Like A Star Sneaking In Through The Cracks Of The Nighttime

It has been a very long time since I've updated or seen about the task of maintaining this blog, and now that I visit it this morning the cold, rabid bite of my last entry's timestamp reminds me of why I've been absent.

Three days after my last posting my dad died. Only now am I returning to this blog, but only with the following statements:

After having been made a Featured Blogger on Mania's website by its administrator, I've decided that this site won't be updated as often as it used to be, except in cases when it needs to serve as a failsafe site OR if I go outside the usual Mania boundaries.

Most of you already are aware that my profile and blog can be found at the following address: http://www.mania.com/StarlightGuard/blog.html

Since I'm attempting to do my part in resurrecting my fellow Maniacs' interest in the notion of blogging\reviewing\bitching I'll be focusing my attention there. Maelstrom will return one day (hopefully), Karas is thinking of pitching in her TV reviews, and maybe Bob can start sticking his You've Got Geek On You podcasts links back into the entries which have been overrun by spam as of late.

I will be checking in on this blog to test links and such just to make sure they're still active. As for my old myspace page, I'm just going to let it sit there collecting dust as it retains vital information and blogs from that era as well, but don't expect any updates there either.

Another night has fallen, another day is dawning.

And life goes on as best as it can...

Not Fade Away...

Well it seems I'm reaching a moment in life where I must step away from the computer for awhile, as I'm rejoining those who have "real jobs" in the next week or two.

If you followed me here from Mania, then you've already seen the heads up I left over there.

After another full year of promoting (again) I seem to have ran dry of contacts. I placed the calls, I sent out the letters\emails, and even sacrificed a sheep or two to the Screenwriting Gods.

They insisted, for my next sacrifice, I give them Jessica Simpson. Frankly, I think they're toying with me.

Oh yes, I must remember to thank Hanso for pointing me in the direction of the Script Shadow contest. He may not like "Twilight," but he's still a good man. The contest ends on November 9'th.

This morning I placed the logline, etc., for "Sweet Dreams" in the running. We'll see where that goes.

In the meantime, I continue to slowly work on the novel adaptation of "The Life and Times of Igor," which everyone already has heard about for the last four years or so. The link to the Mania blog entry above contains a first draft excerpt from Chapter 4 of this version.

And if anyone new believes I ripped off the idea, well just search about on here for Igor's history, and go digging into the Mania blogs from the last year or so to see the proof positive I was promoting mine long before the CGI movie came out a while back, which just proves it isn't what you know or what you can do, it's who you know and who you're sleeping with.

Not sure how often I'll be posting in the coming days\weeks, either here or at Mania, but don't sell me short as I will return. I've got blogs here, at Mania, my old Myspace account, and lots of comments in the "Twilight" and "Igor" articles over at Mania, not to mention practically everywhere else. Explore at your own pace...

Until the sun rises again kiddies...

Starlight

I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again

If you clicked on this hoping to hear the "Angus Prune Tune," well I'm sorry but ISIRTA isn't here, although the obvious reference was made in the title.

Mania blogs are, currently, down. I assume Jarrod is doing something about this, when he's not suffering from insomnia that is.

Since the entries over at Mania are far more interesting (and currently harder to find) I thought I'd just add this link to expedite the search. There's rambling opinions (such as you'd find here) sketches that parody "Twilight," declarations of why J. J. Abrams is bad for "Star Trek," and other such madness.

In the meantime, promotions continue to go out to New York, Los Angeles, and Canada.

Also, the idea of exploring the notions of how Summit Entertainment is possibly selling out the soul of "The Twilight Saga" in exchange for "man candy" is bubbling in my brain. We'll see where that goes.

Maelstrom's Trek Review

We Maniacs have our views, and we're not afraid to share them.

But, lately, it seems when we express our views, they get buried under spammer bombardment which causes a technical error after mass deletion in which all recent blog entries get archived and disappear from the main list.

As of now, the great and powerful Jarrod is working on this. Hopefully Mania Tech isn't asleep at the keyboard.

Maelstrom finally witnessed what I've referred to as "Star Trek - Non Sequitur." I say that because it does not follow "Trek," reason, the mythology, sense, Roddenberry's vision, and so on.

Another name I applied to Abram's reboot nonsense was "Star Trek Serenity Wars," as it looks (and acts) too much like everything else to maintain the name "Star Trek." The lines have been blurred...and not in a good way.

But here's the link to follow. (Caution - Some Naughty Language Is In Use Here.)

The Movie Lord Calls It "Nerdvana"

If you're in San Diego this weekend...I ENVY YOU!

