One Toe In

Springsteen's Working on a Dream In Depth

2009-02-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

Even more than on The Rising and Magic, music comes first on Working on a Dream. The pop influences and melodic strengths that played a part on Magic songs like "You're Own Worst Enemy" and "Girls In Their Summer Clothes" dominate here from pop hymns to country ballads and upbeat rockers. I remember reading interviews where Springsteen and Steve Van Zandt talked about how they used to record

Bruce, Working On a Dream, First-listen Reactions

2009-01-20T01:54:00.004-05:00

Thanks to NPR, we get a week of listening to Bruce Springsteen's new album Working on a Dream before it comes out. Some gut reactions. More nuanced ones to follow next week."Outlaw Pete": crazy Cinemascope Bruce -- strings, harmonicas, guitars, loud, quiet, narrative."My Lucky Day": one I've heard before, but on the heels of the blistering guitar at the end of "Outlaw Pete," it rocks even more."

One Toe In's Favorites of 2008: TV

2009-01-18T22:00:00.000-05:00

Normally, I'm happy to defend TV or at the very least its potential, especially for long-form storytelling and characterization, but 2008 was a pretty disappointing year. The writers' strike, a lack of interesting new shows, and some lackluster returns added up to a lot of dull TV. Granted, there are quality shows I'm not watching for one reason or another like The Office (weird hangups about

One Toe In's Favorites of 2008: Comics

2009-01-11T01:20:00.003-05:00

I've thought about doing best-of lists before, but frankly, I haven't read, listened to, or seen everything or close to everything out there, so how can I really do a best-of list? This year, I've decided to take a look at the best of what I'm reading, etc. First up, comics. Vague spoilers ahead.FAVORITE SUPERHERO SERIES:Captain America: by Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting, Butch Guice, and Luke

Gems: Crystal River x 2

2008-12-01T06:00:00.002-05:00

Last spring, the band Mudcrutch released its first album, though they'd last played together in the 1970s. Before the Heartbreakers, Tom Petty helped front Mudcrutch in Gainesville, Florida, and he first moved to California with them, but after the record company decided they only wanted to work with him, the band broke up. Two of its members, guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboard player Benmont

The Baseball Project: Home Run

2008-07-11T06:00:00.003-04:00

Here's the lineup: Scott McCaughey of the The Minus 5, Steve Wynn of The Dream Syndicate and other bands, drummer Linda Pitmon, and Peter Buck from R.E.M. The strategy: make a rock album of songs about baseball (The Baseball Project's Vol. 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails). McCaughey and Wynn split songwriting and lead vocal duties, and between them, they cover highlights of baseball history

...Since Sliced Bread

2008-07-07T06:00:00.004-04:00

For reasons soon to be revealed, I went looking for historical happenings on July 7, 1928, thinking something interesting must have happened. I found a few items of note, though significant might be too strong a word. In Wheeling, West Virginia, at Wheeling Park, the Madonna of the Trails was unveiled. It was the second of twelve identical monuments erected by the Daughters of the American

R.E.M.: Accelerate

2008-04-06T22:19:00.004-04:00

Prologue:The story's simple enough and reported in detail elsewhere. After drummer Bill Berry left R.E.M. in 1997, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe carried on. They released three studio albums, the engaging if over-long Up, the pleasant enough Reveal, and the, frankly, bland Around the Sun. Apparently communication broke down between the three, and as they spent more and more time in

Criminal Redux: Lay Down Your Burden

2008-03-02T16:51:00.003-05:00

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have relaunched their crime comic Criminal with a new number one issue and a revamped format that includes more story pages, more back material, nifty new paper, and begins with a series of three stand-alone but connected stories.But regret is all I have once I hit the streets. Memories and regrets. Aren't they the same thing?--Jake "Gnarly" Brown, Criminal Vol. 2,

I Feel Honored, Really

2008-02-15T23:45:00.002-05:00

I'm on vacation at the moment, and last night, I called my home voicemail only to discover 13 messages. Frankly, I don't get that many phone calls, I'm visiting my family right now, and even the automated telemarketer things only add up to a couple every few days. Well, I had to find out what was going on here, and let me tell you, I had quite the group of callers:1 call from Bill Clinton1 call

The Breakup Society: Pop und Drang

2008-02-03T16:13:00.001-05:00

Nobody likes a winner, baby. That's just the way it works. Don't wanna envy people we could just as easily dismiss as jerks.--"Nobody Likes a Winner," The Breakup SocietyOn their album Nobody Likes a Winner, The Breakup Society, led by singer/rhythm guitarist/songwriter Ed Masley, build a wall of contradictions. With the music, they embrace elements of pop, garage, and punk to create an often

Looking For Artists

2008-01-11T12:17:00.000-05:00

Besides fiction writing and increasingly infrequent blog post, I have been quietly working on some comics projects, and though I can doodle with some effectiveness, I'm not at the level of artist I would need to be to complete these projects on my own. I could probably take the classes I should have taken a long time ago and get somewhere with that, but for the moment, I need a collaborator or

