Oscar Night

Well it's the one year a night where many of us will sit down and undertake one of the most grueling tasks to curse the TV viewer.  I of course refer to the Oscars, the only night in TV when you have five minutes of programming followed by five minutes of commercials for about one and a half hours.  This was ridiculous.  I apologize, but I was just astonished at how often we cut to commercial.  Obviously the Academy is short of money for all that they spent putting this on at the Kodak this year, because we had so many commercial breaks.

Overall, this was a bad year for movies.   Sitting in previews, my parents and I make a habit of turning to one another when we see a really bad looking film and saying, "Miss that one." We said that a lot this year.  It's kind of like picking wine.  I don't drink the stuff but I know there are good and bad years.  In the end though, I had two top picks that are the best vintage of 2010.  Its always so interesting to see the nominations for short films, documentaries and things we really rarely see in the main stream culture.  There are movies featured here I've only seen listed at the local Palm Theater, an establishment to itself for independent films in San Luis Obispo.  I think Hollywood needs to wake up and make more films like these.  Hopefully this year will be a better vintage for Hollywood gold and the 2011 Oscars will be far more sweet to my viewing pleasure.

Thank you to Hollywood.  You stood and delivered the Best Picture to a film that truly deserved it.  The King's Speech was the only good movie I saw this year, and this was a black year for films.  This movie is what movies should be: heartwarming, emotion tugging, true story mixed with fiction that's written well and paced superbly.  Its a grown up movie, no doubt about it.  It didn't have flashy effects like so many of the top billed movies.  I don't think the lack of effects detracted at all, in fact, it was refreshing to say the least.

As a person who has suffered from a learning disability, I know what tremendous courage it takes to face that disability and look it in the eye.  Watching this, I had to cringe to think that people treated another person as awfully as they did to George VI.  It was heartbreaking, especially having dealt with people in past and present who do not understand my own learning difficulties.  No one would want to go through what this man undertook.  Bravo to Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and all the rest.  I hope this film can be a reminder to anyone with any disability that they can overcome it.

The Phantom Train

Some might wonder why I chose this name.  As it happens it is the subject about my own first book Aboard the Phantom Express.  The idea of a Phantom Train isn't a new one. In fact, it's been popularized in several different cultures and medium.  The origins of this train are somewhat obscure, and it's different from the phenomenon known as a Ghost Train.  A ghost train is simply a ghostly train.  The Phantom Train, Death Train or Train of Souls is THE train that takes the dead to the great beyond.  The train is a sentient presence and living thing not just a machine.  It is usually neither good nor bad preferring to remain neutral in most affairs of the mortal world.  It simply exists and does its job until the end of time. That is its sole purpose as decreed by whatever force lays in the great beyond. The Phantom Train has been seen in several popular medium including movies, cartoons, plays and even a video game or two.

I first became aware of it in the series, Final Fantasy.  In the sixth game, a group of characters accidentally boards the train and has to find a way to get off.  This particular scene was a part of a greater story arc in the game that was truly well thought out.  I need not go into particulars other than to say it creates an emotional experience one doesn't usually expect from a game.   The real significance of the train's existence didn't sink in, however, until I was sitting with my grandparents in a restaurant and saw a poster on one of the walls.  It depicted a strange ghostly train with the image of a conductor holding out a lamp ahead of him.  At the base of the poster were the words LeTrain Fantome. 

I became intrigued.  I started to notice the train in other things.  Perhaps the most famous instance of it comes from the Tom and Jerry cartoon "Heavenly Puss."  Anyone who's seen this one knows that Tom gets "pianoed" (for lack of a better term) and rides an escalator up to heaven.  There he sees a magnificent golden train waiting for him, but he's told he can't get aboard unless he can get Jerry to absolve him of his sins back on earth before the train departs.  (He doesn't succeed.)

Most of the stories remain the same.  The basic premise is usually a train that ferries the dead to the other side.  Those who accidentally board need to get off (lest they be mistaken for souls themselves).  In the end, they succeed, but not before meeting the spirit of someone they know who needs to pass on.  It's a story of accepting that ultimate end, letting go and moving on with life.

I liked the idea, and I used it as the "vehicle" literally and figuratively for my first real foray into the world of writing.  The result was Aboard the Phantom Express which I have worked on improving over the years.  Now that I am writing a blog, I guess I want to harness a bit of that mystery and wonder that first captured me long ago.  The image of a strange train shrouded in the mists of time and space has a certain unearthly appeal.

Maiden Voyage

I tend to be an introspective person.  In fact, up until now I shied away from blogs, Twitter and I treated Facebook like I had an allergic reaction to it. I just didn't see the need to tell everyone what I was doing or thinking in that exact moment.  I felt like a salmon trying to swim in the opposite direction of all the other salmon.  In this day of mass communication, with everyone knowing everything about everyone else, I guess I was content to sit and watch everyone else surf the technology wave.  This from a communications major, from a writer who wants to be published.  In fact, it is my writing that brings me here at last.  Everyone I talk to in the writing biz says you have to be hip, get with the program, get out there.  They tell me that "publishers and agents want you to market yourself, be your own best advocate."  I guess as a writer, I have to think of a blog as just an enhanced journal.  I'm better at typing than handwriting, so hopefully this will stir my muse.  Here's to the beginning of a new journey for me.  Next stop, the unknown