A few of the guys from Mania are at Comic Con, and have been for a few days now, and we loyal readers are hearing all the news via the 'net.

In fact they were posting pictures, and some were of the opinion I was with all the screaming girls camped out in line for "New Moon."

I wasn't.

I wish I was, though.

But, fortunately for saps like me, I can still tune in G4 today to hear whatever George Lucas is going to announce (probably an even more special Special Edition DVD of "Star Wars" which will be made obsolete by the even more special Blu-Ray release which will come six months later.)

So tune in G4 if you're capable. I may even see a few Maniacs on there.

(It's always good to see people you know, even if they're bigots as displayed in "Bruno." Oh yes, a special "hello" to Lloyd Robinson, of the Suite A Management agency: it's nice to put a face to the person who didn't return my letter.)

PS - If you're missing these witty or barely interesting topics, go visit my Mania blog instead. Maelstrom has returned, and we're now poking fun of "Twilight" in much more adult terms.

And Then There Was Silence...

Okay, so it's not actually silence that'll be appearing here in the coming days, but the comparison is fair.

I continue to promote both "Sweet Dreams: A Sandman's Story" and "Summertime Blues." (If you're new to this blog, just scroll down and click the appropriate tabs on the right hand side to learn more about those stories, etc.)

Maintaining four distinct means of communication (i.e. this blog, Myspace, Facebook, and all the rants at Mania) seems to be cutting into my creative spark. Temporarily, this well is being declared dry until the next rains come.

Hey, it happens. It's happened before, it'll happen again. Just accept the dry spells because, when they end, the mind is fresh and fertile again. "Sweet Dreams" was written after one of those dry spells.

So I'm taking it upon myself to try different things. I'm picking up the novels I swore I'd read, and finishing the ones I bought a few years back but had to put them down for one reason or another.

Thank heaven for bookmarks.

I'll continue being an active commentator at Mania, but we'll just have to see how active I am.

So here's a backlog of (hopefully) interesting rambling thoughts on movies, writing, and Hollywood in general. There's also my Mania profile and 150 or so blog entries there to be examined.

I feel I should leave you with an interesting (and a bit graphic, but necessarily so) entry a fellow commentator over at Mania posted. He's a good friend of mine, and manages to cut through to the heart of the matters with naughty language and savvy observations whereas I try to use the more diplomatic and philosophical aspects of debating (read: arguing) over the state of our entertainment options in this day and age.

Please note that, as Mania is still recovering in some fashions, embedded images and other forms of coding aren't fully functional still. Our profiles aren't back to normal, and certainly the number of our profile views are wildly inaccurate. (I was nearing 14,000, Maelstrom had crossed the 19,000 mark.)

And so on...

See you in the nearest Malco Theater, kiddies. And please, don't spill your watered down drinks in my lap again.

Jarrod's Revenge

Ah, the weekly box office report at Mania.

This week's version includes a gentle ribbing from good old Jarrod.

Of course it is in response to the one I sent him the previous weekend.

Follow the links Jarrod provided and enjoy my pithy comments and his sweet, sweet revenge.

Anonymous Readers (and) Too Much Connectivity?

You have to love anonymous viewers and readers.

Apparently, in the short time I've had this little blog, the profile has been viewed like 300 times. Just when you think "no one's paying attention," you click on the profile you wrote like weeks ago for the first time and see it's quite a healthy number for such a short time.

Maelstrom is used to this over at Mania. He's at...well, I think it's over 19,000 views and it took three years to reach that.

Hanso is over 14,000 I believe, and it may have taken two or three years.

And then I had like 10,000 in something like eight or nine months.

Frankly I have no idea why - I just log in, check my profile page, and was stunned at the number. I normally don't pay attention to such things, which is why I'm surprised when I do look.

Maelstrom pointed out that readers often don't like to provide their comments or views, that they're just happy to see what's going on and leave it at that. I know it bugged the hell out of NotAFan on Mania, which is why he stopped blogging.

In other Mania news, our dear news editor Jarrod seemed awfully glad I'd returned to the usual blogging style I have over there, and we're both hoping Maelstrom himself will return soon.

I also recently joined Facebook, which will also allow me to keep up with friends I haven't seen since high school, and now I even have Jarrod on there as well.

He's a nice guy, go say hi if you come across him.

Jarrod's also another lost soul on Twitter, which makes me wonder "do we have too much connectivity?" I already had three blogs to keep up with before I joined Facebook, now I have a fourth outlet, and there's always the potential to join Twitter.

I'm not really sure I want to, but if it becomes useful in my little networking scheme of global domination then I may sign up...but not now.

The promotions continue...slowly but surely.

