episodes have the crew of the Enterprise going through personal dilemmas that I could identify with. In many ways the show is very dated, but what do you expect from a show that's 47 years old? It was the following year of 2009 in which I watched Star Trek the Next Generation, Deep Space 9, and Voyager. I was in love with all these shows. 

You grow to love the assorted crews of each ship or station and they become part of a pseudo family of yours if you will. One of the biggest things I realized when I finished these four shows was how there was something big missing from my life. What I realized was that I had grown accustomed to the ever present hum of the assorted ships engines that is ever present in each episode of Trek. Luckily for me I still had Star Trek Enterprise to watch. 

I inadvertently became a big Star Trek fan. I wouldn't call myself a Trekkie, not by a long shot. I respect everything that Star Trek strode towards. At it's core it called for equality, tolerance, and hope. Star Trek the original series stood for many things like that, even Next Generation had episodes dealing with newer issues like "what constitutes life?" and others like when to help people and what war does to one's psyche. This is where I get really bothered by what the Hollywood studios and JJ Abrams call their brain dead flashy Star Trek movie. 

JJ Abrams is great at making a science fiction movie with lasers and flashing lights and great special effects. That's about it. The franchise right now is being raped for its name only. Hollywood knows people will think: "Hey! Star Trek! I'm ironic and have never watched the show but clearly this is better!". I see a lot of that. I see so many people that tell me "Oh man you are really going to love this new into darkness movie huh?" When I say no people are flabbergasted. Star Trek isn't my life, when I finished all five major series and the six "good" movies I moved onto HBO shows like Six Feet Under, Oz, and The Wire. The main point about Trek is I simply grew to love the Star Trek shows. It's something I enjoy incredibly and I hate seeing the franchise that gave a lot to me get dumbed down so much. But people don't care. When Battlestar Galactica finished and Ronald D. Moore produced a prequel show about the origins of the 12 colonies and of Cylons nobody watched it. Not only that but people REFUSED to watch it. I have friends that refuse to watch it to this day, I just don't understand it! Caprica is a great show and and a great prequel to BSG. But then I started realizing something from all that, more in a minute. 

Ronald D. Moore was a writer and producer for Star Trek the Next Generation and for Deep Space 9. Arguably the best episodes of the franchise. He also went onto Battlestar Galactica then Caprica before it got cancelled. Ron Moore presented episodes so well written I had never experienced anything like it since. 

People like simple things. A quick high. They like big explosions and stories that take less than five seconds to understand. BSG is smarter than the Star Trek crap presented by JJ Abrams but what these have in common is explosions and sex and the like. The Star Trek shows and Caprica are both more about conflicts of relationships, political problems, and social inequalities. That's where people draw the line. If something isn't flashy but makes you think then it is lame. JJ Abrams' Star Trek is the opposite. Ron Moore was part of something that was so well written in Trek and BSG that any two part episode of either of the series he was involved with is better than any Abrams crap strewed onto the silver screen. I like to think and enjoy a story when I watch a movie or TV show.

Think of movies like Blade Runner. That movie is amazing, but why? Special effects are part of it but the story is what made Blade Runner such a good movie. There was a balance of good story and special effects. Now don't tell me that this new into darknes
s movie is going to be great or well written film. First off, there are definitely going to be many elements of Star Trek 2: Wrath of Khan in it, which makes it not original. Carol Marcus is one of the characters in the movie who was a main character  in Khan who was in charge of the Genesis Project. Spock is probably going to die in this movie then be brought back to life. Wait. That happened before! But what is different? By the time Wrath of Khan came out  there had been years of the Kirk-Spock relationship growing in front of the audience. When Spock died it was emotional. I will guarantee you that if and when Spock dies in into darkness there will be no emotion. We just met these characters and as of the last 5 minutes of the first movie Kirk and Spock were still fist-fighting each other. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

I'm one of the very few who care about this. No, I will not be seeing into darkness. I'm not going to waste my time with that Hollywood garbage. What doesn't help in my opinion of JJ Abrams is how he is going to now also direct the new Star Wars movies. If you really want me mad just tell me how JJ is going to make good on the Star Wars franchise. Man oh man I'm fuming right now thinking of that garbage. Young Han Solo most likely played by the guy who plays Kirk? You have got to be insane. But that's for another blog. Hollywood and people in general really don't care what gets thrown up at the movies anymore. It's all for money and that's it. People don't read, people don't think, I don't know what else to say. I'll take solace in one fact however: In my mind these shows and movies that I grew up watching will always be the same no matter how much garbage that gets brought in tries to ruin those shows and movies for me.

