The Barer Cave

The Guy Is Afoot!

2009-12-27T00:22:00.001-08:00

As someone who has read a good portion of the Conan Doyle Holmes stories -- and who started reading them 30 years ago -- I'm glad to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Guy Ritchie's new SHERLOCK HOLMES movie, with Robert Downey, Jr. as the master sleuth and Jude Law as an extremely impressive Dr. Watson. I still think the best adaptation of the Holmes stories was the BBC series starring the steely-eyed Jeremy Brett; but Holmes, like Tarzan (another literary Englishman created during the time Holmes stories were originally being released) and Robin Hood, Holmes has become a staple of Western popular culture whom every generation must enact anew. Just as there will likely always be revivals of Shakespeare plays, there will always be reinterpretations of Holmes -- whether he's battling Moriarty, Nazis (as he did in the '40's Basil Rathbone flicks), Jack the Ripper, or the menacing conspirators in this film.

Some may be annoyed by Ritchie's hyper-stylization of reality, or the pumped-up action sequences, or the focus on Holmes's manic-depressive personality (though there's little-to-no mention of Holmes's cocaine habit -- perhaps to avoid a harder rating). Others may grumble about giving Holmes and Watson a cute dog.

But the fact remains that this Holmes is woven from threads taken from the actual stories. Further, the movie benefits greatly from taking one of the most memorable supporting characters -- Irene Adler, the American con woman from "A Scandal in Bohemia," who to Holmes will always be the woman -- and building up her role, so that she is an adventuress who stands on equal footing with Holmes and Watson, albeit on the other side of the law. Holmes's Catwoman, if you will.

It's always a delight to enjoy a couple of hours of pure cinematic entertainment. SHERLOCK HOLMES shows that there's quite a bit of life in the old sleuth -- enough to fuel reinterpretations for generations to come.

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Panels: Ssssteam Heat

2009-12-23T22:28:00.001-08:00

If you attend the Anime Los Angeles convention (http://www.animelosangeles.org/wp/) the weekend of January 8-10, and check out the Steampunk panels Sunday afternoon, you'll find me joining a few other steam-pressed folks up at the front of the room.

Here's the tentative sched:

Sunday 1:00 PM: Steampunk on a Budget
LP 2/Suite B
     Danny Barer
     Jo Celso
     Mercades Victoria
     Michael Pao
     Rebecca Majoros

Sunday 2:00 PM: Steampunk 101: Beginners panel
LP 2/Suite B
     Danny Barer
     Eric Chamberlin
     Michael Pao

The con will be at the Marriott Los Angeles Airport, 5855 W. Century Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045. Thanks to Michael Pao of The Manticore Society (http://themanticoresociety.blogspot.com/) for hooking me up.

Plus, if you're in Southern Utah March 5-6, 2010 (if you've never been, you should go -- it's gorgeous), and you're attending the Fannitiku Fest con (http://animefannatiku.com/), I'll be doing yet another Steampunk panel, on March 6, this time by my lonesome.   Thanks to Natalie Daniel for arranging this.

Now, to figure out what to talk about . . . .

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Bryan Singer on 'X-Men: First Class,' 'Avatar' and more

2009-12-21T22:04:00.001-08:00

The Hollywood Reporter | Heat Vision | Comics | Movie News: Heat Vision Q&A: Bryan Singer on 'X-Men: First Class,' 'Avatar' and more

The Hollywood Reporter's "Heat Vision" blog has an interview with Bryan Singer about his plans to direct another "X-Men" film, along with why he's fond of working in a wi-fi watering hole (a Coffee Bean, no less) in Oahu.

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The Adventure of the Mysterious Taquito in the Night

2009-12-20T16:08:00.001-08:00

I stopped by one of the myriad 7-11 stores in the vicinity to see if it had Sherlock Holmes slurpie cups. It didn't, but it did have Sherlock Holmes hot dogs (perhaps understandable -- sausages were a staple in Victorian London) and taquitos (uh . . . .) Along with "Domo" flash drives and Big Gulp cups in the shape of big electric guitars.

As much as a spectacle as the relentless marketing of the Downey/Law "Sherlock Holmes" movie is, I have no problem with it -- particularly if it leads young people to read the original stories.

