Hanna

Just came upon this trailer on IMDB.com and it looks all kinds of awesome.  Something about young girl assassins, from Natalie Portman's Mathilda to Chloe Moretz's Hit Girl, strikes me as particularly entertaining.

I would not expect a film like this from Joe Wright, the director of Pride & Prejudice and Atonement, and perhaps that piques my interests even more.  The underrated Eric Bana, the always amazing Cate Blanchett, and talented newcomer Saorise Ronan certainly doesn't hurt the films chances at being something good.

New Cash Laramie Story

I'm hip dip in Deadwood right now, so this is the time to suggest westerns to me.  Thankfully, David Cranmer of Beat to a Pulp and Education of a Pulp Writer has a new Cash Laramie story over at the Tainted Archive.  Go and take a peak. You won't be disappointed.

http://tainted-archive.blogspot.com/2011/01/wild-west-emonday-melanie.html

Fuel to the Fire

I've heard the question asked a million times to authors of every possible genre,

"Where do you get your ideas?"

It's a question I get sick of reading, so I can only imagine the nausea it causes the oft-asked authors.  If I have the opportunity to ask a question of my favorite writers, you can bet your paycheck that question won't be one of them.  Everyone's answer is going to be different.  If Writer A happens to find inspiration in a bowl of Lime Green Jell-O, are you going to hustle to your local mart to stock up on the wobbily treat?

In other words, I don't care where you or anyone else finds your muse.  I only worry about where mine happens to be hiding.

90% of the time, she's hidden in music. 

I constantly need noise in my life, as I don't put any faith in quiet solitude.  If a movie isn't on for background noise, it's a sure bet that my iTunes is plugging along on shuffle.  And surprisingly enough, certain songs/artists will crack open that rusty door in my brain and allow an idea to make a run for it.  But please don't misinterpret this.  I am not simply putting song lyrics into a story.  No matter how much I love Springsteen's Thunder Road, I have no interest in adapting it into a novel.  But how can you not get ten different ideas from the line-

"There were ghosts in the eyes of all the boys you sent away
They haunt this dusty beach road in the skeleton frames of burned-out Chevrolets"

Last week a song happened to spring an imprisoned idea in my head, and that inmate has been running wild for days, rattling the bars, shanking every other idea in the kidneys, and threatening to start a riot.  I've been looking for a new project to work on, and it seems this will be it.  More information will be forthcoming, but for the meantime, enjoy the trigger for my inspiration.

Pete Postlethwaite Dies at 64

Truly a sad sad occasion.  While not necessarily know by name to many of the movie going public, he was always recognizable, and more importantly memorable.  I first happened to notice him in The Usual Suspects, as the lawyer  Kobayashi, but he made his imprint in films such as:

In the Name of the Father (Oscar nominated)
Alien 3
Last of the Mohicans
Amistad
The Lost World
The Constant Gardner
and in just this past year alone
Clash of the Titans
Inception
and The Town.

His final film, Killing Bono, is scheduled to be released in April.  I'm off to go watch The Usual Suspects.

His talents will be missed.

The Chicago Code

Now that Shawn Ryan's other new show, Terriers, is officially off the air, it seems that The Chicago Code could not come at a better time.  I've been waiting for this for the better part of a year, despite knowing absolutely nothing about it other than it deals with crime and corruption in Chicago.

But now promos are starting to appear, and I'm excited as hell for one reason...

Delroy Lindo.

From Fox.com/chicagocode

The city of Chicago is a paradox that serves as the setting for Shawn Ryan's new drama, THE CHICAGO CODE. In this series, the audience is the passenger, taking an unpredictable ride through the streets of Chicago and navigating crime and corruption with the most respected - and notorious - cops in the city.

