July 17, 2007 by wilmington.

TEXAS: The sky in Texas is enormous. You can imagine everything being under water (as it was long, long ago) because you usually only see skies like this at sea. As we came into central Texas during the drive to Waco, I could see the line of entire storm fronts (often scarred by dozens of spectacular lightning flashes) stretching at a diagonal in front of me for scores of miles. Now, finally here, I have made a point of eating real Mexican food at least once every 72 hours. The tortillas alone should make anyone who can’t stay here weep in despair.

CRITICISM: Much that passes for criticism today (music, art, literature, movies) is bad. Almost nobody has any real training - or even a coherent philosophy about what it is that criticism is supposed to do. There’s very little education, recognition of past or current standards/criteria, and a diminished vocabulary for expressing the one thing to which people have reduced criticism: opinion. So, get ready for this transition…it will not be smooth…

…that brings us to “TRANSFORMERS” and a great review of it at National Review online by Peter Suderman. As I’ve already written in recommendations to several friends: Suderman has an unflinching critical awareness, but he judges the movie based on what it was trying to be..not what he wishes it had been OR (even more importantly) not what he thinks he’s supposed to say about a Michael Bay movie. For my opinion of the film, I will simply echo the best line in the review: “Giant robots! Wheee!” and add that I think that Shia Lebeouf is actually quite good, very funny, and, this is something for a Bay movie, seems very real.

PATRICK O’BRIAN: I have just started the 20th and final book of the “Aubrey/Maturin” series - Blue at the Mizzen. I’m not sure yet if my reaction to finishing this massive, profound, moving, hilarious, and brilliant series will be the same as my reaction when I finished Lord of the Rings back in June of 2001 (see, I know exactly when I finished it). Over the course of the last 300 pages or so, 3 central characters have died. O’Brian hits you with the news in the most matter-of-fact way, and leaves you to recover - often by waiting in tension for the main characters to talk about it, react to it…in some way process it for you.

In my experience, most used book stores have at least a copy of Master and Commander (I suspect due to the people who bought the book when the movie came out but who then couldn’t plow through those first highly idiosyncratic and somewhat difficult chapters). Again, read these books: make some new and infinitely interesting friends. Like me, you might not get hooked for a while.

I read M&C a few months before the film came out - then didn’t read anything for about 6 months…wasn’t sure I had really enjoyed the book. But after moments and lines and characters kept returning to my thoughts, I stopped in an airport used bookstore (a very good one at RDU) and bought H.M.S.Surprise (the 3rd book). The opening is brilliant and exciting, and the twists and turns (stranded on a deserted island!) are totally unexpected.

But then, about halfway through (?), O’Brian has a passage in which Steven (the Irish doctor, an early-19th century naturalist) encounters an unexpected consequence of his friendship with a poor, Indian girl in Bombay. It is the first of many, many narrative and character development “payoffs” that you realize, only after the fact, O’Brian has been building toward for hundreds of pages. Eventually, he accomplishes similar wonders over the span of several books. This section of Surprise is only a page or two, but I read it over 5 or 6 times. I was in - part of the club. I went out and bought book #2, Post Captain, but then decided to do everything in order. So I re-read #1, then #2, re-read #3 (Surprise), and then went on to #4 and so on. Since then, I’ve re-read large portions of M&C several times, and frequently look back at several of the books to find certain passages or chapters - sometimes to track-back a character or plot thread that resurfaces many books later, sometimes to study the language, sometimes just to re-experience a moment or joke or description.

I might try to quote or describe some of the great moments in this space at some point. As several reviewer/critics have claimed: Here is one of the great novelists of any era.

COMMENTS: See the thread below (several down the list) for the helpful and hopefullly-accurate instructions on how you can comment and help start some back & forth! You have to register (keeps marketing and flaming down), but it’s free and there’s no spam.

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June 11, 2007 by wilmington.

I almost wrote that Thursday, June 7 was “the end of a chapter” in the increasingly strange and surprising life of your devoted Ambassador. But that’s not accurate. It’s more like the end of Book 2 or Book 3 in the whole series.

So: June 11, 2007 - Book the Third - “In which the intrepid Ambassador awakes from the first full night’s sleep in almost 5 weeks to find that he is on the other side of high school/middle school teaching and is now a Ph.D. candidate.”

Upcoming in this space: updates from Book III, observations and hopefully discussions about theology and film (especially since three of my future professors, Thomas Hibbs, Michael Foley, and Ralph Wood have written on that intersection), thoughts on my frequently-mentioned-but-never-explained obsession with Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin novels (the basis for the “Master and Commander” film), and something about the current jazz scene.

