- Whenever I (legally) drive through a yellow light it makes me think of Back to the Future and how difficult it would logistically be to time driving through a lightning strike with such precision.
- Read a cool short story called “The Variant” by John August. Well worth the 99 cent price tag. And without giving too much away, it’s definitely on-topic for this blog.
- The Quantum Leap Fanfilm “A Leap to Di For” I referenced after the QL convention is now streaming online for free. Check it out at Racso Films. (No full screen option on the site. If you want full screen, try opening this .FLV link in a standalone player such as VLC.)
Ramblings III
June 27th, 2009Another Man’s DG
June 18th, 2009While walking the dog I had a random thought: Why did I use “Local Boy Done Good” instead of “Local Boy Done Gone” in TP?
This question came out of nowhere. There was no internal debate over the name of Local Boy or his album during the writing phase. I honestly don’t remember any distinct inspiration. It had a nice rhythm, the LBDG letters looked and sounded good together, and that was that. But now that this new “Done Gone” thing had entered my head I couldn’t shake it, leading to this chain of revisionist history…
- One of the songs the narrator taught Local Boy in the past could have been “Another Man’s Done Gone” from the Billy Bragg & Wilco collaboration Mermaid Avenue.
- The “DG” in the LBDG album found in the record store would link back to that reference.
- In the Local Boy recap chapter, LB could be wrapped up in the mild controversy between Woody Guthrie’s estate and Bob Dylan over the rights to Woody’s leftover lyrics, leaving the narrator in a bit of hot water for “borrowing” a song that he considered to be “from the future” which had actually been written but unreleased in the past.
- And best of all, it would set up an awesome title for a career spanning box set: Local Boy Done Gone Called It Quits Live At The Coverville Barnstormer.
(Confused? Refresh your memory on the adventures of Local Boy in Chapters 15 through 17 of Timely Persuasion either online, in paperback, or on the Amazon Kindle.)
What happened happened, and all things considered I’m fine with the Local Boy Done Good album title. But what might have been if I fully explored the above thread? I leave you with this:
So when you think of me, if and when you do
Just say, “Well, another man’s done gone”
Similarities
June 6th, 2009Just got back from a trip to Hawaii where I got quite a bit of reading and writing done. Oddly enough, the last 3 books I’ve read bore some interesting similarities to Timely Persuasion.
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Set in an alternate universe of the far future, the novel introduces the concept of the Hylaean Theoric World. Without giving too much away, the HTW is essentially a group of other parallel worlds. Within these worlds exist alternate versions of yourself, and certain people are able to subconsciously communicate with their parallel counterparts. This is somewhat similar to the “message from your future self” time travel theory in TP.
Lowboy by John Wray
Another novel set in a not so distant future, this one’s similarity to TP is a bit more of a stretch. The title character of Lowboy has an occasional tendency to speak in song lyrics. Although it doesn’t approach the level of lyrical Tourette’s the narrator of Timely Persuasion has, discovering another literary lyric speaker was neat.
The Ghost In Love by Jonathan Carroll
My wife made me read this. She had read it 3 times in a row and then read it a fourth over my shoulder. And it really is that good. But I’m going to stick with the theme of this post and only talk about similarities to TP…
Like the HTW in Anathem, The Ghost In Love comes a little closer to TP territory with a section where a character meets all of her past selves. It both is and isn’t time travel, but I already think I’m giving too much away. Just keep Timely Persuasion in mind when you read it and you’ll know what I mean.
There’s also a hilarious rant on Neil Young that had me laughing so hard I’m going to excerpt it here:
“[A] teenager angry at her parents threw open her bedroom window, turned her stereo speakers toward the street, and blasted Neil Young’s awful song “Heart of Gold” out into the unprepared ears of the world. Even worse, precisely the part of the song where the harmonica solo comes in. … Any creature’s first orgasm introduces it to a new level of joy. Nei Young’s harmonica solo that day had exactly the opposite effect.”
