A Super Surplus of Superheroes

With a (currently unpublished) manuscript about middle school misfits turned superheroes and all the comic book movies coming out recently, I’ve definitely had superheroes on the brain. For a comic book enthusiast like myself, these past few years have been a veritable feast of heroes and villains, scheming and crime fighting. I have to say, this is one trend I doubt I’ll ever get tired of.

That being said, there are certainly some movies that were more successful than others. For example, The Avengers came together much better than X-Men: First Class, which despite a few incredible scenes fell somewhat flat. And certainly I found the latest Spider-Man reboot much more enjoyable than its Sam Raimi-directed predecessors. All in all it seems that the standards have been raised incredibly high, with no sign of easing up.

In thinking back through every comic book movie I've seen, from Tim Burton's Batman (1989) to the teaser stills I just came across for the upcoming Man of Steel (2013), there are five that stand out as my very favorites. These five are . . . drum roll, please . . .

There are of course many more superhero movies that I really love. X-Men I and II, Thor (which far surpassed my expectations), Kick Ass, Blade, Watchmen, etc. But I really can’t wait for all the rest of them to come. Next up, The Dark Knight Rises. Can't wait to see how Nolan chooses to go out . . .

The Perks of Amnesia

The other day I was catching up on some old episodes of Castle and watched one where the key witness in a murder case has amnesia. While searching through his apartment and reviewing his bookshelves, the man states, “I guess I’m going to have to start over now.” To which Castle replies, “It’s not such a bad thing. What I wouldn’t give to read The Cask of Amontillado for the first time. Or any Stephen King.”

Upon hearing this, a little light bulb went off in my head. While I certainly would never want to suffer through amnesia or not remember my life, there would be certain literary and cinematic perks to forgetting everything from your past. I mean, what if you could enjoy all your favorite books and movies from scratch. Imagine being able to read the Harry Potter series for the millionth time and experiencing it like it was the first. Or watching Star Wars again without knowing what happens to the Empire. I have to admit, there’s some appeal in that. I guess there’s one – and only one – perk to losing your memory.

If you had to make a list for your amnesiac self, what books and movies would make the top? Here’s a look at my list:

Books:

The Harry Potter Series – J. K. Rowling

A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’engle

Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

The Sparrow – Mary Doria Russell

Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury

Alas, Babylon – Pat Frank

The Sound and the Fury – William Faulkner

1984 – George Orwell

Persuasion – Jane Austen

Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

Atlas Shrugged – Aye Rand

Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman

The Nancy Drew Series – Carolyn Keene

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep – Philip K. Dick

The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne

Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card

Macbeth – William Shakespeare

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead – Tom Stoppard

The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde

The Fall of the House of Usher – Edgar Allan Poe

Welcome to the Monkey House – Kurt Vonnegut

The Lathe of Heaven – Ursula K. Le Guin

Movies:

The Princess Bride

The Fifth Element

Star Wars IV-VI

The Terminator

Terminator II: Judgment Day

Alien

Aliens

Firefly

Serenity

The Dark Knight

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Indiana Jones Trilogy (minus the fourth)

Stranger Than Fiction

Heights

The Shining

Die Hard

Despicable Me

Empire Records

Equilibrium

Inception

Little Miss Sunshine

The Incredible Hulk

The Jane Austen Book Club

Zombieland

Blade Runner

Disney Princess Movies (they’re considered un-PC these days, but I still love them)

Casino Royale

American Beauty

Independence Day and the Force of July

Like most of my fellow Americans, I love the 4th of July. Not only is it a national holiday (which means no working – hurray!), but it’s also the day that has come to represent liberty, freedom from tyranny, and a nation united.

Not to mention fireworks.

Now, anyone who has read any of my previous holiday themed blogs (see here and here) knows that when it comes to holidays, I love two things: traditions and movies. And in this case, my family has combined the two, making it a tradition to watch movies. For Christmas we watch Die Hard and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, for Halloween we watch Ghostbusters and Hocus Pocus, and for July  4th we watch Independence Day and Live Free or Die Hard.

     

Two of my very favorite movies, they have several commonalities:

1) They’re both action movies. Or I should say, they’re both AMAZING action movies.

2) They both have scenes in which the White House gets blown up.

And 3) They’re both set on The Fourth of July.

Not to mention, they each star two of the three best male action stars of all time, aka. Bruce Willis and Will Smith. (The third is, of course, Harrison Ford.) They fight off alien invasions and stop an evil band of cyber terrorists in their tracks. They protect us and look good doing it. They’re my July 4th heroes. They are . . . The Force of July!

