And so our adventure in Los Angeles draws to a close. I was fortunate the blog posted on schedule last night as planned, so I was able to focus everything on enjoying my time at Disneyland. And you know what? It wasn't bad.
I will say this, first and foremost: if I go to another Disney park I will be bringing a collapsible stool with me because my feet are DEAD. Things in the park didn't work out exactly as planned, but I suppose well enough for it to come out in the win column for me. The largest stain on the day had to be waiting in line for Space Mountain. Don't get me wrong, I didn't expect to get directly into the ride, but I was in line for two hours. Two hours! I was promised 70 minutes by both the app and the signs at the ride. And you know what? There's not a single place to sit while waiting in line at Space Mountain. After walking all over two parks for the entire day. Yes I know about Fast Passes, in fact I even got one. One. Arriving at around 8am in the morning, I grabbed a Fast Pass for Radiator Springs Racers only to find the time they reserved for me was... 4:30pm. The heck? So I lost my ability to get any Fast Passes the rest of the day while I waited for that to come up. That was fine. I used the app to find short waits at Pirates of the Carribean, The Haunted Mansion, and several of the Fantasy Land rides. It was fine. But after Radiator Springs Racer I rushed to Space Mountain only to find that they had zero Fast Passes left. So no matter what, I would need to wait in line. Eh... a little over an hour didn't seem that bad. But that black mark aside, the rest of the day was relatively nice. We got in on Splash Mountain without any wait as it had just reopened after we got off the Winnie the Pooh ride. I even managed to stay moderately dry after the big splash. Food was another issue that I'm kinda "meh" on. We didn't skimp, but we didn't exactly fork out the big bucks either. What was surprising was how quickly we felt hungry again. The food tasted okay, no complaints, but maybe it's just because we were constantly on the move, but it didn't last long. I will give top marks to the desserts and snacks, though. We grabbed items from the bakeries twice and were delighted both times, and I even really liked their cheddar popcorn. On a side note, why has it become so hard to find good cheddar popcorn? White cheddar, sure, but all the cheddar popcorn I find has been so disappointing. But the Disneyland popcorn, both cheddar and even the regular -- top notch. Well worth the cost. So what rides do I recommend from this little trip? First, the Incredicoaster was awesome. The managed the line well and I felt entertained the entire time. Once on the ride, it was a blast. Not too short, plenty of stuff going on. Good coaster. Next, you can't go wrong with Radiator Springs Racers. Halfway through you literally race the car next to you. I've lost twice now, but I still think the ride is a blast. The animatronics are surprisingly good, you really do feel like the characters from the movie are inhabiting that world. Kudos to the engineers that came up with the facial animations on those characters. Lastly, you have to take in one of the classics. Haunted Mansion for the atmosphere or Splash Mountain for the thrill. I... sadly... can't recommend Space Mountain. My wait time so badly marred my impression of the ride. I know it sounds like whining, but I'm a big guy and standing on my feet for sixteen hours starts to wear on me. Spending two of those hours in line, with no distracting fun facts or imagery, left a bad taste in my mouth. When I finally got into the ride, all I could think was "Wow, my feet don't hurt so bad now that I'm sitting down. I hope this ride lasts a while, I could really use the break." I wasn't concerned with the usually awesome thrill of spiraling through the dark. I was just happy to finally not be in line. I could've sat for some Steamboat Willie cartoons and been thrilled just be out of that line. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm disappointed with that one aspect. Even writing this, I didn't intended to dwell on Space Mountain for so long. I've been to the park before and I've always marveled at how they handle lines. Always moving, always distracted. But Space Mountain? A boring empty room devoid of life. Just a bunch of other tired tourists sitting uncomfortably on chains and barricades as best they can. I've heard somewhere that you're rarely remembered for the things you get right, but more for what you get wrong. I feel there has to be some truth to that as I know a bunch of things went right during my visit. The food was reasonable, even good when it came directly from the bakery, the attractions were fun, the detail in aesthetics was admirable (in Cars Land, they have a traffic light that flashes and, yes, every third light is slower), but all I can remember was how much my feet hurt while I was waiting two hours for Space Mountain. If I'd known it would be two hours, I would've written the ride off and done something else. Happily ever after. But no. Grr. Okay, I'm done with Space Mountain. Coincidentally, I'm also almost done with this blog. Really, I just needed a space to vent and this seemed like a good place for it. We've had quite the little adventure in Los Angeles and, surprisingly, Disneyland was not the highlight of it. We finished a long unfinished task, met new friends, stepped closer to our jobs in China, and even tried hot pot. It was pretty good. DFTBA
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Today I'm spending the entire at at Disneyland (and California Adventure), so it only seemed right that tie the blog for the day into that theme. Now, when I think about Disney, there are many things that come to mind. Magic. Happy endings. Musicals. Heck, even lately the idea of subverting old, ingrained tropes. But I think today I'll talk a little about wonder.