Recent enjoyments: the films “The Prestige” and “Stranger Than Fiction,” Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nelly Furtado CD’s made by former students, O’Brian’s “The Wine Dark Sea,” the Ireland v. Spain quarterfinal from the 2002 World Cup, my son yelling “You want a piece o’ me?!” as he and his stuffed animals pounce me on my bed, and creating the word ‘enjoyments.’

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May 16, 2007 by wilmington.

BRIGHAM has been filming/editing/producing a promotional video for a company that provides security services (the guns, ammo, cars, and big, thick-jawed guys kind of security). The rough cuts we’ve seen are very slick and very cool.

Brigham will also be D.P. and Editor on the film version of Spectre alumna Kendra Scattergood’s play “Absence.” They film during the first weekends of June.

He also continues work on the post-production of The Spectre. I’ll try to get a comment update from him if I can coax him from out of his man-cave deep in the guts of the Hydrotherapy Massage wing of the Pirate’s Cove compound. [Visitors beware: he’s been buying up replica German WWII submachine guns and other gear…for a movie….he claims…].

MATT continues to kick West Coast butt and take names out in L.A. as he shows those effete, money-laden industry types how the no-nonsense, indie/guerilla experience he gained in good ol’ North Carolina should put him at the top of everyone’s list for new projects.

He’s done some work with two different production companies (including work on casting calls, production meetings, etc.) and has even been approached to do producer duties on some indie projects. We are also still planning to do some Sea Shanty writing during the early summer.

WILMINGTON (that’s me) is doggedly pursuing self-distribution of the long-fabled “X-GEN + Wingnut” DVD through CustomFlix. As I do the 10,000 things necessary to move across the country in 6 weeks, I’ve limited all other film-related work to the writing plans with Matt.

Please scroll down to the ”Bailey Comment” thread below to leave a comment after viewing the film. If you can’t download the QuickTime file to view, leave a comment saying that, too! It will be very helpful.

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April 27, 2007 by wilmington.

Some possibly-random (Dirk Gently may have been right, ater all, about the general interconnectedness of all things) observations:

1) Is it possible yet for people to take an objective look/listen at Wynton Marsalis’ music from the 90’s and, separating themselves from the ridiculous “Progressive” turf wars, assess it in strictly musical terms? I listened to “Citi Movements” and “Blue Interlude” recently. Since it made me think about an essay I wrote for a jazz radio program guide back in 1999, I think I’ll link to it here next week to see what people think of it now.

2) The current Major League Soccer season has more excitement - of both the legitimate quality-of-soccer and the manufactured media hype variety which all pro sports need - than any previous season of American soccer. 

The New York RED BULL look to have an exciting brand of attacking soccer and recently added Juan Pablo Angel, a very successful striker from the English Premiere League, and Clint Mathis, former poster-boy rebel for American soccer. It remains to be seen if the BECKHAM FACTOR is an example of the first or the second form of excitement mentioned above. Games are on ESPN2 every Thursday night and Fox Soccer Channel shows others on the weekends. Watch and see the level of our now 11 year-old domestic league.

3) Patrick O’Brian is one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century - possibly one of the best ever considering what the novel is supposed to do.

4) If you haven’t already - check out “Coffee Betsy.” [linked below as a Blog-Buddy] 

More to come…

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April 20, 2007 by wilmington.

Comment on this post to leave feedback on Bailey (as mentioned on the Sea Shanty Films home site). You can also download the film by right-clicking HERE and waiting for the 40MB file to download. You’ll need the latest QuickTime…and it will take a while to download even this compressed version of the film.

See the post below for instructions on how to comment. Be honest and as specific as you can. Questions are welcome. Looking forward to hearing what you (and whichever friends you might point to the film) have to say.

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April 16, 2007 by wilmington.

Look at the bottom right of one of my posts.

See where it says “Comments” or “No comments,” etc. Click there.

You will have to leave a name, valid e-mail address, and then answer a simple math question that prevents spammers and other disreputable scum from practicing their vile craft here. Then type your post and submit it. If you want to avoid doing this every time you comment, I believe you have the option to “REGISTER” at the bottom of the right-hand column of my blog page.

I will then receive an e-mail to accept you as a registered cyber-buddy or just approve your comment, and then you’re published my friend!

Try it! It’s fun and it strikes a blow for truth, justice, and the American Way…

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