Bulldog Drummond’s Revenge

Been really loving my new Piccadilly notebooks (cheaper but just as good versions of moleskines)… if you want write or sketch or keep track of all your brilliant ideas that will never come to fruition, I recommend them. I mean, you could use ordinary paper just as well, it’s not like the notebooks will replace any talent you don’t have (though I’m sure you probably have some)… they’re just so aesthetically pleasing that they encourage you to use them. So I’ve found myself starting to plan out another fantasy story that I’ll probably never write…

Um… what else? It’s the start of a 3-day weekend, though I spent most of the day today sleeping, so my sleep schedule is completely off now. I’ll have to try staying up all night tonight to try to correct it.

I just went through one of my bookshelves and made sure all my books had my property stamp in it. It reminded me of all the books I bought but haven’t read yet. Meanwhile, I have all these books out from the library… and I keep getting half or a third way through a book and then moving on to another interesting looking one. So I’m going to purge my checked out library items and return some and see if I can read some of the books I actually own this summer. Then again, maybe not; I read out of interest, not ownership guilt.

Oh, I also started watching those old mystery movies I got, from the Mystery Classics 50 Movie Pack Collection. Watched the first one, so I’m 2% done! The quality is pretty terrible; these movies haven’t been restored or anything. But the first one, Bulldog Drummond’s Revenge, was actually pretty funny; I suppose it’s equivalent to one of the comedy detective shows that might come on nowadays like Monk. But it was made in 1937, when TV series weren’t really an option, obviously. Anyway, I think it will be fun to watch the other 49 of these…

Oh, I also watched The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus last night. My next few sentences might contain SPOILERS so look away if you haven’t seen the movie yet and don’t want to be spoiled…

The imagery and the uniqueness of the story and its world were pretty awesome. Some of the effects were a bit cheap, as in you could tell they were using blue screen sometimes with those fuzzy edges you get on cheap blue screen effects, but it’s amazing what they were able to do on such a limited budget. The thing that really annoyed me though was the ending. The ending was visually appealing, but story-wise, I just didn’t get it. The motivations and actions of the characters just became unclear and chaotic. It was just weird and unsatisfying.

Remember, writers, the two most important parts of your story (in my opinion) are the beginning and the end. (By “the end” I mean the story from the climax to the absolute end, not just the last scene.) The beginning should hook people (Doctor Parnassus definitely had a fun beginning), and the ending should satisfy them, revealing all mysteries and making *everything* clear. (I know some audiences don’t mind some ambiguity here and there, but I don’t prefer it.)

OK, that’s my blather for now…