JAREK WYSOCKI (Jason Clarke) is a local legend and larger-than-life veteran of the Chicago Police Department. Like the city of Chicago, Jarek is razor blades and brass knuckles wrapped in politeness and egoless charm - a man who throws away partners the way others throw away tissues. TERESA COLVIN (Jennifer Beals) arrived at the pinnacle of the Chicago Police Department in a short period of time. She's determined to implement changes before the mud that is Chicago politics clogs her office. As a result of Teresa's difficult choices, she has made some powerful enemies along the way, including two street gangs, the police officers' union and a city alderman who proves to be a dangerous adversary.

Jarek's new partner, CALEB EVERS (Matt Lauria), is a smart young detective who desperately wants to prove himself. He is savvier and more observant than most people give him credit for, and just might make the perfect yin to Jarek's yang. Also in Jarek's charge is his niece, VONDA WYSOCKI (Devin Kelley), a rookie beat cop whose father, Jarek's brother, was killed in the line of duty when she was young. Jarek keeps close tabs on her and is less than thrilled to discover she's falling for her partner, ISAAC JOINER (Todd Williams), a charismatic cop who takes unnecessary risks on the job that land him and Vonda in some dangerous situations.

ALDERMAN RONIN GIBBONS (Delroy Lindo) is a building-magnate-turned-politician who has ruled his ward with a velvet glove for three decades. Jarek and Teresa are convinced Gibbons and his cohorts - including LIAM HENNESSEY (Billy Lush), an Irish tough guy in Gibbons' construction empire - are dirty to the core, but they've never had the evidence to prove it. When a murder investigation leads them to Gibbons, they are determined to bring him to justice and clean up Chicago - if that's even possible.

THE CHICAGO CODE is a production of 20th Century Fox Television and MiddKid Productions. The series is written by Shawn Ryan, and is executive-produced by Ryan, Tim Minear and Charles McDougall. McDougall directed the pilot episode.

The Chicago Code premiers February 7th at 9pm Eastern.

Resolutions

I don't believe in resolutions.

I believe in their existence, but they might as well be dragons or the Easter Bunny.  They are simple to make, hard to see through to the finish, but at the start of the New Year people make them just the same.  These people are masochists, doomed to spend time and money only to fail.  I'm sure resolutions were created only to be exploited.

Case in point.  Look at any sales flyers from your weekend paper.  Places such as Target, Walmart, and other retail outlets all lead with exercise equipment because they know most people always resolve to get healthier in the next 365.  How many of these exercise bikes and weight benches will soon become $400 clothes racks before bikini season?

This is why I don't make them.

Don't get me wrong, this blog itself started last January 1st because I had a goal I wanted to achieve.  And I met most of those initial goals. Posted every day for a consecutive year.  Check.  Watched every episode of Homicide.  Check.  Played Grand Theft Auto IV to completion.  Check again.  The only goal I failed on was reading every book published by Hard Case Crime.  It wasn't a lack of quality that kept me from this goal, only far too many other wonderful books.  At last count, I read over 70 books last year, so I'll still consider that a win.

So what are my goals, not resolutions, for this year?  Rather unsurprisingly, I'm going to continue with this blog.  It won't be daily like last year, but at least weekly.  I'll have the opportunity to write about whatever I want, whenever I want, for as long as I want, without the confines of the daily deadline.  Freeing me up from this deadline will allow me to create some more for myself.

I'm going to rededicate myself to prose writing this year, beginning with finishing that long gestating novel and at least a short story a month.  I've been amazed at all the creative outlets I've discovered on the web, and I want to play in their sandboxes.  I'll still work on the occasional comic (shameless plug for Warrior 27 here) but it's time to exercise some other writing muscles.

At least once a day.  But it's not a resolution.

Currently Reading: The Terror of Living by Urban Waite (so very very good)

Currently Watching:  Deadwood : The Complete Series on glorious Blu-ray

Currently Listening To: The Promise by Bruce Springsteen

Never invite Laurence Fishburn over for New Years

Hopefully your New Years Eve went a little more smoothly than theirs.



And yes, I prefer the original as well, but it didn't take place on December 31st.



And as an added bonus, here is a sweet Alex Maleev Batman cover for the final story of the year long No Man's Land event, which in my humble opinion, is the greatest Batman event ever told.