(the) david press.com

Yeah, I think its pretty easy to say when calling an Oscar-nominated writer with that line you get a surge of electricity that you didn’t previously have.  Not that I didn’t previously have experiences where I got to talk to people extremely talented in the field I was writing about, but what I’m talking about is the surge of excitement coming from your own sense of accomplishment.  Okay, tooting horn moment is over. Sorry, just had to let it out.

So, yes, I am writing for MTV News and I must say that Totally. Fucking. Rocks.  I got the opportunity to talk to Kim Krizan, Oscar nominated writer of Before Sunset, famous for her crack in Dazed and Confused about Independence Day’s only reason for existence is so a bunch of aristocratic white males wanted the day off in the name of a tax break.  Which is something quite memorable for those of us of the MTV Generation.

Kim Krizan wants to eat your brain. No, not really — but she does want to defy your expectations.

The Oscar-nominated writer of 2004’s “Before Sunset,” Krizan returns to a decidedly different world from her film projects in an upcoming issue of Boom Studios’ horror anthology “Zombie Tales.” Her contribution to the anthology, “Summer 2061,” is a sequel to a story she contributed to the first issue of the anthology series, “Spring 2061,” and picks up where Krizan’s group of human resistance fighters left off: in a world ruled by zombies.

So, yeah, once IT gets my name on the menu of authors, I’ll probably set up an RSS feed full of my stories coming from there. I want to give a big thanks to Rick Marshall and Casey Seijas for giving me this great chance to write for a site that literally pushes all of my geek buttons.     

I celebrated last night by deciding at the last minute to go out with Ben McCool, his soon to be wife, Heidi MacDonald, Jahfurry, Jeff Ayers and…John Cassaday.  Yep, the “Astonishing X-Men,” and “Planetary” artist. Yesterday was a big wonderful bag of Win. 

Happy Halloween, Boys and Ghouls! (I’m going to be this guy).

Yeah, I think its pretty easy to say when calling an Oscar-nominated writer with that line you get a surge of electricity that you didn’t previously have.  Not that I didn’t previously have experiences where I got to talk to people extremely talented in the field I was writing about, but what I’m talking about is the surge of excitement coming from your own sense of accomplishment.  Okay, tooting horn moment is over. Sorry, just had to let it out.

So, yes, I am writing for MTV News and I must say that Totally. Fucking. Rocks.  I got the opportunity to talk to Kim Krizan, Oscar nominated writer of Before Sunset, famous for her crack in Dazed and Confused about Independence Day’s only reason for existence is so a bunch of aristocratic white males wanted the day off in the name of a tax break.  Which is something quite memorable for those of us of the MTV Generation.

Kim Krizan wants to eat your brain. No, not really — but she does want to defy your expectations.

The Oscar-nominated writer of 2004’s “Before Sunset,” Krizan returns to a decidedly different world from her film projects in an upcoming issue of Boom Studios’ horror anthology “Zombie Tales.” Her contribution to the anthology, “Summer 2061,” is a sequel to a story she contributed to the first issue of the anthology series, “Spring 2061,” and picks up where Krizan’s group of human resistance fighters left off: in a world ruled by zombies.

So, yeah, once IT gets my name on the menu of authors, I’ll probably set up an RSS feed full of my stories coming from there. I want to give a big thanks to Rick Marshall and Casey Seijas for giving me this great chance to write for a site that literally pushes all of my geek buttons.     

I celebrated last night by deciding at the last minute to go out with Ben McCool, his soon to be wife, Heidi MacDonald, Jahfurry, Jeff Ayers and…John Cassaday.  Yep, the “Astonishing X-Men,” and “Planetary” artist. Yesterday was a big wonderful bag of Win. 

Happy Halloween, Boys and Ghouls! (I’m going to be this guy).

If you wanted more of the Heath Ledger-Joker, this is it. Kevin Church has a good review of it.

While walking back from the 86th Street subway station coming back from class tonight, I saw a couple on their iPhones walking in front of me excitedly texting.

“Oh no way: I can play Pacman on this thing!” the Boyfriend said.

“I can get the NY Times Crossword!” the Girlfriend replied.

“Sweet!”

“What movie do you want to see tonight?” she asks.

