Thursday, October 17th, 2002, 1:35 pm: satellite tracking indicates...
The new comprehensive collection of Raymond Chandler's short stories has been delivered to my door...

::Looks at clock::

Damn! I still have 3 hours of work left...

Wednesday, October 16th, 2002, 2:06 pm: my baby takes the evening train...
Last train of the night, only two stops before the end of the line. I pull my coat around me and try to disappear into the corner of the car. From under my hood I catch a glimpse of the station as we pull to a stop. Standing on the platform is a party girl. She's drunk or maybe high. I can tell by the way she's standing. She's concentrating on not falling. That's something that comes automatic unless there's a reason. Beside her, another girl leans against the support column, she has her eyes closed, but wears a huge smile. Apparently, it was a good night to be out on the town.

When the doors open, party girl kisses her friend goodbye, then steps on board. The other girl stands outside waving.

As the train pulls away, the girl struggles to come to a decision on whether to sit or just stand. She clings to the steel pole, steadying herself. Decision made.

She hasn't noticed me yet. I sit motionless, studying her. She's Latino, long dark curls and big gold hoop earrings. Underneath a tan overcoat, she has a painted on red dress. It's too short and I can see her inner thigh. I follow her legs down as they disappear into a pair or red boots, complete with Spice Girl heels. That will make running difficult, but maybe it will be her lucky night.

The train starts to slow and I can see the lights of the next station as they come into view. He is standing on the edge of the platform. I know it's him almost immediately. Average height, middle aged, white, glasses, going bald... it's practically the textbook definition of cliché.

He watches as the cars glide past. He's hunting.

When he sees party girl, I think I catch the slight hint of a smile. It's gone quickly however.

He steps inside the car, and for the first time I notice the briefcase in his hand. It's small, leather-bound and worn at the edges. He's been at this for a long time.

He casually steps past the girl and she makes no effort to avoid him. Probably a bad move on her part. He takes a seat and I notice his eyes as he catches sight of me for the first time. There is a spot of recognition, but otherwise his face is blank. Maybe my presence has made him rethink his plan.

He places the briefcase on the seat next to him and opens the latches. The top of the case shields the contents from view. Doesn't matter though, I know what's inside.

I turn my head a little. It's subtle, but it's enough. He knows I'm watching him. His smile returns.

The train breaks squeal as we round a turn. Momentum carries the girl around the pole, she seems startled by the pull of inertia. Our man makes his move. He reaches out grabbing the girl by the arm and pulling her into his lap. A quick flash of silver and I see he's struck with the syringe.

The girl's too dumbstruck to even realize what happened. She looks terrified, turns and tries to pull herself free. Her head sags.

I make my move, throwing back the coat. A .45 in my right hand, I bring my arm up into position, aiming at the guy's face.

That's when I see it. The razor in his other hand pressed against the soft flesh of the girl's throat. It's just beginning it's bite. There's a small bead of red.

"Your move," he states coldly.

Tuesday, October 15th, 2002, 3:27 pm: best review I've read in a long time...
Based on "the most famous comic strip in British history," according to no less a reliable source than the liner notes on the back of the DVD, JANE AND THE LOST CITY concerns the wacky adventures of a heroine whose main gimmick is to lose her clothes. Now before you go out and rent this... OK, I see you’ve rented it... fine, whatever. Well, before you start watching it, you should know that this is based on a 1932 comic strip, so when Jane loses her clothes she’s merely being stripped down to her underwear. So before you snap that rented disc in half... alright, so you’ve already snapped the rented disc in half... whatever happed to those anger management classes?

hehehehehe...

Tuesday, October 15th, 2002, 2:21 pm: worst piece of crap ever?
at the Horror/Comic Con they gave out this sampler CD by some clown calling himself "the hungry ghost" the CD has two of the lamest pieces of music ever recorded... and I use the term "music" only in the broadest sense as this is more like someone who can't sing doing karaoke over one of those "Spooky Sounds" tapes you get for $1.99 at K-Mart around Halloween...

hungry ghost = LOSER!

Tuesday, October 15th, 2002, 2:07 pm: excellent line...
I was reading the on-line excerpt of KLEOPATRA by Karen Essex, just to see if it's something I want to read (and thus purchase) and I found this great little line...

