Chris Dee
- Gender: Female
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Recent
- Chris Dee on Cat-Tales Graphic Novel? Well, the beginning...
- Chris Dee on M&M Battles
- Chris Dee on Female Superheroes
- Chris Dee on Cat-Tales 58: Demon's in the Details
- Chris Dee on Heartbeat msg
- Chris Dee on Biased, Stupid, Opportunists or Lazy? This one we can fix.
- Chris Dee on Buds
- Chris Dee on Light Cats
- Chris Dee on Election Day
- Chris Dee on Cat-Tales 56: Armchair Detective
- Chris Dee on Why I don't hate Mondays
- Chris Dee on Joe Straczynski's "Faith Manages"
- Chris Dee on It's got a great beat but...
- Chris Dee on I don't want to jinx this, but...
- Chris Dee on Investment Strategy
- Chris Dee on We're all still a bit mad here
- Chris Dee on Blinders
- Chris Dee on The DEE...but then again
- Chris Dee on 10,000 Times
- Chris Dee on Lighting
- Chris Dee on New Chapter Day
- Chris Dee on Superman Trivia Question
- Chris Dee on The Men in Black
- Chris Dee on Holes
- Chris Dee on Disneyland
Latest in Chris Dees Blog
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MacGuffin
We'll get back to the WWYKs one of these days. Right now, I'm too strapped for time. But in the meantime: MacGuffins.
MacGuffin is an interesting term because apparently there are two different definitions running around out there. Both trace back to exactly the same story, but the people using each one don't seem unaware of the other group. Would lead to endless fun at pitch meetings if people who went to pitch meetings used pretentious writer-only jargon.
Here's the story that started all the trouble: the term MacGuffin allegedly comes from Alfred Hitchcock named for Mrs. MacGuffin, who was a childhood neighbor, schoolteacher, or god-knows-what. None of that clears up WHAT IT IS?
But there is an interview many of us remember with Hitchcock explaining the term in relation to Psycho. The movie begins with secretary Marion Crane being entrusted to take a $40,000 cash payment from her employer's client to the bank. She steals it, buys a... -
Schadenfreude
I make no secret of my contempt for the twenty-something headcases who have been allowed to inflate average abilities into grandiose fantasies about their talents. I have to admit, however, that if you haven't seen them carry on when the fantasy bubble bursts, then you haven't seen Shakespeare the way it was meant to be played. Seriously, if you think "foaming at the mouth" and "until her head spun around like in the exorcist" are figures of speech, well… just check out this little lady.
There is no shortage of these gals in entertainment. My experience was only with the would-be actresses until I started working with a music producer, and whew, baby! They have it worse-or better, depending on your taste for such things. Week before last saw the spectacularly self-destructive exit of one such drama queen, and it was some damn good dinner... -
Button Pushing
Best button pushing on record? A little known Alan Mencken musical called WEIRD ROMANCE. And yes, theatre trivia buffs, that's the guy from Disney's Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. The show consists of two companion one-acts, which I hesitate to call "ScFi" although it usually gets that label. If you consider The Twilight Zone science fiction, then this is too. (Um, spoiler alert for anyone who wants to experience this remarkable show cold the first time, it is impossible for me to discuss it without giving away major plot twists.) Act 1 there is a weird romance indeed for a very sympathetic character, a homeless woman experiencing a glorious Cinderella story, and this love story ends… badly. Act... -
God in your pocket
In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Sulu's ship just happens to have the coordinates of the peace conference and it just happens to be in a place where the heroes can just reach it in time to stop the assassination. As the SNL church lady would say, "isn't that con-veeen-ient?" It's called God in your pocket plotting, and it's bad writing. The antithesis is a lot more common: Devil in your pocket plotting, where everything goes against the hero, just because, or similarly, the bad guys have that kind of God in their pocket luck. The few episodes of 24 I've seen were rife with it: if someone is hiding and the bad guys are nearby, their cell phone will ring and give away their location. EVERY TIME. If there is a 5 second window where the untraceable beacon can be traced, the head terrorist will retrieve the one piece of equipment needed to trace it, and decide there was something funny about that diversion earlier and have his stooge take one...
