Quill & Claw/Pen & Paw

Journal Entry (nonfiction): If you could occupy the world occupied in a novel, which would you choose? [taken from the book “IF” by Evelyn McFarlane and James Saywell] Garsh, any where but here, really. I mean, with the wonderous worlds that books creates, even the evilest of ones, there’s more existing, there’s more excitement, there’s more adventure then this world can ever have! The first world I would be drawn too is the world that took me to novels in the first place. Sherlock Holmes’ gaslamp existence in Edwardian and Victorian England. I’m not one to believe in past lives, but I have consistently been drawn to this exciting time when the boundaries of life were being rewritten in London. Steamerpunk (think of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) was massively exciting, providing today’s technology but keeping the novelty of worlds yet to be explored . Jack the Ripper was haunting the streets, and trust me, I’ve read several novels about that creature. HP Lovecraft even ...

So yeah, I saw "Kick-Ass." And yeah, it was against my better judgement. Seriously. I mean, I listen to  Roger Ebert and Rotten Tomatoes . That doesn’t always mean I do what they say. I’m totally one for respecting others differences, but in the end, I believe that I have do what I want to do. I wanted to see this movie. It’s pretty clear I love me some superhero movies. I really do. And everyone panned "Superman Returns. They were right. It sucked moosepenis. But I still went to see it. It’s just the way I am. Maybe it’s something inside my heart to be a rebel. And since I’m such a chickenshit to rebel against people I know, it’s much easier to rebel against writers and post-ers I’ve never met. So I went to the critically panned Kick-Ass this past night. To show you how much of a rebel I am, I didn’t even try to convince my husband to go. The mere fact there was a swear word in the title turned him away. Now I don’t know how to say this, but how can you agree...

When is a classic a classic? I came to this question when I watched “Clash of the Titans,” last week. See, for two hours, I had a bit of free time to really kinda ponder this query—given the fact that my brain was empty as much as this flick was. I saw it with a group a friends, should you wonder why I would subject myself to this show. I also wanted to see this from the perspective of a teacher. Nothing beats the classics, as it were, for teaching fiction. And I’m still looking for a good example. See, in 1979, I saw this now-classic picture with good friends of the family. Our world was recently turned upside down with that little upstart of a movie called “Star Wars,” making our expectations totally be rewritten when it came to special effects. But the original “Clash” held true. Yes, it was pretty obvious where the stop-motion special effects blared across the screen, but it proved something back then— --when the story is well written, you can handle bad special effects be...

Alright, I like to eat. And because of that, I sometimes don’t have discriminating taste. I don’t have many vices left, frankly, outside of a decent palate that needs tons of tasty bits to keep it entertained. So when I go out to eat and I’m actually going to sit at a table, I have decent expectations. Not high expectations. Decent is usually enough. In a world that gives us Applebee’s drive up service and Red Robin’s cookie cutter service, expectations will be slightly dulled after a time. We went out last week to this place called Indigo Joe’s. Our western corridor of Colorado Springs is a mess. I don’t think there is one independently owned storefront or restaurant the entire Powers boulevard distance. So if I’m in that area and have to eat, I always tend to look for not the Mom-n-Pop diner, because I would have to squint too hard. Instead, I look for that one place that I’ve not actually gone to. That’s I how I found Indigo Joe’s. It’s labeled as a sports bar. Sports bars are n...

Middle schools sucks, frankly. If it didn’t teachers today would not have meetings, weekly, if not hourly, about ways of avoiding bullying and how to build self-esteem whilst the government sends messages that you are stupid and cannot be trusted---I mean, we have so many repetitive meetings, it is really impressive that many of these issues that one experiences only in middle school should been solved probably in the fifties. But these issues are STILL happening. It’s part of human development. Anyone who was in middle school knows it has nothing to do with adults. It has everything to do with being a pre-teen. The hormones, the inability to grasp any kind of reality and this nagging feeling that you’re not going anywhere---quite soon. That’s the focus of the kids, not the adults. And any movie that reviews the eons that are middle school years, that should be their focus. So teachers, including myself have frequent meetings, all trying to figure this ‘middle school’ thing out. ...

"Boy that was a forgiving mother," my coworker explained. Our discussion, for some reason, had led to my writings and she had inquired about at what age I had started being an author. I pointed out that I had abhorred a blank page and would sometimes create tales for no purpose whatsoever. The conversation verred this way and that, and at this point, I had elaborated on a moment in high school. I still hadn't mastered typing, so I had my mother transpose one of my handwritten tales for my English class. The story was that of a murder. I had written a short story about a painting in a wealthy man's home where people would stare at it, go home and then multilate themselves graphically. My coworker and mother were wondering why me, a person who really strives to find connections with the personalities around him; a man for whom the term "Poopiehead" is a frequent jibe---could write about a man who cuts off his own cheek and eats it. I bring this up in l...