How awesome is that?
As I said in the earlier post on original ideas, the point of this post isn’t at all to say that I think these other books copied me. It’s really just a fun coincidence that other authors explored similar themes or ideas in different ways. Great minds, etc.
ARG(hhh!) Again, Naturally
May 23rd, 2009Here we go again.
Back in November I wrote a post that detailed my small brush with infamy related to DarmaWantsYou.com. This week saw the stars align for another 15 minutes of fame that felt worthy of revisiting. The rough timeline:
February 29, 2008
Timely Persuasion is released. The book includes 2 hidden easter eggs into a mini-ARG. These go undiscovered for quite some time.
July 30, 2008
Kick-off of the official DharmaWantsYou ARG in between seasons 4 and 5 of Lost. I accidentally typo the site when trying to visit it and get a page not found, which inspires me to register it myself as a good samaritan. The intent was always this: “Hey, wrong site. Here’s the real one, plus a shameless plug on something that might be of mutual interest.” This sets the series of events detailed in this post into motion.
May 1, 2009
Email from GoDaddy reminding me that DarmaWantsYou.com would be expiring in July. I hadn’t touched the site since linking to my in-game Dharma questionnaire, which no longer existed since ABC took down the site of the original game. With the content now somewhat pointless I decide I’ll most likely let the registration lapse in July.
May 16, 2009
With some time on my hands for the first time in ages, I check out my website stats and notice that DarmaWantsYou was still getting 30-50 hits per day even without a “real” site to point people back to. With a little bit of traffic and a couple of months before expiration I thought it made sense to do a minor revision:
- I changed the sub-header from “Has There Been An Incursion On This Site By The Hostiles?” to “What Lies In The Shadow Of The Statue?”
- I killed the dead link to my time travel Dharma quiz from the defunct “real” game and replaced it with this:
Although Dharma is no more, there are other Initiatives…
The link points to the Timely Persuasion easter egg/mini-ARG that’s been up since the book’s launch in February of 2008. My logic was that if people were looking for an ARG I might as well point them to something similar rather than leaving them with nothing.
Traffic to study.lb-dg.com went through the roof!
May 18, 2009
Unbeknownst to me, a new Lost ARG called “Who Is Simeon Hobbes?” was on the verge of starting. (Note: This new ARG has since been revealed to be fan made and not canon. Still pretty cool though.) Someone discovers the LBDG study page with the password protected PDF and thinks it’s in-game despite the “I registered this page because of a typo” intro. It hit Twitter, and things started to skyrocket from there.
So to be clear:
- I’m not part of an official Lost ARG.
- I’m not part of this fan-made WISH? ARG; nor did I intentionally try to hijack it.
- There is a mini-ARG type thing embedded in Timely Persuasion, and the password protected PDF, the questions, and the word “Nelsonification” all tie back into the plot of the book.
- The book is pretty good if I do say so myself
Props to user Jesus_Stick at the Lostpedia forums for figuring out the nod to John Titor in the LBDG logo, and to South for catching the Carter USM references in the questionnaire. Nice work!
PS: One last note, in regards to this at the LostARG blog:
PLEASE be especially aware of the lb-dg one, it asks you to send off a questionnaire with money.
The $1 I ask for at the bottom of the PDF isn’t a scam and isn’t intended as a money making scheme. It’s actually there to discourage people from mailing the questionnaire back to the PO box, as I don’t really have a use for it. But if someone does happen to send me a buck, they will get something of equal or greater value in return.
First Impressions on Wilco (The Album)
May 14th, 2009The new Wilco record is streaming for free at the band’s official site (www.wilcoworld.net), so I thought I’d blog my early impressions. To be fair, “first” impressions in the title is a slight exaggeration; this is technically my third listen that I’m writing about.
(And in the interest of full disclosure: I’m notorious for disliking albums when I first hear them before later changing my mind and loving them, so this might be a fun post to revisit down the road.)