 

Trying to be a Writer

When I first went to Second City in Chicago we were told to start thinking of ourselves as writers. I did and it was the first step for a journey towards a dream I have about being a writer. I have mostly been doing comedy writing for the last 2-3 years. I enjoy it and it gets me out of the house to see my friends and get things going in my head. I was once part of a duo which created a season of a web series called Conflict Mallet and when that fell through I wasn't sure if any of this writing stuff was really meant for me in the first place. But when I hit Second City I was again steered in that web series type direction again. There is something in my future that will somehow be connected to that, there has to be something. It's almost as though something or someone is guiding me down a certain path.

I wasn't always sure of what I wanted to write. The origins of my desire to write come first and foremost from two of my favorite authors; Stephen King and Philip K. Dick. From reading many of their books I developed a sense that I wanted to be like either of them. I did finally hit the point where I wanted to see different stories published and I spent hours on the internet looking for books that would meet my expectations. I realized that what I really needed to do to was to write those ideas, thoughts, and desires myself.

I have worlds and universes in my head and it's time for me to seriously work on my hopes and dreams in those places. Some authors have such an expansive universe that I'm left in awe in what one person can imagine and write down. I need to get my ideas out like that. I'm not saying that I am going to rival a work from somebody like George RR Martin or Anne Rice but I have to get going on everything that has inspired me for so long and make my contributions to the world.

Now the Second City stuff, the comedy, that comes easily to me. I work well with the people that I have been writing with and I enjoy it a lot. At first I thought if ever there was an opportunity to do anything with them it would have to be something funny. Well funny would work but one of the most influential people to me within the past year or so has been Rod Serling. Rod Serling was the creator of the Twilight Zone and narrator and writer of many episodes. I realized that if I were to ever work on a project that was funny or not, all I would have to do is write to the best of my ability as Rod Serling did for every episode of the Twilight Zone he wrote. Rod Serling wrote what he wanted and he stood by it. He pushed for what he wanted and that's what got the Twilight Zone going. He listened to his heart and never gave up and he influenced thousands and quite possibly millions with his stories. Writing for TV or the big screen is so much more than flashing lights or nudity or anything else that sells tickets; you have a chance to better humanity. If ever the people I work with now do anything I believe we have the ability to do just that.

This time in my life is so vastly different than any other time. I have the ability to set my future now for failure or success. The only problem I have is not being able to concentrate on one thing right now. I keep doing different things. I get inspired reading a book to begin a novel and I get inspired to strive towards TV or movies anytime I see an episode of the Twilight Zone or any other great show. I think that's where I'll make my stand. Have one foot in my own projects being centralized around novels and the other foot working on comedy writing that is not only funny but the potential for a deeper meaning.

The most important thing for me in this period has to be to get all my thoughts written down. That is really the only thing I can worry about. If I do ever get a book published or get to work with my friends on a show or something that can just be the icing on the cake. I'll hope for the best and write whatever my heart tells me to. Maybe one day I can say that I left a positive impact on humanity by either enticing people with serious stories or by making people laugh, only time will tell.

-If you are looking for a great episode of the Twilight Zone check out episode 102: The Changing of the Guard. Quite possibly one of the best episodes of a TV show I've ever seen.

Salem's Lot

Holy shit. I. Love. Salem's Lot. I really love a lot of horror films, too many to count. I love the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, Hellraiser movies and the Friday the 13th movies. But what tops them all for me is Salem's Lot (1979). I literally have been watching it every night now since about October. Now, I'm not sitting and paying attention to it every night because I put it on when I go to bed. An adult night-light if you will. I've read the book and its also one of my favorites. Salem's Lot is becoming increasingly ingrained into my head every day.

I cannot recall when I first saw Salem's Lot. But as with many movies I saw as a kid I loved the feeling of being scared. And Salem's Lot scared the living shit out of me for sure. The scene that always left me awake at night was the window scene where Ralphie Glick scratches his brothers window while floating outside. Yea, that was super damn scary as a kid. I read the book when I was going to Northern around my sophomore year.

