A Review of the TV Series Fringe.

I watched the entire series of Fringe on Netflix during spring break. I started out really liking this show.The acting was really good. John Noble is an amazing actor, as well as Joshua Jackson. Unfortunately the acting ended up being the main reason I continued watching the show.

(Caution spoilers may be present)
The storyline wanders bigtime after season 3. It doesn’t really pick back up until  season 5 but again has a completely different storyline than the first 3 seasons. Some of the timeline scrambling gets confusing and a few characters just fall out of the show never to be heard from again.

It would be very difficult for somebody who has no basic knowledge of physics to understand and I spent alot of time expaining the science end of things to my kids. Also I caught a million things that seemed like plot devices for future episode but were left wide open by the writers during the finale. Sucks that a show that started off as good as it did, and was very reminiscent of The X Files turned in to the proverbial turd in the punch bowl.

A few mistakes I feel were made by the writers are;
1. Joshua Jacksons character was killed of at the end of season 3 and not brought back for nearly 5 episodes in season 4 which almost kept me from finishing the series.

2. There were to many holes in the storyline. What happened to the churchy FBI agent? The guy with the X on his shirt in the dream episode was supposed to kill Olivia but fell into a black hole. Why did Nina change so drastically she was a good protagonist for the show and became Olivias foster mom by the end? WTF was up with William Bell being encased in amber at the beginning of season 5 this isnt really explained.

3. Why did they change storylines so much? It seemed like the writer were throwing Shit at the wall trying to get something to stick.It was about investigating the strange thing that happen when you mess with the timeline, and that worked. Then they threw in the alternate universe and that was ok. I I even liked the trowback episodes where we get the back story. But then three episodes before the end of season 4 its 20 years in the future? Way to spoil whats happening in season 5. They could have done away with the daughter all together and had season 5 take place in the same time frame as season 4 and the fundamental eleents of the show wouldnt have changed. They managed to reuse a season 1 storyline in season 4 which really confused my wife. And left me wondering if the writers where phoning that episode in from the house.

4. William Bells character was pretty much unnecessary after the episode where he died in season 3. Stay retired Mr. Nemoy you helped ruin a good show.

Feel free to leave a comment and agree or disagree with me and give me your take on fringe.

Leaving Las Vegas: Misconceptions and Silly Questions Answered About Being a Las Vegan

I lived in Las Vegas of six years. It was an opportunity to add a career field to my resume and I learned alot about real life in general. I worked as a nightclub bouncer and a maintenance engineer for what is called a “locals casino” .If you are from Vegas you know the difference between a locals joint and a strip property. After six years, an economic crash, and being laid off, I decided to move back to rural Texas. I love alot of things about living in a smaller community. But the misconceptions and silly question people ask about living in Vegas can be a bit taxing. Here are some of the silly questions and misconceptions about living in Vegas.

 

Did you gamble alot?

 

Not everyone who lives in Vegas gambles, I dont. In the six years of living in Vegas I gambled a grand total of 200 dollars. Vegas wasn’t built on winners and the sooner you learn that the better. However, I watched friends and coworkers pump every cent they had in to the machines. It is sad to see someone you work with get their paycheck from work, cash it at work, and blow every cent of it at work. Yes gambling happens alot, it is what Vegas was built on. Sadly enough it destroys many people who live in vegas.

 

Did you go to the strip alot?

 

Are you kidding? The strip is the last place you want to go when you live there. Especially if you work on the strip. There are drunks and gawking idiots, tourists and teens both pretending to be something they are not, and the traffic is horrible.  None of these things draw locals to the strip. This is the perpose of the locals casino. Its Vegas without the tourists for the most part. Usually you only go to the strip once or twice a year. The only reason most locals go to the strip is if family comes to town who have never been to Vegas, or if you have tickets to a show.

 

Isn’t it hard getting around in such a big city?

 

It can be. But for the most part I never left the three or four square miles I lived in, so it wasnt much different from living in a smaller community.  I lived just off Flamingo and Decatur. I had a strip view apartment in an ok neighborhood and in six years only owned a car for two of them. I was within walking distance of the grocery store, several convenience stores, andall of the regular fast food joint you go to. The bus system in Vegas is pretty good. And you are never more than two busses from any place you want to go in Vegas proper.

 

I bet there are alot of great deals in vegas.

 

Well, it depends I can send you to a casino with the cheapest steak and eggs breakfast in the world or a 99 cent hotdog that will actually fill you up.I know where to get a used tire for 12 bucks or the worlds best steak sandwiches for 6 bucks. But over all everything but food and used tires in Vegas is super expensive. I paid $950 a month for my apartment, I pay for full coverage insurance in Texas what I paid for liability in Vegas. My electric bill was on average $300 a month for an 800 square foot apartment due to the fact Vegas is located on the surface of the sun. 

