Monday, September 3, 2012

Vell, Zaphod's just zis guy, you know?

Callidus and Mrs. Callidus are fantastic people (though he does look more than a little like the Techno Viking. Don't make him angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry.), and we had a fantastic visit. I am sooo glad I got to meet this online friend in person after years of emails, and I look forward to meeting him again in the future. We could have talked all through the night - and probably for several more days - if time had allowed. I wish I could tell you all about everything, but a) I have to leave some things for him to blog about, and b) we'll both want to keep other things to ourselves.

So let's see, where should I begin?

We had lunch at a nice local restaurant where I got so exciting telling Callidus about my next story that I sat for five minutes with a forkful of salmon in my hand and never brought it to my mouth. He asked a lot of incisive questions and gave me all kinds of great ideas to flesh out one of the character's arcs. It was great having the chance to share my ideas with him at such an early stage of the process. This story is going to be huge, probably six chapters and maybe more, and more complex than anything else I've attempted for the EMCSA. Having Callidus' input was fantastic. (BTW, because it is so huge and complex, it's going to take an extra long time to complete. I'll post updates from time to time, but it might take me a year to finish the thing. I just don't know yet.)

Anyway, back to the current narrative. I gave the Calliduses a tour of the city, including some quirky shops where I dropped tentacle in-jokes that made Callidus snigger. Mr. and Mrs. C. found some nice souvenirs and we all had a great conversation about the Coen Brothers' movies with a store clerk who heard me quoting the "Her womb was a rocky place in which my seed could find no purchase" line from Raising Arizona. We also toured some local landmarks, took pictures, talked about ghosts and UFO's, got rained on hard, and ended up back at my place for Round 2 of the epic Meeting of the MC Minds.

Somewhere in the middle of that discussion, Callidus suggested we make a Top Ten list of the best MC scenes in mainstream media. One of the ideas he offered was this scene from the otherwise execrable 1998 Avengers movie starring Uma Thurman and Rafe Fiennes. Prepare to pause and start screen grabbing in earnest at 0:53. ;-)

We brainstormed our list for awhile and came to instant, enthusiastic agreement about #1 and #2, then did a lot of forehead-smacking as we tried to remember other scenes that should have been right at the forefront of our brains. One of my ideas, James Spader's hypnosis scene from the mostly forgotten Jack's Back, turned out to be harder to track down than I thought. Last night it looked like we'd found the whole movie on YouTube and I started downloading it while we talked about other things; but when I tried to watch it after the Calliduses left, I realized I'd just captured some damn kids' movie with the same title. :-/ Apparently, the Spader Jack's Back isn't online anywhere safe and you can only buy it in VHS format unless you live in the UK, where it's available in PAL. If any of my readers can give me that one scene (just not via a link to a sketchy torrent site, please), I'd be eternally grateful. I'm almost positive that that clip would still push my buttons. Plus, Spader was a steaming hot young thing at the time. If you don't believe me, just follow this link.

Besides our Top Ten list, Callidus and I talked about real life friends and adventures, online friends and adventures (Tabico's ears must have been burning like crazy, but don't worry, Tabs: it was all good. :-)), and our continuing amazement at internet culture in general. It was such a great conversation, like we'd been friends all our lives and were just catching up after a year or two apart. I'm sure it will be the same when we meet again, which we almost certainly will.

And that's all for the moment, I think. Again, if anyone out there can find me a clip of the Jack's Back hypnosis scene, you'll have my undying gratitude. And if anyone out there has suggestions for our Top Ten list, just post them below. We are still smacking our foreheads to remember some of them.

5 comments:

Argentyros said...

As for a top ten, one of my favorites, and my first hint that I had interests in this field, probably would have to be that scene from the original V miniseries. I know that it is fear/force MC which isn't usually my thing, but that one really started me on the track I would say.

A second possibility would the Flint movies. Between the hairdryer brainwashing machines and the classic spiral disk scene in the evil org's main base, Flint really did mind control.

thrall said...

Definitely both classics. :-) As a matter of fact, I remembered the V scene, myself, after I posted this. I haven't seen the Flint movies but a friend once described them to me in detail.

Myndblender said...

Ditto to Argentyros on the choices. Probably one of my all time favorite MC scenes is from "The Revenge of the Stepford Wives", the 1980 Made-for-Tv sequel to the Stepford Wives.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duDMRmVp_iw

Callidus said...

Bwah! You're the third one of my friends to make the Techno-Viking comment...though I could never point-n-stare as menacingly as he can. :)

I have many dittos myself here, most of all that our meeting didn't feel like a first encounter so much as catching up after time apart...and I think that's a pretty terrific thing.

thrall said...

Nice one, Myndblender! I remember seeing that TV movie when it came out, but I'd mostly forgotten it. I love how the brainwaves drop to zero...and then just keep dropping.