Anyone got a little morphine to spare?

Or, alternatively, a way to freebase codeine out of Tylenol-3 pills?

***

THE HOLIDAY MEN

Nick Johnson is making me look really good.

***

MASTER OF THE HOUSE

Looks like it will be rocketing forward in April or May, with The Future of Comics (I) Fiona Staples giving pretty much a full month over to working on it. That should make for a nice, hefty proposal...

***

READING

I haven't gotten to do a live reading since WordFest in 2006. Mind you, I hadn't actually done one (to a non-writers group audience) prior to WordFest, so you wouldn't think that would be a big deal. However, I actually enjoyed the WF readings and want to do more. Looks like I may have an opportunity to break out the PowerPoint in January.

***

WHAT WAS THAT GUY'S NAME AGAIN?

T dragged my near-lifeless carcas to a 3-D IMax screening of the Neil Gaiman/Roger Avary-penned Robert Zemeckis CGI film BEOWULF last night. After twenty or so minutes of relentless 3-d effects, the nausea became tolerable, though I still had to have my hands over my ears for a lot of the big fight scenes. I have become a delicate flower in my old age. A heavy, tired, achy, illness-ridden, grumpy delicate flower.

Mixed emotions on the film itself. The writing was solid enough--I choose to believe Gaiman contributed the mythological revisionism that made the story sufficiently its own thing to be worth telling yet again, while Avary was responsible for most of the sophomoric humour. Apparently 5th Century Denmark was like High School, only with more alcohol and slightly less swordplay (I played a lot of D&D in high school.) Also, the whole "conveniently placed piece of scenery that obscures genitals thing is played out. If comics hadn't done it in, Austin Powers certainly did.

Not sure what it really gained from the animation approach that it couldn't have had in its original (acccording to Wikipedia) 20-30 million dollar live-action form. Hell, if Dave McKean could get MirrorMask made for less than ten million, there's no reason this couldn't have been done in a similar fashion, other than Zemeckis wanting to play with his new digital toys. There's no real harm in that, I suppose, unless of course it leads to a JarJar Binks character down the road.

Funnily enough, for me the most sympathetic character in the whole film was actually Grendel, who I personally sympathize with in ways that I don't think I want to examine in great depth...

If this bombs, I can easily see it becoming a midnight classic in the vein of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Or, at minimum, a drinking game. Every time someone says Beowulf's name, take a drink; every time Beowulf bellows his name, make it a double...when everyone's completely soused, they can have an "I AM BEOWULF!"/"THIS IS SPARTA!" shout-off.

T chose to interpret the ending of the film as Denmark being ruled by a couple of lesbians. I think that's a bit of a reach.

Angelina Jolie's character in Beowulf looks like the Ultron from the first six issues of Bendis/Cho's MIGHTY AVENGERS, only with a gold sheen instead of silver and a pony-tail that turns into an iguana tail.

Oh, and the dragon's head at the end looks an awful lot like the American version of Godzilla's. At least this one actually breathed fire.

***

I HAVE A BURNING DESIRE TO GO TO MEXICO

This is odd, as I've never, ever had a burning desire to go anywhere particularly hot.

Foley