Tagged: Fox

SURF PULP-As Told to Chuck Miller!


AS TOLD TO CHUCK MILLER-Pulp Interviews

Chuck’s Guest today- Craig Lockwood 

CHUCK MILLER:  Surf Pulp is something that not too many of my colleagues who have loosely banded together under the “New Pulp” umbrella have been exposed to. And it’s a wonderful thing, since we are looking to broaden the definition of “pulp fiction,” and expand its visibility and appeal. Could you just give us a brief synopsis of how you got the idea and what steps you took to see it through all the way to Hard-Boiled Surf Pulp Fiction #1?

CRAIG LOCKWOOD:  I’ve often wondered if the term “New Pulp” or “neo-Pulp” isn’t misleading. While the great pulp publishing and fiction industry died out forty years ago, Ellery Queen and Analog are still published. So at least a tenuous thread to the pulp-past was maintained. And the pulps have been an enduring and arguably profound influence on America and Europe’s popular literary culture.


What’s telling is that when I started this project with Rick we had no idea that there was anything like a pulp revival.


I’d had the idea of publishing an all-surfing-related fiction magazine for years. And I loved the old pulp form. I’d done a pulp paper book The Whole Ocean in 1986.


Twenty-three years later I’d just finished writing a big book for a publisher, and decided to see if I couldn’t put an inexpensive magazine—a real pulp—together.


Rick’s a talented illustrator who had been an aficionado of the American pulp illustrative style of the 1930s and ‘40s and ‘50s. I’d read the sci-fi pulps like Galaxy and Analog, and the mystery mags like Back Mask and Ellery Queen, as a kid and been entranced the storytelling and action. My first published fiction – and the piece was wholly an adventure pulp sory — was in SURFER Magazine—despite SURFER being a “slick.”


Both of our mutual interests and our livelihoods center around surfing and the surfing sub-culture.

 That term may seem like an anomaly, but today there is an entire sub-culture—which is something like car-culture—but based around surfing, that had been growing in California since the 1930s. And I’m not talking “Gidget.”


There’s a multi-million dollar sustaining “surfing industry” that includes surfing apparel, surfboard manufacture, surf-related destination travel, surfing fine art with prestigious museum exhibitions, surfing cinema, TV shows, surfing music, surfing literature—including surfing journalism, with books and magazines—and even occasional surfing theater, and believe it or not, a nascent surfing academia.

And of course, there’s surfing crime. Which some older readers may recall getting both national notoriety and tabloid ink during the 1960s with a Florida criminal character nicknamed “Murph the Surf.”

Rick is academically trained, and a graduate of Art Center, here in Pasadena, California, which is one of he nation’s finest art schools. I studied creative writing at the University of California, Los Angeles. Rick’s work hangs in both private collections and at McKibben Gallery in Laguna Beach as well as in Rémi Bertoche, in France.


I’ve been a journalist and editor since college, mainly surfing but in the beginning the pickings were slim so I also worked as a lifeguard and deputy sheriff. Later I served as a war correspondent in Southeast Asia, Balkans, the Middle East and Afghanistan, a crime reporter, and a surfing historian whose last book “Peanuts” An Oral Biography Exploring Legend, Myth and Archetype In California’s Surfing Subculture” was reviewed last year by surfing’s most prestigious magazine, The Surfer’s Journal, as “This year’s Best book on Surfing, 2010.” Currently I serve as co-chair of the Oral History Committee of the Surfing Heritage Foundation, which is an endowed institution and museum. But I also shape surfboards and racing paddleboards – it’s all handwork – as a hobby/business.


We were well into the project when we started discovering you guys.


We looked at each other and went “Wow! Here’s real talent, good writing, and great storytelling.”

And you—the pioneers—were all out there taking great waves and cranking these stylish pulpy bottom turns and looking good. 


It was like wandering through the desert thirsty and alone and discovering this well-supplied big wagon train with the Bonanza cast at the reins.

CHUCK:  What would you say to potential readers who might be leery of your work because of their unfamiliarity with surf culture and the perception that this is a very specialized area that they just wouldn’t “get?” I think this could be really significant in terms of opening up new connections and exposing people to familiar concepts in a new context. That can be a difficult barrier to break through, which is sad because I think there are far more things in common than not.


Chuck, you nailed it. There are definitely more things in common in pulp fiction than not. To paraphrase Marshall McLuhan: The medium is the milieu.