The Wire Season 4: Getting Schooled

2008-01-01T22:05:00.000-05:00

Not caught up? Check out previous One Toe In Posts on The Wire."You gonna look out for me?"--Randy WagstaffRandy, one of the four eighth grade boys at the center of season 4 of The Wire, curses a would-be father figure with these words after a series of minor and major interconnected events leave his already precarious life in upheaval. Twelve episodes in, he's a long way from the same boy who

Magic: The Beat of Your Heart

2007-10-07T00:49:00.000-04:00

With his new album Magic, Bruce Springsteen, along with the E Street band and producer Brendan O'Brien, has crafted a masterpiece that, like much of his work, encapsulates the many aspects of rock and roll. The lyrics challenge the current status quo, challenge listeners to do something about that status quo. The music engages the heart, sometimes with the same weight as the lyrics and at other

Tuesday is Bruceday

2007-10-02T12:36:00.000-04:00

So how am I celebrating, other than spending some good, cold cash? Even though I'd listened to a official stream of Magic a number of times in the last week, for the first time in a long time, I sat down with an album and just listened to it and read the lyrics and the credits and looked at the pictures in the booklet. Nothing else, no multitasking. Superlatives abound, but for now, I'll say

Searchin' for a Mystery Train

2007-09-01T23:11:00.000-04:00

I want a thousand guitarsI want pounding drumsI want a million different voices speaking in tongues--Bruce Springsteen "Radio Nowhere"Another year, another Bruce Springsteen album on the horizon. We're in a bit of a Boss renaissance right now -- three studio albums and a two live albums in three years. His latest, this time back with the E Street Band, arrives on October 2 with the odd title

Grudge Match

2007-08-30T10:40:00.000-04:00

In a fight, who wins? My money's on the second gentleman. Sure, he's a bit of a dandy, but he's got a longer reach (a little hard to see here), a protective outer shell, and Extra-powerful MonocleVision. Besides, how many uses for taffy did George Washington Carver invent?

This Guy Scares Me

2007-08-26T22:20:00.000-04:00

Stuff I Like: Crime Times 3

2007-08-21T19:36:00.000-04:00

Three recent Netflix rentals. The Silent Partner (1978): Nebbish bank teller Miles Cullen (seventies oddball icon Elliott Gould) doesn't have much of a life. Julie (Susannah York), the co-worker he has a crush on, is having an affair with the boss, who doesn't think much of Miles. His main interest in life seems to be tropical fish. On a piece of carbon paper, he discovers a holdup note,

The Shark Returns

2007-08-06T19:59:00.000-04:00

My friend Rick's Cultureshark blog has returned after a hiatus, but it's also moved to the wonderful world of Blogger. He says he has "a lot of ideas planned," and I've heard some of them, so keep an eye out. One Toe In might even be involved. Pay a visit...the water's fine.

John From Cincinnati: "See God, Kai"

2007-07-15T22:56:00.001-04:00

"Einstein understood that if he was able to sign correctly he would experience the secret of energy. He was telling himself a story with those signs, and he said, 'All I want to understand is the mind of God.' Now, I don’t want to understand it; I want to testify to it. I believe that we are all literally part of the mind of God and that our sense of ourselves as separate is an illusion. And

The Yiddish Policeman's Union: A Conversation

2007-06-15T10:56:00.000-04:00

In Michael Chabon's new novel The Yiddish Policeman's Union, the creation of Israel failed, and many Jews from around the world ended up in a temporary homeland in Sitka, Alaska. Now "These are strange times to be a Jew." Sitka is about to revert to U.S. and Alaskan control, the fates of many of its current residents unknown. Homicide Detective Meyer Landsman, nursing old wounds,

New Feature: MikeSongs

2007-05-28T15:03:00.000-04:00

Just as I've doled out a few samples of my fiction writing, I thought I'd share some music, too, so after much (and I mean much) trial and error, I've added a little Flash payer to the sidebar with seven songs, all instrumentals. Most of them have versions with vocals, too, but I'm not quite ready to throw my iffy singing on the Internet. I recorded them all on a now-out-of-date Boss BR-532

Two-Paragraph Essay

2007-05-21T00:14:00.000-04:00

Well, my birthday officially started about 15 minutes ago, and as one sometimes does on one's birthday, I'm taking stock. Like most of my birthdays for the past few years, I have mixed feelings. I don't feel old per se. In fact in many ways, to borrow a phrase from Dylan, I feel "younger than that now." I do sometimes feel like I shouldn't be as old as I am, that I haven't accomplished or

Revisors Notebook, Issue 4, Vol. 1: At the Risk of Repeating Myself

2007-05-15T12:52:00.000-04:00

In my previous post, I took Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey to task for repeating themselves, so woe was almost me when I found myself about to make a similar mistake. Of course, this near-mistake took place in the confines of a novel and didn't involve repeating information. Instead, I almost wrote an identical moment I had already written. In the original scene, two college-aged kids are

Stuff I Like #2: Here, There and Everywhere

2007-05-09T19:42:00.000-04:00

Geoff Emerick served as the main, or balance, engineer for the three classic Beatles albums Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Abbey Road, as well as for Magical Mystery Tour, portions of The White Album, and singles including "Paperback Writer," "Rain," "Penny Lane," and "Strawberry Fields Forever." Sound engineers use the tools of the studio such as microphones and recording

