F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

Leisure

Dexter

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Deutsch: Logo von Dexter
Deutsch: Logo von Dexter (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Okay, this might surprise you…it might not: I love the ShowTime original, Dexter.

There—I said it.

It feels…kinda freeing!

Why?

Well, the show is about a “good” serial killer. One who kills only the wicked. But, he takes it a wee bit further, in that, well—there’s no mincing words (pardon the pun)—he cuts up his victims, shoves them into bags, and tosses them into the ocean off the coast of Florida. And it’s on ShowTime, so you can imagine some of the scenes.

But hold on just a minute! Stick with me just a little longer.

I almost stopped watching this show in its first and second seasons (not sure exactly where this happened). But, then the producers did something that really got my attention: they stopped focusing on all the gore.

Now, mind you, the writing, acting, story, cinematography—all were absolutely stunning. Intelligently written. Powerful. Brilliant. This show is so damned well-crafted. Those who call the shots did something I really have to laud them for—they could have continued/turned this show into a real gorefest, but they decided to go beyond all the explicit camera shots and focus instead on the story. The characters.

And what an outstanding decision that was.

I still—and never have—agreed with the story’s contention that Dexter became the way he is because he’d watched his own mother butchered at such a tender young age, and had been literally left sitting in an inch or so of her blood and gore in a shipyard cargo container until found by the cops. In my mind, I’d think such an atrocity would scare a human away from such blood and gore…but the human mind can and does react in ways that defy definition. And in my mind, I translate his path in life more to reincarnational events. But whatever the reason, once you get past such logic, the show is perhaps the most powerful thing on TV, paid channel or not. My wife totally nails it in describing this show:

You’re holding your breath. You can’t breathe. You’re on the edge of your seat the entire time.

And only when the episode ends, do you inhale.

Exhausted.

Exhilarated!

But there are only three more episodes left, before the series go off the air. There are always DVDs (which I haven’t checked). But you have to get through the first couple seasons of gore to really get into the spellbinding stories that will abso-frigging-lutely rivet you.

As I’ve talked with my mother and others about this show, I can’t help but wonder what acting (or, er, watching…) in such a show can do to you. Your psyche. Michael C. Hall, who plays Dexter, recently went through a fight with cancer, and the show had to be delayed. But he’s back, and he’s just as powerful and brilliant as ever. All the characters on this show—Dexter Morgan’s sister, Debra (actor Jennifer Carpenter and Michael C. Hall are married in real life—and doesn’t she look like the long-gone Karen Carpenter! Tell me I’m not the only one to see this!); Quinn, Masuka (love his sick humor!), Laguerta, Batista, and father, Harry—are so perfectly cast, so incredibly well-acted. They are jaw-dropping to watch. How they fight with their own demons, many of which are every bit as powerful as the show’s main drive. And some of Dexter’s adversaries (two of my favorite villains are portrayed by John Lithgow and the current one, Ray Stevenson)—man, I’m simply running out of adjectives, here! Chilling!

But, what you do cannot help but transform you.

We can speculate all day back and forth, about why people do what they do, in real life and as actors, but I’m just thankful that the producers took the show in a new direction, took the High Road, because I’m just not a Gore Guy.

Man…I’ve been wanting to write about this for so long. It feels sooo…

Cathartic.

Gonna miss this show.

Okay. Think we’ll cut up some steak tonight.

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Tis the Season—Gift Ideas

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A Christmas Story

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, but now comes “the Home Stretch,” for what I term “the Holiday Season,” which starts with Hallowe’en.

Now, I know everyone has their own view on Christmas and the other holidays celebrated this next month, and I certainly have zero issues with any of it.  I think it’s great we can all celebrate any holiday, in our own individual ways, and have a great time doing it. We need to celebrate and enjoy every so often. There’s a lot going on in the world, both good and bad, but, IMHO, Humanity needs to celebrate and consider the good and fortunate we have in our lives. I understand not everyone can, nor can at the same time most can. Some cannot at all, and to them, my heart genuinely goes out to them. If we lose the ability to see the good in life, and only focus on the bad, then we all lose. For those who cannot see the good, sometimes, I think, just knowing it exists out there can be of some benefit, consciously or unconsciously. I think, deep down, inside all of us, even when we go through rough times, we know “this, too, shall pass,” and that when it does, we’ll be back into the good life has to offer.