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Avatar: A Blue Christmas

2009-12-20T12:36:00.001-08:00

We saw AVATAR last night in Imax 3-D, and had a great time. It was bravura filmmaking, and a visual spectacle. It looked like a bunch of Michael Whelan and Roger Dean paintings come to life. It made efforts toward scientific extrapolation and credible science fiction (even though it often took dramatic license with science), and managed to wedge in convincing dialogue and acting.

But . . . (and there's SPOILERS here)

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I couldn't help feeling unsatisfied at the plotline, which followed not only the tropes of earlier Cameron work (did anyone think the one-dimensional corporate shill in the plot would turn out to be any better than Paul Rieser in ALIENS?) but, well, DANCES WITH WOLVES, and lots of war movies and comics. (I remember a few weeks ago I blogged about the stereotypical DC war comic story, in which a soldier separate from his unit takes out superior forces with a few well-placed grenades. Uh . . . .) I kept hoping that the storyline would have some kind of twist, travel 90 degrees from what you'd expect; but it still followed its designated path.

In particular, I thought Cameron might have been building toward an interesting twist with the Na'Vi's motives for revealing their secrets to Sully. After all, the Na'vi are smart, and they know from the outset that Sully is (a) a warrior (b) of a people that they have had skirmishes with and (c) that he returns to his people whenever he sleeps (they call him a "dreamwalker"). Wouldn't they know that he was reporting to his people everything he saw? Wouldn't they think that was his duty? Wouldn't they do the same? I thought that they might be revealing this information despite their awareness that he was betraying them, to work toward some larger purpose of diplomacy based on shared knowledge -- he would learn both sides' secrets and so be a go-between. But instead, the Na'Vi are startled that Sully has been reporting on them.

Perhaps Cameron felt that moviegoers couldn't be pulled into this incredible world without being given a storyline that followed only familiar tropes. Perhaps I'm expecting novel-type plotting in a movie that is jammed so full of visual spectacle and action that plot twists won't fit.

I don't want to give the impression that AVATAR is a bad movie, or that I didn't enjoy it. But I think that it's building a base for a new kind of SF movie -- one that actually brings to life the visions that could only be written about before -- and I'd like to see its potential used to full advantage.

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Surfing the Spectacular

2009-12-19T21:22:00.000-08:00

Last night, Amy and I saw the Brian Setzer Orchestra's Holiday Spectacular concert at the Gibson Amphitheater on Universal Citywalk. (The Gibson is filled with ads for Verizon -- which makes me wonder whether the Verizon Amphitheater is festooned with Gibson guitars.) Incidentally, the Amphitheater -- back when it was an open-air venue, and was known as the Universal Amphitheater -- was the first place I ever saw a big-name rock concert: While the family was vacationing in SoCal in 1980, I saw Jefferson Starship (sans Grace Slick) there.

As wonderful as Mr. Setzer's set was (and it was quite wonderful -- he's an amazing showman as well as an amazing guitarist), it was almost eclipsed by one of his opening acts: The Ventures, the kings of instrumental surf music and the best-selling instrumental band of all time. The lineup included two original members, Don Wilson and Nokie Edwards. They're getting up in years -- the band was formed in Tacoma, Washington in 1958 -- but they still play with the same tightly-controlled virtuosity you hear on their '60's recordings. For anyone who spent any time in the '60's (or has seen movies or TV from that era), the expressive guitars and the fast drum work conjure of images of surfers, drag racers, spies, and everything cool about that era. If The Ventures played the soundtrack for your life, what an exciting life you'd lead.

Oh, Doctor, Doctor . . .

2009-12-19T14:13:00.000-08:00

The L.A. Times interviews David Tennant about the end of his portrayal of The Doctor on DOCTOR WHO, and the pilot he's filmed for NBC.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-david-tennant19-2009dec19,0,2333000.story

I haven't yet caught up on all of Tennant's episodes (I need to start Season 3), but I do note that both he and Christopher Eccleston, his predecessor, are younger than me. Eep.

Dan O'Bannon, R.I.P.

2009-12-19T14:09:00.000-08:00

One of those who, for better or worse, helped shape the '80's science fiction movie -- and the movies of today.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-dan-obannon19-2009dec19,0,4358785.story

First things in the Last Year

2009-12-19T14:06:00.001-08:00

My cousin Tod Goldberg blogs about things that happened to him for the first time in 2009. It involves the Poet Laureate, the inaguration, Jane's Addiction, and a gray hair.

http://todgoldberg.typepad.com/tod_goldberg/2009/12/the-8-days-of-lists-top-5-things-that-i-did-in-2009-that-id-never-done-before.html#comments

Is This the Droid You're Looking for?