We'll get to Hollywood eventually...but until then, Futurama's on to keep me busy.

Everything You Could Ever Hope For...Again!

Mania blogs are back, baby!

They are a bit off the wagon, and they tend to stumble about in the dark, but at least they're back.

Now, I must say the archiving of the blogs from the past year are terribly out of whack, as they all state the year as 2009, but it's just another glitch to be solved so if you're new to this madness, just remember this: we're nuts, so it makes sense to us.

Here's how to find the past one hundred blogs or so from the previous year:

Step 1. Follow the link off to the right that says "Starlight's Mania Profile."

Step 2. Click the tab that reads BLOG

Step 3. Scroll down and to the right until you see a box that reads BLOG ARCHIVE. There will be a listing of months and the corresponding number of entries per that month.

Step 4. Click whatever you want and have a ball reading it.

Now I will state upfront that there are excerpts from "Summertime Blues," "Life and Times of Igor," "Interesting Times," and so on posted there. I did it to gauge a reaction from the maniacs who would sometimes post comments, but now all the comments (save for the main profile page) are gone.

Another note of caution, sometimes we could get a little blue, so if that offends you, keep in mind you've been notified beforehand.

In these blogs you'll encounter a lot of dead html image links as well, as image embeds somehow got knocked out.

Also, there'll be random assemblages of thoughts concerning the notions of rebooting Superman, Star Trek, and my own thoughts on how to make a third X-Files movie and a Legend of Zelda movie, a plea to bring back Maniac Mansion, and so on.

Plus there's the "Mania Christmas" lyric I composed, in honor of the holidays.

Is that all, Master Starlight?

No, Igor, there's more!

Igor afraid of that.

But what there is left to be discovered has yet to be remembered, but go explore at your own leisure.

Igor do that, Master Starlight.

Good...and, Igor?

Yes, Master Starlight?

Leave that Vanessa Hudgens movie here.

Fine.

Well, now that THAT is out of the way, and given the fact I can revisit all my old blogs that feature Igor, I can get back to work hammering out what should become of this new mini-series.

Mania Blog - "Anime: Enlighten Me Please"

As Mania is still having technical issues with all of our past blogs, and I only have one active link to one of the over one hundred lost entries, I thought I'd paste the link to the original entry here.

Some time ago, I asked for the help of several Maniacs to help me understand this phenomenon of Japanese animated culture. It's through this discussion I learned of a new favorite show of mine: "FullMetal Alchemist."

Jakester provided his naughty usual input, Maelstrom was incredibly resourceful (as usual), and MBeckham was a new, lone voice that also provided great insight as well.

So follow the link to lead you to one of our biggest discussions in recent memory.

A Disclaimer For The Uninitiated:

This is a discussion that can get naughty. In fact, it does get naughty, especially in our Comments section.

You have been warned.

PS - Ah yes, the formatting has somehow gotten screwed up in the old blog, so it's not as polished as I'd usually prefer. Nonetheless, it's still informative, and there's no point turning away from something informative.

A Home Away From Home

Welcome, friends and Maniacs, to the place which will serve as a sort of, how can I put this, "neutral ground" for me to promote myself and my work in such a manner that won't be impeded by the various technical difficulties Mania is enduring right now.

No, I'm not abandoning Mania. I love Mania.

I've found a great number of sounding boards, supporters, and equally vocal fanboys there that'll tell me I'm a nut if they feel like it.

Or they won't say anything at all, which is becoming more and more likely I fear due to the fact Mania's glitches are suspiciously un-glitched nearly four months into the new year.

Maelstrom hasn't been seen since February, Jarrod's probably still in hiding after the fembots incident, Tokyo is rebuilding after being stomped on twice, and (according to Hanso) "the Dark Knight still owns, son."

Plus there's Wiseguy and NotAFan, who both are still fans of "The Life and Times of Igor," even though the other hunchback movie was made and mine is still lost in a unique form of Development Hell.

Another reason to not abandon Mania is the fact that, after a year of being a Maniac, I have over 12,500 views to my name. To me, that is incredibly unique and suggests to me that Maelstrom was right: maybe I am doing something right.

To all those who are unfamiliar with the above, let me introduce myself: I am the founding member of The Starlight Guard. (See "Sweet Dreams: A Sandman's Story" for further details.)

If you are uncertain of what this "Mania" is of which I speak, go here.

My profile can be found here.

I sincerely hope this only temporary, but given the lack of technical exterminations we've had recently I feel this is the next best thing I can do.

I'll continue to rant, rave, and shout at Mania, and I'll do so here as well.

And, hopefully, this blog will evolve beyond its rather limited usage I, for now, intend it to be.