Looking Back: 2007 Part 3

End of Sinema

From the title to the ending, this story is as much a study of a personal friend of mine as it is an homage to the films of Godard. The title is a reference to the closing card in Weekend: end of cinema. Then there are more references than I can count throughout the story, mainly nods to Masculin féminin and Breathless. This story was written about and for 'Morris Lee', and he recently told me that he's still shocked at how accurate a portrayal it is of his life and thoughts. Even if the story itself is a failure, I can be satisfied knowing it served its purpose. The character Termite, due to Ramon Sierra's heavy involvement, was carried into Respect the Dead.

Skull of Fortune

The most recent dream collaboration with Joel Hentges. We always work very closely on these shorts based on his dreams and nightmares. Other than writing out his dream in a literary fashion, I helped develop the characters. I also had to fight for the title, which I'm fond of, as Joel felt it reminded him too much of a certain game show, therefore lessening the impact of the story. Seeing that this short was written back in 2007, I'll have to see if Joel has had any peculiar dreams lately.

The next post will conclude this Looking Back year.

Radar/A Play

There's a new Radar track up at JoshTierney.com, this one in play form. And, yes, it actually is meant to be performed!

Pitfall

This is what happens when I try to play Animal Crossing.

Looking Back: 2007 Continued

Hell House

I don't think I'd be able to live with myself if I didn't have a story with 'Hell House' as its title. The idea for Hell House came from Christmas 2006, when I began referring to houses with red lights as their sole decorations as Hell Houses. Like calling out a car with a broken headlight, every time such a house caught my attention I oozed the phrase from my half-frightened lips.

Anyone who reads Hell House right now might go 'hey, wait a minute -- isn't Douglass Gorn actually Koi from Radar?' The answer to that would be 'yeah'. Its the same awkward young gentleman who prefaces every sentence with an uncertain 'uh'. All the mannerisms are there. I felt the character type worked for a short story, but figured it would probably alienate any reader if Douglass Gorn was the protagonist of a novel. So I started Radar a couple years later.

The character Nasser was renamed Morris Lee and became the star of End of Sinema. Morris Lee also appears in Radar.

The bit about a girl having her heart literally stolen was reused for The Light In Glass Flowers. Despite no longer being proud of Hell House -- I don't even enjoy it anymore -- I must admit it's been a storehouse of ideas for me.

Paper-Thin Punks

Paper-Thin Punks is a roman à clef -- well, a roman à clef with a very subjective view of reality. It is made up of separate vignettes, with each vignette being about a person I know. The first vignette -- Paper-Thin Punks -- has all of these people going up in a hot air balloon together. With this story I began introducing influences from film into my writings, so the bit that goes

COOL COOL COOL COOL COOL

PAPER-

THIN

PUNKS

PAPER-THIN PUNKS PAPER-THIN
is actually a nod to Godard's use of intertitles. Kind of odd, I know, but I still think it works in this short, and is probably my favourite thing about it. However, it's a trick I doubt I'll ever use again.

This Pretty Mountain is about Simon. Right? Yes, 'Simon'. All of the people that Paper-Thin Punks makes use of read the stories about themselves, and all of them loved their individual depictions. Everyone except for 'Frank'. Sorry, Frank. I guess we'll never be friends again! I'm not friends with Simon anymore, either, but that's a short story I'd rather not write.

Paper-Thin Caspar is more early Koi. Read this vignette and you're reading about the creation of one of Koi's tracks. Radar Doesn't Believe In The Supernatural really runs deep.

No Thanks to Godard is -- okay, here's another experimentation I'm still quite fond of. No Thanks to Godard is actually an adaptation of an essay by John Wilkins, containing about 90% of the content of his essay while inserting John Wilkins as a character into it. John's named was changed to Edmond but I think I should've just left it alone.

And then Let's Be Frank. This is a vignette I'll salvage. Along with Melodrama/A Play, it's one of the very few 'early' stories of mine that I'd like to put into a collection. It involves a ghost, a girl, Frank, and all that's left of love.

Let's continue this another time, shall we?

A Sudden Loud Knocking

Would it be redundant if I posted quick site updates here? The latest track of Radar is up at JT.com, with an album cover by one of my favs, Ray Jones, and music from my good friend Saskrotch.

Top 15 Favourite Films

I love films. I love lists. This list is my bonsai tree -- I prune it, I nurture it. Maintaining it is a zen experience for me.

My two favourite film genres are Godard and Ambient. Later on with this blog I'll be focusing on what Ambient means to me in film terms, with posts on about half the films in this list.

1. Whisper of the Heart - Yoshifumi Kondo (1995)
2. Seven Samurai - Akira Kurosawa (1954)
3. Café Lumière - Hou Hsiao-Hsien (2003)
4. Solyaris - Andrei Tarkovsky (1972)
5. Band of Outsiders - Jean-Luc Godard (1964)
6. Chungking Express - Wong Kar-wai (1994)
7. Dodes’ka-den - Akira Kurosawa (1970)
8. The Spirit of the Beehive - Víctor Erice (1973)
9. Pierrot le fou - Jean-Luc Godard (1965)
10. Sans Soleil - Chris Marker (1983)
11. There Will Be Blood - P.T. Anderson (2007)
12. Linda Linda Linda - Nobuhiro Yamashita (2005)
13. Hélas pour moi - Jean-Luc Godard (1993)
14. Masculin féminin - Jean-Luc Godard (1966)
15. Magnolia - P.T. Anderson (1999)

S.O.S.