I’ve had “Don’t Fear the Reaper” in my mind lately, with the song wailing and images of the corpses throughout that military installation where the made-for-TV version of Stephen King’s epic, the Stand, starts.

That had nothing to do with the news that has been buzzing around lately. Odd coincidence, though…

I guess it was when a friend on Facebook posted this status that I really woke up to it:

looks like captain tripps does exist!!! awesome!!!

Ah yes, “Captain Tripps” — the nickname for King’s super-flu from The Stand. What’s next? Corin Nemic joining Fox News coverage, staking out the Center for Disease control and trying to insinuate this is all the Democratic Party’s fault? (Corin Nemic, for those who don’t understand the reference, played Harold Lauder: outcast-nerd-turned-turncoat; in the miniseries. He also used to be Parker Lewis. “Not a problem.”)

Anyway, forget The Stand for a minute and lets just go back to the sensationalism of the coverage of the Flu. From what reports would have you believe, death-rates are high (like 10%+) and we’re all screwed. Joe Biden didn’t help things this morning by stating public caution.

But really, I wish people would just stop watching TV coverage of this and just become aware of the facts and just go about their lives. The flu sucks and is known to be deadly… But unless people start showing severe symptoms and start dropping dead in mass in New York instead of showing only mild symptoms… Well, it’s a panic that seems straight out of a work of fiction.

…And to be honest, King’s work of fiction was a lot better than the news coverage we are seeing in reality.

Let me point to it again — read the articles here. If you only want to spend time reading a single article, read the fourth in that series. And calm the hell down!

I continue to believe Roland Deschain (aka Stephen King’s Gunslinger) would go into convulsions if he saw the Burj Dubai:

Somewhere over 700 meters (2,100 feet for metric ignorant Americans) in height. It will be over 800 (from rumors and hersay) when completed.

I like reading Stephen King in Entertainment Weekly (side note, Uncle Stevie — sorry but I let my subscription run out after 15+ years as a subscriber. Too much tabloidism now in the magazine and not enough industry coverage) and a couple of months ago I read Stevie’s Wonders which was King’s top 24 rock and roll songs.

The thing that got me was when I read the following paragraphs…

”Best rock songs of all time,” he says. ”That subject always starts arguments, especially if you don’t put ‘Stairway’ on there.”

I realized he was right. Especially since the idea of putting ”Stairway to Heaven” on such a list grosses me out. So I decided to take my biker buddy up on his idea. Twenty-four great songs, one for every hour of the day, picked by the Infallible Me.

I began by throwing out most of those Internet lists, because they’re full of ballads (”Tears in Heaven” as rock & roll? Oh, really?), soul (”When a Man Loves a Woman” is a great song but it’s not rock), and tunes that have been played to death. There’s also an amazing number of draggy songs on the lists, like ”Hotel California.” When would I like to hear that one again? Uh…how does never work for you?

As much as certain songs are classics — they are more pop than rock. “Hotel California” — that’s a folks rambler of a pop song (at least the live version, gotta listen to the original again but it’s soft rock if anything). “Tears in Heaven” is a ballad and not boot-stompin, shit-kicking rock. You know, the type of songs that make you want to groove your thing all over the place.

That got me thinkng of the Beatles a lot. Now, anyone who knows me knows that the Beatles have had a profound effect on me, so this should seem like only a natural conclusion. While there are plenty of songs in the Beatles library (under Lennon/McCartney, Harrison or Starkey) that could vie for a place on King’s list… It was the one song that is forever identified with the Beatles that made it: She Loves You.

King talks about how the song “gets in, does it’s business and gets out” as why it’s the top Beatles song and also shows King’s justification why a number of songs by a number of artists didn’t make the cut — they linger. They dwell. They overstay their welcome. She Loves You clocks in at 2:22. In, out, wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am.

