Happy New Year/Kwanzaa/Hannukah/Christmas ...
Some new years resolutions ....
1. Write more
2. Do more art
3. Volunteer especially in mentoring and teaching ...
Seeing the parents was nice this weekend also saw three movies and willing to do an early top 10 list (incomplete)
I saw three this weekend
the first and by far the best and the #1 movie I have seen this year is "Walk the Line" ... ****1/2 ... this is an amazing biopic about June Carter and Johnny Cash and has amazing performances by Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon .. see it Now!
The second movie I saw was King Kong ... Having seen bits of this I had monster expectations .. This one was lots of fun and very bloated. The movie was better as a sum of parts then as a whole ***1/2 (#8 of the year?) ... The special effects were awesome especially Serkis as King Kong and the rest of Skull Island ...
I also saw the Chronic .. Chronicles of Narnia ... It was very weird having a main character and [spoiler] chief weenie [/spoiler] as my namesake Edmund ....
The movie had nice effects and good acting but didn't really gel for me .. I give it a marginal thumbs up but **1/2 .. Lucy was well portrayed but the whole thing felt much too disney.
Without further adieu an incomplete top 10 ....
1) Walk the Line .. no doubt about it....
2) A History of Violence ... ****1/2 ... This one was very good and surprised me .. great acting by Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen among others .. the one movie I don't want to say much about ... if you have seen you can e-mail me though...
3) The Corporation (2003) .. ****1/2 ... This movie devasted me .. .Just a fascinating story of the power of the corporation and its medical diagnosis ... Psychopath ... Only concerned with Shareholder Equity and Profits ... although not technically a 2005 release I saw it this year ...
4) SavingFace ... ****1/4 ... Although this is officially a 2004 release .. the release was very limited .. a wonderful love story about two Chinese lesbians who grew up in Flushing, Queens .. there is a lot here about family too ... WELL worth seeing ...
5) Batman Begins ... **** ... I forgot about this one .. the best of the Batmans since Tim Burton directed them ... I really liked this one ... I probably liked War of the World better save the ending ... I loved the darkness in this one .. Christian Bale really worked ... Katie Holmes less so.
3, 4 undeserved by what I have seenof 2005 releases ... I hope there are movies I haven't seen that belong here ...
6) Jarhead ....**** .... The most existential war movie ever ... I loved the thoughtfulness of this .. I will pretty much see anything Sam Mendes does ...
7) The 40-Year Old Virgin ... **** ... Without any doubt the funniest movie I saw all year ... and lots and lots of heart ... Steve Carell is amazing in this one ... His relationship with Catherine Keener is beyond sweet....
8) The War of the Worlds ... **** .. . For the ending alone lost half a star ... This movie spellbound me and was a better scare fest then the more critically loved King Kong ... Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning are very good as was the creature designed ..> V.V. good (maybe 3rd best of the year) without ending .. this really should be a 6-7 pick ... I have not seen some movies that might belong here like Syriana, Brokeback Mountain, Munich and Cinderella Man
9) Sin City ... The most visually inventive movie of the year ... **** ... Mickey Rourke's best performance ever ... Very interesting movie to watch ...
10) In Her Shoes ... This may well be too high .. ***1/2 ... I really enjoyed this movie .. This was definitely one I saw with my wife's consent but I really enjoyed it ...
11) .. Star Wars 3/6: Sith .... ***1/2 ... Wow do I want to give spoilers on this one... I will just say outside the lines that this was my favorite of the 2nd trilogy .. It is nearly as good as Jedi ... Also one of the worst love stories ever .. ... Harry Potter 4 might take this spot ...
12) Fever Pitch ... ***1/2 ... A fun Drew Barrymore movie ... an odd retelling of the Nick Hornby though .. I enjoyed it but if you really want to understand the psychology of a sports fan read the book "Fever Pitch" by Nick Hornby about the horrors and joys of rooting for Arsenal Soccer Football in N. London ...
First Honorable Mention ...
13) Kung Fu Hustle ***1/2 .. Just a lot of fun .. I enjoyed Shaolin Soccer more but well worth seeing ... Stephen Chow is a joy to watch ... Just a fun movie ...
Highest expectations not quite met ....
14) King Kong ... ***1/4 .. not sure it belongs on the top 10 at all .. .Kong was one of the great special effects creations ever and it probably deserves technical awards along with "War" ... Way too long at 3 hours 20 minutes ... [spoiler] Why did the ship take an hour ... Not sure if I bought the romances either ... Had huge expectations and was disappointed ... [/spoiler]
An Honorable Mention to ....
