Am I blogging...or am I pitching my existence?
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| High Concept Am I blogging...or am I pitching my existence? |
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Wednesday, October 29, 2003 The Pitch: It's like the Kill Bill Soundtrack meets Elliott Smith CDs! Yeah, I've been listening to a lot of Elliott Smith, still. After listening to it over the end of last week, riffs and chords visited me during the loose moments of work, like bits of food caught between the teeth you're suddenly aware your mouth has been working on the whole time.So after lunch with Dave, I picked up the Kill Bill soundtrack and I've listened to it once or twice already. It's funny listening to what actually turns out to be what. The music I was sure would be the "Battle Without Honor and Humanity" is actually taken from a ten minute cover of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood." What I was sure was once of The RZA's tunes was actually "Battle Without Honor and Humanity." Another tune that I was sure would either be the RZA or one of the Japanese soundtrack tunes was in fact a piece of "Run, Fay, Run" by Isaac Hayes. And the similarity between the sound of "The Flower of Carnage" by the sound of Meiko Kaji and "The Lonely Shepherd" by Zamfir is pretty striking. Apart from how well the music suits the action in the film, the most striking thing to me about the soundtrack is how well it does between finding the sonic equivalences between Spaghetti Western soundtracks, Japanese soundtracks, Blaxploitation tunes, and a Zamfir song. It all ties together pretty darn well, just as the film tries to tie these filmic equivalents to one another. It's also cool watching the three trailers, although I've seen two of the three online (I forgot how much the first teaser includes flashes from both films). The third one which shoots for the post-ironic revenge flick angle is enjoyable for bits and pieces (seeing the title of the film in quotes as they used to have in older trailers is the best bit) but nothing new. It's not going to be the soundtrack for Nano this year, though, I can tell. It's a little too tied to the movie--eviscerations and blood spatters and little flimic giblets are about the farthest thing from my mind with this year's Nano. In fact, can I talk a bit about this year's Nano. I have a bit of a dirty secret that I haven't shared with the other Nanites on my list. It's that this year, Nanowrimo is going to be my vacation. I think that's the only way it's going to work for me--as a vacation from my other novel. I feel embarrassed talking about my other novel, because it's not really a novel. It's people in rooms, and they're talking to each other. Or they sit and think about themselves. It's supposed to be a novel about video games but only once or twice have I actually come close to making that my topic and I've haven't done a good job with the topic either time. Once I realized I could write about video games as a viable topic, I realized what a perfect topic it's about--that strange area where reflexes and imagination meet sitting on your ass and interacting with your furniture. From the outside, nothing looks more autistic than someone playing a video game--their eyes strangely blank and faces slack until suddenly their arms yank to one side or another. But I've bungled the topic, sadly, because I just sit down and write whatever I want to write about. And what's coming out is stuff about this houseful of video game players, and how they interact, and how they like and who they don't and why, and I think about the struggle to break out of yourself and love somebody else. At least it's supposed to be about that. It's really just me Playing Barbies in my head--taking one figure and have them talk to the other figure, figure out ways to angle one Barbie to another so it seems like they're whispering, or rocking their heels back in laughter, or taking offense at what another one is trying to say. This is a tremendously sad thing to me, on one level: I'm taking a vacation from Playing Barbies. It's sad because play is the last thing one should need a vacation from. It's also sad because I don't know how I'm not doing anything more, really, with this other book, this NaNovel, than going over to somebody else's house and Playing Barbies. I've spent a little bit of time thinking about the main character, and then the main character's wife, and the main character's best friend, and I don't see how I can keep it from being the same thing with different figures. I wish I wasn't so deeply loathe to having things happen in my books. Just because it would be nice to give them to other people to read. Or, even better, have other people buy them and then other other people buy them. I wish I wasn't such a long way away from that but right now, looking out the dark window, it seems so far away I tremble at the prospect of ever getting there. posted by Jeff Lester | 5:41 PM | |
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