Track by track:
“Wilco (the song)”
I actually saw a video clip of them performing this on the Colbert Report a few weeks ago. Loved it then and love it now. Tongue in cheek love letter to fans, but a tune that’s cool, clever, and very singable. Has a Summerteeth vibe to it, which makes it the perfect track to open Wilco (the album). Plus you gotta love the parenthetical.
“Deeper Down”
One of those majestic numbers that I shrug off initially but know will enter “epic” status once I hear it live. Judgment reserved, but I suspect I’ll learn to love this song.
“One Wing”
This one I dug right away (”One wing, will never ever fly…”), plus I know it’s gonna rule in concert based on the guitar parts.
“Bull Black Nova”
With a title like that it’s the song that tempts you to cheat and skip ahead to it after reading it on the sleeve (er, Quicktime playlist…). Experimental, but very Wilco — which is what makes it cool. Might be a touch too long though.
“You And I”
The rumors of a Wilco/Feist duet proved true, though it’s more Feist on backing vocals than a true collaboration per se. Initially I was disappointed she wasn’t featured more heavily, but I’m already thinking the cameo was a better idea. And now I’m curious as to how often their touring schedules will intersect enough for them to do this live.
“You Never Know”
Eh. Nothing wrong with this song, but it just isn’t doing it for me. Though I totally would have used the “C’mon kids, you’re acting like children” line in Timely Persuasion when the mom interrupts the cribbage game had it existed at the time. (At least the slide guitar & piano part during the choruses sort of save it…)
“Country Disappeared”
Before hearing this I wonder if the title was a nod to Wilco’s early A.M. era sound. Perhaps it’s a double entendre. Song is okay albeit a little boring, though I do like the Tweedy falsetto bits in a guilty pleasure sort of way.
“Solitaire”
Lyrics that might suddenly strike me as deep one day when I’m not expecting it, but this is probably my least favorite song on the record capping off a disappointingly weak trifecta.
“I’ll Fight”
And we’re back! My early pick for favorite track. The repetitive pattern of the first verse hooked me right away, and the passion felt throughout helps carry it through. This one will go down as a Wilco classic.
“Sonny Feeling”
Another fun one, with a “Hate It Here”/”Late Greats” style of loose vibe. And you gotta love using the “Sonny” spelling in the title vs. “Sunny.”
“Everlasting Everything”
The final track is where you’re allowed/expected to go out on a different sort of note. This tune is hard to classify, but I think it delivers the goods while taking the album closer torch from “On and On and On.”
Final verdict: You can’t go wrong with new Wilco. That said, I put it somewhere between Sky Blue Sky and A Ghost is Born in the rankings, but reserve the right to change my mind.
Kindling
April 30th, 2009Timely Persuasion is now available on the Amazon Kindle for the low price of $1.99. (I figure if you shelled out $359 for a Kindle you like to read and deserve cheap content.)
Don’t have a Kindle? Kindle books can also be read on the iPhone & iPod Touch.
No new bonus lyrical references this time around, though I am kicking myself for not quoting “I never did like it all that much and one day the axe just fell” when the narrator refers to his recent layoff from a dead-end job in Chapter 1.
Even if you already own the paperback it’s still worth checking out to show off to your friends while out and about. There’s a slick image of the LBDG 8 Track in Chapter 18. Plus it might help me justify the way too many hours I spent on Kindle specific formatting. (Props to KreelanWarrior.com for the helpful post on adding a cover image and table of contents.)
And since I don’t like watching anybody make the same mistakes I made, here’s a little tip: Images resized using the “Preview” application in Mac OS X 10.5 won’t render at all on a Kindle for some reason. You need to reopen and re-save the file using a different image editing program (I eventually used Seashore) for it to work. Only took me 3 days to figure that out…
141 Parentheticals
April 23rd, 2009(Me, myself, and I actually, but what’s the difference?)
(Thank god their union never resulted in kids!)
(Or knowing I wouldn’t see them but hoping better?)
