Non Linear Thoughts on Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing

This afternoon I went to see Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing and once I had my ticket I realized that I was walking into the exact same auditorium where I had seen Ken’s Much Ado so many years ago- Shirlington 7, Theatre #1. I used to watch a lot of movies in those days. It was the easiest way to socialize as I shuffled back and forth between my divorced parents- a movie and a box of SnoCaps on a weekend afternoon with one and then back home to the other. We visited just about every theater in NoVa, half of which don’t exist any more, so the odds were pretty small.

The crowd definitely skewed older- lots of silver hair reflecting the light from the silver screen, but they didn’t chat once the previews ended, didn’t purchase any loud candy and loved when Nathan Fillion was on the screen so we were good.

I would never have predicted back in my Homicide:Life on the Street fandom days that I’d see Reed Diamond doing Shakespeare and I’m glad I was wrong. He was great, glad to see him land in the Whedonverse. This movie also did nothing to diminish my admiration of Clark Gregg. That dude can do anything.

That house… that house never seemed to end. You thought you had it and then there’d be another scene from another angle and it was, where is that in relation to everything else? If that’s what good script money can buy, I need to sit my ass down at the keyboard and concentrate.

Best- using the pool as a set. “Come, let us to the banquet.” Splish, splash, wade, exit…

Really?- the gulling of Benedick scene. Why don’t people in movies ever have peripheral vision? There was so much motion going on outside large windows, and once they left the clearly open window and crossed the room, how much could Benedick really have heard?

Worst- How did Amy Acker not die falling down stairs? I think everyone gasped there.

Overall though, beautiful, fun, inventive, would definitely watch it again.

Misery Looking for Company

One of the perks of working from home is that I can throw on a movie while I’m sitting in front of my computer. Last night both The Deep Blue Sea and The Gospel of Us DVDs came in the mail. While debating between bonus features and Tom Hiddleston versus something new with Michael Sheen, I realized I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on anything else if I played either one, so I turned on the TV while I settled the morning housework. So much for being productive. Dreaming of Joseph Lees was on, so I sat and was useless for an hour.

I cannot not watch this movie. I love it so very much and nobody I know has watched it so I can’t talk about it. I need someone else to see it so I can have a conversation. It’s not on DVD for some reason but it’s on cable a lot and you can get it on iTunes and Amazon Video. Made in 1999, starring Rupert Graves and Samantha Morton. Set in 1958 England. He’s her second cousin and she’s been in love with him forever. She’s given up and moved in with a charming yet unstable local boy right before she meets him again. It is complicated and miserable. There are no easy depictions of love and commitment. The music is beautiful, the secondary characters are all very real. I wish I could cry as gracefully as Samantha does. The last five minutes kill me every time and the ending isn’t straightforward. I usually like my romances a little happier because if I wanted disappointment I’ve got enough of my own, but I get sucked in every time. It reminds me of The Deep Blue Sea in that post-war British feel, and also Jude where I fell in love with Kate Winslet and Christopher Eccleston, but that one's so sad I can't watch after a certain point, and The Whole Wide World, with Renee Zellweger and Vincent D'Onofrio. Maybe I do have darker movies in my collection than I had thought.

Anyone else have movies that depress the hell out of you but you've seen more than once?

Time Away from the Keyboard

I know I said I'd post every week, but sometimes days go past faster than planned. Last Thursday, I impulsively traveled over to DC to catch a glimpse of Captain America 2 filming. I saw nothing but lights, but it was an adventure and a distraction from life for a few hours.

Nom de Plume

Early this morning one of my friends decided I needed a pen name and proceeded to spend the rest of the day sending me suggestions. I wrote back with the type of book each one of these people would be likely to write (i.e. nothing I would write):

Oaken Woods-

dragons

Wiley Poppyseed-

This isn’t an author name, this is either a hobbit or Beatrix Potter mouse

Jezebel Therese-

seductive vampires

Lilith Aubergine-

little old lady mysteries involving cats and teapots

Ariel Ravenwood-

a girl who ends up being descended from witches

Rosemary Adelaide-

hopelessly lovesick Irish folk

Mossie Gravesend-

psychic librarian

Kailen Morningstar-

fairies

Primrose Elmhurst-

plucky orphans in boarding school

Kindell Lilywhite-

hipsters in New York

Ivy Thistlewhite-

Christian romance set in the Old West

Sinjin St.John-

This was the only one I liked, because I freakin’ love Jane Eyre. Still not going to use it, but it made me laugh.

Ideas Interruptus

 So I have got a few corrections to make on the latest draft, apparently my intensity level is down for the reveal and I'm trying to get back into character to up the stakes a bit. It needs my full concentration and focus, but this other idea keeps creeping into my head- a whole new story with subplots and secondary characters and emotional trajectory and I don't have time for it. Its little feet are kneading into my mind like a kitten trying to find a place to nap. I tried to banish it with outlining and post-it notes but it wants my attention, and it's trying to grow bigger. It could be connected to another story that's not even in novel form, it's a stage play, but that's not ready and to have the new one out before that one wouldn't make any sense, but still sits in my head, letting me know its not going anywhere.

