Eating Cheesesteaks in Philadelphia

Sometimes you need to just get away for a day or two. That’s what I did today, hitting the road for a trip to Philadelphia. 

Truthfully, Philly wouldn’t have been my first choice, no matter how much I love It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. But my roommate has always wanted to go and shoot photos there. So we rented a car and drove down. It was also a chance for take my puppy on her first road trip. 

We spent most of the day wandering the historic district. I have been to Philadelphia before but never really spent time there. I loved seeing the old buildings and the beautiful public squares. My roommate took some amazing photos that you will be able to see at her website soon. (www.cazmckinnon.com) Lavinia even made a friend in Ava, a six month old Poodle / Yorkie mix. 

Of course the real highlight of the day was a Philly cheesesteak taste test between the two local legends: Pat’s and Geno’s. I had always heard that these two were the classics and the best in the city, but everyone debates which is better. I wanted to decide on my own. 

So after eating a sandwich at each place (and oh, how I will pay for that), I can unequivocally say that it’s Pat’s all the way. Their meat is better seasoned and frankly their chopped up beef just tasted better than Geno’s slices. Also, Geno’s was swimming in cheese. I love cheese, but even that was too much for me. Pat’s was just perfect and delicious.  

Now I will be craving Pat’s sandwiches for the next two months. Dammit. 

Tomorrow will be a visit to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to do my own personal recreation of the Rocky steps sequence. Using my dog. Because that’s how I roll. 

A Shout Out For Saga

About a year and a half ago I started going back to the comic book store after a lengthy hiatus. I wanted to dip my toes back into the comic world and started regularly checking out some of the new series coming out. But there was one series that was my impetus for this. 

That series was Saga by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples. 

I have been a huge fan of Vaughn’s work since I started reading Y The Last Man. His writing had a sense of wit and charm to it, yet never overwhelming the suspenseful core of the story. I became an instant fan of his and followed his work with great pleasure. 

Then he ran away to Hollywood and I expected him to be another Neil Gaiman, coming back to do a “special issue” here and there but never another long form series. 

So when Saga was announced, it was a huge event for comic fans, but it felt like a huge event for me personally. I could barely wait for the first issue and when it finally came, I was not disappointed. 

A quick recap of the premise: In another galaxy, two different cultures engage in a never ending war. Then opposing soldiers Marco and Alana fall in love, get married, and have a baby. Both sides want them killed and their baby captured, so they have to go on the run across the universe.

Of course that’s just the first issue. As the series has progressed, Vaughn has brought in an impressive supporting cast of grandparents, robot princes, bounty hunters, jilted ex lovers, and Lying Cat. He has also built this fabulously detailed story universe that just keeps enthralling me the further it goes. 

Vaughn is at the top of his game with Saga, and his creative partner Fiona Staples art is rich and textured and simply stunning. It’s easily the best comic going right now and each time I know an issue is coming out, I am giddy with anticipation. 

There have been a ton of rave reviews for Saga since it came out, and I didn’t want to write something that was just another voice in the symphony. I only write this because I am just so happy I get to live in a world with a new Brian Vaughn comic. Because its the simple things that sometimes can bring us the most joy. 

A Fresh Start

Film has always been a huge love of mine, ever since I first watched Twin Peaks. Ok, sure that was a TV show, but it was created by David Lynch. It was the first time I really started to understand what a film director was and how a director’s work can have its own personality. I felt compelled to watch his films. Which at the age of 15, is quite the eye opener (helloooooo Blue Velvet).

From there I started watching more and reading more. I discovered the greats and the classics. I even started writing films. At some point I had plans to make a film about a scientist who regresses into a murderous animal man. I still have that script, hidden away in a folder of other high school writings. 

I went to the film school at a university for two years. I wrote a few things I was proud of, and a few things I wasn’t. I also directed one or two things, but nothing I remember that well. I think my biggest writing fault was becoming so enamored with a tone or an idea, that i forgot to tell a story. It’s something I will have to watch out for going forward. 

But film school and I weren’t the best mix. Screenwriting was the only class I enjoyed at the end, so I moved over to English. I expanded what I wrote, but in my heart, I really wanted to write film. 