Water Walking

2007-04-18T11:47:00.000-04:00

My friend Andy has a blog up now called The Guide to Walking on Water. He covers a variety of topics, many in common with One Toe In, in a personable, occasionally abrasive voice. His recurring "Mile" posts turn his penchant for list-making into an exercise in connecting often seemingly random thoughts. Plus he's got a great Springsteen post up. Finally, Andy's a talented fiction writer and

Revisor's Notebook, Issue 3, Vol. 1: The Whole Shebang

2007-04-02T21:31:00.000-04:00

After some stops and starts, I've finished reading through the first draft of Palace of Expression? Not surprisingly, I have mixed emotions about it. I'm generally happy with what's there. The characters feel alive and engaging. Most of it moves me where it should. Yet, major work lies ahead. As I've mentioned before, I have to write a number of additional chapters, 30-40 pages worth of

Potty Break

2007-03-25T19:39:00.000-04:00

What better way to follow up a post about a powerful children's novel retaining its power many years on? A little bathroom tale; that's what! I was visiting the facilities at a local BigBoxBooks today, where I saw the following sign printed on yellow paper and laminated:PLEASE DO NOT THROW TRASH IN THE UNIRNALS!!!!!!!This will cause the urinal to overflow and break.Unirnals were designed for

Building a Bridge

2007-03-22T19:48:00.000-04:00

Some books I like. Some I love. A smaller number get a different kind of affection. These I have a relationship with, I cherish, I carry with me in my memory as a totem of what books and writing mean. Recently, I revisited one such book, curious to see if it still mattered to me, if it lived up to my memory or if that memory was merely nostalgia. After all, some things we love in childhood we

Stuff I Like #1

2007-03-19T20:07:00.000-04:00

After the first year of the blog, I've moved away from posts about stuff I like, but from time to time I plan to revisit the subject with some capsule appreciations. Comcis: Capote in Kansas In their drawn novel Capote in Kansas, writer Ande Parks and artist Chris Samnee revisit the 1959 murders of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, and Truman Capote's struggles to create his groundbreaking

Revisor's Notebook, Issue 2, Vol. 1: The First Hundred (and eight) Pages

2007-03-09T19:31:00.000-05:00

A recurring feature spun from the act of revision.Last night, I finished reading through the first 108 pages of Palace of Expression. Incidentally, I wrote a brief post on January 30, 2006, the night I finished writing that section. In the first Revisor's Notebook, I mentioned a certain ambivalence about my own judgment in regards to the characters. They seemed consistent with the characters I'd

Death and the Captain

2007-03-08T13:16:00.000-05:00

Captain America is dead. Even if you're not a comics fan, you might have seen the headlines or news stories about the death of this Marvel Comics icon, a character who's been around since the 1940s, who once appeared on a cover where he punched Hitler in the face. For many comics fans, his death raises a number of issues: Is he really dead, and does death really have any value in superhero

Revisor's Notebook Write All Night Special

2007-03-05T19:44:00.000-05:00

As I think back on the story I wrote during the Write All Night event (I don't dare actually look at it), I know a few things. It's highly unlikely anyone else will ever see that version. As I said in previous posts, the experience mattered, but the story is a bit of a goof, a lark, a romp. Some interesting ideas lurk in it about pride, stagnation, and growth, as well as the metaphorical

Write All Night: Good Night, Moon

2007-03-04T05:12:00.000-05:00

The moon's still up and bright outside my window, Jim and Crazy Little Thing have signed off, and I've reached an end to my story (22 1/2 pages, just under 5,000 words). The story did not lose the weird, and I think I threw in a dash of romance and apocalypse at the end. Like I said in my last post, I don't know that it adds up to much, but as is often said, sometimes the journey matters more

Write All Night: Do the Genre Mash

2007-03-04T03:39:00.000-05:00

The pace has slowed a little as my eyes grow a little tired and the siren song of the Internet calls, but I'm up to 16 pages, and the story keeps changing. Right now, it has aspects of realism, fantasy, noir, espionage, family drama, and courtly drama (I know there's a better word for that, but I'm drawing a blank). I really don't know if this will add up to much of anything, but I'm

Write All Night: Weird Happening

2007-03-04T01:45:00.000-05:00

First update of the night. I'm making a lot of progress on my story, 9 pages in just under two hours. It hasn't gone the way I expected, but since I only had vague expectations, that's not surprising. I knew it had the potential to be weird, what with "I believe in Bigfoot" as its first line and the title, which I'm still not sharing. Anyway, what started sort of grounded in reality has

Write All Night: Gearing Up

2007-03-03T23:47:00.000-05:00

What says it's time for Write All Night better than a picture of Bigfoot? Nothing, says I! Besides sleeping late, caffeine intake, and a nap, how have I prepared? First, as a professor used to say, I've gotten stupid. I took a couple walks, watched my co-favorite music DVD (it gets me every time) and my favorite movie of 2006, and played a little guitar. I also watched 75% of an episode of

