Not a Bad Week

Posted by Bob Greenberger on June 9, 2006

A few years back I wrote three essays for You Did What?, a collection looking at serious missteps that would provoke that reaction from any sane individual. For example, I wrote about the introduction of New Coke and the failed rescue attempt of the Iranian hostages.

I had a lot of fun working with editor Bill Fawcett and Brian Thomsen, the book came out from HarperCollins, and is still for sale for those interested.

Recently, Bill called out of the blue and while catching up, he invited me to pitch to his next project. This one, coming from William Morrow in Spring 2007 is entitled You Said What? and is more of the same. In these 1000 or so word essays we explore some of the great lies, misstatements and non-statements throughout history.

I have written 14 of these essays for the collection, including pieces on James K. Polk’s misstatement to Congress that led to war in 1846, the great P.T. Barnum, Grover Cleveland’s secret cancer surgery, John Keely’s etheric energy and other wonders. I just today heard back from Bill with his edits. I was very pleased to see how little line editing was done and now look forward to the finished product.

Beyond that, I’ve accepted a little more freelance comics editing and have discovered how challenging this can be without my DC rolodex and a slush pile to sift through. It has, though, put me back in touch with several comics colleagues which has been a bonus.

And today I have finished the first draft of my Spider-Man essay for BenBella’s SmartPop series so it’s winding up a productive week.

A Sign of Summer

Posted by Bob Greenberger on June 6, 2006

It’s summer time. Normally, people can measure it by the onslaught of popcorn movies clustered around Memorial Day. Me, I can measure it by when we rehearse for Mystery Trekkie Theatre.

MTT has become a fixture at Shore Leave as Peter David, Mike Friedman and I rip off the format of Mystery science Theatre and ridicule the lesser episodes from Star Trek. So far we’ve done episodes from all four franchises, avoiding Enterprise because shooting fish in a barrel is way too easy. Last year, we deviated from the norm by skewering the unaired ABC pilot to Alexander the Great starring William Shatner and Adam West (I kid you not).

The routine is that we start discussing which episode to mock when we see each other at Farpoint in February. We then make dupes of the episode and review it, setting a time for a meeting. In the past, we’ve normally done it at a DC conference room, but that wasn’t going to work this year for obvious reasons.

So, this morning I boarded the Bridgeport to Port Jefferson ferry and was picked up on Long Island by Peter. Mike arrived at his palatial mansion a little while later and we more or less got right to work. As usual, we feel into our routine: Peter prepares the opening skit, I take the master set of notes and Mike eats.

Over the course of 2-2 ½ hours, we worked our way through the 45-50 minute episode, constantly playing “can you top this?” and reversing the tape to check timing and to see which joke plays better. We find running gags and some that just make us giggle incessantly. We had some fine deli sandwiches to keep us going and were very satisfied that once again, we had a winner.

I now have to type up our final gags and we’ll do a run through sometime at the con, plus rehearsing the opening with T.A. Chafin, our perpetual Mad Scientist.

This year, we’re getting the final programming slot on Sunday afternoon. Normally, the local theatre troupe puts on a showcase performance, usually a musical parody of some genre production. Apparently, after doing shows for Farpoint and Balticon, they needed a summer off so we got moved to the afternoon – make your travel plans accordingly.

Last Stand in Review

Posted by Bob Greenberger on June 3, 2006

Like Jean Grey, I am of two minds with regard to X-Men: The Last Stand. As a long time comics reader, I saw all the source material being morphed, used and wasted to form the sausage that is this movie. And, like a good, well grilled sausage, it’s tasty but ultimately not necessarily good for you.

Sticking with the comic book fan perspective, it was terrific to see the Danger Room, hints of “Days of Future Past”, a Sentinel, more familiar mutants from Madrox to Callisto, and nice bits of business with the movie mutants we’ve gotten fond of. It was neat to see Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men storyline make it to screen (ironic considering Joss did an unfilmed draft of the first film) along with Dark Phoenix.

Also, as a comics fan, we know the source material and how the characters were originally handled and we see so many errors, missteps and wasted opportunities. Jean Grey a victim of MPD rather being possessed by a cosmic spirit that resurrected her after a noble sacrifice? The needless deaths of core characters?

