[writing|movies] Must keep moving, or critics will eat me

My list from yesterday, annotated for achievement:

• Transmit Kalimpura to my editor for formal turn-in
• Respond to an email interview
• Draft a script on metastasis for a science podcast
• Participate in a podcast interview
• Revise and submit a short story currently in draft
• Write a committed short story I haven’t yet been able to focus on
• Doing some editorial work on an anthology proposal
• Make initial notes on a proposal/outline for a mooted collaborative novel project with urban fantasy author J.A. Pitts

Plus I drafted the blog post on cancer, coping and terminal diagnoses, which I’ll run tomorrow morning when more than three of you are reading.

The revised to-do list looks something like this:

• Draft a script on metastasis for a science podcast
• Participate in a podcast interview
• Await reader comments then submit a short story currently in draft
• Write a committed short story I haven’t yet been able to focus on
• Do a bit more editorial work on an anthology proposal based on feedback received
• Make further notes on a proposal/outline for a mooted collaborative novel project with urban fantasy author J.A. Pitts based on feedback received
• Review Sunspin feedback from one of my readers
• Begin process of collating my last 3.5 years of cancer blogging into a book proposal

As I remain the boy in the bubble for a few days yet, thanks to my immune system doing a scarper, I have plentiful time today. It’s more a question of mental energy and focus, which despite yesterday’s productivity is still a bit iffy.

Also, watched two movies with the_child and mlerules yesterday.

One was Ferris Bueller’s Day Off [ imdb ], a movie that needs no introduction for anyone between the ages of 40 and 50something. This is one of the truly great movies of its decade, alongside The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai and a few others, and deeply funny in a way that holds up well today. I’d forgotten Charlie Sheen was in it. Also, it was interesting to see how much the entire plot as-written would collapse once cell phones and caller ID were introduced. Many of the shenanigans in the early part of the film involved playing games with phones that would make no sense today, and most of the film’s plausibility (such as it was) revolved around people simply being out of touch and unable to contact one another. These were things I had to explain to the_child. In a weird way, this makes Ferris Bueller a historical. As always, very highly recommended for a re-watch or for showing for the first time to your younger friends.

The other movie we watched was the recent release Hanna [ imdb ]. That is a damned good movie that I don’t think anyone ever heard of. Spy thriller involving a teen-aged girl, so vaguely connected to La Femme Nikita and films of that ilk. It was taut, very true to the title character’s deeply warped perspectives, much more emotional than such movies usually are, and exciting as hell. As the_child pointed out, Hanna and Green are basically the same character. The movie also did a lot of really good stuff at the layer of production values, camera work and sound design. Frankly, I’d like to see it up for an Oscar for sound design and scoring, it was that good. And if you’re fan of Cate Blanchett, this was a strange and fascinating role for her as well. Very highly recommended.

And now I’m curious. What’s your favorite ’80′s movies?

Originally published at jlake.com. You can comment here or there.