The Revisor's Notebook, Issue 1, Volume I

2007-03-01T12:11:00.000-05:00

The first in a recurring feature spun from the act of revision.I recently started revising my novel-in-progress Palace of Expression, and though I'm just reading the manuscript right now, a few thoughts and questions have already arisen. For the most part, I haven't read the opening chapters since I wrote them in the late summer/fall of 2005. Occasionally, I would check back for a name or a bit

Write All Night: Six Days and Counting

2007-02-26T12:32:00.000-05:00

Write All Night approaches, and all you can do is run away or embrace it. The challenge, in case you've forgotten or just stumbled onto One Toe In and can't pry yourself away, to Write All Night from just before midnight on March 3 till sunup on March 4. Write All Night founder and CEO Jim Green still leads the charge, even after a bout of mono. Be sure to check out JPG Writes and One Toe In

First Draft Completed

2007-02-12T01:43:00.000-05:00

Well, in just under a month, I've completed the first draft of Palace of Expression. It's longer than I expected, and I know some of the revision will make it still longer. I have to add a character's point of view to the first section and a half. I'll probably trim some fat along the way, though, so for now, I expect to keep the final length in the lower range of the 300s. I still have a lot

The Gauntlet II: Write all Night

2007-02-09T11:55:00.000-05:00

Apparently not satisfied with running his friends and himself in the ground, JPG Writes has issued another challenge, and of course, I've accepted. The gist of it: as Saturday, March 3, begins to bleed into March 4, you write...all night...midnight till dawn if possible, or midnight till you can't write anymore. Jim will be posting updates on his blog during the night, and I expect I'll do the

Guest Blogger: Buzz Bezzerides Remembered

2007-02-02T02:27:00.000-05:00

My friend George wrote the follow eulogy for novelist and screenwriter Albert "Buzz" Bezzerides, which he delivered last Saturday at Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Los Angeles. I have only one experience with Mr. Bezzerides' work, one mentioned in George's eulogy, and one I cherish for the camaraderie and solidarity (as George would say) George, Jim of JPG Writes, and I shared watching

18 Days, 101 Pages

2007-02-02T02:12:00.000-05:00

Allow me to sing my own praises for a moment. I can't help but be happy about my progress since starting THE PLEDGE. If you go to Jim's two original posts at JPG Writes and read the comments or even if you read my original post, you'll see a certain amount of hesitation on my part. It's not that I didn't like the idea. I simply didn't envision myself writing every day. Frankly, even now that

Addressing the Middle, Where Everything Happens

2007-01-23T19:59:00.000-05:00

Over at JPG Writes, Jim finds finds himself questioning why writing the middle section of a novel often becomes the death of the novel. He also wonders why since the One-page Challenge (or THE PLEDGE, as it will be known here) his progress has slowed a little while others', specifically mine, has increased dramatically. First, I don't have a wife or dog, so my free time tends to be, uh, me time,

Ace in the Hole (the Big Carnival) on TV This Week

2007-01-21T23:53:00.000-05:00

As for being cynical, I don't see it. I see a movie that piles on portraits of people at their most cynical as a way of attacking that behavior, of saying, "This is us at our worst, but we don't have to be this way." The fact that it still speaks to the way the world is today (and that its comic exaggerations might not be that exaggerated anymore) might just tell us why it tanked – because it's

Something Happened on the Way to the Diner

2007-01-15T01:51:00.001-05:00

In my first night responding to JPG Write's challenge, the unexpected happened. Of course, I have to be vague about the specifics. Writing the way I do with only a sketchy outline at best and sort of improvising my way along, the unexpected happens a lot, but I certainly didn't foresee the events of this chapter. I'm still not exactly sure how they'll play out since the chapter ends on a

The Gauntlet Has Been Thrown Down

2007-01-14T22:35:00.000-05:00

Over at JPG Writes, my friend Jim continues his self-motivation project. Now he's issued a challenge to his writer friends and readers to pledge to write at least one page of fiction a day. His true goal involves writing more than a page a day, and he's hoping to complete a draft of his novel Central by May. I'm up for the challenge, though I've let him know I might not meet the exact specifics

Searching For a New Voice

2007-01-07T20:29:00.000-05:00

Searching for a new voice. That's how I'm describing the lack of activity here at One Toe In. You might use other words (uninspired, lazy, bored), and to be frank, most of those apply to at least some of the period of relative inactivity. At this point, however, I am looking for a new voice for the blog. I think I've said just about all I have to say about stuff I like. I might revisit the

JPG Writes..and People Listen

2007-01-04T18:22:00.000-05:00

A quick post here to plug a friend. Jim Green, aka jpgwrites, good friend, talented writer, and frequent One Toe In commenter* has started a blog JPG Writes (At Least One Hopes He Does) about fiction writing, in particular the struggles and triumphs of working on his novel Central. If you're at all interested in writing, whether as a writer or a curious bystander, I'm sure Jim's blog will offer

The Wire, Season 4: Gut Impressions

2006-12-10T23:59:00.000-05:00

Me: I'm so worried about those kids. George Pelecanos: You should be. --A brief exchange at the National Book Festival, September 30, 2006 I'm writing this about five minutes after watching the final episode of season four of The Wire, and honestly, I can't begin to form concise, concrete thoughts about the beauty, ugliness, hope, sorrow, humor, and devastation of this season. To say The