Yet my opinion differs. I’ll add a little length in time to my selection versus Uncle Stevie’s choice in saying “She Loves You” ain’t the top Beatles rock’em, sock’em song. I could single out any number of songs that can be more than “She Loves You” but lets keep it the older fair simply because the Beatles of 1963 didn’t have multiple overdubs, double tracking and such. It was pure, it was simple, it was ruined by screaming fans when performed live.

At any rate, the one on my mind is more of a rock and roll classic than “She Loves You” IMHO. If “She Loves You” can be labeled a Beatles-only song (and from listening to it this morning, I couldn’t help but realize how it epitomizes the early Fab 4 with “Yeah Yeah Yeah” and the vocal harmonizing in their ooh’s), the one on my mind is the Rock God’s ode that ranks up there with classics from Berry, Holly, Little Richard, etc.

I Saw Her Standing There:

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 !

Well, she was just 17,
You know what I mean,
And the way she looked was way beyond compare.
So how could I dance with another (ooh)
And I saw her standin’ there.

Well she looked at me, and I, I could see
That before too long I’d fall in love with her.
She wouldn’t dance with another (whooh)
And I saw her standin’ there.

Well, my heart went “boom,”
When I crossed that room,
And I held her hand in mine…

Whoah, we danced through the night,
And we held each other tight,
And before too long I fell in love with her.
Now I’ll never dance with another (whooh)
Since I saw her standing there

Well, my heart went “boom,”
When I crossed that room,
And I held her hand in mine…

Whoah, we danced through the night,
And we held each other tight,
And before too long I fell in love with her.
Now I’ll never dance with another (whooh)
Since I saw her standing there

2:55 makes it a little long by Uncle Stevie’s standards but come on… This goes away from the banal love-love-love and brings you the pure primal urges of a cocky kid at a dance. Where you get stuck with the yeah-yeah-yeah’s in the refrain of “She Loves You”, the worst you suffer here is trying to figure out the answer “How could I dance with another girl / When I saw her standing there?”

Of course, “She Loves You” comes off more like a stampede in it’s delivery (just listen to Ringo Starr’s lead in on drums and that sets the tempo for the delivery of the entire song), “When I saw her standing there” comes at you raw but on target in the sense of a garage band who got recording studio time and made the most of it.

Isn’t that what Rock’s about? Get in, get out — I agree with King on this — but then you have that non-honed element that has gotta be there. Something like you’re enjoying yourself but you’re just wigging out, showing your feelings in what you’re singing. You listen to Paul telling you “She was just 17 / and you know what I mean” and you know what he means. Either if you are the guy or the girl.

Maybe you see my point, maybe you entirely disagree. Cast your vote below:

[poll=2]

You may also want to comment and leave your thought son things, that’s all right and good to. There are a ton of originals that the Beatles wrote and performed that could be listed but try not to go past 1965 if you want to list another song.

Last year, there was a bit of a hoopla made out for Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige… A tale of dueling illusionists at the turn of the century. The castings of Christian Bale and Michael Caine made me think Nolan was tied up with his Bat-crew. Hugh Jackman being cast gave my fan-boy heart a lift. Wolverine vs. Batman! In turn of the century London! Bloody good show!

So when I read Stephen King lauding the film in Entertainment Weekly late last year, it just refreshed my desire to see this film and it’s “outstanding twist of an ending”.

(EDIT NOTE: King lauded The Illusionist. I suspected this and had rented the movie specifically because of it. It was my brother who made a big deal about The Prestige‘s twist ending)

A few weeks back, I watched The Illusionist with Edward Norton and after my older brother watched it — he told me it wasn’t shit compared to The Prestige. “There is a surprise ending. It’s awesome. I saw it in theaters, you have gotta get it when it comes out on DVD.”

Me and Michael usually can enjoy the same movies so I thought I would be in for a real treat by the time I got to see the film on DVD.

I’m still waiting for that “surprise ending.”

