Craig Davidson

Saturday, January 19th

DEATH WISH III (THE SWAN-SONG OF TANGLY MAN)

Hi All,

Have you ever awoken in the midst of a terrible nightmare, disoriented, sheets a-tangle about you, screaming, possibly having wet yourself?

This is how I felt switching to AMC an hour ago to catch DEATH WISH III halfway through. Except for the wetting myself part. I'd wet myself earlier this afternoon.

Craig Davidson on 01.19.08 @ 09:27 PM EST [more..]

Saturday, January 12th

The Fighter (Movie)

Hi All,

No, lamentably, this is not a post about my book being turned into a movie. Or it is, actually, but in name only.

I got an email today from a guy wondering if my book, The Fighter, was the basis for this movie:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0964517

...yeeeeeeeeeah, no. I wish. It'd be sweet to hitch my failing wagon to Pitt, Wahlberg, Aronofsky et al. Yes it would. But no. They are separate entities. As most people who read this blog know. I may pick up a few "confusion sales" as a result of the name similarity (and by 'similarity' I suppose I mean, more accurately, 'exactness') and maybe, if I'm desperate, I'll try suing them as I wisely had "The Fighter" trademarked when I wrote the book---the novel's full title is "THE FIGHTER: TM"---so I'm sure the producers will chuck me a few ducats so's I keep my yap shut.

Or maybe people will think, closer to the movie's release date, my book is a novelization of the rise of Irish Micky Ward, famed for his trio of matches with Arturo "Thunder" Gatti (which, I imagine, will be what the brunt of the movie chronicles; at least it would had I written it, which again I must stress I did not). But again, I'll take all those juicy confusion sales! I should've named it HARRY OTTER or maybe THE FIGHT RUNNER or something like that; one wrong keystroke and you'd have ordered my book! As Homer Simpson says: "After all my years of failed get-rich-quick schemes, I KNOW I'm gonna get rich with this scheme ... and QUICK!"

Of course, all this is evident by just reading the synopsis of my book, but the guy who wrote me---who again, seemed a very nice guy---didn't do a whole lot of research. I told him just to buy the book and see. Let it come as a surprise; an odious surprise, mayhap, but a surprise nonetheless. So let it be herefore known, to allay any confusion: The upcoming movie The Fighter has nothing to do with and finds no basis in the book I wrote.

THE LAST MIMZY, on the other hand, is a direct and blatant ripoff of my book, The Fighter.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0768212

...I'm suing the crap out of those rotten-ass bastards! Until they're black and blue I'll sue them!

All best, Craig.

Craig Davidson on 01.12.08 @ 08:04 PM EST [link]

Wednesday, January 2nd

HOBART; THE BEAST

Hi All,

Two quick links. One is to the magazine HOBART, whose recent issue is a America/Canada mashup with two different editors---Pasha Malla, a great Canadian writer, was responsible for the canuck half---and includes some fine writers from both sides of the 49th parallel. Check it out and, to quote the old gypsy woman in THE SIMPSONS: "You buy! You buy!"

www.hobartpulp.com/print/index.html

...and second, The Buffalo Beast's list of 50 most Loathesome People in America 2007. I'm not usually one who goes in for "snark" journalism, and by the end of this I'd had my fill, but I recall I enjoyed the list last year and this year was the same. You'll disagree with some of the choices, I'm sure, but that's half the fun.

http://www.buffalobeast.com/122/50mostloathsome2007.html

All best, Craig.
Craig Davidson on 01.02.08 @ 06:47 PM EST [link]

Tuesday, January 1st

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia

Hi All,

if you're anything like me---and please, pray to whatever diety or dieties you believe in that you're not, in fact, much at all like me---then you spent today recovering from whatever debilitating alcohol-related injuries you inflicted upon yourself last night and early morning. My brother and I had our drunken "State of the Union" conversation, competed in tests of strength, and rang in the New Year as is our tradition: by luring a hapless hobo down the railway tracks, beating him senseless, draining his blood for our pagan blood-rites and eating his soul.

All hail mighty Baal! All glory to the many-headed goat!

So this afternoon I hopped on the ole Excer-cycle (that's right, I own one; a 1984 model with comfort-grip handles---vintage!) and riding in front of the TV. It's a testament to how hungover and dehydrated I was that it took an hour for my body to forfeit a drop of sweat.

New Years Day is one where the networks run either college football bowls or "marathons." Since I'm not a fan of college pigskin, I stuck to the series marathons. And I'm glad I did, as I was able to catch the show IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADEPLHIA on Showcase. Along with 30 ROCK, which is also fabulous, I'd say it's the best sitcom on TV now, and the best since ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT was booted off the air.

Not to go too much into it: basic premise is 3 childhood friends own a bar in Philly. One of the owners' fathers is Danny DeVito, who's fabulous in this. His daughter's the final major cast member. I can see why people would have problems with it: the characters are not terribly compassionate or easy to like---which, as some may recall, is the same reason ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT never caught on; many viewers found the Bluth family too weird and unlikable---and they're always scheming. Plus the premises involve dying Nazis and cripple impersonation (for dough!) and characters attempting to have sex with each others' mothers and crack addiction. So, yes, not really ABC-friendly; you couldn't air it after ACCORDING TO JIM or YES, DEAR!

It's clever the way SEINFELD revolutionized: the elliptical storylines, that sense that if a prop (such as Danny Devito's toupee) is shown in the first scene, the Chekovian idea of "a gun seen on the mantle in the first act has to fire by the third" guarantees that toupee will pop up again later on. ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT was great at this, too. IASIP is the same, and it's great to get into the show and try to guess how certain plot points will spin around and meet with other points. And the characters, while a bit detestable, are also true to their own interior logic; after a few episodes it gets funnier and funnier because you see how they're put into situations meant to derive maximum hilarity from that interior logic.

Anyway, highly enjoyable and a real treat to find this afternoon. It's still on right now and I'm half-watching, chuckling, while I write this. I think it's on FX in the States. Check it out.

All best, Craig.
Craig Davidson on 01.01.08 @ 08:31 PM EST [link]