I suspect we both see pulp fiction as a wonderful dimensional door through which readers are transported by writers into other realities. The vehicle of transmission is the combination of the author’s words and the reader’s imagination.


Surfing, and surfing fiction does reflect aspects of surfing’s specialization, just as espionage fiction is specialized. But specialization need not be exclusionary, and it’s never a reason to neglect the opportunity of an exciting read.


The English mystery writer Dick Francis, himself a jockey, set all his stories against a background of horse racing—which is like surfing, a kind of sub-culture. I’ve only been to one horse track in my life, and know nothing about horse-racing, betting on horses, or horse-racing as an occupation. But I’ve read and enjoyed at least a dozen Dick Francis mysteries, full of racetrack jargon, and enjoyed them.  


Reading masters of a specific genera—such as spy fiction’s John Le Carre´, or Alan Furst—means being immersed in that specific fictional world. This is a world the author has created. And when the author is good, and when the narrative’s coherent and the drama compelling we’re exposed and become both intellectually and emotionally involved in a very specialized environment—say Carré’s Cold War London in 1965, or Furst’s Eleventh Arrondissement in 1940 Paris, during the Nazi Occupation.


And in that fictional environment the magic of a reader’s imagination, a skilled author’s description, narrative and dialog—all provide enough information for the reader to understand and personally assimilate the  political climate, the geography, the tradecraft and techniques, the idiom and argot of espionage.


Compared to this kind of complex arcana, surfing’s lexicon is relatively easy. Especially when the format’s a short-story or novella. Here the author is going to be focusing less on some incidental technical aspect—such as a specific surfboard’s design limitations in a given wave—than say, on the protagonist’s efforts to get to the exotic location where a previously un-ridden but fabled wave exists. And—as in all adventure fiction—that requires an author’s commitment to narrative and a reader’s exercise of imagination.

And, if the author is skillful, he or she provides the reader sufficient expository detail so their imagination takes over. This, after all, is how we are able to read and immerse ourselves in—and find credible and enjoyable enough, and thus continue reading—our pulp fiction superheros.

Surfing is an activity rooted in American culture. Surfing comes out of that culture, and so much of what surfing authors are writing about is at least familiar. Most of us have either been to a beach, or seen film or stills of the ocean, and waves, and surfers. We have a sense of the beauty, power and grandeur of the sea. 

I’m not a skier, have never skied, hate snow, don’t know the precise meaning of terms like “mogul” or “screamin’ starfish” or “slow-dog noodle turn” and have never experienced the thrill of flying down a mountainside in deep powder. Yet I’ve read and enjoyed skiing-related fiction. So it wasn’t what I knew that entertained me, it was the author’s skill in creating a literary door through which I could venture in imagination.


I didn’t have to be an anthropologist like Colin Trumbull, living with the m’Buti, in the Congo and having to learn an entire non-cognate language to figure out the sub-culture. If I didn’t know the terminology, the story carried me along.


In one of our Vol. 1 No. 1 issue’s stories, “Sorcerer of Siargao” by Susan Chaplin, her surfer-protagonist is described this way:


“Marla was tall, with big shoulders and clear blue eyes. At forty-seven and recently divorced she was living out some pre-divorce impulse to surf her way around the world.”


There is nothing very exclusionary here for a non-surfing reader. You get her logline. Restless middle aged woman seeks adventure. The rest is storytelling—through a surfer’s eyes.


In “The Big Deep” hard-luck hard-boiled surfing private eye Sam Sand tells  surf syndicate enforcer Gang Lopez who’s bringing him an impossible-to-solve case: “Gang, you been laminating without a mask?”


Now a non-surfer may not have a clue that this wisecrack refers to the manufacturing process of saturating the “laminate,” the two fiberglass layers of a hand-shaped surfboard blank’s skin with catalyzed polyurethane resin, but you know he’s skeptical—and is obviously saying it in a colorful way.


One thing those of us who are attracted to the pulp milieu share is that we love imaginative storytelling. So if Hard-boiled Surf Pulp which is aimed at a primarily surfing audience has any chance of attracting non-surfing readers we think it will be because our writers can tell stories well.


CHUCK:  Name two or three of the biggest influences on your writing. Not necessarily limited to authors, but including ANYTHING that you think has shaped your style and the worldview that your fiction is built on.


My biggest initial influences in desire to be a writer were genetic, i.e., my mother and father.