(I realize now that just because he was old wouldn’t necessarily mean he was handicapped, but that was the first thought that came to mind at the time. Ageism isn’t a quality I’m proud of, but unfortunately it’s there.)
(I was at 158, he at 161)
(And considering my lack of employment, a lot of good that did me.)
(I don’t even know what that means)
(or lack thereof)
(from an acoustic set my roommate had done on my college radio show)
(give or take)
(Driving math and bowling math are closely related.)
(let alone fire)
(The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, The Clash, and The Ramones)
(meeting Huey on the street in 1986)
(Bowlingus and his 270 game)
(Not surprisingly, as I had just walked through yet another wall.)
(Juice boxes? What’s wrong with juice boxes?)
(Including the similar shades of mediocrity post Vs….)
(and to fuel my internal Mr. Fusion)
(Well, obviously I could, but you know what I’m trying to say.)
(finalized on the second leg of the drive, from Eugene to Seattle)
(I should have figured, since that could have been any day.)
(or more accurately not taking control)
(If a tree falls…)
(and the world, for that matter)
(and wanting to verify I still had the power)
(days)
(a known fact counting the old man)
(maybe even me, I still wasn’t certain on the history)
(no effort at all in this case)
(for lack of a better term)
(the elusive better term)
15 Years
April 8th, 2009Couldn’t let today pass by without at least some sort of acknowledgment. 15 years. Wow.
Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain: Still Missed, By Kurt Loder
Also, here is my related post from 1 year ago today:
Leap Back Convention Recap
April 4th, 2009Last weekend I attended The Leap Back 20th Anniversary Quantum Leap Convention. Having never been to any type of fan convention before I didn’t really know what to expect. Here are some thoughts:
Highlights:
“A Leap To Di For”
A brand new fan-made episode of the show. I admit I was a little skeptical about this going in, but I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. The story did a good job of following the blueprint of a Season 5 “historical” leap while serving as a potential reboot or revival. There’s a great scene featuring a blue screen of death that toys with QL mythology quite nicely. And the guy who played Sam really nailed it right down to speech patterns and mannerisms. I give it a strong B+ overall.
Time Child
A work in progress Quantum Leap novel by executive producer and head writer Deborah Pratt. She read 3 or 4 chapters that told the backstory of how Sammy Jo Fuller (Sam’s daughter from the 3 part “Trilogy” episode in the final season) realizes her lineage and strives to restart Project Quantum Leap and bring her father home. Can’t wait for this to come out as a canonical story right from a primary source.
“Somewhere In The Night“
The first thing Scott Bakula did upon his arrival was perform this song live on stage with Velton Ray Bunch. Bakula wrote it for the episode “Piano Man” in the third season. It was probably the last thing I expected from this convention and thus a pretty cool surprise. And I’m still kicking myself for not making this a Local Boy tune in TP…
Fan Fiction Contest
I wrote a story for this while taking a break from my new novel Duty Calls. Came at a perfect time as I wasn’t really feeling the jury story so this gave me a new focus with a deadline. My submission was shortlisted as a top-10 finalist, but I didn’t win. (Seems I came in at #5 if this list ranks them in order, but I’m not sure.) Re-reading it a few months later I’m still proud of it which says something, thought I did notice a couple of annoying verb tense errors leftover from a last minute rewrite 
All of the finalists will be published in an e-zine in a few weeks that I’ll link to when it becomes available.
Video Tribute to Dean Stockwell
Sadly, Al had to back out of the convention about a week beforehand for personal reasons. He did phone in during one of the panels which was nice, but the half hour compilation of his best scenes they put together might have been my favorite part of the whole weekend. Which is a nice segue into…
Disappointments:
No episode screenings & minimal clips
When the preliminary schedule came out only 3 episode showings were listed. I was a little surprised since I was expecting a bit of a marathon, but these were 3 good choices (”The Pilot,” “The Leap Back,” and “Mirror Image”) and it made sense to go with the first, the last, and the convention’s namesake. Throw in some clips with commentary by the wealth of guest stars in attendance (over 50 of them) and it would be a great QL fix.