 

Have you ever seen a prostitute?

 

Yes, I have also seen cross dressers, guys kissing guys, girls kissing girls, people covered in tattoos, crazy homless people panhandling on the corner, highspeed chases, just about any exotic car you can imagine, and rich people doing incredibly stupid things. Vegas is like a circus sideshow 24/7 and when you live in the clown tent you stop noticing the oddities of Vegas. The strange becomes normal.

 

Prostitution is legal in Las Vegas.

 

Negative. Prostitution in Clark County is very much illegal. It is in the smaller towns that it is legal outside of vegas. But inside the city limits it will get you arrested.

 

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

 

This is quit possibly the dumbest thing to come out of any tourists mouth. What happens in Vegas usually ends up on facebook, youtube, or an STD test. I have seen cops who are on vaction get arrested for possession of drugs. Kicked preachers out of the nightclub I worked at for having sex in a VIP booth. I’ve seen just about any and all forms of tourist stupidity and people think because of a slogan made up by the tourism board of Nevada its acceptable to do dangerous stupid things in the name of having a memorable vacation.

 

Is everyone in Vegas rich?

 

Is everyone in your town rich? I made good money the majority of the time I lived in vegas and if you have a good job you may do ok. But if you make between 40K and 70K a year you will live like a person making 25K in everywhere else in the country living outside a major US city. 

 

It must be nice to live somewhere so warm and sunny all the time.

 

It is nice in the early spring and late fall. But anyone who has been there in the height of summer will tell you its effing hot! And in the heart of winter it can get below freezing. I have seen it snow twice while I lived there. My kids even built a snowman one year. I here to tell you it only rained twice in 6 years while I was there. It was miserable. 

 

Vegas seems really safe and clean for such a big city.

 

I think anyone who has been broke down on MLK and Vegas drive would beg to differ. Vegas is a notoriously dirty and violent city. But when you main income is tourism the last thing you do is make it publicly known how messed up Vegas really is. The next time you are in Vegas go down to the Fremont street Experience and head east,  away from the tourism for 7 or 8 blocks and look around. Go find D street, or the underpass by the homless shelter. Go check out Naked City behind the Stratosphere. Vegas isn’t clean and it isnt safe unless you know where to look and what neighborhoods to stay away from. Yes the strip is safe for the most part and fairly clean but get away from the strip and you will see another side of the town.

 

These are some of the silly questions and misconceptions I get asked on a daily basis from people who dont know Vegas. But the parts people dont know and will never know are the parts only people who live there do. A sunset in Red Rock Canyon, Pops Phillycheese steaks, Chicago Hotdogs stand, playing in the snow at Mount Charleston only to go back to Vegas’ 90 degree weather, the art district on First Friday, All of the casinos turning the neon off when a Vegas icon dies, or seeing the fireworks over the strip every fourth of July and New Years. Vegas can be amazing, scary, dangerous, or one of the funnest places you will ever live. But like any town it is what you make it.

6 Tips On Writing Blog Posts For Pay Or Exposure

Go check out this blog by my good friend J.S. Wayne.

6 Tips On Writing Blog Posts For Pay Or Exposure.

10 Comicbook Character I Hate and 10 I Love and Why.

First of all I’d like to say these are my opinions on the subject and im not looking to debate comic book theory. Feel free to hate me afterward but I’m not going to change my opininion on these guys.

1. Batman
Batman exists solely due to the fact he was born into a privileged family. Was his life screwed up, absolutly but so are plenty of people’s in Gotham however they dont have the capital to put on a cape and go galavanting through the streets. As I have said many a time. Had Bruce Wayne been born to a poor family odds are he would be working at a RadioShack in downtown Gotham crying to his coworkers about his dead parents. In my own opinion the true hero of the Batman story is Alfred for putting up with Bruce Waynes eccentric building projects of Howard Hughesian proportions and the bizarre man/boy love dynamic of bruce and his young ward . This leads me to my number 2.

2. Robin
Batman Robin exists solely due to the fact he was born adopted into a privileged family. Was his life screwed up, absolutly but so are plenty of people’s in Gotham however they dont have the capital to put on a cape and go galavanting through the streets. As I have said many a time. Had Bruce Wayne Dick Grayson been born adopted into a poor family odds are he would be working at a RadioShack in downtown Gotham crying to his coworkers about his dead parents. In my own opinion the true hero of the Batman story is Alfred for putting up with Bruce Waynes eccentric building projects of Howard Hughesian proportions and the bizarre man/boy love dynamic of bruce Dick and his young ward Bruce .  Same character same story, boring. And come on I know it was written in the 40s but why name him Dick. Really?