"Every few years, it was necessary for the Egyptian mob to assassinate at least one Ptolemy, just to remind them that time brings down all races."

I still haven't made a final decision, but I'm going to put it on my wishlist just because of that...

Tuesday, October 15th, 2002, 1:45 pm: pathetic...
at lunch, I drove around in my car doing little errands... not because they needed done right now, but because it's still fucking cold in my office and I was trying to get warm...

I tooled around with the heater cranked up to max, which was awesome... but now I'm back in my cold office and my hands are freezing again...

Damn you Physical Plant!

and of course...

Damn You Bill Bixby!

Tuesday, October 15th, 2002, 11:29 am: what I did on my summer vacation by archeon...
after work Friday, I raced home and packed up my necessities for the big weekend... then it was time to hit the road, Bang Tango, Queensryche, and of course W.A.S.P. in the CD player as I drove though a raging downpour all the way to Altoona.

First stop: Tom B's house for the usual Friday night round-table, where discussions of all things cool dragged on until late... from there, it was off to my mom's house and by that point I was so tired that I didn't even have any trouble falling asleep on the too small guest bed... (aside- Don't you hate it when your feet stick off the edge of the bed?)

Saturday: woke up late, got my self reasonably presentable, then hit the road again... Picked up Bill, then we stopped for gas and cash... next stop...

Comic/Horror Con in Pittsburgh... when we pulled in to the Expo-Mart, we were suddenly wondering about our plans for spending the entire day looking through boxes of cheap comics... the parking lot was nearly empty... this did not bode well... inside, after shelling out our $12, we found that indeed the Con was no where near the size or quality of the April con and we counted our blessings that I had overslept, so we would have less time to kill before the Penguins game at 7:30...

The first thing that caught my eye was an aged and lonely looking Gil "Buck Rodgers" Gerrard sitting at a table... there was no one talking to him... I felt bad and told Bill he should go ask him "What was it like to work with Gary Coleman?" but Bill declined... still, I honestly did feel bad for him, I loved that show as a kid, well at least until the got that Hawk guy and tried to rip off Star Trek, but I'm just not "fan boy" material... I generally have no desire to talk to actors, well unless Callisto, or Cleopatra 2525 should ever make an appearance, but even then I'd probably be too shy and just politely stare from a distance...

I did find the two issues of Marvel Knights I needed, so that Con was a complete success on that front... and...

I finally met some LJ peeps I had wanted to meet for a long time... mamoulian and rabbitchild proved to be as cool in real life as they seem on-line... I had a good chat with Scott, and he even showed me some stuff he's working on and it was really coming along great... there's photographic evidence around somewhere, but I look like hell so you'll have to find that on your own...

The next great thing was the acquisition of the Cowboy Bebop series on DVD for $60! It was the limited edition 3 disc set with all 26 episodes, and quite a bargain... considering the Region 1 disc set has six discs, for the overpriced amount of nearly $200... I was thrilled to find this region less set... It has all of the same features including language and subtitles options... I don't know if the region 1 set has any extras or not but in the end who cares... I wanted the episodes and not the extras, which I'd only watch once if at all anyway...

Next was Border's Books which is always a scene of depravity... as we entered a couple of hoods ran out and jumped in a car, a few unpaid for DVD box sets in their hands... the clerk chased them and got their license plate number though...

The last time we were at this Border's there was this 50ish man with a skanky 20 something girl displayed on his arm for everyone to see... yes it was as pathetic as it sounds... and not to be outdone... this trip had a strange, serial killer type man sitting on the floor in the erotic books section drooling over the pictures of naked women in various sexual positions for the entire time we were in the store... LOSER!

Dinner was TGI Friday's where I went against type and ordered something new and it sucked... archeon's restaurant rule #1 - must never stray from menu choices... when you find something you like, stick with it...

then we hit Phantom of the attic and Toys R Us before driving downtown to the Mellon Civic Arena, we were about an hour and a half early though so we marched downtown to this hidden store full of all things good... I think the place is called Edie’s or something but they have comics and toys and heavy metal CDs and books and movies and pretty much anything you'd ever want to entertain yourself...

then we made our way back to the Mellon Civic Arena where the mighty Penguins dismantled the gay 5 New York Rangers, utterly crushing them with a 6-0 win...