Maybe it was because of the tip offs that the ending had a twist, but more likely it was a failing of craftmanship by Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan (superb filmmakers, I’m just a blogging critic with no credibility) in trying to hide the ending. Hell, maybe they didn’t set out for it to be a surprise at all? Never the less, I wasn’t floored by the “fooling” that took place.

While I loved The Illusionist specifically for it’s cinematography (19th century Vienna done gorgeously), I loved Prestige more for it’s actors as I had said above. Jackman, Caine, Bale — a superb threesome at the top of the bill. Yet as the movie unfolds, the pairing of Caine and Jackman’s characters over and over again don’t seem to properly balance with Bale. In fact, Jackman and Caine came off like antagonists at times, while Bale’s character’s shroud of mystery was both too revealing and too charismatic. You knew things would turn around for him at one point and all you had to do was wait. Wait. Wait.

They didn’t really turn around but lets just say he won in the end, and the fact he did wasn’t a secret or a surprise ending. Anyone watching can deduct what was going to happen by simple banter between Bale and Jackman before the two illusionist trainees had their falling out.

Nolan’s tale is worth checking out even without my little clue listed below. It reaches across two continents and has a grand mixing of characters and incidents. But from the get go you could see enough to know the hook….

***SPOILER WARNING (vague but a Spoiler) ***

A total devotion to ones craft is mentioned early in the film, and like any mystery it’s the line that should stand out. In fact, this is something that should easily be deduced even before the film starts. Any magician has to put on a charade for the public. A grand charade both on and off the stage in order to convince people.

Dual personalities, dual physical characteristics and conditions, dual memories. Dual memories.

While someone forgetting what knot they tied around the hands of an assistant who gets killed tragically makes sense — the grief, the horror, the shock all taking it’s tole on the psyche — it makes more sense if you weren’t there at all when it happened. You need to make an excuse and your other persona needs to employ that excuse in order to keep your character believable.

Yeah, that’s not a clear revealing of the “surprise ending”. The movie is good enough to watch that you should. Just pay attention.

Under Stephen King’s famed Demon Moon….

The Boston Red Sox have erased 86 years of pain in an instant. Congratulations, Red Sox Nation on winning the 2004 World Series!

I’m still upset over the news of Christopher Reeve’s death. I’m a child of the 1980′s and Christopher Reeve as Superman was my Superman. He beat the shit out of the animated versions of Superman or the comic books… I know someone out there that doesn’t see this blog often has a picture of me as a kidd wearing a Superman outfi for Holloween….

And to think my childhood hero is gone…? It just… It makes my heart cry.

Patty Davis wrote a memorable piece in Newsweek about this death and how the Government helped it along. It ticks me off that moral law controls the United States on an issue like this.

I, myself am a disabled American and even though I can’t benefit from Stem Cell research, I certainly don’t think we should keep people from researching what benefits can come from Stem Cell research. I don’t think God would of wanted us to pass judgement on the weak like this.

I left that post mentioning Reeve’s death yesterday with a line from Stephen King’s book… that doesn’t do it justice…

Rest in peace, Superman….

I’ve reviewed the last few books with just general babble in my opinion… Not talking details at all about The Dark Tower books except for those who know the Dark Tower. I’ve tried to keep my reviews spoiler free so that other people can enjoy what happens to Roland and hsi ka-tet as they approach the apex of existence: The Dark Tower.

Stephen King spins his final tale – another work of Metafiction with himself involved in the novel – in the thirty-plus year saga of the Gunslinger and his quest. It closes the door on the series but it also opens the door to the reader – the Constant Reader that Stephen likes to reffer to…. How so? ON discord perhaps? Discontent? On frustrations? On heartbreak?

It’s just a book to so many who have enjoyed them over the years, it’s a pilgrimage to the center of a fiction writers imagination.

From here on in, I want to give a constant spoiler warning… I will not be holding back on my comments… I’ll say the book kept me interested and it was a page turner… Now if you do not want to know what happens in the book — READ NO FURTHER!