Thinking back on my childhood, the name Disney always inspired this sense of awe. I rarely, if ever, connected it with the man, because the concept of Disney was beyond that. It was more than a person, it was this idea. When I watched a Disney movie, I felt wonder. I was transported into beautiful, technicolor dream full of rotoscoped awe. The care and detail put into the worlds was something that even young me could notice and appreciate. So what was it? What did Disney do (and still manages to do from time to time) that evokes that sense of wonder? How can I isolate, identify, and incorporate that technique? I'm not going to lie to you and say that I have all the answers, say that I've distilled the Disney formula down to an easy to implement bite. If I had, I'd be a billionaire. Plenty of companies have tried and failed to duplicate what Disney does when it's doing it's best Disney. But maybe we can point to a couple of things and see if they turn anything up. For one, there's detail. You can watch the same Disney movie a hundred times and come up with new details you didn't notice each time. They go to insane lengths on some of their projects to make sure that you don't notice their work. That sounds counter intuitive, but when things don't belong, you notice. When things stick out and are unnatural, you pay attention. But when everything flows naturally and evenly, you focus on the story. You don't notice that they used actual rouge/blush to accent Snow White's cheeks. You don't notice the intricate details in Maui's tattoos. The world works, it feels natural, and that means you can focus on the narrative and let the wonder seep in. I wonder then, no pun intended, if that can be replicated in my own work. If I have the details right, planned out in my head and introduce them as needed in a natural flow, will that open my reader to focus entirely on the fantasy while just accepting the reality? And since something like this needs at least one more example, let's take one more peek into our magic mirrors and see what really inspired awe. For me (and my wife), it's that moment in most movies where take time to show off and give you a gorgeous scene. The poster scene. The scene that is replayed in future reels of classic movies. The ballroom scene in Beauty and the Beast. A Whole New World in Aladdin. Ariel looking up from her grotto as she lets the final words of Part of Your World slip sweetly from her lips. The detail, the music, the grandeur, and the wonder that these scenes inspire is a signature from Disney. But how to create something like that in my own writing? Well, I did describe these as the "poster" moments, so then why not think of it in those terms? What's the scene in my book that I want people to think of when they mention it? What's the scene I want on the poster of the movie adaptation? What scene in the book really defines my story? That scene then, more than any other in the book, needs to be written the best. It needs to burn itself into the reader's mind in such a way that they can feel the heat in the air, hear the echoes of battle, taste the blood in their own mouth. They need to feel they're there with my Paladins. Well, perhaps I didn't decipher the Disney code, but there are certainly things to learn just from appreciating the works. Disney, you are master story tellers, despite several bumps both politically and narratively over the years. But if you make me cry with Frozen II we will not be on speaking terms, mister. DFTBA. Oh man. The last week has been rough, but also strangely full of awesome. We barely managed to get things in for the Chinese Consulate, but it happened. But to counter that, we finished up our Las Vegas Wasteland trip I started nearly two years ago that dinosaur. Well, it gets better. Looks like we'll be going to Disneyland tomorrow after all, so that makes things great! But to top it all off, the thing that made the trip was finally meet a two friends in person: Dan and Kit Mulkerin. Meeting friends, especially this close to leaving for China, is a big deal for me. I spent that last few days before Los Angeles staying meeting friends down in Phoenix (and spending time with my incredibly cute god daughter,) so any chance to meet up is a chance I value.
But as far as literary topics go, I will say that this trip has also afforded me a chance to think about where I'm going with the story and flesh out a few angles. The six hour drive through the desert to get here gave me plenty of time to chat about the new plot for the first half of The Paladin, so I suppose I have to be thankful for that as well. I'm inching ever closer to making this novel the story it should be and that's terribly exciting for me. Tomorrow I'll be spending the whole day in Disneyland, so I'm uploading tomorrow's post tonight and setting it to drop at it's normal time. Now, I haven't had a lot of luck with my site doing things properly, so you might end up with a short, impromptu blog post made live from Disneyland. If so, I apologize. But until then... Don't Forget to be Awesome So much stress in a single day. I am exhausted, but here I am at my laptop making sure this blog goes out. I don't know that anyone will read or care about this, but I want some sort of testament out there that, for better or stupid, I made the effort to complete this blog every. Single. Day.
