Solely Based on Monsters
When Cold Fusion Video's Nathan Shumate mentioned in his blog that a 'zine called "Solely Based On Monsters" interviewed him, I sent off my well-concealed cash for a copy. I like to support my friends' efforts (even in a roundabout way like this), and I was curious about how an interview with an Internet film critic would read.
Rightly, the interviewer focuses on Nathan's other more creative writing (screenplays, fiction, etc) as much as he does on the film criticism. If you've not enjoyed the adventures of Avalon and Company, you could do a lot worse during the workday than to spend some time reading through the archives. (Your boss might argue, but what does he/she know?) There's some sly stuff going on in the dialogue, though I'll admit that first-person narration has always sort of put me off. The important bit is that Nathan seems to be a creative writer at heart. If that could support his online ventures in the same way that his movie reviews do, I suspect he'd abandon criticism for such creative writing full time. It's a shame that the web doesn't foster the writing of fiction the same way it does pop culture journalism and (in the case of some of those "journalists") fanboy invective, but there you have it.
(Feel free to use the comments link below to leave your own thoughts about online fiction. I could probably write a few hundred words on the subject off the top of my head, but I don't want to digress even further.)
This is kind of the long way around to getting to the point, which is a comment Nathan left on this blog a few weeks back in response to the news that Scott and I would be hosting a sci-fi movie night at the Orlando Science Center. Someday, he wrote, we must teach him the secrets of self-promotion. Scott, ever the wag, wrote back that shame must be suppressed. (Not that he's wrong, mind you.) My belated reply is: have good friends.
When I say that, I'm not just referring to the fact that the Orlando Science Center's director of PR is none other than Jeff "Filmboy" Stanford, though I am indeed referring to that. I also refer to the fact, however, that Nathan mentions Stomp Tokyo twice in one answer to a particular question in the interview. Flattering, no? So that's basically it, Nathan: have good friends. And bribe them, if necessary.
If you're interested in obtaining your own copy of the zine "Solely Based on Monsters," e-mail this_monster_island@hotmail.com.
Rightly, the interviewer focuses on Nathan's other more creative writing (screenplays, fiction, etc) as much as he does on the film criticism. If you've not enjoyed the adventures of Avalon and Company, you could do a lot worse during the workday than to spend some time reading through the archives. (Your boss might argue, but what does he/she know?) There's some sly stuff going on in the dialogue, though I'll admit that first-person narration has always sort of put me off. The important bit is that Nathan seems to be a creative writer at heart. If that could support his online ventures in the same way that his movie reviews do, I suspect he'd abandon criticism for such creative writing full time. It's a shame that the web doesn't foster the writing of fiction the same way it does pop culture journalism and (in the case of some of those "journalists") fanboy invective, but there you have it.
(Feel free to use the comments link below to leave your own thoughts about online fiction. I could probably write a few hundred words on the subject off the top of my head, but I don't want to digress even further.)
This is kind of the long way around to getting to the point, which is a comment Nathan left on this blog a few weeks back in response to the news that Scott and I would be hosting a sci-fi movie night at the Orlando Science Center. Someday, he wrote, we must teach him the secrets of self-promotion. Scott, ever the wag, wrote back that shame must be suppressed. (Not that he's wrong, mind you.) My belated reply is: have good friends.
When I say that, I'm not just referring to the fact that the Orlando Science Center's director of PR is none other than Jeff "Filmboy" Stanford, though I am indeed referring to that. I also refer to the fact, however, that Nathan mentions Stomp Tokyo twice in one answer to a particular question in the interview. Flattering, no? So that's basically it, Nathan: have good friends. And bribe them, if necessary.
If you're interested in obtaining your own copy of the zine "Solely Based on Monsters," e-mail this_monster_island@hotmail.com.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home