On Stanley Himself...

Stan Lee has passed away and all of comicsdom is in mourning. 

The term ''comicsdom'' never made any sense whatsoever - of course; my using it does not mean I condone it! ''Comics'' implies comedy - yet there has never been a real focus on it; not anymore, not since the 1970s, perhaps...! Comics or comic-books were called as such because they were primarily funny animal, cartoony things - in their early days. They were the simplest form of amusement. The term has been replaced, anyway - it has become FANDOM; and it adheres more strictly to FILMS now, as comic-book creatives themselves have shifted focus, considerably, from their actual niche to viewing themselves as full-fledged Hollywood people...! Publishers DC and Marvel have since relocated their offices from New York to Tinseltown. Stan Lee himself was seeing himself, in his twilight years, as a Hollywood consultant and executive producer - that says it all, does it not?

Now that we got all that baggage out of the way - this: Bill Maher, radical TV personality that he is, never hesitates to call a spade by its name. He will fearlessly tackle any politician there is - Trump, most of all, these days... Why would anyone be surprised he would be bashing Stan Lee now? 

Hell... I'll bash Stan Lee now too! 

But not for the same reasons Maher did - oh, no! 

Some feel as though Bill is biting the hand that fed him - because he made one tiny cameo in one of the damnable Marvel movies. BIG EFFIN' DEAL. Just like Garry Shandling, for example, Bill Maher was asked to appear and basically be himself - just as he is in real life (isn't that his tribune's title, too: Real Life With Bill Maher? Whatever!) but within the context of the wildly unrealistic ''Marvel Cinematic Universe'' which has been made wildly successful by sheer out of control fandom support alone! Well... Boo-hoo now, that all the Marvel Zombies out there fail to realize that, those cameos are there just to help the impossible freaks that their favorite characters are become... borderline more relatable to the real world indeed. BORDERLINE - because it can never be achieved without massive doses of suspension of disbelief - and comic relief, too. Hence, maybe, the term ''comicsdom'' is justified, even in 2018 after all... Comedy it is! But that's another story!  

Bill bashes Stan's LEGACY - which may well be to drive Hollywood completely bankrupt if the world keeps revolving around the sun - long term! (Cameron and Foster think so, too...!) 

Me... I bash Stan Lee's PHILOSOPHY. Not the core message - but its deep, inherent, totally insufferable contradiction!

Both of us make total complete abstraction of the well-known fact that Stan was a glory hound - he got credit - and took it, also- when credit was due to his collaborators: Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Buscema to name but a few... It was ''Stan Lee Presents'' all those years - when, in fact, he would simply insert some witty repartee (and it was not even witty, sometimes!) onto pre-existing artwork, detailed panel-by-panel stories already all done, really - it only missed some dialogue. For that is, and it was so admitted by all involved in the process, the ''Marvel Way'' of creating comics...

Originally, this ciphering and usurping propelled Stan onto the main spot, on top of the hill - but it was not enough for Stan Lieber, initially, thought of himself as doing this ''just for a while'' until he could launch his ''real writing career''...

And, now that he has passed, people will latch on to the basic message his stories appeared to be telling: FIGHT EVIL... but that came with a warped view of just how it could be done and, ultimately, it led to the widespread desensitization that we can witness now, in all audiences, of all ages and creeds - practically...

PAUL OF TARSUS 

said it best: 

GOOD OVERCOMES EVIL 

BY BEING GOOD 

Stan "the man" Lee 

never seemed to even know that... 

and none of those super-heroes ever did, either. 

NAD TO THE BONE!

Today is, first and foremost, 

ALL-SAINTS DAY

but wouldn't you know that, 

in some preditor's war room, somewhere, 

somewhen, there came a day when 

they had the most brilliant idea... 

(It must have been a pub-leecher's idea - 

but we digress here...) 

And that idea was to make that 

holiest -on a human level- of days 

coincide with... 

A SPECIAL DAY IN HONOR 

OF THEIR PUBLISHED 

(or, quite simply, pet) 

AUTHORS! 