So as an update, I've visited the local and state government agencies necessary to get the ball rolling on everything and now I'm here in Los Angeles having spent the day likely infuriating a poor worker at the Chinese consulate as I failed to comprehend and/or follow even her most basic of instructions. It feels like everything that could've messed up without completely sinking this endeavor has. Long story short, it was very stressful and we spent entirely too much money on coming to Los Angeles to complete this leg of the journey, but here we are. Hopefully it will work out well and we won't have to do this again. Heck, if I'm making wishes, hopefully everything will sail smoothly and we'll be in China by this time next month. I've been driving several hundreds of miles, for hours at a time, navigating a maze of bureaucracy both within and without my own government all on approximately no sleep. I should dead at the moment, but I've reached this strange place of calm. The stresses of the day coupled with the eventual reliefs from each one being at least moderately resolved have left me a shell of a human, perhaps even a departed soul looking down upon the actions of some fleshy shell with detached emotions, devoid of context or care. I guess what I'm saying is, I need some sleep. DFTBA PS. If nothing else, today's trek allowed me to finish my "Wasteland Tour" adventure I started nearly two years ago to visit all the major real-life sites portrayed in the video game Fall Out: New Vegas. Today's find: Novac. I talked a little about Knowledge Bomb yesterday and I thought that perhaps today would be a good day to show the kind of stuff I like to share with that. Please keep in mind that none of the things I share are meant to make anyone feel bad or foolish, only to inform and possibly dispel misinformation. I feel like too often we see something that gets meme-ified and we adopt it as we perceive it without doing any work to verify what it is. And, for me, that's the research equivalent of getting a tattoo of "soup" on your arm and thinking it says "peace." Today I want to talk about two cultural images, both from roughly the same time period but who's cultural impacts took different lengths of time to manifest: "Rosie the Riveter" and "Keep Calm and Carry On." I think it's important to understand the background behind these images, rather than simply accepting what you see of them on shirts at Hot Topic. Please understand I am in no way devaluing or shaming the interpretations that people have made of them in since their inceptions, but it does feel a little off. First, let's take a look at Rosie. The first thing you need to know is that THAT is not Rosie the Riveter. This is. By Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22515434 While that first image has often been called Rosie the Riveter, the depicted character has no actual name. And as far as her job, she was more than likely not riveter as factories she was displayed in produced plastic helmet liners. The poster was part of Westinghouse Electric's internal war propaganda to motivate workers. She had two weeks on the wall of a factory and then was switched out for other works by the same artist, like these. The piece was never intended to spur more women to join the workforce, but rather to encourage both male and female workers at the Westinghouse facility to keep doing their best amid fears of labor unions and worker strikes. "Rosies" did become a generic term for women in the workplace, helping the war effort, and there was significant encouragement for women to join the workforce, but the "We Can Do It!" poster had little to do with it. Mostly, it came from a song at the time titled, you guessed it, "Rosie the Riveter." Lastly, let's talk about this little sign right here. I can't tell you how many times I've seen this thing on t-shirts, posters, and all kinds of merchandise. While I can see a certain way of thinking that doing stuff like this eases the horror associated with this image, I can't help but think that most companies (and people that purchase the merchandise it's printed on) didn't think about the image history at all. This poster exploded into the cultural zeitgeist a few years back and now it's slapped on everything! But what does it mean? Where did it come from? Well, despite the cuddly cats and mountains of chocolate used to sell merchandise with this logo on it, the actual origins are quite dark. Like, Nazi dark. You see, back in World War II, the war wasn't going so well for England. We know that France had fallen was occupied by Nazi Germany. The citizens all had to continue their jobs, making the country work, all knowing that their Nazi occupiers were constantly watching. Well, England was preparing for that same fate. They were so close to losing that they printed up a huge batch of these signs, ready to post them everywhere. They were preparing for Nazi occupation and knew that they had to encourage the people that despite the loss, they had to continue on with their lives. Keep Calm and Carry On. It's a very British way of handling the situation. It an acceptance that Nazi Germany beat you, that they occupied your country and were in charge, but that didn't matter. You were British and that meant you kept a stiff upper lip. You kept calm. You carried on. This poster the third and final poster in a set of motivational propaganda for British citizens. The first two focused on being brave and remembering that your freedom depended on your courage. The third poster, Keep Calm, was intended only to be deployed when the Germans invaded Britain. As that, thankfully, never happened, the government never put them up and, in fact, tried to destroy them all. Much like "Rosie," though, a cache was stumbled upon decades later and, well, the rest is history. If you like flexing while declaring that you "can do it!" or enjoy watching your Minion "Keep Calm and Eat Bananas," I'm not here to say that's wrong. I'm not here to tell you to stop. I just think it's important to understand the history of these symbols and where they came from. I think it's important, not only as writers (who should really know the history of something if they want to write about it) but as human beings in general. There's nothing wrong with interpreting these messages as hopeful, inspiring, or really however you want. But it's my feeling that we should never take things at face value, that we should seek to see where things come from, what their original intentions were, how someone might be trying to twist it to sell us something. Be Excellent to Each Other. Citationshttps://www.jstor.org/stable/41940102?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents https://www.keepcalmandcarryon.com/history Heyman, Therese Thau (1998). Posters American Style. New York: National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, in association with Harry N. Adams, Inc. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-8109-3749-9. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7869458.stm And of course, Wikipedia. Picked up the rental car today. It's almost time to head out to LA. I'm impressed by how painless the state-level procedure was, but I can't guarantee that will extend to Los Angeles. In fact, I'm certain LA will make up for the ease that I had here. Oh well.
