Pokemonday and Tuesday

I decided to watch the first 8 Pokemon movies the other day. I've seen the first four, but I don't remember them that well. They're fun, and I loved the Pokemon show, as well as the card game. These are my summaries of those movies. I'll watch the second 4 at some point, but after the 4th movie I really stop knowing what any Pokemon is.

Mewtwo Strikes Back: An evil corporation clones one of the most adorable and silly Pokemon in the world, gives it an unimaginative name and only teaches it to hate. Ash is turned to stone, everyone cries at him and he's turned back, and no one ever talks about it ever again.

Pokemon The Movie: 2000: In which Ash saves the world, gets scolded by his mum, then goes back to winning badges because that is his purpose and everything else is a side quest. Slowking could use pants.

The Spell of the Unknown: In which a little girl gets Batman'd, gains psychic Pokemon, and Ash almost loses because all he has are Basic Pokemon. He is then saved by his only evolved Pokemon, who usually hates him.

Pokemon 4Ever: Celebi- Voice of the Forest: In which the title is super long and unnecessary and a boy with a terrible haircut is almost in the plot of The Adventurers Down Under but then time travels to avoid that. A Pokemon hunter figures out how to infuse harmful moral decisions into a Pokeball and instead of selling the technology off for millions continues to hunt Pokemon in a giant four-legged robot. After going through the tunnel from Spirited Away, Ash and his friends end up in Hayao Miyazaki's "Princess Mononoke". Professor Oak never tells anyone that he traveled through time once and Ash tells Past Oak to invent a Pokedex.

A Fight To Remember

  But the winner, hands down, takes place in chapter 20 of The Legacy, a 1992 book, seventh in my dark elf series. Drizzt and Artemis Entreri, his arch-nemesis, the person he fears he might have become had he stayed in his homeland, stand on a flat ledge on the side of a mountain and finally get to the battle that's been building for three books. The fight itself is ten pages of non-stop action, not a break, not a side story to be seen. I think I wrote it in one sitting, never coming up for air. I watched it in my head while my fingers played on the keyboard. I could hardly keep up. The fight itself is very clean, with few props outside the two scimitars, the sword and the dagger. This is the purest dance of my two best dancers. Ever since I wrote that battle, I try to measure every new fight against it. I always just give a resigned sigh, because I can't quite get there. Ah well.
-R.A. Salvatore, How to Write A Damn Good Fight Scene


   I'm still working through Salvatore's series, I've read through four and have started volume I over again, and I must say it's among my favorite. His fight scenes are indeed incredibly vivid and while sometimes I don't quite understand a description or two, the rest of the scene more than makes up for it. I don't mean to review the series, but after reading this part of the article I can't wait to get to that book, because ten pages of a fight scene sounds amazing for this series. Ten pages!

Back In the Day

Fuckin' mopeds.

  I started watching 21 Jump Street tonight. It's a pretty good show to be honest. It's got Johnny Depp, and it's pretty cool to see him this young. I always wonder if famous actors go back and watch some of their earliest performances. It's pretty goofy to think that this cop going undercover in a high school is some day going to be a famous pirate.
  Anyway, I got this shot and realized I don't remember the last time I saw a payphone that wasn't in an airport. I've seen a couple of booths for them, but the phone is long gone.