Thank you for visiting my site. I hope you’ll find it fun and stimulating. Feel free to browse excerpts of my fiction, paintings, and essays. Check out my gallery link in the Art Section where each painting has a story. I am interested in your thoughts, so please comment or email me.
Both of my sons came to me, separately, oddly moved by Kim Jong-il’s death. At first I found it puzzling. He was old and a pretty nasty dictator, why the feelings? My youngest said, he’s been a part of our jokes since I can remember. And he began singing the song from TEAM AMERICA WORLD POLICE: I’m so rone-ry, so rone-ry… Yes, in bad taste from the word GO but consider the source, the geniuses Trey Parker and Matt Stone of Southpark (and now Book of Mormon) fame. There aren’t many world leaders who created a bigger target for humor than Kim Jong-il. He was odd looking, full of strange eccentricities (Hollywood movies, porn stars, stealing Japanese actors), and presiding over a kingdom that was much less funny. In the tradition of the Kim Jung dynasty each leader is supposed to be addressed by outrageous fawning phrases like Dear Leader, Father, Fearless Leader and Generalissimo. His people live in one of the most restrictive countries in the world. Compare the global night map of lights of civilization and South Korea burns bright while the North is dark. There were rumors that the population turned to cannibalism (mostly children) during the famine of 1992. Not so funny. So we bid adieu to the Easy Target, The Little Prince, The Strange One, The Weirdest One. May your the son of the continuing democratic dynasty be more human. Note: That’s my own portrait of The Strange One.
I consider my myself a fan of The Chuck. FIGHT CLUB is an amazing piece of writing and a great movie. I actually came across the material first some years ago it when it was published as the short story “Project Mayhem.” I thought it was amazing, put it away somewhere and eventually the book appears, then the movie.
I have to admit I’ve had trouble getting into his other novels (HAUNTED and SURVIVOR) but I’m not convinced I just wasn’t in the right mood for them. I’ll try them again. Last night I attended his live chat with Kerri Miller of Minnesota Public Radio at the Fitzgerald Theater in St Paul MN. It was a good show, though I found Ms Miller’s playful antagonism a bit grating and some of her questions could have been more thoughtful. I mean, can’t you ask anyone if they’re afraid of death? This is The Chuck; ask him something more clever.
I’m sitting down to work on my novel and my mind is buzzing from an exposure to the degree of “smart” in contemporary television. My sixteen year old son was my guide. I’m not a big TV watcher (don’t start with categorizing me, not yet) but I do watch “my shows” which tend to be the high end dramas like MAD MEN, BREAKING BAD and THE KILLING. It seemed everything I peeked in at TV comedies I found sitcoms like TWO AND A HALF MEN with laugh tracks that seemed like the shows I watched as a kid only much much raunchier. THE OFFICE changed that for me. I did become a fan but found that I wasn’t compelled to “keep up” lest I miss some nuance of culture. The writers, though very saavy, still seemed to look down on these poor saps stuck in a non-sexy jobs at a paper company in Scranton, PA. There was no getting around the sense that some smart ass twenty something in Hollywood (granted some also act on the show) wrote the material wondering what poor saps in Scranton ate for lunch and how they could make that funny. Still, what was different was a depth of character and a willingness for the show to be not only funny (laughing at weird people) but also get inside of them in ways more traditionally done in “drama.” There were poignant moments and no laugh track. But THE OFFICE avoided many controversial topics (religion and politics) though they were fearless in jumping into diversity training, sexism, and class.
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