A 1940s Moon Base

Happy Thursday! How are you all? Fine, I hope? Excellent, perhaps? Effervescent? Wonderful!

Jacqi's home for a bit, so me and her and Carolyn have been hanging out and doing ridiculous stuff all week. Pan after pan of Rice Crispy treats (if I ever made a fake brand for a show, it would be called Ricey Crispoes), movie after movie, etc. We rented all sorts of things but so far we've only made it through TRANSFORMERS. And we also saw 17 AGAIN, which was good.

Speaking of TRANSFORMERS, I invented a new game. It's the connect X Hollywood person to Joss Whedon game. Like Tom Cruise. He's in TROPIC THUNDER with RDJ, who's in KISS KISS BANG BANG with Megan whoever, who's in EAGLE EYE with Shia, who's in TRANSFORMERS which was written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who wrote STAR TREK which had John Cho, who is in HAROLD AND KUMAR with Neil Patrick Harris, who's in DR. HORRIBLE, written and directed by Joss Whedon.

I think there might be a quicker one, but that was just the first route I thought up the other day.

Between hanging out with my buddies and sifting through film star trivia, I started reading WATCHMEN. I don't know if I should recommend it, because parts are a little rough for a conservative reader, but it really is all it's cracked up to be. Definitely finishing it tonight.

My favorite part is between the chapters (which were separate issues when it was first published) are various texts from within their world. At first I thought they were cute and colorful, but it's getting to the point where I'm realizing that they're actually part of the story in the sense that they contain hidden pockets of information that are key to the development of the plot overall. I mean, I thought the chapters taken from one vigilante's memoirs were just for flavor, but these last few pages from another's scrapbook put a whole new spin on an old assumption.

It's pretty fine writing.

Something I've been tossing around for a while is the idea of a sci-fi story framed by 1940s sensibilities. Not just any sci-fi will do; no, I must have a moon base AND fighting Nazis. Have you ever been to Legends? It's this sweet vintage style diner and ice cream bar, and when I'm in there all I can think about is if the memorabilia covering the walls were still current icons, and if one of WWII's battlefronts were on the moon.

One of these days, I'm gonna write it. Just you watch.

Reminds me a bit of SKY CAPTAIN, in the way that they had zeppelins docking at the top of the Empire State building and watching THE WIZARD OF OZ new in theaters at the same time. Like steam punk, but for the war era. Digging up that steam punk link linked me to retro-futurism, which is pretty much exactly what I'm thinking about. Way to pioneer a trend, Steph.

Oh, and the other thing I will attempt is a noir space western. Yes. I can do it. In fact, I just may be able to dove-tail it into my WWII moon base universe. It's gonna be awesome. It will be noir because it will be a detective story. It will be a western because the detective will be in some outpost's one-room jailhouse. It will be in space because a straight noir western would be ridiculous.

Now I just have to invent stories to fit into my settings, and I'll be good to go. Wish me luck.

-Steph