The Wild Blog in the West

I'm cheating a little here.  I had said that (except for The Sound of Music ) I would stick to reviewing movie musicals produced in the last 15 years.  I had intended my next Movie Musical segment to be about Jersey Boys .  But I just haven't been able to get out to see it.  My "meh, why bother" attitude reflects what I felt when I saw Jersey Boys  the musical, and also the movie's general reception.  I do intend to review it before it leaves the theatres, but a  Les Miserables  movie event it is not. Then recently, I saw the 1972 movie Cabaret on television, the first time I was able to watch it the whole way through.  Figuring that I would just forget the details if I waited until after reviewing the post-2000 movies, I decided what the hell. Cabaret  is in the Right column because I couldn't justify putting it in the Wrong column, but it's a much more tepid Right than I ever imagined it would be.   Cabaret the movie and st...

For the previous installment, go here . And so we continue to the next installment of the Introvert series, to a show that no one takes seriously, yet seems indelibly etched into our collective brain.  That would be Saved By the Bell , the original series that ran from 1989 until 1993. Saved By the Bell  followed six high school students on their daily adventures.  The series was a spinoff of a failed Hayley Mills star vehicle, Good Morning Miss Bliss , which aired in 1988.  Audiences were underwhelmed by the show's tepid humor and moralizing, and Good Morning Miss Bliss headed for the chopping block.  Yet instead of swinging the axe, NBC decided to buy the rights and rework the show, turning it into Saved By the Bell .  Among the "saved" were lead characters Zack Morris, Samuel "Screech" Powers, Lisa Turtle, and the principal, Richard Belding.  Gone were Miss Bliss, the rest of the cast, the Indiana location, and several IQ points.  ...

In case you didn't hear, Jean Auel's Earth's Children   will be headed for a television screen near you in 2015.  Only the pilot, but with a distinguished team behind it (including Ron Howard and Linda Woolverton), a series will almost certainly follow. While details are sketchy, it is likely that the show's producers intend to portray all six of the Earths's Children  books.  That should be a challenge, given that the final three installments  received their share of criticism .  But perhaps in skilled hands, even the final installments can become an emotional, exciting viewing experience.  Below are seven ways in which a television series might improve upon its source material. 1.  Better Dialogue.   Linda Woolverton wrote the screenplays for  Beauty and the Beast , The Lion King , and Maleficent , so it's safe to say that she knows her way around dialogue.  As will anyone else who comes on board.  While Auel's ...

(If you don't know what I'm referencing, check out this video.  Actually, check it out anyway; it's a good song.) I don't normally go this long without posting my first update of the month.  Nothing is wrong.  The simple truth is that I have been swamped.  My business is growing, which means more time on client files and doing other legal work.  And with regard to my novel, I am in the process of chiseling it down to 120,000 words (at present, nearing 138,000... so a ways to go).  I am also still researching the sequel, and happily getting closer to feeling like I have enough research. This weekend, I realized I was exhausted.  I needed to vegetate on July 4 and 5.  July 6 I had to spend reading other peoples' works to prepare for my writers groups early this week.  This coming week is brutal, and the following week won't be fun, either. I hope I'm not whining.  I'm just letting y'all know why I haven't been posting as frequently...

As I stated in my The Crimson Petal and the White review , I will be reviewing neo-Victorian novels that were written within the past 10 to 15 years.  I am interested in learning: (1) what aspects of the Victorian Era they incorporate; (2) what "modern" elements they bring; (3) what works and does not work; (4) how well they conform to expectations of "what will sell"; and (5) whether it's a good story. John Harwood's The Seance  (2008) was never a big best seller like The Crimson Petal and the White , but it was well received.  It is quiet in all of the ways that  Crimson is flashy, never trying to be about a big idea or a shocking premise.  Yet it still manages to be bittersweet and effective. The Seance is characterized as a "horror" novel, but I never read it as such.  Instead, I saw it as a novel interested in the supernatural, and in certain fads of that time period.  It uses that angle to explore the hopes and fears of the main charac...

Needless to say, this post contains a few spoilers. By now, Game of Thrones  the HBO series has completed its portrayal of the third -- and arguably the best -- book of the  A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Storm of Swords .  It even dipped into A Feast for Crows and A Dance With Dragons  story lines. As both a reader and a viewer, I can now sit back and make a measured assessment of each medium's strength and weakness.  Whereas before, I did a post comparing the book characters to their show versions, here I will look at which medium does a better job portraying important story moments. 1.  Ned Stark's Death Setting the Scene: Eddard "Ned" Stark, Hand of King Robert and primary POV of A Game of Thrones , has accused Queen Cersei of conceiving her children (including heir-to-the-throne Joffrey) through incest.  He is then locked up and informed that if he repents his claim, his only punishment will be banishment to the Wall.  Fear...

For my first look at introverts in the media, I decided to go with the popular stage musical,  Wicked . Wicked  is, of course, the retelling of The Wizard of Oz  from the point of view of the Wicked Witch of the West, with the intent of making her sympathetic.  It began as a novel called Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, published in 1995.  Eight years later,  Wicked  premiered as a musical in San Francisco, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz.  While the musical made several changes, the basic elements remained the same: the story was about Elphaba, a misunderstood misfit born with green skin. The Plot There be spoilers ahead! Elphaba's mother was the wife of the Munchkins' governor.  After the governor went away, her mother had an affair with a mysterious man, and out of that affair came Elphaba.  Scarred by her daughter's appearance, Elphaba's mother ate milk-flowers so that...