Okay, I’ve now been “friended” 300 times. Where’s my free toaster?

In unrelated news, I saw “The Manchurian Candidate” last night. Dark, twisty, and moody. The straight-on filming of faces was creepy — it made you part of a reality you really don’t want to take any part in.

Regarding the rating: There’s R-rated violence that desensitizes us, like the shoot-em-ups in True Lies or Total Recall (a pair of Governator films I really enjoyed), and then there’s violence that heightens our sensitivity, reminding us that life is precious and OW OW OW BE CAREFUL WITH THAT. This movie has the second kind of R-rated violence.

Wanna know how it ends? So did I.

–Howard

Sandra’s on the road to Boise right now, and I’m engaged in some serious Buffer-Fu. On Saturday and Sunday I scripted two weeks worth of Schlock, and I’m going to try and get all 18 rows inked by Tuesday afternoon. That’ll put me far enough ahead that I can spend a little time crafting the opening of “Schlock Mercenary Book IV: Saving The Galaxy.”

In case you’re wondering, the working titles for the first three books are:

Schlock Mercenary 1001: Under New Management
Schlock Mercenary Book II: The Blackness Between
Schlock Mercenary Book III: Out From Under New Management

We’re also planning on a CD of the first 1000 strips, entitled “Schlock Mercenary 1000: Step Away From The Tub of Happiness”

–Howard

Looking back on the day, it’s been a really good one. I didn’t spend quite as much time with the kids as I could have, but they’re going to get a lot of me next week at the reunion. I DID spend lots of time cartooning, and managed to crank the buffer from 14 to 21. And most of that was on scripts I wrote last night.

I took a break midday to see Collateral. I’ve got to take issue with this review on two points. Here’s the first one:

But instead of renting his own wheels, or getting some goon from the syndicate to drive him around, he randomly hires a cab driver, Max (played by Foxx), to chauffeur him through the dark, slick streets of L.A.

I just couldn’t buy that. It feels like false jeopardy, feeding fake dramatic tension. Why would a professional hit man — no matter how psychotic — take an eyewitness along on a murder spree?

I can see that complaint. I expected to have the same one. And then, early in the movie, a detective who is investigating the first killing learns that a cab was spotted in the alley. He remembers a series of killings one night in Oakland when a cab driver supposedly went crazy, killed three people, and then took his own life. He also remembers that the detective on that particular case never bought into the suicide story.

So you see… no plot-hole. Our contract killer, played by Tom Cruise, plans to pin the killings on Max. Granted, it’s not an airtight cover, but if Max plays along it’ll hold long enough for the REAL killer to cover the rest of his tracks.

The other complaint the reviewer had was the pace of the movie. I’ll say this much: I don’t want to see it AGAIN, because there WAS a lot of “sitting and talking” and “establishing mood.” This is NOT an action movie. Sure, there’s action in it, but it’s really more of a moody, dramatic thriller, and the pacing is required for that mood.

And this is coming from a guy (me) who likes his movies paced a LOT faster. If you’ve been thinking about seeing Collateral, don’t let the CNN reviewer put you off.

So now it sounds like the movie was my whole day. Nope. It’s just the part that’s most fun to discuss.

–Howard

I flew to Boston today. My first-class upgrade cleared, and that made the trip much nicer. I colored four strips on the plane, and got all the busy-work done on another three. And they fed me breakfast instead of making me pay for it.

I did almost pee on my shoe, but that was just a matter of poor timing. Or rather, GOOD timing. The turbulence that hit while I was in the forward head was the worst I’ve experienced in years. Fortunately I had JUST “put things away” (nudge-nudge-wink-wink) when the plane went all jouncy. I rode it out sitting on the toilet white-knuckling the bar next to the toilet that I will never again demean for getting in my way.

So, no pee on my shoe, and because everything was nice and empty, no crap in my pants either. It was some ride, though.

Boston. Again. No visits with Schlockers this time, as I’m in-and-out a bit too quickly. I MIGHT have some cycles between 11:30 in Waltham and 3:00 at Logan airport, but I’m not confident enough in the area to try to set anything up. And those cycles could dry up completely if the customers I’m being PAID TO VISIT WITH decide they want to grill me over lunch. Or grill me instead of lunch. Or grill me FOR lunch, OVER an open flame, INSTEAD of letting me go to the airport early. So I’ll be sitting around the Novell campus with my wireless internet access doing actual work, I’m sure.

I was treated to a dinner cruise tonight. The irony of going on a dinner cruise, stag, while most of the rest of the employees and customers around me brought wives or dates, on the night before my 11th wedding anniversary is not lost on me. I’ll be home to say Happy Anniversary tomorrow, though, and that’s what counts. Besides, the cruise was <sourgrapes=ON>boring, the food was awful, the weather terrible, and the scenery too post-industrial and in fact downright ugly I swear</sourgrapes>.

–Howard