My dad was a hard-boiled, hard-core, hard-bitten, hard-case WW I combat veteran—a newspaperman/journalist, war correspondent, and occasional pulp writer during the 1920s and ‘30s. He became a wire-service bureau chief, in Lisbon. My parents had lived in the same Paris neighborhood as Ernest and Hadley Hemingway and were part of the same literary and artistic circles.


My mother was an artist, a sculptor of some renown, and the daughter of three generations of newspaper men. And she had the storyteller’s gift. She’d been a fashion illustrator for Vogue Magazine, so her artist’s eye missed nothing. Decades after an event she could recall the most precise details, inflect the tone of voice of someone who’d been speaking, mimic accents, and connect everything to the weather, the political climate, how the women and men were dressed, how the food was prepared, was served and tasted.


Just before World War Twice they returned to California and Hollywood where he became a screenwriter for Fox. I came along soon after. Then the war came along and my father was killed, soon after Pearl Harbor.


As a child without a father—growing up in Hollywood during the war—my mother would tell stories about her early life. I was fascinated with her accounts of her famous family’s history, of my father’s life, their travels—including some exciting adventures with narrow escapes—and the now all-but-forgotten literary figures they’d known such as John Dos Passos, Sinclair Lewis, Theodore Dreiser, Sherwood Anderson, Sylvia Beach, Gertrude Stein, Ford Maddox Ford, James Joyce, Raoul Whitfield, and Dashiell Hammett.


When I was very young my mother would tell me serial stories of characters she’d invent. Then, taking a big drawing pad and using charcoal pencils, she’d quickly illustrate them while she was telling the story, drawing the characters—horses, boats, cars, guns—and the most outrageous and weirdly costumed arch-villains. We had a house full of books, and a beach house in Laguna Beach and so I grew up reading and surfing.


Pulp magazines were still on the newsstands when I was a kid and I became interested in reading and collecting science fiction magazines. Without question, much of my interest in writing fiction came from that early pulp exposure.


Going to the local newsstand with my weekly allowance was a ritual. What a visual feast! There were dozens of lurid covers, adventures, detective mysteries, westerns, romances, creepy shudders, and the ones in the back at the top—beyond kid’s reach—the spicy pulps.


So I pictured myself being able to write for these kinds of exciting magazines. I was just learning to type and submitted a few science fiction shorts in my early teens—which were promptly rejected. 

Unfortunately, by the time I had begun to write well enough to perhaps be accepted, the pulps were approaching extinction, and everyone in my college writing classes was trying to write like Jack Kerouac, J.D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut or Joseph Heller.


Ray Bradbury’s fiction was a strong early influence, and he spoke frequently at Robert Kirsch’s Art of Fiction course and workshops at UCLA where I was a student. I’ve never forgotten his closing words at one of his lectures:

“Always quit while you’re hot. And don’t forget to put the cover on your typewriter.”

      

20th Century Home Entertainment Spoofs Their Classics

20th Century Home Entertainment Spoofs Their Classics

Yesterday, we covered 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment’s dad-centric video offerings as a part of their A Year Of A Million Moments. Now, they have unveiled we some brand new spoofs of Taken and the classic  Rocky. Both satires come from the people that brought you the Office Space the Musical and Fight Club in the nursing home skits.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJAloJxrB6Y&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

Both of these brand new pieces take Fox’s popular films of yesterday and today with Liam Neeson’s 2008 thriller and the classic film that catapulted Sylvester Stallone to critical acclaim and stardom. The two videos feature our favorite cast of characters from the Fight Club bit that went viral last year! The nursing home gang continues its love of film, and I hope you can post a piece about these hilarious spoofs for your audience online.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLEUyCtK3UU&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

20th Century Fox Celebrates 75th Anniversary with a Million Moments

20th Century Fox Celebrates 75th Anniversary with a Million Moments

Los Angeles, CA February 1, 2011 – Today, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (TCFHE) kicked off a 12-month marketing, promotions, publicity and media campaign, “A Year Of A Million Moments,” to celebrate its robust catalog of movies made memorable, quotable, and unforgettable by the people who watch and embrace them.

A YEAR OF A MILLION MOMENTS CAMPAIGN AND PRODUCT
Fox’s yearlong celebration will include the release of seasonally timed Blu-ray Disc and DVD singles grouped thematically by month and distinguished by the “GREAT MOVIES. GREAT MOMENTS.” moniker. Each month Fox will spotlight films that reflect a specific theme with moments… to shine (January), you love (February), to laugh about (March), kids love (April), for mom (May), for heroes (June), to sing about (July), to remember (August), that are unforgettable (September), that terrify (October), that are classic (November) and holiday moments (December).