This is why my Unfinished folder is bigger than my Complete folder.

What I Read

 I had originally titled this post, "Books I Wish I'd Written", but as I thought about it, while there were certain concepts and lines I really admired and wished I had thought of, I know I wouldn't have and  it wouldn't be the same.

 The books I am completely fangirling over right now are Warm Bodies and its prequel, The New Hunger by Isaac Marion. Now I don't like creepy stuff- ghosts, aliens, zombies, dead things, etc. but I saw the beginning of the movie off IMDb and I was compelled to look up the book. I was hooked from the start. I can't remember the last time I spent so much time reading, and those anticipatory moments when I couldn't wait to get back to reading. It's a really lovely story, crazy but real, improbable but not impossible, a hopeful apocalypse.

 Lucky for me being so late in the game, Marion announced the prequel was coming out less than a week after I finished Warm Bodies. I put off reading it because I was so into the world he had created and the characters that I didn't want to be thrown back before any of them interacted and were not yet the people they were in the main book, but I was wrong. By going back before they were in their little bubbles we see a rounder world and a deeper understanding of what's happened and knowing certain people were going to "make it to the end" didn't ruin the suspense. Just loved it.

 Now my problem is I know only one other person who has read both, and one who has read just Warm Bodies so far and I am dying to talk about what happened, compare it to the movie, which I saw 5 times in various theaters but still wasn't as good as the book, and speculate on what the sequel can contain.

Please check out Isaac Marion's site. He's not just a writer, he's an artist and a musician and seemly pretty cool guy. He's kind of what I want to be when I grow up even though I'm older than him (but not by much damnit).

Pretty Things

 Getting good feedback so far on the draft I sent out. I'm not making any more solid promises on deadline until I get word it's good enough for everyone else, so it shouldn't be long but I'm not going to say how much longer anymore.

With the hockey lockout I had a lot of free time in the evening during the dead of winter. I could have been writing but sometimes my attention spans flits about so I decided to try something I had seen on Etsy but couldn't justify spending $100 on- Captain America shoes.

Cap is my favorite superhero. I have many things about my workspace with his shield logo but I wanted something a little more personalized and girly. Thus came about my decoupaged shoes. I checked out some comics from the library, scanned them, re-sized them, printed them out and glued the whole thing over half a dozen times and added some ribbon. The shoes I got at the thrift shop and the ribbon and Mod Podge were my only real expenses so they ended up being about $25.

Then last month I watched The Hollow Crown with Tom Hiddleston and that rekindled my love of Henry V. I still remember watching Kenneth Branagh's version with a friend and pausing the tape (yeah, I'm old) to figure out the plot. I was already in love with words and that film began my Shakespeare appreciation. These cost me a little more because even though I used a copy of the play I got for a quarter at the library and $15 shoes, though new this time, I spent a little more on the ribbons and the charms at the buckles but still less than $40.

Since that viewing kind of hooked me on Hiddleston, my next pair is going to be Thor and Loki. Glitter Mod Podge on black patent leather heels looks incredibly spacey, but I have to refill my toner before I complete those.

My Unlikely Muse

 Since I don't have much to show on the actual finished manuscript front at the moment, I thought I'd share a little on my motivations and inspirations for the books to come. When I have characters and situations in my head, I don't have a lot to draw from on the "happily ever after" angle, so a lot of them suffer from unrequited love. Sometimes it will work out and sometimes it won't. I don't know about you but I hate books and movies when two people in love stay apart for the flimsiest of reasons. It seems like the waste of a rare gift. Caring about someone who also cares about you? There's a reason love is celebrated and that's because the odds are not that great.

 I was in love with a friend of mine for ages, and since it's just us here, I probably still am a little. He was the only person who treated me well during a dark time in my life and I idealized him. To him I was funny and beautiful and talented and smart when everyone else referred to me in the past tense. When I'd think it was hopeless and I should move on, he'd send a postcard or a letter. That alone kept me hooked. Who bothers to send letters any more? Three pages of jagged boy-handwriting and I'd ignore that the letters were always signed, "Your friend" at the end. I tried to get past, I even got engaged, but I knew deep down if he came back I'd leave. That never happened but neither did the wedding, and that was for the best. When this whole thing hit the decade mark, I made myself admit that no magic switch was going to be thrown and he'd show up at my door with an armful of flowers. He was just as remote a possibility as one of the characters I made from the qualities he had and those I projected upon him.

 All I have to show for those years are a box of correspondence I swear I'm going to shred one day, a half a dozen manuscripts and an uncomfortable attraction to Stephen Merchant. Hopefully, these stories won't be just therapy for my muddled mind and you all will find something to connect to and enjoy from them as well.