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News - February 2005

IRON TRIANGLE by Mike Baron

 

My screenplay, THE IRON TRIANGLE, is available from Black Coat Press.  You can order it through amazon.com.  I’ve been trying for years to forge a new type of martial arts film, one where the fights rise realistically from the situation, not from the action genre.

Click the picture for more information or to purchase from Amazon.

                  Read Something Different: "The Iron Triangle" (Screenplay), January 10, 2005

Reviewer:

Kevin Tipple (Plano, Texas)

 

 

The Iron Triangle
Screenplay by Mike Baron
Black Coat Script Library
www.blackcoatpress.com
2004
ISBN # 1-932983-07-4
Large Trade Paperback
$15.95 US


"In film and television, thousands of fine scripts by established writers are never produced. The Black Coat Script Library is dedicated to presenting some of those scripts." (Back cover)

 

Frequent readers of my review work here and elsewhere are very much aware of my strong appreciation and admiration for the efforts of Black Coat Press. As foremost a reader and secondly as a reviewer, I have learned quickly that BCP can always be counted on to provide quality books in terms of appearance as well as story. This new division of BCP is no exception.

For those that do not know and I certainly didn't before receiving this book (one of three and I will be reviewing the rest soon) a "script book" is the basic movie or TV show in script form within a bound book. The best and simplest analogy I can come up with is that if remember reading plays in High School English, this is the same idea. And the effect is the same. Other than scene location explanations, character development and actions are told almost entirely through spoken dialogue. As such, it requires a certain style of writing and narration to make the characters come alive.

New column up at nostomania.com, about Sin City, what else? 

            

             Why do some people hear a song once and like it, whereas others will hear a song a hundred times before noticing it?  How does a song become a hit?  In the old days, record companies would pay disc jockeys to spin new sides.  It was called payola, and it was a huge scandal.  Congress eventually held hearings and the parade moved on.  The hucksters were onto something.  They understood that most people have an initial resistance to the new.  The new must be made to seem old before the multitudes will embrace it. 

             Today’s payola is more sophisticated.  Enormous entertainment conglomerates seek to maximize profits.  Chastity Slut was huge in the nineties, but her subsequent albums flopped, she got hooked on crack, joined the Taliban, got AIDS, but now she’s rehabilitated and she’s back.  The company has sunk twenty-two million dollars into her stinker of an album.  They say to their distributors, retailers, and media congloms, “You want the new Trash Hounds?  You’ve got to take Chastity Slut.” 

             That’s music above the belt.  Long time readers know I favor music below the belt, independent music that doesn’t benefit from Tommy Mattiola’s buttery largesse.  The Fort Knox, Mothership and Taj Mahal of this music is notlame.com, but I’ve plugged them enough!

             Most of my favorite pop descends from Sgt. Pepper, an enormous hit.  Tastes have changed since the Beatles’ heyday.  That’s a lot of huffery just to present yet another list.  “Of the making of lists there shall be no end.” 

             Beatles: Sgt. Pepper

Zombies: Odyssey and Oracle

Who: Magic Bus and Others

XTC: English Settlement

Barry & The Remains: The Remains

Jellyfish: Spilt Milk

Redd Kross: Third Eye

Graham Parker and the Rumor: Squeezing Out Sparks

Plimsouls: Plimsouls Plus

Posies: Dear 23

Bill Lloyd: Set To Pop

Silver Sun: Silver Sun

Bongos:  Drums Along The Hudson

Hindu Rodeo:  Bangalooder

The Deal

The Shazam: Tomorrow The World

 

             The list keeps changing.  Feel free to suggest others. 

             When we moved from Madison to Fort Collins three years ago, it was more than a change in climate.  It was a move from an atheist liberal Sodom with lots of free music to a conservative, God-fearing Gethsemane with lots of free music.  Just kidding about Madison being a hellhole.  It’s a wonderful place to live, but it is chock-a-block with nuts, home of the rabid and intrusive Freedom From Religion cult.  Fort Collins has plenty of leftist nuts in Old Town and at Colorado State.  Both free weekly newspapers preach the socialist line, although to be fair, The Fort Collins Weekly at least includes a token conservative every issue. 

             Christians don’t frighten me.  Islamic terrorists frighten me.  Raised in the rich Jewish environment of eastern South Dakota, I envy people of faith and find myself drawn toward them. 

             My next door neighbor for our first year was a terrific pastor named Derek Fullerton.  Derek got a church in Colorado Springs and moved away, but he’s been back visiting.  We’ve been going through some tough times recently, mostly involving our aging parents, and Derek prayed with me to Jesus.  He held my hand and his faith flowed into me like an electric current.  I’ll take help anywhere I can get it.  Do I believe Jesus is the son of God?  We Jews regard Jesus as a relative newcomer.  He has nothing bad to say.  And much wisdom.  You can’t go wrong studying the Bible.  Sure there are Cotton Mather types in the high cotton and on national television, but they don’t represent the mainstream of conservative Christianity any more than Mayer Kahane represented conservative Jews. 

             I shut the door on guys who travel in teams wearing black suits and ties.

             “Dudes, you need to spend less time reading your Bible and more time reading my ‘no solicitations’ sign.”   

             The following item was gleaned from lucianne.com:

             Phnom Penh -A fight between an elderly woman and a Buddhist monk over an allegedly magic turtle landed the monk in court on charges of impersonating a god. The monk, Khong Chantha, 26, sold a turtle with Buddhist inscriptions carved into its shell to the woman for the equivalent of $1.60. But when the monk heard the woman had begun a business with the turtle, claiming it invoked miracles, he tried to reclaim it by force.