Now, switch gears to being a film fan that liked the first two films and only knew of the X-Men as part of the pop zeitgeist. The movie doesn’t make a heck of a lot of sense. First of all, characters come and go without introduction, show up and then get dispatched without necessarily moving the story forward. The entire rescue of Mystique sequence is wholly unnecessary to the film unless it’s to show us what an unsympathetic báštárd Magneto can be.

Magneto, with all his powers, his growing army, and his goal of homo superior being the majority race on Earth has to hide his army in the forest like Robin Hood? Callisto has some neat skills but is never named and seems to earn Magneto’s trust way too easily. And why is he showing any loyalty to just Mystique as opposed to any of the mutants he was allied with in the first two films? Also, why is Pyro suddenly his Number Two? He’s an impetuous, untrained, ahem, hothead.

Jean giving in the Phoenix side of her personality seems to radiate energy without purpose. She isn’t even seen to struggle with it until her hormones kick into gear. At no point does the audience understand if Phoenix-Jean wants something or is just raw, unchanneled power, proving Xavier right all along.

Which brings me to the debates between Xavier and Magneto. It’s become expected to see them debate the issues but this time it was done without any warmth, wit, charm or originality. It’s all arguments we’d heard before and don’t understand why they remain cordial when they both conveniently arrive to coax Phoenix-Jean to their side. Magneto is horribly handled from overly melodramatic at times all the way to sympathetic when he shows his concentration camp tattoo.

It’s plot over character in emphasis and the plot doesn’t hold up or make enough sense to make the audience care. Things make little sense such as how long it takes to get anywhere. For example, Magneto moves the Golden Gate Bridge during daylight but is ready to invade the building in total darkness – what happened in between? And there was a total lack of suspense when Michael Murphy’s Warren Worthington II is tossed over the side of the building. What character we get is all surface, without any interesting dialogue. The various triangles are a passing nod to the lovely soap opera elements of the Claremont-era X-Men but it’s all for nothing. All the characters sound the same, except maybe Wolverine, and that ahs more to do with Hugh Jackman’s acting chops than the material. (And I have to acknowledge that Kelsey Grammer as Beast is terrific and the best new thing about the film.)

Speaking of plot, while the action is fun at times, the climax fails. I’ll let Keith DeCandido explain, as snurched from his review: ““But the biggest problem in the whole thing was the confrontation with Jean. Never mind the fact that Logan’s obsession with Jean is way in excess of his lustful infatuation in the other two films, there’s the simple fact that a) the ending is ripped off from Van Helsing‘s finale, and you’re in big trouble if you’re reduced to that, and b) why did Logan have to stomp toward her anyhow? All they had to do was put Leech near her and the fight was over!!!! They spent the whole movie showing us that Leech negates powers and was the basis of the cure. They just two minutes earlier showed him zapping Kitty and the Juggernaut. So why not use him against Jean? Hëll, why didn’t Logan jab her with one of the needles filled with the serum instead of stabbing her to death?”

As you know by now, stay through the credits for the last scene. Then, as you wander out of the theatre, ask yourself what purpose the moment serves beyond shock value.

As Another Week Ends

Posted by Bob Greenberger on June 2, 2006

Weird week.

In addition to the normal work that’s been happening, I’ve suddenly started taking on some freelance editing chores which meant exercising a set of muscles I haven’t used in a while. Once I have deals in place I’ll talk more about them but I have to say, it’s certainly nice to be invited back to comics.

Meantime, I’ve wrapped up a few things that need a polish and will be delivered on Monday. On the other hand, something I wrote back in April now is back in my lap for another pass to alter the tone and this will prove challenging.

On the municipal side of life, I have been asked to participate in two related committees that may mean changes to my other town obligations and I’m weighing what to do. However, I have also taken time to help them write their committee charter. I’ve also written a letter challenging renewal Sound View’s contract with Cablevision to provide Fairfield with public access programming. Again, more on that later, but you can imagine anything involving Cablevision has my interest.

Family and house stuff have also led to the week feeling more disjointed than usual. Couple that with a sudden wave of humidity and you can imagine it’s less than comfortable. The good news is we’re finally in gear with planning for Robbie’s Graduation Party, only a week or two late.