Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Port Meirion

Something I wrote up over dinner...

Port Meirion was only the beginning – the first step in what would become a series of holding cells and jails to keep those of us who know too much from sharing what we knew with the rest of the world. Like anyone would believe us anyways. The things we saw, the things we heard, what we learned and tried to forget – all of it! – it was just too much.

Most folk dealt with “it” in one of two ways. The first was outright denial. You know, the river. Some of them didn’t realize what they had witnessed or their minds didn’t believe in such things. Others knew what it was that they bore witness to and refused to accept the truth to it. They simply blocked it from their minds and it never bothered them ever again. Amongst the Village residents, these are the hardest to discern if they are prisoners or participants. They rarely realize why they are in the Villages. With the right prescriptions, they are no trouble at all.

The second group cannot deal with their new-found knowledge and go insane from it. The Arkham Asylum is filled with these individuals. I’ve herad tales from the Bear and Oz facilities that our foreign counterparts are not always as nice as us and will put people with both mainline coping methods in their Villages. Dr. Sapperstien keeps his “participants” in a medical clinic separate from Arkham.

Dr. Saffron goes so far as to keep the two different groups in two different countries. The non-believers and those that find a way to cope among us are kept in a mansion in the countryside of England. The madmen of the UK are sent to an isolated castle in the Highlands of Scotland. The Welsh location is still in use. We mostly use it for testing new techniques and equipment (the Rover model 5 is brilliant!).

A third U.S. facility is being planned for the Washington area. The number of prisoners and participants on the east side of the country is growing. The destruction brought by Katrina has increased our population.

I’ve been told the India subcontinent office is off and running. “Dr. Raj” has a wonderful mind – even if he insists we do not refer to him by hi real name. There is also talk amongst the Number Zeds that a location in southern Africa or South America may be needed in the next 5-10. Problems in their larger cities are becoming more and more common.

Monday, January 28, 2008

3:10 to Hush

I watched 3:10 to Yuma last night. I thought it was a good movie. It was no Sergio Leone classic, but it was worth sitting through. I think a happier ending would have been better ending, but that's life.

I think I like Russel Crowe as a bad guy more than a good guy. He wasn't a crazed over the top bad guy, just a criminal capable of doing really bad things. Christian Bale as the innocent bystander trying to do right was fine. I sensed bits of Quinn from Reign of Fire and Bruce Wayne The Batman in the character, but that could be me reading into things.

However, the two castings in the movie that I thought were absolutely brilliant were Alan Tudyk of Firefly and Peter Fonda! of everything. Alan did a great job as city folk trying to help out and Peter Fonda was brilliant as the old curmudgeony, bounty hunter type.

Gretchen Mol was nice to look at, as always. Logan Lerman was great as Bale's son. The kid reminds me a lot of Christian Slater in the face.

I noticed during the credits that it was based on a book. Can anyone recommend good Western novels? I don't even know where to begin and I'm not sure I'll ever find one I like. Most of my love for Western cinema is due to camera angles and bad-ass actors. Surely there's an author out there that can accomplish that?


Next up, I read Hush, the Batman graphic novel.

Wow! What a well written, well art worked comic series. I've been hoping to find a really good Batman graphic novel and this was it! I read it between 3:10 to Yuma, sleep, and dinner this evening. I need to go back and reread it, watching for artwork nuances I may have missed the first time. This comic brought a lot to the plate, with action, secrets revealed, romance, trust issues, and all the usual darkness that can come with The Batman (you must say it like, The Ohio State).

Before I do that, though, I'll be reading Brad Metzler's graphic novel Identity Crisis, another big seller for DC Comics.