—

You still here? OK… Well, lets get down to basics: Roland does indeed reach the Dark Tower and breach it…

The bad news is that King decided to get rid of some people along the way. We have a few people form past King Novels show up — including Shimmie Ruiz who happesn to be a breaker of all things — but that doesn’t really make up for the breaking of the Ka-tet. It doesn’t make up for the bitter end between Roland and Susannah (nor her choice — more on that later). Nor does it make up for the ultimate hook that closes the book out with (which I nearly skipped after reading Roland reciting names of those he has met on his journey).

For those who have read the Dark Tower novels and who have read soem of King’s other work, there has always been a indirect tie to the Tower books from his other stories. In Insomnia was a painting with two men… Patrick Danville was supposed to save the lives of those two figures and one of those men MUST NOT DIE….

Patrick was one of those two men, so it seems… As he and Roland of Gilead are the ones that are left to approach the Tower. I kid you not.

Eddie Dean hath fallen. O Discordia.

John “Jake” Chambers hath fallen. O Discordia.

Susannah Dean ventures back into one fo the many Americas in existence… This all but a day before Roland reaches the Dark Tower.

Those are the killer blows of The Dark Tower. Eddie being the most lovable character of the saga, Jake being part of the story from the very start…. It just broke my heart when I read about Eddie dying…. jake dying was shocking to me. It was shocking to Stephen King as well who explains in the book himself that, in his notes, all four of them were supposed to live to see the tower.

And Oy? Unfortunately, Wizard and Glass told you the outcome of Oy’s journey to End World….

Eddie’s death was the real problem I had with The Dark Tower – that’s just someone I couldn’t see dying and yet who’s death seemed the most likely. His death is ont he heels fo the Beam of Shardik / Manturin being saved, which adds to the bitterness of it happening.

And Jake? He saves Stephen King in the year of ’99….

Susannah and Roland venture together through a good bit of the book but dreams start telling her she must leave Roland. And leave she does…. For Eddie Cantor….Toren?

I don’t know where else to go with this discription of the book… It had most everything you have seen in the Dark Tower stories except a lengthy flashback. Chills, spills, gunslinging…. Roland never ahd the “dry twist” of arthritis… That is explained. Ted Brauntigan and Dinky Evanshaw are park of the group that saves the beams from the Breakers (say thank ya)….

And what happens when Roland reaches the Dark Tower? What happens when he reaches the top? I’ll leave you with a few words and hear them very well, I beg… I’ll leave you to read the novel itself and enjoy the novel as I did… But one line summarizes the begining and the end of this Magnum Opus of Stephen King:

The man in black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed.

The casting alone makes em want to catch the remake of Stephen King’s 2nd novel-come-movie, ‘Salems Lot

Rob Lowe playing Ben Meares — I can live with that. Donald Sutherland as Richard Straker? Exact casting that I imagined reading the book. Rutger Hauer as Barlow? Another dead-on casting! James Cromwell as Father Donald Callahan?! Another dead on casting! It’s incredible…

Of course, casting alone won’t make this a great movie – if Mikael Saloman can’t work with the images and provoke fear inside the viewer much like King can do with words and images — this will turn into another King-book-come-movie dud to follow dozens of King books that were turned into movies and fell flat.

Reviews on Google have been mixed while reviews on IMDB sound hopeful. We’ll see just how this turns out tomorrow night on TNT.

I’ve been writing a story for over a year now and it is starting to piss me off more than actually entertain me with regards to finishing it.

If I can’t focus on the story, I choke and can’t write anything. I’ve already had to quit Long Ridge because I can’t think or focus or what not… Part of me wants to call an end to Peter’s adventure and another part of me won’t be satisfied until I punch in the last few sentences and a period and then deem the manuscript finished — the first draft that is. There is still a load of editing to do…

But first things first — trying to close off the story is proving to be a bitch.

