Rye Road

It's been a while since I've done any short story work. A little more than an month ago, I noticed several Sesame Street dolls at work. There was a Cookie Monster, a Big Bird, and an Elmo. But no Grover; the poor bastard's been swept away to make room for Elmo.

So, standing in front of these dolls and pretending to kill an Elmo, I wondered what it would be like if Grover tried to kill Elmo. A few weeks passed and the answer to that question finally struck me. (No, I'm not telling; I want a few people to be surprised how it ends.)

Over the last week, I've written it out. "The Plot On Rye Road." All I can really say is that the trash heap is the most distinct character of all. The trash heap is evil, malicious, and manipulative. Oscar's just a grouch.

And the reason why I was able to pull this story off: I read Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book last week. Good read, but that's not a surprise since it's Gaiman.

Fulfilling Entertainment

It's been about 6 weeks since I've posted and I've seen some great things since then. Let me start chronologically.

Watchmen. The film version was fine. I give it a B+ after two viewings. A solid movie, though a bit long, a bit gratuitous with its use of sex (intercourse, not nudity). It did demonstrate that, no matter how good a comic might be, it might not make a great movie. That's still true for me; the movie version just serves to illustrate that something is lost when you move from the page to the screen.

Planetary. A comic series about the exploits of super-powered archaeologists looking for the secret history of the 20th Century. A great read, it has a lot of depth to read from, and each issue is a self-contained story. Quite the engaging read, though it should never be made into a movie or a TV show--Why? The stories know exactly how long to stay and when they should go.

A few hours ago, I watched the series finale of Battlestar Galactica. It had to answer a lot of questions about the series, be satisfying, and still be entertaining. There was also the idea of the show having a legacy to consider, a complete story that had finally reached its end. No spoilers here, but I feel that happened, all while solidifying Battlestar's reputation of being character-driven and often spiritual.