But for some reason all of these episode screenings ended up being scrapped, presumably for time when panels or auctions ran long. Aside from the aforementioned “A Leap To Di For” we didn’t see a single episode all weekend.
Clips were also few and far between. There was a nice tribute to the late Dennis Wolfberg (aka Gooshie) that compiled all of his scenes. Before each of the 6 guest star panels clips were shown from each actor’s appearance, but these clips were short and on some of the later panels they were not shown at all. A few times I had to Google actor names on my phone and share the results with people around me when we couldn’t figure out who someone was.
Perhaps my expectations were out of line, but there seemed to be a missed opportunity for more. For example there were 4 or 5 guests from the episode “Lee Harvey Oswald” present. Showing that classic ep either in its entirety or as a sequence of highlights interspersed with discussion would have been great!
Even the Stockwell tribute time-traveled around the schedule until fans (especially the ones in my row) were practically begging for it in the closing minutes of the last day. On one hand I can see how the majority of attendees probably own the DVDs and can watch the episodes whenever they want. But there’s something to be said about the camaraderie of watching your favorite show amidst hundreds of like-minded fans in one place. We got that in part during Al’s highlights, but it could have been so much more.
Too Much Non-QL Content
This was probably the part that annoyed me the most, primarily because it underscored the fact that we could have been watching episodes instead.
Sometimes it felt like I was at a Scott Bakula convention rather than a pure Quantum Leap Convention. Stories and anecdotes often meandered into Star Trek a bit too much for my liking. (I love Quantum Leap, but I loathe Trek in almost all of its incarnations.) Even the auction items were at least 40% related to other Bakula projects.
More off-topic content included a presentation on how TV shows are made that revolved around Enterprise (to be fair the guy presenting worked on both shows), a magic show (amusing at times, but the relevency is still a little lost on me aside from a season 3 episode called “The Great Spontini”), and a lengthy video presentation on Deborah Pratt’s new Vision Quest book trilogy (but I’ll give her a pass for her other contributions to the convention).
Nothing was particularly wrong or bad about any of these side events in and of themselves, but because they seemed to take away from time that could have been spent showing episodes or clips they became disappointments. I wish that the display room had a TV in it showing episodes the whole time as a compromise to my two objections.
Closing Thoughts:
But these quibbles aside, for the most part I enjoyed myself and was glad to have taken the time to reminisce about what was once my favorite show. It also lead me to have my own Quantum Leap screenings at home to re-watch some of the episodes the panelists starred in for the first time in years.
What has really stuck with me over the last week was something an audience member said before presenting a question to Bakula & Bellisario. Paraphrasing:
“Quantum Leap was my favorite show when I was 13, and to this day when I find myself in a tough situation I always ask myself ‘What would Sam Beckett do?’”
I hadn’t ever really given it much thought before, but I wonder if subconsciously I’ve done the same thing. I know Quantum Leap was directly responsible for fueling my time travel obsession and thus was a big factor in the path that brought me to Timely Persuasion. But was there more to it than that? Did watching this show religiously at an impressionable age help make me who I am today? In the words of Al the Bartender:
“The lives you’ve touched, touched others. And those lives, others! You’ve done a lot of good Sam Beckett. And you can do a lot more.”
Maybe there is a little Sam Beckett in me.
And maybe there’s a little Sam Beckett in all of us.
The Tweet Back
March 27th, 2009To date, I haven’t exactly been the model Twitter user. I have it set to automatically send tweets whenever this blog or LB-DG.com are updated (via twitterfeed), but aside from that I’ve rarely touched it.
But that’s going to change this weekend.
As my Twitter trial by fire, I’m going to post periodic thoughts and updates from The Leap Back Quantum Leap convention today, tomorrow, and Sunday.
You can follow me at twitter.com/LBDG.
Stay tuned…