So, however and whenever we celebrate, I cannot think of one person I know who does not buy a gift or two for those they love or care about. It’s what Humans do—we like to give. We like to make those we care about happy. Giving gifts is just one way of doing this, but sometimes it’s hard to come up with something well-thought-out. So, since I’m in this with the rest of you, I’ve decided to list some items to hopefully help out, get some of the creative thoughts flowing. If you have some great ideas, please, stop by and list them! It’s fun!

Here are my suggestions, in no particular order and whether or not I actually own them.  Enjoy!

  1. Twilight Zone DVDs/Blu-Rays
  2. The Night Gallery DVDs/Blu-Rays
  3. X-Files DVDs/Blu-Rays
  4. The Lone Gunmen DVDs/Blu-Rays
  5. Kolchak: The Night Stalker DVDs/Blu-Rays
  6. The Grievers (novel—see my review and demand of it; loved it!)
  7. Dracula (classic novel—I’m rereading it for the 4th time!)
  8. Help make a movie—Class Clown Pictures donation
  9. Volbeat’s Beyond Heaven Above Hell (love the poignant “Fallen” track)
  10. iPad mini (I call it the “miPad”)
  11. A stand-up writing desk (can’t find the one I wanted to link to, but you get the idea)
  12. Create a Creative Memories book, calendar, photo album, etc.
  13. An iced tea maker (though I use an older version, use this tons…)
  14. Gift certificate for a cool, atmosphere/romantic restaurant
  15. A Leatherman mulit-tool (these are so danged useful!)
  16. Real NYS or Vermont maple syrup. There is no other kind.
  17. A theracane (oooh, these are incredible!)
  18. Foreign Language DVDs (I loved learning foreign languages, hope to do so again, soon)
  19. An Adirondack Paddle tie-tack
  20. A Christmas Story DVD (if you’ve never seen this, you gotta watch it!)

Upstate New York

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Barnum Pond, New York
Barnum Pond, New York

Last week we’d made a trip to visit family and attend a retirement party, in New York State. We had a great time there, and it was shorter than our regular trips, but we weren’t there for sightseeing so much as attending my stepmom’s retirement party.

But…we did do some driving and checked out a “camp” (these are not tented affairs, but buildings, that NYS calls “camps”; I love checking them out, especially if they’re on water…) on an upstate New York lake, the McColloms Cemetery, and drove to Barnum Pond, off of Route 30. It was a great trip, our last for the year—and it’s been a great year for fun travel, with our South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming trips!

But, now it’s time to buckle back down on my manuscript work (have I said this before?!), and continue readying for the rest of what I call “The Holiday Season,” which starts with Hallowe’en and goes through New Year’s….

Ah, what a fun year it’s been!

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The Mummy Trilogy

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Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff (Photo credit: twm1340)

That was fun!

In the space of a week, I came up with three poems tied to my favorite monster, the Egyptian mummy. Though I had an immediate idea for the first two, I had nothing on the how I was going to end it all. After I posted those first two, it was like—great, I’ve written myself into a corner. Now, what?

I like how they came out, though may work on them some more off and on. It was extemporaneous, and a fun exercise for a fun event. I don’t fancy myself a poet by any stretch, but like to play around with it every now and then—but do try to keep some semblance of poetic rhyme in place. I’m sure the more professional poets can pick it all apart, but such is life!

And finding “just so” Egyptian graphics was tough. Sometimes new graphics popped up after having first searched for them, on the WP “Recommendations,” like the cool Karloff image above. I was willing to pay for some of them, but I couldn’t find any that allowed for that, once one hit me just so (there was a mummy head image I liked from a Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea site (scroll down some to “I cut myself“), but I couldn’t find a way to pay for it, didn’t look free, and contacting and waiting for a response just wasn’t an option on my timeline). I don’t pull just any graphic from a site and use it, that’s copyright infringement, so I use my own stuff, free stuff picked from the web by WP, or pay (e.g., the graphic I used for “By The Light of the Moon,” I payed for—isn’t it cool?).

