Trina Robbins will be missed.

I met Trina at a few comic cons. HERstorian, writer, artist, dynamo. I had the honor of sitting with her on a panel about superheroines. I said that since I write a female superhero, I listen to the ladies in my critique groups. Trina said that was good advice for guys writing female characters. I was rather in awe of her. I don’t remember saying much else on that panel, maybe I figured people would prefer to hear Trina, whose experience was quite vast. (I notice the 3 males, 2 females ration here. I think I noticed then also.)

I once showed Trina some Super Holly art that I hand out as a little business card. She said Holly’s supersuit looked tight. I can imagine Super Holly saying, “It isn’t tight, it’s snug!”

A few more posts about Trina over the years.

I was schooled by Trina robbins!

I was on a panel with Trina at Silicon Valley Comic Con.

I met Trina at the Big Wow Comic Fest.

Me and Trina. She was a voice for superheroines. I feel that a little light has gone out in the comic book world.

Writers Helping Writers San Mateo: Playing with Poetry Feb 8

Playing  With  Poetry: Having Fun with Meter & Rhyme

Presented by: Kate Adams
Editor-in-Chief, Fault Zone: Detachment the anthology of the SF Peninsula Branch of the California Writers’ Club
San Mateo Public Library, 55 W 35d Ave, Feb 8 Thursday, 6:30pm

The use of meter and rhyme is unique to poetry; they are two of its most powerful tools. If prose is a form of carpentery, then poetry can be called joinery: no nails, no glue, words held together by sonic forces which can appear magical until you master them—or at least play with them—yourself. Join Kate Adams and fellow writers to play some games with lines, stanzas, quatrains—experimenting with the building blocks of formal poetry. You will leave with your own stanza in hand. 

Born and reared in San Francisco, in a Victorian mansion her father liked to call Mad Manor, Kate Adams has been writing since the age of twelve, when her first short story came to her, filling page after page of a very surprised notebook. Since then, she has maintained a daily writing practice, manifested mostly in sonnet forms. A language lover, she currently has fun teaching Spanish at a private school in San Mateo. 

Aquaman 2 and Rebel Moon

Aquaman 2. The critical rating is low on Rotten Tomatoes. So when I went to see it on New Years Eve (nobody I knew was having a party, just going to bed early), I went with low expectation. I did this many years ago when my friend Mondo was in town, and he called my up: “Hey, Dave Aye! I’m in town and I wanna see a really bad movie!” I said, “Okay. What?” He said, “Dude, Where’s My Car!” We went, and had a pretty good time. Same principle here, except I think that Aquaman 2 deserves a better critical rating. An exciting story, flashy special effecte, Jason Momoa is always fun to watch, and it had Aquaman and his brother doing the banter that brothers do when brothers are not getting along. And it had a prank that brothers pull on brothers. As in, eat this disgusting thing, it tastes great! I had a pretty good time. So you might give Aquaman 2 another chance.

Rebel Moon. Zach Snyder had a script for a Star Wars movie that veered close to R-rating territory. Disney rejected it. Fine, said Zach, I’ll make my own movie out of it for Netflix. I watched it. I tried doing the play-by-play blogging that I did for the Snyder cut of The Justice League movie, but I changed my mind. Rebel Moon was not so bad, I could watch it without wincing, and enjoy a lot of it. So here are my main points.

It warns right away that there will be violence, and sexual and bloody images. OH YEAH!!!

But OH NO, there is a bunch of voiceover exposition at the start of the movie. No, no, no, no, NO!!! Alfred Hitchcock said that exposition is a pill that must be sugar-coated, Zach wants us to swallow a golfball-size aspirin with no water. If you feel you HAVE to do exposition at the start, do it Star Wars style: one scrolling page set to dramatic music. Better yet, Terminator style, just a few short sentences. There was nothing in that voiceover that could not have been folded into the story. Heck, nearly all of it was already in the story. Black Adam did the same thing, and that exposition could have been left out entirely because the audience sees it in the movie. The worst example if the 1984 Dune movie, it is being shoved into your eyes and repeateed, I dare you to watch ithat without fast-forwarding, betcha can’t!

