Daily Thoughts 1/8/2010

Lucida handwriting. It has been proposed that schools in the United States eliminate handwriting. Handwriting was one of my strong points in school. I always had excellent penmanship. It encouraged me to read. There is something disquieting about eliminating cursive handwriting from the elementary schools.

Daily Thoughts 1/8/2010

I have been working on finding more local authors. It seems that there are two organizations that feed into where many of our local authors come from, The Cross Bronx, a Showcase for Bronx writers http://crossbronx.wordpress.com/ and The Hudson Valley Writers Center http://www.writerscenter.org/ . I am almost half way through the Westchester Authors list.

I finished reading In The First Circle the First Uncensored Edition on the way home from work. I found it to be at points superb and fascinating. At other points it was just solid writing. It wavered between absolutely incredible and mediocre. Maybe it was the translator. I am not really sure.

I also finished watching I Claudius. I enjoyed the series tremendously. Rome has always fascinated me. When I was a teenager, I read a mix of Roman history and science fiction. I especially liked Of the Nature of Things by Lucretius, The Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Suetonius, The Golden Ass by Apuleius, and the Enchiridion by Epictetus. I remember my father reading me The Odyssey by Homer when I was young.

Maybe there is something compelling about finishing things. I like to finish what I start whether it is a book, a television series or a project like looking up local authors. This is true even if it is something which I am not particularly great at. There is a certain satisfaction in finishing things. I tend to finish what I start.

I have started reading Brain Rules 12 Principles of Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina.

Looked at The Penguin Classics Graphic Covers. My favorite is the whale by Tony Millionaire.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulbuckleydesign/sets/72157621852113991/

Daily Thoughts 1/3/2010

Stan Sakai at WonderCon 2009.28 February 2009(2009-02-28)This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License by Brokensphereon on Wikimedia http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stan_Sakai_at_WonderCon_2009_1.JPG Stan Sakai is the author of Usagi Yojimbo.

Daily Thoughts 1/3/2010

Usagi Yojimbo Yokai by Stan Sakai

Miyamoto Usagi is a ronin, a roaming unaffilitated samurai in this graphic novel. The character is loosely based on Miyamoto Musashi. The setting is a medieval japan populated by mythical creatures and anthropomorphic animals. Miyamoto Usagi is a rabbit. The graphic novel by Stan Sakai has been running for 25 years. This book was specifically produced for the 25th anniversary of the comic. It has won a variety of awards including the Eisner Award, the Inkpot Award, an American Library Association award, and many others. The writing and drawing is very entertaining.

This edition is a standalone edition. The colors are done with watercolors which is not like most American comics. Stan Sakai is from Hawaii. It adds a different feeling to the comic. The lines are also very strong and fluid. This makes the characters well defined. The background is a medieval Japan with some unusual touches, oversize mushrooms, some strange animals, it transports you to a mythical place.

The story takes place on the night of Oborozuki-Yo (the hazy moon) at the same time it is tied with the Yokai (haunts). This gives the author license to introduce ghosts, demons, and spirits from Japanese mythology as well as some of his own fanciful creations. Some of there are silly like the tentacle beast, and some of them are mythological like the fox spirit and the fire breathing salamander.

At the end of the book, there is an interview with Stan Sakai. He details the design, panel layout, writing, and research into Japanese folklore to create the story. He also talks about his work with Sergio Aragones as a letterer for the comic Groo.

This comic was fun to read with plenty of color, action, monsters, and folklore.

I wrote this review while I was sitting in the laundromat. Then I rewrote it a bit while I am sitting at the computer.

I also had time to read a little bit more of In The First Circle. Right now, I am at the point where Stalin is a character in the book. He is rather self important and more than a little deadly in an uncompromising ironhanded way. If Stalin is insulting the other characters, they will live, otherwise if he is quiet, they die. Every couple of chapters the main characters change. This is a very hard thing to do.

Stalin makes several literary references inside the book which is different. He praises the book, Iosif Vissaronovich Stalin: Short Biography and he describes how he made sure that the book portrayed him in a positive light. Later Stalin also praises the book Tito: Traitor In Chief by Renaud de Jourenel one of his rivals.

I watched a bit more of the BBC production of I Claudius. I am up to Chapter 6 which is called Reign of Terror. Tiberius is running the Roman empire with an ironhand and accusing many people of treason. Soon, Caligula will be in power.

Daily Thoughts 1/1/2010

Statue of the The Roman Poet, Ovid

Daily Thoughts 1/1/2010

I have been watching I Claudius, the BBC production of Robert Grave's book. It is worth reading Robert Graves book The reader over your shoulder : a handbook for writers of English prose. His books on classical mythology are also quite excellent.

The BBC production of I Claudius is wonderful to watch. I like the costumes and the settings. I find it very languid and entertaining. The acting is excellent. The story is quite dark and intriguing. It is the remastered dvd series put out by Image entertainment. There are a dozen episodes.

The actor who I immediately recognized was a young Patrick Stewart with hair. He plays a Roman solider. Patrick Stewart started out as a stage actor before he was a screen star. I rather liked seeing him in this production. Patrick Stewart's most famous role is as Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek.

The story is excellent. I watched four of the episodes today and did not do much else. I am waiting to see the portion on Caligula who is played by John Hurt. It was a nice break from reading. The story is very sophisticated: it is full of poisonings, exiles, Roman oratory, and Roman history. You get to see Rome in all its cruelty and its glory. So far I have seen the rise of Tiberius and the Death of August Caesar.

It has been a pleasant way to spend the new year. Happy New Year to all of you.