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed creating them, and thanks for stopping by!

The Mummy Trilogy

Cemetery Walk—Fairview Cemetery

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Who...is watching WHO...?
Who…is watching WHO…?

When my wife and I stopped by this cemetery the other week, it was a gorgeous October morning, the wind blowing tons of leaves from the trees. I tried to capture a couple intentional shots of the leaves flying through the air, because they were really brilliant and many, but they really didn’t come out in these pictures.

As in my Cemetery Dance post, I love the atmosphere of this cemetery. Loved the different kinds of gravestones we found. Found a handful being crowded out by trees. Found one that looked exactly like a specter had appeared on its stone. My wife showed me the grave of the famous nature photographer, Rich Buzzelli. My wife knew him since they were kids—and he’d actually been the photographer at our wedding. “People” really were not his subject, but she’d managed to convince him to do it, and he’d done an outstanding job. He was such a nice guy. Usually that word can be meaningless, but for Rich, it really described the man as I met him. A few years after our wedding, he was struck and killed by lightning in mid-conversation with his girlfriend, on the slopes of Pikes Peak, in Colorado Springs.

Fairview Cemetery is on the west side of Colorado Springs, on 1000 S. 26th Street. Once again, I got lost in the imaginings of the people beneath my feet, like Maggie (b. 1915) and Jimmie Heath (b. 1914), died 1933.

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Where’s Mummy?

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English: A screenshot from The Mummy Italiano:...
Who’s your daddy. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ok, I’ve been having fun this month with all-things Hallowe’en (man, next month I’m really gonna have to get back to my mss work…), but all this talk about the undead got my juices dessicating! So…I’m going to put myself to a test.

Next week I’m going to post a prose poem about my favorite monster. Now, I’m not saying this is going to be another Ozymandias, or anything, but I’m going to give it my best shot and come up with something I’ve wanted to pen for a little bit. I’ve actually already started it and hope to post soon.

Now, as a kid I had several monster interests. Though I was interested in the Bram Stoker version of Dracula in vampyres, werewolves were a pretty strong interest. One of my favorites stories was The Werewolf of Ponkert, by H. Warner Munn, which was actually two stories. It’s interesting looking at some prices of this book today—geesh!
I also got into some of the Dr. Phibes, work (books and movies: “Love means never having to say you’re ugly”; I know, très unPC, but check out the man’s visage), like Dr. Phibes Rises Again! I was a huge Vincent Price fan. And who could forget “Vulnavia,” played by Virginia North? I mean, whata cool name! The Dr. Anton Phibes movies were so campy, over the top, and full of dark humor, I loved them!

(in case the above doesn’t work, try this link: http://youtu.be/yBo0H3oYSoo)
What’s not to like, right?
Vulnaaaviaaaa….
I was also, as you may have guessed, into your basic “undeads,” rising from the deads, clawing out from grounds, ghosts, that kind of thing. I was, basically, a fan of all kinds of Hammer Films movies about anything supernatural, and it looks like they’re still around, which is interesting, since I haven’t heard anything more out of them, since I left home for adulthood.
But, when it really came down to it, I became quite interested in one monster in particular, and it was my last teenage dress-up for Hallowe’en. Even as a teen, I had an eye for authenticity, and I pulled out the needed sheet and begged and pleaded to my mom to do the unthinkable: rip a perfectly good bedsheet into shreds. Well, to this day, I’m always amazed that she let me do that, but, hey, that’s what mom’s do, right?
So, on my last teenage Hallowe’en, I wrapped up and went out horrorizing the neighborhood, and painted “Denn die Todten reiten schnell”  (“For the dead travel fast,” from Dracula) on rocks all along the railroad tracks from which I lived across (yeah, literally), in green flourescent paint.
Mummy Me, c. late 1970s
Mummy Me, c. late 1970s
So, if you haven’t figured out my favorite monster, stay tuned! I hope to have something. ummm, unwrapped, next week….