The protagonist Laura could kill at ten paces with her pout.

The evil empire landing gear unfolding is a big deal. And the troops march in sorta slow motion. But the leader seems like a smiling snake. And then he clubs a guy with something like a golf club, and THEN he uses the light saber? You got blasters, laser-type swords, but the main baddie uses a gold club?

Why do the empire troopers shoot their own troops? With friends like these…

there is slo-mo after slo-mo after slo-mo. The only time I really wanted it was when the good guys and gals were in shackles and then free themselves so fast that I did not see how they did it.

The fight scenes are fun to watch.

I like that the main baddie dons a white shirt and tie. Now THAT is an evil uniform! And the main baddie had lotsa hoses attached to him earlier, and they are used later when he is just mostly dead. At least Zach understands that. Zach understands setup and payoff, Star Wars 7-9 did not. (I’ll say it again, Finn shoudl have led a stormtrooper rebellion!)

To use a quote from the Too Much Coffee Man comic, it was okay but it did not change my life. I will watch the next installment to see where it goes. I like the suit and tie, especially now that his dumb golf club was broken. Pretty easily, I might add. Plese do not bring that back, Zach, or I will find your phone number, call you at 3AM, and yell, “FORE!!!“

November 9, 2023 6:30pm Writers Helping Writers

San Mateo Library 55 W 3rd Ave, San Mateo

Editing Memoir and Personal Stories

Whether you’re writing a book-length memoir or a personal story or essay, editing is critical. In this Writers Helping Writers session, writing coach and editor Darlene Frank will help you discover what you can do on your own before you give your manuscript to an editor, and what to expect as the two of you work together. You will learn:

• What happens in each stage of the editing process
• What questions to answer before you even begin to write
• How to prepare for the inevitable challenges of writing a memoir
• How fiction-writing techniques will enliven your memoir
• How to think like an editor as you revise your manuscript draft
• What you can do on your own to reduce the cost of hiring an editor

Darlene Frank is a writer, editor, and creativity coach who helps people create their most powerful writing. She is editor and publisher of “Spirited Voices,” an online magazine featuring work from participants in her SPARK workshops. Darlene has helped authors write and publish books about autism, food and travel, grief, adoption, sexual violence, yoga, dance, disabilities, and more. Darlene is a longtime member of the San Francisco Peninsula branch of the California Writers Club. Her creative nonfiction appears in 12 anthologies, including Fault Zone;Times They Were A-Changing: Women Remember the ‘60s and ‘70s; and Wide Awake Every Week: 365 Aha! Moments. In another life, Darlene was an award-winning technical and instructional writer and author of two business books. Find out more at https://www.darlenefrankwriting.com/writing-and-creativity-breakthrough.

My faves from the San Jose Short Film Festival

Here are my faves from each block I have seen.

Musically Inclined

Piano Man. A quiet study of a jazz piano player. I commented to the filmmaker in Q&A that I have seen short films where a guy stared off into the distance for 30 seconds, and I could not believe someone would write that into the script. Yet, in Piano Man, there are scenes where he drives and does ordinary things, but with the jazz piano background, and it juxtaposes his life now with what it was. And it ends on an open mic type scene. Perfect.

A Hard Doc’s Life

The Exchange Girl. Women in silent film production, tough and dangerous conditions, and one woman steps up to be one of the great movie editors. As a writer, I appreciate editors. Inspirational.

Make ‘Em Laugh

They Grow Up So Fast. A guy sees his life with his girlfriend unfold at super duper hyper-speed. I have been told my writing moves, this puts me to shame. 

Under My Bed. Best! Monster! Interview! EVER!!!

It Was A Dark & Stormy Night

Butterscotch. Short, no dialog, and deliciously nightmare creepy. Scariest and classiest way to nip a kid bully in the bud.

The Trunk. Vampire story. Heart-tugging and heart-breaking.

Kids and Family

Canary. Coal mine, tough dad, cute little kid, and a canary who can play dead.

Mushka. A girl and her tiger, and growing up.

Goro Goro. Dad and kid, thunder and lightening, and a big burst-of-laughs twist at the end.