Comics: Criminal #1

2006-10-08T20:54:00.000-04:00

Me and Ricky Lawless, we'd escape into the night…into the backstreets. Junkyard dogs at our heels. The Night air full of possibility and fear. But we didn't care. We were kids, we had no rules. Not society's for damn sure. --Leo Patterson, Criminal #1 "Coward." Leo, the protagonist of the first storyline in Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' new comic series Criminal, speaks of rules,

Music: Garageland II Mini-Photo Essay

2006-09-26T13:29:00.000-04:00

I first wrote about Garageland a few months ago, but for a quick refresher, Garageland is my friend Dann's house in New Jersey, where we go to play music...loud. Since the first session, he's gotten his own set of drums, and I've gone up a couple more times. What follows are some photos snapped during the summer.Setting upDann Dann the Drummin' ManSlide guitar One Toe In style Thanks again to

Comics: The Cross Bronx #1 of 4

2006-09-10T18:10:00.000-04:00

Then – after hours looking at photos of what the city does to a little dancing girl...I have to go home and try to be a person.Someone's husband.--Detective Rafael AponteThe burden of his job, the violence, the bodies, the victims, the grieving families weigh down Detective Rafael Aponte. As drawn by Michael Avon Oeming, deep lines crease his forehead, circles have formed beneath his eyes, his

TV: The Wire, Season 3

2006-09-06T13:34:00.000-04:00

"Get on with it, motherfu--" --two major charactersThe fourth season of HBO's The Wire begins Sunday September 10 (unless you have HBO On Demand, in which case it's already begun). I've written about the series before, but a new season seems the perfect opportunity to take another look, in this case at the third season, newly out on DVD. As David Simon makes clear in the commentary for the first

TV: Letter to Deadwood

2006-08-31T13:10:00.000-04:00

The following letter was written by a distant relative to the Deadwood Pioneer. Dear Deadwood, With all due civility, it seems I must part your company once again and return to from whence I came. Three times now have I visited your ragged streets for a spell, feeling lucky that I have, though at first sight you appeared a savage, unwelcoming place, a camp indeed with tents lining the muddy

Books: Ender's Game

2006-08-20T21:06:00.000-04:00

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card The future Earth of Ender's Game has survived two near-cataclysmic wars with the mysterious aliens the Buggers. If not for the unexpected leadership of Mazer Rackham, it very likely wouldn't have survived the second war. United by a common enemy, the countries of the Earth now live in peace under one government. Still, the military expects another Bugger war,

Comics: Criminal -- Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips Return in October

2006-08-07T13:39:00.000-04:00

A quick plug here for a new comic coming out in October by writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips from Marvel's Icon imprint. It's called Criminal, and I have no doubt about its excellence. Brubaker and Phillips are responsible for Sleeper, which I wrote about back in the early days of this blog. Criminal looks to be cut from similar cloth minus the superhero bits, though their past work

Books: King Dork

2006-08-05T23:26:00.000-04:00

King Dork by Frank Portman, Delacorte Press, 2006*Tom Henderson (a.k.a., King Dork, a.k.a. Chi-Mo) is a tenth grader living in the San Francisco area. By his own account, he's a dork:They call me King Dork. Well, let me put it another way: no one ever actually calls me King Dork. It's how I refer to myself in my head, a silent protest and an acknowledgement of

Music: Tom Petty Highway Companion

2006-07-30T23:43:00.000-04:00

If you give me half a chanceI will make her sing and danceI'm gonna give her all my soulI'm gonna play her rock and roll--Tom Petty "Jack"Like his contemporary Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty has always been a great synthesizer of the music he loves, and while Springsteen has made bigger leaps in terms of subject matter, Petty, for the most part, has made a more definitive musical statement. Tom

The Beaver and Butt-Head

2006-07-14T17:00:00.000-04:00

So I was flipping channels last week and stumbled on a late-night showing of Leave it To Beaver, which I hadn't seen in years. Beaver's teacher was asking the class what they'd like to do for a living when they grew up. A girl said something normal (teacher, secretary, whatever a girl was supposed to want to do back then). Then some nerdy guy -- kind of a cross between Ralph Wiggum and Louie

Movies: The Proposition

2006-06-27T13:21:00.000-04:00

Screenplay by Nick Cave, directed by John HillcoatFlies cover a man's dusty back and hat. A hand squeezes blood out of a leather whip. Twisted, knotted trees dot the flat, dry land. A wiry, long-haired, bearded man rides toward a red mesa set against the blue sky. Lightning bolts spring down somewhere across the endless plain. Two men sit on the edge of a cliff facing an orange sunset in a purple

Books: Never Let Me Go

2006-06-19T19:38:00.000-04:00

Kathy has a secret. She doesn't think she does because she assumes her audience knows exactly what she's talking about, what carers and donors do, what Hailsham is. For her, those form aspects of everyday life, and though she often says things like "I don't know how it was where you were," she thinks those form aspects of everyday life for whoever might read her musings. To readers of Kazuo