15) Murderball ... ***1/4 ... This was a lot of fun .. I loved the hardcore Wheelchair rugby players ... Well worth watching ..
I also liked .... .
16) (to give 10 movies) Hitch .. *** .. This doens't really belong on a top 10 list at all but it was fun ... I enjoyed it ...
Please give comments and tell me more movies to put on the list ...
ecq
Yep now the list is even longer ... Haven't seen Wedding Crashers, or Penguins either
And yes .. there really is nothing about writing here ... Feels weird to write so little in December after so much in November ...
Friday, December 30, 2005
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Back to Writing
Starting to Write Again
Its hard to retrieve the writing mojo.
I am trying to type more today ...
It all went so easy during the month of November for NanoWriMo.... I was really enjoying my characters too... There was also a lot of therapy involved in No Filter ...
I am curious to go back through it ... there are a lot of scenes that I need to go back and add too ... Especially the ones of the naughtier variety ... I suppose there is something to be said for less is more sometimes...
Chris Beaty the author and creator of Nano recommends 2 weeks to a month before editing the book. I must say that is a big stop-off in writing.
I would almost recommend typing on other projects.
But going from 200 mph to 0 just feels weird.
On to some movies I saw recently.
I saw some interesting movies recently ... Murderball ****, Solaris *** and the surprisingly good SavingFace ****1/4.
Murderball is about wheelchair rugby or "murderball," which is a kind of smear the queer on wheels where the goal is to get the ball with your chair across the endline, and hit everything along the way. This is a lot of fun and has great special features, including the player commentary and the Jackass episode.
"Solaris" was very interesting and very slow. It was gorgeously shot by Soderbergh, but I am not sure I understand it. Nevertheless I liked it, it was good while I was reading stuff online ... Not one of Soderbergh's best but quite good ... ***
The best one of the week was Saving Face ****1/4 ... This one surprised me... It was a romantic comedy involving two lesbian chinese woman finding love in the repressive Chinese society of Flushing, Queens. It also involves a lot about mothers and daughters and what represents "ideal" society for the Chinese. This one was really good ... It surprised me how much I liked it.
It also sucks to be poor at christmas time. I am not subbing nearly enough, and have limited funds for Christmas.
I am officially bankrupt now too, I filed Ch. 7 bankruptcy on last Friday and met the judge. It was amazing how fast the preceding went. I was the second person in line and I was done in 5 minutes.
It was much harder to drive my car through the snow on December 10th. A rear-wheel drive 84 Mercedes 300D, doesn't always do so well in the snow. I was slipping and sliding everywhere, I also just got to court right at 9 am... The 15 minute trip to Portland took a good 40-45 minutes.
I also need to see some movies. King Kong looks ridicously awesome. Syriana very interesting, if convulted, Walk the Line looks great, and I have seen all the rest of the Potter movies. I think the movie of the week will be Rent.
Hopefully can see King Kong with the parents .... Off to Allentown, PA on Saturday to see my parents and have my wife visit their new house.
The kitty will miss us. This will also be Lanna's first christmas not with her brother.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Good Solstice.
Edmund Davis-Quinn
Its hard to retrieve the writing mojo.
I am trying to type more today ...
It all went so easy during the month of November for NanoWriMo.... I was really enjoying my characters too... There was also a lot of therapy involved in No Filter ...
I am curious to go back through it ... there are a lot of scenes that I need to go back and add too ... Especially the ones of the naughtier variety ... I suppose there is something to be said for less is more sometimes...
Chris Beaty the author and creator of Nano recommends 2 weeks to a month before editing the book. I must say that is a big stop-off in writing.
I would almost recommend typing on other projects.
But going from 200 mph to 0 just feels weird.
On to some movies I saw recently.
I saw some interesting movies recently ... Murderball ****, Solaris *** and the surprisingly good SavingFace ****1/4.
Murderball is about wheelchair rugby or "murderball," which is a kind of smear the queer on wheels where the goal is to get the ball with your chair across the endline, and hit everything along the way. This is a lot of fun and has great special features, including the player commentary and the Jackass episode.
