by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 6, 2012 | Blog
It’s taken me a long time to gather my thoughts about THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. It wasn’t a bad movie, it just wasn’t great. I should have loved this movie because of it’s angst ridden hero, but it just didn’t work for me. For one thing it beat me over the head with SYMBOLISM which is annoying at best, or makes me giggle which is worse. So now the usual warning. *******************************SPOILER...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 3, 2012 | Blog
My Mass Effect story has officially become a smallish novel. The good news, it has now locked together because of the advent of the shrink who strolled in, and because I let go of my hope of doing something rather fun and comedic. I embraced the fact that this is a story of renewal and recovery in so many ways. Whatever gender or background, or rogue or paragon, every player’s Shepard has been deeply affected by what they’ve endured over the past three years....
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jul 24, 2012 | Blog
Well, there’s the obvious reason that I really enjoyed this game (until the crappy end), and the characters were vivid and very real, and I came to care about them. I liked the universe and the various cultures, and I really liked my Shepard, and the elaborate backstory I’d created for him. Reason number two — I was really annoyed by the terrible ending, and I wanted to get the bad taste out of my mouth by giving a different conclusion. And I realized last night as I...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jul 23, 2012 | Blog
Frank Rich is one of my favorite editorialists. He has a fascinating article in The New Yorker. I’ve clipped out the concluding paragraph to whet your appetite, but the full article can be read here. Rich writes: “Lost in all our declinist panic is the fact that the election of an African-American president is in itself an instance of American exceptionalism—an unexpected triumph for a country that has struggled for its entire history with the stain of...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jul 21, 2012 | Blog
I was reflecting this morning about the inconsistency and hypocrisy of those on the right. So they’re all yelling about “states rights”, and the tenth amendment, and the Federal government is evil. Except when a state allow gay folks to marry, or make abortion easily available then they want a Constitutional amendment, or a federal law to stop those pernicious things from occurring. Sorry boys and girls, you can’t have it both ways. And what does it...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jul 20, 2012 | Blog
Okay, members of Congress should have to have a minimum IQ before they are allowed to serve. Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas clearly would not meet that minimum threshold. Here are his “insightful” comments regarding the Denver movie theater massacre. “You know what really gets me, as a Christian, is to see the ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs, and then some senseless crazy act of a derelict takes place,” He went on to suggest that the...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jul 18, 2012 | Blog
How cool is that? I belong to a super secret Hollywood liberal elite that can see the future, and plan to wreck the GOP nominee in 2012 because D.C. created a villain called Bane back in the ’90’s, and he got referred to in a crappy Batman movie in 1997, and now he’s front and center in the latest Batman movie ’cause somehow the Commie Pinko, socialist, Kenyan, liberal of Hollywood knew that Mitt Romney would be the nominee so they planned this movie well in...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jul 17, 2012 | Blog
I’ve been watching the show BUNHEADS on ABC Family because I loved Sherman-Palladino’s other show — GILMORE GIRLS. This was also supposed to be about dancers though there is precious little dancing on the show which is one reason I’m disappointed. I’m also disappointed because they seem to be trying way too hard to keep the dialog smart and quippy, and it’s starting to feel more than a bit forced. I’m also getting whiplash because they just keep...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jul 11, 2012 | Blog
I’m sort of in a gritchy mood today. There’s a kind of general malaise at work, and there are a couple of things that have really made me angry, and just decided to vent about them here. First, what is it with the Republicans passing all these voter ID, voter restriction laws. Do you realize in the state of Texas that a concealed gun carry permit is acceptable ID to vote, but a student ID isn’t? Florida has disenfranchised an ninety plus year old woman...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jul 9, 2012 | Blog
Let me count the was where this movie failed for me. And now there will be spoilers. Lots of spoilers. Be warned. ***********************************SPOILERS!!!!!****************************** I’ve tried to find a coherent thread as to why this new Spiderman just didn’t work for me. It wasn’t so much a single choice that resonated in a bad way through the entire movie as a whole series of things that...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jul 7, 2012 | Blog
As my crit group well knows, and others who have heard me speak about writing know that I hate description. Hate to write it. Suck at it. So that’s been a writing exercise that I’ve been practicing for several years now. To avoid the “white room” as it’s known in the Turkey City Lexicon I now try to include at least three of the five senses, and preferably four. When I’m writing in first person I find this easier to accomplish,...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jul 5, 2012 | Blog
I realized I was wrestling with where to place the descriptions of Jokertown in the Wild Card screenplay I’m writing. In a book it’s fairly easy (though tedious, I hate to write description), but in a screenplay I need to tell the readers what they will be seeing, and tell the set designers what they have to build, and the costumers designers what they have to sew, and the effect guys what they have to provide. And somehow all of this can”t be allowed to slow down the...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jul 4, 2012 | Blog
So tomorrow there’s going to be a press conference about the Higgs-Boson. This is a particle that may tell us what the heck space is made of. Not the stuff in space, but space itself. I’m really stoked about this. I have no understanding of the mathematics that suggested to geniuses like Higgs that this might exist, but the entire concept just fills me with wonder. I’m also so proud of us — humans. They fact we can ponder these...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 28, 2012 | Blog
You realize that someday “Obamacare” won’t be spoken as a pejorative. It will used the same way we say “medicare”. It will be celebrated as that first step toward universal coverage in this country. Despite all the other things going on in my life right now, this one thing has made me happy, and given me some hope that there is a way past the divisive politics to a place where we think about the good of the country and her citizens — all of...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jun 28, 2012 | Blog
So, thanks to Chief Justice Roberts I will get to keep buying health insurance, and won’t be tossed off because of my pre-existing condition. And the Civil Rights decisions are no longer in jeprody because the use of the Commerce Clause was upheld and vindicated by this decision. And may I say — Senator Rand Paul is an idiot. He’s a U.S. Senator. Does he not understand the American Constitution. He released a statement that “just because a couple...