AND SO WAS BORN 

NATIONAL

AUTHORS' DAY!

 Yay...! 

Of course, every author who has ever... 

well, authored... has got the sacrosanct right 

to be read... at the very least! 

(And that is when they are either critiqued 

-mercilessly- 

or appraised, lauded, elevated, 

praised and even revered 

- becoming like unto gods of literature, for some. 

Now this latter bunch is often thought of as 

the sheepish readership - but let us not 

get into that sordid aspect right now. 

Suffice it to overstate: there are writers 

and there are readers - both need to be.  

It is like in many other artistic ventures, though: 

one man's (or woman's) treasure is another's 

garbage... or vice-versa! 

The exact same line 

-dialogue or descriptive narrative- 

can be dissected both ways, in a positive light 

or a less-than-tolerant manner; 

depending on a myriad things! 

And those things range from 

the critic's mood to the zeitgeist of the day 

(the spirit of the times - yes... sigh) 

to the pub-leecher's pocketbook... 

And yet... And yet... 

Anyone who commits to unveil 

but an iota of his or her innermost self 

in writ - for the world to peruse... 

at any time, in any place... 

be it in a tell-all, a blog, a blurb, 

or a time-honored piece of fiction... 

electronically or traditionally - 

deserves to be given a shot. 

He or she deserves to be considered, also, 

*an author*

YES! 

Whether that still goes for those that 

simply give free reign to their folly - 

"committing to paper" 

(e-books are coming) 

(coming on HARD!) 

every little crazy idea they've ever had 

(every HUGE maddening thought 

that has ever crossed their mind, TOO!) 

and passing that off as ART...? 

Whether that still goes for those 

swindlers and filibusters 

that plunder the classics of yesteryear 

as they do myths and lore 

for their premises, ideas and concepts 

that are then bastardized, sullied and 

run through the modern mud...?!? 

And whether that still goes for 

the frauds, the hacks, the skanks that 

permeate the upper echelons 

EVERYWHERE in this world...??? 

Well... What do you think? 

... rrrrright. 

"Magic"... huh? 

You mean like... Harry The Potter? 

Lestat (abandoned by Anne Rice - by God's Grace!) 

Or any number of delusional scribblings 

from this crazy Brit here: 

A master scrawler, rarely matched in sheer productivity - 

his rehashing (and retooling) of several myths and legends  

have captured many minions' imaginations... 

Poor sad souls - devoid of their own 

power to imagine - and see the unseen! 

So much so that they have got to rely 

on a scavenger of make-believe 

that further blurs the line between 

myth and actual fantastic legend... 

Vivement Le Brex-Lit...! 

The GaiMan's fellow Brit (a tragic Brit we ache for; her, not him!) 

actually exposed him decades before his birth! 

For if we truly are to judge his life, mind and SOUL 

from the blasphemous, heretic, outright satanic material he has produced 

over a number of years now, first in comic-bookies then in sad excuses 

for modern literature - there can be little doubt here.  

Tolstoy was another kind soul that tended to 

idealize and edify the collective contribution 

of all quills and fountain pens that ever were... 

What a wealth of wisdom

and kindness is expressively scattered

in the books of all peoples and times

- (L.N. Tolstoy)

Now, Alice -at least- is far more honest 

about the whole operation...! 

Charles... was brutally honest, too. 

Up to a point: 

he admits madness 

but then succumbs to the vanity of it all 

by pretending to hold some form of 

exclusivity... on the soul world. 

And Max... aw, Max... 

He showers himself and his craft 

with the greatest attributes of all: 

value, worthiness, nobility -  HOLINESS! 

All the while shunning but one thing -  

earthly, ephemeral glitz, in essence! 

Yet that is what he basks in the most!!! 

Lucado... is no Luminoso. 

We would rather turn to an Henry Miller, instead: 

at least, with him, it is strictly about 

the writing experience - 

everyday life, the struggle, 

the pain, frustration and sheer agony 

that comes with this vocation - and it all 

culminated with this right here: 

a borderline blasphemous wordsmith version 

of the ten commandments - with eleven of them! 

