The New Magnum Show

This week saw some progress toward book 2. The weather interfered with using the computer some, so I didn't get as much done as I wanted. On the book cover front, I picked up a painting supply I needed for a painting I've been trying to do. I'm trying out a technique with it that I'm hoping will let me figure out how to do a book cover that looks like one. Paintings don't usually look like illustrations, so there's a gap to bridge. I'm not 100% sure I'll be able to do a cover, but if I don't try, I won't know.

The other day I was going through the channel listings looking for something, when I ran across a listing for Magnum P.I. I remembered seeing an article not too long ago that Hollywood was going to do a Magnum reboot. They've been out of ideas for decades. I set it to record to watch later. One night, when it was too hot to use the computer, I made myself watch some of it. I kind of dreaded it. I was worried it would be great but full of inappropriate content. I shouldn't have worried so much.

I remember Magnum in the 80s, though I didn't watch it until years later on some kind of rerun channel. My best friend loved it back in the day, which is why I watched it. So, I have the real thing to compare this new Magnum show to.

Millennials. One of the things they're infamous for is talking about their feelings. Instead of facing life's problems, they run to a safe room and talk about how they feel until they're not scared any more. Then they come out, problem avoided. Quite a lot of the first half of the new Magnum was the characters talking about their feelings with each other. Oh, dear. Are all Millennial shows going to be like this? Is the next generation going to vomit while trying to watch Millennial programming while being mystified at how much better even older shows are? If all the shows today are like this, we're looking at a lost generation of programming and no classics from this era.

I didn't watch the entire episode, but most of it, yes. Here are some thoughts.

Wrong Magnum. The new guy is not Magnum. It's not just that he's not Tom Selleck. He's not Magnum. He doesn't work. Casting department fail. And, hey, where the mustache?

Wrong Higgins. They've turned Higgins into a woman. I had my doubts about that, when reading about the reboot ahead of time, but if she's pretty enough,. . .I could get past that. It turns out the woman they chose has an Australian accent, and not one of the good ones. It's kind of one of the annoying ones. She's attractive enough but not beautiful and has a nice figure, but no. Higgins had a British accent. One simply cannot substitute bad Australian for that. It doesn't work. I like her until she talks. The casting department needs a decidedly firm slap across the jowls with an old English glove.

Wrong feel. The show doesn't have the same vibe as the original. Admittedly, this is only one episode, but the original had some depth and grit to it. The new one is kind of shallow. Thirty minutes of talking about their feelings lacks depth. How about trying to solve the crime instead? The original Magnum was a detective show with action. Naval gazing is not a substitute for action.

I fast forwarded through the commercials, but I did catch the end of one. It was advertising Hawaii 5-0 before the next Magnum. I remember that show, too, but I was too young to watch it. I can't believe Hollywood has two reboots back to back. However, they've been out of ideas for decades.

I didn't like the new Battlestar Galactica either. It was a melodrama. I tried watching it, but every episode was like watching September 11.

The Love Boat. Simon and Simon. Tales of the Gold Monkey. Whiz Kids. Hart to Hart. Moonlighting. Remington Steele. I could see a Remington Steele remake.

Have a great weekend.

Loch Ness Monster Solved

The Loch Ness monster hoax has been around for a long time. I wondered what it was. One day after not seeing the photo for years, it popped up, and outside the context of the monster narrative, I instantly recognized what it was. Instead of seeing the monster, I saw a table leg. Basically, it's an upside down, broken table or part of one floating in the loch. Now the only research left to do is to go into the archives and figure out who manufactured the table, assuming it wasn't locally made. The photo is from 1934. There should still be some of those tables around for comparison.

The other day I had a funny interaction with my Google Assistant.

Me: Hey, Google. Turn off the living room lamp.

Google Assistant: Sure, turning off the living room lamp.

Me: Thanks, Sweet Pea.

Google Assistant: You're welcome. You can call me Google Assistant.

Was I trying to get fresh with my technology?

Book News

Now that the weather has broken and turned cooler, I've started working on the new book 2 of the B'vellah War series. I'm going through book 1 to refresh myself on details. Once that's finished, I'll be able to figure out the right direction. I already have a general plan, but I still need to decide things like how much of book 2 can be saved and how different the new book 2 will be. It might end up being very different. For a long time I've wanted to do a Calliope book or novella but never could quite come up with the uniting idea for it. It's possible I could weave that book into the new book 2 as part of the new story. It would fit in pretty well after the events of book 1. There's only so much space in a book, so I'll have to put on my thinking cap about that.

Have a great weekend.

The Frustrations of Art and Language

It's another hot day, and the air conditioner dilemma is not resolved. This will be a quick one.

I've started work on the painting I mentioned the other day. It's acrylic on canvas. I'm not completely happy with how it's starting, although the underpainting isn't supposed to look good. It's just part of the process to get to the final result. It's going to be a cat sitting in grass. I'm not confident of my ability to paint a cat, but I've painted a rabbit before. It turned out pretty well.

There's a certain frustration with painting. It never turns out the way I see it in my head. I'll have this magnificent picture in my mind. I'll have an idea of how to accomplish it with the medium. The final product never matches my inner vision. I wonder if other people have this same problem. I'll see an incredible masterpiece and wonder if it was what the artist had in mind from the beginning. Despite how phenomenal the painting is, was it the original vision?

Moving on to another frustration, French. I just finished a 500-page book. I had to look up tons of words. I thought I would be more fluent by now. I understand that literature has a far greater vocabulary than the spoken language. If you know the 3,000 most frequently used words in a language, you can understand about 80% of normal dialogue. About 10,000 words is high school level. About 20,000 words is someone with a college education. To sound educated you need about a 20,000-word vocabulary.

At this point I've read millions and millions of words. I listen to French audio for about an hour a day. I still have to look up words. I still don't have a listening fluency. I can follow along with some things fairly well, but other things are close to gibberish. It seems like it shouldn't be this way. On the other hand a lot of what I read I don't have translate into English in my head. The same with listening. I can read something or hear something and understand it but not be able to spout off an immediate English translation. I'd have to think about how to say it first. That definitely feels like progress on some level, but listening to something and hitting a gibberish patch doesn't. Running into a paragraph with the right number of high-level vocabulary doesn't.

The solution to learning any language is massive input. Maybe I need to put more time into it. I've been reading more lately, because it's been too hot to get on the computer much. Maybe I need to win the lottery and take a French course in Paris. Sadly, I might buy a ticket once a year at Christmas and most years not even then.

I asked for prayer about something the other day. I could use more. :) I think I have a direction to go, but it's not the immediate answer I was hoping for.

Have a great weekend.