It started as a convenience. I needed a name and back story for a one off character. As a place holder, I borrowed from one of my favorite movies, The Money Pit. I watched this movie hundreds of times when I was kid and the minute I found it on DVD I bought it. It still makes me laugh. In the end I did not change the text as a tribute to this beloved film.

I find that as I write, words and images from my favorite movies, books, and TV shows will pop up out of nowhere. So for fun I build them into the fabric of my world. It has become a sort of game to see what I can get in there and still make it work.

So for your amusement, below are a few of the Easter eggs from Trespassing.

-Chapter 1, section 3 we get a quick background on Walter Fielding, a newly retained host. As mentioned above, The Money Pit is the source for Walter’s name, wife’s name, location and vocation.

-Top of Chapter 2. “How not to be seen” is a reference to a Monty Python sketch.

-In Chapter 3 the IT room they are in is “room 101”. (I actually use this in Linchpin too, but it’s a conference room.) Room 101 is from George Orwell’s book, 1984 and is a place of personal nightmares. By using this reference I am attempting a subconscious connection to how the characters think about this space.

-Chapter 6, section 5 I had Korben Dallas from The Fifth Element in mind when it came down to making one person question if the safety on the gun is on or off.

-End of Chapter 10 my villain borrows a line from Darth Vader in Empire Strikes Back. When Vader and Boba Fett are discussing the condition of carbon freezing Han Solo. You’ll know when you read it.

 -Chapter 12, Lysandra is trapped inside a mini-theater. This setting was inspired by a recent visit to Castro Theater here in San Francisco.

The amazing thing about this, is that the theater is in her own head. Not two days after I wrote the scene I was reading a book about human consciousness and was introduced to the concept of the Cartesian Theater. Check it out, it’s a trip.

-At the end of Chapter 16 I let Lysanda quote Princess Leia from Return of Jedi.


I have a few others, mostly names of people I know. There may be others moments and dialogue too, but if you read something that seems familiar it just might be for a reason.

In the same vein, there are five names on the DPA website that I used to pay homage to some of my favorite things. If you figure them all out, let me know and no Googling them! All the answers must come from your amazing brain alone.

I didn't really have anyone in mind for Draegg until Almost Human came out. Michael Ealy's portrayal on that show of Dorian's quiet dignity and unflappable temperament reminds me of Draegg. Eriksson's and Draegg's relationship is similar to Detective Kennex and Dorian's but it plays out differently. Not to mention it would be a great excuse to get these two together again. Of course, Mr. Ealy is much younger than Draegg so they will have age him for part. They had the best partner chemistry I have seen in a long time and losing Almost Human is another travesty to added to the ongoing list of Fox's poor decision making, but I digress.

Next Time: Lysandra and Matt

Let's start with why we go to the movies. For me, I go to escape, to live vicariously in another person's world. I want to be enthralled, whether by people or places and both if possible.

Jupiter Ascending does that. It's beautiful, full of inter planetary imagery. The world is huge and interesting. Intergalactic commerce and power plays. It reminded of the Roman Empire. 

And that is the problem with it. Try taking the entire history of the Roman Empire and cramming it to a two hour movie. There is a lot of good material to explore and work with but the ambition of trying to get it all in now makes the whole endeavor cumbersome.

There are plenty of articles and reviews going around about what went wrong with this one and about the Wachowskis story telling technique but I return to why go to a movie at all. If you want a philosophical mind bender like The Matrix, this is not the movie. Deep character development, nope, not here either. Distraction, absolutely. Immense mind blowing fight scenes, check. Aliens, costumes, and grandeur, you should go.

Set your expectations right and you'll get what you pay for.

A FAQ to writers is where do ideas for stories come from? For me, characters or situations just appear in my mind one day and maybe I write a paragraph or a page and then it gets filed away. A few years later I find what I wrote and start where I left off.

That is what happened in the case of my upcoming book, Linchpin. I saw a little boy and I wrote a whole page of his thoughts that has become the opening, you can read right now over on the other page. The little boy is Jyot and I was editing a scene with him in it when he says, “I like him too.” I heard that line in my head exactly as it is spoken by another character from one of my favorite movies, Alexandra from The Fall.  When I wrote that line, I knew for sure that Tarsem Sigh’s beautiful film was the inspiration of my story.

In 2008 I discovered Taresm’s movie and bought it promptly. I think I watched it daily for the better half of a month. While it was filmed in several locations all over the world, most of them were in Rajasthan, India. The landscape of that film is what I saw in my mind when Jyot first appeared. Jyot and Alexandra are very different people in very different circumstances but they are both extremely likeable and the adults that come across their path are forever changed.

After that, I did my usual thing which is to follow the characters around and record what they do. I am convinced that if I had not seen that movie, I would not be writing the story that I am today. Which is fine, there are limitless ideas in the universe but I am really happy with the story I have and grateful that my imagination took the leap it did from such a wonderful source.

Activity: Google Image-The Fall Tarsem Singh. Beautiful.

Contains spoilers, read at your own risk.

Transformers: Age of Extinction is not the worst one so far. That title still belongs to Revenge of the Fallen.

Look, let’s just decide right now that Transformers movies can only be judged against other Transformer movies. At most you can only compare Transformer movies against other Michael Bay movies. Feel better now?

Having said that, this is my biggest beef with TF4. It feels the same as all the other ones. Lots of explosions, drawn out fight sequences, car chases, and stupid humor.  Now if that is what you are looking for great, Michael Bay is the director of your dreams. Time for a change Mr. Bay. Me? I want giant robots interacting with other giant robots, and not strictly with return fire and laser swords. One review I read said, just watch one of the others and I think that is true. As I sat through the movie I was mostly bored.