“The new James Bond!” 

“Cool! I’ll look for showtimes.”

“And I’ll call the theatre!”

I thought about mentioning to them that the movie doesn’t come out for another sixteen days. Their phones may be from the future, but I’m pretty sure iPhones can’t transport humans into the future. Instead, I was too focused on my envy. I simply must have that ghastly machine that you can look up movie times while walking down the street. It will change EVERYTHING.

AVC: When you’re deeply embedded in writing, directing, and editing, does it become hard to step back and get perspective on whether the movie is working?

CK: It’s a problem and it’s not a problem. I think it’s always a problem on every movie I’ve worked on—and I’ve been involved in all of them in post-production and editing—to have the same perspective as an audience member who hasn’t seen the movie. Which is why you have screenings. It’s the only reason we’ve ever done it, and it’s one thing that we’ve taken from working with Spike and Michel. It’s like, “We want [the audience] to understand this, but they don’t.” Sometimes you don’t care, or you don’t want them to. But this is important to us—sometimes when [viewers] have questions, we ask ourselves, “How do we clarify that kind of thing?” You can never have the same perspective, except maybe a few years later when you catch it on TV and see it in a different way. I don’t think it’s possible, otherwise, for anybody.

But I also think perspective is overrated and not what I’m going for. When I’m writing, I’m trying to immerse myself in the chaos of an emotional experience, rather than separate myself from it and look back at it from a distance with clarity and tell it as a story. Because that’s how life is lived, you know? Life is not lived 10 years ahead of itself—there’s a lie to that. The conventional wisdom is—people say this all the time—you should only write something when you’re far enough away from it that you can have a perspective. But that’s not true. That’s a story that you’re telling. The truth of it is here, right now. It’s the only truth that we ever know. And I’m interested in that truth and the confusion being part of the experience and sorting it your way through and figuring it out. So if my movies don’t have perspective and they’re created in that “now,” then I’m kind of okay with that. It’s desirable.

His directorial debut, Synecdoche, New York, is probably (next to Quantum of Solace) my most anticipated movie of the Fall.

Now I have to go back to work on a paper on Allen Ginsberg.

[From the A.V. Club].

Yep, its one of those moments, where you just say the above. I’ve got my work work done, but I can’t seem to get motivated or focused for the life of me to do work that has to, HAS TO, get done by Tuesday for class.  So, fuck it, I’m going outside and trying to sift my way through Final Crisis.

I fully realized something recently, something I’ve always known about myself ever since high school, stuff as an English student that I never cared for, and probably why I focused more on journalism and the craft of writing rather than the study of the work. This reason is the grotesque vaguery and overall bullshitty mentality of English teachers and their students.  

The graduate level classes at Brooklyn College are set up discussion style with the teacher engaging in a discussion with the students on the impressions of a work. Allowing for the students to engage in a dialogue that is both snobby, know-it-all and self-indulging dismissive without actually saying anything of substance.  I find myself constantly clashing with the vague bullshit that is slung around at master’s level english literature courses.

I find it especially evident in my classes that this is not my style, though I continue to excel at my written work, I dislike the vagueness.  I like getting to the point rather than beating around the bush. There are a number of people I don’t care for when it comes down to the classes.  The kind of people who like to wax their poetic carrot by circling around a point gaining, “yeah, yeah, right, right,” hit points from the teacher who then engage them in similar vague dialogue agreeing with the self-indulgent bullshitter student.  Giving me this sense of: “yeah, I agree with you, and see your point, because I’m just like you.” And since I only see these bullshit artists as being largely full of shit who say nothing of any kind of merit, causing me to feel like the program doesn’t mesh with my personality.  

These students and teachers engaging in this circular dialogue makes me sick with annoyance.  I’m not about talking end from end on how bright I am, and it seems its inherent in English majors that they love to talk in generalities that seem to never have a point. Its because of this nature of class, that I see my old Journalism prof, Denny, screaming in my brain and I utter these words at my graduate school colleagues: “I’m sorry that’s vague. Can you be more specific?”

All I get in response is dirty looks and more generalities which causes my internal Denny to scream: “What the fuck are you talking about?!”