2009-12-19T13:02:00.001-08:00

I'm writing this post on the Droid phone I got last week. In part, the post is a training exercise in typing with the physical keyboard-- which is either unfamiliar (which would explain my current awkwardness with it) or unwieldy (which would explain future awkwardness in using it).

Overall, I'm delighted with Droid. It's much more reliable than my kludgy Treo 755P. It synchs with my work email like a dream, the display is stunning, the web browsing works great, the apps are fun, and the camera is quite nice (ever since an update was pushed to the phone that fixed a focusing bug).

There are some annoyances. As noted, the physical keyboard takes getting used to - sometime the onscreen keyboard's just quicker to use. The built in apps have quirks -- for instance, the email client won't do signature lines, and the calendar won't let you swipe from month to month. But overall I like my lil' Droid.

The Last 30 Years -- and the 30 Years Before That

2009-12-13T15:07:00.000-08:00

I'm reading a James MacDonald novel from 1978 -- THE EMPTY COPPER SEA -- and it's leaving me with the distinct impression that much less has changed in American culture in the last 30 years than in the 30 years preceding them.

In this private-eye novel (actually, Travis McGee is not a private eye -- he's a salvage expert -- but he performs the functions of a PI), there are shopping malls and crystal meth addicts. Kids line up to see STAR WARS (the original, but who could imagine that 30 years later STAR WARS would still be a marketable commodity). The language is contemporary. The clothing brands and even the sporting goods makes are recognizable. The description of life in a Florida coastal town, the rondole of seafood houses and cheesy bars, is readily recognizable.

By comparison, a novel from 1948 would not sound at all contemporary in 1978 (and certainly not in 2009). The slang, cars, clothes, and description of everyday life would seem foreign.

Has time flattened out? Or just the time that has passed in my own lifetime?

Face Palm

2009-12-08T20:40:00.000-08:00

After using Palm pdas and phones for the past 10 years, I regret wielding one of the hammers driving yet another nail into Palm Inc.'s corporate coffin. But my Treo 755p is glitchy, and the Palm Pre just doesn't look appealing enough. So I've ordered a Motorola Droid phone. Hopefully the Force is with it.

"Nickels Nickels Nickels!"

2009-12-08T20:38:00.000-08:00

I watched A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS, which debuted the same year I did.

Does the little Christmas tree represent a lost soul?

Separated at Birth?

2009-12-05T13:59:00.001-08:00

Roger "Race" Bannon

Anderson Cooper

Loscon: Books and Nooks

2009-11-30T20:52:00.001-08:00

Amy and I spent Friday-Sunday at the 36th annual Loscon science fiction convention, held this year at the LAX Marriott. Loscon tends to focus more on books than on movies or other SF media; and as usual, there were several booksellers in the dealers' room, including mail-order house Cargo Cult books. Cargo Cult is one of the few mail-order places that actually mails out a periodic circular of books and videos -- a rarity in a day when even Sears doesn't mail out a catalog any more.

The Nook e-reader that I have on order has changed my approach to such sellers. Previously, I'd browse the tables, see what SF books looked interesting (cover and interiors), and then calculate (a) how much I'd like to spend and (b) how much space a new book would take up. This time, I found myself browsing the tables to find books that I might potentially download as e-books. The nasty part of that, of course, is that I would be cutting the bookseller out of the deal.

I'm aware that as e-readers grow in popularity, this attitude will likely become a trend that will threaten the already tenuous position of independent booksellers. The folks who buy books -- a shrinking part of the population -- will gravitate toward e-books, which are sold either by the big-box websites or directly by the publisher. The same phemomenon we've seen with iPods and music sellers may play out. Sure, there will always be folks who prefer the heft, look and smell of a physical book -- just like there are those who would not dream of listening to anything except a 33 1/3 LP. But in a way, such habits are self-defeating: the folks who most treasure books likely have the most books, and thus will benefit most from those space-saving e-readers.

Other dangers loom. Print is a medium that outlasts formats. Already we are seeing a format war, with Amazon using a proprietary format for its e-books that no one else can use, and the Nook able to read various formats the Amazon Kindle can't touch. If you can read, and can open a book (or have someone open it for you), you're set, no matter the state of technology. But imagine if the crucial works of the 20th century were recorded on 5 1/2" floppies, or 8-track tapes. Think of the COWBOY BEBOP episode in which folks in the future are trying to watch a videotape -- and worse, a Beta videotape.

