Two Weeks April 24, 2009
Posted by Katie Oh in : Such As , add a commentThere was a dilemma with Chris Brown: he, apparently, liked both Taerica and Leiashia and couldn’t make up his mind.
I miss playing dress-up and make believe; so I sat in the “house area” of the classroom and listened to the drama arising. Chris Brown kept calling the house to talk to both of them. At one point, he was arrested, then sent to jail, then got out. I told them Chris Brown wasn’t worth sticking around for if he couldn’t make up his mind: not what I wanted to say (“Chris Brown can be a very mean man and has hurt women before, be careful”) but still a tidbit of wisdom. They were wearing high heels too big for their feet and kept sliding across the floor instead of walking. Make-believe-world.
And today was just too, too beautiful. Friday Forum was a good one: Doug Anderson and Michael Kimball were both intensely interesting people and quite good writers with excellent answers. Then a picnic on the lawn with what Adrian and I decided was a band that had spontaneously formed just for the day: a glockenspiel, violin, tambourine, and two guitars. We ate hot dogs in a sunny patch of grass and afterward, Jenny and I got chocolate milkshakes. It was 70 out and I put on a pair of sunglasses.
It doesn’t feel like the end of the semester. I feel like I have another month left or something: something feels weird. Or maybe this is supposed to be the way it feels. Like there’s not an end: a short break, and back again. Not so segmented. Hmm. Perhaps.
Monday, I am going to see Martha Stewart give a lecture at Pratt about turning one’s artistic ideas into a business. She’s one of my idols in that way that she’s doing what she loves and yet is savvy enough to be immensely successful. I am excited.
A Revision April 24, 2009
Posted by Katie Oh in : Such As , add a commentSo, two more episodes, and, I must say, I totally retract my flip-floppy review.
This television show: you need to be watching it.
Seriously, a crime drama hasn’t been like this in a damn long time. Obviously, it’s not trying to be Law and Order; it’s certainly not a procedural. It’s not a CSI. Sure, the crimes themselves do that lovely thing where they wrap up by the end of the hour, but it’s not about the crimes; it’s about the characters. Little details like the squad moving the egomaniac cop’s desk into the holding cell: he returns, is flabbergasted as to why his desk is in the cell and a suspect is sitting in it and, as the camera re-focuses on another conversation in the room, the cop and the suspect play tug-of-war with the desk. Writers, fabulous.
This retraction of the flippy-floppy review may or may not have been influenced by the following: a mention of Myrtle Ave, the use of Cat Power’s “Metal Heart” in a scene, the idea of a “stakeout date” (where a cop meets their significant other at a restaurant near the site of a long stakeout), the handlebar moustache that Delahoy sports, Terry Kinney joining the ranks of bald supervisors of police squads, Amber Tamblyn’s awesome hair, and/or Harold Perrineau being my new television crush.
Watch The Unusuals on Wednesday nights at 10 PM, or you can catch up, as of this posting, with all four episodes at abc.com.
The Unusuals April 20, 2009
Posted by Katie Oh in : Such As , add a commentI’m going to try something new here at KatieOh.com, and maybe write some reviews of things. Television, concerts, music, movies… what have you.
So, first up: The Unusuals.
ABC’s website has this to say about the show:
Like a modern-day M*A*S*H, The Unusuals explores both the grounded drama and comic insanity of the world of New York City police detectives, where every cop has a secret. It also helps to have a twisted sense of humor, since every day could be your last.
The first five minutes of the pilot introduce us to Detective Casey Shraeger (Amber Tamblyn), a tough-girl cop who’s secretly a trust fun baby, who is working undercover as a hooker. A car pulls over next to her and the driver informs her she is being reassigned, effective immediately, to the 2nd Precinct. This is Seargeant Harvey Brown (Terry Kinney), who shows up a disappointingly small amount in the series. Shraeger is being reassigned, she is told, so she can help investigate the murder of the previous partner of the vaguely-mysterious Detective Jason Walsh (Jeremy Renner), who owns a diner that he only opens for a few hours every night, with no actual staff.
