Dispatches from the Flying M

Clueless

I can't quite comprehend the cluelessness of the Congressional Republicans voting unanimously against the stimulus package. They seem to want to try only the things that have been done for the past eight years, which obviously haven't worked out so well.  It's like coming home after Trick-or-treating and eating a whole bag of Halloween candy, and then when you start throwing up, deciding the way to settle your stomach is to eat more candy.

And, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the economy the #1 issue driving voters in November.  Voters who overwhelmingly rejected the Republican approach and declared that they wanted to try things Obama's way?

Now they're sitting on their hands while the country faces--you've heard the song, so sing along--the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.  Brilliant strategy.

I guess the country is gerrymandered to the extent that they think the seats they have left are safely Republican, so they have nothing to lose by looking like obstructionist idiots who put their own political careers ahead of the nation's good.  But they'll learn that few things can sway votes like an empty pantry.

Whether or not the stimulus package works, these fools should be voted out of office at the earliest possible opportunity.  It's not easy to make Rod Blagojevich look like he's NOT the craziest politician in the country this week, but the Republicans in Congress have succeeded at that.

Phoenix Comicon

Anyone who's read this blog for any length of time, or spoken with me in person about conventions, knows that I think the San Diego Comic-Con has long since ballooned to a size too large to be fun.  It used to be fun, now it has become a necessary chore, and surviving with bones intact is the goal.

The Phoenix Comicon, which I attended over the weekend, has been growing steadily (and next year moves to a much bigger facility, and over Memorial Day weekend instead of January) but is still well below the size at which it ceases to be fun.  Except when announcements were made over the PA system, people could actually carry on conversations in normal voices.  If there was someone you wanted to see, you could find them and speak to them.  There was time to make new friends, not just to wave to people caught in the mobs.  The panels were very well attended.  And the con staff and volunteers go to great lengths to make their guests feel welcome; I haven't been in the position of being an attendee instead of a guest, but I get the sense they extend the same consideration to their paying attendees.  There is no con of any size that I know of these days, particularly one as big as Phoenix's, that is more solicitous of their guests.  Partly as a result, the guest list is getting larger and more diverse every year.  And because of that, the attendance keeps growing--this year, despite the economy, attendance was up yet again.

If you want to attend a comic convention in 2010--and especially if you aren't a fan of crushing crowds--you could do worse than making the trip to Phoenix.  Of course, if you want the full experience, complete with booths for all the major publishers and film companies and nearly every creator in the business, then you have to do San Diego.  But it might not be a bad idea to do both, so you can compare and contrast.

Phoenix Bound

I'm leaving momentarily for the Phoenix Comicon, where I'll be through Sunday afternoon.

I'll be at my table in the dealer's room, except when I'm on a panel.

My panels are all on Saturday, and include:

Saturday 4:30:00 PM Palo Verde 1
Writing in Someone Else's Universe
What's it like to dip your keyboard into an already established universe? Learn from those who have already done it! Kevin J. Anderson, Jeff Mariotte, Michael A. Stackpole, Rebecca Moesta

Saturday 5:30:00 PM Palo Verde 1
30 Days of Night
Guests discuss this unique vision of vampire mythos. Ben Templesmith, Dan Wickline, Jeff Mariotte

Saturday 7:30:00 PM Cholla
What Big Teeth You Have Guests discuss the connection between fairy tales and horror. Jeff Mariotte,  Dan Wickline

Also, here's the cover of the fourth printing of Presidential Material: Barack Obama, on sale Feb. 4.  Yes, that's President Barack Obama at his inauguration on the cover.

More on the Prez

Take a look at the (new) official White House website.

Congratulations President Obama!

History is made not by the abstract sweep of events, but by extraordinary men and women who step up when their times demand.  This is Barack Obama's moment in history.  For the sake of a ruptured country and a battered world, we must wish him the greatest success.

Work update

I haven't done one of these for a while, but here's what I'm up to:

I'm writing--and getting close to the deadline for--CSI: Brass in Pocket, which will be the first CSI novel I've written (although I did write CSI: Miami: Right to Die for last year, and I wrote a CSI comic book one-shot a few years ago).  It's an interesting time to be writing CSI, because the night shift team has been through some major changes lately.  CSI continues to be the highest rated scripted show on television, so there's a lot of pressure to get it right.

I'm reading page proofs of Cold Black Hearts.

I'm trying to promote Zombie Cop.

I'm working on some can't-be-revealed comic projects, and developing some more.

I'm trying to find time to get to a short story I want to write.

I'm waiting on editorial feedback on a couple of novels, one tie-in and one original.

So, pretty much business as usual here on the word ranch.

A nearly perfect Sunday afternoon

This morning was a standard Sunday around the house. We slept in a little late--until after the sun rose, for a change.  I watched This Week and Meet the Press, which were enjoyable because the main topic of conversation was the fresh breeze blowing across the country with the imminent inauguration of Barack Obama.  I did some work.  Had lunch.