However, once I moved to New York after college, my drinking overtook my writing and any passion or drive dried up. Sure, I would get an idea for a story here and there. But I never wrote them down, and sooner or later they disappeared from my head. Now that I’m sober, I have been trying to find that passion again. 

Yesterday I spent my day in a screenwriting class. I am not sure if I learned anything new, per se. We discussed the proper format and structure. We talked about classic films and how the conflict and drama in their stories. At some point, the class was to work on their own stories. 

I had this nugget in my head of a story. I started to write it down without much of a clue of where it was going to go. About half way through the class, all of a sudden the story crystallized in my head and on the page. It was that eureka moment that every writer waits for. 

I don’t know how to explain how good that felt. To all of a sudden feel like maybe I had a story to tell after all and that maybe I still had some passion hidden inside me. It felt like I was getting back something I had lost. 

I have since begun working on the outline of this story, figuring out the twists and the characters. I think its a good solid story and one that I can make into a decent script if I am lucky. It feels good to be writing again. 

Finding the words

Trying to write on here is a bit of a struggle as late. I could blame a sick dog or work or a general busy-ness of life that’s stopping me, but that would be a cheat. 

Truth is am a huge procrastinator and this past week offered me a ton of great distractions. Plus, I just have had a bit of a difficult time getting back into the writing groove. I feel ideas percolating in my head but when it comes to putting the words down on paper they come out stiff and wooden. No life to them. 

So I will be taking things slowly on here. Finding the words takes time. 

In the meantime some quick hits:

FUN FILM I SAW: I watched PITCH PERFECT on dvd this past week. It’s not normally the type of film I would watch but the word of mouth was so great, I had to check it out. I was so glad I did. Sure the story of the all girl acapella group versus the all boy acapella group was predictable, but it had so much energy and humor to it that you can’t help but get sucked in. Anna Kendrick is really charming in the lead. If you don’t start singing along in the final performance, you have no soul.

FUN BOOK I AM READING: If you ever told me I would be reading a book that featured a chapter about Scritti Politti, I would probably tell you to get out of here with some swearing in the middle. But that is just what I am reading in RIP IT UP AND START AGAIN, a history of post punk music. Author Simon Reynolds is one of the best natural writers of music I have ever read and his way of describing a band’s music is vibrant and engrossing. My list of music to download has grown thanks to him. 

Bye bye Zombies, Hello Dragons

So The Walking Dead finished its third season last night and Game of Thrones started theirs. Has there ever been a better television time for geeks than now?


A few random thoughts on both (spoilers ahead):

So the Governor survived and Andrea died. The Walking Dead has now entered Dexter territory, deviating widely from the source material and creating a new story. I like that even as a fan of the comic series, I can no longer predict who will come and go and what stories they will tell.

In fact, it feels a bit like they are going to try and change the core idea of the book and series. The series has always been about this group of survivors that travels to a place, joins a society, and things tend to go to hell. But here, with the remnants of Woodbury joining them at the prison, the show looks like it will spend some time actually building a society. I’m fascinated to see where this is going to go.

How odd that if they took the opposite tack with Game of Thrones I would be horrified! I’m not even that obsessive a fan of the books, as I only started reading them because I knew the show was coming. But I was immediately engrossed by George R.R. Martin’s worldbuilding. To see it come to life each week in such a rich, layered way is just….WOW.

Of course I have always wondered what’s going to happen down the road when the series catches up to the books. At the rate Martin’s is putting them out, it would be incredibly lucky if book six was out in time for it to be adapted. But what will happen for the last book? Will they have to create their own ending or will Martin want the book’s ending spoiled?

Andrea’s death seemed like the only way out of the corner they had written her into. Her weird siding with the Governor and Woodbury over Michonne and her old comrades just became alienating. There wasn’t any way for them to come back from it that would have felt real.

Did anyone else notice how the two major deaths this season was about half the female cast? Those boys are going to get very lonely at the prison…..

Meanwhile, Peter Dinklage shows in every episode just how you steal an ensemble TV show. Tyron has always been my favorite character in the series and the way Dinklage brings him to life has made him my favorite character on the TV series as well.

I want a pet dragon.