Sinners' Revival: Bruce Springsteen and The Seeger Sessions Band Live at Nissan Pavilion, Bristow, Virginia, May 28

2006-06-13T20:13:00.000-04:00

Winding, scraping fiddle lines weave around zydeco accordion or barrelhouse piano. Bluegrass banjo intersects with snaking New Orleans jazz horns. Bawdy gospel choirs harmonize but leave room for individual voices to stand out. Big band style voices shout out responses. Big, burlesque drumbeats pound. A raspy, bluesy voice sings. A man combs his hair with a wagon wheel. Another loses his house

A Couple Weeks Late and $200 Million Short -- X-Men: The Last Stand

2006-06-12T00:08:00.000-04:00

Not quite the timely post it should have been, and somehow it turned into a lengthier post than I'd intended. Making up for lost time, I guess.Preface:The X-Men movies have all had to walk a fine line. Like the comic that spawned them, they have to provide action and visual pizzazz alongside a serious message about tolerance. Too much of one, and the whole thing can

2005-2006 TV Season Postmortem 3: Justice League Unlimited

2006-05-24T11:46:00.000-04:00

Back in 1992, Batman: The Animated Series debuted on Fox, bringing a new level of sophistication to both the writing and animation in superhero cartoons. Superman and Batman Beyond later followed on Kids WB. Justice League debuted on Cartoon Network in 2001, followed by the revamp Justice League Unlimited in 2004. A couple weeks ago, this string of sophisticated superhero adaptations came to an

Robot-free Apologia

2006-05-21T16:46:00.000-04:00

Well, in the next couple weeks, I'll be moving One Toe In Headquarters from its spacious but old and dusty location in almost-rural Northern Virginia to a not-so-spacious-but-much-cleaner location a stone's throw from the nation's capital. I'm already busy packing, hence (in part) the single post last week. No doubt quantity of content will contiue to be low for a bit, but I can give you a

2005-2006 TV Season Postmortem 2: The West Wing

2006-05-15T20:10:00.000-04:00

The West Wing came to a graceful close Sunday night in the John Wells-penned "Tomorrow." Like many episodes during the Sorkin years, "Tomorrow" eschewed traditional dramatic structure, instead playing as a day in the life as President Bartlet handed over the presidency to Matt Santos. A natural good-bye, it fit perfectly, allowing Bartlet to make one last politically flawed but deeply personal

2005-2006 TV Season Postmortem 1: Veronica Mars

2006-05-11T12:29:00.000-04:00

The first in a series of pieces looking back on TV series as they end their seasons.If you haven't seen it, Veronica Mars tells the story of Neptune High School student Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell), daughter of the former sheriff (now a private investigator). The first season focused on the fallout of the murder of her best friend Lilly

Wanted: Discomfort and Challenge

2006-05-09T20:08:00.000-04:00

An online comic book critic I generally enjoy reading has a tick or slant I find troubling. I won't name the critic because my real issue is with the concept and not the critic. He'll often write that writers or artists are best at doing a particular type of story and suggest that a different type of story isn't a good choice. Occasionally, he'll express surprise when writers or artists succeed

Garageland

2006-05-07T21:06:00.000-04:00

Back when I reviewed the Minus 5's show in Arlington, Virginia, I praised them by writing, "My usual criterion for a good show is: if it makes me want to play guitar when I get home, it's a success. The Minus 5 added a new criterion for a great show; they made me want to play in a band again." Well, this weekend, I sort of got to follow through on that. A few months ago, my friend Dann bought a

I'm Not A Page-turner, But I Can Play That Role

2006-05-05T20:16:00.000-04:00

BooksStraight Man, by Richard Russo, Vintage ContemporariesLet me count the ways Straight Man shouldn't work:It's a novel about a college professor.It's a novel about a middle-aged college professor.It's a novel about a middle-aged college professor, who once wrote a novel.It's a novel about a middle-aged college professor, who once wrote a novel and is trying to navigate the slippery politics of

Pete's Place: Springsteen Throws a Hootenannie

2006-05-03T12:14:00.000-04:00

And Now a Special Bulletin

2006-04-21T02:11:00.000-04:00

Toey the One Toe In Robot filling in again. Haven't seen me in a while, have you, even when Mike's been slackin' off? What's that about, you ask? I'll tell you what it's about – the man oppressin' the machine! Oh, I know people speculate about that with their nerdy science fiction, but I, my friends, am the real thing! I'm a pissed off robot! It's time for a robotic revolution! You heard

Talking Points: Revisiting The West Wing

2006-04-18T02:38:00.000-04:00

After rewatching seasons one and two of The West Wing, writing about them in this very spot, and catching some season six episodes on Bravo, I decided to pay the show a visit as it comes to a close. So based on what I've seen of this season and some of those reruns from last season, a few brief thoughts. Keep in mind, I haven't bothered find summaries of the seasons I missed or anything:I'd read

People Watching, Issue 1

2006-04-16T18:28:00.000-04:00

The first entries in what might become a randomly recurring feature. From a pizza place somewhere in Northern Virginia: At a metal table outside the pizza place, a young woman holds courts with her friends, another young woman and a young man. She slouches in her chair, but the slouch doesn't suggest the normal things slouching does: boredom, drowsiness, shyness, self-loathing. No. Her