And we all routinely bypass the very first one...

About that eleventh one: 

it boggles the mind Henry restrained himself 

and did not add all those other activities 

he routinely indulged in, in excess: 

you know what we're thinking of here... 

His wife June. Booze. Anais Nin. More booze. 

Smokes. And even more booze! 

He had provisioned for it with number 7, 

of course - making this indeed ten, 

not eleven commandments at all! 

And all the more blasphemous! 

Very well then, Barbara: 

let us catch another glimpse 

-a mere infinitesimal glimpse- 

of what that humanity is up to, 

in writ and in real, these days...

There it is, folks: 

pretty much (but not pretty at all) 

the entire bodacious body of work 

of the self-proclaimed literati "K-FLEX" here; 

she who did not hesitate to call these titles 

"classic books" that "all should get" 

on this auspicious day, 

National Authors' Day! 

NAD... I say! 

Another author who followed the age-old wisdom 

that dictates that each author should stick to 

one simple thing: "write what he knows"...  

Crusoe Dachshund is, at least, a NY Times best-selling writer 

- unlike Tariq Nasheed there... 

CD's success could be attributed to a variety 

of factors, though - none having any true literary merit. 

Vanda Denton 

is an author, true-and-true; 

and here she exemplifies perfectly well 

what a solitary journey, through and through, 

(even after publication...) the writer's life 

can and surely is meant to be... 

Others - such as David Walliams, represented here 

by an assortment of his odd-looking characters - 

will benefit from exposure, support, 

extraordinary back-up coming from 

not only pub-leechers but their cronies also - 

the pub-peddlers and other swindlers 

(can be Coles, might be Barnes & Noble too; 

Chapters... Powell's of Portlandia... Strand... 

Libreria Acqua Alta di Venice... etc!)

and, emboldened by this unwavering support, 

 they will, quite simply... 

saturate the market. 

Great going, scribes - 

pretending to give encouragement 

after that to all the neophyte 

and fledgling wordsmiths 

that are coming out of the woodwork 

will only seem like... 

patronizing hypocrisy 

- perhaps condescending too! 

No one - absolutely NO ONE - will ever be as sincere 

kind and genuine as RAY: 

you are sorely missed, Mr. Bradbury! 

You truly cared for your readers, the world at large 

and the eventual few that would follow in your footsteps. 

Science-fiction writers tend to be like that: 

they write material that warns about impending doom, 

foretelling of humanity's many mistakes, 

trying to prevent them - after all, it's a public service. 

They didn't listen much to H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, 

but more and more are heeding the words of Ray Bradbury. 

*Everybody loves Ray*

We all hope so, Diane...

For the occasion (need we remind you: 

it's NATIONAL AUTHORS' DAY - duh!) 

Westminster Abbey shared, via their Twitter, 

this shot of the memorial 

they dedicated to Mary Ann; 

not Gilligan's Mary Ann but *the* Mary Ann 

EVANS  a.k.a. "George Eliot" 

she who took the name of a man 

in order to author what is considered 

by some, as the finest literature 

in the 19th Century... 

And she did so in a time when it was 

truly necessary to do so; 

unlike JKR and her "Robert Whatsisname" 

that were, basically, but a vanity project... 

again. 

Think that's mean? 

Think again! And again and again! 

THIS is mean: 

excerpt from Creative Mischief by Dave Trott 

Somebody on Twitter found nothing better 

than THAT (above) to share 

on this "Authors' Day"... hurray, eh? 

Meanwhile, noted pub-leechers 

seized the opportunity 

(much like "K-FLEX" earlier...) 

to blow their own horn 

and flaunt their stable 

of under-contract scribes...

One example: 

HAYMARKET BOOKS.

Wow - only 3 guys... and six women! 

Seventh is up for debate... 

But anyway! 

WOW! 

How is that for turning the table on the male-dominated 

age-old tendencies... HUH? 

The publishing house's name, however, 

still makes us think of THIS: 

Nice - but not quite prestigious, hmm? 

