Goodbye Blogger

For quite some time, I've been maintaining Blog'D here, as well as over at LiveJournal and MySpace. This era of triple-posting to these three sites is coming to an end, and the Blogger-flavor of Blog'D is no longer going to be available.

Please feel free to continue to read about the adventures in D-Land over at the LiveJournal or MySpace editions.

Thanks, and see you over there!

- D

Review of '300'

I saw 300 this past Sunday . . . I was cautious; the director has yet to prove himself to me (he was the director behind the needless Dawn of the Dead remake), and the future of an upcoming Watchmen comic-to-film adaptation hinged on the success-or-failure of this film . . .

I was not disappointed.

300 is an incredibly well-done film. The performances were solid, the direction was tight, the cinematography (both real and CG-imagined) contributed to the overall flow and feel of the story. The overall pacing and editing was slightly atypical; for a story that really hit its action-peak toward the middle of the film's running time, and then slowly ebbs to a heroic end for its climax, the pacing "felt right" nonetheless.

Being a fan of horror and genre films, I was familiar with the lead. Gerard Butler has played Dracula (2000's Dracula 2000) and Erik (2004's The Phantom of the Opera), both roles that required a certain sense of charisma. As Leonidas, he not only maintained that charisma, but exceeded everything I had seen him perform before. I completely bought that he was a proud warrior-king, a leader who put his people's needs and desires above his own. Butler was surrounded a similarly strong cast (and I don't mean physically strong, although they were that as well - I've read interviews with the cast and their trainers - brutal!); no one actor or actress seemed out of place.

Speaking of actresses, however, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that any of the female roles of any note were a bit . . . disheartening. I don't know if I'd go as far as saying 300 was flat-out sexist, but the stars of the film were definitely the Spartan warriors and their king. (The source material featured the women even less, so I wasn't completely surprised.)

There is a lot of blood. A lot. I don't have a problem with gore and violence in film (have you SEEN my desk around Halloween?), but I was a little surprised by the amount of it.

I was also impressed with the soundtrack. Tyler Bates (who is currently lined up to compose the score for Rob Zombie's re-make/re-imagining/re-whatever of Halloween) pounded out several pieces of music that perfectly matched the action on the screen.

It's been a long time since I've said this, but I'd like to see this movie again . . . on the big screen.

Sick = Suck.

Oh, I had such grand plans for February. Getting back into a solid writing routine. Hitting the gym regularly. Moving forward on House Improbabilia projects. February Feedback. Oh, February was going to be the best damned shortest month of the year.

And then I got sick.

My body slowly crawled toward the edge of sickness. It didn't hit all at once. But slowly, ever-so-slowly, I was losing the battle. I wasn't able to work on as many projects as I'd like. My time at the gym got harder and harder to handle. Eventually, I just succumbed.

A week ago, I finally felt that rawness in the back of my throat. Friday, it got worse. Friday night? I was done. I spectacularly spent most of the weekend in bed. I even managed to get Monday off from work so that I could continue to nurse myself back to health.

I'm just about to 100% now. I've still got a bit of crud in my lungs and my entire upper body is sore from the deep, heavy coughing rattling my torso, but I'm almost there.

Thanks to everyone who gave me the space I needed to just chill and heal.

March onward!

A Letter to Douglas Clegg

Mr. Clegg:

I belong to your email list, include myself amongst your MySpace "friends," and have posted about you on my blog, but this is the first time I've sat down to compose a proper letter.

I've been an avid reader for many years, and while Clive Barker's earlier novels have had permanent homes on my bookshelves, I've not read a lot of horror fiction. I love the horror films (and the occasional horror television show), but for the most part, I've long preferred my horror on the (big or small) screen. Every once and a while, something like John Steakley's 'Vampire$' would move into my paperback library, or another edition of Lovecraft's stories would find a home on my shelves, but overall, my horror-fiction-reading was fairly narrow despite my love for the genre in other mediums. Additionally, I found that my own tastes in reading fiction did not include writing written from a first-person perspective (despite my love for Lovecraft).

Last year, I underwent a minor surgery (a nasal polyposis - no, they didn't let me keep the polyps!), and while the recovery time wasn't very painful, I couldn't work much, so to keep myself busy, I watched DVDs and read. My wife made a trip to a local bookstore (Powell's City of Books - if you're ever in the Portland-area, you simply must visit!), and came home with a few of your books. I've been hooked every since! 'You Come When I Call You' has become my favorite Clegg novel, and 'The Attraction' also having found its way to my list of will-read-again-soon-books.

As much as I'd like to thank you for these great works of fiction, I'd also like to thank you for bringing horror fiction solidly into my reading life. When I'm not reading (or re-reading) a Clegg novel, I've found myself reading F. Paul Wilson and Brian Keene, and now when I visit Powell's City of Books, I spend a lot more time in the Horror section than ever before. I still love my horror films, but I'm enjoying experiencing my horror fiction on the page just as much now.

A Letter to Richard Moore

There's no mail tomorrow (President's Day), so Tuesday morning, a copy of this letter will find its way into the mail.

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Mr. Moore:

There are some weeks I look at my stack of new comics and I struggle. Your comic doesn’t come out monthly, or even bi-monthly, so this doesn’t happen very often, but when a new issue of ‘Boneyard’ is released, I find myself never quite sure where to place it in my “to-read” stack. On the one hand, I want to dive into it right away, but then I know that that means I’ll have to wait that much longer for the next issue to find its way to my “to-read” stack. On the other hand, I could place it at the bottom of the comics I have to read, but it’s such a struggle to wait that long to revisit the old friends I’ve come to know and love in the pages of ‘Boneyard.’

Ultimately, I end up reading the comic more than once anyway, so wherever it finds itself in my “to-read” pile becomes a moot point.

I’ve been reading ‘Boneyard’ for several years now, and whenever I find myself speaking about comics with anyone, I’m very quick to mention that this is one of my favorite on-going comic books. I can’t say I’ve been on-board from the beginning as I didn’t discover ‘Boneyard’ until after its launch, so I’ve been picking up the collected editions to fill in the early gaps. The color-versions of the collections have also found their way to my bookshelf (although it did take some getting used to; the world of ‘Boneyard’ for me has always been one of black-and-white, but the color editions are slowly growing on me).

I read a lot of comics every month, both mainstream and from the smaller publishers, but the characters of your comic ring the most true. Not only are they well-rounded, consistent characters, but they’re also all so damned likable! There’s not one character in ‘Boneyard’ I wouldn’t mind taking out for a cup of coffee . . . !

In fact, if the opportunity ever presented itself, I’d offer to buy you a cup of coffee, sir! Thanks for creating such a consistently strong piece of serial fiction. I look forward to every new issue, and hope for many more in the future. Take care . . .

Sincerely,

Derek M. Koch