3. Aquaman
Because Aquaman. Stupid powers and in my opinion is only interesting to kids who dream of being oceanographers. And because he is completely indistinguishable from Mermaid man to my wife. Which is obnoxious. Not Mermaid Mans fault… damn it, I mean Aquamans fault but still it isnt helping his cause.

4. Cyclops
Scott Summers, yuck even his name is as bland as school paste. He is the proverbial Ken doll of the X-Men complete with smooth plasticy genitalia.

5. Everyone employed at the Daily Planet
Come on guys its Superman in glasses, really. I cant hide from people by wearing glasses, no, I just get “Hey Billy, whats with the glasses?”

6. Storm
Overly complicated first name, oddly spelled last name. And as far as I am concerned her presence has little or no bearing the outcome of any fight The X-Men have ever been in.

7. Harley Quinn
Sadly enough as a character I love Harley but since the current DC/Harley Quinn fiasco I am sick of her. And in the world of fan art it’s all anyone can draw. Im just bored with her for now.

8. Peter Parker
I love Spiderman, but peter parker is as whiny and obnoxious as Bruce Wayne. However he is actually a superhero not just a super-guy-with-shiny-gadgets-and-pedo-undertones.

9. Peter Parkers Boss
AKA John Jonah Jameson, Jr. What a dick! Cut the kid some slack, hes pretty much the only one getting the goods on Spidey. Lay off the guy and give him a raise.

10. The Hulk
Bruce Banner , David Banner or whatever hez called this week. Is he a good guy or a bad guy? I’ve never had more trouble figuring out a guy in my life. Just when I think hes a good guy he starts whooping up on another hero. Then when he’s completely destroyed my opinion of him he goes and fully redeems himself by doing something selfless. This isn’t even taking into consideration the countless horrible shows and movies that have been made about him. Makes me want to HULK SMASH!

With that being said I would llike to point out the characters I love, and why.

1. Spawn
The first really decent black protagonist who wasnt called, like, black thunder or black tornado or black panther. He has awsome powers and a pretty great storyline. Not tomention he was the first true anti-hero in my opinion.

2 . Cable
Super strong, telepathic, time traveling, half robotic badass with a little baby straped to his chest. Why is he awesome. Kicks ass, takes names, and changes diapers!

3. The characters of bone.
If you havent read it go read it. I love it. You will too.

4. The Joker
There hasent been a comic or movie made featuring the Joker that wasn’t awesome, he can be silly or evil and it works. By and large my favorite villain ever written by any writer comic or movie.

5. Gambit
Silky smooth badass who uses playing cards as weopons. This is the first definition of a cool hero.

6. Wolverine
Because wolverine. Love him or hate him he carried the X-Men. As far as im concerned the marvel universe wouldnt be as popular as it is today with out him.

7. The entire cast of the Watchmen
If you haven’t read it, do. If you haven’t seen the movie, do. That is all.

8. Superman.
Lets face it Superman is the definition of a hero. And Quentin Tarentino was right he is the only super hero whos alter ego is a mortal. An infinately deep character ( disguise issues not with standing) and the first character to stand the test of time.

9. Deadpool
Funny, weird , wired.

10. Calvin and Hobbes
I know its not typical comic fare, but it really was what started my love for comics way back when. Go get a collection from the library, read it and tell me it wasnt an amazing comic. It  featured the exploits of a little boy and his stuffed tiger that any kid could relate to and any adult can remember being like. It also mixed very typical comic art in several strips.

Well I hope I haven’t offended you but im sure I may have. If you found this enjoyable, funny, or infuriating feel free to share it or to comment below!

Cheers,
Billy

Zen and the Art of Comic Book Writing.