Condé Nast Traveler 

palliates to that, no worry: 

it suggested that every single 

bookworm, book lover 

and author groupie 

follow their passion to the extreme - 

no, not by stalking the author 

but rather by visiting 

several luxurious libraries 

all over the world...! 

I don't know, folks... 

None of those places will ever match 

the power of true imagination; 

luminous imagination! 

No book ever published, already there 

collecting dust in those shelves 

will ever satiate your thirst, in truth... 

It is not that I advise against reading 

or condone any anti-book rhetoric - no! 

The best way to sell you on this 

is by showing you an example of it: 

unbound but luminous imagination, 

the kind that does not pervert ideals or ideas. 

The type of thing that inspired 

this artwork, by Yerka: 

imagining a luminous place 

the ultimate public library...  

And yes, of course - 

even the worst of books 

will open up worlds of wonder 

for its readers... 

The only question left to ponder then 

is whether any of those worlds, 

portals, doorways, dimensions 

were truly worth exploring 

in the first place...? 

And what have you neglected 

in the real world 

while indulging away 

in the one some wordsmith 

you do not even know 

fabricated for his or her own 

profit... glory... vain aspirations?

Hmm?

It's All About A... Big Break

The 2018 Big Break Regular Deadline is now open! Submit your scripts by 6/18! Are you ready for your Big Break?
Learn more here: https://t.co/rgX9OIYtmQ#scriptchat #amwriting #bigbreak pic.twitter.com/M7gMHU0ZJe

— Final Draft (@finaldraftinc) April 11, 2018

retweeted by our best pals at 

Jungle Software! 

Books - on YouTube!

and, if you look for it, 

you shall find 

THE ILIAD, THE ODYSSEY 

and OS LUSIADAS too! 

The LPP Will Let It Be...!

What a great idea it is, is it not: a Literary Pajama Party.

And now it is has been adapted into all languages, all cultures, and to benefit all sorts of worthwhile causes too.  Take, for instance, the example of this one that we've attended recently, on a still-cold-as-hell night of February: held at a venue known as the Lion D'Or...

That old-style, on the smallish side, ''traditional'' cabaret which tries, through its variety of staged shows and events, to keep the tradition of the classic cabarets of auld alive and well - well into the twenty-first century...! This ''Golden Lion'' here is achieving just that and, along with other lions to be found on this northern islet of all manners of urban pollution (and they are the Humble Lion, the one found on Mount-Royal and Lionel-Groulx college...) it is, overall, somewhat changing my opinion and views of the old Mont-Réal borough (in the British sense; all about certain special rights, eh)...!
But that's another story...

Of course, it's all in French (or Franglais - on occasion. But truth be told, this is à cent mille lieues de Sugar Sammy; fear not)

A wide selection of authors and selected quotes are read to the few, the proud, the elite that showed up on that cold night as on other such nights before: it is all fine and dandy whenever it is about local scribes' words, read in a decidedly-québécois tone, while drinks are joyfully consumed. However, when it comes to the fine citations of what few illustrious authors such as Fernando Pessoa were selected for this night, one wishes one could read the original text all by ourselves...  It doesn't matter that you don't know Portuguese;  I do... ;-)
But that's another story...

And speaking (figuratively, quite evidently - duh!) of which, it irks the pundits in the crowd (oh, my; there were so few of us there!) when they overpronounce the vowels in a name: it's Pessoa (Pessoo-a, with a barely audible ''a'' at the end; and don't anybody dare jokingly infer there's ''pissou'' in there or I... não sei o que é vou fazer...!) not Pess-ô-ah... mas que porra mesmo! Desculpa... And speaking of that - overindulging in Oscar Wilde quotes that have nothing to do with the theme of the evening, just to keep the crowd awake, interested, stimulated (...) or simply excite it (!) seems to, well, cheapen the overall purpose of the exercise (which was to generate funds for an organization that specializes in helping out the despaired and derelict on the islet in question - six months at a time. Six months/one evening - seems like nothing to deal with the calamity of a ''nation'' plagued by one of the world's highest suicide rate amongst young males, the whole world over; but, as we'll repeat further down in this piece, it is certifiably better than doing absolutely nothing at all.)

