Am I doing better? Not particularly. But I am still here. I am still standing. I haven't quite gone off that cliff.

Thank you to the person who emailed me with their concern and well wishes (you know who you are, there is no need
to name names). I am not trying to solicit such reactions, the purpose of my entry was simply to document how I was feeling. Most of the time I want to be alone and isolated when I get like this--I actively avoid going online, I neglect SB and my RP characters, I cut myself off. Since this dark tide
rose at work...I felt compelled to share my feelings and emotions.

The Seductive Dark Voice

"It's not like you'll be really missed. The Earth turns on and on, whether you are here, or not. The fact that you are so far away from everyone you think cares about you just makes it easier, after all. There are many people worse off than you, but they are stronger than you are, and its folly to pretend otherwise."

I'm fighting it as best as I can. I think I am losing.

Dorian Cleavenger, Fantasy Artist.

Some Dark images here. Caution is not merely pro forma in this case. Think the darker images from Royo, if you
are familiar with his work.

Referenced from Arref.

Population Ecology of Vampires in the Buffyverse

For those of us equally at home with the exploits of Buffy, and not adverse to a little biology, I present this link for your edification. Vampire Ecology

Earth as Art

From Lisa DuMond's website:

Keep an eye on the SciFi Channel website for my interview with screenwriter/producer/author Richard Christian Matheson and learn about his new projects, including a Chronicles of Amber miniseries and a new book.

As Emeril might say, BAM!

Pretty quiet today.

Much of the day at work the Blog complained that it could not publish due to template errors. Oh, well. If and when I get a domain and a real website, I definitely am going to migrate to something like Moveable Type.

I finished Archangel Protocol, and have begun Dreamside.

I felt uncomfortable when I opened the book, I have had it for a while, it was a gift last year from TGFKAB, and the amazon.com receipt with her message on it was still inside. A bitter joke, you might say. But, I am digesting this book, its a fairly nice read so far. I had avoided actually reading it (and had been tempted to fling it away) because it precisely had been a gift from Bonnie. But, I couldn't do that...to a book.

Updated and worked on my somewhat previously defunct Jvstin's Universe page. As you can see on the links to the right, I've emphasized the "Book Reviews, Jvstin Style" page, which I formerly called Small Book Reviews. Basically its very short
book reviews, with a numerical rating and a few lines about the book. Go forth and enjoy.

Movie Review

Solaris

Starring: George Clooney, Natasha McElherone, Jeremy Davies, Viola Davis and Ulrich Tukur

Directed by: Steven Sodenbergh

"And death shall have no dominion."--Dylan Thomas, as quoted in Solaris.

Solaris would seem to be an unlikely choice for a big-budget, large studio motion picture. Stanislaw Lem is perhaps one of the best well known NON English speaking SF writers, but, still, not precisely common fodder for movies. Solaris WAS already filmed before, in a 1972 adaptation by the Russian director Tarkovsky. That version, which I have not seen, is four hours long and considered controversial and brilliant. I could see an American version of Solaris, but if you told me a couple of years ago, I would have guessed it more fodder for the independent route, with mid-level actors and actresses like Armin Mueller-Stahl and Ileana Douglas.

What we get, though is George Clooney. This is the third time he has been paired with director Sodenbergh, having worked with him on OUT OF SIGHT, and OCEAN'S ELEVEN. So if any director can make Clooney work as Chris Kelvin, Sodenbergh is the guy. Clooney's counterpart, Rheya, is played by Natasha McElherone, whom I enjoyed watching in The Truman Show and Ronin. It's a good combination, a movie couple on screen which works.

The basic plot of the movie is difficult to discern from the commercials and advertisements, which seem to focus so strongly on the love story aspects of the movie that its other aspects are downplayed to the point of obfuscation. The movie opens with watching the life of a man who is clearly in the pain of the loss of his wife. We watch Kelvin go about his role as a psychatrist who seems to need to heal himself, as well as others. Its not immediately obvious that this is the future, the advances in technology are understated. Then, a message from a friend on a spacecraft orbiting a mysterious planet soon propels our protagonist on a 2001-esque sequence that lands him on the Prometheus. It is not a space station, but apparently a spacecraft which is in orbit around a ocean-dominated planet which looks to be crackling with energies of unknown proveance. Once aboard, Kelvin quickly determines that things are wrong...there are bodies of the crew, and blood on the ceiling. The station's crew, in fact, has been reduced to a seemingly stoned technician and another shut in her room. Both hint at strange doings and are extremely vague about what is going on, only that Kelvin himself will soon learn first-hand.

And first-hand he does. The weary psychologist wakes up to find his dead wife next to him, as confused as he is about the experience. It becomes clear, however, that she is not his wife, but something else, something created by the planet for reasons unknown. She has the memories that Kelvin has of his wife...indeed, she is a composite of what Kelvin remembers of her. But she is something more. The construct may be a recollection of Kelvin's memories of his wife, but she has ideas, goals and impetus of her own. But why did the planet create her? Is this the second chance that Kelvin has always wished he had? Or is she some sort of siren, indeed are all the eidolon like creatures intent on the destruction of the crew?

Solaris asks a lot of questions and does not hesitate to let the audience argue about them on the way out of the theater rather than answering them all itself. The movie is only 100 minutes long, but its pacing, its cinematography, its unravelling are slow and patient. These are not flaws, atlhough judging from many of the reviews on the internet, you would think that anything which was not hyperkinetic was dull as dishwater. Its not a perfect movie by any means. Clooney does as well as he could, although I can think of other actors which might have been more suited to the role. McElhrone does as well as she can with what she is given, much of the time, she simply has to smile into the camera, her luminous face apparently the rock to which Kelvin is ready to lash himself to once again, and do it right this time.

I admit, though, that this is one of those movies which would play better on a DVD at home than in the theater. It doesn't need the big screen of a theater in the way, say, 2001 shines. Its amazingly intimate and focused for a wide-scale hollywood release, and I have to give the director and producers extra credit for hewing to this vision as much as they do. In an age where cerebral films are as common as unicorn horns, Solaris may not succeed on all levels, but its aspirations alone rise it above many of the pack.

Rating: Four popcorn kernels out of five.