The Writer's Life 5/30 - Monkeying Around

I was so blown away by The Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) that I really looked forward to its sequel, Dawn of… (2014). While it is vastly superior to any of the flicks of the original series that began in the late sixties, which were endearing in their goofiness, it pales in comparison to its immediate predecessor. By no means a bad film, it lacks surprise. Its strength, beside the terrific CGI, is its authenticity. What makes it successful is the deadly serious approach to its outrageous premise, similar to that of The Walking Dead, Each does a great job of selling the idea that the situations actually have taken place. Unfortunately, there is nothing left to do in the former than complete the war between apes and man. Unless the reviews are stellar, I will skip the next installment. The cast acquits itself well: Gary Oldham, Keri Russell, Jason Clarke, the ubiquitous Brooklyn boy Kirk Acevedo and, of course, Andy Serkis, incredible at humanizing such parts, the leader of the apes. Clarke, Australian, was vaguely familiar. Scanning his 58 credits. I was surprised I’d seen many of them. The film runs more than two hours. I was not bored, but not captivated, either. It was directed by Matt Reeves, who created the TV series Felicity, which starred Russell. More than 250,000 users at IMDb have rated Dawn of…, forging to a consensus of 7.7 of ten. On a scale of five, I rate it three.

Condolences to fans of the NY Rangers, whose quest for the Stanley Cup has been hijacked by Tampa Bay. I did not watch any of the games. I merely followed the series in the newspaper. It seemed as unpredictable as sports events ever get, with no advantage in home ice. The Broadway Blues scored at least five goals in three of the games in Florida, yet were shut out in games five and seven at the Garden. The Lightning won three times at MSG! Go figure.

My thanks to the kind folks who bought books on Bay Parkway today, including Bill Brown, author of Words and Guitar, the Music of Lou Reed. He had a great time last night at a book launch in Greenwich Village. A man who had the foresight to take pictures of rising celebrities during the New Wave era has published them, and many luminaries showed up to the party, including Debbie Harry, whose entourage blocked traffic on Prince Street. People were snapping selfies with appreciative gray-haired ex-rockers. Bill found himself standing beside a tiny woman he eventually recognized as Lydia Lunch, now 55, who Wiki describes as a singer, poet, writer, actress and self-empowerment speaker. He fibbed, telling her how much he'd loved her act, and she ate it up. He attended a show of hers in Ann Arbor circa 1980 -- and she split after ten minutes. I remember the name but doubt I'd ever heard one of her tracks outside a club like Hurrah or The Ritz back in the day. I just sampled a few at youtube, which I won't comment on, since I spent so little time listening. Here's a pic:

Vic's 5th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/okxkwh5Vic's 4th novel: tinyurl.com/bszwlxh

Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3

Vic's Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
Vic's Short Story Collection: http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tiny.cc/0iHLb Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kx3d3uf
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tinyurl.com/l84h63j

Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp

Vic's Horror Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3f

Vic's Blog: http://vicfortezza.blogspot.com/

Vic's Web Site: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/