Return of the Ink & {Paint Club

Ninety-Five Senses. Saw this at Cinequest also. An old man narrates his life, right up to the end. Moving and 

The Space Between Us. Touching and fast and crazy. There are worse things than loneliness.

The World Beyond

Autopilot. I asked the filmmaker during the Q&A, “Is she sentient?” I had to ask that, having watched every Star Trek episode ever. She and the host really loved the question. The filmmaker said, “Yes!” and asked me, Which Star Trek? I love them all, but I had to go for the original since I watched it on NBC when it first aired (opposite Lost In Space, why do networks hate nerds?). The film has a great twist, a sympathetic protagonist, and (I think) a set left over from Firefly.

Lost in the Sky. Heart-tugging story told with zero CGI and a real robot.

What the What?!?

Deadline. Stop motion ancient old ladies go commando against bureaucracy and police and death. How can you not root for them?

Roadkill Jamboree. How the government should make those safety films for school children. Ska music is never boring!

Un Homme and a Lady. Black and white tribute to Godard and Truffaut with the loopiest dialog that has ticked my ears in many years. I asked the filmmaker if he was laughing while writing that dialog. Yeah. He gave me a couple of movies to look up, like The 400 Blows. I should watch and expand my movie horizons before Martin Scorsese points at me and says, “AH HA!”

Writers Helping Writers Thursday Oct 12

Playing  With  Poetry, Having Fun with Meter & Rhyme. Presented by Kate Adams
Editor-in-Chief, Fault Zone: Detachment, the anthology of the SF Peninsula Branch of the California Writers’ Club

The use of meter and rhyme is unique to poetry; they are two of its most powerful tools. If prose is a form of carpentery, then poetry can be called joinery: no nails, no glue, words held together by sonic forces which can appear magical until you master them—or at least play with them—yourself. Join Kate Adams and fellow writers to play some games with lines, stanzas, quatrains—experimenting with the building blocks of formal poetry. You will leave with your own stanza in hand. 

Born and reared in San Francisco, in a Victorian mansion her father liked to call Mad Manor, Kate Adams has been writing since the age of twelve, when her first short story came to her, filling page after page of a very surprised notebook. Since then, she has maintained a daily writing practice, manifested mostly in sonnet forms. A language lover, she currently has fun teaching Spanish at a private school in San Mateo. 

Thursday, October 12th, 2023, San Mateo Public Library, 55 W 3rd Ave   6:30 to 8 pm

Martin Scorsese does not understand Alfred Hitchcock. At all.

He’s at it again. Martin Scorsese now says we must save cinema from those superhero movies that will brainwash all of the movie-going public that superhero movies are the only kind of movies that exist.

And again, I am astounded at how a director who made many classic and brilliant movies can so completely misunderstand cinema. Did he notice that he used Chris Nolan as an example of directors to support? You know, the guy who made The Dark Knight trilogy? Does he ever listen to the words coming out of his own mouth?

In 2019, in a New York times opinion pice, Scorsese said Marvel movies were not cinema, but Alfred Hitchcock movies were cinema. He said of North by Northwest, “But is it the thrills and the shocks that we keep going back to? I don’t think so. The set pieces in ‘North by Northwest’ are stunning, but they would be nothing more than a succession of dynamic and elegant compositions and cuts without the painful emotions at the center of the story or the absolute lostness of Cary Grant’s character.”

Painful emotions? Was that Cary Grant trying to stay alive? Or feeling betrayed by a woman? Ooo, how original, ooo, how painful, ooo, I have seen that a thousand times before. It is Grant’s reaction to the betrayal that delivers the thrill. The way Cary delivered the line, “…or are you going to ask this female to kiss me again and poison me to death?” is nearly worth the price of admission. Why did Hitchcock make the movie? I believe he said he always wanted to do a chase down Mount Rushmore.

In other words, Mr. High and Lofty Martin, for Hitchcock it was the thrill, not the “lostness.” As Lois Griffin told Peter when he said The Godfather insists on itself, “What does that even mean?” Cary is at a lot of locations in the movie, but he is running from death, he’s never lost, he always knows who he is (as in, not George Kaplan). In this case, I believe “lostness” means Martin is the kind of guy who would see deep meaning and themes in the book in South Park titled, “The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs.”

