Monday, September 27, 2010

The Walking Dead

I've been readin "The Walking Dead" for a long time now. I enjoy it
very much. My wife likes it too. The tv show made from it will suck or
be utterly different. If they try to make it identical, it will blow.
But what can they change?The comic seems perfectly made.
Tv is so very rarely very good, I just can't imagine this thing
working out. They're zombies! They don't like vanilla-handed censors.
They Like killing ninety percent of the cast in one episode deep into
the story arc. They don't like to keep the audience in a weird limbo
like Lost and they hate surprise twist endings. There's only one
ending: everybody dies; mostly to rise again.
Your tv and the tv-watching public cannot handle this.
For some of the above reasons, all comic book-inspired movies suck in
one way or another. I want film makers to start backing away from
comics, a true American literary art. That will never happen though.
Is this a great country or what?
Jack Morgan
www.trainwreckunion.com

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Movies about Old People

If you put Robert Duval and Bill Murray in a movie together, you can
prove a hotly disputed theory: good actors can make a bad movie
tolerable. "Get Low" is a movie like that. Even though it's tedious
and slow, it's excedingly pretty and well acted. Even though it
fetishizes the good old days and cold weather in the Midwest, it's
themes are compelling and it's characters are interesting. "Get Low's"
climax is ho-hum and its ending is welcome but easy and sleepy.

There just isn't much there to latch on to. It's unclear if there's a
film here at all or if there's a story worth telling. It's enough
who's telling it I guess. Worthy of a rental when it hits netflix or
the library.

When I left the theater I thought "am I at a strange age where movies
aren't made for me anymore?" Everything seems made for children or
seniors lately. Maybe I'm imagining it.

----()()((()----

Staunton has been enjoying an Indian Summer. I've been interviewing
for jobs. One of the jobs is a dream I don't want to jinx. I'd be
amazing at it. Built for it.

The Darjeeling Cafe is waiting for the building inspector to tell us
we can open. Making rent is difficult without an income at the house
across from the firehouse parking lot. Where we're waking up to the
sound of road work every morning except Sunday. Road work on the
sabbath really pissed Ozzy off.

The Murder Bros. are excited about our show on October 30 with The
Smell of Death. We're practicing our set constantly. We're going to
seriously rock.

I ran 14 miles a couple days ago. It is the longest distance I have
ever run. I'd like to complete a marathon before the year's out. I'm
hoping quite publicly that my stomach will look like a Top Gun fighter
pilot's once I get to that point. Kick the tires and light the fires.

Jack Morgan
www.trainwreckunion.com

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Beating a Master

Last night on a live chess board where people play the pieces, I
destroyed a master chess player, Matt Gaffney, with a checkmate. At
least 100 people witnessed my victory over my friend, who consistently
beats me. Last night just wasn't his night. Maybe he cracked under the
pressure? We had a drink with Gaffs at the Staunton Grocery after the
game and talked about our recent trip to Italy.

Jack Morgan
www.trainwreckunion.com

Friday, September 24, 2010

Carey Grant's Last Movie

"Walk Don't Run" is Grant's last film. It's good. He plays the best
wingman the world has ever known who helps a wandering American and a
practical Briton find love. George Takei is in it as a Japanese police
officer.

Jack Morgan
www.trainwreckunion.com

Thursday, September 23, 2010

All this week, I've been at funeral events. Viewings, processions,
burials, receptions, and much more. It's all taken a great deal out of
me. My wife's grandmother is gone forever, and that saddens me very
much. An end to a very long, busy summer that I'll never forget.

I'm going to take a day off today from everything. Is autumn
officially here yet?

Jack Morgan
www.trainwreckunion.com