And then the Inaugural concert event started from the Lincoln Memorial.  It was an amazing gathering--the Bidens, the Obamas, an array of brilliant musicians, and hundreds of thousands of freezing, joyful people packing the Mall.

Side note, for those who don't know: I used to live in northern VA, and have spent a lot of time in Washington DC.  As East Coast cities go, while I love New York, DC is the best.  And the best part of DC is the Mall.  The monuments, the water, the museums...it's impossible to walk down it and not be proud and happy and thrilled to be an American.

So I wasn't there, but I know how it feels to be there and thanks to HBO's (free) coverage I had a front row seat to some stirring performances: Bruce Springsteen, Mary J. Blige, James Taylor, John Legend, and Jennifer Nettles, U2, and more.  And the high point was Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen--the progressive movement's minstrel and the troubador who most eloquently speaks for and reflects American life--joining forces on "This Land is Your Land."  Watching, I couldn't help feeling that Woody was smiling down from someplace.

As we watched, we finally took down our Christmas decorations and hauled them out to the barn. The temperature was a perfect, balmy 68, the sun shining, a light, warm breeze blowing out of the southeast.  The mountains glowed. 

After that,I turned on the Cardinals/Eagles game.  I don't watch a lot of sports, although I have watched more since moving to Arizona--my fondness for my new state showing itself in unexpected ways, I guess.  I made popcorn--a personal tradition, since my father used to like to have popcorn when he watched football.  And I was glad I was watching to see the Cardinals cap a most unexpected season by showing how Arizonans play football and winning the NFC championship.  Last year's Super Bowl was in Arizona; this year Arizona is in the Super Bowl, for the first time ever.

Hardly in the same spirit, except that I like to promote excellence wherever I find it, tonight's the season premiere of Big Love.  We'll be watching.

The sun is sinking low, the shadows long across the landscape, grasses and branches rustled by the afternoon wind.  Tomorrow the sun will rise again and the flag will be posted outside for King's birthday and it'll be out again and the nation will breath a sigh of relief as George Bush leaves the White House and the presidency, and it'll be Barack's turn, and then we'll buckle down and we'll try to fix the messes we've piled up around the country.  It won't be easy.  But it will be done.

Gran Torino

We saw Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino yesterday, and were glad that we did.  It was a fine film, and reconfirmed my belief that Eastwood is best when he directs himself.  Play Misty For Me, his directorial debut, remains one of my favorite Eastwood movies (and KRML, the radio station his character worked for, is still broadcasting jazz in Carmel-By-The-Sea, CA today).  Eastwood may be one of the biggest movie stars in American history, but more than that, he's an auteur in the classic sense of the term, at his best when he's intimately involved in shaping the film he acts in, right down to--at least in this case--helping to compose the song that ends the movie.

A few semi-random thoughts:

Rowdy Yates can still kick some ass, even at 78 years of age.

Clint's hoarse growl is much more convincing coming from Clint than it is coming from Christian Bale (in The Dark Knight, Batman's Eastwood impression was laughable, and one of the few things that kept Dark Knight out of the running as one of the year's best movies).

Had the movie been released a few months ago, John McCain might have screened it at campaign stops and won a few votes.

Despite its effectiveness at depicting how tough an old veteran can be, though, the movie is surprisingly right for this moment in our nation's history, and seeing it on Martin Luther King Jr.'s holiday weekend is perfect timing.  Its ultimate message is pure Obama-era: that racial and cultural differences can be bridged, that far more important than what someone says or what language he or she speaks or what gods she or he may pray to is how that person behaves.  People of decency and goodwill can come together.  Or, to paraphrase King, the content of our character is more important than the color of our skin.

Eastwood's Walt Kowalski is a decent man hiding beneath layers of distrust and prejudice.  By opening himself up to his Hmong neighbors, he is able to cast aside those layers and let the real Kowalski emerge.

I'd even take it one step farther and say that because of the specific setting and history--the Hmong fought on our side in Vietnam and then came here in droves when we withdrew from Vietnam, leaving them in danger of retaliation (and Walt's history of killing Asians in Korea) it is a story about burying the divisions left in our society by the Vietnam war.  This is also Obama's challenge; as a president who was just a kid when those rifts were formed, he's of a generation not shaped by them, and as a result might be better able to help heal them.  He has promised to try.

So while McCain might have wanted to co-opt the movie's message, it's really the Obama philosophy that shines through.  If you have a chance to see it before he takes office--or after--do it.  It's worth your time, and your five-and-a-half bucks. 

Or maybe that's just what we pay for movie tickets out here in the sticks.  Hey, I told you we like it here.

Edgar Awards

The nominees for the 2009 Edgar Awards have been announced.  The full info is here, so I won't repeat it, but I will offer congratulations to various friends of the Flying M who are nominated, including Laura Lippman, Tom Piccirilli, T. Jefferson Parker, and especially to the two announced Grand Masters, Sue Grafton and the unmatched James Lee Burke.

Obama Comic update

Did I say the other day that there's a third printing?  My bad.  The third printing of Presidential Material: Barack Obama has also sold out.  Stay tuned, as Paul Harvey says, for news.