I’ve got 77 manuscript pages done as of right now — 21 thousand words… Not too shabby but it’s not that big a tome. It’s not even that high quality I would think. Sure, some people have re-assured me the story is worth reading and the characters make you interested — but there are flaws that I can see and that others can see… That’s part one of what bothers me.

Part two is that I am not writing squarely about what I know. That’s something you are supposed to do but alas — the story is too big to do that. It’s to interesting with the characters and the dialog to do that… Yet the details in some of the places where the story takes place – they escape me. They force me to wonder if I am just a hack because I am winging it or if I am making a worthwhile effort through a bit of ignorance.

Stephen King helped me out — not personally but I was reading Song of Susannah and he made the point that when you have no further use for a character – you could kill them off to end that part of the story. It’s probably much truer in horror and thrillers than this story but I think I might take a lesson from Steve and do some killing in order to advance the story to it’s ending…

Because I personally don’t know how to get there from here as it stands.

I had been close to just cutting out details and jumping to a conclusion instead of giving the full ending and I thought it was a cop out on my part. What happened to the characters after such and such a point? What happened between certain characters that caused them to fight? What happened to so and so, and what will happen when these people reach what’sitcalled? (nice job avoiding plot details, eh? :smile ) I hated the idea of cheating people on the story but without having the complete story (what happens in the end?!) in my mind, it just pisses me off that the story seems to be going on and on without a set point where things will conclude.

Where is “The End” when I need it?

Song of Susannah kicked ass.

In my review of the sixth part of the great sage and imminent wordslinger’s (Stephen King) magnum opus – The Dark Tower — I have to say that for the most part Song of Susannah made up for any and all problems that I had with his last entry to the series (Wolves of the Calla) and was probably the most constant and tension filled book in the series for me — probably a bit more than The Drawing of the Three and The Waste Lands . Compared to Wolves which I fought at times to finish up, or Wizard and Glass which lost my interest because of how far off course the story ventured, this was an absolute pleasure to read.

“Dude, stop with the praise and give me an idea what happens already!”

OK, I don’t want to play the spoiler but of course in all reviews of anything (movies, books, TV shows) you get an idea of what is going to happen in a review…. In Song, the first gasp of the novel establishes the need for the ka-tet to be repaired… Beamquake. It gives a new idea of the sense of urgency of the mission to the Dark Tower (but of course gives no idea on what they need to do there). Eddie is in shambles because Susannah has gone through the Unfounded door, Father Callahan is going insane because he’s found out he is a character in a book, Jake Chambers is still pissed off at losing his best friend because of “Frank…..Fucking….Tarvery” and of course Roland is…. Roland. A bit rational even when there is pressure afoot.

Only taking place for a short time in the borderlands between Mid-World and Thunderclap, the story spends a good deal of time in New York City of 1999 and Maine of 1977. It puts some explanation of story flaws in past Dark Tower novels and it doesn’t exactly sink with the Stephen King side plot. That was my biggest beef with Wolves of the Calla — King writing himself into the books… But you know what? It works now. You see how it works. King had written in the past about what would happen if he met Roland in person and basically you get to see that for real in this story.

Something really bit at me though and it was something I don’t know if it’s real or not. It’s excerpts from King’s “Diary” between 1977 and 1999… I don’t know how much is fake and how much is real — but if there is reality to his wife telling him not to walk a certain route and the fact he predicted 6/19/1999 (O, Discordia!)… It’s just chilling to the bone. There’s no other way to put it.

Susannah gets a lot of pages in this book — and to some degree things did get boring with her dealings with Mia (the other inhabiting her body) and that might be the weakest part of the story… That or a rehash of the ending of The Waste Lands (and no, it ain’t Blaine the Mono) might piss some people off. But it’s not going to be years until we see the conclusion of the Dark Tower saga. Episode 7 — The Dark Tower — is due out later this year.

Long Days and Pleasant Nights to ya, I beg. Life for your crop and thankee-sai… Song of Susannah is a pleasure to read.