Unfortunately, I have known guys like this, always looking for what is not there, always telling the writer, “No, THIS is what you meant!”. When I was going to college (way back when Weird Al was just starting his career), us students were in the TV room watching The Birds. And one guy insisted on proving he knew nothing at all about Alfred Hitchcock without saying he knew nothing about Alfred Hitchcock. How? He decided that the movie was about the two songbirds in the cage that Tippi Hedren bought at the start of the movie, and he kept saying that, over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over., constantly saying the birds are attacking because man dared to imprison those two innocent little lovebirds in a bird cage. Near the very end of the movie, when Rod Taylor and the others are slowing escorting Tippy to the car, surrounded by hundreds of birds, he said with a voice filled with doom and horror, “Let those lovebirds go.”

I’d have enough. I turned to him and said with as much politeness as I could muster, “Hitchcock never put deeper meaning into his movies, he just wanted us to be entertained, to be thrilled, to see a good movie.”

He turned to me. His eyes went wide, his mouth gaped open into the Grand Canyon, his lips writhed, blood seemed to drain out of his face (although I doubt there was much of that in his brain to start with). He blurted, “That was STUPID!” I did not debate him on the advice of George Bernard Shaw: “Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.” That bird-brained guy blabbing during The Birds was all ham. And not in a good way.

Here is Hitchcock on what he was interested with his movies: evoking an emotional response. No lostness, no deep meanings about imprisoned lovebirds, no thoughtful philosophical themes in “The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs.”

I believe Hitchcock wrote or said something like, “Have you ever held a little baby in your arms, it is peaceful and content, and suddenly you say, ‘Boo!’ and scare the bejesus out of the poor little thing? That is what I try to accomplish with my movies.” I know I have written well when my open-mic audience has an emotional response (usually laughter). 

I now coin Dave M Strom’s formula for cinema (which Super Holly will steal): Themes without thrills are dead. (I put The Station Agent in there, thrills can thrill quietly.)

Additional: I have to say this. if you have not seen the King of Comedy, see it, your cinematic soul will thank you forever. My fave Martin Scorsese movie. Yes, Taxi Drive is a classic, but this shows how Martin gets fantastic performances out of great actors (Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis, yes, I said Jerry Lewis!). Nothing blown up, no CGI, no superpowers, just perfect character studies.

Writers Helping Writers San Mateo Sept 14

Writers Helping Writers, Sept 14 Thursday 6:30 pm. San Mateo Public Library 55 W 3rd Ave, San Mateo, CA. I lead this little group.

Marla Bluestone has self-published 6 futuristic novels. She is a retired occupational therapist with specialized training in neurodevelopment. For this presentation, she will lead a discussion about the umbrella-genre of science fiction, focused on the sub-genre, SPECULATIVE FICTION.

The program is entitled A CONVERSATION ABOUT SPECULATIVE FICTION. Using PowerPoint slides, we will consider why people say “I don’t like science fiction” and dismiss anything the market categorizes as SF/F. Probably the negative bias relates to misperceptions: hostile aliens, intergalactic flights, violent battles… and other tropes movies and games have made popular. This program intends to engage writers in opportunities the genre offers: visions of a society after the effects of climate change or pandemics; creative health care possibilities; political evolution in any setting; how technology impacts social dynamics; anything about alternative lifestyles.

(Come and discuss fiction, I have discussion to share, I bet lots of us do!)

Paul and Trisha: two artists in one body!

I have been meaning to post about meeting Paul Whitehead and his alter ego Trisha van Cleef at Cinequest at the documentary Paul & Trisha – The Art of Fluidity.

Beside me is a real life artist, Paul/Trisha. They make an actual living as an artist. Has worked with Peter Gabriel. And was fun to talk with, and have a drink with. (Well, I kinda sidled up to Paul/Trisha’s little gang, and the movie theater had a bar, and I got a tasty mojito.) One of the big perks of Cinequest is meeting artistic people.