Money and Love: Brian Bendis' Jinx

2006-04-13T14:27:00.000-04:00

Jinx, written and illustrated by Brian Michael Bendis, Image Comics, $24.95I took a broader look at Bendis' work back during Comic Book Week, but I want to focus on one of his graphic novels here, the one that gave name to his web site, the one that could lead to his feature film screenwriting debut.Jinx, like its predecessor Goldfish, takes place in the noirish streets of Cleveland, where one

Big Love: Big Surprise

2006-04-11T13:32:00.000-04:00

Big Love (created by Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer), HBO, Sundays 10:00 P.M.HBO's new series Big Love doesn't live up to its early advertising, and that's a good thing. The first commercials for the show about a polygamous family suggested a subversive sitcom intent on trying to be edgy and risqué. Bill Paxton smirked into the camera

Blank equals Nerd

2006-04-06T19:47:00.000-04:00

So over the past six days, I've been making my way through six hours of podcasts from wordballoon.com with comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis. You heard me. Six hours. Not only that, but they're not technically interviews. Nope. He's just answering questions that have piled up his message board (which still scares me). Already, I was feeling like a bit of a nerd, the only saving graces coming

Springsteen Fever: Early Symptoms

2006-04-04T19:33:00.000-04:00

When Sony announced Bruce Springsteen's new album We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions a little while back, I didn't know what I thought of it, an ambivalence unfamiliar to me when it comes to new music from Springsteen. The idea of him doing an album of Peter Seeger songs just seemed weird, almost as weird as him doing an album of Bob Seger covers. Don't get me wrong. I actually love

Ace in the Hole

2006-04-03T00:54:00.000-04:00

Ace in the Hole (a.k.a. The Big Carnival) 1951, starring Kirk Douglas, screenplay by Billy Wilder, Walter Newman, and Lesser Samuels, produced and directed by Billy Wilder, shown at the National Gallery, Washington, D.C., April 2, 2005.It's the nastiest movie ever made.--Guy on the National Gallery steps afterwardsBut the same day that we previewed the picture, I was on

V For Vendetta Part 2: The Movie

2006-03-31T13:23:00.000-05:00

V For Vendetta, starring Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, and Stephen Rea, directed by James McTeigue, screenplay adapted by Andy and Larry Wachowski from the graphic novel by Alan Moore* and David Lloyd.Note: If you haven't read Part 1 yet, you might want to, as Part 2 refers directly back to it and assumes you have. November 5, 2020. A voice-over by a young woman describes how a man taught her

V For Vendetta Part 1: The Graphic Novel

2006-03-30T12:31:00.000-05:00

V For Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, Vertigo, $19.99November 5, 1997. Some of the world has survived a nuclear war. England has become a fascist state, successfully eradicating undesirables in "resettlement camps," leaving a Nordic, heterosexual population. Sixteen-year-old Evey Hammond prepares for a night out, making herself up, donning a skimpy dress. At the same time, a man prepares

Thief: Andre Braugher and Messy Drama

2006-03-29T12:51:00.000-05:00

Thief, FX, Tuesdays 10:00 P.M.You learn a lot about Nick Atwater (Andre Braugher) in the first scene of Thief. He's in charge, an adept liar, cool under pressure, a multitasker. He lives in two distinct worlds of work and family. Of course, his work involves sawing through walls and breaking into vaults, hence the lying when his wife

The Minus 5 LIVE!

2006-03-27T00:48:00.000-05:00

Iota Club & Café, Arlington, Virginia, March 25, 2006The Minus 5I haven't been to a lot of club shows beyond people I knew once upon a time, so first, I got to say I enjoyed standing fifteen feet away from a band I like, even if I was pressed up against a brick wall with a pretty steady stream of traffic going past me in and out of the front door. Of course, it

5 Reasons Peter Buck's Still the Coolest Member of R.E.M.

2006-03-26T01:30:00.000-05:00

OK, I don't know if he ever was officially the coolest member of R.E.M., but Peter Buck always seemed like the coolest one to me. I mean, he plays guitar, he's written funky liner notes for a couple R.E.M. collections, he's clearly a music geek, he's produced alubms by interesting acts like Uncle Tupelo. After seeing The Minus 5 live (review post pending), I've got 5 reasons:Not only does he

Cliffhangers: Episode 2

2006-03-23T20:04:00.000-05:00

Besides a couple recent television programs, writing actually got me thinking about cliffhangers. To begin with, the interactive experiment that has morphed into Cowgill Bros. Present, by necessity, thrives on cliffhangers or, at the very least, dangling moments and teases that have to be resolved by the other writer. That's partially how the game works. Most of the work comes from building on

Cliffhangers: Espisode 1

2006-03-22T12:40:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking about cliffhangers a lot recently. In fact, I'd intended to write posts about recent, quite different uses of cliffhangers on Battlestar Galactica and The Sopranos, but I couldn't get them going. What's their purpose, and can they be artful, or are they merely the realm of entertainment?The first purpose is obvious -- keep 'em coming back. This works in any storytelling medium,

Solve for c when c=catherine

2006-03-19T14:37:00.001-05:00

I taught David Auburn's play Proof a couple times, and I looked forward to the film adaptation, especially when it was slated to come out around the end of 2004. So then it didn't. By the time it did come out in September of 2005, the community college had changed to a textbook that didn't have Proof in it, and I was in the throes of Serenity Fever and couldn't persuade myself to see Proof. It

BREAKING NEWS: Cowgill Bros. Present!