Despite such dire possibilities, I'm getting the Nook. I don't think I can single-handedly bring about the death of print.

20,000 vs. 2012

2009-11-27T11:47:00.000-08:00

"Bloom County" cartoonist Berke Breathed wrote a great essay for today's L.A. Times Calendar section, in which he explains why James Mason battling a rubber squid on the deck of a pinewood submarine is infinitely more "awesome" than the world being destroyed in "2012."

Missing Nemo: Berkeley Breathed says new movies are missing magic and drowning in pixels [UPDATED] | Hero Complex | Los Angeles Times

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T23:48:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving movie viewing: DUPLICITY and MONSTERS VS. ALIENS. Not much connective tissue between the two, except strong female leads in each: Julia Roberts as a spy in the first; and Renee Zellweger as a giant mutated platinum blond in the other.

Oh, and Syfy is running Bond movies in high-def today and tomorrow. Things get really good tomorrow, because they'll be showing the Connery Bonds -- a.k.a. the real Bond movies.

ADL Special Reports: Rage Grows in America: Anti-Government Conspiracies

2009-11-25T20:54:00.000-08:00

A disturbing report from the Anti-Defamation League.

ADL Special Reports: Rage Grows in America: Anti-Government Conspiracies

2009-11-21T19:43:00.001-08:00

Can't Stop the Rock?

2009-11-21T19:10:00.000-08:00

The current issue of BACK ISSUE MAGAZINE (http://new.twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=844&zenid=oh8sdqtc1t4anj7f1bl824ecd2)
focuses on DC and Marvel war comics from the '70's -- an era in which the comics featured mainly World War II stories (with occasional trips into World War I) even as the Vietnam conflict raged on. The magazine notes that DC's flagship war-comic hero, Sgt. Frank Rock, first appeared 50 years ago. Almost simultaneously, the trades have reported that Joel Silver's 20-year quest to bring the Rock of Easy Co. to the big screen may be moving forward -- albeit by moving the combat-happy joes of Easy to (arrgh!) the future. (http://www.heatvisionblog.com/2009/11/sgt-rock-francis-lawrence-akiva-goldsman-joel-silver.html)

All this brings back memories of my comics-reading days in the early-to-mid 1970's. Before I started collecting superhero comics, war comics were my passion. Even at that young age, I could tell the differences in the styles of Marvel's and DC's war comics. Marvel's comics (primarily SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS; occasionally other COMMANDER AND HIS ADJECTIVE NOUNS spin-offs) were mainly gung-ho caper stories, in which the charismatic lead and his multi-ethnic team would crack wise as they cracked heads. They were basically like Marvel's superhero comics, except that the heroes killed people. The DC comics were more brooding and bordering on realistic (although they had more than their share of lone-soldier-with-a-few-grenades-takes-out-a-regiment tales). They were more likely to focus on single lead characters (Enemy Ace, Unknown Soldier, Balloon Buster, etc.) or a rank-and-file combat squad (the Easy Company dogfaces, who had colorful nicknames but weren't quite as diverse as the Howlers) rather than special-mission commando cadres. The one commando-type comic I recall featured the decidely non-heroic title THE LOSERS.

All of these comics were put out under the Comics Code. That meant (a) lots of panels of either soldiers shooting or soldiers falling -- but hardly any of the shooter and victim in the same panel; and (b) when soldiers did meet in close combat, they were more likely to resort to fisticuffs or wrestling rather than point-blank shooting or graphic knifing/bayoneting. This generally had the effect of making war look much less nasty than the footage running on the nightly news from Vietnam and the Middle East.

When I moved from war comics to superhero comics, I found two aspects of the transition jarring. First, superhero comic artists didn't know squat about drawing firearms. Although war comics artists paid lip service to drawing different weapons correctly (after all, in some stories, choice of weapon substituted for characterization), superhero comics artists would often draw vaguely gun-looking devices for the characters to shoot. (Jack Kirby, of course, knew how to draw guns; but he would design completely new firearms for the superhero comics, and you didn't care whether they had any analog in real life.) Second, superhero comics had a different attitude toward death. The death of a single person in such a comic was a monumental event. By contrast, death was such a constant in the war comics that individual lives were pretty much meaningless. I like to think I benefited from the transition.