             It goes on, but you get the idea.  This is a brilliant idea for a kung fu farce.  What business did the woman enter into with the turtle?  Was the turtle a full partner?  Some miracles the turtle might perform: the woman slips the turtle into a tourist’s pocket and it leaps out with the hotel key, passport and wallet.  The woman bites into a bowl of prahok at Wen Whi’s and busts a tooth on the turtle.  It could be as simple as “Make a wish and lick the shell.  That will be 1000 Riels, please.” 

             Please see my Turtle with Buddhist Inscriptions on ebay.  Speaking of Buddhists, I saw Kung Fu Hustle the other day.  It revolves around a mythical kung fu technique called Buddha’s Palm.  A weird blend of American gangster films (especially Gangs of New York) and traditional kung fu, it’s wildly entertaining.  The kung fu actors are obvious masters, but too much wire-fu for my taste.  The antidote to kung fu players who fly through the air with the greatest of ease is Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior.  Tony Jaa does all his own stunts without benefit of trampolines or wires.  I recommend both movies.

ROOKIE CARD: Near Mint

Blanco Nino Records

 

                 Tough, lyrical, passionate, and cynical, Rookie Card’s Near Mint is a thumping affirmation of the power of rock.  It smacks you on first listening, like Mellencamp’s Scarecrow, or anything by the Shazam.  Song after song socks you in the gut with great dynamics and words Oscar Wilde might have written if he were drunk and stoned.  Come to think of it, he was.  “Short Suite,” the opener, lays heart on table with a love affair cut short, backed with a touch of Big Star and/or the Replacements.  The key to a great record isn’t just great songs, it’s the segues, and the segue from Short Suite (through throwaway “Who’s Got The Clap”) to “Constantly Waiting” hits like a rollover Humvee.  “Constantly Waiting” is in a different key and uses different chords.  So simple, yet beyond the abilities of most pop musicians.  “2/29” laments the singer’s bad luck in birthdays over a piquant, irresistible guitar line.  Adam Gimbel, who wrote the lyrics and plays guitar, is technically proficient and occasionally inspired.  His vocals are what a lead singer should be: heartfelt, snotty, and spot on the melody. 

                 “Your Life Is a Joke” lampoons artistes who take themselves too seriously.  “Give us a wink.  Flash us a grin.  Stare at yourself on the cover of Spin.”  “The Sun Always Shines on Christmas” ought to be the California state anthem, a masterful opus with a gut-crunching bass, more pessimistic than Day of the Locust.  Love the Schwarzenegger reference.  The rhyme alone is worth the price of admission.  “After the Beep” is rueful romance incorporating the Cars’ “You’re Just What I Needed.”  I’m not sure if the sample is a synthesizer or Gimbel singing.  It’s just a snippet—Rookie Card doesn’t hang the song on the Cars’ theme.  It doesn’t have to—they’ve got songs of their own.  Real songs with real melodies. 

                 Rookie Card’s achievement is to incorporate familiar elements in a fresh way.  The record succeeds because all their influences add up to a sound of their own.  “Repeat to Fade” and “Escalator to Heaven” are similar in sound and tone to the Old 97s, old Burritos filtered through Beachwood Sparks.  The violin moves it sweetly into alt-country.  Gimbel’s baseball imagery carries “Got No Time (For Expansion Teams)” and “Too Pretty.”  “She’s out of my league.  I’m T-ball AAA.  Got splinters from the bench.  I just want some play.”  You can order Rookie Card from, where else, notlame.com. 

It certainly works in the "The Iron Triangle" which the author refers to as "American Beauty meets Enter The Dragon." (Introduction (page 5) and Back Cover) Set in Fielder's Creek, the action revolves around a small karate school, "Rick's Karate." Owned and operated by Rick Mayer, the school is having serious hard times and placing enormous strain on his already shaky marriage to his beautiful wife, Darcy.

Rick is not that aware of the level of her unhappiness or the multiple reasons for it and he is certainly not aware of the actions of several of his students who are out vandalizing homes and pushing drugs. Using skills he is teaching them in advance of competing in the coming state tournament, they are a part of the rapidly growing crime problem in the small town. The question becomes as various matters take their course resulting in more and more violence and deceit, will Rick figure out friend from foe, in time to save himself and those he cares about?

This was a very enjoyable read and filled with what could be interesting characters if brought to the screen. This murder mystery features numerous fight scenes, which would have to be depicted correctly to raise tension while retaining the overall noir feeling to the work. It could be done and done well and hopefully somebody in Hollywood is paying attention.

Kevin R. Tipple © 2004

                 I have a new column up at Nostomania.com, the comic book collection tracking sight.  These gems will eventually appear here, but go there to see them now.  The column contains a review of the new Grimjack.  I have sold another story to Argosy, the classic adventure mag rebooted by Coppervale as the literary rag for the new millennium.  If your local bookstore doesn't carry Argosy, raise hell.  The current issue features the art of Bill Sienkiewicz.  I would like to tell you about my story, "This You Call a Crime,"  but if I did I'd have to mind wipe you.  All six of you. (More info on the Coppervale empire at coppervaleinternational.com.)

 

             The Keed (Nick Runge) keeps getting better.  Here's the cover for the first issue of NEW KID for the Attainment Corporation.  Nick used gouache (a method of painting with opaque watercolors mixed with a

preparation of gum.)  The second cover, which I will post shortly, is classic True Romance stuff.  When we are finished with NEW KID, Nick and I have an exciting new project lined up.  Whoa.  Here's the second cover too.

News - May 2005

New Kid #2

New Kid #1

News - March 2005

News - April 2005