If I were Blackie Sherrod, the long-, long-time columnist for the Dallas Morning News –the man, the myth, the legend – I'd have to start this post by saying: Scattershooting while watching The Magnificent Seven.
Blackie writes these occasional pieces we in the profession call ``notes columns.'' There's a very specific reason we do. It's written by a columnist and it's all a collection of notes, separated by a ellipsis, which we refer to as ``three dots.'' And that's because an ellipsis is … three dots.
And they said writer's block was a difficult thing to conquer.
In my case, it's been more of a topic block. Blog block. Part of the problem has been the news – too much of what I see and read just plain makes me angry, and I promised myself that I wouldn't get into current affairs on this blog. I have another blog that I can resurrect when I'm ready to do that, and I'll announce it here when I do.
First note – the chapter that I posted below is not from a mystery novel, as one person thought upon reading it. This one was written during my growth phase, and it's about one man's search for something he wasn't aware he was missing, or searching, for. In a real sense, it was my attempt to put some explanation to what I found on Maui – a greater sense of who we are, and what the world is about. It's vague, and it's touchy-feely. And I think maybe I started to feel self-conscious about it the more I got into it.
Second note – I had a very cute story in today's edition of the paper I write for. I'd attach the link, but the story loses a great deal without the pictures by Holly Pickett, one of our staff photographers. The story was about a program that teaches soccer skills to kids from18 months to 10 years. There's something about watching three-year-old running around, kicking soccer balls and balloons that just makes you smile – sort of like watching a litter of puppies playing.
Third note – I've always known that you can make a mighty fine living playing a worn-out cliché, but I think Tom Selleck has abused that privilege.
I watched the new movie Selleck produced for TNT last night – a production starring Tom Selleck, of course. This time out, Selleck plays Monte Walsh, a hero from a book by the same name by Jack Schaeffer. For those of you who missed it, Selleck plays his now hackneyed western character. You saw it in Crossfire Trail. If you missed that, he played him in Last Stand at Saber River. Hell, you saw him for years on television as Magnum, P.I., only without the writers. John Wayne played virtually the same character in every western he ever did, but at least he had the minimal acting chops it takes to at least make each character interesting.
Selleck succeeds only in making an homage to the days when a gun and a horse were a man's best friends – in keeping with his standing as a spokesman for the National Rifle Association.
Washington Post critic Tom Shales panned Selleck for Crossfire Trail, but the criticism still applies – especially considering that Selleck has neither changed characters, or changed wardrobe from that film to this:
``From the foggy, groggy way Selleck plays the hero, it's surprising he can understand which end of a gun the bullets come from. In real life, of course, Selleck is a friend to guns and all them that shoots 'em. He made a famous spectacle of himself on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" in 1999 when he trembled under O'Donnell's criticisms of the National Rifle Association, for which he is a spokesman.
``After the show, the Magnum Man baby-whined to the press that Rosie had been mean to him, big bully that she is. Memory of that incident, pale though it may be, rather tends to impair Selleck's credibility when he attempts to play a big, tough hombre, as he does in this film.''
It's easy to go for the cliché when doing a western. Perhaps that's why the genre died as a major moneymaker for studios. And that also makes the occasional western that DOES try to go beyond the cliché that much more interesting. Two that immediately come to mind are Tom Horn, starring an aging Steve McQueen, and another TNT effort – The Good Old Boys, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Sissy Spacek. Monte Walsh also pales to the Sam Elliott versions of several Louis L'Amour novels, including Conagher (with his wife, Katharine Ross) and The Quick and the Dead (with Kate Capshaw and Tom Conte).
It's ironic that Selleck was introduced to Louis L'Amour by doing The Sacketts and The Shadow Riders, both movie versions of L'Amour novels – starring with Sam Elliott as brothers.
More soon.
Blackie writes these occasional pieces we in the profession call ``notes columns.'' There's a very specific reason we do. It's written by a columnist and it's all a collection of notes, separated by a ellipsis, which we refer to as ``three dots.'' And that's because an ellipsis is … three dots.
And they said writer's block was a difficult thing to conquer.
In my case, it's been more of a topic block. Blog block. Part of the problem has been the news – too much of what I see and read just plain makes me angry, and I promised myself that I wouldn't get into current affairs on this blog. I have another blog that I can resurrect when I'm ready to do that, and I'll announce it here when I do.
First note – the chapter that I posted below is not from a mystery novel, as one person thought upon reading it. This one was written during my growth phase, and it's about one man's search for something he wasn't aware he was missing, or searching, for. In a real sense, it was my attempt to put some explanation to what I found on Maui – a greater sense of who we are, and what the world is about. It's vague, and it's touchy-feely. And I think maybe I started to feel self-conscious about it the more I got into it.
Second note – I had a very cute story in today's edition of the paper I write for. I'd attach the link, but the story loses a great deal without the pictures by Holly Pickett, one of our staff photographers. The story was about a program that teaches soccer skills to kids from18 months to 10 years. There's something about watching three-year-old running around, kicking soccer balls and balloons that just makes you smile – sort of like watching a litter of puppies playing.
Third note – I've always known that you can make a mighty fine living playing a worn-out cliché, but I think Tom Selleck has abused that privilege.
I watched the new movie Selleck produced for TNT last night – a production starring Tom Selleck, of course. This time out, Selleck plays Monte Walsh, a hero from a book by the same name by Jack Schaeffer. For those of you who missed it, Selleck plays his now hackneyed western character. You saw it in Crossfire Trail. If you missed that, he played him in Last Stand at Saber River. Hell, you saw him for years on television as Magnum, P.I., only without the writers. John Wayne played virtually the same character in every western he ever did, but at least he had the minimal acting chops it takes to at least make each character interesting.
Selleck succeeds only in making an homage to the days when a gun and a horse were a man's best friends – in keeping with his standing as a spokesman for the National Rifle Association.
Washington Post critic Tom Shales panned Selleck for Crossfire Trail, but the criticism still applies – especially considering that Selleck has neither changed characters, or changed wardrobe from that film to this:
``From the foggy, groggy way Selleck plays the hero, it's surprising he can understand which end of a gun the bullets come from. In real life, of course, Selleck is a friend to guns and all them that shoots 'em. He made a famous spectacle of himself on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" in 1999 when he trembled under O'Donnell's criticisms of the National Rifle Association, for which he is a spokesman.
``After the show, the Magnum Man baby-whined to the press that Rosie had been mean to him, big bully that she is. Memory of that incident, pale though it may be, rather tends to impair Selleck's credibility when he attempts to play a big, tough hombre, as he does in this film.''
It's easy to go for the cliché when doing a western. Perhaps that's why the genre died as a major moneymaker for studios. And that also makes the occasional western that DOES try to go beyond the cliché that much more interesting. Two that immediately come to mind are Tom Horn, starring an aging Steve McQueen, and another TNT effort – The Good Old Boys, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Sissy Spacek. Monte Walsh also pales to the Sam Elliott versions of several Louis L'Amour novels, including Conagher (with his wife, Katharine Ross) and The Quick and the Dead (with Kate Capshaw and Tom Conte).
It's ironic that Selleck was introduced to Louis L'Amour by doing The Sacketts and The Shadow Riders, both movie versions of L'Amour novels – starring with Sam Elliott as brothers.
More soon.
posted by wurdsmith at
12:59 PM
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