Just in time for the new year, I've finished the second draft of my next book, and I'm exhausted but feeling positive. With another difficult year behind us, I'm thankful at least to have an excuse to stay in with the Twilight Zone marathon. A lot of these episodes feel like they're only becoming more relevant with age. Or maybe the real world is more closely resembling the show. At any rate, I still consider it to be some of the all-time great storytelling. One I caught this morning that I haven't seen in a while is "I Shot An Arrow Into the Air," in which a few astronauts crash land on a deserted planet. It features a recurring trope involving one member of a stranded group losing his mind and turning against the others. I love the always over-the-top insanity displayed by the mad man. I notice the episodes have been airing pretty much in order so far, with more iconic ones presumably being saved for prime time, at which time they're often shown uncut.
I'm optimistic about what's to come, for all of us, this year and wish anyone reading this a Happy New Year!
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A few more weeks into revising, and things are coming together nicely, I think. Incidentally, I caught Christmas Vacation on TV this holiday season, as I'm wont to do, and I stand firm in my contention that it is the single best Christmas movie ever made. It achieves the thing that all art is striving for, which is a perfect illusion. Everything that happens, every character, every tiny detail feels absolutely authentic (with the possible exception of Eddie kidnapping Clark's boss, even if the sentiment is familiar). I find myself at least chuckling at almost every scene. The flow of the story, and the sequencing is such that I become totally convinced of its reality. It feels more like a time capsule of actual events rather than fiction. It's one of two Christmas movies that don't feel contrived in some way, the other being A Christmas Story. There are a few other gems out there (Scrooged), but it's hard to make a holiday movie that could be considered good at any time of year. So far, no film has pulled it off as well as this 1989 classic. Little did anyone know how true Clark's famous last words would prove to be - "I did it."
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