When reading the book I was again finding myself scared at night because of how well written the horror aspects were. I mostly read at night and in bed which didn't help my sleeping habits. The book was amazing; I'm a big Stephen King fan anyway which enticed me before I even turned the first page.

If you haven't seen Salem's Lot or read the book the story is simply this: A vampire slowly takes over a small town in Maine. That's the beauty with the story, the first half of either the book or TV movie is just character building. Anyone never knowing what the story was about would never suspect a vampire horror story. Once you do realize a vampire is slowly taking over the town the story becomes a roller-coaster ride. You go from one vampire to dodging vampires left and right.

Tobe Hooper directed Salem's Lot, and for any n00bs out there TH directed the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Harry Sukman wrote the score and Salem's Lot was actually his final film. I was able to get a copy of the soundtrack which is only available in bootleg copies since there was never an actual soundtrack produced. David Soul is the movie's biggest actor besides English great James Mason (of Stanley Kubrick's Lolita fame). The movie starts out two years after the main story begins in Ximico, Guatemala. Soul comments that "They've found us again" and that "We have to go further". Bam. Roll credits, you get a full moon and lights up on some creepy looking house with some awesome horror music. Tell me you wouldn't watch it.

One thing I notice while the movie plays 2-3 times are all the parts of the movie that make it so precious to me when I wake up in the night and catch them. I love Halloween and Salem's Lot is the best Halloween movie, in my opinion. A scene I awoke to a week ago was when a side character catches his wife with another man and then threatens that man with a shotgun in his face. It has nothing to do with vampires and these characters don't contribute to the main plot. But the scene is such a trick or treat type of scene, being like a trick where no one get's hurt. I was half awake when I realized this movie has the perfect Halloween feel.

The vampires in this movie are different than most others I've seen. They all have shiny eyes and some are able to float. Barlow aka The Master looks a little cheesy by today's makeup standards but his appearances command attention. Barlow is blue and scary as hell; he never speaks, kills a priest, and bends a cross with his hands. There are so many memorable scenes in the movie and David Soul is a Class A bad-ass throughout. Another reason I have continually enjoyed the film as I age is how horribly pessimistic the ending is. I won't spoil anything for anybody out there who may see this and watch the movie for the first time but it is amazing. Its a great horror movie and a great book; when I get full of doubt by how vampires are being twisted into not-scary glittery Hollywood abominations I just hit this movie up and see what vampires once were: blood suckers not suckers of..well you get me. Check out the trailer here. Amazing.

Gettin' Sentimental

My junior year at NIU was one of the best times for me. I changed as a person quite a lot. The year was 2008 and man oh man did I start listening to good music that fall. Little did I know however was how much the music I listened to then would conjure so much emotion and good memories for me years later.

This was a time where I was by myself a lot, my brother and two other roommates all were dating and gone all the time. I had a blast by myself playing video games and watching movies but when I hit lows in the absence of my friends I decided to listen to music that I had been meaning to. At that time I had been a veteran of my other favorite bands like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Steely Dan, and Chicago; I felt an urge to broaden my musical library from The Electric Light Orchestra (Known to me as ELO) and Iron Butterfly.

Now, last week I talked about some classical music that I have listened to a lot throughout the past year or so. That music is great however I grew up listening to classic rock and that genre of music makes up the bulk of what I listen to. I had been a fan of ELO ever since I was a child watching DTV's Monster Hits every Halloween which played Evil Woman.  For Iron Butterfly I had their self titled album in my truck in high school and I listened to that frequently. I rather enjoyed the spooky type sound of that album and was overjoyed to discover in the fall of 2008 that Iron Butterfly had multiple albums.

One day as I was alone I finally cranked up ELO 2 and the song Momma hit me. I thought the song was cool as hell and had a sound that I really hadn't heard before. At this point as I listened to songs written by Jeff Lynne who is on the right in the photo to the right I knew I loved this band a lot. To the left of Lynne is the drummer of ELO, Bev Bevan. I was smitten by their  awesomeness. These songs flowed through my head while in my apartment and through my commuting to and from class at the DeKalb campus.