The rest of the cast of characters include Detective Leo Banks (Harold Perrineau), a man who’s terrified of dying at 42 (his current age) like the rest of the men in his family, Detective Eric Delahoy (Adam Goldberg), who is unafraid of death since being diagnosed with a brain tumor, Detective Henry Cole (Joshua Close), a born-again Christian, Detective Eddie Alvarez (Kai Lennox), the obligatory egomaniac cop, and Detective Allison Beaumont (Monique Gabriela Curnen), who appears to be there solely as the other hot lady cop that’s essential in crime dramas.
So, an ensemble cast. Now, as many of you will recall, I have recently been obsessed with Oz, HBO’s first drama and a magnificent piece of television with a brilliant ensemble cast. It also does not help The Unusuals that two ex-Oz actors (Kinney, who was Tim McManus, Oz’s unit supervisor, and Perrineau, who was Augustus Hill, the brilliant narrator and and murderer in Emerald City) are in their ranks because, frankly, I’m rather disappointed.
Given, it’s only two episodes in. But these characters still seem like charicatures of themselves. The born-again Christian, the cop afraid of death, the guy with the well-kept secret, the rich girl trying to make it in a tough profession, the hot one, the egomaniac: I’ve seen these people before, perhaps never in one television show, but I’ve seen them done over and over again regardless. There are some incredible acting chops in this program, so it may help to overcome that, but I’m afraid that, by the time the actors are able to get into their roles, the audience will be bored and have moved on to a new program.
What kills me especially about The Unusuals is that it has such a brilliant set-up: a return to the comedy found in law enforcement. The guy in the hot dog costume that holds up a bank, the guy who serial kills cats: these people are Unusual. And, if a touch better-written, could be quite funny. (Writers, that means let go of the obligatory puns, please.)
The problem is that the Unusual detectives have to compete for screen time with the Unusual crimes, and due to all this Unusual all over the place, it falls flat as a whole with under-development.
However, I do see a bit of promise with this show, primarily from this exchange between Shraeger and Walsh in the most recent episode:
Shraeger: I think it’s time we have the conversation.
Walsh: Conversation?
Shraeger: The “porn stash” conversation.
Walsh: Big porn fan, are you?
Shraeger: No, like. Listen, the “what do we do if something happens” conversation. When Kowalski died, you went straight to his locker and you got rid of all his contraband.
Walsh: We’ve been partners a week, you thinkin’ about me dying?
Shraeger: What, is it too early?
Walsh: I suppose not. All right. So, what d’ya got, drugs, guns, Nazi plate under the bed?
Shraeger: No. I have a diary that I wouldn’t want anyone to read.
Walsh: A diary. “Davis was mean to me today,” that kind of thing?
Shraeger: No. Sexual. Stories… about me. Y’know.
Walsh: Fine, where is it?
Shraeger: It’s in a lock box in my closet. All right.
Walsh: (turns to leave)
Shraeger: No, what about you?
Walsh: What about me? What am I hiding? What do you think, Casey?
Shraeger: Look, I don’t figure you as the sexual deviant type or… (studies him for a moment) I know what it is. You write poetry.
Walsh: (smirks) You’re good.
So far, I’d have to say my rating of The Unsuals is 3 cupcakes out of a possible 5. I have my fingers crossed for this show, though, if they work out the kinks with the writing.
Born to Run April 18, 2009
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It’s just a good day for the Boss.
I’ll love you with all the madness in my soul
Someday girl, I don’t know when, we’re gonna get to that place
Where we really want to go and we’ll walk in the sun
But till then, tramps like us, baby, we were born to run
To My Knees April 16, 2009
Posted by Katie Oh in : Such As , add a commentAnd, oh, perhaps I am pretentious, but today my professor told me he couldn’t see me in the pieces I had turned in and I nearly wept. I know it is just these pieces, because I have been told on several occasions that I come through in my writing, but goodness, I nearly packed my bag and headed back to Pittsburgh just then.
Amanda and I picked our room: 305 Willoughby. She is going to paint a portrait of me. I am going to read her my words.
I have yet to actually cry after a critique, but I suspect it may come soon. It’s not that I have enough faith in the pieces that it’s heartbreaking to hear that people don’t like them; it’s just the knowledge that oh, goodness, I just have so far to go. It is what I am here for.
Eric Rosenblum (who, by the way, was attempting to describe a scene in a story in workshop that involved a woman shaving her pubic hair and used the word “genitailia” and we were all giggling, even him) gave us an essay by Amy Hempel to read. In it, she describes being in Gordon Lish’s workshop at Columbia.