Paul/Trisha asked me how often I write (because naturally, I shared that I write about Super Holly). And I said not often enough. Later, I thought I’d offer advice on joining writer clubs, a critique group, etc. But at our next meeting, Paul/Trisha told me about a script for a series they had written, and the totally cool central idea that could springboard lotsa stories! I realized there was nothing I could teach them as they told me some of those story ideas. An artist and a writer. Two artists in one body.

I had to tell Paul/Trisaha that two minds in one body is a common theme in comic books. I will be using it with my upcoming rootin’-tootin super-cowgirl, Laura Shrub. There is the famous X-Men cartoon where Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) and Rogue are in one body, with lotsa conflict, one of the better superhero cartoons. Paul/Trisha told me he/she are not schizophrenic. I agree alhey were friendly and even-keeled while we talked. Paul said Trisha is more adventurous, but Trisha still seemed to have her feet on the ground.

Which led to an idea for a superheroine that Paul/Trisha told me: a meek, wimpy guy transforms into a strong fearsome superwoman. She fights evil, then transforms back to the guy until evil rears its ugly head again.

Too bad I can’t use it. It clashes with a rule in my stories: No Secret Identities (done to death!). No putting on the hero persona then going back to regular life. I have to admit, this idea could lead to some wonderful slapstick.

But it goes against yet another rule in my stories. To paraphrase Wes Craven’s Swamp Thing, is that superpowers just make you more of what you already are. A trans person, upon getting superpowers, would become the gender they identify with. But a coward would not become brave. In the Catwoman movie (my review here), she is meek and mousey until she gets superpowers and then, You Go Girl! BLEH! YUCK! NO!!! In Chapter Zero for The Comic Book Code (still not finished, but you can read that chapter in my book on Amazon, Super Holly Hansson in Super Bad Hair Day), Holly Hansson  shows that she is strong and brave and a ferocious fighter before she gets superpowers. When she gets powers, she gets super-strength, becoming more of what she already is.

Paul/Trisha, thanks for the talk. You inspire me to write more. I will have a trans character that will clash with Super Holly, then helps her with her super-body issues, as only a trans drag queen insult comic can. One of these days, I will fix up that story. In the meantime, Paul/Trisha has more art to create, and I have a novelette, a new collection of short stories, and a novel to finish and publish.

Cinequest 2023 quickie reviews!

Cinequest, the San Jose film fesival, has been on for a little over a week, and I have seen lotsa indie flicks. So I will give a tiny review of them.

7000 Miles. Lotsa nice Hawaii scenery, good performances. But (spoiler alert) I know what happened to Amelia Earhart: she was kidnapped by aliens and transported to the Delta Quadrant of out galaxy. Hey, woudl they have shown that on Star Trek Voyager if it wasn’t true?

Billion Dollar Babies. An informative documentary about the Cabbage Patch Kids. Entertaining, and it does not take the route of making good guys and bad guys, it just lays out what happened. I enjoyed it, but I think that the Cabbage Patch guy suing the Garbage Pail Kids was just plain silly, and shows what he really thinks of free speech. Parody is protected speech, dude!

Bobcat Moretti. Rocky with M.S. Well done, a great underdog story. I meet the filmmaker and told him I liked it a lot. I asked him how much he knew about boxing because my character Super Holly fights like a boxer. He said not much, but he learned for the movie. The lead actor starts out very portly, and slims down a lot later int he flick. That is the actor really getting into the craft.

Breakwater. This was hyped a lot by the Cinequest announcers, so I saw it. It was very good, great performances, especially by the villain. And it does very good setup-and-payoff that involves breath-holding.

Brothers Broken. Hey, Scientology, you do the physically impossible. You both suck and blow, I ever tell you that? A documentary about a guy who lead a 60’s rock band, joined Scientology, and thus flushed the band down the toilet. But he finally left the cult and reunited with his brother, although his wife and two kids are still in it, and I am glad I do not know where they are or I’d wanna show how I crack open three nuts by knocking them together. I have to write a Super Holly short story that involves some type of cult, and Holly blowing her top when the leader makes a big mistake by calling Super Holly something you should never, ever, EVER call her. And South Park was right about Scientology, how can anyone with an I.Q. above the melting point of helium fall for that crap that makes bad 1950’s sci-fi movies look good?