I changed it up throughout the semester by expanding my mind with the acid heads known as Iron Butterfly. Like I said before I listened to the self titled album with a song that everybody knows IB by: In-a-gadda-da-vida. I feel like IB gets a bad rap because people really only know that song. I know they didn't have a string of hits or anything but still. I listened to two albums for the most part during this period. Heavy is from 1968 and Ball from 1969. Ball to me is the better of those two albums but there are some songs that still stick with me today from Heavy such as So-Lo and Fields of Sun. Top to bottom I love Ball. The feelings that that album creates for me is different than basically anything else I listen to. I'm not sure if anybody in the band knew what type of sound they were projecting or not but it has such a Halloween-y type sound. Halloween being my favorite day of the year influences this idea heavily. Songs like Real Fright are a testament to that Halloween sound. It helps that I listened to Ball a lot in October of 2008.

A lot of sentimental feelings hit me about a year ago. For the longest time I finally re-listened to both ELO and Iron Butterfly post college. When the song Belda Beast came on I was taken right back to that lonely apartment with myself for company. What hit me the most was how nostalgic I felt about that time in my life. I don't look back and feel bad about myself for being alone because shortly after that I would get out a whole hell of a lot more. It was a time in my life unlike any other, and maybe that's why I felt such srong nostalgia. All I had was class and that music then, I realized that as I laid in my bed and went through all my memories last year. Belda Beast is definitely one of those songs that will always take me back to the innocence of my life in 2008. To this day my favorite bands are still ELO and Iron Butterfly. I listen to them frequently along with CCR, Steely Dan and Led Zeppelin.

I'm not sure what the music that people listen to says about them; Iron Butterfly suggests I do acid and burn incense while wearing flowers in my hair and tie-die shirts. I don't so who knows. This music is the soundtrack of my life. I think about how I ended up listening to this music by being alone I realize that I really had to be alone in order to ever have listened to it. I wouldn't have listened while hanging with my roommates. I'm so glad because no matter what I do, whenever I hear these tunes I fall right back into pleasant memories tarnished by nothing.

Howard Hanson

If you pay attention to the music that plays at the end of the 1979 horror film Alien you will notice that it isn't the same as the rest of the film's score. When I first got the soundtrack to Alien which was written by Sci-Fi  movie great Jerry Goldsmith I noticed that the song at the end of the movie was absent. For years all I knew of the song I heard was from when Ripley blows the Alien out of the Narcisuss lifeboat and its subsequent reprisal during the end credits. I have enjoyed that song and finally over a year ago did somewhat harder research and found out that Jerry Goldsmith did not write the song. Oops. Turns out it was Howard Hanson, an American composer who wrote his symphonies from nineteen-twenty all the way through the nineteen-seventies. The symphony in question here is of course Symphony No. 2 in D-Flat Major Op.30, "Romantic". I will offer links to this along with another selection I love of Howard Hanson. 

Howard Hanson was of Swedish descent and played Trombone as I have. I feel the "of Swedish descent" was important to mention because Norse qualities were influential in his writing of his first two symphonies. The first symphony being the "Nordic" symphony. His music called to me somehow. When I found out the song from Alien was the Romantic symphony I quickly downloaded anything of his I could so as to continue exploring his beautiful music. 

Music for me is not just something to listen to. Music is almost like a drug for me; it can take me miles away or simply make a run painless. Classical music has always been something that raises my mood and elevates my soul. I think cinematically whilst listening to certain songs and other times I can laugh, become angered or agitated, and even feel immense sadness. I feel like I'm floating when I hear some of these symphonies by Howard Hanson. Listening to him gives me a high that isn't like anything else I've ever experienced.  

While I haven't listened to a wide variety of classical music I feel like I have listened to enough between Mahler, Grofé, Dvořák, Ravel, Wagner, and Handel to know and feel that Howard Hanson is by far my favorite. If I ever feel sad or need a pick me up I usually just lay back and hit these symphonies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkxBAaME-ag http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfh_pt4JcGo 

For that first link check out all three movements, the first link is of the first movement of the second symphony which is the most popular but I find the final movement to be my favorite of the three. For the second movement of symphony three I just wanted to offer another taste of some awe-inspiring beautiful music. If you feel down just crank these up and relax. Maybe someone else will enjoy this great American conductor/composer.