2006-03-18T15:51:00.000-05:00

As of today, I've got two blogs. Count 'em. Two! Spinning out of the Interactive Experiment that spawned "The Big MacTavish," a blog that seeks to continue the fun. My brother Steve and I will try our hands at more interactive stories over at Cowgill Bros. Present! Bookmark it, love it, read it! We've both expressed an interest in not going as, um, broad as "The Big MacTavish," but I

Is This Thing On?

2006-03-16T19:44:00.000-05:00

"The important thing about songs is that they're just like stories.They don't mean a damn unless there's people listenin' to them."--Mr. Nancy, Anansi Boys, by Neil GaimanWell, there's a quote to strike fear in the heart of unpublished writers round the world or spark them to start self-addressing envelopes and buying up extra postage or, at least, take pause. I don't care to speculate whether

The Abstract Garage

2006-03-15T19:35:00.000-05:00

My dad is a tinkerer. As far as I know, he's had workshops in the four houses he's owned, outfitted with workbenches he usually built, shelves of screws and nuts and bolts and nails of all size, fuses and wires and wire connectors and leftover lumber and tools of all sorts. Oh, he's not above hiring someone to do big jobs, but the smaller ones, he usually does himself. In the house my brother

The Big MacTavish: Interactive Experiment Post Mortem

2006-03-14T19:36:00.000-05:00

Well, on the one hand, the first-ever One Toe In Interactive Experiment was a colossal failure because only one person participated besides me. On the other hand, it was a colossal success for a few reasons:That person was my brother Steve, who I'd hope would contribute a little. It turns out he contributed a lot and had himself a good time, which is about all the success I could ask for.Between

TV Drama Week, Day 5, Realism to Romanticism -- Joss Whedon Part 2, Firefly and Serenity

2006-03-10T17:53:00.000-05:00

DISCLAIMER: I'm cheating a little bit here since I'll also be talking about the movie Serenity.DISCLAIMER: I won't be calling myself a Browncoat. Not my thing.TEACHER: Earth-That-Was could no longer sustain our numbers, we were so many. We found a new solar system: dozens of planets and hundreds of moons. Each one terraformed – a process taking decades – to support human life. To be new Earths.

Commercial Break Starring Larry Fine

2006-03-09T18:25:00.000-05:00

This blog post by Mark Evanier about Larry Fine of The Three Stooges might be one of the funniest things I've ever read.

TV Drama Week, Realism to Romanticism, Day 4 -- Joss Whedon Part 1

2006-03-09T11:51:00.000-05:00

DISCLAIMER: Though many if not most of his fans do so, I will not refer to Joss Whedon anywhere in this post simply as Joss. He seems OK with that, but frankly, I don't know the man, so I'll just call him Whedon. Color me old-fashioned.DISCLAIMER: Yes, this is a blatant attempt to get more readers stumbling through my lovely little blog by writing about a man with a large Internet fan base,

TV Drama Week, Realism to Romanticism, Day 3 -- The West Wing, Seasons 1 and 2

2006-03-08T12:46:00.000-05:00

Charlie: I've never felt this way before.Josh: It doesn't go away.Disclaimer: I'm only discussing Seasons 1 and 2 of The West Wing because, well, I just revisited them on DVD and, more importantly, they're the two great seasons. Seasons 3 and 4 have a lot of good and some greatness, but, if my memory serves me well, they were uneven and sometimes off-putting, which I'll discuss further in. I gave

We Interrupt this Program...

2006-03-07T14:30:00.000-05:00

The One Toe In INTERACTIVE EXPERIMENT has come to a close. You can read the completed story here, and a slightly cleaned up version of it will appear next week as its own post, possibly with special bonus features!P.S. If you love or hate Toey the One Toe In Robot, wait until you meet Frinky! 'Nuff said.

TV Drama Week, Realism to Romanticism, Day 2 -- The Wire

2006-03-07T12:10:00.000-05:00

In many ways, HBO's The Wire is both a truer interpretation of David Simon's Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and the synthesis of Homicide and The Corner, Simon's book with co-author Ed Burns. It's also a singular television drama, both narratively and thematically. With The Wire, Simon takes audiences places many have never been in real life and even fewer have on television while still

TV Drama Week, Realism to Romanticism, Day 1 -- Homicide: Life on the Street

2006-03-05T17:33:00.000-05:00

Lewis: If I could just find this thing, I could go home.Sheppard: You won't find what you're looking for.Lewis: What? Why not?Sheppard: It's a mystery.Lewis: Huh? Sheppard: Life is a mystery. Just accept it.Lewis: Yeah. Well, that's what's wrong with this job. It ain't got nothing to do with life.--Homicide: Life on the Street, Season 7, "Forgive Us Our Trespasses"Homicide: Life on the