Daddy. Supposed to be sci-fi, but it had no special effects, just four guys being jerky guys. Kind of like Friends, but stretched to about 90 minutes. Shoulda done more.

Danny goes Aum. More great scenery, and a writer protagonist (I am a sucker for that, gee, I wonder why), and two wonderful lady actresses.

Egghead and Twinkie. The teen girl protagonist is mart but flawed. A cartoonist. and I love that! And she is queer, sho it will raise Rethuglican blood pressure, and that is always a good thing. Fun and bouncy and happy and tugs at the heartstrings.

Fresh Kills. The premier night movie. About the women in the crime family. Good performances, good story, but I think a flaw is that the women in those families do not move the story, they are moved by the story.

Good Egg. Fun and silly. Fast action and goofy characters.

How to Ruin the Holidays. Yet another dysfunctional family at Christmas story. But the characters are fun, especially the special needs guy played by a special needs actor, who seems to know that a lot of acting is in the face. (Note: My good clone Henry was not as impressed.)

Hundreds of Beavers. My fave so far! THIS! IS!! BONKERS!!! In the best possible way. A live-action Tex Avery / Chuck Jones cartoon. Animals played by people in cheap animal suits. Almost no dialog, lots of pantomime, a schlub of a Wile E. Coyote who never-give-up fights his way to becoming the toughest trapper in the north. And did I say this is BONKERS?!?! The most daring movie I saw so far. Playing again Friday Aug 25. FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN!!!!

Kaymak. I have said that when a movie or film short start with a scene of city, country, whatever and the music is one long sad violin note, you are in for a sad time. 90 minutes of my life I will not get back. Even two nude hot babes making out did not save this.

Passenger C. True story made by the guy who had this event happen to him, and he portrays himself warts and all. A feel good movie about a real life event, well acted and well told. It was in black and white, which fit the tone of the flick so well it took me a long time to notice. When so many movies have the hero leap in and macho-male-bash the nasty person, this turns that on its head. Very refreshing!

Share? The sci-fi trope of being trapped in a room and how to deal with it. An ambiguous ending that fits. I asked the filmmaker if the protagonist was free, relating that to Number 6 in the last episode of the Prisoner (Patrick McGoohan said, “He’s not free.”)

Shorts: Animated Worlds. Lotsa good shorts. MY fave: Odd Dog, about a cat that acts like a dog.

Shorts: MIndbenders. I love this set of shorts, although I usually see it at 11pm, and this was at noon. Fave: Fudgie Freddie. Lesson: if you do crowd funding, do not let the finders tell you what to do with your art. Ever. the consequences can melt your art… and more.

Shorts: Something Funny. Comedy shorts. My fave: FANATIC. A tribute to the one-hit wonders of the world.

Sometimes I think About Dying. Stars Daisy Ridley of Star Wars. Here, she plays a sad social misfit, and so much of her performance is her saying nothing but putting it all in her sad deadpan face, and she will tear your heart out. Normally I detest long silent scenes of the protagonist staring, or sitting, or laying on the floor or ground, but those scenes really work so well here. And they did not need any lightsabres. Daisy is a really good actress.

The Grotto. It is all int he characters. Even the character who is never seen, and who cheats on a woman AND a man. A protagonist you root for a lot.

Tomorrow. Okay. A girl wakes up in other bodies and other parallel universes every time she sleeps. And we do not know why. Neither does she. And she starts to forget who she really is. SO if she does not remember hersefl, and she leaps from life to life, and can do nothing to try to get home, and forgets about herself and her home, then I am reminded of the saying, “A difference that makes no difference is no difference.” Oh, and when she decides to jump off a building, um, doesn’t she know that will hurt the body she is renting? the original owner will not be happy about losing that security deposit. Interesting characters, but zero story arc.

Wintertide. The lady protagonist sucks something out of her friends and neighbors in her dreams, you know she is sucking by the loud sucky sound she makes when she is sucking. The danger of making the protagonist unsympathetic is that you might succeed.