My short story “Slalom” has just been published in The Sunlight Press, edited by Beth Burrell and Rudri Bhatt Patel. Check it out.
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Author Archives: Michael Janairo
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Publication: ‘Slalom’ in The Sunlight Press
Posted at 11:17 am , on February 19, 2019
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Should I give up on ‘The Passage’ TV show?
Posted at 11:50 am , on February 18, 2019
Saniyya Sidney as Amy and Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Brad in “The Passage” I enjoyed reading “The Passage” (as well as “The Twelve” and “The City of Mirrors,” which I wrote about here), and it has been long enough since I read those books that I could approach the new Fox drama with a fresh perspective.
But after three episodes, I’m not sure if I need to see any more. There’s both too much (too many characters, too far-fetched situations, too quick moving, especially in terms of Amy’s swift move through the foster system), and not enough — not enough character development, not enough at stake between Amy and Brad, actually not enough reason for me to understand or care that much about Brad at all.
One thing that struck me even before seeing the show is that I thought I would find it on FX, instead of Fox. FX is where the edgier shows are. Show that I watch, like the first season of “Legion” and “Fargo” and, yes, “The Strain” (which starts with a mystery — what happened to these people on that plane? what’s about to happen to everyone else?). Fox, meanwhile, is home to shows that I might try and quit, like “The Orville.”
Remember “Lost”? Remember how much time was spent, at least in that first season, with flashbacks that helped us get off the island and to get to know the characters. It is always a sign that This Character Is Important. So far it seems the longest extended flashback is of Babcock — one of the death-row inmates turned into a viral. Is she that important? Is she more important than Brad or Amy?
One thing I can’t tell yet is whether the TV is slow or if it just feels slow. Sure, lots of things are happening — chases and stuff — but if feels slow because I think I keep waiting to feel a connection with a character, especially with Amy.
Part of the problem might be Amy’s voice-over, which just raises the questions of where is Amy now and to whom is she talking?
Another issue might just be the cinematography. So much of the show looks too bright and clean to be dark, creepy, and scary.
Or maybe its because there isn’t much mystery to it. Everyone knows they’re made vampires, as one does to counter a bird flu epidemic. There are moral quandaries about it. What could be the central tension is showing the actions needed to exploit the virals for a health cure, while at the same time showing people doing things to mitigate their fearsome bloodsucking. Instead, it looks like the holding areas of the virals are well established and protocols are in place, and every now and then mucketymucks sit at a conference room table and confer. Worse yet, even as the scientists are slowly realizing that the virals have psychic abilities, they are doing nothing yet to see if that is true or to try to stop them.
There are long moments when Richards, who seems to be the head security guard for the bad-guy scientists, is utterly frozen in place and staring dumbly nowhere as the viral Babcock plays her melodramatic backstory in his mind. After three episodes, that seems to be a good analogy for “The Passage” as a whole, so much inaction in the face of melodrama.
Are you watching the show? Are you sticking with it?
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Vesta, 2002-2019
Posted at 12:11 pm , on February 16, 2019
We rescued Vesta when she was 7 years old in 2009. She never liked having her photograph taken (she often ducked her head or walked away when a camera came out), so this is a rare portrait of her sitting calmly. We named her Vesta, the Roman goddess of hearth, home and family, for she was the warm center of our home life. Though we most often called her “Vesta,” and we didn’t correct people when they called her “Vespa,” we also called her “Vester,” “Vestela,” “Vesta-girl,” “Wag-a-muffin,” “Good girl,” “Little One,” “Wagster,” and many more. And though these words can’t say enough, she was a good dog, a close companion, and loving friend.
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What mode of transport is this?
Posted at 12:35 pm , on February 2, 2019
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Friday Photo: Tang Teaching Museum
Posted at 6:50 am , on February 1, 2019
Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, January 31, 2019.
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#FiveDayChallenge
Posted at 12:30 pm , on January 24, 2019
January 19, 2019 vs January 24, 2019
We’ve all heard of the 10-year challenge. Here’s my own version — what I was looking at five days ago on Playa Mujeres, Mexico, versus what I was looking at this morning during my commute in Albany.
Dramatic, right?
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Now reading: Life on Mars
Posted at 10:29 am , on January 21, 2019
Best lines so far, from “My God, It’s Full of Stars”:
We saw to the edge of all there is—
So brutal and alive it seemed to comprehend us back.
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Friday Photo: Philz Coffee, Shattuck Avenue
Posted at 11:06 am , on January 18, 2019
Philz Coffee, Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, California, December 2018.
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A perfect blend of form and content
Posted at 2:35 pm , on January 17, 2019
An emailed invitation, adapted to fit the extreme weather coming out way. January 17, 2019.
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