Year: 2005

Just happened to stumble over an airing of “Blade Runner” on IFC, which I haven’t seen in years. It was the Director’s Cut, made quickly obvious by the lack of Harrison Ford’s obviously recorded-under-protest voice over narrative. Ariel was watching it with me as I tried to explain to her that a lot of stuff you pretty much take as standard tropes in SF and movies first turned up in “Blade Runner.”

I still remember when I first saw it: At an advance screening for licensees, since Marvel published a “Blade Runner” tie in comic book. The volume was cranked up to the roof and beyond, and I came out of the theater so deaf that it put me off the film for years because I associated it with ringing in my ears. But I finally caught up with it again when the DC came out on laserdisk, and boy, was it a revelation once I could truly appreciate the film itself.

I still remember when they first introduced a gigantic screen in Times Square that had huge commercial images on it. I stood there looking up at it, and I heard more than one person muttering around me “Blade Runner” before shaking their heads and walking away. One step closer to a dystopian, bleak society of perpetual rain and darkness?

PAD

I’ve been invited to an advance screening of “Batman Begins” this Monday evening. When I get home, I’ll write up a fast, spoiler-free review…presuming there’s anyone left on this board who HASN’T seen it yet, thanks to the preview screenings at recent Wizard conventions.

PAD

Will anyone who practices law in Florida and would be willing to help me out for pretty much no money–but, hey, lotsa free comics and some autographed books–contact me off-list at padguy@aol.com.

Thanks.

PAD

Addendum from PAD: No, there’s nothing wrong with the “comment” function. I deleted all responses and blocked off commentary because this topic doesn’t require discussion, and it sure doesn’t need another round of pathetic attention-craving idiocy. If someone can help, contact me via e-mail. End of discussion.

I’ve turned in the second draft for the CGI animated film, “Gene Roddenberry’s Starpoint Academy.” The heartening thing is that the producers, IDT Entertainment, have just signed a two year, multipicture deal with 20th Century Fox. So that increases somewhat the actual odds of the picture being made. That would be exceptionally cool, especially since they’re looking to try and build it up as a series rather than a one-off. Of coure, it’s showbiz, so anything can happen, but if my involvement should continue through to the end (so that the credits read “Screenplay by Peter David” as opposed to “Screenplay by Peter David and six other guys”) that will put me in pretty good position for continued participation.

At the moment, working as fast as my little fingers can fly on finishing the next “New Frontier” novel. Usually when I write novels, the beginning is very slow going and then as the story moves along, I start to write faster and faster as if I can barely keep up with the story unspooling in my head. In this instance I’ve been barreling along almost from the beginning, so hopefully that will be reflected in the final MS.

PAD

Meet Tracer.

Yes, you all know who he is. I will now respond to the two questions he’s been howlingly repeating because, y’know…why not? And the rub of it is, he probably won’t understand either answer.

Response number one: The fact that I have not disagreed with his assessment of my veracity is not an indicator that what he says has worth. Rather, it’s an indicator of my belief that his opinion of me is, in fact, worthless.

Response number two: He has demanded to know how any of our individual lives are hurt or worsened because of the actions of George W. Bush…a man who needlessly launched a war that’s resulted in the deaths of 1600+ Americans and thousands upon thousands of innocent Iraqis. The answer is quite simple:

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of they friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
–John Donne

And thus am I Donne with the clod.

PAD