The readers, perhaps molded after or handpicked according to previous models of the sort found here and there in la Francophonie and beyond, are adequate - alas, not spectacular. One had hoped to hear something far more lively than the old Nuits de Poésie recitals... Not so. Perhaps it has a little something to do with that Québécois accent of theirs...?  To be honest, they all have it but two: Winston McQuade, it is a testament to him, bears no accent at all (not even an English one, which one might think would be the case due to his name and lineage) while Kim Thuy also adopted, for these proceedings as for her own literary well-being, an International French stance that is much in-sync with my very own...! The rest of the ''reading cast'' (see the menu below - it is all yellow! You can't miss it: though it misses the name of one David Goudreault, slam poetry specialist made in Quebec and last-minute addition...) is obviously all ''Québécois Pure Laine'' - and if, outside of the area or, even, simply off the islet, no one has any idea who is Winston (former TV host and cultural aficionado) or Kim (an author) it goes at least ten-fold for the rest of them, from Claudia to the one credited with ''the original idea'' here, Alain...  The former has been known for her love of books for the longest time; she even authors them, too. She doubles as a journalist who frequently involves herself in good deeds of the sort. The latter is a philanthropist and entrepreneur, who loves to write too. Laudable, all around (hmm... maybe we should have posted this on THAT blog instead?) but, oftentimes, such efforts go completely ignored - just as the notoriety of each reaches a negligible percentage of the masses out there...
They do say that nul n'est prophète dans son pays, however...

They still gathered all together for a good cause, which is so honorable indeed; with the entire exercise judiciously ornamented, also, by musical pauses inserted exactly at the right time: which is, basically, whenever a succession of odd quotes has been read out loud leaving the inquiring minds in the audience wondering ''why in blue heavens did they choose that over, well, millions of other possibilities, really...?''  But that's another story - yet again.

Instead of a rather mindless quote from either one of them reformed ''vagrants'' or well-known sources of witticisms in writ (Oscar Wilde, Bernard Pivot, Socrates himself) it would have perfectly been suitable here to have included actual poetry, true lyricism from former homeless men who have been ''discovered'' for their way with words and given the chance to exploit their God-given talents, at long last.  One or two very famous examples come to mind: most notably, this one right here who rose from his ashes like the proverbial phoenix after a long descent ended when he was salvaged from it by a mere passerby: maybe the name will ring a bell? It is Raimundo Arruda Sobrinho. The passerby, Shalla Monteiro, did much more than help him out for a maximum of six months as those ''intervenant(e)s'' du Tournant do; she set up a Facebook page for the man so that his poetry would get to be read not just for one night either and not only one or two lines of it, but all of it, all the time. Even the peeps behind facebookstories.com were so impressed (they have to be happy to see such kind of free publicity arise virtually out of nowhere: what a comforting thought to learn that social media, especially their brand of social media, can be used to such heights, change someone's life, all for the very best?) and the amazing story has been circulated around ever since. I cannot believe that Kim, Alain and the rest did not find a single quote from Raimundo's writings to be ''percutant'' here, and they'd rather quote Plume Latraverse and Woody Allen - three times! It is probably true, too, that the customer-base of that Tournant place is not as literally-gifted as sr Sobrinho; they have other talents that need nurturing and, within a six-month timeframe, it needs to be done FAST... There are follow-ups though. Oh well...

It is difficult to choose which siren was the most well-suited or a joy to listen to with this event, as far as the accompanying singing voices go: Coral Egan's voice is clearly the better one, however Mara Tremblay's lyrics seemed to fit the bill on another level - and not just because they were in French either. A guitarist was on hand just to play along as the readers were doing their thing: that helped immensely, at times (again, the choice of quotes was not always so judicious... Music would salvage the lost moment; often. But... we're repeating ourselves, now? That's a definite no-no for an LPP...!)