I don’t know about you, but watching these two movies on Independence Day makes me feel very patriotic. It’s a tradition I gladly participate in every year.

I hope your holiday is as wonderful (and action packed) as mine. Happy Fourth of July everyone!

Insecure Writer's Support Group and Writer's Revenge

It’s the first Wednesday of the month, and I almost forgot that it's time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group post. Luckily I'm getting it in just under the wire. So here’s my insecurity for June . . .

For over a year now I’ve been waiting for the day when my book will FINALLY be picked up by a publisher and enter the literary world. I’ve had to deal with the fear that this day will never come, an insecurity which, frankly, grows each passing month.

However, one insecurity that never occurred to me until recently was what happens AFTER publication finally comes. In my fantasies, everyone from kids to critics loves it, it’s a massive hit, and I’m an overnight success. (I’ve never been accused of being overly practical.) But what happens when that is NOT the result? When it inevitably gets a two thumbs down, zero stars and a pile of reviews that make me want to jump off a cliff?

I’ve decided, should a high enough cliff not prove easy to find in Houston, Texas, I’ll go with Plan B and follow the example of New York Times bestselling author Nelson DeMille. In 1992, DeMille wrote a military thriller called The General’s Daughter. Several years later the novel was adapted into a film featuring big names like John Travolta, Madeleine Stowe and Timothy Hutton.

Unfortunately, critics generally panned the movie and it received many negative reviews. One critic in particular – John Anderson of Long Island’s Newsday – must have made a real impression on the author, for a year later when DeMille’s next novel – The Lion’s Game – hit the stands, it contained a rather interesting reference. When the novel’s main character, John Correy, catches a plane heading from New York to LAX, he states . . .

“The First Class meal wasn’t too bad and the movie, starring John Travolta playing an Army CID guy, was terrific, despite a bad review I recalled reading in Long Island’s Newsday, written by John Anderson, a so-called movie critic, whose opinion I trusted to be the exact opposite of mine.”

Needless to say, DeMille is my new hero. He got the ultimate writer’s revenge, demonstrating to critics everywhere why you should NEVER mess with a novelist. I’ll have to keep this enlightened response in mind for the future.

Critics beware . . . 

New Blog Awards

My blogging buddy Michael Abayomi (whose blog, if you haven’t checked it out before, it really amazing – check it out here) has gifted me with the 7x7 Link Award. Thanks so much Michael! It always feels so wonderful to receive an award from a blogger you respect and whose blog you enjoy reading. The rules for this award state that I need to list (and link) existing blog posts I’ve written that fall into the following seven categories. So here goes:

Most Beautiful Piece

Missed Connections and Love Letters 

Most Helpful Piece

A Guide to Recognizing Your Apocalypses 

Most Popular Piece

F is for Fifth Element and Firefly: Favorites of Sci-Fi 

Most Controversial Piece

Pirates vs. Ninjas

Most Surprisingly Successful Piece

Zombies vs. Vampires vs. Werewolves 

Most Underrated Piece

The Minority Report Dilemma 

Most Pride-Worthy Piece

Of everything I've written on my blog, I take the greatest pride in my Sci-Fi from A to Z series (part of the Blogging from A Through Z Challenge hosted this past April). Many of those 26 pieces focused not only on science fiction books, movies and television shows, but on the serious questions the genre poses. Particularly, what does it mean to be human? Because so many of them were written as part of a series, I'm having a hard time picking which one in particular I find the most pride worthy. I hope you'll forgive me for picking three . . .

D is for Deckard, Do Androids Dream?, and Philip K. Dick 

I is for Ishiguro and The Island 

M is for The Metamorphosis 

I hope you enjoy these posts! And here are a few blogs I’d like to pass this award on to:

Julie Tuovi at From Pen to Paper

Mina Burrows

Andrew Leon at Strange Pegs

Rusty Webb at The Blutonian Death Egg

Joshua at Vive Le Nerd

The Geek Twins 

Danielle B. at Entertaining Interests

Kaye Draper at Write Me

And a special thanks to Kaye Draper for also awarding me with another Liebster Award!

Spain and a Few Patronus Moments

Apologies for my resent absence from the blogosphere. I’ve been in Madrid with my best friends Annie and Tina, and took a nice extended break from all things internet related. But I'm back now, and before my life becomes a little too normal, I’d like to take a quick moment to talk about something I like to call Patronus Moments.