Anyway, I think that the various efforts to bring comic book soldiers like Rock to the silver screen is doomed. There's really no reason to bring war stories from the comics to movies; movies have been doing WWII stories about ordinary soldiers since, well, WWII. That said, I do think SGT. FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS has already been translated into a movie, with some success -- except that it was called INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS.

A Distant Blog

2009-11-18T17:37:00.000-08:00

Graphic novelist extraordinaire Colleen Doran was nice enough to call me a "blog buddy" in her latest post. http://adistantsoil.com/2009/11/18/comics-links-2/#more-4694

Be a blog buddy to Colleen. Go to her blog, read the web comic version of her series "A Distant Soil," and buy her stuff. If you've been to our house, you know that we've bought a lot of her stuff -- it's all over our walls.

A Bit about Alfredo Alcala

2009-11-15T20:49:00.000-08:00

Comics historian Mark Evanier has a great story on his blog (http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2009_11_15.html#018060) about a sketch Filipino artist Alfredo Alcala did, pro bono, for the San Diego Comic-Con in the seventies; and how this act paid off with good karma.

If you read a Marvel or DC comic during the late '70's and '80's, you likely saw Alcala's art, usually inking another artist, mainly because he turned out incredibly textured ink art incredibly fast. We got to speak with Alcala a few times before he passed away, due to a mutual friend, Phil Yeh. Our first wedding anniversary took place during the 1998 San Diego Comic-Con. Phil invited us to go out to dinner at Dick's Last Resort with him and a bunch of comics artists, including Alcala. At Phil's request, Alcala drew us an anniversary present -- a beautiful drawing of a panther. It was a wonderful link to the SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN issues inked by Alcala that I had so enjoyed as a teen.

An Animated Film Fit for Princes

2009-11-15T20:21:00.001-08:00

We first encountered the artwork for Michel Ocelot's animated film "Azur et Asmar" in the hallways of the Studio Ghibli Museum during our 2007 visit. One hall featured images and backgrounds from the movie as murals. That should give you an idea of the artistic accomplishment of this animated film.

The computer-animated movie features flat, stiff character animation (a consequence of the storybook-come-to-life look of the movie), but the colors and imagery are lush and unlike any animated film I've seen before. And although the multicultural story, set in Renaissance-era France and North Africa, follows a fairytale formula, it manages to confound expectations at every turn.

American kids may find the storytelling slow, and the many portions in Arabic (with subtitles) frustrating. But it is definitely worth watching (and likely owning, for repeated viewings).

http://www.amazon.com/Azur-Asmar-Princes-Sean-Barrett/dp/B001DJ7PY6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1258345121&sr=8-1

The Real "Book Nook"

2009-11-15T09:31:00.001-08:00

History | Downtown Walla Walla Foundation

Mike Barer posted a comment to my "Book Nook" post, commenting on the namesake for the post: The Book Nook, a business that used to exist in the Die Brucke building in downtown Walla Walla, Wa. The Book Nook was apparently around for a looong time -- the photo above purports to be a picture of its soda fountain in 1910; and the building itself was constructed in 1903. The Book Nook sold the type of general-store sundries you'd see at a drug store. It also had the sort of old-fashioned lunch counter that small retail stores used to feature, selling burgers and sandwiches. (It got very busy at lunchtime. I recall once, while working downtown, I was settled at my table with my drink when my sandwich order was called at the counter. I went up to grab my sandwich, and came back to find a woman had snatched up my full glass and was "bussing" it so that she could sit down. She protested that she thought I was finished there . . . .)

The odd part was that, apart from the usual magazine-and-paperback rack, the store didn't sell books.

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Amelia Flies

2009-11-14T23:53:00.000-08:00

Bucking critical opinion, we saw AMELIA tonight. (It's playing at the Culver Plaza, which was a happening Mann theater for years but is now an independently-owned seedy second-run house.) We liked it better than the critics. It definitely has flaws: Swank too often sounds like she's imitating Earhart rather than being her; Swank and Gere have zero chemistry as an onscreen couple; and the pacing often seems off. But you can't go too far wrong with lots of '30's airplanes. And Earhart's story in itself is compelling enough to propel the plot.

One big mistake Earhart makes: Taking The Doctor along as navigator. That guy's getting lost all the time . . . .