Let's focus on something else besides the fact that I have my future riding on a road trip to Los Angeles and I forgot to pay some bills before I left and can't remember the right passwords to pay them out here... So for today I thought I'd talk about one of the products I hope to focus on while I'm in China. See, I've always been interested in learning about the experiences of others, especially those people who I don't share experiences with. I suppose what I'm getting at is that I'm hoping to interview people who have unique life experiences so that I can present that as a podcast for writers so they can more accurately and sensitively portray these groups. I've done a little bit of this with my occasional blog posts called "Knowledge Bombs." I did one where I talked about guns and how to properly write about them so people who know a thing or two don't automatically toss your book aside. I like sharing info I've learned to help people write things more convincingly and I hope that by doing something like this I can be of some assistance to writers who just don't know how things work with certain people or groups. I feel like everyone has something unique to them. Maybe they're not the only person in the world that has that experience, but they have a point of view that some other people just can't replicate and learning directly from them could be quite useful for improving your writing. I know people who work in zoos, people who are in poly-amorous relationships, people who are part of various religious or minority groups. These are all things that maybe the media at large doesn't portray correctly, so if we can get the story from primary sources, maybe we can get better representation in our stories. Just a thought. I'm going to see what I can do with it. DFTBA So I'm on the road getting forms filled out and ready for my trip to China. Step one is over, thankfully, which involved getting notarized documents authenticated at the state capitol building. I thought that would be worse than it was, but we were pleasantly surprised at how quickly we went through everything. Even had time to enjoy the museum attached to the building. Next up is heading all the freakin' way out to Los Angeles. Hopefully that will be made a little better by a Disneyland trip and maybe meeting a Mulkerin or two. Still, it's a long ways away and it's costing an arm and a leg to get out there. Now that I think about it, it's not that much cheaper making the trip than it will be to make the trip out to China itself. Hopefully we get everything done right on that one because there's no going back for a forgotten charger on that particular trip. But not everything is about my China trip, shockingly, so let's delve just a little into something literary. In this particular case, let's look at suspension of disbelief. I was listening to Writing Excuses, which if you're not listening to by now, why not? Anyway, they mentioned something great in this particular episode. For any fantasy or fictional world in general, you get one thing... just one... that your audience will buy into without a fuss. Everything after that you need to justify. So for example, let's say we're talking about a vampire book. Okay, the one you get is vampires are real and perhaps they have various levels of shininess when exposed to sunlight. The vampires we can handle, we don't need to have an explanation. But if you decide suddenly that your main character can fly, you're going to need to give us a reason. There's only so much you can ask your audience for. This is a direct reference to people saying, "Oh, you can buy space wizards, but you can't buy talking cats?" Well, there's a reason. Your viewer/reader is only usually willing to give you one thing for free. It's about people needed to "loosen up" or "just enjoy the show;" we've all seen the intro to Mystery Science Theater 3000. But unless you're making a complete farce, a total parody, you only get one. Isn't that right Spider-Man? DFTBA
Yes, I know, country is usually not in my playlist. I'm just not a country person. But then again, I didn't "discover" this song from a country singer. I did so from Red when she sang end card credits for her video about Aphrodite (linked after Dolly!) Today's song is Dolly Parton's Jolene. I'd heard the song in passing for years but never paid it any attention. Then I listened to Red and, for the first time, took in the words. That forced me to seek out Dolly Parton's original so I could hear the entire thing. I'd never known the circumstances of the song, just the superficial bits; a woman doesn't want another woman to take her man. Typical country song. Whatever. But listening to it, actually absorbing the words, it's so much more than that. I really only have one thing I can liken it to. If you're a fan of the anime Trigun, you might remember a scene where the main character Vash strips naked and barks like a dog to save the lives of some innocent people. Without hesitation. Without question. They threaten and he strips. Why? Because their lives were worth far more to him than his own pride. In this song the singer is talking directly to Jolene and admitting to her that she, the singer, cannot compete. That Jolene is prettier, more pleasant, and just better all around. But she loves her man so much that she's willing to set her pride aside and literally beg Jolene not to take him away. Her love is more important than her pride. I... absolutely love that. Yes, I will be working this sentiment into my story. Please enjoy BOTH Jolene by Dolly Parton and Overly Sarcastic Production's video on Aphrodite (in which Red sings Jolene.) DFTBA I think I'm pretty close to starting writing on the new part of The Paladin. For those who don't know I've decided to break my manuscript into two parts. I had a lot of trouble cutting enough words after my first few runs. I took out lots of stuff, but was still way over the suggested word count for a debut novel. I was literally deciding which chapters and scenes I could remove, dreading the effect that would have on the plot, when it came to me that I could just break it in two.