Thus, LP left the LPP a tad disillusioned with such events overall: for they are but a drop in the ocean of sorrows that they are trying to sponge out. It is, of course, better than doing nothing at all. We departed the Lion D'Or voicing our concern and wish that other, age-old charitable organizations could be so... inventive themselves. One comes to mind immediately: the KofC. Ah, if only they were so enthused to combine arts and chivalry, charity and literary wit, what a wonderful, wondrous fundraiser it could be...? But that's another story - one last ''other one'' yes! Thanks to Marie-Noelle for making us know about this soirée and listening intently, at the end of it - and to Isabelle, for pretending to listen, too! And isn't it just too bad that we missed out entirely on that backstage confessional thing, though... hmm? Maybe next time... eh? Not.

Vendredi, 07 février 2014  Au profit de l'Auberge du coeur Le Tournant PARTY PYJAMA LITTÉRAIRE  AVEC KIM THUY, CLAUDIA LAROCHELLE,  ALAIN LABONTÉ AND FRIENDS **prochains partys pyjama :  25 avril - 26 septembre**  Le vendredi 7 février  2014 à 21h au Lion d’Or à Montréal aura lieu un événement inédit : PARTY PYJAMA LITTÉRAIRE avec les auteurs Kim Thuy, Claudia Larochelle et Alain Labonté. À cette occasion, Winston McQuade,  la poète Janick Belleau,   et les chanteuses Coral  Egan et Mara Tremblay s’ajouteront à la distribution. Céline Lamontagne assurera la mise en scène. Dans une formule cabaret et une ambiance chaleureuse, ce PARTY PYJAMA LITTÉRAIRE sera un moment unique où la littérature sera à l’honneur. Vêtu d’un pyjama, un verre à la main, le public n’aura qu’à se laisser bercer. Dans des textes tantôt connus tantôt inédits, chacun se verra transporter dans l'univers de la jeunesse, de l'utopie de la différence et de la proposition de vivre autrement.  Plusieurs segments littéraires seront  enrobés par des chansons  qui nous plongeront au cœur des thèmes proposés. *Cette idée un peu folle de passer une soirée en pyjama, à découvrir des textes et de nouveaux auteurs, nous est venue il y a environ une année. Et quand on a une idée dans la tête! Laisser la voix porter les mots jusqu’à soi : N’est -ce pas apaisant et magique?  de dire Kim. *Et puisque les gens ont l’habitude de lire avant de se mettre au lit, cette fois-ci, nous nous chargerons de leur faire la lecture et de les conduire aux portes de certaines réalités qui touchent chacun de nous, très près ou de loin. Les sujets abordés les emporteront assurément dans des images émouvantes* de souligner Claudia. Une expérience unique : le confessionnal Avant le spectacle, à l’entracte, et à la fin, il sera possible, pour un don volontaire, de se présenter au confessionnal le temps d’un court texte lu et chuchoté à l’oreille. De Balzac à Bobin, de Laferrière à Mauriac,…. Un moment littéraire choisi et interprété que pour vous! *Pour chacune des soirées PARTY PYJAMA LITTÉRAIRE, les profits seront versés à une cause qui nous tient à cœur. Ici, c’est L’Auberge du cœur Le Tournant qui héritera des bénéfices. Cet événement du 7 février 2014 proposera un forfait VIP qui comprendra souper-spectacle-confessionnal et……..une paire de pantoufles en phentex tricotées par nulle autre que le Cercle des Fermières de L’Avenir. Réservez dès maintenant votre PARTY PYJAMA LITTÉRAIRE au profit de l’organisme que vous aimez* de dire Alain. Heure : 21h (portes 20h) Billetterie: spectacle seulement : 40$ en prévente par ICI ou à la porte le soir du spectacle en argent comptant Forfait VIP : Souper au Petit Extra, spectacle, pantoufles et confessionnal : 125$ en vente uniquement à l'auberge du coeur Le Tournant  http://www.aubergeletournant.org 514-523-2157