Other issues. What the heck with the Lockdown’s ship being an Autobot vessel with a Latin name no one is quite sure what it’s called? Lockdown mentions that Optimus makes #9. 9 of what? Primes? What’s with Sword in the Stone imagery? Optimus tells the Dinobots they’re free and they wander off into the Chinese countryside. Does anyone else have a problem with that? And then there is the overabundance of humans. No one goes to a movie about giant robots to see humans, period.

The only redeeming value of TF4 is the promises it makes about the next one. The last image is of Optimus leaving earth to literally go meet his makers. Will this be The Quintessons, Primus, or Unicron? Such action also leads me to believe, hope and pray that the next one will not be on earth. Optimus has the seed, which we all know is the Key to Vector Sigma (from the episode of the same name), so there is hope of a new world for them. And then there is the mystery of Lockdown blowing up Autobots and taking their Spark chambers. As long as the Spark is intact then those robots just need new bodies. So what's he saving them for, the makers? Are those on the ship, who has the ship, the Autobots or the humans?

If I had to pick a favorite I will stick with TF3: Dark Side of the Moon because it is the one most based on the original cartoon series. The core of the plot was derived from “The Ultimate Doom” in which Megatron successfully transports Cybertron into Earth’s orbit to harness the energy that is created from all the natural disasters that happen as a result of such a crazy act. Dark Side also has a nod to “Atlantis Arise” where the Decpticons take over Washington DC. TF4 was based off of The Key to Vector Sigma which Megatron uses the key to convert Earth into new Cybertron, but is of course thwarted.

I liked what they did with Galvatron and I loved Bingbing Li's character. Otherwise my overall feeling about Age of Extinctions is: Meh.

I keep all my movie tickets and use them as time stamps for my scrapbooks. In one scrapbook I decided to write reviews. Some of them are pretty funny so I decided to share them with the interweb. There are a lot so I have given you only the best ones, copied exactly as I wrote them.

    “War of the Worlds”
A good, modern adaption of a classic. It’s a little sappy on the family heartache blah, blah, blah. The scariest part is the horrid noise the machines make.  Even with crazy Cruise as the star, it’s stiall a great summer blackbuster. Go Steven Spielberg.

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    “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”
Star power could not save this movie. Unhappy people with guns should have never gotten married. It was a desperate hour that brought me to this theater.

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     “Brothers Grimm”
What starts as a good idea ends in a stupid screenplay (see Waterworld.) Oddly, I still have an unexplained interest in seeing it again. Those sneaky expectations win again.

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     “Wallace and Gromitt”
The land of our forefathers has mostly terrible food but this is made up for by their sense of humor. W & G deserve our fullest attention and all our devotion that could possibly be commanded by the extensive use of Playdo.

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    “Legend of Zorro”
“America’s first superhero.” Played by people who aren’t even citizens. As far as sequels go, not bad at all. It’s fun and has a good soundtrack. Sword fights and outrageous stunts, where’s the popcorn.

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    “Chicken Little”
How can you resist that over sized head? You can’t! Give in to the power of Disney just this one more time. No songs, so that’s a plus. The end took me by surprise and I like that. I wouldn’t buy it but it’s worth renting.

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    “King Kong”
Over advertised and over the op in the way Hollywood could do it. And three hours of your life. And yet...I love it. The dinosaur stampeded is one of the most amazing things I ever saw. If you have the chance to see it on the big screen, do.

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    “Aeon Flux”
BRILLANT is the light of the sun
ASTOUNDING is the diversity of life on Earth
OUR MOST VALUABLE ASSET, any corporation about their customer base.
Duped again. I didn’t like the cartoon WHY would I like the movie. Damn you marketing department.

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    “X-Men 3”
Totally different from the previous two with the bonus of killing off the most annoying X-Man of the whole lot to boot. The total destruction of the Golden Gate Bridge. Awesome.

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    “Nacho Libre”
A crushing disappointment om the theater but as a DVD it outshines the competition. Like a good cheese that ages well, tastes better, and smells stronger.  Breathe it in! “Get that corn outta my face!”

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    “Pirates of the Caribbean 2”
What can I say about the year’s highest grossing sequel? If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. So...

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    “Children of Men”
Gently set this book down and go rent this movie. It makes you think and it’s really awesome. Great cast and amazing story line. When you’re done go read “Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood.

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    “Pirates of the Caribbean 3”
Another victim of its own immensity. Somehow better than the second one. A few good twists, but some really unneeded antics. Johnny is awesome but do we really needs multiples of him? Not as Jack.

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    “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer”
Also known as “The slightly better Four.” With all the introductions cut out, the second one tends to be more interesting. Or at least slightly more interesting.

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    “I Am Legend”
Intense!
I needed a good laugh after all of that, man. Weird God theme, but highly entertaining. Do not watch its predecessor “Omega Man.” This is the good one.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“I’ll write more about I Am Legend next time. There you go. I hope you enjoyed this little trip back to the past.

Maybe it's predictable what today's post would be about but I don't care. It was this or Ender's Game. One word....

He's grumpy. He's arrogant. And he thinks humans are dumb, but I love him anyways. I didn't always like him. His character has grown on me as he's evolved. It will be interesting to see how Michael Bay ruins him. While most of MB's designs lack uniqueness I do like what they've done with him. I know I shouldn't be excited but I can't help it.

PREDICTION: Most likely Bay will use the Dinobots as a brute squad so there won't be much talking. Which is unfortunate. Will there be nod to Jurassic Park, Day of the Dinosaurs? Hmm...