Now of course that means that with two parts I need to have some new story added in, and I have been working my substantial tail off figuring out what to do with the new parts I have opened up. I'm excited because it's going to let me stretch things out a bet, give them a little breathing room. I can let my characters grow and establish relationships with the readers that they just didn't have the time to do in the first go round. I've been doing a ton of research and I think I'm about ready to move to the next stage, which isn't actually going to be putting pen to paper. I'm going to look for some sensitivity readers to consult and bounce some ideas off. Are you not familiar with sensitivity readers? Basically, when you write you'll need a few types of editors to look over your work. Of course the general editing will be for grammar, spelling, and other mistakes, but you might need a continuity editor or one specifically focused on plot. One more you might consider is a sensitivity reader, someone from a certain demographic that you plan on portraying in your work who can give you an honest impression of both the authenticity of your work and whether or not you've been insensitive to groups you may not understand. Hopefully I'll be able to find someone willing to take a little time out of their day to chat with me before I start writing so I can get an idea of where I want to take this part of the story. It's not that I plan on doing anything inherently insensitive, but then again, I don't think anyone in the writing community does. It's just a good idea to make sure you understand things the way people of that particular community understand them. It's part of research. If you don't have first hand experience, get it from a first hand source. That's all for tonight. I have a load of paperwork to get finished for this new job and work early tomorrow morning. Have an amazing night. DFTBA So now that it's all out there, I can finally talk a little bit about China. I would've gotten into this earlier today, but both my trucks decided to have problems today. Long story short, I pushed a truck through the snow and waited while Autozone puzzled at my truck, but finally managed to make it back home.
With that minor vent out of the way, let's talk a little bit about China and why I'm headed there. You see, I'll be headed to a school in Shenzhen, a coastal city right next to Hong Kong. I've been researching it for months and I desperately wanted to work there, so when a job with the right pay and right location came up, I jumped on it. I'm well aware of all the challenges in front of me. No, I don't speak Chinese, Mandarin or Cantonese. But I'm trying to learn, my job will offer me lessons, I have translation software that doesn't need internet, and it's a Tier One city, so English is fairly prevalent. I'm already taking care of everything from shots to accomodations, so for anyone concerned that this is coming out of nowhere, I promise we've been doing homework. But why? Well, I'll share with you the same thing I shared with my interviewers. You see, I've always kind of wanted to teach. I mean, I'm part of the NAU journalism program teaching aspiring reporters and editors the ropes for a living right now, plus I've been training wrestlers for a couple years with KAW. I've naturally drifted into a role as a teacher or mentor so many times over my life without every intending to. But as for being an actual teacher... well... we all know the money isn't great. I have so much respect for all my friends that have taken up the noble pursuit of educating the youth, but even they have to admit the Red for Ed protests and strikes had a point. Teachers don't get paid much and they're expected to take on so much. So... I focused on writing and filming. But then I stumbled into this whole "teach in China" thing. I researched. I watched videos. I scoured the internet for testimonials from expats. And you know what? China's cost of living is significantly lower than here. With good pay and cheap living, we can finally make some headway, earn a little extra cash, pay off our student debts, and hey, maybe I can afford an editor or two to help make The Paladin all it can be. Don't get me wrong, it's not all about money. I went to the Netherlands for the experience and I have never regretted the time I spent there. China will be another grand adventure. Furthermore, it's in a perfect location to open us up to do even more exploring. So beware, all my Dutchie friends, you may be seeing me around Breda once more. I hope that answers a few questions. I'll talk more about the process as I go, but for now... I think I need to just crash. This whole process is draining. DFTBA |
Matias TautimezKeep your eyes open for my debut novel, The Paladin. Archives
January 2023
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