Maybe I’m just not smart enough, or not Advanced enough as Klosterman defines it, or maybe I’m not full of shit.

So, J.G. Jones is not finishing the art on what is hopefully the final crisis DC ever does.  I mean, that’s sad and all, because he rocks, but at least he has the awesome help of Doug Mahnke and Carlos Pacheco so its not so bad.  I guess this just goes back to the idea of getting the issues out, but I’m more than willing to wait for a quality production over immediacy. It goes back to my overall mentality on The Ultimates or Planetary: yes, it took a while for the books to get put on the stands (perhaps because of the creators involved in those titles taking their time) but the time and the wait was always more than welcome because you knew when it did come out it was going to be a high quality production every time. Though, the aforementioned replacements on Final Crisis are definitely pretty good regardless.  As always, J.G. is all class:

Jones did however offer, “Any problems completing the series are my own. I love Doug Mahnke’s art, and he would have probably been a better choice to draw this series in the first place.”

…

Asked if he would be re-drawing the issue for the eventual trade paperback of “Final Crisis,” Jones said, “I seldom revisit any ground I’ve already covered, and absolutely will not be redrawing any of Doug’s work. What an insult that would be to Doug, an unnecessary exercise in futility on my part.”

I mean, if that doesn’t say class act, I don’t know what is.

Last night’s Scream Awards showed, basically a re-cut trailer with some added footage of the Watchmen film. I’m still pumped for it, though they need to eject that Smashing Pumpkins song.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5EXW2-Fj9Q]

That end sequence with the Comedian being thrown out of the window and the trademark Happy Face pin covering the final moment is just a breathtaking moment of filmmaking.   

As for comics this week:

1. Final Crisis #4.  I’m looking forward to seeing Barry Allen kicking ass and taking names.
2. Scalped #22.  Which will probably be the successor to 100 Bullets. 
3. Unknown Soldier #1.  This seems pretty interesting, I’ll buy the first issue of almost anything Vertigo puts out, and CBR did a interesting story on this series.
4. All kinds of cool Ghost Rider shit.  Simon Spurrier’s series on Danny Ketch starts.
5. Oh yeah, I guess I’ll get Secret Invasion.

Oh, and? The news of the day is there will be a Runaways movie.  

I’m reading Pattern Recognition for my Literature and Society class, and I have to say its blowing me away. To the point that I’ve bought up his first novel, Neuromancer and his most recent: Spook Country.

The largest, though not the tallest, a black man with a shaven head, is zipped like a sausage into something shiny, black, and only approximately leatherlike. Beside him is a taller, gray-faced man, hunched within the greasy folds of an ancient Barbour waterproof, its waxed cotton gone the sheen and shade of day-old horse dung. The third, younger, is close-cropped and blond, in baggy black skater shorts and a frayed jean jacket. He wears something like a mailman’s pouch, slung across his chest. Shorts, she thinks, drawing abreast of this trio, are somehow always wrong in London.

She can’t resist glancing into the trunk.

Grenades. 

Are you mesmerized? I am. Highly recommended reading.

• First and foremost: it’s Tommy’s birthday today.  So, we’re headed up to Connecticut to celebrate. 
• Comics: my last post on Chino the Comic Book Street Vendor was linked at The Beat. I’ve heard someone say, somewhere, that you’re officially part of the comics blogosphere when Heidi links to you. I dunno, I suspect that’s probably BS, but its cool of Heidi anyway. 
• Panel of the Week: comes from Rogue’s Revenge #3. Yes, I know this probably gets the ire of all the shouting heads on the internet complaining about the level of violence in DC Comics and others, but to be honest this is sweet sweet revenge for me.  The justifiable execution of a character who facilitated the killing of a character that was pretty close to my heart.  So, sorry for the image and naturally, copyright DC.  
•  
• Movies: I saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which I guess was forgettable.  I like Mila Kunis, and I like Kristin Bell at her sarcastic snarkiness best. I especially like the scene where she calls out, while in bed, that fucking retard British guy who hosted the VMAs.  Whatever his name is: I don’t care.
• That’s all for today, nothing in music, and nothing in politics for a change.  I’m going to get drunk in CT, and hopefully not get in a fight with a guy who can bench five hundred pounds three times like last time.