"Solaris" was very interesting and very slow. It was gorgeously shot by Soderbergh, but I am not sure I understand it. Nevertheless I liked it, it was good while I was reading stuff online ... Not one of Soderbergh's best but quite good ... ***
The best one of the week was Saving Face ****1/4 ... This one surprised me... It was a romantic comedy involving two lesbian chinese woman finding love in the repressive Chinese society of Flushing, Queens. It also involves a lot about mothers and daughters and what represents "ideal" society for the Chinese. This one was really good ... It surprised me how much I liked it.
It also sucks to be poor at christmas time. I am not subbing nearly enough, and have limited funds for Christmas.
I am officially bankrupt now too, I filed Ch. 7 bankruptcy on last Friday and met the judge. It was amazing how fast the preceding went. I was the second person in line and I was done in 5 minutes.
It was much harder to drive my car through the snow on December 10th. A rear-wheel drive 84 Mercedes 300D, doesn't always do so well in the snow. I was slipping and sliding everywhere, I also just got to court right at 9 am... The 15 minute trip to Portland took a good 40-45 minutes.
I also need to see some movies. King Kong looks ridicously awesome. Syriana very interesting, if convulted, Walk the Line looks great, and I have seen all the rest of the Potter movies. I think the movie of the week will be Rent.
Hopefully can see King Kong with the parents .... Off to Allentown, PA on Saturday to see my parents and have my wife visit their new house.
The kitty will miss us. This will also be Lanna's first christmas not with her brother.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Good Solstice.
Edmund Davis-Quinn
Thursday, December 08, 2005
One week later
It feels weird not to write so much.
I am trying to wait 2 weeks to start editing my book as Chris Baty suggests in No Plot, No Problem... But I miss my book ... I want to get back to it...
I signed up for National Novel Finishing Month ... http://www.nanofimo.org .... But I haven't doen anything yet...
Well I will see what it takes to get back to writing ... I also have a major event coming up tomorrow that I will be very happy to be done with.
Also need to go to Filene's this weekend and make some money ... It is tiring to work the holidays but so it goes .. I am not subbing near enough and need to find the next gig.
It would be nice to have a real job and not just be temping/subbing.
Edmund Davis-Quinn
I am trying to wait 2 weeks to start editing my book as Chris Baty suggests in No Plot, No Problem... But I miss my book ... I want to get back to it...
I signed up for National Novel Finishing Month ... http://www.nanofimo.org .... But I haven't doen anything yet...
Well I will see what it takes to get back to writing ... I also have a major event coming up tomorrow that I will be very happy to be done with.
Also need to go to Filene's this weekend and make some money ... It is tiring to work the holidays but so it goes .. I am not subbing near enough and need to find the next gig.
It would be nice to have a real job and not just be temping/subbing.
Edmund Davis-Quinn
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Wow its December
Well I guess NanoWriMo is over ...
I really enjoyed the writing and accomplished so much ... 56,500 words ... And probably somemore to come filling in scenes and such ...
Went out with some of the NanoMainers last night, the internet was not there as promised, so my wife headed home to finish the last 3,000 words of her book.. and Edmund here couldn't listen to the Rutgers-Temple game... (Rutgers won)
So I said bye and she called me about 10:35 .. she had reached 49,000 words and her computer refused to work .. so I had to get back and give her my laptop, which I was tempted to give her at the Great Lost Bear before ....
So I got back around 11:00 and Lanna typed furiously ... she got to 50,000 words on Word (50,111 on Nano) and submitted her wordcount at 11:53 pm. She was a winner only 7 minutes from the deadline .....
It was unbelievable .... So we both won ... I had a nice start with very steady writing ... My wife was only around 24,500 words on Saturday Afternoon, did 7,000 on Saturday and just kept pushing through Wednesday... If you want to read her blog its... http://jesterfest.blogspot.com
edmund davis-quinn
Novelist ..
I am also posting something I posted earlier in the Nano-Maine blog ... http://nanomaine.blogspot.com .... I do wish I could cut and paste and blogger and keep the returns ...
Its all over!
What an adventure!
What awesome people us Maine writers are...
And so many winners ...We had 1,829,641 words as a state!!! .. Which is #34 of all regions in Nano!!! ... Great job ...Me and my wife also got 50,000 words as did Kendra, WriAnimator .....
We beat Sweden and Philadelphia .. and missed beating Oklahoma by only 12,000 words ...
Here at the Maheux/Davis-Quinn house, we were both winners ...I ended up with 56,695 words and Lanna had 50,100 ....Lanna wanted to make sure she had as much drama as possible ... She had under 25,000 words at 2 pm Saturday ...