Sunday, was a day of hanging out at my mom's house, visiting with my nephew and watching the Bengals embarrass themselves...

Monday, drove to State College to pick up my comics and headed home, where I watched the Penguins get revenge for the opening night loss by beating Toronto...

Now it's Tuesday and I'm here at work... the end.

Friday, October 11th, 2002, 2:34 pm: there’s a genius behind the madness... or at least that’s what I keep telling myself...
avaria was curious, so I thought I’d try and explain just what I was trying to do with that last piece of artwork, and really, pretty much all of my creative endeavors...

( a peek inside my head )

Friday, October 11th, 2002, 8:48 am: real fruit filling...
all of the Hostess Fruit Pie ads collected in one place...

this is a pretty cool archive, they have all the DC and Marvel ads.

I never imagined the Joker would have his own Hostess Fruit Pie ad, I know he had his own comic, in fact I even have an issue of that where he squares off against Green Arrow, but using the Joker to sell pastry just seems wrong somehow...

Thursday, October 10th, 2002, 3:14 pm: new art...
I've been working on this for most of the day, and I'm not sure if it's finished or if it still needs something...

Wednesday, October 9th, 2002, 3:59 pm: I was sixteen going nowhere, will I see seventeen alive...
And I was running from the nightmare
I stand at the promised land with fire in my eyes
I'm at the crossroad of my destiny and desire
Oh, God, what will I be
And my obsession is the gasoline to feed my fire
Oh it's burning in me


there is no day that can't be improved substantially by listening to W.A.S.P.

Current music: W.A.S.P. - Arena Of Pleasure

Wednesday, October 9th, 2002, 3:28 pm: unintentionally subversive...
listening to music with my office door open...

lyrics - "Cry out, set yourself free... live your life your own way..."

secretaries hustle up and down the hall, dropping ridiculous amounts of meaningless paperwork in everyone's mailboxes...

I think I'm the only one who sees this as amusing...

Current music: Leatherwolf - Gypsies & Thieves

Wednesday, October 9th, 2002, 2:22 pm: Once upon a poll...
That last entry gave me an idea...

Creative types, here's your chance to shine. Brevity is the name of the game. Originality and intrigue are the challenge.

Are you up to it?

Poll #66558: Hemmingway...
Open to: all, results viewable to: all

Tell me your best one sentence story.

View Answers

Wednesday, October 9th, 2002, 2:11 pm: fun with tutorials...
so I'm working my way through the Macromedia Flash tutorials and the instructions say...

Click the Text tool, then click the Stage and start typing.

so what comes out when I start typing?

"Look," she said. "Just because you have a gun, doesn't mean you know how to use one."


funny what bubbles to the surface when you just type a stream of conscious sentence...

Wednesday, October 9th, 2002, 10:22 am: Captain Cold and the Icicle are currently fighting the Flash in my office...
Oh wait, it only feels like that's what is happening....

Attention Physical Plant employees: I have ice in my hair and I can see my breath... It's now OK to turn the heat on...

Balls!

oh and...

Damn You Bill Bixby!

Monday, October 7th, 2002, 4:38 pm: let the hammer fall...
Hammerfall is going to be in Pittsburgh on December 7!

Since W.A.S.P. cancelled their tour... I may go to this... the fact that it's a Saturday is a big plus...

also - new album comes out on Oct. 28...

Monday, October 7th, 2002, 3:04 pm: morbid?
somebody has been working a paper cutter pretty good for about the last hour and a half... I keep waiting for the inevitable scream, but alas, nothing so far...

Monday, October 7th, 2002, 9:43 am: sizing up the competition...
this weekend I managed to complete all of my required reviews for Project Greenlight and out of the four scripts I had to review this is what I got...

1. a lame horror script, which had kind of an okay idea at it's core, but wasn't executed effectively and contained more sex and violence than was reasonably necessary. It really read like some bi-sexual LARPer's wish fulfillment fantasy... I gave it a bad review.