She says this:
There is one last thing on this subject of How Hard. Lish says you must have a deep sense of how hard a job it is in order to have a shot at greatness, so that you are not satisfied too easily. Which is why, when one of our number says that it is too hard and she is going to quit, Lish says, Now.
“Now you are ready to begin.”
Two Awesome Things April 14, 2009
Posted by Katie Oh in : Such As , add a comment1: ABC has a new show called “The Unusuals.” It’s a crime show about the NYC police unit that deals with crimes that are, well, unusual. For example, in the opening episode: a crime committed by a man wearing a hot dog suit, and a serial killer… who murders cats. So, whatever, interesting setup. [I won't go into a full review here, though I have a lot to say about it.] BUT! Parts were filmed in Fort Greene! There were no street signs shown, but as the characters were walking past a pole, it had one of those “Fort Greene Historical District” signs at the top. AWESOME.
2: Today I sat next to one of the actors from Oz on the subway. I about peed myself. AWESOME.
The Plight of the Artist April 13, 2009
Posted by Katie Oh in : Such As , 1 comment so farDisclosure: This may make me sound like a pretentious jerk. Frankly, I’m irritated enough to not care.
I am studying writing. My peers, who are good writers, assure me that I am not the worst person in the world at this. My work has been published. I am fairly certain I am going to be able to make this a career.
That being said: I am sick of this trend. This trend being the comment or message from someone who had no real interest in writing before saying “oh, I’ve been writing recently too! Look!” followed by said writing being awful. This is often coupled with a “oh, I’m not very good at this! It’s probably awful!” And yet, you posted it on the internet, of all places.
Let me ask you this: what about the arts makes everyone think “I can do it, too!”? I would never “dabble” in surgery. I couldn’t practice law “on the side” or sneak away at night for my second job as a nuclear physicist.
I have a theory: it is the things we are taught to do young. We write. We draw with crayons. We fingerpaint. People make a living doing this, right? I can, too!
No, you can’t. If I am reading your work and your characters are muttering, sighing, and bellowing sharply, deeply, and coyly, you are doing it wrong. Just because you can use a thesaurus doesn’t mean you’re actually good at stringing words together. If your story ends in sunshine and rainbows, I will vomit a little in my mouth. I actually brainstormed it and cannot think of one good story or book that ends with everything being “okay.” Perhaps Anthem, but that’s a character escaping from an oppressive world into an uncertain one. Or maybe To Kill A Mockingbird, but even then, it’s not exactly happy, what with Atticus’ client being killed and the elder Ewell trying to kill Scout. Even if things end up “all right,” traumatic things and weird twists have led to this “all right” state of being.
This isn’t just writing, though I thought I’d start with that for a prep. These days, everyone’s a photographer. It’s kind of unfortunate and scary on some level, the ease with which people can pick up a digital camera and photoshop and suddenly are “artists” in their own mind. My friend, do you know what an enlarger is? Do you know how to develop photographs from film directly? No? And you’re a photographer?
Of course, this is not to say that there can’t be artists hidden in every day people. Clarence Darrow, for a time, shared an office with an unsuccessful lawyer by the name of Edgar Lee Masters. That lawyer, on the side, wrote The Spoon River Anthology. And this is also not to say that some widely-accepted “artists” aren’t bad, but I would reckon that more often than not, they are openly criticized for it. See my unabashed over-used example of Stephanie Meyer.
To bring it back around, I suppose I just get upset when people declare they are “making art” and then it turns out bad and they don’t seem to realize it. I’m devoting my life to this. I am sitting here, having spent hours [no, seriously, hours] just thinking of the correct way to phrase things in this blog post. If I were to clock how long it takes me to write a short story, including the editing process, to get it to where I’m not ashamed of it for looking “amateurish” it would probably be no less than 20 hours. And that’s for something that’s maybe 5, 6,000 words. You word-vomit this thing onto the internet and expect me to pat you on the back for it? I don’t think so. I’m concerned that you don’t think it’s bad and, perhaps even worse, you think I will give you some sort of positive reaction for it when I just spent a whole semester working towards writing a piece that is only half-good by my own standards.
If you need me, I’ll be working on my freelance project. It’s a cure for the common cold, which involves a mixture of honey and arsenic. I’m thinking of applying for a patent because, y’know, I can do it too!