Two years ago I awoke after an extremely vivid dream. What was it?-Well if I tell you, you will know the plot of the comicbook I have written. Suffice it to say, its about the old west and an eclectic mix of characters trying to stop the biggest baddy this side of the galaxy.
So you are aware- I am not a writer nor do I claim to be. My spelling is atrocious and my grammar is worse. However, I love story telling and as an artist the most obvious format is comic books. What I want to talk about today is the method in which I wrote my comic and some of the tools I used.
Now, I havent written a comic since I was about 12 but I have written most of a really bad book, several decent short stories, and 3 awesome movie scripts that will never see the silver screen. That being said I felt up to the challenge of writting my script. Had I known what a process it is I might have changed my mind.
The first step was the easiest. I bought a composition notebook at the local walmart and a package of ball-point pens.  I wrote down the dream in as much detail as I could remember which ended up being only the first page of my comic. Then I rote an entire page of my feeling about the characters in the dream. Was he good? Bad? Indifferent?  Did he seem like a believable pro/antagonist? What was the tone of the dream. Now im sure these tips can be modified to someone not writing from a dream but if not… Then it was on to The What If Game.
The What If Game is asking yourself what if so and so did this and that, would that be Interesting? If no then repeat if yes then the answer to that question leads to your next question. After hours of this exercise I had a rough outline of my entire plot. My next step is The Name Game. No, not the one your thinking but close.
I pretty much knew my cast of characters. But writing them by the seat of my pants has always lead me to write boring, flat characters that seemed more like talking heads than real people. So I stole a page out of the D&D playbook (Dungeons & Dragons for the nerdly impaired) and built character sheets on each of my principal characters. I didn’t use dice to define there skill set, however I developed a back story on each. Bob is night watchman at a museum. He was born to a wealth family but chose to go into the blue collar world due to his mother and fathers obsession with money. Now this may seem like a enormous waste of time especially if the audience never finds out about Bobs back ground but it is importaint to you as a writer. it establishes a set of rules that Bob lives by and as you know, our core values ( good or bad) define us as people. We will never break these rules unless pushed to. And neither will your characters.  This helps set up your characters for moral struggles later on in your story. Bob desides its time to take his place as the head of his family, but is unsure if it is the right move. Will he end up as money driven as his parents? Will he donate his family fortune to the museum where he once worked? Get as down and dirty with your characters as you can. Your life is a mixture of great times and horrible ones so should your characters. Look at Batman for example. A F’ed up childhood defines what and who he is. Or if your not writing comics look at Harry Potter. Had his parents not died he might have shaken Malfoys hand and went to slytherin. As Jim Butcher says, if you were to meet your character he should want to punch you in the nose. His or her struggle is what will make your story amazing.Done with that step? …Good. the next step is the hardest. The actual script.
Scripting for comic books is extremely complicated in the formatting aspect. I recomend Celtx as a script writing software. It is a little buggy but its free, it has a moble app (on which I wrote my entire first issue), and it does most of the crazy formatting for you. You can find it here http/www.celtx.com/  and again I say FREE! Cant beat the price in this economy.
Now let me expain comic formatting.The first thing you will do is add a page.

Page 1 and a brief discription of what the page is about.

Panel 1 and a brief explanation of whats going on in the panel

 charactor BOB goes here always centered and in all caps

(the type of speech baloon goes in parentheses)

and anything Bob or his friends says gets centered here.

This is why I use Celtx. It is alot easier to let the machine do the work.

Now its time to write. I wrote my first issue over the course of a weekend. And I am a notoriously slow typist. So get to work and write, write, write!

The Grapes of Wrath

I recently watched The Grapes of Wrath again but in a way for the first time. My life has had no shortage of disaster in the last few years leaving me feeling a bit like Tom Jode. In 2008 I was crippled in a fall and subsequent back surgery that for all intents and purposes ended my dreams of being a full time tattoo artist as that carreer field is incredibly hard on your back. I also lost my carreer as a maintenance engineer in a Las Vegas casino due to the same injury but was let go under the guise of cutbacks.
Much like the Jodes I was left with no other option but to turn and run as a lack of work left me with a 70 thousand dollar a year lifestyle and zero thousand dollar income. It was a hard decision to make and I am still wondering if it was the right choice.I wound up in rural Texas in a town of 300 people with no job, no friends, and no prospect. Art was my savior. I retreated into the world of illustration and managed to carve out an ok freelance income illustrating for the automotive industry which was enough to supliment my income at my crappy day job. I was doing concept renderings for many big companies including the big three auto makers and had a promising future as a freelancer,Then came blow number 2.
My computer caught fire destroying my entire portfolio and 3 years worth of invoices, tax records, and every digital work I had ever done. I took a job with The Texas Department of Criminal Justice as a corrections officer and hated every minute of it. But there was a light at the end of the tunnel.  I was involved in a lawsuit against the company where I was injured 4 years earlier at this point and in August was about to settle. With this I knew I could rebuild my business and with the added investment I could break into new avenues that I had never tried before. I bought nearly 50 thousand dollars worth of equipment for my business, then came blow number three.The industry had forgotten me. All of the companies I had worked for had moved on and now had new artists who where perfectly willing to fill the positions I had once held. I was a hollow shell filled with the blowing dirt of an emotional dust bowl with no light at the end this time.
With my art carreer over I knew it was a matter of time before life destroyed me, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and reenroll in college for a degree in fine art. Finally I began to feel like my life was making sense again, I’ve started rebuilding my portfolio and am working on making new contacts out in art land.2014 will be a big year for me and hopefully for anyone reading this.
I will continue to be strong like Tom Jode, I wont let ’em lick me. Wherever there’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a cop beating up a guy, I’ll be there. I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad. I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry and they know supper’s ready. And when the people eat the stuff they raise, and living in the houses they build, I’ll be there, too.
Cheers,
Billy