2. the worst piece of crap imaginable, badly formatted, sci-fi comedy, I guess it was supposed to be a comedy at least, totally not funny, poorly written, I felt bad that this guy wasted his money... it was about an android named "handyman" who took odd jobs for $10 an hour, jobs including: party planning, acting in porn, oral surgery... also there were like 60 meaningless characters who did a lot of nothing and some lame thing about the government looking for the robot... really I can't say how bad this script sucked...

3. an amazingly well written drama/comedy about a man going back to his hometown for his high school reunion... this one had it all, believable characters, humor, emotion... I was totally impressed... I felt it was maybe a little long and that there were a few vocabulary issues with some of the dialog, but with some simple editing, this thing could easily be sold and made into a very good movie... I gave it a good review... this should be in the top 250 or at least close...

4. another drama/comedy about a stay at home mom and an indie rock icon traveling together and learning about themselves and the world... this was cute, the kind of movie you find yourself getting sucked into as you flip past HBO on a Sunday afternoon. Nothing new or really clever, but well done and I think it would make a nice "little" movie... I gave it a good review as well...

after you complete your required reviews, you can continue to review up to a total of 15 scripts, so at two good and two bad, I decided to review a few more just to see what's out there...

I have downloaded my next one, which has an interesting premise, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet...

Friday, October 4th, 2002, 4:29 pm: wow, this is bad...
I'm 35 pages into the reading of the first script I have to review and wow... it's pretty lame... it's kind of a horror story, I guess, but it's got sex scenes that would never fly in anything that was given less than an NC-17 rating... what the hell is this guy thinking?

if they're all like this... it bodes well for my script...

::back to reading::

Friday, October 4th, 2002, 2:34 pm: just so everyone is clear on this...
Internet

lame.

Friday, October 4th, 2002, 9:16 am: american humor...
there is an article here about research on humor and they have samples of what people find funny in different parts of the world... I think they nailed it on the american front, because I think this is fucking hysterical...

TEXAN: "Where are you from?"

HARVARD GRAD: "I come from a place where we do not end our sentences with prepositions."

TEXAN: "OK -- where are you from, jackass?"

Thursday, October 3rd, 2002, 5:53 pm: STATEMENT FROM BLACKIE LAWLESS
With the recent cancellation of our U.S. Tour I'm sure that there will be some out there that are going to be disappointed. I thought long and hard before this decision was made but if you could truly see what it is that I'm working on you would better understand. It took me a long time to get to a point where I believed that I could equal "The Crimson Idol". That record took almost three years to make and it was one album. What I'm working on now requires all my time and attention not just to equal the "Idol" but to try to go beyond it and a double record set will push me to my extreme limits.

I am hell-bent that I will not disappoint!!!
B.L.


the only thing that really disappoints me is that I still have a whole year to wait before this CD comes out...

Thursday, October 3rd, 2002, 2:56 pm: October 12...
I will be in Pittsburgh for the Horror/Comic Con... and I have tickets for the Pens/Rangers game!

going to be a kick ass weekend...

Thursday, October 3rd, 2002, 1:43 pm: How bad do you need the money?
Hillary Swank - The Core? What? Are you serious? Man does that look Suck-tacular...

Juliana Margulies - Ghost Ship? You turned down a million an episode for one final year of the suck-tacular ER (I know, some of you like that, but it's the same old doctor show that's been around forever: Marcus Wellby, Trapper John MD, etc.) because you believed in your promising new film career... I'll look for Ghost Ship come Oscar time... thanks Jullie...

Samuel L. - formula 51... WTF? Is there no script you will turn down? Though this could be a sleeper in disguise, I seriously have doubts about that...

Thursday, October 3rd, 2002, 10:07 am: the waiting is the hard part...
Project Greenlight submission period has ended...

Script reviews begin tomorrow...

as part of the contest, those who enter have to review 4 scripts and 2 director's scenes... our assigned reviews get posted tomorrow...

it's pretty exciting... I can't wait to see what I'm up against...

If anyone wants to be a script reviewer, you can still sign up for that... you don't need to have entered the contest and I believe it's free... info here...