Since then she has been on a tear with 7,000 on Saturday and 4,000 or more every other day .... She had only 1,000 words left around 10:30 and then her computer refused to work ...
I unfortunately was at the Great Lost Bear and had to run back and give her a computer ....She got to 50,000 on her book from Microsoft Word wordcounter by writing the very,very,very,very,very,very,very,very,very,very end ....I am so proud of her .. .She was officially a winner at 11:53 pm ... just 7 minutes before the deadline ..
Lanna Maheux-Quinn rocks ..
So there are 50 Winners in Maine!!!! WOWWWWW!!!!! ...
50 of us passed 50,000 words out of 207 in the state . .Give yourself all a hand!!
Well I will see you all tomorrow at the Village Cafe in Portland ..... Village Cafe is on Newbury St. in Portland. ... The thank god its over party starts at 5:30...
It was also great to meet some more of you at the Great Lost Bear! .... That is one of the great beer bars in the country #4 in America according to beeradvocate.com
And Maine is #1 in the country in cool writers.
edmund davis-quinn
Novelist
I know it repeats some stuff .. I am just so proud of the NanoMainers!
p.s. I also post at http://edmundcquinn.blogspot.com
and my beer blog ... http://mainebeerguy.blogspot.com
cheers!
I really enjoyed the writing and accomplished so much ... 56,500 words ... And probably somemore to come filling in scenes and such ...
Went out with some of the NanoMainers last night, the internet was not there as promised, so my wife headed home to finish the last 3,000 words of her book.. and Edmund here couldn't listen to the Rutgers-Temple game... (Rutgers won)
So I said bye and she called me about 10:35 .. she had reached 49,000 words and her computer refused to work .. so I had to get back and give her my laptop, which I was tempted to give her at the Great Lost Bear before ....
So I got back around 11:00 and Lanna typed furiously ... she got to 50,000 words on Word (50,111 on Nano) and submitted her wordcount at 11:53 pm. She was a winner only 7 minutes from the deadline .....
It was unbelievable .... So we both won ... I had a nice start with very steady writing ... My wife was only around 24,500 words on Saturday Afternoon, did 7,000 on Saturday and just kept pushing through Wednesday... If you want to read her blog its... http://jesterfest.blogspot.com
edmund davis-quinn
Novelist ..
I am also posting something I posted earlier in the Nano-Maine blog ... http://nanomaine.blogspot.com .... I do wish I could cut and paste and blogger and keep the returns ...
Its all over!
What an adventure!
What awesome people us Maine writers are...
And so many winners ...We had 1,829,641 words as a state!!! .. Which is #34 of all regions in Nano!!! ... Great job ...Me and my wife also got 50,000 words as did Kendra, WriAnimator .....
We beat Sweden and Philadelphia .. and missed beating Oklahoma by only 12,000 words ...
Here at the Maheux/Davis-Quinn house, we were both winners ...I ended up with 56,695 words and Lanna had 50,100 ....Lanna wanted to make sure she had as much drama as possible ... She had under 25,000 words at 2 pm Saturday ...
Since then she has been on a tear with 7,000 on Saturday and 4,000 or more every other day .... She had only 1,000 words left around 10:30 and then her computer refused to work ...
I unfortunately was at the Great Lost Bear and had to run back and give her a computer ....She got to 50,000 on her book from Microsoft Word wordcounter by writing the very,very,very,very,very,very,very,very,very,very end ....I am so proud of her .. .She was officially a winner at 11:53 pm ... just 7 minutes before the deadline ..
Lanna Maheux-Quinn rocks ..
So there are 50 Winners in Maine!!!! WOWWWWW!!!!! ...
50 of us passed 50,000 words out of 207 in the state . .Give yourself all a hand!!
Well I will see you all tomorrow at the Village Cafe in Portland ..... Village Cafe is on Newbury St. in Portland. ... The thank god its over party starts at 5:30...
It was also great to meet some more of you at the Great Lost Bear! .... That is one of the great beer bars in the country #4 in America according to beeradvocate.com
And Maine is #1 in the country in cool writers.
edmund davis-quinn
Novelist
I know it repeats some stuff .. I am just so proud of the NanoMainers!
p.s. I also post at http://edmundcquinn.blogspot.com
and my beer blog ... http://mainebeerguy.blogspot.com
cheers!
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