For those of you who haven’t heard me talk about this before, a Patronus Moment is an occasion or incident so wonderful it would evoke a Patronus. (For those of you who don’t know what a Patronus is, go read Harry Potter. Immediately.) Extraordinarily, while I was in Spain I experience not one, but two of these moments, and I thought I would share them.

The first happened during one of our day trips to Toledo. Called the City of Three Faiths, it’s home to one of the most beautiful cathedrals I’ve ever seen. Nearly every wall displayed vibrant stained glass windows, the ceiling was high and vaulted, and in the center was one of the largest organs I’ve ever seen. I’ve long thought the organ one of the most visually arresting instruments, and this one was stunning. I spent several minutes walking around, observing it from every angle. And then, just when we were about to leave, a priest sat down and began to play.

In all my years of travelling I've never heard anything more beautiful. I've been to more cathedrals than I can count, but never once have I heard the organ played while inside one. It was such a surprise, and more moving than I can describe. It seemed to rise up to the very highest reaches of the vaulted ceiling, echoing across all the sightseers and worshipers and pouring right through me. There's really no  words that can capture what I felt at that moment, but I know that I'll remember that feeling for all my life. 

The second Patronus Moment is somewhat less surprising, but no less extraordinary. After a long day of sightseeing and a short rest in our hotel room, my friends and I were working up the energy to go out for dinner. As the three of us discussed places to eat while we surveyed the clothes we’d laid out, I felt more and more worn out. But still I tried to rally for Annie and Tina’s sake, not wanting to disappoint them. I therefore could not have been more thrilled when Annie tentatively suggested that we could always just order room service for dinner and stay in the watch the Spain vs. Ireland EUFA soccer game (which, as a fan of both Spain and Ireland’s national teams, was exactly what I’d wanted to do).

We wound up having the best time eating peanut butter sandwiches, hamburgers and fruit in our pajamas and cheering on our favorite players. For all the amazing places we went during the trip and all the amazing sights I got to see, it really might have been my favorite moment of the trip. In the end, it’s nice to know that I can be just as thrilled looking at palaces and cathedrals as staying in with my two best girlfriends and shouting at a soccer match.

Anyway, it’s back to normality for me. But here’s a few memories to hold onto until my next great adventure . . .

Annie, Tina and I at Madrid's famous Plaza Mayor 

Madrid Palace just before sunset

Annie and I taking a break (and revealing our true colors) in Segovia

My newly acquired palace in Segovia 

The beautiful organ in the Toledo Cathedral I mentioned above

Tina and I in front of an awesome mural in the Madrid subway

Me, Annie and Tina in front of the Roman Aqueducts 

The incredible Toledo Cathedral 

Insecure Writer's Support Group and Ray Bradbury

The first Wednesday of the month means it’s time for Insecure Writer’s Support Group, hosted by one of my favorite bloggers, Alex J. Cavanaugh.

I would normally talk about my current struggles on the path to publication, but today something else has occurred that eclipses my everyday fears and writing hardships. Today I leaned that Ray Bradbury has died.

It’s always a shock to learn that one of your idols has died, but for me this death is particularly sorrowful. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is one of the first science fiction novels I remember reading for a school assignment, and has stayed with me ever since. While I’m not sure I comprehended it in its entirety as a child, I later recognized it as one of the first overtly political novels I ever read, and perhaps my first experience with social commentary through fiction. It inspired an early love for dystiopian writing – which while wildly popular today in the young adult market, was much more obscure when I was in middle school – and I still read Fahrenheit 451 at least once every year.

I’ve since read many other of Ray Bradbury’s works, and he remains one of my favorite authors to this day. And as ridiculous as this may sound to all of you out there who love reading novels on your Kindles, Nooks and iPads, one of the main reasons I’ve refused to purchase and e-reader is an fervent fear that they’re the first step toward the eradication of print books – a fear first that’s origins trace back to the very first time I read Fahrenheit 451. Of course in the novel books were banned and burned as an act of government censorship rather than the product of digital technology . . . but you can never be too careful.

Every writer has an idol they hope they one day live up to, and Ray Bradbury is one of mine. And while I doubt I’ll ever come even close to his literary excellence (a writing insecurity of mine), I’m so grateful for the influence his novels and short stories have had on my life and my work. 

Ray Douglas Bradbury 

August 22, 1920 - June 5, 2012

Rest in Peace