Product releases will be supported by publicity events, national advertising and retail specific promotions. Exact title configurations, packaging and release dates for “A Year Of A Million Moments” Blu-ray and DVD releases will be confirmed separately.

TCFHE has launched a dedicated Web site that will feature information about upcoming Blu-ray and DVD products and promotions tied to the million moments campaign.

Each month 16 films will face off for the title of “Best Movie Moment.” Consumers can vote each month for their favorite moment and enter for a chance to win a package of some of the most iconic and memorable movies from Fox.

What’s Your Movie Moment?
Find out which movie moment you’re most like and become a part of it. Upload your photo and share with others in the gallery of movie moments.

Win $1 Million
Fox is giving away $1 million in celebration of “A Year Of A Million Moments.” Codes found on specially marked Blu-ray and DVD product can be entered for a chance for one lucky consumer to become an instant millionaire.

CoCo to Basic Cable

CoCo to Basic Cable

Seems TBS has out-foxed Fox to woo Conan O’Brien and his late-night comedy show to their Time-Warner owned TBS. The deal, as announced today will allow CoCo to own the rights to his show (ala David Letterman) and grants him a 4 day work week, ala Cable’s Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, and George Lopez. Lopez’s show will be bumped to midnight, but according to The Wrap’s Josef Adalian, it was George himself who called Conan to talk up the “8 Figure Deal”.

This is a big blow to Fox, but given that no deal had even been brought up to Conan and his people. And what talk there was of a deal, didn’t speak about owning production rights, as well as possible restrictions for affiliates happy with their Seinfeld, Simpsons, and Office reruns.

So, is CoCo happy? “In three months I’ve gone from network television to Twitter to performing
live in theaters, and now I’m headed to basic cable,” O’Brien said. “My plan is
working perfectly.” So said the Boston-born pale skinned late-night virtuoso. Look for the new Conan O’Brien show in November.

The Point Radio: ‘Avatar’ Acting In A Virtual World

The Point Radio: ‘Avatar’ Acting In A Virtual World

The biggest hurdle James Cameron had to face in getting AVATAR to screen was waiting for technology to catch up with his imagination, but even harder was the job actors like Zoe Salanda had to face acting in an almost virtual set. We talk to them today as AVATAR continues to build big box office. Meanwhile, Neal Adams turns in an amazing cover and
Fox takes a shot at CHUCK.

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The Point Radio: Backstage At ‘The Cleveland Show’

The Point Radio: Backstage At ‘The Cleveland Show’

Love it or hate it, fans of FAMILY GUY seem to be equally divided on Seth McFarlane’s spin off, THE CLEVELAND SHOW. This week, we go backstage of the show Fox has renewed for TWO seasons. Plus another classic weekend at the Box Office and can you imagine The Nutcracker as an action hero?

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The Point Radio: Bringing A Fresh Eye To ‘The Prisoner’

The Point Radio: Bringing A Fresh Eye To ‘The Prisoner’

As amazing as it sounds, actor Jim Caviezel had never been exposed to THE PRISONER before the script landed at his door. In our exclusive interview, Jim talks about how coming at the project from a new perspective gave him an edge few other actors had. Plus, now those JSA episodes of SMALLVILLE are becoming a movie event, Fox yanks DOLLHOUSE from life support and how about DARK KNIGHT on DVD for $3.99.

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The Point Radio: A Miracle to save ‘Dollhouse’, MarvelFest hits NYC, and new trailers hit theaters

The Point Radio: A Miracle to save ‘Dollhouse’, MarvelFest hits NYC, and new trailers hit theaters

As Fox announces their decision to bench Dollhouse for the fall sweep, we sit down with series regular, Miracle Laurie, on her future with the show and in the world of acting. Plus MarvelFest hits NYC (wonder if DC will plan something on the same day?), Glee hits on DVD and there are two hot trailers to catch in theaters this weekend.

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The Point Radio: More On FRINGE

The Point Radio: More On FRINGE

We continue our look at the upcoming second season of the Fox hit series, FRINGE with both Joshua Jackson and Anna Torv giving us their views on what we can expect. Plus Tyler Perry has a Big Box Office and can you stand the return of Captain Jack Sparrow and The WEEKLY WORLD NEWS?

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